Time and the Erotic in Horace's Odes

Forsideomslag
Duke University Press, 1994 - 186 sider
In Horace's Odes love cannot last. Is the poet unromantic, as some critics claim? Is he merely realistic? Or is he, as Ronnie Ancona contends, relating the erotic to time in a more complex and interesting way than either of these positions allows? Rejecting both the notion that Horace fails as a love poet because he undermines the romantic ideal that love conquers time and the notion that he succeeds becauses he eschews illusions about love's ability to endure, this book challenges the assumption that temporality must inevitably pose a threat to the erotic. The author argues that temporality, understood as the contingency the male poet/lover wants to but cannot control, explains why love "fails" in Horace's Odes.
Drawing on contemporary theory, including recent work in feminist criticism, Ancona provides close readings of fourteen odes, which are presented in English translation as well as in Latin. Through a discussion of the poet's use of various temporal devices--the temporal adverb, seasonal imagery, and the lover or beloved's own temporality--she shows how Horace makes time dominate the erotic context and, further, how the version of love that appears in his poems is characterized by the lover's desire to control the beloved. The romantic ideal of a timeless love, apparently rejected by the poet, emerges here instead as an underlying element of the poet's portrayal of the erotic. In a critique of the predominant modes of recent Horatian scholarship on the love odes, Ancona offers an alternative view that takes into account the male gender of the lover and its effect on the structure of desire in the poems. By doing so, she advances a broader project in recent classical studies that aims to include discussion of features of classical literature, such as sexuality and gender, which have previously escaped critical attention.
Addressing aspects of Horace as a love poet--especially the dynamics of gender relations--that critics have tended to ignore, this book articulates his version of love as something not to be championed or condemned but rather to be seen as challengingly problematic. Of primary interest to classicists, it will also engage the attention of scholars and teachers in the humanities with specializations in gender, sexuality, lyric poetry, or feminist theory.

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Side 45 - Solvitur acris hiems grata vice veris et Favoni, Trahuntque siccas machinae carinas, Ac neque iam stabulis gaudet pecus aut arator igni, Nee prata canis albicant pruinis.
Side 113 - Catullan quote and several other echoes. integer vitae scelerisque purus non eget Mauris iaculis neque arcu nee venenatis gravida sagittis, Fusee, pharetra, sive per Syrtes iter aestuosas sive facturus per inhospitalem Caucasum vel quae loca fabulosus lambit Hydaspes. namque me silva lupus in Sabina, dum meam canto Lalagen et ultra terminum curis vagor expeditis, fugit inermem.
Side 60 - Dissolve frigus ligna super foco 5 large reponens, atque benignius deprome quadrimum Sabina, o Thaliarche, merum diota. Permitte divis cetera, qui simul stravere ventos aequore fervido 10 deproeliantis, nec cupressi nec veteres agitantur orni.
Side 52 - VII. Diffugere nives, redeunt iam gramina campis arboribusque comae ; mutat terra vices et decrescentia ripas flumina praetereunt; Gratia cum Nymphis geminisque sororibus audet 5 ducere nuda choros, immortalia ne speres, monet annus et almum quae rapit hora diem, frigora mitescunt Zephyris, ver proterit aestas interitura, simul 10 pomifer autumnus fruges effuderit, et mox bruma recurrit iners.
Side 60 - Quid sit futurum eras fuge quaerere, et Quem Fors dierum cunque dabit lucro Appone, nec dulces amores Sperne puer neque tu choreas, Donec virenti canities abest Morosa, Nunc et campus et areae Lenesque sub noctem susurri Composita repetantur hora ; Nunc et latentis proditor intimo Gratus puellae risus ab angulo, Pignusque dereptum lacertis Aut digito male pertinaci. MERCURI facunde nepos Atlantis, Qui feros cultus hominum recentum Voce formasti catus et decorae More palaestrae...
Side 45 - ... nunc et in umbrosis Fauno decet immolare lucis, seu poscat agna sive malit haedo.
Side 52 - ... cum semel occideris et de te splendida Minos fecerit arbitria, non, Torquate, genus, non te facundia, non te restituet pietas ; infernis neque enim tenebris Diana pudicum 25 liberat Hippolytum, nec Lethaea valet Theseus abrumpere caro vincula Perithoo.
Side 52 - Diffugere nives, redeunt iam gramina campis arboribusque comae ; mutat terra vices et decrescentia ripas flumina praetereunt; Gratia cum Nymphis geminisque sororibus audet...
Side 60 - Soracte, nee iam sustineant onus silvae laborantes, geluque flumina constiterint acuto ? dissolve frigus ligna super foco large reponens atque benignius deprome quadrimum Sabina, o Thaliarche, merum diota. permitte divis cetera, qui simul stravere ventos aequore fervido deproeliantis, nee cupressi nee veteres agitantur orni. quid sit futurum eras fuge quaerere et quern Fors dierum cumque dabit lucro appone, nee dulcis amores sperne puer neque tu choreas, donee virenti canities abest morosa.
Side 56 - Soles occidere et redire possunt: nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux, nox est perpetua una dormienda.

Om forfatteren (1994)

Ronnie Ancona is Assistant Professor of Classics and Director, Master of Arts in the Teaching of Latin, at Hunter College.

Bibliografiske oplysninger