Augustan Poetry

At first glance, Ovid’s promiscuous deployment of hunting topoi throughout Ars Amatoria I.253-274, an important iunctura, appears to be nothing more than his usual appropriation of relevant didactic themes. However, two features in particular alert the reader of a more elaborate metaliterary end: on the one hand, the presence of a deeply archaic religious subtext via Baiae’s history as an important cult site, the bloody rite of the rex Nemorensis, and particularly Diana, Grattius’ patron goddess; on the other, a clear intertext with (among other sections) Grattius’ opening invocation, the first line of which (dona cano divom, laetas uenantibus artis, 1) bears a striking resemblance to the first line of Ovid’s iunctura (quid tibi femineos coetus uenatibus aptos, 253). Indeed, although Hollis and Kenny attempt to rationalize why Diana’s violent retaliation may be compatible with its otherwise amatory context, their explanation overlooks both the true transgression of the amator invading a sacred female space, as well as the completely inexplicable inclusion of the Nemorensian rites. Further, Ovid engages with Grattius not only topologically through intertext, but also topographically via the distinctly Grattian locales of volcanic thermo-mineral springs and the precinct of Diana (cf. Grattius 430-437, 484).

Through all of this, the reader will observe a more complex poetic technique at play: Ovid is weaving his own metaliterary, “Grattian net” from these different strands of religious and intertextual material, and in so doing, redirecting the Cynegetica’s topography and topology for his own ends. All the while, though he seems to assuage his would-be amator, in reality he employs a sort of “dynaton adynaton” in lines 271-274, wherein the actual truth of its premises in context is suggested through the self-subversive nature of his own unreliability as a praeceptor amoris. As such, Grattius—the “Maenalian hound”—seems to be critiqued both in the heavy-handedness of his poetics and potentially also in his politicoreligious undertones.

This paper, then, seeks to establish two facts about Ars Amatoria I.253-274, thus expanding previous work both on intertext between Ovid and Grattius and the politics of the Cynegetica (particularly Whitlatch 2018, Green 2018, and Henderson 2001). Through the above observations on Ovid’s (meta)poetics and the above scholars’ own conclusions about Grattius’ pro-Augustan views on piety and imperialism, this paper will demonstrate (1) that Ovid almost certainly crafts the aforementioned iunctura as a parody of Grattius’ politicoreligious leanings to the end of parodying the latter’s heavy-handed, politically motivated poetics, and (2) that perhaps beyond that, he even offers his own anti-Grattian criticism of Augustan imperialism and piety. Thus, it will be clear that Ovid weaves his own hunting net, which he encourages the reader to deploy (270) and, in a way, catch the suspected poetaster Grattius within his own awkward allegorical act. At its most innocent, this passage serves as elaborate literary criticism. Expanding upon the already subversive nature of the Ars, however, this paper aims to show that it does something greater: it walks the amator through the footsteps of Grattius’ dogs of war, doomed to suffer violence in a mad, never-ending attempt to seize new regna for that all-too-known iuuenis who stands in the center of that age’s poetry and world alike.

Among the most-dicussed findings of the past decades' excavations in the 'Valle del Colosseo' in Rome are the remains of an Augustan-time version of the 'Meta Sudans', one of largest monumental fountains of the city, situated below the north-eastern slope of Palatine Hill. While the symbolic message of the fountain's architecture and decoration have been well-explained in a series of recent studies as those of a triumphal monument (Apollo Agyieus = Apollo Actius), this article attempts to reconstruct the cultural symbolism of the fountain square in the urban life of Rome, thus shifting the view from the architect's intentions ('Baumeisterperspektive') to the cultural practices attested at this spot of the city, to which communal and imperial festivities (compitalia, religious processions) belong just as well as individual daily activties in urban traffic or private water supply.
The archeological record suggests that the fountain had some relation to the sacred precint of the Roman brass players ('aenatores Romani') across the street. That the activities (from training to religious performance) of musicians around this precint dominated the public connotations of the whole fountain square is demonstrated by the remarks of Seneca - who regards the Meta Sudans as a place of excessive instrumental noise - as well as Propertius, who envisions the area as a symbol of the antagonism of aetiological (Apollonian) and erotic (Dionysiac) poetry in his fourth book of elegies.

O artigo tem por objetivo divulgar a poesia dita lírica de Horácio. Assim observando 5 Odes, a saber, a 1.5 (trad. Nelson Ascher; a 3. 30 (trad. P. Martins); 1.38 (trad. de J.A. Oliva Neto); 1.11 (trad. de P. Martins) e 4.7 (trad. de P. Martins), proponho uma leitura transversal de temas importantes dentro de sua matéria poética, entre os quais, podemos salientar: a perenidade da obra (Exegi monumentum); o amor (Ad Pyrram) e a fugacidade da vida (Deffugere niues - Carpe diem). O texto também observa a relação possível entre a ode 1,38 de Horácio e Fernando Pessoa em uma de suas odes assinadas por Ricardo Reis.

TEXTO DE DIVULGAÇÃO CIENTÍFICA

Propertius' finale of his fourth book of elegies is typically conceded exceptional status within the corpus. The dead Cornelia, daughter of Augustus' ex-wife Scribonia, speaks from beyond the grave claiming credit for her life as exemplary Roman matron. The transmission of traditional values into the age of Augustus is a key topic of the poem. As a scion of archetypal nobility Cornelia figures as a bridge between the mos maiorum of the past and the present. However, her and her husband's repeated claim to descend from heirless Scipio Aemilianus and Aemilius Paullus fractures not only the self-reliant display of genealogical succession but challenges the idea of continuity that lies behind Augustan ideology.

O gênero épico tinha por objetivo mais nobre a preservação de histórias contadas por gerações e nessas histórias, narradas por versos cantados – elemento antigo para memorização –, preservavam os nomes de heróis, pais fundadores, espaços míticos, cotidiano antigo, pensamentos arcaicos, buscava-se preservar o máximo de um contexto ao qual os ouvintes já não faziam mais parte ou, notavam resquícios de um tempo que não conheceram. Foi a escrita que eternizou, na melhor das hipóteses, todo esse elemento épico que estava por ameaça constante do esquecimento.

Returning to the work begun in Amy Richlin's seminal essay on the unsettling topic of sexual violence in Ovid's work, "Reading Ovid's Rapes," this paper takes another look at the rich interpretive problems posed by the incessantly recurring theme of sexual violence in the "Metamorphoses." Though the perpetrators are almost exclusively divine, roughly a third of the myths recounted by the Roman poet features some form of sexual assault. When read in the context of conservative Augustan-era marriage legislation like the "Lex Julia de adulteriis," Ovid's insistence on the theme can be read as an indictment of Augustus himself, who after all insisted on likening himself in official imperial iconography to the cult of such gods as Apollo and Jupiter, two of the most egregious assailants throughout the long poem. However, each reiteration of the theme also reveals a series of other important concomitant concerns that arise from cases of sexual violence, including questions pertaining to illegitimate children and other unanticipated repercussions in the victim's family, that actually reveal Ovid to be more seriously engaged in thinking about the subject than he is commonly given credit for. Taking Ovid to task for the grave issues he tackles can actually provide fodder for productive discussion of topical issues effecting life on campus and in our country today. It is absolutely imperative that certain topics be addressed in productive and adult ways with our students if we expect to raise the level of our public discourse. Far from aestheticizing these topics as mere literary artifacts, Ovid's complex text demands to be read on a number of levels that are all pertinent to the world in which we live today.

This paper compares the Milky Way in Aratus (Ph. 469–79) and Manilius (1.684–804), focusing on the role of the sublime in both texts. In Aratus, to gaze at the Milky Way is a sublime experience that constitutes an image for reading the Phaenomena.  In addition, the sublimity of the Milky Way transports us to a time when the heavens were not fully understood. To wonder at the Milky Way is a transcendent, spiritual experience that pushes us to study the heavens. Manilius responds to Aratus in ways that have gone unnoticed. The Milky Way fills viewers with sublime wonder and physically compels contemplation of the stars and the divine. Because of its physical power, however, the Milky Way symbolizes the principles and mechanisms of astrology and the sublimity of the astrological poet. Manilius also reminds the reader of an earlier era in the history of stargazing, but this experience plunges us into sublime terror, offering a darker view of the past than Aratus. Manilius’ narrative contains an additional self-referential image. According to some, Phaethon’s fiery chariot ride produced the Milky Way. For Manilius, though, Phaethon is an exuberant stargazer whose daring adventure symbolizes an approach to the heavens that is properly and polemically sublime.

Minha fala hoje remete ao ano de 1979 quando ainda adolescente ouvia na vitrola o LP Cinema Transcendental de Caetano Veloso. Mais especificamente a faixa “Elegia”, um bolerinho, criado por Péricles Cavalcante em parceria com um tal de John Donne, traduzido por outro tal de Augusto de Campos. Obviamente um menino de 17 anos não deveria ter a obrigação que a elegia é um gênero poético, tampouco que Donne era um poeta metafísico inglês do 17 e que Augusto de Campos era um poeta e crítico literário ligado ao concretismo.

Prix François Millepierres 2020 (Académie Française).

Dans les odes érotiques, Horace conjugue exaltation de la passion et morale de l’amour : il chante la puissance et les beautés du désir, mais n’en invite pas moins les jeunes filles à se marier, les matrones à être fidèles, les jeunes gens à se contrôler et les vieilles femmes à renoncer à l’amour. Il rompt ainsi avec la tradition qui le précède, de Sappho aux élégiaques latins en passant par Anacréon, Alcée ou Catulle. Pour comprendre cette intrusion de la morale dans le domaine érotique, il faut tenir compte de tout ce qui fonde la lyrique horatienne : l’ambition de devenir une voix de la cité, la nécessité de dire son adhésion au nouveau régime, mais aussi l’intérêt pour la philosophie, y compris l’Académie, dont on sous-évalue l’importance dans son œuvre. Les enjeux moraux sont cependant indissociables des choix poétiques. C’est en poète qu’Horace se fait philosophe, jouant sur la coïncidence de certains motifs proprement lyriques avec une morale d’origine philosophique. C’est également en poète qu’il réconcilie l’exaltation de la passion et la morale, grâce à un jeu sur les genres, les formes et leur pragmatique. Cet ouvrage éclaire la manière dont se tissent, dans les Odes, l’inspiration érotique, le substrat philosophique, le contexte politique et les choix poétiques de celui qui se regarde comme l’inventeur de la lyrique latine.

Persians, Medes and Parthians in Horace’s Carmina

The kingdom of Parthia which came into being in the 3rd century BC in the eastern frontiers of the Seleucid monarchy became the great power in the course of time. In the 1st century BC the Parthians met on their way the Romans expanding East. In the next three hundred years those empires were fighting each other in the great competition on Imperium Orientis. The Roman men of letters made a lot of references to this conflict, especially in the Augustan Age. In my paper, I would like to analyze references to the Iranian world which appear in Horace’s Carmina. Horace (65-8 BC), the greatest Latin lyric poet, supported the reforms carried out by emperor Augustus and his politics. It refers
also to the relations with Parthia. In spite of the fact that Horace did not focus on the Iranian matters, he treated them in an original way drawing both from the Greek tradition and from the current political relations between Rome and Arsacid monarchy.

The noticeable analogies between the funeral laments of Anna and Juturna in the Aeneid have been often explained as a means of linking the sisters of the two main Aeneas’ opponents. But the common features of the two passages (and their differences) become more clear if we trace back them to the tradition of the historical funeral lament, already included in the Iliad and used by Virgil to represent nature and feelings of these two sad characters.

This is a full scholarly edition of John Philips's influential georgic poem Cyder (1708), with a particular emphasis on the political, historical and agricultural themes of the poem. The editors are John Goodridge (Emeritus Professor of English, Nottingham Trent University) and Juan Christian Pellicer (Professor of English, University of Oslo).

This paper will examine the claims of the excudent alii ('others will hammer out') priamel of Aeneid 6.847–53 within the immediate context of the parade's end, where Marcellus, parading the spolia opima, is used to exemplify the claims made about ne and speculative arts belonging to the Greeks, and war and the arts of empire to the Romans. It will be shown that certain, highly specic memories of the elder Marcellus are cued by the priamel that run directly counter to Anchises' claims. The paper will look at how these claims are spoken in character, and driven by specic narrative motives, and it will relate the mismatch of exemplied to exemplier to certain larger patterns within the Aeneid of things being left unsaid only to stand out all the more by being left unsaid. The paper concludes with a speculative essay on the necessary reductions and revisions that go into the making, and reading, of culturally instrumentalized monuments.

Zoals zoveel dingen in de Eeuwige Stad is ook het toerisme (of althans de aanwezigheid van buitenlandse bezoekers, toeristen of niet) iets van alle tijden. Maar in tegenstelling tot latere perioden hebben we uit de oudheid relatief weinig egodocumenten van Romereizigers over die de ervaring op dezelfde manier beschrijven als we die kennen uit latere tijden. Als we dus iets over het antieke ‘toerisme’ willen zeggen, moeten we het vooral met (vaak latere of fictieve) literaire evocaties doen. Één daarvan staat in dit artikel centraal. Het zal blijken dat antieke literaire impressies van de reis naar Rome toch van alles met de moderne ervaring gemeen hebben. Meer in het bijzonder bewijst de hier behandelde passage dat ook in de oudheid al menig bezoeker werd geconfronteerd met de overweldigende historische gelaagdheid van de stad.

Propertius 3.12 leads us right to the middle of Book 3, and as such really ought to have attracted more attention than it has. Sitting twelfth in a twenty-four poem collection, it negotiates the reader's passage into the second half of the book—and it does so by introducing what must seem at first glance a new kind of elegiac woman and, indeed, a new kind of Propertian elegy: in this poem we meet the chaste wife Aelia Galla, upon whose marriage Propertius reflects with uncharacteristic favour. In the discussion that follows, I hope to show that this central elegy both shakes elegy up—and yet brings renewed focus on a moral core that existed in elegiac writing since the beginning. In doing so, Propertius 3.12 marks a central waypoint within a collection which reflects obsessively on its own poetic past, and yet which prepares (us for) the more expansive elegy that we eventually encounter in Propertius' fourth book

Translating Virgil’s Bucolics is a hard challenge for the Italian translators, both for the inherent musicality of the text and because of the long literary tradition of Arcadia. The analysis of the different approaches to the text during the XX century and the comparison between the solutions can give a measure of these difficulties, but also illuminate historical and ideological influences.
Key words: Virgil’s Bucolics; translation; Italian literary taste in XX century; fascism.

Cum Euryali matrem Vergilius describat, Homeri Andromacham in Iliados libro XXII delineatam imitatur. Sed in imitatione sua praesertim matris perturbationem et inopinati doloris novitatem, ad augendam erga mulierem miserationem, exprimit. Euryali mater etiam Vergilii Andromacham in Aeneidos libro III depictam imitatur propter communem fatum, dolorem et perenem suorum amissorum memoriam. Matris lamentum, denique, Euryali et Nisi gestorum narrationem omnino concludit, ut magis infirmorum dolor quam heroum gloria emineat.

Lo studio esamina due apostrofi virgiliane dedicate a giovani morti in guerra e seguite dai lamenti dei loro genitori. In tal modo il poeta esprime un duplice punto di vista su questi eventi, quello della gloria e quello del dolore incolmabile della perdita.

Abstract
In Res Gestae 8, 5 Augustus boasts of having renewed «multa exempla maiorum» and of being himself responsible of «multarum rerum exempla». This could appear in line with Roman tradition about mos mairoum; actually, this statement, while giving moral excellence to Augustus (as the Greek RGDA declare more explicitly), can supports a monarchical rule. This is shown by comparison with Greek political thought (Isocr. Nic.; Pl. Leg. 709ss.; Arist. Pol. 1285a-b), with Cicero, with several texts of Julio-Claudian age.

Key-words: Res gestae; monarchy; example.


M. Capasso (a cura di), Quattro incontri sulla Cultura Classica (I Quaderni di ‘Atene e Roma’, 6), Lecce, Pensa Multimedia 2019 (il volume contiene gli Atti dell’VIII Congresso Nazionale dell’Associazione Italiana di Cultura Classica, Roma 18-19 ottobre 2014, “La pacificazione di Augusto fra realtà e propaganda”), pp. 103-148.

"Neste livro incisivo, Paulo Martins desnaturaliza os critérios expressivistas de interpretação da elegia erótica do poeta latino Propércio correntes na Universidade, onde ainda é lido. Eles são indiferentes à historicidade dos preceitos técnicos de sua invenção como ficção poética. Paulo afirma que, ingênua ou não, a indiferença é uma prática etnocêntrica. Universaliza o modo moderno de definir e consumir poesia como literatura e imagina que as paixões romanas dos poemas são sustos contemporâneos que, ao serem impressos, expressam a subjetividade do autor. A especificação retórica do gênero "elegia erótica" faz os poemas aparecer como formalidade prática irredutível às intenções psicológicas dos intérpretes atribuídas anacronicamente ao homem Propércio. Como gênero poético, a elegia erótica romana é inventada retoricamente como enunciação fictícia de um pronome pessoal, ego. É o "eu" não-substancial de um tipo poético que imita discursos gregos e alexandrinos enquanto recompõe, em cada poema, a dicção que especifica a adequação de seu estilo aos lugares-comuns que o gênero prescreve para inventar e ornar a voz de seu éthos, caráter, movido por páthe, afetos."


João Adolfo Hansen
Da Universidade de São Paulo

This paper explores how the lyric speaker constructs his poetic identity as a uates in Hor. carm. 1,1; 2,20 and 3,30. Ιn all three poems, we find a Cartesian coordinate system consisting of a vertical and horizontal axis. These axes structure the space and enable the poet's ascension to the gods on the vertical axis. In carm. 2,20 and 3,30 time serves as an additional parameter in the construction of identity: In carm. 2,20, the lyric speaker defines his identity in the face of death with a poetological metamorphosis into a swan, and in carm. 3,30 his oeuvre assumes this role. By the afterlife of his work, the speaker hopes to overcome the evanescence to which everything corporal or material is otherwise doomed. By identifying himself with the significate, the poet elegantly solves the problem of the materiality of the aesthetical sign which Dieter Mersch has brought to the fore.