Greek Lyric at Rome

Abstract

This chapter examines strands of reception of Greek lyric poetry in Latin that can be found outside Horace and the other Augustan poets. It considers pre-Augustan examples in Ennius, Plautus, Valerius Aedituus, Laevius, Lucretius, and Catullus. The chapter discusses examples of engagement with Greek lyric in Seneca the Younger, and looks at the late antique writer Optatian. In the choice of examples, it aims to include some spread of tragic choric as well as monodic lyric. Three areas of interest will emerge: the Roman reception of Sappho; the adaptation of Greek choral lyrics to Roman contexts; and metrical experimentation with Greek forms in Latin. The multiple echoes in the opening of Optatian's poem, evoking Simmias, Horace, and Catullus in the background, underline his position in literary history: they mark out his poetry as coming at the end of a tradition that encompasses both Greek Hellenistic poetry and the milestones of Latin lyric, Catullus and Horace.