Horace's Epodes: Context, Intertexts, & Reception by Philippa Bather and Claire Stocks

Abstract

504 BOOK REVIEWS if we see the poet as quoting the Muse, we can set aside the idea that the poet functions as a mouthpiece of the Muse.8 The Muse does not possess the poet. On the other hand, the quotation theory does not account for the several passages in which the narrating voice is that of a mortal: “at certain points he gives expression to his admiration for divine objects or apologizes for his human limitations.”9 One struggles to imagine the Muse saying, “But others were fighting in battle about the other gates, and hard would it be for me, as though I were a god (theos hōs), to tell the tale of all these things” (Il. 12.175–6; trans. Wyatt).10 Qualifying González’s argument,wecanassertthatthepoetsometimesrepresentshimselfasquotingthe Muse. Indeed, when the poet demands of the Muse, “Sing, goddess, the wrath of Peleus’ son Achilles” (Il. 1.1), he seems to imply that he will pass on precisely what the Muse herself performs. In the sections of linguistic analysis, González kindly repeats his main points throughout (e.g. 105), but the technical details of these arguments will be accessible only to those competent in linguistics and will be lost on many as they were on me. Chapter 14 promises to illuminate the rhapsode’s use of a script by looking at Aristotle’s discussion of hypokrisis but never gets around to doing so: only in the Conclusion do we stumble upon the connection. Setting aside these portions, I note that González writes with clarity and verve, two qualities that aid the reader on the months-long journey through this book. JONATHAN L.READY Indiana University, jready@indiana.edu * * * * * BOOK REVIEWS Horace’s Epodes: Context, Intertexts, & Reception. Edited by PHILIPPA BATHER and CLAIRE STOCKS. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2016. Pp. xiv+279. Hardcover, $110.00. ISBN 978-0-19-874605-8. This volume, with origins in a conference held at the University of Manchester in 2012,addsmuch to the scholarship on Horace’s Epodes.Itsgoalisto tackle major 8 Cf. I. J. F. de Jong, Narrators and Focalizers: The Presentation of the Story in the Iliad (London, 2004) 46. 9 De Jong (2004) 49. 10 Cf. De Jong (2004) 47. BOOK REVIEWS 505 questions anew, aiming “to challenge what we think we know” (23). The nine papers reconsider the place of the Epodes in the broad tradition of Greek iambic poetry,questionlongstandingreadingsofthework,reevaluateitsrelationshipwith ancient intertexts, and reassess its influence in antiquity and beyond. Andrew Morrison considers the relationship of the Epodes to Greek iambic, a generic tradition that encompasses much more than the invective attack often viewed as its chief mode. Tracing the influences of Archilochus, Hipponax and Callimachus on Horatian iambic, he argues that Horace’s mollified vituperation and reorientation of iambos toward friendship and morality are indebted especially to Callimachus’ Iambi. Ian Goh finds traces of Lucilian satire in the Epodes, especially 1–10, which adopttheaggressiveinvectivemodetoahigherdegreethantheconcurrentSatires 2. Focusing on a range of repeated motifs in the two authors, from sickness and wolf-similes to (un)girt belts and laxative sorrel, he examines how Horace erases Lucilius from the Epodes even as he inherits his satiric mantle. The argument is fast and dense and could benefit from periodic recapitulation. Michael Sullivan persuasively examines how Horace’s famous bird simile in Epodes 1.19–22 draws on a long line of avian imagery and fables found in Homer, Hesiod, Archilochus, Callimachus and Demetrius of Phalerum. These intertexts illuminate Horace’s concerns with power, poetic authority, justice and aesthetics in the collection. EmilyGowersinvestigatesgender.Horatianiambicconfusesgendercategories, as reflected in the motif of males impersonating females. Horace is a laboring mother, Maecenas a midwife, each struggling to bring the Epodes to a successful parturition. Rome’s male elite, moreover, is shriveled and unmanned. Although not allwillbe convinced that the old hags of Epodes8 and 12 are really eunuchs or cinaedi, Gowers nicely illustrates the poems’ literary and political anxiety. Elena Giusti further exposes blurred categories, now in the Dionysiac Epodes9, whichtogetherwithEpodes1andOdes1.37formsan“Actiumtrilogy.”Thepoem depicts a topsy-turvy world in which a hazy line separates friend from enemy, Roman from barbarian, truth from falsehood. The poem’s...