Abstract

In Horace's two-stanza ode Montium custos (Carm. 3.22), what is the connection between (stanza 1) Diana, goddess of midwifery and the slave women in childbirth and (stanza 2) Diana's pine tree and sacrifice of a boar to it? The whole line 7, with slant-attacking boar/pig of sacrifice also describes the slant-singing poet, master of the Sabine farm. The metapoetic technique, here called the Janus-trope, and the theme, reproduce the technique and the slave/poetry theme of Epist. 1.20.1–2. Recognizing the previously unobserved portrait of Horace leads to understanding the unity of the ode (stanza 1: childbirth; stanza 2: poembirth).

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