Roman Satire and the Old Comic Tradition by Jennifer L. Ferriss-Hill

Abstract

110 BOOK REVIEWS “dark hued” (kyaneon). Foster draws our attention to the identification of the mythical Symplegades with the historical Cynaean Rocks and the nearby Chelidonian Islands (Hdt. 4.85.1), arguing that Theocritus uses this adjective not in error but rather as an intentional relocation of heroic trials from the traditional epic landscapetothebucoliclocusamoenus,aworldfromwhichHeraklesisultimately barred (129–135). Other highlights include sections on Theocritus’ destabilization of Pindar’s heroic Heracles in Chapter 4 (Nemean 1 and Idyll 24: The Poetics of Heroic Revisionism ), and the influence of Homeric hospitality scenes on the image of Arsinoe in Chapter 5 (Arsinoe as Epic Queen: Hosts, Hospitality, and Their “Reception ” in Idyll 15). I did note some editorial slips, such as the absence of some publication datesfrom thebibliography and otherminorerrata(e.g.page13 “thethe”; page 37 herdsmen who sings; page 79 primary narrator Idyll 11; p. 88 Khalkas; pages 19, 114, 138, 142, 143 Kholchis: cf. the correct spelling Kolchian on page 219). ANATOLE MORI University of Missouri, MoriA@missouri.edu * * * * * Roman Satire and the Old Comic Tradition. By JENNIFER L. FERRISS-HILL. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Pp. x + 302. Hardcover, $95.00. ISBN 978-1-107-08154-3. Inspired by Horace’s claim that Lucilius “hangs entirely” from Old Comedy (Sat. 1.4.6) and Quintilian’s implicit pairing of Old Comedy and Roman satire in book 10 of the Institutio Oratoria, Ferriss-Hill argues that Roman satire “should be understood as an extended Old Comic parabasis” (44). To prove this thesis she explores the connections between Old Comedy and its Roman offspring as embodied in the work of Lucilius and Persius, and in all of Horace’s hexameter poetry— Satires/Sermones, Epistles, and Ars Poetica. Ferriss-Hill argues that Juvenal, who never explicitly connects himself to Old Comedy (19), turns instead to tragedy as a source of satiric inspiration (cf. Juv. 6.634-8) and thus rejects laughter (derived BOOK REVIEWS 111 elsewhere in satire from Old Comedy’s parabatic claims for “truth telling through laughter,” 17) in favor ofa serious tone when declaring his truths.Thus,she claims (although it is impossible to prove), any traces of the Greek genre in Juvenal likely derive from imitation of his Roman predecessors. Ferriss-Hill’s first and longest chapter (“The Poet in Tension”) discusses the tensions inherent in the artifex or poet’s self-representation in Old Comedy and Roman satire before Juvenal. The poet presents himself as simultaneously confidentand abject,“both wiseand flawed,essentialyetunappreciated”(45).Sections on the urban, didactic, misunderstood, physically or socially abject, lawbreaking, and chef-like aspects of the poetic persona draw on examples from Aristophanes and all four satirists, though Juvenal often proves the exception to the rules establishedbyhispredecessors .WhileFerriss-Hillfocusesonthetwogenres’continuity ofthemeandapproach,shealsodiscusseshowRomansatire’smoreparsimonious approachtofood(comparedtoOldComedy’scelebratoryfeasts)derivesfrom its smaller, elite, and private audience. Chapter2(“DefensivePoetics”)tracesthespreadofadefensivestancelinked to a stance of abjection—one pens a counterattack because one has been wrongly attackedbyothers—fromAristophanes(especiallyWasps)throughCallimachus’ Aetia preface and Terence’s prologues to Lucilius, Horace, and Persius. Juvenal, however, writing less (explicitly) programmatic and more agonistic satire than his predecessors (166,168),seems to compose satire in response to his surroundings rather than to any criticism of his work. Only Juvenal’s decision to adopt a tragic mode (6.634–638) provides any clue to potential attacks of his work. The third chapter (“Literary Criticism”) takes up Old Comedy and Roman satire’s unusual shared interest in literary criticism, both of their own genre as well as other genres. The perceived connection between the style and quality of a work and the “essence” of its author (Ferriss-Hill cites Seneca, Epistulae Morales 19.114: talis…oratio qualis vita) is the basis for such comic and satirical judgments (171). Ferriss-Hill proposes that the “frenetic intellectual” contexts in which the Old Comic poets and the four surviving Roman satirists worked provided the material for “these naturally omnivorous genres” to ingest and construct their poetry with (216). Here, as elsewhere, I would have liked to see more reflectionupontheRomansatiristswhoseworkdidnotsurviveduetoitsexclusionfrom the canon by Horace,Quintilian,and others.But Ferriss-Hillis following the precedent established by her satirical subjects: Horace both shapes the genre and converts Old Comedy’s synchronic...