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This essay explores the metrical as well as rhythmical aspects of the acoustic contour of the Latin Alcaic, focusing on patterns of natural, audible, performed word accents in coincidence and syncopation with the fixed pattern of the meter, in both the ancient and modern scansions of the stanza. The meter was measured in antiquity with a learned, latent expectation or undercurrent of regular verse beats to scan aloud, to measure for the ear, the pattern of long and short syllables. Within the fixed framework of the meter, variable patterns of accent provide a rhythm, and that rhythm is the focus of this essay. Very little attention falls on sound and sense: the coda argues that sound need not be subordinate to meaning, need not be sound effect, nor explicitly rhetorical, to be worth our attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whenever Catullus is sexually aggressive or brutally flank in his poetry, modern commentators will often call him "Priapic," an adjective that tends to obscure rather than elucidate the various ways in which Catullus uses the figure of Priapus in crafting his poetic persona. This article attempts to read poems 47, 56, and, in particular, 16, as Catullus' experiments in the Greek and Roman subgenre of Priapic poetry. Once we see that these poems are focalized through the generic perspective of Priapus, Catullus' impersonation of Priapus becomes less an assumption of hyperphallic masculinity and more a witty way in which to lampoon a world-view dominated by an obsessive focus on penetration. Impersonating Priapus meant, in fact, exposing the garden god and his hopeless rusticity to urbane critique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article documents and explores the relationship between Horace "Epist." 1.5 and "Ode" 4.7, one a verse epistle, the other one of Horace's most magnificent odes, both addressed to a certain Torquatus. It first analyzes each poem individually in detail and then goes on to examine the overlap between the two in search of Horace's purposes behind the interaction. The epistle, an invitation to a "convivium" at the speaker's home on the evening before Augustus' birthday, deals with the importance of self-discovery in a private setting where confidentiality is crucial. The ode pits this individuality against far larger spatial and temporal universals, and it reminds us of our mortality and of the loss of self that accompanies death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Martial's twelve Epigrammaton libri have been described as a receptacle for previously published poems or groups of poems. An examination of themes, motifs, and leitmotifs in Book 4, however, reveals that there are many different types of connections between individual poems and cycles. Inner cohesion in Martial's works considerably more pronounced than has often been supposed. Furthermore, the book context of each epigram can imply metapoetic statements and, thus, influences the readers' reception of the respective poem. given the close-knit web that spans and supports Book 4, it seems unlikely that the eighty-nine epigrams of the liber quartus ever appeared anywhere other than together in this book. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Horace Ode 4.15 names the Augustan Age, defining a bounded period of history by reference to Augustus' mortal lifespan (aetas). By contrast, poetry's command of immortality gives the poet, not the princeps, ultimate control of the meaning of aetas Augusta. But Horace undermines the suggestion that his own poetry will forever define and represent the Augustan Age. Ode 4.15 in fact projects the Aeneid, or a sanitized version of it, as the Roman people's everlasting hymn in praise of Augustus and his age. This gesture of demurral is anticipated in the poem's opening recusatio of a Virgilian-style epic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using astronomy software, this article provides a systematic re-examination of the astronomical references in Ovid's Fasti and reviews the previous authority on the question, Ideler (1825). The review finds that most (three out of four) of the more than fifty astronomical references in the poem are accurate and reflects on the negative reception of Ovid's handling of astronomy in light of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Punica 3, the poet manipulates the complexities of traditional representations of Hercules to illustrate how Hannibal imitates the demigod's conduct as it is portrayed in the aetiological tale of Pyrene's rape and death. Just as Pyrene's blood stains the homonymous mountains in Spain, Hannibal's army is afflicted with much woe and suffering when crossing the Alps. Verbal echoes from Pyrene's dismemberment throughout the book confirm that the female is not viewed as an object of pathos but rather as a sign "posted" in the narrative in order to foreshadow, but not avert, the disasters that await the male protagonist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Ovid Amores 3.9, the elegy on the death of Tibullus, and especially its allusions to Tibullus' own poetry and its pervasive use of religious vocabulary and imagery. It focuses on the phrase obscuras … manus, the transmitted reading in line 20, and reveals a significant allusion to Callimachus, ep. 2 Pf. (also on the death of a friend and fellow-poet). Current interpretations of obscuras are considered and found inadequate to the context and tenor of the poem; the very slight change of only two letters is proposed to yield the adjective obscenas, a highly charged word with religious associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most scholarship on Vergil's third Eclogue sees tension between Damoetas and Menalcas. This article argues that they sing with the same voice; instead, tension lies between the herdsmen and Palaemon, whose harmonious relationship with his environment contrasts with their pessimistic attitude. Emblematic of this distinction is that the herdsmen fear the snake lurking in the grass, while Palaemon sees the grass as the perfect place for poetic composition. Different outlooks mirror different approaches to the pastoral genre. This prompts Palaemon to award both singers the vitula, symbol of pastoral's realistic aspect, rather than the cups, which represent the genre's poetic register. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study on the Bandusia ode by Horace. Views by Horace on blood offerings; Metaphorical possibilities of sacrifice; Epic complexions of the bloodstained water.

The article discusses how Rome was represented in early 5th century poetry. By that period Christianity had become dominant in the Roman Empire. According to the author, the evolution of the representation of Rome was largely contributed by three poets during this period: Claudius Claudianus, Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, and Rutilius Namatianus, with Roma appearing in two guises in the works of the three. In Claudian’s poems, the goddess Roma appears as an agent in the narrative. In the view of Prudentius, the Roman Empire was supposed to the means for the coming of Christianity and its spread. In Rutilius, a pagan, Roma was again a goddess, and the most beautiful queen in the world.

The article presents a literary criticism of the "Aeneid" of Virgil, focusing on the long-standing disagreement over the meaning of the Latin word 'rettulit' when Aeneas is visiting the future site of Rome. The controversy goes back as far as the late 4th century figure Servius Danielus, who offered two explanations.

Focuses on the philosophical scope of propriety in Horace's 'Odes 3.19,' featuring the celebration for Murena's election as augur. Philosophical concept of propriety associated with moderation; Poet's views on the impropriety of an absorption in the remote past for the occasion at hand; Imaginative fusion of past and present.

Examines the meaning of the word pudor in Horace's 'Epodes 11.15-18' based on the Scham and Schande interpretations that corresponds to the main senses of the word. Interpretation of pudor as a feeling of shame or a sense of embarassment; Interpretation of pudor as a source of shame or a feeling of embarassment; Alternative to the interpretation of pudor based on the madness of passion which must be removed.

Examines the paternal influences of the ancient Latin poet Horace as depicted in his autobiographical `Satires.' Deliberation of the patriarchal satiric genre in verse 1.4; Impact of merging poetic style and personal character on the formation of satiric genre; Portrayal of the negative aspect of the fatherly role.

Explores a passage in the poem `Satires,' by Horace. Implication in issues of war and peace; Satiric and comic imagination; Awareness of the gap between personal wish-fulfillment and political reality; Wavering and human vacillation between emotional involvement with Rome and Epicurean disengagement; Shift in meanings as work progresses in time; Reader reception.

Offers an interpretation of the phrase `ad unguem' in Horace's poem `Ars Poetica.' Phrase as a self-contained expression; Connotation `to perfection'; Horace's topic as the careful execution of detail within a harmonious scale; Imaginative implications of the phrase; Examination of all the uses of `unguis' in pre-Horatian literature; Relevance of the intellectual concerns of the Greek golden age.

Focuses on the poems 12 and 13, written by Roman lyric poet Gaius Valerius Catullus. What the poems say about the poet's persona; Discussion on the text of poem 12 which is addressed to Asinius Marrucinus the napkin thief; Comments on the structure of poem 13.

Discusses the manipulation of the external audience and emotional experience in Horace's `Pyrrha Ode.' Exegesis and language of the poem; Ode's emotional content and its speaker's controlled, distanced presentation; Categories of audience-oriented criticism; Fiction of direct `I-You' communication; Writing of amatory lyric and the creation of an audience appropriate to that lyric.

Focuses on the paradoxical imagery portrayed in the poem Catullus 68b. Manlius' request for a poem to relive his despondency; Inversions of the Callimachean aesthetic emerging from the poem; Images emerging from the story of the tragic marriage of Laodamia and Protesilaus.

Analyzes Catullus' control of sense of evocation throughout his poem 64. Visual qualities of the opening scene; Metaphors of sight and blindness; Introducing tension between sight and sound; Directing the listeners' sensual response; Paradox of synaesthesia.