ホラティウス c. 4.8 と c. 4.9 : -詩歌と美徳- (その2)

Abstract

In the preceding paper concerning c. 4. 8 (Classical Studies 5, 1988, 59-70), we observed that a poet and the object of his poem form a close pair, and that virtue is represented as indispensable when poetry displays its power to immortalize. In this paper, we attempt to examine how c. 4. 9 expresses such a relation between poetry and its objects, or virtue, in a more generalized form. At the beginning of the second half of the poem (30-34 : non ego te meis/chartis inornatum silebo/totve tuos patiar labores

...) where the first and second persons alternate with each other, "I, " a poet, and "you, " an object, are cons picuously combined by such an arrangement of words. Such a combination has been prepared since the opening. First, at 4 (verba...socianda chordis), which means that Horace composes his own lyric poems, 'verba' and 'chordae, ' forming a pair by 'socianda, ' also suggest an inevitable union. Then, at 11-12 (commissi calores/... fidibus), 'verba' changes into 'calores, ' which is the content of Sappho's poetry. Third, at 21 (dicenda Musis proelia), 'proelia' is this time the subject matter of Homer, and 'Musae, ' the other of this pair, stands for poetry itself which has some divine power. Thus the connection between poetry and its objects is emphasized gradually until the great power of poetry to immortalize is declared (25-28). And then, Horace finally addresses Lollius, the object of this poem, by name (33). Lollius' exploits (32 : labores) correspond to the brave acts of the heroes in the Trojan War (21 : proelia, 25 : fortes) through 'virtus' in the gnome part (33-34). But, since they are seen in spiritual termes (34 : est animus tibi), his virtues are spoken of in the following part (25-44). Then, Lollius' ethical view of life which is stated through the definition of the happy man in the last two stanzas is also Horace's. This concluding part, which shows an agreement between "you" and "me" on morals, links up with 1-4 (credas, loquor), where Horace's immortality is asserted, and with 30-34 where Lollius' immortality is promised. Therefore, this structure of c. 4. 9 also reveals that virtue must exist where Horace immortalizes an object of his poem.