Horace is the second great Roman poet after Virgil, who set himself the task of creating exemplary literature. He believed that poetry is "gymnastics of the tongue." Horace did not like the lyrics of Catullus and sought to write works that would be similar to the high-content and moralistic poems of Virgil.
The reader is interested not only in the work of the great Roman poet, but also in his historical era, biography. Horace Quintus made great contributions to world literature, although he came from a simple family. In his poems, he formulated his own wisdom and gave a number of recommendations of a moral and ethical plan, which were based on the philosophy of the golden mean.
Horace: biography and life path
The great Roman poet was born in 65 BC. e. in venusia. His work falls on the first decade of the reign of Octavian Augustus, who took the place of Caesar. He was born into the family of a freedman who took care of the education of his son and left him a small estate after death.
The life of the poet was directly related to the activities of the Patron. When Caesar was killed in Rome, Quintus Horace Flaccus joined Brutus' supporters. It was the philanthropist who helped him establish himself in life: he gifted the estate and brought it into the circle of Augustus.
Horace died of a sudden illness in the 8th century BC. e. He was buried next to his virtue Maecenas on the outskirts of Esquiline.
Features of creativity
Quint Horace Flaccus was a multifaceted poet who created samples of poetry in different lyrical genres - odes and hymns. Both works in form and mood are quite solemn. However, his odes, published in four books, are not aimed at praising anyone's merits, but reflect the poet’s life wisdom and philosophy. Horace gives advice in them, addressing to whom odes are devoted.
All the work of the great Roman poet can be divided into several cycles by genre:
1. Episodes (poems-couplets of a iambic nature).
2. Satires (accusatory works). Written with a hexameter.
3. Odes (lyric poems dedicated to an event).
Horace, whose biography is represented by three periods of creativity, all his life adhered to the philosophy of the golden mean, built on wisdom, judgment, beauty, virtue and harmony.
Message Genre
Quintus Horace Flaccus, whose poems were mostly devoted to individuals, was very successful in this literary genre. He wrote 23 letters, the last of which, “To the Pison,” became the second literary work after Aristotle's Science of Poetry, which testifies to its significance in the context of world literature. The main thing in Horace’s aesthetics is rationality, conformity to nature, so that the style and the chosen words fully correspond to the topic being raised. His poetry is difficult to understand. Johann Wolfgang Goethe once wrote that the images in the epistles are like a “pendulum”. The composition of lyric poems is complicated in that Horace could skillfully move from one image to another, using different poetic sizes in the text. His poems are filled with various proper names, geographical names, and he pays attention to details.
Thematic groups od Horace
Meditation poems are the embodiment of wisdom. Quint Horace Flaccus, whose work is mainly represented by four books of od, writes in this thematic group about the short life and speed of the current time. For him, the pursuit of honors and wealth is meaningless. The odes have a theme of love, a feast, but unlike the poems of Catullus, their tone is happy and comforting. You can count 7 female names, to which Horace writes poems, thoughts. In one of his odes (No. 30 “To Melpomene”) he raises the problem of the poet’s immortality and enters into the tradition, starting with Egyptian poetry, that immortality of a person is achieved as a result of his labor, creation of literary works. Horace sees his infinity in verse.
Analysis of Ode No. 30
This work has received the conditional name "Monument". The poem was so liked by the classics of Russian literature that the idea of ​​the immortality of the poet’s work was borrowed by Gavril Derzhavin (“I have erected a wonderful monument to myself, eternal”), Alexander Pushkin (“I have erected a monument to myself miraculous”), Valery Bryusov (“My monument stands, from stanzas consonant is complicated ”). The last two borrowed stanzas in Latin, which Horace once uttered, as an epigraph. The poet’s biography, as you know, was far from enviable: since childhood, he did not know luxury and tried to stay in people's memory for many centuries with his own forces.
Ode No. 30 is called “To Melpomene” and concludes the third book of odes; Melpomene in mythology is the muse of tragedy. In the work, Horace discusses his achievements and at the end calls on to crown himself with a laurel crown. To date, the most successful translations of ode number 30 are considered poems by Lomonosov and Vostokov.
Satire Horace
Peru of the great Roman poet owns several collections of satyrs. From this it is worth concluding that he became famous not only as a master od. The satires of Horace resemble philosophical reasoning over the meaning of life; it is in them that he expresses the philosophy of the golden mean. The main object of ridicule is the false paths of happiness, the pursuit of imaginary benefits. Quintus Horace Flaccus, whose poems are satirical, ironizes over revelers and drunks. One of his life recommendations says that you should not become a slave of wine and abuse this drink to quench your sorrow. Despite the fact that human passions and vices become the object of ridicule in satires, he writes about the personal in them: in satire number 6, for example, he tells the story of his life. Horace, having a low origin, lives content with little and does not know luxury.
Master of Poetic Sizes
Horace sometimes does not hide his origin in his poems and is not ashamed that he is the son of a slave set free. According to the calculation of the literary critic Mikhail Gasparov, the poet used 12 types of ancient Greek stanzas in his poetry, his genius lies in masterful knowledge and possession of poetic art. In the first book of his odes, he gave a "parade" of these sizes, introduced the sapphic, Alkeev and other stanzas. In addition to Horace, whose years of life were very productive, he worked with episodes that are very similar in form to the refrains. They express political content and, as in iambic ones, ridicule the shortcomings of the people and people (the most striking example is “To the Roman people”).
Horace's recommendations with explanations
"Be pleased with what you have in your hands." The poet implied a simple truth of life, which states that you need to live and enjoy today and not condemn the creator for the fact that not every person is noble and rich. All benefits should be received in an honest way and be content with little.
"There is no use in money if you save it, but do not spend it." How many cases does history know when a person tried to earn capital all his life, denying himself much, and, having earned it, died suddenly. Horace believes this philosophy is wrong: you need to evenly spend the money earned and live fully, without restrictions.
"Disperse the sorrows of life with wine, but know the measure." Hedonism as a trend in aesthetics promotes the idea of ​​enjoyment as the highest goal of human life. Horace shared this point of view in half: drinking wine can certainly quench sorrows, but do not abuse it.
"Fall in love, but do not suffer from love." Horace, whose biography is replete with seven female names, deduced the truth, thanks to which a man can live in harmony with his heart. He does not deny love, but opposes passion and suffering.
The history of Roman literature in names
The most famous Roman comedian is considered Titus Macius Plavt. He wrote about fifty comedies, but only 19 reached us. In total, he owns over 20 thousand lines of poetry.
Titus Lucretius Carus and Guy Valery Catullus are the brightest representatives of Roman literature of the period of the republic. The first is the author of the work “On the nature of things”, and the second is famous for his love poems.
Publius Virgil Maron tried himself in many literary genres. This ancient Roman poet is the author of the heroic poem "Aeneid"
Publius Ovid Nason is called the younger contemporary of Horace. He is the author of the poem "The Science of Love", written in an ironic spirit, as well as a collection of songs "Amores."
Fedr is an outstanding poet and fabulist, who first began to write fables in poetic form. He became famous for his own works and translations of Aesop.
Initially, the term "prose" was used by the Romans to mean non-rhythmic speech. The first works in non-verbal form appeared much later. The famous prose writer is considered Apuleius - the author of the adventurous novel "The Golden Donkey", behind him in importance is the Petronius Arbiter, who wrote the "Satyricon".