Chapter 17. Kissing the Leper: The Excluded Poet in Irish Myth In 1596, Edmund Spenser wrote, There is amongst the Irish a certaine kind of people, called Bardes, which are to them insteed of Poets, whose profession is to set foorth the praises or dispraises of men in their poems or rymes, the which are had in so high regard and estimation amongst them, that none… Read more
Chapter 18. The Stakes of the Poet: Starkaðr/Suibhne In 1942, the Indo-Europeanist Georges Dumézil published Horace et les Curiaces, in which he treated the battle-fury of the Indo-European warrior. [1] Aspects de la fonction guerrière chez les Indo-Européens (1956) was his first book-length examination of the warrior from a comparative Indo-European perspective; in this book he discussed for the first time the… Read more
Chapter 19. The Sacrificed Poet: Germanic Myths As was previously shown, Starkaðr is the Odinic hero par excellence; he is given his poetic consecration by Odin, as well as his martial consecration; he is killed by an Odinic god. Odin, like Starkaðr, is closely associated both with war [1] and with poetry. [2] A number of myths… Read more
Chapter 20. “Wounded by Tooth that Drew Blood”: The Beginnings of Satire in Rome “Satura quidem tota nostra est,” wrote Quintilian. “Satire is entirely ours [Roman].” [1] Thus blame in verse, of a certain type, was a characteristically Roman genre, despite some influence from Hellenistic Greek poetry. [2] Cicero, in the Tusculan Disputations, tells us that “Cato,… Read more
Chapter 21. Naevius: Dabunt malum Metelli Naevio poetae We find the theme of the exiled Roman poet first in the life of Naevius (ca. 270–199 BC), Rome’s first writer of plays with Roman subjects, and writer of the first Roman epic with Roman subject matter, The Punic War. The scant details of his life, with their story of satirical freedom and political repression, have been thoroughly debated. Read more
Chapter 22. Cicero Maledicus, Cicero Exul This chapter will regard Cicero as a poet in a nontechnical sense, an artist projecting the archaic categories of praise and blame in his verbal medium, oratory, and will examine how “aggressive” elements in his speeches contributed to his exiles and death. Oratory, even if it is not metrical, is closely linked to poetry. When it was no longer customary… Read more
Chapter 23. Ovid: Practicing the Studium Fatale Perhaps the most famous poetic exile in Latin literature is Ovid’s. He was the first major poet-victim of the repressive powers of the imperator; as he was the most popular living poet, [1] this banishment served notice that freedom of poetic expression would be severely curtailed in the Augustan regime. This had been prefigured in… Read more
Chapter 24. Phaedrus: Another Fabulist In Phaedrus, we meet once again, in miniature format, the direct Aesopic line of tradition: Aesop, Archilochus, Socrates; fables, offense of the powerful, punishment. Phaedrus, an Augustan freedman of Thracian birth, versified (like Socrates) and Latinized Aesop’s fables; but he added some fables of his own, which reflected somewhat the current sociopolitical scene, and included an occasional combative response to a critic. Read more
Chapter 25. Seneca, Petronius, and Lucan: Neronian Victims Of three major representatives of “Menippean” satire, Varro, Seneca, and Petronius, two met their deaths at the hand of Nero, as did Lucan, another prominent poet. In addition, it is possible that Persius was poisoned by Nero; he died of stomach sickness, always suspect in the imperial age. He was friendly with the Nero opposition party among the Stoics;… Read more
Chapter 26. Juvenal: The Burning Poet It is fitting that we should end our survey with Juvenal, for his savagery and artistry mark a culmination of Roman satire. For Gilbert Highet, “The Roman Juvenal was the greatest satiric poet who ever lived.” [1] Though bitterness and venom characterize Juvenal’s poetry, [2] its intent was highly moral and… Read more
