Abstract

MAINERO, Jorge S.. Nature and Society in Horace. Lit. teor. hist. crit. [online]. 2021, vol.23, n.1, pp.209-235.  Epub Apr 06, 2021. ISSN 0123-5931.  https://doi.org/10.15446/lthc.v23n1.90599.

The purpose of this article is to study two aspects of Horace's poetry. He went from professing an individualistic ethical ideal, prone to peaceful retreat (beatus ille, Epod. 2) in the middle of a nature subject to periodic rhythms, to the conviction that it was reserved to him to celebrate the Roman glory as a priest of the muses (Carm. 3, 1), in the first six odes of the third book. The Civic Odes are consistent with the plan of Augustus, named and represented in Carm. 3, 3. Tis poem is analyzed considering the myth as a symbolic system suitable for collective representations, where a structural principle is recognized given the organization of the lyrical-narrative material. Tis supposes the instrumental adoption of the theoretical framework of three Indo-European functions elaborated by Dumézil, seeking to read these poems as an attempt to construct an ethic for the poet's contemporary Romans.

Keywords : Dumézil; epicureanism; functions of myth; Roman history; Horace.

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