Horace's Preoccupation with Death

Author(s): Donald Norman Levin

Source: The Classical Journal, Vol. 63, No. 7 (Apr., 1968), pp. 315-320
Published by: The Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Inc. (CAMWS)
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 HORACE'S PREOCCUPATION WITH DEATH

also an adjective uolucer-almost a syn-

E HEU FUGACES,
buntur P PostumePostume,
anni: so laments Horace at / la-
onym of fugax (or celer or citus)-which
likewise functions as the real center of at-
the beginning of Odes 2.14, a poem typical
of the author both in content and in vocab- tention, whether the attached noun be
ulary. What concerns him again and fatum (2.17.24) or dies (4.13.16).
again is the transitoriness of human But to the theme that our sojourn on
existence.' Linquenda tellus et domus et earth is finite and relatively short Horace
placens / uxor, he warns Postumus: nequeappends constant reminders that exemp-
harum quas colis arborum / te praeter tion from death is granted no man. In the
inuisas cupressos / ulla breuem dominumfirst of the so-called Roman odes and in
sequetur (21-5).2 Odes 2.3 the vessel from which allotted
In the two passages which I have just fates are said to be dispensed appears also
cited the key words are not nouns, but as the instrumentality of this universal
adjectives. This too is typical of Horace'slaw:
manner." The creator of the Odes becomes omne capax mouet urna nomen (3.1.16).
preoccupied not so much with years as Omnes eodem cogimur, omnium
uersatur urna serius ocius
with their fugitive character, not so much
sors exitura et nos in aeternum
with the individual master as with the
exsilium impositura cumbae (2.3.25-8).
fact that his earthly existence must neces-
Man's inability to secure exemptions is
sarily be brief.4 Elsewhere Horace employs
stressed also in the poem to which we
1 I should have said, "What concerns him again and originally paid notice (2.14.5-11):
again in the Odes and Epistles ... ." S. Commager, The
Odes of Horace (New Haven 1962) 87, 237, explains the non si trecenis quotquot eunt dies,
relative dearth of such reference in the Satires as a
amice, places illacrimabilem
result of the fact that death is a private matter, whereas
satire (epode likewise) is socially oriented. The fact that Plutona tauris, qui ter amplum
Book 2 of the Odes contains a higher concentration of Geryonen Tityonque tristi
reflections on death than any other segment of Horace's
work has caught the attention both of G. Barra, "I1 compescit unda, scilicet omnibus,
sentimento della vita e della morte nel secondo libro delle quicumque terrae munere uescimur,
odi di Orazio," RAAN n.s. 32 (1957) 31-56, and of W. enauiganda ....
Wili, Horaz und die augusteische Kultur (Basel 1948)
160-61, 232.
2 L. P. Wilkinson, Horace and his lyric poetry2 (Cam- Siue reges, adds the poet, siue inopes
bridge 1951) 36f., compares this passage with the sixth
stanza of Gray's Elegy. Yet he believes that Gray owes
erimus coloni (11-12).
more to Lucretius 3.894ff.-by which verse Horace too was liquid or fluid has repellent connotations of danger or
influenced, no doubt. Cf. Barra (n.1 above) 48. transiency, while such solid things as earth, home, and
3Cf. my "Horace, Carm. 2.10: stylistic observations," tree are desirable." Dahl is probably right in finding the
CJ 54 (1959) 169-71. image of a gliding stream implicit in labuntur (line 2 of
4A novel, yet credible thesis is put forth by C. Dahl, the poem, cited above, ad init.). But it seems to me
"Liquid imagery in Eheu fugaces," CP 48 (1953) 240: that fugaces, like the comparable adjectives which I cite
"In Horace's ode Eheu fugaces (2.14) the basic unifying below (uolucer especially), can imply aerial far more
imagery is of liquids. Throughout the ode everything than aquatic movement.

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 316 DONALD NORMAN LEVIN

Compare as
In verses such also these several verses from
these Horac
calling to our attention
Odes 2.18, a poem concerned throughout not
men are subject
with the futility to death,
of amassing real estate bu
strikes impartially,
and of ostentatiously displayingignorin
the physi-
cal trappings of splendor (2.18.29-34):7
economic distinctions. Diuesne
ab Inacho / nil interest
nulla certior tamen an p
fima / de rapacis Orci
gente, subfine destinata
diuo more
aula diuitem manet
nil miserantis Orci (2.3.21-4)
erum. quid ultra tendis? aequa tellus
To emphasize death's
pauperi recluditur impartia
may resort toregumque
yet another cru
pueris....
Even before having mention
What is the moral import of death's in-
urna in Odes 3.1 he observes th
evitability and universality and egalitar-
(or fate, if you prefer),
ianism? Obviously, if the distinctions "m
equality before the law,
between noble and humble decid
birth, between
the famous and the lowly"
wealth and poverty, between fame and (
obscurity are meaningless in the face of
aequa lege necessitas
sortitur insignis et imos.
man's mortality, there is no point in seek-
Similar ing to become
language wealthy or famous,
occurs inandOde
surely it is ridiculous of
Horace, the master to sneer poetic
at others
whose lineage happens
ment, dispels abruptly the j to be less illustrious
than one's own or whose material resources
mood established in his first dozen verses
happen to be less ample. Moreover,
(1.4.13-14) :6
weighed against the brevity of human exis-
pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum
tence any sort of ambitious planning must
tabernas
regumque turris .... be deemed an exercise in futility.
Hence, not surprisingly, Horace empha-
5 "This thought" (i.e. "Aspirations-also political aspira- sizes the basic contrast denoted by the
tion-are futile, distinctions illusory because Death changes
inequalities to equality"), observes F. Solmsen, "Horace'sadjectives breuis, applicable to man, and
first Roman ode," AJP 68 (1947) 338, "is familiar to us
from many other odes in which Horace is speaking as a
longus, descriptive of his misguided proj-
pupil of Hellenistic philosophers, not at all as uates of ects. Vitae summa breuis, he declares,
the Augustan Empire" (emphasis mine). Solmsen finds
the very different "patriotic" approach rather in Odes 3.2 spem nos uetat incohare longam (1.4.15):
(concerning which poem see also below). In a later "Life's scant sum-total forbids us to inau-
article, "Propertius and Horace," CP 43 (1948) 105-9,
Solmsen suggests that Propertius' concern in Book 3 of gurate long-range hopes."s Similarly in Odes
the Elegies with death's equalizing function was influenced
by the recent publication of Horace's first three books 1.11 the poet urges his addressee (whose
of Odes.
opposite sex is only incidental to the theme
6 "Twelve lines of innocent description of spring lull us
into security," observes Wilkinson (n.2 above) 39, "whenof the poem) to work out an adjustment
suddenly death knocks at the door." Wilkinson claims
too that the effect is heightened by the choice of words between her expectations and her allotted
full of explosive "p's" and "t's" (i.e.: pallida . . . time span (1.11.6-7):9
pulsat pede pauperum tabernas . . . turris). C. L.
Babcock, "The role of Faunus in Horace, Carmina 1.4,"
TAPA 92 (1961) 13-19, likewise takes note of the allit- 7The whole poem is subjected to detailed analysis by
eration (p.18) and agrees (p.13) that in line 13 "the H. Womble, "Repetition and irony: Horace, Odes 2.18,"
unexpected entrance of death . . . is certainly designed TAPA 92 (1961) 537-49. C. W. Mendell, "Horace, Odes
to shock the complacent listener." But he differs from II 18," YCS 11 (1950) 281-92, devotes more attention
H. Toll, Phoenix 9 (1956) 156, who claimed that the bright to the relationship between Odes 2.18 and other ancient
picture had become "darkened without warning." Bab- poetry (or even prose).
cock's article is devoted instead to demonstration of how 8 Citing both this verse and 13f. (quoted above), Wili
carefully Horace has prepared the way for the arrival of (n.1 above) 231 describes Odes 1.4 not only as the most
pallida mors. Nevertheless I remain unconvinced that impressive spring-poem from antiquity, but also as "eine
the second part of the Ode "should begin . . . not with antike Variation des 'Mitten im Leben sind wir vom Tod
pallida mors, but with o beate Sesti" (Babcock p.19). umgeben.' "
Nor am I convinced that line 13 and the first part of 9 Much ingenuity has been expended by commentators
line 14 constitute a "quotation put into the mouth of and translators in their effort to grapple with the ablative
Faunus." expression in line 6. I have thought spatio breui to mean

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 HORACE'S PREOCCUPATION WITH DEATH 317

et spatio breui Similarly I have not hastened to cite some

spem longam reseces.
comparable verses (4.7.21-4):13
"Even as we speak," he adds, "envious cum semel occideris et de te splendida Minos
time fleets by": dum loquimur, fugerit fecerit arbitria,
inuida / aetas (7f.). Let it be noted that non, Torquate, genus, non te facundia, non te
restituet pietas.
the verb fugere, no less than the related
adjective fugax (to which we have already Of course it will be argued that Horace
drawn attention),'1 becomes a constant of here is not preaching subversion, but
the Horatian vocabulary of transitoriness. merely telling the truth. Nature operates
The poet's final words of advice to in this way: all men must undergo death,
Leuconoe' are so well known, carpe diem, the good as well as the wicked. Both in
quam minimum credula postero, that no 2.14 and in 4.7 the poet supplies exempla
additional commentary need be supplied. from myth or legend. Curiously, however,
One could complain, of course, that the he has crowded a number of malefactors-
doctrine enunciated here borders on the Geryones, Tityos, the Danaids, Sisyphus
subversive. However, whereas he recom- -into the one poem (2.14.7f., 17ff.), such
outstandingly virtuous figures as Aeneas,
mends, not only in Odes 1.11, but in several
other lyric pieces and again in the fourth Tullus, and Ancus into the other (4.7.15).14
One may question whether Pirithous,
Epistle, that one live each day to the fullest
as if it were fated to be his last," Horacewhom Theseus could not rescue from the
never goes so far as those of his fellows underworld (4.7.27f.), is really a paragon.
who turned the fact of human mortality But there can be no such doubts concern-
into an excuse for unabashed and unre- ing Hippolytus. Horace calls him chaste
strained hedonism.1-2 (pudicus), yet complains that not even
If Horace's own admonition not to spurn Diana herself had the power to resurrect
him (4.7.25f.).
"sweet love" while there is still time (Odes
1.9.15f.) seems hardly so shocking, what This last statement is curiously analo-
gous to the claim in Odes 2.18 that Charon
can be said, however, of his suggestion that
death ignores not only genealogy and (so I identify satelles Orci in line 34)15
status, but moral merit or demerit as well?
did not bring back Prometheus. Has
With understandable embarrassment, then,
Horace forgotten, or has he deliberately
chosen to suppress that better known
I have refrained up to now from complet-
tradition which makes Prometheus im-
ing the citation with which I began (2.14.
mortal?16 As for Hippolytus, Ovid tells
2-4):
us (Metamorphoses 15.497-546) that
nec pietas moram Diana resurrected him after all and trans-
rugis et instanti senectae
adferet indomitaeque morti. ferred his activities from Attica and the
Argolid to the Alban Lakes region of Italy,
simply "within a narrow compass." Cf. A. O. Hulton, conferring upon him the new name Virbius.
"Horace, Odes 1.11.6-7," CR n.s. 8 (1958) 106f., who
interprets lines 6-8 (the rest of which is cited piecemeal Nor does Horace even mention Admetus,
below) somewhat expansively as follows (p.107): "Your
hopes and expectations extend too far into the future: in whose case pietas was indeed shown to
none can in fact know what is to come [this last clause
be responsible for a postponement of duly
sums up the meaning of lines 1-3]; put narrow bounds
to them, therefore, and rather make the most of the
passing day." 13 Though the similarity between Odes 4.7 and Odes 1.4
lo See above, p.315. is obvious enough (I myself have written on the subject:
11H. Bardon, "Carpe diem," REA 46 (1944) 345-55, see CI 54 [1959] 354-8), the verses which I have just
calls attention also to Epode 13.3-5, but fails to mentioncited have no real counterpart in the earlier poem.
Epistles 1.4. 14Ancus is introduced into a similar context (along
12H. Hommel, Horaz, der Mensch und das Werk with Numa) at Epistles 1.6.27.
(Heidelberg 1950) 35, detects in Horace's poetry a tension 15 Cf. Kiessling-Heinze (Q. Horatius Flaccus, Oden und
"zwischen Diesseitsfreuden und Todesgrauen" which goes Epoden9 (Berlin 1958) ad loc.
far beyond the commonplaces of vulgarized Epicureanism. 16 See, for example, Aeschylus' Prometheus bound.

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 318 DONALD NORMAN LEVIN

fated death, despite

Virtus, recludens immeritis mori the sup
versal law set forth in Odes 2.14. And caelum, negata temptat iter uia,
coetusque uulgaris et udam
despite what is asserted in Odes 4.7, Al-
spernit humum fugiente penna.
cestis, whose willingness to die in her
husband's stead-Horace never utters her Someone is bound to ask embarrassing
questions. Has not Horace identified himself
name either-made it possible for Admetus
elsewhere with the cowards rather than with
to take advantage of just such an exemp-
the brave? He informs us in Odes 2.7 that
tion, was in turn restored to life through
at the Battle of Philippi he abandoned his
the good offices of Heracles. To learn how
shield-surely the most pusillanimous ac-
virtue was thus twice rewarded we must
tion that the ancient mind could conceive
repair neither to Horace's Odes nor even -and thereby managed to survive (9ff.).
to Ovid's Metamorphoses, but to a much Without going quite so far, however, as a
earlier work, the Alcestis of Euripides. colleague of mine who argued (where is
In fiction such things may happen, you the proof?) that Horace had fought
will object, but surely not in actual human
bravely, but in later times played down
experience. Horace was right: in the faceand even ridiculed his war record in order
of death the moral worth of the individual not to give offense to Augustus, the former
proves quite irrelevant. enemy now become friend,18 I suggest that
But lest we take our leave of the Odes reference to the foresaken shield consti-
in the confirmed impression that their
tutes more than anything else a literary
author must be labeled a subverter of echo of the early Greek poets Archilochus
(6D3), Alcaeus (Z105L-P), and Anacreon
morality, let us cast a glance at some verses
which we have not yet noticed. What (36bP), all three of whom facetiously tell
schoolboy does not know by heart line 13 of having left their weapons behind on the
of the second "Roman" Ode? Dulce et battlefield. In the very next stanza Horace
decorumst pro patria mori. The ensuing seems to portray his survival more heroi-
portions of the poem make clear that callythe
in a fashion rather redolent of that
contrast between cowardice and uirtus- passage of Homer's Iliad (5.311ff.) where
the rescue of Aeneas by Aphrodite is de-
taking a cue from the similarly formed
scribed. Divine intervention has preserved
Greek noun avspda (literally 'manliness') I
both the Trojan commander and the re-
translate the latter as 'courage'-is not
cruit to Brutus' army for a newer and more
irrelevant at all. Death may come to good
important role. For just as Aeneas is des-
men and bad alike, but the manner of their
tined to lead the remnants of Troy to
demise makes a big difference. Who would
Italian soil, so Horace is destined to be-
praise the deserter brought down in full
come a lyric poet. Thereby, as he an-
flight with a weapon at his back (3.2.
nounces hopefully in Odes 1.1 (29ff.), he
14ff.)? On the other hand, the merit of
will be able to dissociate himself from the
those who risk their lives for their home-
vulgar throng and join the company of the
land shines forth splendidly (17f.). For
gods on high.19
courageous patriots, moreover, there is
The last poem of Book 2 and the last
even reserved a kind of immortality (3.2.
of Book 3 confidently assert the success
21-4) :17
of this endeavor. Non ego pauperum /
17 Cf. Odes 4.8.28, where poetry (or, at any rate, the
Muse) is said to confer immortality on the person cele- 18 See K. Reckford's unpublished Harvard doctoral dis-
brated in verse: dignum laude uirum Musa uetat mori. sertation, Horace, Augustan and Epicurean (1957).
Possibly this utterance is patterned after Bacchylides "1 An interesting discussion of this theme is supplied by
3.85ff., cited by E. Fraenkel, Horace (Oxford 1957) 421f. H. Musurillo, "The poet's apotheosis: Horace, Odes 1.1,"
Fraenkel regards Odes 4.8 as a sort of supplement and TAPA 93 (1962) 230-39: see especially the last two
corrective to Odes 4.7. pages.

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 HORACE'S PREOCCUPATION WITH DEATH 319

sanguis parentum, Horace exegi monumentum aere perennius non ego

states,
regalique situ pyramidum altius,
quem uocas, / dilecte Maecenas, obibo, /
quod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens
nec Stygia cohibebor unda (2.20.5-8). possit diruere aut innumerabilis
What this predecessor of Ovid envisions annorum series et fuga temporum.
instead is a metamorphosis in the Ovidian
Ovid echoes these verses rather closely
style: transformed into a white bird he
(Metam. 15.871-6) :23
will range through the world and become
known everywhere.20 The final stanza of iamque opus exegi, quod nec Iouis ira neque ignis
nec poterit ferrum neque edax abolere uetustas.
the poem consists in a request that funeral cum uolet, illa dies, quae nil nisi corporis huius
rites be omitted as superfluous (21-4). ius habet, incerti spatium mihi finiat aeui:
Odes 3.30 conveys a comparable mes- parte tamen meliore mei super alta perennis
sage, though somewhat less fancifully.21 astra ferar....
Most noteworthy here is the fact that a Both poets are guilty, it might be argued,
measure of immortality has been claimednot of boastfulness, but of excessive mod-
not only for the poet himself (6-7) esty. Vsque ego postera / crescam laude
non omnis moriar, multaque pars mei recens, Horace avers, dum Capitolium /
uitabit Libitinam
scandet cum tacita uirgine pontifex
(7-9).24 Compare Ovid's final utterance
but also for that which he has accomplished
(1-5):22 (Metam. 15.876-9):
nomenque erit indelebile nostrum,
20 Horace's own model may have been Theognis 1.237ff. quaque patet domitis Romana potentia terris,
Note, however, that the bird in the Greek poem is not
Theognis himself, but his addressee Cyrnus. "In a world ore legar populi, perque omnia saecula fama,
where the divine presences cast only a twilight glow," siquid habent ueri uatum praesagia, uiuam!
Commager comments (n.1 above, 310), "poets were apt
to demand rewards in their own name; here the Roman Do you object that Horace and Ovid
practice parted from that of the Greeks. By combining
Theognis' geographical hyperbole with the self-emphasishave been bragging after all, that they
of previous Roman poets [cf. p.309 n.4, where Commagerwent astray rather in making the assump-
lists Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.875ff. (cited below); Amores
1.15.41f.; 3.9.28; Tristia 3.7.49f.; 4.10.122; 129f.; Ex tion that the Roman Empire would last
Ponto 2.9.62; 3.2.31f.; Propertius 3.1.9; Lucan 9.980-86],
Horace caps them both." This poem-or, to be more
forever?25 Let us note, nevertheless, that
specific, the third stanza (iam iam residunt cruribus great literature is capable of surviving the
asperae / pelles etc.)--offends many readers, notably
Fraenkel (n.17 above, 301f.), who finds Odes 3.30 (see collapse of the society out of which it has
his discussion, pp.302ff.) far more to his taste.
21N. Terzaghi, "Carm. II, 20," SIFC n.s. 16 (1938)
emanated. Pontifices and vestal virgins
64-9, argues that Horace wrote Odes 2.20 in 23 B.C. to vanished from the Capitoline many cen-
bring his lyric work to a fitting climax, then replaced it
with the subsequently composed Odes 3.30. On the other
hand, G. L. Hendrickson, "The first publication of self." In the course of his discussion of Odes 1.1 and
Horace's odes," CP 26 (1931) 1-10, thinks Odes 2.20 particularly of the closing verses, Fraenkel (n.17 above,
232 and n.2) cites two passages from Catullus which
was composed as epilogue to an intermediate collection in
which the present Odes 1.1 was not included. Cf. Hend- stress the idea of poetry's permanence:
rickson's later article, "Vates biformis," CP 44 (1949)
30-32, especially p.30 ("the poem is an epilogue"). quare habe tibi quidquid hoc libelli
Commager (n.1 above, 313 n.7), following the lead of E. T. qualecumque; quod, o patrona uirgo,
Silk, "A fresh approach to Horace, II 20," AlP 77 (1956) plus uno maneat perenne saeclo (1.8-10).
255-63 (see especially pp.255f.: "specifically this essayZmyrnam cana diu saecula peruoluent (95.6).
propounds the following thesis: that II, 20 in both con-
tent and style is not, except in a limited and superficial
as well as Cinna, fr. 14 Morel: saecula permaneat nostri
way, an epilogue at all, but a prologue or rather partDictynna
of Catonis.
an elaborate overture to the Roman Odes"), sees Odes 23 Concerning the influence of Odes 3.30 also on Proper-
2.20 rather as "the culmination of the three poems tius see Solmsen (second of the two articles mentioned
preceding it" and as "a link to the Roman Odes openingn.5 above) 106f.
the third book." He claims an analogous transitional
24 "It takes, however, a moment's thought," comments
role (between Books 1 and 2) for Odes 1.38.
22Hence I must register disagreement with Commager,Fraenkel (n.17 above, 303), "to realize how time has
loc. cit. (n.20 above, n.5). He is right in suggesting proved modest that apparently overbold prophecy" (which
that Pindar Olympian 6.5ff. serves as Horace's model, he then commences to cite; see also p.304, quoted n.26
below).
wrong, I think, in insisting that here "we find the same
difference of emphasis [as between Odes 2.20 and its 25Concerning the theme of Roma aeterna (or Roma
Theognidean counterpart]--Pindar on the immortality ofperpetua) see Hommel (n.12 above, 69f. and the litera-
the subject, Horace on the immortality of the poet him- ture cited at p.70 n.59).

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320

turies ago.26 Roman arms no longer con- thanks also to a humanistic tradition
trol vast stretches of Europe, Asia, and which refuses to be extirpated from our
Africa. Yet thanks to the labors of genera- educational systems even as man prepares
tions of nameless scribes who kept such to depart for the moon, the Odes of Horace
writings from being consigned to oblivion, and the Metamorphoses of Ovid continue
still to be read and discussed and ad-
2 But see Fraenkel (n.17 above, 304): "When Horace mired.27
had been in his grave for many centuries the places
around which the life of the ancient Romans had circled DONALD NORMAN LEVIN
were being deserted one after another, and what was left
of the dwindling population lived on different hills. Rice University
There was still a pontifex, but he would reside on the
Lateran or the Quirinal or the Vatican, and would not 2 "And yet it remained true," Fraenkel avers, loc. cit.
care to sacrifice to Iuppiter Optimus Maximus. There (n.26 above), "and remains true to the present day,
was still a city of Rome, but filled with new gods, new that usque ego postera crescam laude recens. Horace's
rituals, and new ideas." boast turns out to be an enormous understatement."

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