Addressees of Horace's Odes
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Many themes and many characters find their way into Horace’s Odes. In what follows I attempt to list the direct addressees of the poet in this work. My classification is summarized in a table added as an apendix to this entry.
Some clarifications are now in order. This is a list of directly addressed individuals. Obviously many odes can be interpreted as a more or less unambiguous eulogy or censure of specific persons, but these indirect addresses are not recorded here.[1] There are, nevertheless, two notable exceptions. Firstly, the gods are deemed as direct addressees in the cases when the poet admonishes others to praise them.[2] Secondly, despite also being an indirect recipient, Plotius Numida is listed here due to the lack of other direct addressees in Ode 1.36.
Furthermore, the scope of this list also excludes exclamations,[3] as well as addresses in embedded narratives.[4]
Moreover, the oaristys between the poet and Lydia (3.9) (“the only one of Horace’s lyrics in dialogue”)[5] is indexed under both headings – as would have happened with any ode including more than one addressees.
Finally, the Latin wording of each address is given in parentheses next to the numerical designation of the odes.[6] My purpo-se is to include only the information which is required to identify the addressee. Thus, writing down the collocation “Aeli vetusto nobilis ab Lamo” (3.17) is necessary to recognize Lucius Aelius Lamia, but the phrase “Maecenas atavis edite regibus” (1.1) does not play the same crucial role in establishing the identity of Gaius Cilnius Maecenas.
Notes
- ↑ For example, Ode 4.4 is an encomium of the Claudii Nerones and especially of Claudius Nero Drusus, but Rome is the direct addressee.
- ↑ Ode 1.21 provides an example of this.
- ↑ For example, the “pro curia inversique mores!” part in Ode 3.5.
- ↑ For example, the invocation of gods (“o deorum siquis haec audis”) during Europa’s outburst in Ode 3.27.
- ↑ Clifford Herschel Moore, Horace: The Odes, Epodes and Carmen Saeculare, American Book Company, New York and Cincinnati, 1902, p. 267.
- ↑ As always, the first number denotes the book, while the second one marks the ode.