Horace - the second great Roman poet afterVirgil, who set himself the task of creating exemplary literature. He believed that poetry is the "gymnastics of the language". Horace did not like the lyrics of Catullus and sought to write works that would resemble Virgil's high-content and moralistic poems.
The reader is interested not only in creativitythe great Roman poet, but also his historical epoch, biography. Horace Quint made a great contribution to world literature, although he came from a simple family. In his poems he formulated his own wisdom and gave a whole series of recommendations of a moral and ethical plan, based on the philosophy of the golden mean.
Horace: biography and life path
The great Roman poet was born in 65 BC. e.in the city of Venusia. His work falls on the first decade of the reign of Octavian Augustus, who took the place of Caesar. He was born in the family of a freedman who took care of the formation of his son and after his death left him a small estate.
The life of the poet was directly related to the activitiesMaecenas. When Caesar was killed in Rome, Quintus Horace Flaccus joined the supporters of Brutus. It was Maecenas who helped him to establish himself in life: he gave the estate and introduced him into the circle of Augustus.
Horace died of a sudden illness in the 8th century BC. e. He was buried next to his virtue by Maecenas on the outskirts of Esquiline.
Features of creativity
Quintus Horace Flaccus was a versatile poet,who created samples of poetry in different lyrical genres - ode and hymns. Both works are quite solemn in form and mood. However, his ode, issued in four books, is not aimed at praising someone else's merits, but reflects the poet's vital wisdom and his philosophy. Horace gives them advice, referring to the one to whom the ode is dedicated.
All the work of the great Roman poet can be divided into several cycles by genre:
1. Epos (poems-two-textures of iambic character).
2. Satire (works of an accusatory nature). Written with hexameter.
3. Ode (lyric poems dedicated to some 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, discretion, beauty, virtue and harmony.
Genre of the message
Quintus Horace Flaccus, whose poems are moreparts were dedicated to individuals, very much succeeded in this literary genre. He wrote 23 letters, the last of which - "To Pisons" - was the second literary work after the "Science of Poetry" of Aristotle, which indicates its importance in the context of world literature. The main thing in Horace's aesthetics is reasonableness, conformity to nature, so that style and selected words fully correspond to the topic being raised. His poetry is difficult to understand. Johann Wolfgang Goethe once wrote that the images in the letters are like a "pendulum". The composition of lyrical verses is complicated by the fact that Horace could skilfully move from one image to another, using different verse sizes in the text. His poems are filled with various proper names, geographical names, and he pays attention to detail.
Thematic groups od Horace
Poems-reflections are the embodiment ofwisdom. Quintus Horace Flaccus, whose work is mainly represented by four books od, writes in this thematic group about the shortness of life and the speed of the current time. For him, the pursuit of honors and riches is meaningless. In ode sounds the theme of love, feast, but unlike the poems of Catullus, their tone is happy and comforting. You can count 7 female names, to which Horace writes poems-reflections. In one of his odes (No. 30 "To Melpomene") he raises the problem of immortality of the poet and enters into the tradition, beginning with Egyptian poetry, that the immortality of man is achieved as a result of his work, the creation of literary works. His infinity Horace sees in verse.
Analysis of odes No. 30
This work received a conditional name"Monument". The poem was so popular with the classics of Russian literature that Gavrila Derzhavin borrowed the idea of the immortality of the poet's creativity, Alexander Pushkin ("I erected a miraculous monument to myself"), Valery Bryusov ("My monument stands, from stanzas consonant difficult "). The latter two borrowed the stanzas in Latin as an epigraph in Latin, which Horace once said. The biography of the poet, as you know, was far from enviable: from childhood he did not know the luxury and tried to remain in the memory of people for centuries on his own.
Ode № 30 is called "To Melpomene" and endsthird book od; Melpomene in mythology is the muse of tragedy. In the work Horace discusses his achievements and at the end he appeals with an appeal to crown himself with a laurel crown. To date, the most successful translations of odes number 30 are the poems of Lomonosov and Vostokov.
Satire Horace
Peru the great Roman poet belongseveral collections of satyr. From this it is necessary to conclude that he became famous not only as a master ode. The satires of Horace remind of 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 are the false ways of happiness, the pursuit of imaginary goods. Quint Horace Flaccus, whose poems are satirical in nature, is ironic about revelers and drunks. One of his life recommendations states that one should not become a slave to wine and abuse this drink to quench the sorrow. Despite the fact that the object of ridicule in satire are human passions and vices, he writes about them in person: in satire number 6, for example, he tells the story of his life. Horace, having a low birth, lives, content with little and does not know luxury.
Master of poetic dimensions
Horace sometimes does not hide his poems in his poems.the lineage is not ashamed that it is the son of a slave set free. According to the literary critic Mikhail Gasparov, the poet used in his poetry 12 kinds of ancient Greek stanzas, his genius lies in the masterly knowledge and mastery of the poetic art. In the first book of his odes, he gave a "parade" of these sizes, presented sapphic, alkeyevo and other stanzas. In addition to Horace, whose years of life were very productive, he worked with epodes that are very similar in form to the refrain. They express the political content and, as in the iambus, are mocked by the shortcomings of the people and the people (the clearest example is “To the Roman people”).
Recommendations Horace with explanations
"Be content with what you have in your hands."The poet meant a simple truth of life, which says that you need to live and rejoice in the present day and not condemn the creator for the fact that not every person is notable 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 notyou spend. "How many cases history knows when a person has sought to earn capital all his life, refusing himself in many ways and, having earned it, died suddenly. Horace thinks this philosophy is wrong: you need to spend earned money evenly and live fully, without restrictions.
"The sorrows of life disperse wine, but know the measure."Hedonism as a trend in aesthetics promotes the idea of pleasure as the highest goal of human life. Horace shared this view in half: drinking wine, of course, can alleviate sadness, but do not abuse it.
"Fall in love, but do not suffer from love."Horace, whose biography is replete with seven female names, brought out the truth, thanks to which a man can live in harmony with his heart. He does not deny love, but opposes passion and suffering.
History of roman literature in names
The most famous Roman comedy man is Titus Maccius Plavt. He wrote about fifty comedies, but only 19 came to us. In total, he owns over 20 thousand lines of poetry.
Titus Lucretius Kar and Guy Valery Catullus arethe brightest representatives of the 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 Nazon 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 fabulist poet who first began to write fables in poetic form. He became famous for his own works and translations of Aesop.
The term “prose” was originally used by the Romans.to refer to uninterrupted speech. The first works in unsteady form appeared much later. A famous prose writer is considered to be Apulei, the author of the adventure novel “The Golden Donkey,” followed by Petronius the Arbitrator, who wrote “Satyricon.”
