For many connoisseurs and lovers of Latin literature, Virgil is the first poet due to his epic poem the \u00abAeneid\u00bb. The second poet would be the lyrical Horace.<\/b><\/p>\n
\n\tFor many connoisseurs and lovers of Latin literature, Virgil<\/em> is the first poet due to his epic poem the "Aeneid<\/em>". The second poet would be the lyrical Horace<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tFor some of these people the best poem written in Latin is precisely the Oda number 7 from the book IV by Horace<\/em>. Naturally, about the likes, nothing is written; after all any artistic assessment is just a personal judgment because it is not only affected by the cold rational assessment.<\/p>\n \n\tIn any case a particular value should have this poem for the famous philologist, scholar and english poet Alfred Edward Housman<\/em> (1859 – 1936), extraordinary professor of Latin at Cambridge from 1911 to 1936, who considered this the most beautiful poem of old literature.<\/p>\n \n\tG. Highet<\/em> tells in his book “The Classical Tradition. Greek and Roman influences on Western literature<\/em>”, the following anecdote, related to Housman:<\/p>\n \n\tIn May, 1914, in the burgeoning spring, he was commenting the poem to his students at Cambridge and surprised them with a personal confession (absolutely unexpected in such a serious teacher): “This<\/em>, said hastily, almost like a man who betrays a secret, is for me the most beautiful poem in ancient literature<\/em>”, and he left the classroom excited. Naturally also the most serious and severe teachers have a sensitive heart.<\/p>\n \n\tIt is the Epicurean thought what encourages this composition. In this poem the return of spring, already heralded with irresistible force, and the succession of the seasons, warn us that everything passes; but as the years are renewed cyclically, this don’t happen to men; when our sunset comes (we don’t know when) we do not return to life, we are only dust (in the urn) and shadow (in the afterlife), not even the gods can resurrect men; so that we have to seize the moment.<\/p>\n \n\tThe snow is fled: the trees their leaves put on, \n\tHorace. The Odes and Carmen Saeculare of Horace. John Conington. trans. London. George Bell and Sons. 1882.)<\/p>\n \n\t \n\tGraces<\/em> and their sisters: are the three Graces, goddesses of beauty, \n\t \n\tDiffugere nives, redeunt iam gramina campis For many connoisseurs and lovers of Latin literature, Virgil is the first poet due to his epic poem the \u00abAeneid\u00bb. The second poet would be the lyrical Horace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8,14,15,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts","category-gods-religion","category-language-literature","category-mythology","category-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\tThe fields their green:
\n\tEarth owns the change, and rivers lessening run
\n\tTheir banks between.
\n\tNaked the Nymphs and Graces in the meads
\n\tThe dance essay:
\n\t“No 'scaping death” proclaims the year, that speeds
\n\tThis sweet spring day.
\n\tFrosts yield to zephyrs; Summer drives out Spring,
\n\tTo vanish, when
\n\tRich Autumn sheds his fruits; round wheels the ring,—
\n\tWinter again!
\n\tYet the swift moons repair Heaven's detriment:
\n\tWe, soon as thrust
\n\tWhere good Aeneas, Tullus, Ancus went,
\n\tWhat are we? dust.
\n\tCan Hope assure you one more day to live
\n\tFrom powers above?
\n\tYou rescue from your heir whate'er you give
\n\tThe self you love.
\n\tWhen life is o'er, and Minos has rehearsed
\n\tThe grand last doom,
\n\tNot birth, nor eloquence, nor worth, shall burst
\n\tTorquatus' tomb.
\n\tNot Dian's self can chaste Hippolytus
\n\tTo life recall,
\n\tNor Theseus free his loved Pirithous
\n\tFrom Lethe's thrall.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\tNotes to better understand the poem:<\/u><\/p>\n
\n\t charm and attractiveness.
\n\tNymphs<\/em>: beautiful deities of nature, of the springs, of the rivers,
\n\t trees, and caves.
\n\tZephyr<\/em>: west wind, soft and fruitful that blows in Spring.
\n\tTullus, Ancus<\/em>: Tullus Hostilius and Ancus Marcius, two of the legendary kings of Rome, they represent the greatness of the past.
\n\tMinos<\/em>: One of the judges of the lower world, the world of the dead
\n\tTorquatus<\/em>: the person to who Horace dedicates the poem.
\n\tDiana<\/em>: is the goddess of the hunt, forests, virgin and therefore goddess of shyness
\n\tHippolytus<\/em>: son of Theseus, his stepmother Phaedra fell in love with him and blamed him falsely, he is devotee of Diana and not of Venus
\n\tTheseus<\/em>: mythical king of Athens, friend of Pirithous, the two descended into hell in search of Persephone, but only Theseus came back with the help of Heracles.
\n\tLethe<\/em>: one of the rivers of Hades or Hell ("lethal<\/em>" derives from Lethe<\/em>)<\/p>\n
\n\t === === === <\/p>\n
\n\t arboribusque comae;
\n\tmutat terra vices et decrescentia ripas
\n\t flumina praetereunt;
\n\tGratia cum Nymphis geminisque sororibus audet
\n\t ducere nuda choros.
\n\tInmortalia ne speres, monet annus et almum
\n\t quae rapit hora diem.
\n\tFrigora mitescunt zephyris, ver proterit aestas
\n\t interitura, simul
\n\tpomifer autumnus fruges effuderit, et mox
\n\t bruma recurrit iners.
\n\tDamna tamen celeres reparant caelestia lunae;
\n\t nos ubi decidimus,
\n\tquo pius Aeneas, quo Tullus dives et Ancus,
\n\t pulvis et umbra sumus.
\n\tQuis scit an adiciant hodiernae crastina summae
\n\t tempora di superi?
\n\tCuncta manus avidas fugient heredis, amico
\n\t quae dederis animo.
\n\tCum semel occideris et de te splendida Minos
\n\t fecerit arbitria,
\n\tnon, Torquate, genus, non te facundia, non te
\n\t restituet pietas;
\n\tInfernis neque enim tenebris Diana pudicum
\n\t liberat Hippolytum,
\n\tnec Lethaea valet Theseus abrumpere caro
\n\t vincula Pirithoo.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"