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A CRITIQUE OF THE ACADEMIC DICHOTOMY
for instance, opens with a series of imprecations directed at a rotten tree which
had nearly killed the poet. The tone is one of mock horror, rather as in the
epode on garlic (no. 3). Then, in stanzas four and five, Horace goes on to reflect
in a calmer mood on the unpredictability of fate — death comes from the most
unexpected quarter. This leads into the second half of the poem — a vision of
the underworld in which Sappho and Alcaeus give joy and comfort by singing
to the dead. So the lyric poet's narrow escape from death, which is treated
comically, paves the way for a profoundly serious affirmation: even death
cannot prevail against the powers of lyric poetry.
Before leaving this ode it is perhaps worth noting that of the two Greek
poets Alcaeus has the keener audience, and his story is of battles and the
expulsion of tyrants — i.e. political events. If Horace's chief model could write
of politics as well as of love and wine (cf. Odes 1.32) we may be sure that Horace
saw nothing anomalous in doing the same.
The kind of tonal variety described above is also claimed for satire:
et sermone opus est modo tristi, saepe iocoso,
defendente uicem modo rhetoris atque poetae,
interdum urbani. . . {Sat. I.IO.II—13)
You also need a style that is sometimes severe, sometimes gay, now suiting the role
of an orator or poet now that of a sophisticated talker. . .
Often an elevated tone is used for comic contrast, as in Sat. i.5.9fF. where the
beautiful description of night is a prelude to the backchat of bargees, or for
purposes of burlesque, as in Sat. 1.7 where a vulgar altercation is reported in
Homeric style. But there are passages in both the Satires and the Epistles where
the level rises because the theme is noble. One thinks of the prayer to Mercury
(Sat. 2.6.iff.), the portrait of the Stoic sage (Sat. 2.7.83fF.), the encomium of
Augustus (Epist. 2.1.iff.) and the lines on the mortality of man and his words
In the Odes the spectrum is •wider, for they include adaptations of various
types of Greek lyric ranging from the stately choruses of Pindar to Anacreon's
little songs about love and wine. Again, the divisions are not always clear-cut.
In the opening of Odes 3.11 the invocation of Mercury, the explanatory nam
clause, the myth of Amphion, and the reference to the seven-stringed lyre and
its welcome presence at banquets and religious ceremonies — all this prepares
the reader for a dignified Pindaric ode. It then transpires that the god is being
asked to provide a song which will sway the affections of Lyde — a skittish
young filly who is refusing to think of marriage. The filly comes from Anacreon.
The serious style is resumed as we hear of the marvellous achievements of the
lyre in the hands of Orpheus. But Lyde is still in the background, for if song
can charm tigers and the savage Cerberus surely it can tame a filly. As the
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