Kenney_and_Clausen B.M.W.(eds.) - Get a Free Blog

PERSIUS
Soon after, the student disappears and the friend's voice merges with that of
the poet as he goes on to stress the supreme importance of philosophy — knowing
why we're here and what really matters. Objections are supposed to come
from a centurion — ' one of that smelly breed' — who ridicules philosophers and
their dreary rubbish in language well beyond the range of a simple soldier.
And then comes the best passage of all. A glutton disobeys his doctor:
turgidus hie epulis atque albo uentre lauatur,
gutture sulpureas lente exhalante mefites.
sed tremor inter uina subit calidumque trientem
excutit e manibus, dentes crepuere retecti,
uncta cadunt laxis tune pulmentaria labris.
hinc tuba, candelae, tandemque beatulus alto
compositus lecto crassisque lutatus amomis
in portam rigidas calces extendit. at ilium
hesterni capite induto subiere Quirites.
Bloated with food and queasy in the stomach our friend goes off
to his bath, with long sulphurous belches issuing from his throat.
As he drinks his wine a Jit of the shakes comes over him, knocking
the warm tumbler from his fingers; his bared teeth chatter;
suddenly greasy savouries come slithering front his loose lips.
The sequel is funeral-march and candles. And then the late lamented
plastered with heavy odours reclines on a high bed,
pointing his stiff heels to the door. He is raised on the shoulders
of pall bearers with freedmen s caps — citizens as of yesterday.
Though loose dramatically, the satire is held together by its theme, which
might be summed up as 'health requires training.* Physical and spiritual
interact; thus pallor, swelling, fever, and shivering are related to moral defects,
while gluttony, rage, lust, and fear produce bodily symptoms. Medical language
came naturally to the Stoics, who laid much stress on the therapy of the
emotions.
Satire 4
In the opening section Socrates takes the young Alcibiades to task: 1 although
clever at managing the mob, he doesn't know right from wrong and cares
only for his own pleasures. No one tries to know himself; everyone criticizes
the defects of others. A successful farmer is dismissed as a miser; one who lazes
in the sun is accused of being a male prostitute. In this malicious world a man
may try to hide his sores, even from himself. He gets used to depending on
other people's admiration. But it's better to face the truth, however unflattering.
The poem begins well, and arresting phrases occur throughout. The two
samples of abuse, directed at the farmer and the idler, have a Juvenalian force.
1
The setting is taken from Plato, Alcibiades 1.
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