Horacehis life and works Noura AlShaalan Aseel

AlOmranRana AlMedlej Jawahar

AlSubaie

No ancient roman writer has been at once so familiarly

known and so generally

appreciated in modern times as

him.

1. Horace’s Life

2. Horace’s Poetry

3. Art of Poetry

4. His Major Works

5. Horace has his

own rules of

Decorum

6. His Influence

7. Finally

8. Sources

Horace’s Life

Horace was born in Venusia, son of a freedman who made a good living for himself and acquired a small estate. Horace was taken by his father to Rome, where he was sent to the best schools. At 18, he was caught up in Greece in the civil wars following the assassination of Caesar, and fought at Philippi on the wrong side. He was pardoned, but when he got back to Rome he found that his father’s estate had been confiscated. He became a civil service clerk, and in his spare time wrote verses which caught the eye of Virgil, who introduced him to his own patron. Between his farm and a house in Rome, Horace lived out his existence as a bachelor.

Horace’s Life

Horace’s Poetry

Horace's poetry is important historically because it reflects the mood of the Roman empire at a time of peace following a long period of civil wars.

Horace’s lyric poetry comprises his seventeen Epodes, and 103 Odes in four books. The former, which include some of his early work, are on a variety of political and satirical themes, with a few love poems. Most are written in an iambic metre, a longer line being followed by a shorter one, which is known as the “epode”, or after song. The first three books of odes were written between 33 and 23 BC, and reflect the events of the time. The fourth book was published in 15 BC.

Horace’s Poetry

His book : Art of Poetry

It talks about his point of view.

In this book:

1st : he imitates the classic, no new things , only imitate old people .

2ed : his own decorum , he with the idea that, do not be ridicules and follow traditions.

His book : Art of Poetry

His Major Works

References and allusions sometimes indicate a likely date, but often not a definitive one.

Analysis of his meter in terms of line length and syllable count also yields clues, but it is unlikely that critics will ever completely agree on absolute dates.

Horace's first volume of Satires consists of ten poems in hexameter verse, their subject matter usually involving the poet's praise for balance in everything and disdain for public life and ambition.

His Major Works

” The second volume of Satires contains eight poems, mostly in the form of dialogues, and may have been published slightly after the Epodes, a work of seventeen poems—mostly iambics written in the manner of Archilochus—in which Horace expounds on political and social problems.

Horace has his own

rules of Decorum

1 -The actions must start from the middle then we go flash back later , like old epics.

2- The character has to be flat, universal

(stereotype )so, we focus in the action not the character it self.

Horace has his own rules of Decorum:

His Influence

Horace is generally considered to stand alongside Virgil and Ovid as one of the greatest poets of the Augustan Age. Several of his poetry's main themes, such as the beatus ille (an appraisal of simple life) and carpe diem (literally "pluck the day", more commonly rendered into English as "seize the day", but perhaps closer to "enjoy the day") were recovered during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, influencing poets such as Petrarca and Dante. However, those themes were not truly retaken till the 16th century.

In that sense, the influence of Horace can be traced in the works of poets such as Garcilaso de la Vega, Juan Boscán, Torquato Tasso, Pierre de Ronsard and especially in Fray Luis de León. Besides, several latter poets such as Shakespeare and Quevedo were heavily influenced by Horace's poetry. Moreover, his work Ars Poetica remained as a canonical guide for composing poetry till the end of romanticism, and it was known and studied by most wordsmiths.

Also, its influence can be traced well into the works of playwrights and writers such as

Lope de Vega ,Henry Fielding ,Calderón de la Barca ,Pierre Corneille ,Samuel Johnson ,Goethe ,Diderot.

Horace is also known for having coined many other Latin phrases that remain in use today, whether in Latin or translation, including Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori (It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country).

Horace also forms the basis for the character in the Oxford Latin Course.

Finally

Finally :

The poet must be delightful teaching and teaching for pleasure .

What means , blend together learning and teaching just like Horace.

Penguin Dictionary of Ancient History, Graham Speake, editor, 1995, pp.322-3

Horace Epistles, O.A. Dilke, editor, Methuen and Co.Ltd., London 961 pp. 1-12 1

University of Kentucky Classics Web Site: http://www.uky.edu/AS/Classics/horawillbio.html

Oxford Classical Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 1970 pp. 527-530

Sources