Saturday, March 09, 2019

 

Inscription for a Lintel

LATEBRAE DVLCES. See Horace, Epistles 1.16.15-16 (tr. John Davie):
This retreat, so charming, yes, if you believe me, so beautiful,
keeps me safe and sound, you'll be pleased to know, in September's season.

hae latebrae dulces, etiam, si credis, amoenae,
incolumem tibi me praestant Septembribus horis.
Latebrae is more than a retreat — it's a hiding place.

Norman W. Dewitt, "Epicurean Doctrine in Horace," Classical Philology 34.2 (April, 1939) 127-134 (at 132):
Λάθε βιώσας.—Frag. 86 Bailey, 551 Usener. This idea appealed to Horace chiefly in his later years; a single reference occurs in the Satires but several in the Epistles. Characteristic is the tendency to associate it with the Sabine farm and deserted or semi-deserted towns, Lebedus, Gabii, Fidenae, Ulubrae, Ferentinum. The ideology, of course, is more pervasive than the specific terminology. The key words are fallo = λανθάνω, obliviscor, et similia (Satires ii.6.62):
ducere sollicitae iucunda oblivia vitae.
Epistles i.11.7-10:
scis Lebedus quid sit? Gabiis desertior atque
Fidenis vicus; tamen illic vivere vellem,
oblitus meorum, obliviscendus et illis.
Ibid. 29-30:
                                      quod petis hic est;
est Ulubris, animus si te non deficit aequus.
Ibid. 16.15: "hae latebrae dulces, etiam, si credis, amoenae"; ibid. 17.10: "nec vixit male qui natus moriensque fefellit"; ibid. 18.103: "an secretum iter et fallentis semita vitae."
But cf. Geert Roskam, Live Unnoticed (Λάθε βιώσας): On the Vicissitudes of an Epicurean Doctrine (Leiden: Brill, 2007), pp. 172-173 (at 173, note omitted):
What precisely does Horace want to escape from at his estate? It is neither the troubles of the political world, nor the disadvantages which a great fame entails, but the Septembribus horis. Horace's sweet latebrae provide protection against the unhealthy season of autumn. Accordingly, the emphasis in this context is not upon reaching tranquillity of mind, nor even by attaining ἀσφάλεια ἐξ ἡσυχίας, but upon maintaining corporeal health. The whole passage, then, has nothing to do with the Epicurean ideal of λάθε βιώσας.



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