HISTORY ESSAY
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final_part_2.docxGiragosian 1
Adrineh Giragosian
ENG 228.04: Greece and Rome
Professor McGowan
17 December 2014
gods and men: Horace vs. Pindar
As the texts emerge from Pindar’s Odes through Horace’s Odes, both gods and men were a key aspect in the poems written by these poets. In Horace’s Odes a role of faith that is discussed in his work is through the nature of life, nature had similar strength and power as gods did to other Roman poets. In Pindar’s text the role of Greek gods and how men were an important role to the society. The ancient Greeks called fate a Necessity or Anake, personified in the great goddess Moira. Represented sometimes singularly, she was also seen as the Moiré- the three goddesses who wove, measured and cut the thread of mortal life in accordance with natural law. After this, there is little agreement as to the origins, nature, intention or immutability of Fate.
Pindar is the first Greek poet to reflect on the nature of poetry and on the poet’s role. Like other poets of the Archaic Age, he has a profound sense of changes of life, but he also articulates a passionate faith in what men, by the grace of the gods, can achieve, most famously expressed in his conclusion to one of his Victory Odes.
“Creatures for a day! What is a man? What is he not? A dream of a shadow is our mortal being. But when there comes to men a gleam splendor given of heaven, then rests on them a light of glory and blessed are their days” (Pythian, 8). In the following quote it explains the higher power of men and through the grace of the gods a man can achieve anything. This shows one of the followings ways it is different from how in Horances text of the Odes views faith.
In the first six Odes of book three Horace immediately establishes his role as “Musarum Sacredos” and calls for religious silence, as he will sing “Carmina non Prius/Audita.” This sets the tone for Odes and for the rest of the cycle. Following, is a discussion of hierarchy, obeisance to the gods and those in power, the university of fate and death, contentment with what one receives from life, and avoidance of excessive ambition. In this way he introduces hierarchy and its enhancing appropriateness; kings on earth rule their people, and Jupiter in heaven rules over all. Also, in the first odes, fate’s universality is emphasized, in lines like,
“How sweet and right it is to die for one's country, death pursues the man who flees, spares not the hamstrangs or cowardly backs of bttle-shy youths” (Odes, III.2.13). This quote shows that when you have fate and stand up for your country you feel the glory and accomplishment at the end. Those who flee and have no fate to their country are not real men and do not believe in standing up for something they truly care about. Horace is a men of fate and belives that one needs to stand up for something they believe in and have fate in order to be a true men. With this quote Horace shows that there is nothing like the feeling of standing up for your country and protecting it as if it was part of you.
In Pindars Odes Book V.1 he states, “…the wise wear with a fairer grace, this power which God have given. You who walk in righteousness, have great prosperity around you.” This poem was for Arkesilas of Kyrene, winner in the chariot-race. This quote futher shows the example of nature of life accepting what the gods have set for us to endure. By winning this race God has answered his prayers, and he is now walking with power because he is the winner of the race, through this God gave him power by achieving this great deed. In the following quote it states, “…I beg you, now…bring to birth for this man a brave son…when thus he spoke, the God sent a great eagle, lord of birds, and sweet delight stung him within” (Pinar, 44). This then further shows
