How The Odes of Horace drew on The Iliad
A documented line of influence: Horatius demonstrably engaged Homer’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Iliad
Homer · c. 750 BCE
Ancient GreeceThe influenced
The Odes of Horace
Horatius · 23 BCE
Ancient RomeRelevance
6/10
On The Odes of Horace’s page
- The epic Horace keeps gesturing at — and deflating
- Odes 1.6 translates the Iliad's opening only to puncture it, turning Achilles' world-shaking wrath into a small private annoyance; you catch the joke best with Homer in your ear
- Horace's whole stance — the lyric poet declining to march into epic — is a posture struck against the Iliad behind him
On The Iliad’s page
- Horace opens Odes 1.6 by translating the Iliad's first lines — and shrinking them on purpose
- Achilles' towering menis becomes a comically small stomachus, a fit of pique: Horace's way of bowing to Homer while refusing to write epic himself
- The Iliadic allusions thread through the rest of the Odes too, especially Book 4 — Homer is the giant he keeps measuring himself against