Horace-as-Alcaeus ( Odes 3.6) Impersonates Horace-as-Archilochus ( Epodes 7 And 16): Persona And Poetic Autobiography In Horace

Abstract

Abstract: A reader's enjoyment of Odes 3.6 and Epodes 7 and 16 is deepened by an awareness of the interplay between two relationships in Horace's poetry: the relationship of the speaker within the poem to an internal audience; and the interpretive relationship between the reader and the unstable persona of the implied author, Horace. The Archilochean authorial persona of Horace's Epodes and the Alcaic authorial persona of Horace's Odes work together to create a pseudo-autobiography of his life as a movement through genres and through Roman historical time. This pseudo-autobiography functions in the reader's mind as a tool for interpretation.