Philosophy and word-play in the Epistles of Horace

This thesis examines the Epistles of Horace, including the Ars Poetica, in order to uncover plays upon words and thematic borrowings which seem to have inspired his reading of Plato's Cratylus, as well as several other works of Plato. The Introduction seeks to establish a connection between the conclusion of Plato's Cratylus and the final lines of Horaces First Epistle. In the second chapter, it is argued that Heraclitean material--the notion of flux--becomes a poetic motif in several of the poems, enabling Horace to bridge the distance between physical and ethical philosophy. Part of this image involves a word-play with res. The third chapter examines the persona of the philosopher as it evolves in Epi. 11-20, discussing apparent borrowings from Plato's Phaedrus and Laws. A reference to Zethus and Amphion (in Epi. 18) seems to have been inspired partly by Plato's Gorgias. Two poems (13,20) dealing with the ambiguity of meaning in written language show traces of Plato's Phaedrus and Parmenides. The fourth chapter discusses Epistles, Book Two. Puns on nummus and numerus here, recalling similar word-play in Epistle Nineteen, suggest that Horace considers the civilizing force of poets to be connected with their numeri, i.e., their command of metrics. Plato's Timaeus may have been Horace's model for the establishment of order based upon number. The final chapter considers the Ars Poetica as a treatise, in part, on section and articulation. Horace seems to have been experimenting with the different meanings inherent in the Greek word melos, and perhaps also with the Platonic notion of diairesis. Horace's famous callida iunctura, as well as references to the Cena Thyestae and grotesque forms of art are discussed in connection with the idea of melos.