From jbutrica@morgan.ucs.mun.ca Thu Apr 25 06:51:03 2002 Received: from mailscan3.cac.washington.edu (mailscan3.cac.washington.edu [140.142.32.15]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW01.12/8.12.1+UW02.01) with SMTP id g3PDp1w3021394 for ; Thu, 25 Apr 2002 06:51:01 -0700 Received: FROM mxu4.u.washington.edu BY mailscan3.cac.washington.edu ; Thu Apr 25 06:51:04 2002 -0700 Received: from cerberus.ucs.mun.ca (cerberus.ucs.mun.ca [134.153.2.162]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW01.12/8.12.1+UW02.01) with ESMTP id g3PDp3Ie000797 for ; Thu, 25 Apr 2002 06:51:03 -0700 Received: from [134.153.128.98] (drusus.clas.mun.ca [134.153.128.98]) by cerberus.ucs.mun.ca (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id LAA26736 for ; Thu, 25 Apr 2002 11:21:01 -0230 (NDT) Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 11:21:01 -0230 (NDT) X-Sender: jbutrica@pop.morgan.ucs.mun.ca Message-Id: In-Reply-To: References: <4.3.2.7.0.20020422085758.00a988a0@saluki-mailhub.siu.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: classics@u.washington.edu From: James Butrica Subject: Re: poetry >>I think the best answer may be that there is no direct evidence of Catullus >>or Horace writing lyric poems to be sung to music. > >Definitely not direct, but perhaps the Carmen Saeculare, if >C.IV.vi.35-6 refers to the playing of an instrument. > >ASB > >-- >Dr. Andrew S. Becker (andrew.becker@vt.edu), 540-231-2639 >Latin, Ancient Greek, and Classical Studies >(http://www.fll.vt.edu/becker/ASBhome.html) >Co-Editor, Book Review Editor, Electronic Antiquity >(http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ElAnt/) >Foreign Languages & Literatures, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg Virginia 24061-0225 "My Lesbian foot and the stroke of my thumb" does seem to cast Horace as a lyre-playing bard in the tradition of Alcaeus and Sappho; but the Carmen Saeculare is a hymn rather than a lyric poem, and one commissioned for actual performance at an actual celebration. Given that we have extensive inscriptional evidence for the celebration of the Ludi Saeculares at which it was performed, as well as an extensive description in Zonaras (I think), there might be some direct evidence there to support musical accompaniment for the hymn (which I suppose one might expect in any case) -- though not for the "personal" lyric. James Lawrence Peter Butrica Department of Classics The Memorial University of Newfoundland St. John's, Newfoundland A1C 5S7 (709) 737-7914 .