RÜCKKEHR NACH ARKADIEN: DIE POETOLOGISCHE DIMENSION VON HORAZENS CARMEN IV,12

Scholarly discussion concerning Horace’s Carmen IV,12 has long been dominated by the question of whether the addressee Vergilius should be identified with the poet Virgil or not. Comparatively little attention, in contrast, has been paid to a literary interpretation of the ode. Scholars have become increasingly aware of the literary aspects of the poem, such as its imagery and intertextuality, only in the last two decades. Taking these insights as a starting point, this paper aims to explore the metapoetic metaphors in Carmen IV,12. It can be demonstrated that by using traditional Callimachean imagery, Horace reflects both on Virgilian work and on his own poetry, and that his fellow poet Virgil is, in fact, the addressee of the ode. Thus the poem can be read both as a lament over Virgil’s death and as an apology for Horace’s own panegyric poetry, for which he imagines the deceased friend as a supporter and fellow symposiast.