The Silence of the Virgin in Horace, Odes 3.30

Jana Adamitis (Christopher Newport University)

In his triumphant conclusion to Odes I-III, Horace claims that he will live on through his poetry “as long as the pontifex climbs the Capitol with a silent virgin” (8-9).  The silence of the Vestal Virgin has traditionally been explained in the commentaries as indicative of religious reverence or solemnity (cf. esp. Nisbet and Rudd, A Commentary on Horace, Odes, Book III, 2004), but I would argue that detail carries substantially more significance when interpreted in the light of Odes I-III as a whole.  Although most scholars read Odes 3.30 as a companion piece to Odes 1.1 because the poems’ shared meter and positions within the collection, I read Odes 3.30 as a response to Odes 1.2.  Both Odes 1.2 and Odes 3.30 concern the effect of natural elements upon monumenta, both refer to triumphs, and both describe Vestal Virgins’ participation in a communal act.  In Odes 1.2 the Vestals offer carmina on behalf the Roman community, which is plagued with the curse of fratricidal strife, but these are unsuccessful.  It is only when Horace joins his voice to theirs that the gods heed the community’s entreaties and send Mercury in the guise of Augustus to save the Romans from utter self-destruction.  In Odes 3.30, by contrast, Roman imperium appears to be eternal and universal, and the only voice heard is that of the poet himself.  In this paper I explore the significance of the Vestals’ transition from the communal voice of the Roman people to silent participants in a world dominated by the voice of the poet.  The silence of the virgin not only marks the triumph of male superiority, but also the triumph of Horace as a political poet.