The Birds and the Snake:
Horace, Epode 1.19-23

Donald E. Lavigne (Texas Tech University)

At roughly the center of the argument of his first Epode, Horace uses a Homeric intertext (Il. 2.308-16) to characterize his motivations for following Maecenas to Actium. A controversial interpretation of the simile, which features a mother bird ineffectually defending her chicks from the onslaught of a snake, has been offered by Mankin in his recent commentary on the collection. Mankin suggests that the simile implicitly likens both Horace and Maecenas to the helpless birds. Others see the simile as merely referring to Horace and his already self-admitted weakness in matters of war. The reason the simile is so problematic is that it includes three symbolic figures: the snake, the mother bird and her chicks. The snake obviously alludes to the travails of battle, but the assigning of referents to the other figures results in the opposing interpretations described above.

In this paper, I argue that the simile can be better understood by paying close attention to both the Homeric intertext and the surrounding context of Epode 1. A close reading of the poem up to the simile shows that "Horace" is a persona divided, a fact highlighted by the stark shift, at line 15, from the first person plural to the first person singular (in which mode the narrator continues until the end of the poem). The simile, following closely on the shift from we to me, reconstitutes the two, disparate speaking positions of the poem into one coherent voice. This transformation is effected through the simile's relationship to its Homeric precursor, which is drawn from Odysseus' speech in Iliad 2 to the assembled masses, ready to retreat. In this speech, the birds and the mother are collapsed into one entity and represent the years of the war and the snake, as in the Horatian imitation, signifies the travails of war.

As a sign of the army's oath and, therefore, solidarity, this omen emblematizes the Homeric soldier's dedication of purpose which should result in glory, as the context makes clear. As a reminder of the unity of the host in the face of near mutiny based on self-interest, the Homeric passage makes an excellent analogue for Horace's integration of his plural and singular selves. Like the Homeric host, Horace is scared and unsure of his ability to go into battle, but ultimately decides to unite himself with Maecenas. However, the Homeric intertext is also transformed, in that no glory will come to Horace through his solidarity with Maecenas, as he, like the hen and her chicks, will remain vulnerable and ineffective, but, nevertheless, at his friend's side amidst the battle.