V.'s book is a new and welcome contribution to the study of Horatian poetics. The book, a revised version of V.'s 2004 doctoral thesis (Έμπνευση και ενότητα στο έργο του Κόιντου Ορατίου Φλάκκου, University of Ioannina [2004]), is divided into a prologue, an introduction, five chapters, conclusions and an English summary. The well-researched and up-to-date bibliography is followed by three useful indexes: Latin terms, Greek terms and ancient writers.
In her introduction V. clearly states the aim of her study: the examination of Horace's innovative treatment of traditional motifs of poetic inspiration under the influence of philosophical, mainly Hellenistic, theories about the origin, the unity and the reception of poetry. The introduction is divided into two parts. The first offers a well-researched overview of poetic inspiration either as divine possession (ἐνθουσιασμός) or talent (εὐϕυΐα, ingenium) both in Greek and Latin poetry. V. contends that divine invocation plays an intermediary role between the gods and the poet's skills. It is during Hellenistic times that the diffusion of writing resulted in the conventional use of the Muse as a source of divine inspiration within the context of a more intertextual perception of literature. The second part is a critical review of the scholarly work on Horace's inspiration during the twentieth century (e.g. Fraenkel [1957], Büchner [1979], Trimpi [1993]). For her study V. takes on board Schmidt (2002) and Longo (2004–5), who stress the temporal distance between inspiration and writing, as well as the role of the acoustic and visual representation of a stimulus in the composition of a poem.
After establishing the methodological premise of her study V. proceeds to a comprehensive and illuminating exploration of Horace's work. Each chapter follows the same pattern: an introductory note on the historical and literary context of each work, a section on the poet's persona, a section on the typology of poetic inspiration, and two or three sections on specialised issues. The introductory notes are informative and useful and they make the book accessible even to non-specialists.
In Chapter 1, ‘Sermones’, V. contends that in the Sermones the traditional relationship between the gods and the poet within the context of poetic inspiration is deconstructed. As a result this work lacks any theoretical reference to poetic inspiration as ἐνθουσιασμός. The poet is also critical towards poetic insania. The section on the substitution of pudor for ingenium (1.2.2) is insightful, but the real strength of this chapter lies in V.'s discussion of sensus as the poet's means of perceiving and evaluating reality. After perceiving reality the poet through consilium proprium (which is linked with the views of Philodemus on poetry) transforms what he saw into literature. V. associates the Horatian sensus with Aristotelian ϕαντασία and in particular with Posidonius' idea of ἀναζωγράϕησις, i.e. the mental representation of reality and its reproduction by the artist, even when the stimulus no longer exists.
In Chapter 2, ‘Iambi (Epodon liber)’, V., after offering a concise examination of the iambic persona, comments on the lack of any reference to divine intervention or any other conventional motif about the poet's inspiration. V. emphasises the multiple socio-political implications of Horace's work by offering a rich note on the contextualisation of it within the framework of Roman amicitia (ϕιλότης). The examination of the friendly relationship of Horace with Maecenas through the lens of Ciceronian comitas is neat. With respect to poetology, V. focusses on labor which runs through the entire collection as the driving force of poetic composition. In the Iambi, mens, sensus and pudor work together against the folly of passions. Mens, in particular, as an echo of the Stoic προαίρεσις is important to the poet, since its loss can potentially endanger the successful completion of labor.
Horace in Carmina 1–3 (Chapter 3) resorts to traditional sources of inspiration, such as the Muse, Bacchus or Faunus; the poet perceives himself as a uates. V.'s intertextual comparison with Lucretius' use of the Muses reveals their symbolic (political, ethical, aesthetic) role in the poetry of Horace. The source of the poet's inspiration is his ingenium (an inmost and uncontrollable creative drive), which eventually gives way to pudor. V. makes an interesting suggestion for a possible Stoic influence on the acoustic quality of Horace's lyric and once again applies Posidonius' theory of ἀναζωγράϕησις to the Horatian work.
In Chapter 4, ‘Carmina IV & Carmen saeculare’, V. takes into consideration the political implications of Horace's new poetic project. The poet, as he moves away from the Sapphic tradition of lyric, infuses his lyric verses with timeless and universal symbols which aim at the glorification of Rome's new golden era. The public character of lyric poetry is emphasised. Now poetry and ethics go hand in hand. This time, however, pudor, the main poetic principle, is set aside by decorum, and at the same time the poet's ingenium is being replaced by his uirtus.
In Chapter 5 V. offers a highly philosophical reading of Horace's Epistulae, where she convincingly argues for the identification of the Horatian mens and animus with the Stoic προαίρεσις. The theoretical focus is on Horace's new ethical and aesthetic pursuits. Line 309 of the Ars Poetica gives an answer, so V. argues, to the question of poetic inspiration in Horace's work. The Muse, the traditional fons scribendi recte, coincides with the poet προκόπτων, who is in search of uirtus (= sapere). The Stoic interconnection between ethical and aesthetic integritas lies at the heart of Horace's inspiration.
The ‘Conclusions’, though necessary for pulling some threads together, are occasionally rather hazy. Extensive revision would have saved V. from unnecessary repetitions and made the concluding chapter more effective.
V.'s familiarity both with primary and secondary literature is impressive, judging from the length and wide range of the multi-lingual bibliography. The volume as a whole is well presented despite some minor typos.
V. in her introduction expresses the wish to offer the first systematic examination of Horace's poetic inspiration in the Greek language, and so she does. V. has succeeded in producing an original and coherent philosophical interpretation of Horatian poetics, which will be of immense help not only to scholars working on Horace, but also to those interested in the intersection of philosophy and poetics in Augustan Rome.
