Lecture 14 - Roman Lecture 15: Elegiac and Lyric Witches Flashcards
define elegiac
poetry that consists of short, self contained poems and contains a beginning, middle and end
ex. self contained song
who is horace
roman poet from the period where augustus was the emperor who writes lyric poetry and wrote the satires
what are the satires
book, collection of satires written by horace
continues to return to a particuluar theme
meant to be funny, not scary and they play around with what you think will happen and creating characters that lead up to the joke
who are canidia and sagana
roman witches written by horace but the story is narrated by priapus
how are roman witches portrayed
considered to be hideous, old, ugly, nasty, evil
a lot scarier, more animalistic
cause harm for no reason at all, they are just bad people
explain the story of priapus, canidia and sagana in the graveyard
priapus is the god of fertility (apotrapaic) and and he sees canidia and sagana in the graveyard and they are trying to access the unfortunate masses for food and resources (pharmakos)
in the end, they hear priapus farts and the witches get scared and run away
why would canidia and sagana go the the graveyard
- body parts and food
-socially unacceptable - necromancy: finding out future by means of the dead
compare homers odyssey to canidia and sagana necromancy
odysseus was told by circe to do the steps so he could do necromancy , he went to the hallway, sacrificed the lamb and poured blood so the dead actually come out to him
this was an acceptable as he didnt go down
explain hecates and tisiphone
one job in the world is to punish people who spill kindrid blood - except fathers because they are allowed to do anything
ex. the furies get sent and will come hunt you down as their main purpose
explain the story horace write about canidia and sagana (veia and folia) and their love potion
this story is narrated by a boy who is buried up to his neck in sand surrounded by all the food and water that he could ever want. when the boy eventually dies of starvation and thirst, his body parts will be filled with ultimate desire
this desire will then be used when the witches use his body parts to make love potions
compare the story of tantalus to the love potion of canidia and sagana
tantalus invited the gods for dinner and ended up feeding them his own kid, so the gods ended up killing and punishing him by surrounding him with all the food and water but he is never able to access it
what were the curses of the dying boy
he is coming back as a restless dead as a ghost to harm the witches, he has no physical power but continues to make threats and scare them to death
define an epitah
poem about someone who has died, usually in a tomb
explain the epitah of a child snatched by witches
written by parents who are claiming that their chlild was kidnapped and murdered by witches
since they dont know the real reason why, they are blaming witches
what is a palinode
palin - retraction
ode - song
poetic retraction of a song that you sang, taking back something you said
describe horaces palinode
this is horaces retraction to canidia and sagana
he is begging canidia to stop her witchcraft and saying that he cannot take it anymore -he is retracting all the statements he said about her and all the bad things that she does
canidia then says that since she is so powerful and can even bend the natural world to her will, will she even let him live
why does horace end up living and is this true
no this is a literary witch and a genre of retraction poetry
witchcraft does exist and we need to be careful about what evidence we believe
who is the major witch and who is the helper
canidia is the main powerful witch and sagana is like her sidekick
what are some of the things that canidia and sagana do
collect bones to make spells
have unkept hair and are dirty
very animalistic
live in cemeteries
how is canidia and saganas witchcraft different from other literary witches?
they are more evil and extreme with it, like medea and circe only do their magic when they have a reason, usually revenge but canidia and sagana dont care at all
