Lecture 14 - Roman Lecture 15: Elegiac and Lyric Witches

Question 1

define elegiac

Answer 1

poetry that consists of short, self contained poems and contains a beginning, middle and end

ex. self contained song

Question 2

who is horace

Answer 2

roman poet from the period where augustus was the emperor who writes lyric poetry and wrote the satires

Question 3

what are the satires

Answer 3

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

Question 4

who are canidia and sagana

Answer 4

roman witches written by horace but the story is narrated by priapus

Question 5

how are roman witches portrayed

Answer 5

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

Question 6

explain the story of priapus, canidia and sagana in the graveyard

Answer 6

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

Question 7

why would canidia and sagana go the the graveyard

Answer 7

• body parts and food
  -socially unacceptable
• necromancy: finding out future by means of the dead

Question 8

compare homers odyssey to canidia and sagana necromancy

Answer 8

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

Question 9

explain hecates and tisiphone

Answer 9

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

Question 10

explain the story horace write about canidia and sagana (veia and folia) and their love potion

Answer 10

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

Question 11

compare the story of tantalus to the love potion of canidia and sagana

Answer 11

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

Question 12

what were the curses of the dying boy

Answer 12

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

Question 13

define an epitah

Answer 13

poem about someone who has died, usually in a tomb

Question 14

explain the epitah of a child snatched by witches

Answer 14

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

Question 15

what is a palinode

Answer 15

palin - retraction
ode - song

poetic retraction of a song that you sang, taking back something you said

Question 16

describe horaces palinode

Answer 16

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

Question 17

why does horace end up living and is this true

Answer 17

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

Question 18

who is the major witch and who is the helper

Answer 18

canidia is the main powerful witch and sagana is like her sidekick

Question 19

what are some of the things that canidia and sagana do

Answer 19

collect bones to make spells
have unkept hair and are dirty
very animalistic
live in cemeteries

Question 20

how is canidia and saganas witchcraft different from other literary witches?

Answer 20

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