Elements of the Mime in Horace’s Epode “Quid tibi vis, mulier”
Elements of the Mime in Horace’s Epode “Quid tibi vis, mulier”

Summary/Abstract: The Polish version of the article was published in Roczniki Humanistyczne vol. 61, issue 3 (2013). The aim of this article is to discover the literary context for Horace’s Epode 12 by juxtaposing it with Herondas’ mimes, particularly Mime 5, titled The Jealous Woman. The description of the relationship between these works is based on the ancient theory of rhetoric and on elements of Horace’s Ars poetica. It has been established that Epode 12 has numerous features of the literary mime: it is an apparent dialogue (sermocinatio, παρῳδή) recited by a single performer (mime), most probably in the scenery of an ancient feast. A participant in the feast becomes an actor, who first performs the role of a male lover (iuvenis) and then the role of a superannuated female lover (mulier). These character types are typical of both Old and New Comedy styles, but the whole dramatic setting seems to bear the greatest resemblance to Mime 5, in which the same literary protagonists are found in a scene analogous to a lovers’ quarrel. On the one hand, specific rhetorical figures (imitatio / μίμησις) indicate that the literary original was used in a creative manner. On the other, Mime 5 can also be used in the interpretation of Epode 12. This interpretation can be built on the processes of liberation and subjugation as part of the lovers’ relationship (actual subjugation in Mime 5 and metaphorical—financial—in Epode 12, where the iuvenis is the mulier’s “kept man”).

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