ON HORACE'S PYRAMIDS (C. 3.30.1–2)

Abstract

This paper contends that Horace's comparison of his completed poetic monument to pyramids at the end of Odes 1–3 is both figurative and literal insofar as we possess ample art historical, literary and papyrological evidence from antiquity for the stacking of an appropriate number of book (sc)rolls in ‘pyramidal’ form. Most notable in this regard is the dedication to Delian Apollo of a triangular casket containing the ten books of Aristarchus' edition of Alcaeus, whose resonances with the Pythagorean τετρακτύς, and implications for Horace's own oeuvre, are duly explored.

Horace's Monument

“…27The necropolis also includes two sets of three much smaller pyramids, making three triads in all and underlining the significance of the ‘magic’ number three. Sullivan (2014) has argued that, in referring to the pyramids, Horace has in mind the stacking of ten scrolls in the form of a pyramid; but his argument is fatally flawed, because, as he more or less admits (103 n. 8), scrolls can only be stacked in the form of a triangular prism, not a pyramid.…”