Articles

Phaedrus The Fabulous

Phaedrus The Fabulous

Edward Champlin,

Journal of Roman Studies, Volume 95, Number 1, October 2005 , pp. 97-123 (27)

Abstract

Phaedrus, far from being a Greek freedman striving to inscribe himself among the élite of Latin letters, was a Roman aristocrat masquerading as a man of the people to say in fable what could not safely be otherwise said. Modern biographical constructions are mostly fantasy. In coded terms the poet playfully reveals his gentle birth in Rome itself; he parades a mastery of the two most Roman contributions to literature, (Horatian) satire and jurisprudence; and he proclaims his belief in life’s unfairness and in resignation to it, his contempt for both monarchs and mobs, and his admiration for the wise individual.



In the Prologue to the third book of his fables, Phaedrus complains bitterly to a patron. Even though he, Phaedrus, was born like the Muses on the slopes of Olympus, and even though he has devoted his life not to the gathering of sweet lucre but to the study of poetry (docto labori), it is only with scorn that he is received among the company of poets (3 pr.1-25)

Sed iam quodcumque fuerit, ut dixit Sinon,
Ad regem cum Dardaniae perductus foret,
Librum exarabo tertium Aesopi stilo,
Honori et meritis dedicans ilium tuis.

But now, ‘whatever may come of it’ (as Sinon said when he was led before the King of Dardania), I will trace out a third book with Aesop’s pen, dedicating it to you in recognition of your honour and worth. The poet refers to the second book of the Aeneid (2.77ff.), where the wretched Sinon addresses King Priam: ‘Cuneta equidem tibi, rex, fuerit quodcumque, fatebor / vera’, ‘I shall confess to you the whole truth, O king, come what may’. He then tells the Trojans a pack of lies, and persuades them to drag theWooden Horse into their city. Troy falls. That Phaedrus drew attention to Sinon at Troy in the autobiographical Prologue to Book 3 is curious, in the light of what he offers in the Epilogue to the same Book 3.

Click here to read this article from the Journal of Roman Studies

Sponsored Content