Carpe Diem
The Poetics of Presence in Greek and Latin Literature

Reveals the critical importance of the ancient carpe diem motif for understanding ancient literature and its creation of vivid presents.

Robert A. Rohland (Author)

9781009018555, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 1 December 2022

320 pages, 17 colour illus.
21.5 x 13.8 x 1.7 cm, 0.41 kg

Carpe diem – 'eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die!' – is a prominent motif throughout ancient literature and beyond. This is the first book-length examination of its significance and demonstrates that close analysis can make a key contribution to a question that is central to literary studies in and beyond Classics: how can poetry give us the almost magical impression that something is happening here and now? In attempting an answer, Robert Rohland gives equal attention to Greek and Latin texts, as he offers new interpretations of well-known poems from Horace and tackles understudied epigrams. Pairing close readings of ancient texts along with interpretations of other forms of cultural production such as gems, cups, calendars, monuments, and Roman wine labels, this interdisciplinary study transforms our understanding of the motif of carpe diem.

1. The archaeology of Carpe Diem: Sardanapallus, monuments, epigrams, and false beginnings
2. A moveable feast: Wine storage-places as drinkable calendars in Horace
3. Gathering leaves: Horace, choice of words, cyclical time, and the production of presence
4. The pleasure of images: Epigrams and objects 100 ?? – ?? 100
5. As is the generation of leaves, so are the generations of cows, mice, and gigolos…: Excerpe Diem! or excerpts of 'Carpe Diem'.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Literary studies: poetry & poets [DSC], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]