Simonides and Horace on the Death of Achilles

I reproduce the text of Simonides fr. 11.1–12 as given by West 1993a.6, which corresponds to W² with the restorations proposed exempli gratia in his apparatus. In his initial publication, Parsons 1992a.28 recorded West's proposal to locate POxy 2327, fr. 5 immediately before 2327, fr. 6, which in turn overlaps with POxy 3965, fr. 1; these three fragments laid out with two others form Simon. fr. 11 W². Parsons 1992a observes (i) that 2327, fr. 5 clearly speaks of the death of a hero, fr. 6 of the death of someone who dies at the hand of Apollo; (ii) that the physical evidence of the papyrus is compatible with, but does not provide absolute proof of, the relationship mentioned above between the two pieces; and (iii) that nonetheless other contexts can be imagined for fr. 5, even within the Elegy on Plataea, to which certainly belongs fr. 11.6–45 W². The "heroic death" which is compared to a tree cut down by woodcutters could be that of one of the combatants in Plataea¹ rather than that of Achilles, as it would have to be if West's collocation for fr. 5 is accepted.

West's proposal, which provides my starting point, seems to me undeniably the best so far advanced, for two reasons: (i) fr. 5 ends one column and fr. 6 begins another;² (ii) the use of a simile which so clearly alludes to Homer (as I shall show below) presupposes strong epic coloring. If the simile appeared in the "hymn," or proem, to Achilles (and not in a battle narrative), the Homeric effect is very much in accord with some other allusions already observed in the same context; for example, the ways in which and are used, as shown by Lloyd-Jones 1994.1– 3. The hymn to Achilles would appear even more enriched if we could see it as a sort of hymn to Homer as well. On the other hand, I find no sign that Simonides in any fragment of the Plataea battle elegy, even when displaying epic coloring,³ went so far as to employ that most Homeric of epic features, i.e., the extended simile. (See Stehle in this volume for other divergences from Homeric style.)

I would like, therefore, to point out a consequence of the consecutive collocation of POxy 2327, frr. 5 + 6, one which remains valid even if we do not accept West's excellent restorations for vv. 1–3. That is, even if all these restorations prove to miss the mark, the following sequence can still be safely reconstructed: (i) Someone strikes a blow: Apollo against Achilles, to judge from 11.7–8 W²; (ii) the warrior falls like . . . (an unspecified kind of tree?) or like a pine cut by woodsmen in the glades. . . . This is sufficient to make us think that this fragment, in the position assigned it by West, was the model for Horace C. 4.6.9–12:

ille, mordaci velut icta ferro pinus aut impulsa cupressus Euro procidit late posuitque collum in pulvere Teucro.

As in Simonides, the comparison describes the blow and the unforeseen fall of Achilles. And, as in Simonides, the comparison is twofold, one part being a pine tree cut down by axes. The sonorous combination mordaci . . . icta recalls the figura etymologica . . . . I see no reason to think that we are dealing with a locus communis here. On the one hand, the two poets apply the same image to the same moment in the Trojan cycle, and the various accounts of the death of Achilles do not seem to offer many alternative sources. And, on the other hand, the similes of the type "fall like a tree" can be divided into two categories: (i) typical deaths in Homeric battle scenes;⁴ (ii) in later poetry, the downfalls of various strange types. Thus, Apollonius speaks in this way of the Giants, the Spartoi, and Talos; Catullus of the Minotaur; and Vergil of a boxer and, metaphorically, of the fall of an entire city.⁵

It is...