Satires 2.5 (Horace)

Published around 30 BCE, the second book of Satires is a series of poems composed in dactylic hexameter by the Roman poet Horace.

Tiresias suggests that Ulysses try his hand at legacy hunting, and gives examples of characters through history that have ingratiated themselves with the affluent in order to be named as benefactors in their will.

[5] The analogies in the text are similarly graphic, as in the story of the over-insistent heir in Thebes who was required by the will of his benefactor to carry her oil-soaked slippery carcass on his shoulders during the funeral procession.

Horace’s choice of an established epic hero to request Tiresias’ scheming advice displays a distortion of Greek heroic values.

The poem also distorts the meaning of xenia, reducing the powerful bonds of host-guest friendship down to a calculated exchange of flattery for services.

With this, the characterization of Tiresias creates a moral tension between the paragon prophet so highly respected in ancient literature and the shady truth-teller that reveals the inner workings of legacy hunting.