Resumen de The Last Hour in Philodemus (De morte IV, P.Herc. 1050, col. 14.38–15.1–3), Catullus (64.191), Lucretius (3.595), Vergil (Ecl. 8.20), and Beyond
A crux in Philodemus’ De morte IV, P.Herc. 1050, col. 14.38–15.1–3, can be resolved if the lacuna is supplemented with an expression that is also used to refer to death in the works of his contemporaries, namely ‘the last hour, the last time’: Gr. ἡ τελευταία ὥρα, Lat. postrema hora (Catull. 64.191), supremo tempore (Lucr. 3.595), extrema hora (Verg. Ecl. 8.20). The history of this expression has not been explored by modern scholars: it appears already in the Sanskrit words antavelā-and antakāla-. A human lifetime is viewed as the coming and going of a single day, with birth the ‘first hour’ (dawn) and death the ‘last’ (sunset or evening).
