Variations of the Ethics of Measure as the Principle of Happiness in the Poetry of Horace

Abstract

This article looks at Horace's two Books of Satires, Books I-III of the Odes and the First Book of Epistles in the perspective of the following thesis. One of the most important themes of Horace's poetry is happiness, and measure and moderation are the means to bring about and secure a happy life. In the various poetry books this ethics of measure and moderation undergoes certain variations. The message of the Satires is that you are happy if you are content on the basis of moderation. The Odes of the first edition convey the idea that we are happy if we live in peace and friendliness, founded on the principle of moderation. The First Book of Letters is focussed on the central notion that I am happy if I am free and independent, and again, the precondition for that is moderation. The point of the article is thus, first, that it underscores an aspect of the unity of Horace's poetry: the search for happiness, and, second, that it offers an account of the diversifications of that unifying theme in the different genres of poetry and different phases of the poet's life.