FOOLS RUSH IN: SEX, ‘THE MEAN’ AND EPICUREANISM IN HORACE, SATIRES 1.2

Abstract

This paper concerns Horace's treatment of ‘the mean’ in Satires 1.2: his ironic demonstration of its elusiveness and changeability in the first part of the satire; and how this leads to the alignment of Epicurean moderation with a framework most associated with Aristotle. I argue that the irony in the sometimes apparently illogical, humorous expression of Peripatetic and Hellenistic ethics complements the satire's other ironic inconsistencies, while nevertheless serving a serious underlying philosophical purpose which some recent scholarship has denied.