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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2016

Jerome Kemp
Jerome Kemp*
Affiliation:
University College London, UK
*
*E-mail: jeromekemp@hotmail.com
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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.

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Type
Research Article
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The Cambridge Classical Journal , Volume 62 , December 2016 , pp. 130 - 146
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2016. Published by Cambridge University Press 

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