Horace 1.9

Horace's poem on enjoying one's youth reflects his epicurean philosophy in several ways. Epicurean philosophy is about not worrying about the past and not worrying about the future but focusing on what you have in front of you and finding happiness. In modern days, it has gotten twisted into an idea that epicurean means not caring about anything and not being motivated. What the philosophy is supposed to mean is that people should not be ambitious and go after material items because they do not bring true happiness and pleasure. This poem by Horace is a good reflection of the true Epicurean philosophy. In the first stanza, Horace describes a bitter scene of a cold mountain where everythings in frozen. Then in the next stanza he writes: "Dissolue frigus ligna super foco large reponens" which translates into "dispell the cold by putting more logs into the fire." Horace is saying that no matter how bad a situation looks, don't just give up and let it bring you down but do something about it and overcome the bad situation; if its cold, make a fire. Another example of Horace's Epicurean philosophy comes out in the fourth stanza when Horace writes: "Quid sit futurum cras fuge quaerere, etquem fors dierum cumque dabit lucro adpone," which essentually means to live your life in the moment and count your blessings. One of the main aspects of Epicurean philosophy is to 'look at the glass half full' or to look at what you have and not what you are lacking. Therefore, Horace's poem is a very good representation of Epicurean Philosophy.