Horace I.9 (Epicurus)

Horace's poem seems to be the quintessence of Epicurus' philosophy. He starts out with telling the fictitious Thaliarchus to look at what is around him and how to dispel the cold, while still enjoying pleasures(fire and wine). He further goes on to say to him, "Quid sit futUrum cras, fuge quarere" in line 13, basically to live in the now and to not let the worry of tomorrow get in your way. Epicurus' philosophy was just that, to not fret upon tomorrow or the pain that may be in the future. His philosophy was to enjoy the moment and enjoy the pleasures of today. Horace's poem is about not letting the cold get in your way and not letting the pleasures of "dulcIs amOrEs", line 15, slip past you. To wrap up, Epicurus' philosophy is that of living in the moment and just trying to be happy, with as little pain as possible. Horace's poem is a direct relation to this philosophy, as if Horace had Epicurus' lesson plans in front of him while writing this poem. Horace does not want love to be looked past and also, he does not want "quem Fors diErum cumque dabit" to be worried about. When analyzing Horace's poem as Epicurian philosophy, the relations and connections are present through line 1 to line 24.