Diez palabras de Horacio sobre la felicidad

Abstract

AbstractSome verses from Horace’s ode 1.37 present a series of fundamental terms for defining the concept of happiness and for a history of this notion. We will analyse ten words from this ode, central to the theory and history of happiness, relating them to some other words in the same conceptual field. They act in a negative way, attributed to the character of Cleopatra. We find that in the particular character some of the common causes of human unhappiness are enumerated, especially the absence of limits and the inability to restrain oneself in the face of an excess of good fortune. Cleopatrae, finally, is opposed to the Augustan ideal (in public happiness) and the Horatian ideal (in private happiness) and is therefore contrary to Romanity, whether political or ethical. The study relates this passage to other works of Horace and to other texts of Latin literature belonging to the poetic, philosophical, historical and rhetorical fields