Introduction

Quintus Horatius Flaccus wrote his odes in 23 B.C.E, a time when lyric poetry was the voice of the society of Rome. Also, a time when a certain philosophy ruled over the age of men: Epicureanism. Epicureanism is a system of philosophy created by Epicurus, whose ambition was to encourage happiness by removing the idea and fear of death in people’s minds .

Horace exhorts his friend, Postumus to embrace the fact that death is unavoidable. Thus, if he comes to terms with death at an early age, the rest of his life will be lived out with peace and prosperity.

My ideas and philosophy for a translation of: Death is Inevitable are along the same ideas and motives of Horace. Though I may not be an Epicurean myself, I am enthralled by the many layers there were to such a society of people and that when I translated the poem I would keep those layers intact through the stanzas. Though my initial thoughts, were to try and make such a melancholy poem into one of more gloomy hopefulness, I decided instead to keep the rather rare outlook of an Epicurean. I did, however, wish to make the translation into something more of a flowing story, rather than the blunt check-list formation of how death will dismally come upon a man, that is given by Horace to his friend. Throughout the entire translation of the poem, the literal translation can be easily found, it is just that the format has been changed.

The mythology of the many characters mentioned in the ode, such as Pluto and Sisyphus, was also researched a little further, by myself; from this, some small additional points were added to the ode to increase the flow and understanding for the benefit of the non-classical reader. I wanted to make this a poem that everyone would be able to read and get the moral of and not just a student of Classics.