How Epicurean or Stoic is Ricardo Reis?

Abstract

In this article, we take into consideration the interface between poetry and philosophy, from a perspective that extends from Antiquity to a modern author (Fernando Pessoa). After noting that pre-Socratic philosophers were already poets, we focus our explanations on the Epicurean and Stoic schools, as developed in Hellenistic Greece. The essential teachings of these philosophical schools for the purpose of this article are that, while Epicureanism established the measured use of pleasures as the goal of human life, Stoicism privileged virtue. Ideas from both schools were incorporated into the Odes, or other works, by the Roman poet Horace, sometimes peacefully, sometimes with disagreements. Similarly, in the heteronym identified with Ricardo Reis – who also composed Odes –, we find positive or negative traces of Epicureanism and Stoicism, revealing his strong thematic connection with Horace. He thus invites people to enjoy the pleasure of wine, friendship and love, but he also looks at it with indifference. Furthermore, he stoically sprinkles his work with lines associated with the contempt for fortune’s setbacks and the acceptance of destiny, but he simultaneously admits to fearing change and death. In his philosophical eclecticism or instability of association with the Epicurean and Stoic schools, therefore, Ricardo Reis keeps close to Horace, his model from Antiquity.