Imagens animais nos Sermones horacianos

Abstract

As symbol of real people or positive or negative characteristics, animals come up, since ancient times, in popular wisdom and in literature as aphoristic and caricatural figures standing for certain human behaviours. Valued for its simplicity in eloquence and depth of content, animal imagery has served Horace’s playful and moralizing purposes, in some cases, and parodic in others. But, above all, animals have been turned into a funny and wise lesson of life to men who often laugh at themselves when laughing at animals.