Posts by Don

Quote from Cassius

I guess part of the question is "What is 'it'?" Does 'it' mean "our best and most accurate calculation of the day of birth" or "the day we should schedule a group celebration?"

Sometimes I even wonder what the "most accurate calculation" really means. Does it mean the day of the year in which the planets today are most closely configured around the sun in the same positions as they were at the time of Epicurus' birth?

Exactly! It is almost impossible under any definition to pinpoint an exact date correlation between an ancient event and the modern Julian calendar. The best we can do with something like Epicurus's Birthday is to respect the spirit of the Will. Those two papers I posted get at the highly complicated exercise calculations like that would be.

Quote from Kalosyni

Is anyone else concerned that we might end up creating a special "American" Epicurean annual celebration which would be on a very different date than what is currently happening in Athens?

Nope.

From what I can see now, Epicurus made provisions in his Will to celebrate his birthday on the 20th day - "the earlier tenth" - of his birth month, Gamelion, as was "customary." From @Nate 's research, it appears Gamelion typically occurs from mid-January through mid-February. Celebrating annually on Feb. 20 seems too late to say it's in Gamelion. It doesn't seem to me there's anything American or Greek or German or any other nationality to the calculations. To me, January 20 would be the closest we could come in modern times to celebrate the spirit of his Will.

I didn't see the modern Epicurean annual symposium in Athens in February was chosen for his birthday, but I may have missed that. And, with all due respect to being located in the land of his birth, the modern Greeks have no lock on any kind of authority within modern efforts to bring Epicurus's philosophy back to a living philosophy. I certainly respect their scholarship and efforts, but even in ancient times the school seems to have been somewhat decentralized also by Roman times.

I will say I haven't seen anywhere else that has picked up on the "earlier tenth" in the Greek text. Even the Society had the tenth in a write up about Epicurus's Birthday:

On the Occasion of the Birth of the Hegemon | Society of Friends of Epicurus

That is VERY impressive, @Nate ! I certainly can't argue with any of your calculations, and, with that, I would concur that Jan. 20 seems to be a preferable *customary* date to celebrate Epicurus's birthday as set out in his Will.

From the articles below, it seems the Athenian calendar was much more fluid than we are accustomed to.

Some of that is laid out in this paper:

The Athenian Calendar

The Author provides a thorough introduction to the five (5) most commonly used calendars in Ancient Athens through the Roman Period. This paper presents an…

www.academia.edu

And this:

Calendars of Athens again - Persée

Quote from elli

IMO for the word "σύνοδος" the appropriate word in english is "session" i.e. a period devoted to a particular activity.

"Session" could work for the reasons you pointed out.

I would prefer a word that gets at the "bringing together" implied by the syn- in synodos. Something like "meeting" or "assembly." "Synod" is too imbued with Christian connotation.

Here's the Etymology Online entry for the word synod:

late 14c., "ecclesiastical council," from Late Latin synodus, from Greek synodos "assembly, meeting; a coming together, conjunction of planets," from syn- "together" (see syn-) + hodos "a traveling, journeying; a manner or system (of doing, speaking, etc.); a way, road, path," a word of uncertain origin (see Exodus). Earlier in English as sinoth (early 12c.). Used by Presbyterians for "assembly of ministers and other elders" from 1593 to c. 1920, when replaced by General Council.

Quote from Nate

That's an excellent find, Don that I think definitely explains the discrepancy.

Thanks, @Nate . That means a lot coming from you!

I wanted to share a couple words that struck me in that section of the Will too. The translation runs:

for the meeting of all my School held every month on the twentieth day to commemorate Metrodorus and myself according to the rules now in force.

This sounds so sterile to me, so I looked at the text. There we can find:

ὥσπερ καὶ εἰς τὴν γινομένην σύνοδον ἑκάστου μηνὸς ταῖς εἰκάσι τῶν συμφιλοσοφούντων ἡμῖν εἰς τὴν ἡμῶν τε καὶ Μητροδώρου <μνήμην> κατατεταγμένην.

συμφιλοσοφούντων ἡμῖν (symphilosophountōn hēmin) something literally like "our (not my) fellow "lovers of wisdom"/philosophers" That seems warmer than "school"

σύνοδον (synodon) from sym "with" (as in "sympathy", same sym- as above) + hodos "path, way" This is the word "synod" we know from Christianity. This is the "meeting" in the translation, but I like the connotation of "coming together with others on the path/way."

Those two words for me provide much more color to Epicurus's last will than the usual dry translation.

OMG! Okay, I went and looked at the Wikipedia article that I think is the one Joshua looked at and saw (emphasis added - LOOK at the 20th!!):

Quote

To summarise the days with special names.

• The first day: noumenia, or new moon.
• The last day: henē kai nea, the "old and the new".
• The 21st day: "the later tenth". The Attic month had three days named "tenth" (equivalent in a straight sequence to the 10th, 20th, and 21st days). These were distinguished as
  • 10th: "the tenth (of the month) waxing"
  • 20th: "the earlier tenth" (i.e. waning)
  • 21st: "the later tenth" (i.e. waning)

This strange juxtapositioning of the two days called the tenth, the earlier and the later, further highlighted the shift into the moon's waning phase.

SO τῇ προτέρᾳ δεκάτῃ τοῦ Γαμηλιῶνος is NOT "the tenth of Gamelion". It's "the 'earlier tenth' of Gamelion" meaning the 20th!! He's saying right there in his will that his birthday was *customarily* celebrated on the προτέρᾳ δεκάτῃ "the earlier tenth" - the 20th! - of Gamelion! There aren't three dates! There are only two:

1. Epicurus's actual birthday of 7 Gamelion, sacred to Apollo Epicurus
2. the *customary* celebration of his birthday during the regular 20th celebration during the month of his birth.

Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, πρότερος

It was right there all the time and it all lines up!

So we could include a celebration of Epicurus's Birthday on the 20th of Gamelion which is Feb 10/11, 2023, or decide *by custom* to celebrate it either at the 20 January or 20 February since the 20th in his will was also *by custom.* The Jan 20 or Feb 20 would definitely be in the spirit of his will.

So, his will then says to me that his birthday was celebrated only on the "first tenth" or 20th of Gamelion, but the school met every 20th to commemorate both Epicurus and Metrodorus.

Okay, I think I've planted my flag on this hill.

LOL! Here we go!

Here also is Gassendi's chapter on the birth of Epicurus (Thanks, Cassius !)

Gassendi’s Epicurus – Part 1 – Life of Epicurus – NewEpicurean

I like the idea of Epicurus being born on 7 Gamelion due to its association with Apollo Epicurus.

In his will, Epicurus's words convey that somehow the "first tenth" of Gamelion was chosen to customarily celebrate his birthday: τὴν εἰθισμένην ἄγεσθαι γενέθλιον ἡμέραν

εἰθισμένην = "accustomed"

τῇ προτέρᾳ δεκάτῃ τοῦ Γαμηλιῶνος (tēi proterai dekatēi tou Gamēliōnos) "for the first tenth of Gamelion"

BUT (and I can't vouch for the authority here but Joshua pointed this out, too)

Quote

The first day was the New Moon - Noumenia. Then the first two phases were numbered consecutively from 2nd rising to 10th rising, then 11th to 19th. On the twentieth, the day was called the first tenth. The twenty first was named the last tenth and the numbers decreased from the 9th waning to the last day of the month - Old and New.

But does that mean that Epicurus's Birthday was celebrated *within* the first ten days of the month of Gamelion (ie, actually on the 7th) or it was on the "first tenth" or is the 20th of the month called "the first tenth" like that website says???

LSJ gives an interesting definition (one of them) that δέκατος can mean "festival on the tenth day after birth, when the child has a name given it, τὴν δ. θύειν to give a naming-day feast"

Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, δέκα^τος

It definitely appears to me that his actual birthday did not occur on τῇ προτέρᾳ δεκάτῃ τοῦ Γαμηλιῶνος but that it was only celebrated that day by custom. Why else use εἰθισμένην?

Well, unless, his birthday - which did it occur that day?? - was celebrated over the years and it was customary now to throw a party for him *on* his birthday. But that εἰθισμένην gives me pause. BUT Epicurus says in his will to go ahead and keep celebrations going on τῇ προτέρᾳ δεκάτῃ τοῦ Γαμηλιῶνος as we've become accustomed to doing. Maybe I am inclining to celebrate it τῇ προτέρᾳ δεκάτῃ τοῦ Γαμηλιῶνος. Hmmm....

btw

Here's the thread from earlier this year with @Nate 's and Joshua 's excellent detective research on the Date:

Post

RE: Epicurus' Birthdate

I note that Diogenes documents both dates (the 7th and the 10th) within one page of each other, the first one being a citation to Apollodorus, and the second being a citation of Epicurus' Last Will: “He was born, according to Apollodorus in his Chronicles, in the third year of the 109th Olympiad, during the archonship of Sosigenes, on the seventh day of the month of Gamelion, seven years after the death of Plato" (498). And then, one page later, "[T]he customary celebration of my birthday each…

Eikadistes

July 8, 2022 at 2:42 PM

In preparation for the annual "controversy" of when to celebrate Epicurus's Birthday:I

- 'm going with 7 Gamelion as the day.

- I'm using this as my authoritative source for the Athenian calendar: http://www.numachi.com/~ccount/hmepa/calendars/700.html

- Therefore, I'll be celebrating from sunset on Jan. 28 to sunset on Jan. 29, 2023.

- Check out the homepage of the site:

HMEPA: Hellenic Month Established Per Athens temporary

Especially the "About the Calendar" page.

PS: As of Jan 2023, I'm adding in this link to the final version of my paper where I've compiled all the findings in this thread in one place. Enjoy!

Quote from Pacatus

The winter solstice: when the days (daylight) start lengthening again.

Ah! A celebration of the regularity of the cosmos, that we do not live at the whim of the gods. The cosmos is knowable and not capricious. The lengthening days is a metaphor for our gradual understanding of the cosmos, celebrate Epicurus's triumph over the darkness of ignorance (especially if you're compelled to attend a midnight mass where the lights are extinguished then relit at midnight to announce "the birth of the Savior").

Quote from Lucretius, Proem of Book 3 DRN

O thou who first uplifted in such dark

So clear a torch aloft, who first shed light

Upon the profitable ends of man,

O thee I follow, glory of the Greeks,

And set my footsteps squarely planted now

Even in the impress and the marks of thine-

Less like one eager to dispute the palm,

More as one craving out of very love

That I may copy thee!-

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How's that?

It seems to me that Thanksgiving is the most Epicurean of modern holidays with its emphasis (at least nominally) on gratitude.

This led me to think about how other holidays could be reinterpreted (at least in one's mind and motivation) in an Epicurean context:

• Easter - This is an easy one. Just take it back to its pagan roots as a celebration of Spring, new life, renewed fertility of the Earth. Read the hymn to Venus by Lucretius on the day.
• Halloween - This one's easy, too, in tying it to El Dia de Los Muertos that comes the day after. This is a chance to remember those who have passed, to relive pleasurable memories of those who have died.
• Christmas - This one's tougher. The Christian context is the birth of Christ, the "bringer of light to the world." Well, we already have Epicurus's birthday in Jan/Feb to celebrate the birth of the founder. So, what to do with Christmas? There's gift giving. Maybe something to do with that?

Anyway, consider this an invitation to offer ideas. Include other holidays. We can always move it to a new thread of it elicits responses

Speaking of history timelines, I copied my alternative Epicurean timeline from a thread to my Wall:

https://www.epicureanfriends.com/wcf/user/311-don/#wall/comment425

It's based on the idea that Diogenes Laertius is writing Book 10 of his Lives of Eminent Philosophers right now in 2022 CE.

Quote from Cassius

Wow it's possible to assemble quite a list!

And I don't think that's an exhaustive list either

Happy Thanksgiving Eve. Kalosyni inspired me to go back and pull out some more favorite "gratitude" quotes:

χάρις

Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, χάρις

Remember that Epicurus wrote a whole book entitled Περὶ δώρων καὶ χάριτος "Concerning Gifts and Gratitude"

VS 17 It is not the young man who is most happy, but the old man who has lived beautifully; for despite being at his very peak the young man stumbles around as if he were of many minds, whereas the old man has settled into old age as if in a harbor, secure in his gratitude for the good things he was once unsure of.

οὐ νέος μακαριστὸς ἀλλὰ γέρων βεβιωκὼς καλῶς· ὁ γὰρ νέος ἀκμῇ πολὺς ὑπὸ τῆς τύχης ἑτεροφρονῶν πλάζεται· ὁ δὲ γέρων καθάπερ ἐν λιμένι τῷ γήρᾳ καθώρμικεν, τὰ πρότερον δυσελπιστούμενα τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀσφαλεῖ κατακλείσας χάριτι.

VS 19 He who forgets the good things he had yesterday becomes an old man today.

τοῦ γεγονότος ἀμνήμων ἀγαθοῦ γέρων τήμερον γεγένηται.

VS35 (My paraphrase) Don't spoil your enjoyment of the things you presently have by craving things that are absent, but remember that what you have here and now were also things you were once devoted to getting.

VS69 (My paraphrase) The ingratitude of the soul makes a creature gluttonous for limitless variation in one's lifestyle.

τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς ἀχάριστον λίχνον ἐποίησε τὸ ζῷον εἰς ἄπειρον τῶν ἐν διαίτῃ ποικιλμάτων.

Note: ποικιλμάτων refers literally to fancy embroidery or needlework, and so the colloquial meaning of "variety, diversity" comes from the intricate patterns and ornaments of that craft. To me, this VS again gets at not being able to take pleasure in or to be grateful for what's right in front of you.

Plutarch, Against Colotes, 17, p. 1117A: But what epithet do they deserve – with your “roars” of ecstasy and “cries of thanksgiving” and tumultuous “bursts of applause” and “reverential demonstrations,” and the whole apparatus of adoration that you people resort to in supplicating and hymning the man who summons you to sustained and frequent pleasures?

U183 Plutarch, That Epicurus actually makes a pleasant life impossible, 15, p. 1097C: One cannot ignore the man’s absurd inconsistency: he treads under foot and belittles the actions of Themistocles and Miltiades and yet writes this to his friends about himself: “The way in which you have provided for me in the matter of sending the grain was godlike and magnificent, and you have given tokens of your regard form me that reach to high heaven.” So if someone had taken that corn ration of his bread-stuff from our philosopher’s letter, the expressions of gratitude would have conveyed the impression that it was written in thanksgiving for the freedom or deliverance of the whole Greek nation or of the Athenian state.

In light of all this emphasis on the importance of gratitude χάρις, PD1 appears problematic:

PD1 Τὸ μακάριον καὶ ἄφθαρτον οὔτε αὐτὸ πράγματα ἔχει οὔτε ἄλλῳ παρέχει· ὥστε οὔτε ὀργαῖς οὔτε χάρισι συνέχεται· ἐν ἀσθενεῖ γὰρ πᾶν τὸ τοιοῦτον.

One who is blissful and incorruptible has no troubles oneself nor causes troubles for others; as a consequence, they are affected by neither anger nor *gratitude*; because all this would be an indication of weakness.

Woodhouse's (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1910) provides a long list of synonyms for χάρις that includes:

attraction, benefaction, bias, boon, elegance, fascination, favour, grace, gratefulness, gratitude, kindness, niceness, obligation, offering, pleasantness, and more than two dozen more!

With all those shades of meaning, I would offer this translation/paraphrase of PD1:

One who is incorruptible and is feeling undiluted bliss is self-sufficient, secure in themselves, and has no troubles oneself nor feels any need to cause trouble for others. So, they are affected by neither anger nor obligation because all that comes about through frailty.

I think the idea of "obligation" better conveys the self-sufficiency and self-assuredness of a completely blissful, indestructible being.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Epicurean friends! Εὐχᾰρῐστέω! I am grateful!

I've always been partial to

VS35 Don't ruin the things you have by wanting what you don't have, but realize that they too are things you once did wish for.

οὐ δεῖ λυμαίνεσθαι τὰ παρόντα τῶν ἀπόντων ἐπιθυμίᾳ, ἀλλʼ ἐπιλογίζεσθαι ὅτι καὶ ταῦτα τῶν εὐκταίων ἦν.

Quote from Godfrey

I was surprised to learn that he was heavily influenced by Aristotle.

I would be curious what Seligman attributes to Aristotle in the development of positive psychology.

Quote from Godfrey

Positive psychology appears to fall into the objective approach to happiness, which I found quite interesting at the time as I couldn't put my finger on what bothered me about it.

I'd be interested to hear more of your thoughts on that topic. I think positive psychology has some useful findings to share, but I'm sometimes skeptical of their data when it's from self-reported surveys.

Quote from Cassius

There are "objective" facts of nature which we have to take into account in deciding how to live, such facts including:
No supernatural beings exist.
No consciousness / life / reward / punishment after death
No guidance from Nature as to what to choose or avoid other than (very broadly stated) the feelings of pleasure and pain.
No Platonic forms or Aristotelian essences or absolute virtue / right / wrong exist in the abstract that apply to everyone all the time and in all circumstances. ("Yellow" does not have an eternal unchanging existence apart from "things that are yellow.")

I would say that these can/should also be understood as necessary components of a pleasurable life, especially 1 and 2 as *really* understanding these leads to freedom from anxiety about god's judgment, punishment after death, fear of death, etc. Without that freedom from anxiety and fear, one can't have "subjective well-being."

Also, upon further reflection on the necessity of friendship: it seems to me that Aristotle was focused on the individual's place in the polis and one, he believed, couldn't truly achieve well-being outside that context. Epicurus, on the other hand, saw the individual's well-being as most important but that well-being was supported - flourished - by a community of friends that one could rely on. One was still a member of one's city-state and took part in the city's festivals but one's close circle of friends is what provided the most security.

Quote from Cassius

When deciding what to pursue, don't look for an objective list that applies to everyone as such a list existed and was handed down by God or by Platonic forms. Look instead simply to your own circumstances, evaluate how hard it is going to be to obtain those desires, and measure your decision on whether to pursue them by asking whether the reward to you will be worth the cost to you.

As it is, many of us seem trapped in the Aristotelian model and think that there must be a list that everyone has to check off in order to be happy. The way out of that trap is to realize that no such single list exists. And so we should reject the "objective" natural and necessary analysis that Aristotle and other pre-Epicurean Greeks had suggested, and instead substitute the Epicurean natural and necessary model, which is primarily subjective

I would say the "list" has both objective and subjective aspects. For example, Epicurus states that friendship is an immortal good. He obviously thinks friendship is necessary for a pleasurable life. That's objective to me. How many friends, what you do with your friends, etc.: That can be subjective. Are you naturally outgoing? Maybe you want lots of friends and to do adventurous things. More introverted, maybe less friends are necessary and you do quieter things. We're all combinations of introvert and extrovert with varying needs and desires. But friendship, as an example, is necessary. That's even born out by psychological research. Loneliness is extremely detrimental to one's health.

As to "happiness," I expressed my misgivings about that word at the 20th last night. The word used in the texts is eudaimonia by Aristotle, Epicurus, et al. Happiness has become a buzzword and comes along with lots of semantic baggage. The definition in positive psychology research seems to be "subjective well-being" which sounds right to me. It may be clunky, but it also is a better translation of eudaimonia in my opinion.

What Is Happiness and Why Is It Important? (+ Definition)

Do you think happiness is the same thing to you as it is to others? Find out!

positivepsychology.com

Quote from camotero

in some cases we're navigating "their" waters,

Sailing between the Scylla and Charybdis of religion and superstition.

https://philarchive.org/archive/BREEOS

"Epicurus on Sex, Marriage, and Children" PDF

Opens with an explanation of the proposed mistranslation of pertinent passage.