Historic Oral presentation on Epicurean Philosophy in Samos

    My Dear Epicurean Friends

    It is with great pleasure that I inform you that last Friday (May 4, 2018) I delivered an oral presentation of about 2 hours (including discussion of about half an hour) with the title: "The confirmation of Epicurean Gnosiology (Canon) and Epicurean Ethics by contemporary Neurobiology" at Pythagorion, in the Greek island of Samos. I was invited to present two talks at the Festival of Heraia-Pythagoreia (12th year of cultural celebration in remembrance of the temple of goddess Hera and philosopher Pythagoras). My second presentation was titled "Plague of Athens: A historical, medical and philosophical approach" in which I also presented the link between Thucydides, Epicurus, Lucretius, modern epidemiology and my ancient DNA studies of skeletal material from the ancient epidemic victims.

    As you know our beloved master Epicurus was raised by Athenian parents in Samos, and believe it or not this was the first comprehensive presentation of Epicurean philosophy in Samos in the modern era. This was a historic event and I am sharing with you some photos of the event (the audience of about 70 people, myself, the poster advertising my talks and a part of ancient Samos (where Epicurus probably walked in his early years as a child and a teenager) in the town known today as Pythagorion.


    Unfortunalely my jpg photo files are big and I cannot attach them (with zip the big size remains). I will have to figure out another way to send them.

    What an amazing opportunity, and at such a suitable location!


    You may be able to share the pictures through a file sharing service like Dropbox or Mediafire. Alternatively you could upload them individually to something like tinypic.com and embed the images in a post

    Thank you Christos! Wow that is great! I am going to my email now and will make sure these are posted - and I will investigate the issue of why you couldn't post them directly.


    I have now added the photos to Christos' original post.

    Amazing, simply amazing. Wow this is really the first modern presentation on Epicurus this long? That's shocking to me. Ah if only I could understand Greek.

    Eoghan, I think he is referring to first modern presentation on Samos. Christos' group based in Athens puts on a yearly Symposium - some links are here:

    2018 Panhellenic Symposium of Epicurean Philosophy - Athens Greece


    6th Annual Panhellenic Symposium Of Epicurean Philosophy Is This Weekend in Athens!


    If you follow these threads there should be links to lots of pictures and agendas from prior events.

    Thank you my friend Cassius for the help with my photos!


    You are right Cassius. This has been the first modern presentation of Epicurus and his philosophy on Samos. People in the island mostly celebrate philosophers Pythagoras and Aristarchus the Peripatetic that were from Samos.