Posts by Elli

Imagine, for example, that I give great importance to the algorithm of the desires and succeed pleasure from there, but I give a little importance to the study of Nature. What would be the results?

My cup of life would have holes to permit the entrance of PAIN. Because without the study of Nature the notions that : "a god created the universe" (platonists-stoics-christians) or "the best to promote is the contemplation of god" (Aristotelians-stoics-christians) or "fate and necessity is the endless chain of causation" (platonists-stoics-christians) or "virtue is above all"(platonists-stoics-christians), or "do your duty subordinate, compromised and in apathy" (stoics-christians) or "there is another life after death" (platonists -christians)... while I count the algorithm on the desires, some devious others will do their filthy job in my society, and I will be the responsible to lose and even my natural and necessary. So, while I give great importance on the algorithm of the desires - without studying Nature properly - all of my desires will lose their fixed bond and main core that is pleasure to disappear for making me a good stoic-slave or worse a good buddhist for searching the Nirvana.

And as our epicurean friend George Kaplanis from the Garden in Thesalloniki says: "Epicurean philosophy protects itself with consistency. This is its self-defense. If someone tries to change one piece with another piece from elsewhere, it will end up in nothing. If not something worse than nothing".

"I think every explanation without the core that exist in "Lathe Viosas" it is something just to talk about. Everything in the epicurean philosophy has a fixed bond with pleasure. Lathe Viosas serves the pleasure, and it has the pleasure in its foundation, i.e. inside its core. If you follow the "Lathe Viosas" and you end up compromised and subordinate, then the pleasure is lost and "Lathe Viosas" loses its core and disappears".

Τhe greek epicureans and specially those in the Garden of Thessaloniki insist on the methodology (see the scheme in the attached picture)...

Let's see the picture :

It concerns the Epicurean philosophy.

The more the person is concerned with the study of nature,

the more he succeeds fearlessness,

the more he uses the measurement of pain and pleasure.

These two produce pleasure that belongs to the individual, (because pleasure belongs to the one who feels it, of course).

At the same time, however, the person practices the art of sufficiency

which is improved with the study of nature

and the more one achieves self-sufficiency,

the more freedom he acquires and thus greater the pleasure it provides to the individual.

Let's not insist on completeness of the analysis (which anyway does not exist), but in the method.

It includes the general picture. We can later move to the rest which are the multiple causes of human happiness. We can combine the rest. Then, we are going to see what emerges from the composition of the rest. In a more compound form we will observe the rebound and feedback. The more this process provides pleasure to a person, the greater the desire to study the Nature. The system does not use the law of excluded middle, i.e. pleasure or no pleasure, fearlessness or not fearlessness etc, but uses the Epicurean Multi-valued way where the above causes constantly get different values depending on the decisions and our actions. Imagine, for example, that I give great importance to the fearlessness and succeed pleasure from there, but I give little importance to self-sufficiency. So, depending on the general activity at a certain time, one cause will affect the other continuously taking different values and all the separate data will pulsate and will affect one another until the system settles and **perhaps** I wish that calmness means Katastematic pleasure of the individual. The system is dynamic, it is evolving like the nature and covers the needs of the Epicurean philosophy, which observes things as they proceed and as Diogenes of Oenoanda writes (in response to Peripatetics) this flow, flowing as he says, can be scrolled quickly but not so fast as not to conceive a situation of it.

Sorry, Cassius I do not have this book in my home now. There is in my son's home. It is a greek edition that I do not remember many details. Long time ago I had scanned this photo with the eagle and the snake, because our friend George Kaplanis used it for one of his articles.

This fight among two moralities i.e. the bravery and slavery is given inside a Nietzsche's book with graphics. The picture is with a brave eagle that wants to fly free onto the skies and a snake that tightens its body. The snake's body is made of sheep that always are connected with the slave morality... if the snake-sheep will manage to choke the eagle then the sheep will go inside the sheepfold for eating their stupid-grass and waiting for their slaughter...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoNa-nNOY18

From a tv show and at 40.40 minutes there is a remarkable excerpt of a conversation between the journalist Mr. Pantelis Savvides and the Dean of Theology at the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki Mr. Miltiades Konstantinou.

- Μr. Konstantinou: Whoever reads the gospels will notice carefully that all the discussions that Christ does with the theologians of his era are on this: who is the true Israelite…

- Mr. Savvidis: Who is?

- Mr. Konstantinou: He who truly respects the Law of God. And Christ always gives his own interpretation in all these conversations every time. Therefore, here comes Christ saying: I tell you the authentic interpretation of the Law (of God).

- Mr. Savvidis: So, Christianity is a continuation of Judaism...

- Mr. Konstantinou: An evolution of Judaism ... yes, from somewhere it starts ...

- Mr. Savvidis: That is, Christianity is a development of the Judaism…

- Mr. Konstantinou: Certainly, Christianity is another version of Judaism…

(We repeat thrice the absolute acceptance) : Certainly, Christianity is another version of Judaism… Certainly, Christianity is another version of Judaism… Certainly, Christianity is another version of Judaism…

Si, io capisco tutto ma non posso di scrivere bene. Mia nonna era italiana e mi parlava in italiano. Ho avuto un sogno di studiare a Roma la lingua italiana.

Ciao Michele, questo busto di Epicuro è molto bello, mi piace molto.

GOOD GRIEF ! https://www.facebook.com/groups/Epicure…29058483809767/

Sorry, Bradley but I do not agree totally with you. Plato and his teacher Socrates did not lead the Greeks to a mental disease. Evidence ? The Athenians punished Socrates to death with the hemlock. Plato suffered too in the court of Dionysus at Syracuse and caught as slave, and then he returned to Athens, as a miserable old man. In ancient Greece there was the punishment to those that provoked to people mental disease, because the ancient greeks did not bite lies easily. Something that does not exist in our days, since then came the plague of abrahamic monotheistic religions with their strong basis that is the stoicism. Abrahamic religions that had copied- pasted stoicism totally are feeding - till our days - the people with more lies than Plato and Socrates did in their era. And if we want to be precise there was and an Epicurus for cleaning up the mess of those philosophical ideas. Where is the punishment to the buffoon that took over the half - and much more of the half - of the nations of the world ? Tell me where is the desire of the people to punish e.g. those that hold the Financial Banking System that has strong basis, and spreading the confusion of the stoicism ? Imagine Epicurus and the ancient Athenians to hear that : [The chief executive of Goldman Sachs, which has attracted widespread media attention over the size of its staff bonuses, says he believes banks serve a social purpose and are “doing God’s work.”] .

Where is the anger of the people and the punishment when they hear such a provocative phrase that goes against to their mental health? For this, the whole planet and specially the western world is focusing to your Nation first, the huge and great America, waiting the consequences of any punishment if there is any ! We are waiting your nation to born again a new Thomas Jefferson. We are waiting till now for changing your current that writes : "in god we trust". Read of what one of your presidents had said for this phrase : {...}My own feeling in the matter is due to my very firm conviction that to put such a motto on coins, or to use it in any kindred manner, not only does no good, but does positive harm, and is in effect irreverence, which comes dangerously close to sacrilege.{...}Any use which tends to cheapen it, and, above all, any use which tends to secure its being treated in a spirit of levity, is from every standpoint profoundly to be regretted.{...}it seems to me eminently unwise to cheapen such a motto by use on coins{...} In all my life I have never heard any human being speak reverently of this motto on the coins or show any signs of its having appealed to any high emotion in him, but I have literally, hundreds of times, heard it used as an occasion of and incitement to{...}sneering{...}Every one must remember the innumerable cartoons and articles based on phrases like 'In God we trust for the 8 cents,'{...}Surely, I am well within bounds when I say that a use of the phrase which invites constant levity of this type is most undesirable.{...}" - Theodore Roosevelt, November 1907

I found this post to FB in many greek profiles of my friends.

The area that is now «Notre Dame» was an island, and on top of it was built the temple of Zeus Carneus by Tiberius Caesar Augustus. It was then the center of the French-Romans. For to visit the temple there were sailors with boats who carried the pilgrims and protected the Temple. Then Paris was called by Romans Lutetia.  A column that was found writes : "To Zeus Carneous, Carnous" for the Celts.

In 1710, during the construction of a crypt underneath the temple of «Notre-Dame», a column dedicated to Zeus with the foundations of a Roman temple that was dedicated to Zeus. This was first published by Baudelot de Dairval in 1712. /http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/.../baudelot-de-dairva..., and testifies the excavation.
The column is dated by a dedication of the Roman Emperor Tiberius Caesar August who took over his emperor in year 14.
The Roman temple was dedicated to Zeus and existed there before the advent of Christianity.

The column of the temple is called "the column of sailors" of Parrasia or Parisias.
The column says:
TIBerio CAESARE
AVGvsto IOVI OPTVMO
MAXSVMO
NAVTAE PARISIACI
PVBLICE POSIERVNT
"During the reign of Tiberius Caesar Augustus, to the High and Great Jupiter,
the Parisian sailors raised this column with public money.

The origin of the French Parisians comes from a breed known as the Parrasians who were people of Arcadia. The 15th-century Italian humanist and poet John Baptist Mantuanus writes that: the Parrasians, who led from a place of Arcadia by Hercules, came to France, where they settled and gave to the nation the name of Paris.
With the advent of Christianity, the temple of Zeus was destroyed and to its place Christians built 4 temples before «Notre-Dame».

Cassius Liantinis never said that he was an Epicurean. He was more as an eclectic, for this sometimes his views are controversial like Nietzsche's. Liantini's admiration was for Ionian philosophers, for Nietzsche, for Socrates, Plato and Aristotle and not for Epicurus especially. But for Epicurus and his philosophy, he had pointed out some good things, but he did not study epicurean philosophy as a whole like you and me, and many others.

Hello to all the friends. The limits on pain and pleasure are personal. Liantinis was a Spartan, and as a Spartan he matured with the idea for keeping Thermopylae. This idea/prolepsis/preconception/anticipation was stuck to his mind in all of his life. He thought that his action to end his life was an action to protest against those issues that we live today in Greece and are producing to our society a lot of pain. Maybe Liantinis decided that to escape from something that produced to him a lot of pain. Maybe Liantinis thought that his action was a heroic and brave action. It is the same with Georgakis who was born in my home-island and had set himself on fire in the middle of a square to Genova, in Italy to protest against the dictatorship that was then, in Greece.

For Georgakis now, my compatriots made a big statue placing it to a square in my home-island. This is the prolepsis/anticipation/preconception that had been stuck in Georgaki's that was measured by him on the basis of his experiences and the circumstances. And as Liantinis did , he saw, he measured, and he decided. And by the way Metrodorus says :

47. I have anticipated thee, Fortune, and entrenched myself against all thy secret attacks. And we will not give ourselves up as captive to thee or to any other circumstance; but when it is time for us to go, spitting contempt on life and on those who vainly cling to it, I will leave life crying aloud a glorious triumph-song that we have lived well.

Liantinis decided that was the time for him to go and of what his 15,000 students at the university confirm, they say that he lived well as he also remarked many times to them that life is a GREAT GIFT. Of course I do not say that this idea is good or bad. I do not moralize and this issue. I do not say that the christians were disgraceful when for a name of a god threw themselves to the lions, as they say. Anyone is free to offer and taking whatever he likes in his life. And everyone is free to make his hedonic calculation. But for me, frankly as an Epicurean the issue of survival is a great issue, and of course the pleasurable survival is the greatest issue. So I consider hostile whatever is against to my pleasurable survival, and of course, this goes in extension to my family, friends and my society. Maybe Liantinis started his values from the end : the society, the friends, the family and the last was himself. These are the greeks they count upside down. But if someone would place me a question to give my life to save my children or my close friends this is another issue to talk about seriously for putting aside myself. Because I keep in mind those two sayings.

56. The wise man feels no more pain when being tortured himself than when his friend tortured.

57. On occasion a man will die for his friend, for if he betrays his friend, his whole life will be confounded by distrust and completely upset.

Diogenis of Oinoanda where are you to hear that ?? Your huge inscription in the middle of Agora was an anti-intellectual bullying !! FRANKNESS OF SPEECH is a great achievement of the free and brave men and is used by the Epicureans too for speaking FREELY for any idea, and for any persons that saying any idea. Frankness of speech is not an anti-intellectual bullying!

And now I wonder... from which country does Matthaeus come from ? From North Korea ? US First Amendment states that: “Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech or of the press.”

Jews cultivated the land of faith. Greeks cultivated the land of knowledge. Jews were absolute, Greeks were critical. Jews were relentless, Greeks were deferential. This is why the Jewish world prevailed over the Hellenic. The weapon of choice was Christianity, an illegitimate and heinous outgrowth of the main body, rejected by Jews themselves, but which obliterated classical Greece nonetheless. What could not be accomplished courageously, was achieved via fouler means. This is reflected in the traditional Greek folk tale of Digenis Akritas, the famous hero of Acritic Songs. The tale tells of how Death spotted the young hero and from a distance, struck at his heart and took his soul. ( Dimitris Liantinis “Gemma”)

I have chosen to put both my feet in one boat and not in two, since this is dangerous. I do not fly on that winged ram that had golden fleece to fall again in Elliespontos, as a greek Myth says. So, now I'm sailing on the Hellenic archipelagos for staring at Homer and Odysseus who was the cleverest man of all. These are my Myths and their evolution are Democritus and then Epicurus who never had a need of any church. The only he had was a Garden and friends, many friends. Not like Christ with traitors like Judas Iscariot and those “friends” in Gethsemane, who abandoned their teacher ALL of them. These are the examples : traitors, abandonment, sacrifice and a lot of PAIN. Why ? Because Christ's teachings are for little boys that are afraid the darkness of death…  

Philosophically speaking Christ did not die on a Friday on the hill of Golgotha, but on a Wednesday, at the Mount of Olives. In solitude, abandoned by ALL, somewhere far removed. It was at the time when his sweat was like drops of blood, and when, with tears in his eyes, he whispered “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death”. It was then and there that the dice were cast, and that was his fear of death. And the fear of death of a jewish god continues with illusions and resurrections.

Beauty and virtue and such are worthy of honor, if they bring pleasure; but if not then bid them farewell! - Epicurus

 The dwarfs can not judge the shoe of a GIANT!

The following is an excerpt from the book entitled : “Stoa and Rome” by Dimitris Liantinis, as translated by me:

The destruction of Hellenic and Roman civilization and culture in general, ladies and gentlemen, has been done by the ZERO!  

Yes! Do not be amazed – by the ZERO ! By an abysmal hating ZERO which had for its target : the HUMAN and the BEING!

The destruction of the Hellenic and Roman civilization began from an old, paralyzed, and impoverished STOICISM, which through the dark catacombs ripped its clothes to fight that which is the most beautiful humanity ever created, as it crackled its teeth from hatred for the Joy of Knowledge and the Beauty of Life!!

And for all those things that humans created with their culture, and it was yet so hard to study! In medieval times, this ZERO tortured by the Inquisition the study of Nature and manliness of Science.

This is indeed the “ODIUM GENERIS HUMANI” (Hatred of the Human Race) as Tacitus said.

“Knowledge,” you say? “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” we shall say!

“Beauty, health and strength,” you say? “Lame, crippled, paralyzed, and blind,” we will say!

“Love,” you say? “The tortures of hell and more are waiting for you at the moment of your death, we say!

For honor and glory answered by inconspicuous and humility. The last would be first, they said! The pride and the honor propounded by the humiliation and abashment! Blessed you will be when they mock you, persecute you and backbiting you, they said!

The taste of the mouth and the delicious food responded with fasting and the locusts in the desert! The beauty of feelings and pleasures of life responded to the remorse of the flesh and the denigration of bodily expression! Slandered the flower of youth, and became a virginity and a chastity for the symptoms of Neurosis ! Freud saw too much and suffered to revive some of his patients and illness people!!

In joy and sparkle in the world and the intoxication of spring responded to the gloom and the black of widow! Blessed are the mourners, they told!

Finally, hunger, thirst and injustice, the longing of a christening justice are vanished with a surfeit of hungry and with a foggy dream!

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness, they said. – “- Husband, I’m dizzy from the hunger// – Shut up, you will eat in the sky//, as the greek poet Kostas Varnalis said ironically, in one of his verses..].