Posts by Elli

I agree totally with your thoughts Cassius. I sum up with this picture and my comments below.

Raphael did not leave any written notes who is who in this fresco! All are speculations.

However, Aristotle, Plato Socrates were painted by him similar with their busts. Raphael had info for these philosophers busts, but he had no info for Epicurus bust, but at the same time in his fresco Raphael has painted a person that is similar with the bust of Epicurus. Raphael had info for Socrates bust, but he had no info for the latest philosophical mainstreams that were prevailed in Athens and in Rome, and these were Epicurean philosophy and stoicism. Interesting eh?

This is the work by Takis Panagiotopoulos that is a founding member in the garden of Athens.

https://www.epicuros.gr/pages/en/Panag…rusPortrait.pdf

Please trust me, my friend Cassius, in the greek gardens there are persons that claim for themselves that are epicureans and at the sametime ACCEPT, without using their senses and feelings, whatever is served by the vatican popes. What do you do not understand?

Please let me to write some facts with persons that were involved... and as that famous phrase says "Follow the money" that is a catchphrase popularized by the 1976 docudrama film entitled as: "All the President's Men", which suggests political corruption can be brought to light by examining money transfers between parties.

Villa Adriana

After Hadrian, the villa was occasionally used by his various successors Antoninus Pius (138–161), Marcus Aurelius (161–180), Lucius Verus (161–169), Septimius Severus and Caracalla have been found on the premises). Zenobia, the deposed queen of Palmyra, possibly lived there in the 270s.

During the decline of the Roman Empire in the 4th century, the villa gradually fell into disuse and was partially ruined as valuable statues and marble were taken away.

From whom the statues and the marble were taken away?

From persons like this one:

Bindo Altoviti who lived in the years 1491-1557 of the House of Altoviti was an Italian banker and one of the most influential papal bankers of his generation. A patron of the arts, he cultivated close friendships with artists such as Cellini, Raphael, Michelangelo and Vasari.

His father was Antonio Altoviti, the papal Master of the Mint, and his mother was La Papessa Dianora Altoviti, niece of Pope Innocent VIII. One of his direct descendants was Pope Clement XII.

Like other Florentines who provided loans to the popes in exchange for the rights to papal revenues, Bindo prospered. He enjoyed the financial resources to undertake extensive renovations to the properties he inherited from his father and his suburban villa on the Tiber, and to indulge a growing passion for art. Known for, and endowed with, a strong taste for art, he became a patron of the arts and friend to Cellini, Raphael, Michelangelo and Vasari.

Immortalized in the portrait by Raphael (see the picture), he gave sanctuary to Michelangelo when he fled from Florence to Rome. Michelangelo had such a high esteem for Bindo, while he despised his rival Agostino Chigi, that he gave him as a gift the cartoon of Noah's Blessing (lost), used for the fresco in the vault of the Sistine Chapel as well as a drawing of a Venus (lost) colored by Vasari. It was also Michelangelo who convinced Bindo not to rebuild, but to preserve, the Santi Apostoli church.

Vasari painted the Allegory of the Immaculate Conception for the family chapel. When in Rome, Vasari also used to stay at the Palazzo Altoviti where he frescoed the Triumph of Ceres. When the palazzo was demolished in order to create the Tiber's embankments, the frescos were removed and are now shown in the National Museum of Palazzo Venezia.

For Bindo's suburban villa Vasari frescoed a vast loggia called the Vineyard, decorated with statues and burial marbles from Emperor Hadrian's Villa Adriana.

My hypothesis is : that Bindo Altoviti must had a bust of Epicurus and it had pointed out to his friend the painter Raphael. For this reason Raphael has painted Epicurus figure on his fresco “the school of Athens” so identical and so similar to our known busts.

For the history Bindo Altoviti’s descendants were:

Bindo's son Giovanni Battista Altoviti married Clarice Ridolfi, daughter of Lorenzo Ridolfi, grandson of Lorenzo il Magnifico di Medici and Clarice Orsini, bringing about a reconciliation between the houses of Altoviti, Medici and Strozzi. This made it possible for Bindo's other son, Archbishop of Florence Antonio Altoviti, finally to live in his bishopric. Giovanni Battista himself remained a banker in Rome, was twice consul of the Nazione Fiorentina, and exercised, under Pius V, the offices of an apostolic general and the Depositario dell'Abbondanza.

Marietta Altoviti married Giambattista Strozzi, which also strengthened the link between the houses of Strozzi and Medici. Their descendants became the Strozzi dukes of Bagnolo and princes of Forano, the Corsini princes of Sismano, dukes of Casigliano and Civitella, and most prominent Pope Clement XII.

Their granddaughter Lucrezia Maria Strozzi married Prince Aleksander Ludwik Radziwiłł, Voivode of Polock, Grand Marshal of Lithuania and member of the Radziwiłł family, magnates of Poland and Lithuania. Prince Anton Radziwiłł was the husband of Louise of Prussia. The couple were important patrons of the arts in Berlin during the 19th century. Their later heir Prince Stanisław Albrecht Radziwiłł was married to Caroline Lee Radziwill, sister of the late First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and sister-in-law of President John F. Kennedy.

Hello to all epicurean friends.

The first found, as they claim, was of the double bust of the Epicurus with Metrodorus, and it was in 1742 in Rome. And was happened "accidentaly" during the construction of a portico in the church of St Maria Maggiore.

The marble bust from St Maria Maggiore in Rome in which the name of Epicurus can be seen is today at the Capitolino Museo in Rome.

The double bust was immediately placed in the collection of Pope Benedict ΧΙV.

In 1753, a small bronze bust of Epicurus was also discovered in the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, Italy, among the ashes of Vesuvius. .

This drawing, as Joshua says, is during the years 1800-1820. Thus the drawing is after the years 1742 and 1753 that the busts of Epicurus were found.

I want to make a hypothesis and I would like to ask something: There is a famous villa in Italy and in the area of Tivoli that is called "Villa Adriana" that was built by the emperor Hadrian.

In that villa, as they say, there were many busts of greek philosophers, gods etc., and as the archeologists say, Hadrian wanted to show things that would overwhelm the visitor, something that had not been seen anywhere else in the world and that exists only in his Villa.

The question is : would there be a case Hadrian had inside that villa a bust of Epicurus?

Don Thank you very much for the info on Baretts book. I read one of her articles on a scientific magazine and was really remarkable. Her article is on this link: https://academic.oup.com/scan/article/12/1/1/2823712

Yesterday, I found that her book already exists, here in Greece, in english language and I will buy it soon.

As for the beaver... It takes two to tango.

Βeaver is very capable swimmer, as he can breathe underwater, he uses his sharp teeth and manages to cut down an entire tree overnight. It builds its dams in lakes, even in rivers and in fact creates dams with tree trunks, branches, stones and mud.

The curious thing of course is that beavers for building their dams all the materials are carried by the male beavers while the females are the ones who undertake the construction by making a separation in the house, which is of two parts, because it has the main apartment and storage for food for difficult days while with a hole in the top out of the water, there is also ventilation. The little beavers, as soon as they manage to swim well, they take on their responsibilities and become independent, after going to their own nest.

Don does Dr. Barett mean that all the neurologists (including the founding member in Athens Garden mr. Christos Yapijakis) are based till our days on a wrong theory? Oh gee!

Quote from Cassius

Would your Greek beavers build dams even if separated from their parents and other beavers at birth?

Aristotle that maybe he had observed the greek beavers and many animals may would give you the response to your question.

IMO beavers are not able to build dams IF they will be separated from their parents and IF in their enviroment they will not have interactions and meetings with other beavers to learn from them how to build their dams and how to co-exist with them.

According to evolution humans brain has been evolved into three parts (see photo).

Whilst all humans have these three parts of their brain present at birth, they don’t develop for several years. One very important part of the brain – the orbitofrontal cortex does not develop until the child is three. This part of the brain is responsible for emotional intelligence, our ability to see the world from another’s point of view and manage strong emotions such as rage or fear. 

The development of this part of the brain and many others is not something that just happens naturally. It relies heavily on the interactions of others, namely the main caregivers of the child. Much of a baby’s brain is ‘plastic’ so early experiences have a formative effect on how they will go on to interpret the world and form relationships later on in life. Parental interactions help form the synapses and bridges that give the child healthy solutions to difficult situations. 

Luckily, there isn’t a complicated set of tasks or exercises that parents should complete to aid the development of their child’s brains. Nurturing and interacting is the key, teaching a child that their needs will get responded to in a caring, affectionate way, talking to them, showing them patience and even just eye contact are all important in helping your child’s brain develop. 

As parents, we won’t always get it right, we all get frustrated and snap at our children at times, but even the process of apologizing and things becoming OK again is very useful for our children’s developing brains. 

What if it goes wrong? 

Of course, not all children will have positive experiences in the first few years of life. For instance, children who have a depressed or anxious main care giver may experience less positive interactions than other children. 

We often hear from parents who are wracked with guilt that their post-natal depression has prevented them from bonding with their child. We have worked with children whose adopted parents are struggling with some of the issues that have arisen due to the child’s early neglect. Many parents are anxious that it might be too late for things to change, but we know that things can and do get better, if the right help is sought.

We can read more here on this link and many other links: https://www.clinical-partners.co.uk/insights-and-n…as-three-brains

If you want my opinion on the issue of the "prolepses" and as said by Epicurus, he did not mean only the insticts. Prolepses are in accordance with the enviroment too. BOTH insticts/dna/talents AND the enviroment are the prolepses. We may be born with some faculties, but there is the enviroment that has the power to change something that is innate in us. We are not be born with ready made patterns and ideas. We have the faculty to speak, but we must learn the words of a language that is going along with the things that we pre-receive (προλαμβάνω [pre-receive] is the greek verb for the word "prolepses') with our senses and feelings around us. All are going in accordance with the experiences and the phenomena of the reality and our brain accumulates knowledges from our infancy. IF we were as pre-programmed to think or act on something, from our born till our death then <<the swerve>> that means our autonomy and responsibility to change things in accordance to the phenomena of the reality, could never be happen! Thus, IMO the prolepses that means only insticts, goes hand in hand with the idea of an absolute determinism. In the phenomena of Nature, there is neither an absolute determinism nor an absolute indeterminism.

In the following photos we see the Synaptic plasticity of the brain.

When engaged in new experiences and learning, the brain establishes a series of neural pathways. These neural pathways, or circuits, are routes made of inter-connecting neurons. These routes are created in the brain through daily use and practice; much like a mountain path is made by daily use of a shepherd (e.g. Epicurus as a teacher) and his herd (e.g. friends and students of his school).

The neurons in a neural pathway communicate with each other through connections called synapses, and these communication pathways can regenerate throughout your whole life. Each time that we gain new knowledge (through repeated practice), the synaptic communication between neurons is strengthened. A better connection between the neurons means that the electric signals travel more efficiently when creating or using a new pathway.
For example, when trying to recognize a new bird, new connections are made among specific neurons. Neurons in the visual cortex determine its color, the auditory cortex identifies its song, and other, the name of the bird. In order to know what bird it is, its attributes, its color, song, and name are repeated many times. Revisiting the neural circuit and re-establishing neuronal transmission between the implicated neurons at each new attempt enhances the efficiency of synaptic transmission. Communication between the relevant neurons is facilitated, cognition made faster and faster. Synaptic plasticity is perhaps the pillar on which the brain's amazing malleability rests.

source: https://www.cognifit.com/brain-plasticity-and-cognition

Actually, Socrates did not specify of any name of a known god with that deamonion that was speaking to him the truth inside himself. As Xenophon and Plato claim, the deamonion of Socrates was himself who had the power to protect him from troubles and to protect others too, because that deamonion had revealed to him future situations. Wisdom that is based on the divine is not wisdom is prophesy. One day, as Xenophon says, Socrates went to Delphi and took an oracle that was the most wise of all men. And then became ironical with the mob speaking in the center of Agora. The most of the young persons that kept company with him, they took power and became tyrants. So, in more specific way Socrates was a kind of a prophet and martyr. Socrates was provocative and opposite to all these : the established clergy, the laws, the customs, and the mob.

Greeks believed that the goddess of wisdom was Athena or as the Romans called her as Minerva. There is a remarkable excerpt for this, by Dimitris Liantinis in his book "Gemma".

«Minerva auxiliante, manum etiam admove» that Latin quote says. […Homer repeats this again and again: Ulysses, he stresses, has Athena as his patron saint, the goddess of wisdom. But why are we still talking about Athena, dear reader? Why are we talking about goddesses of wisdom and hot air? His brain was his protector and patron saint. His own thoughts were Athena. His thoughts, clear in their stormy calmness, always expecting the unexpected. His thoughts, nimble like a snake, and terrifying like a panther. Did you ever see knife blades glitter in the darkness? Ulysses would assess each and every difficult situation in the blink of an eye. His brain was a massive complex super-computer. It was this that provided him with a lightning-fast solution to the problem at hand, which he would have considered thoroughly and in all its complexity until its final phase. The one solution, the unthinkable, the excellent. The concept put forward by the Greeks that he was the cleverest of all men and the favourite of Athena-wisdom, incubated exactly this meaning…]

Yes, indeed, now that I wear my supernatural glasses, I see clearly. This face in Raphaels fresco is a close match with the Epicurus bust!

Their arguments were not based on senses and feelings. They were not based on what we see that is similar of what we have nowdays for Epicurus bust. The usage of the epicurean CANON has not been used.

They insisted to preserve those redicule speculations that were spreaded by Popes with some writers about Art and that is : Epicurus in this fresco is that boy with the smirk and has a wreath with vine leafs on his head! This boy, as they say, has the face of a cardinal named Inghirami that was a secretary to the popes, and had a feminine nickname as Pheadra.

Here you can read something about him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommaso_I…_note-rowland-2

In 1510, Inghirami was appointed Prefect of the Palatine Library. As secretary to the College of Cardinals he served as secretary for the papal conclave of 1513 which elected Pope Leo X.[1] About this time he commissioned Raphael to paint his portrait. He appears in the robes of a canon of St. Peter's Basilica. Raphael had already, in 1509, used Inghirami as the model for the Greek philosopher Epicurus in his fresco The School of Athens for the papal apartments.[2][c]

He served as secretary of the Fifth Lateran Council under Pope Julius II and, after his death, under Pope Leo X.[2]

Inghirami was overweight at least in his final decades, as shown in Raphael's works. He suffered from strabismus, the failure of the eyes to align, a condition that Raphael disguised in his portrait by focusing his gaze away from the viewer at some unseen superior or inspiration.[10] Contemporary letters hint he was homosexual[1] or state it as plain fact,[8] an interpretation supported by Raphael's "School of Athens" where Inghirami is embraced from behind by a half-hidden male figure, and his unusual feminine nickname of Phaedra.[2]

Quote from Bryan

TOYC ΑCΩΤΟΥC “profligates” οἱ ἄσωτοι–τῶν ἀσώτων: libertines, spendthrifts; a lost case; from ἄσωτος–ἀσώτη–ἄσωτον: having no hope of safety, in desperate case, abandoned, past any hope of recovery. ἄσωτος

I can't find the proper words to narrate my story what means the word "prodigals". This is the word that my lost brother used to say with the greek phrase:"Είμαι ο άσωτος υιός του πατέρα μου" that means "I'm the prodigal son of my father". My brother repeated to say that when his father died (his father was my step-father), and when my brother was 20 years old, while his father left only to him a heritage with (a motel with 7 appartments near the sea, for renting them in the tourist season, many lands, money, cars etc. that was aprox. of the amount of 400.000$). But my brother did not listen to the admonitions of our mother and me as the oldest sister, and had chose the high living with girls, to rent expensive rooms in hotels and appartments, smoking and offering to many friends marichouana and cannabys, offering to them for having together drinks and dinners in expensive bars and restaurants, buying expensive cloths, shoes etc.

In the end, and in just 9 years, he sold all of the heritage with the real estate and run out of money, and with many of my efforts I managed to persuade him to buy only a small appartement next to my home, with a small new car, while my brother in law found to him a job as guard in the security company that my brother in law still works there.

During that time, and as my brother was waiting some legal papers for that job, he found a temporary job that was for sharing ad-leaflets in a near town of where we both were living; and with four other persons, aged 18, 20, 23 my brother aged 29 , along with a driver of a small car that was 45 years old, they started this job.

In the first day, my brother had complained (due to the testimonies of his girlfriend) to the driver to drive more slowly as the driver that was 45 years old, was happy to drive with that small car in dangerous roads with bends and with the speed of 160 km/h!!! The second day, the driver did not listen the complaints of other young guys, and he was still driving with the same speed. In a dangerous bend and while it was raining the driver lost the control of the car and felt on a big truck that was coming from the opposite side of the street, and the car along with all these young men, became all as one mass.

After a week from his death I saw a dream that he was inside a huge library with many books and speaking to me, he was saying loudly: SIS, FIND THE TRUE KNOWLEDGES. I write this now to you, and I'm crying.

In a month I met Epicurus philosophy inside a book store with the book by Irving Yalom entitled in greek "In the Garden of Epicurus-leaving behind the terror of death" . Till now, I did not stop to blame my grand parents, my parents, my teachers and professors inside schools that they did not teach us anything about Epicurus and his philosophy.

And we are talking about the prodigals after that!

Τhis goes to Don by me, as a small winning price on his studies in hellenic language.

I do not find proper words to declare and describing my feelings of pleasure when Don found the huge mistake by Lucretius that was with this phrase: <<ουδέν εξ' ουδενός>> that means "nothing comes from nothing" that was said, by Parmenides.

Instead of the phrase: <<.πρῶτον μὲν ὅτι οὐδὲν γίνεται ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος>> that said by Epicurus in his LTH that means: "First of all, that nothing is created out of that which does not exist".

Epicurus starts his clear thoughts from the observable and all these that exist since, he does not fall into the trap of the "zero"

and the "nothing" that was done by Parmenides. Epicurus accepts the motion of atoms and bodies, but he does not accept the changing of the Laws of Universe that are called by Phycisists, as fundamental forces. Epicurus does not fall into the trap of an endless cyclical states of how the Universe is created. And this Universe, as the Physicists say, when in 15 billion years it will stop expanding and will be crushed, for Epicurus, if there are the observable to us as first elements/atoms/as particles and the void/ as quantum field, are capable enough with the space (as he was said it as "απειρία" [apiria] that means this that has no boundaries i.e. as we set the North, South, East, West) to re-create another Universe same as this we're living. Thus, for him, and according to his manifold way of thinking there is another possibility among many possibilities in any future some intelligent beings will start their researches on how the material Universe with unumerable Cosmi were created.

Thus, Epicurus with the Canon has set all the credibility in our senses and feelings, and of course the "pre-receivals (greek "προλήψεις") [prolepses] that are accumulated knowledges in the brain that are connecting with the images of the materialistic things of the reality and creating the synapses of neurons.The purpose of new knowledges or the retrieval i.e. the capability of the brain with the memory of all these that are stored in our brain from infancy, as they continue to evolve according to new knowledges of the materialistic reality/the whole Nature are intended and connecting with the goal to not to disturb us mentally and bodily, for being like sheep below the orders of a master/ruler/leader/god with his representatives as clergy and politicians.

<<Mακαρίζω σε, ᾧ Ἀπελλῆ, ὅτι καθαρὸς πάσης παιδείας ἐπὶ φιλοσοφίαν ὥρμησας>>.

<<I congratulate or I consider you blissful, oh Apelles, because you have rushed into (epicurean) philosophy clear (i.e. with clear brain) from all culture>>. - Epicurus

culture means: such patterns-false ideas that our brains have been washed from infancy, with the manipulation of a repeat and repeat, and repeat of false religions, false philosophies and false political ideas.

Synaptic plasticity of the brain

When engaged in new experiences and learning, the brain establishes a series of neural pathways. These neural pathways, or circuits, are routes made of inter-connecting neurons. These routes are created in the brain through daily use and practice; much like a mountain path is made by daily use of a shepherd (e.g. Epicurus as a teacher) and his herd (e.g. friends and students of his school).

The neurons in a neural pathway communicate with each other through connections called synapses, and these communication pathways can regenerate throughout your whole life. Each time that we gain new knowledge (through repeated practice), the synaptic communication between neurons is strengthened. A better connection between the neurons means that the electric signals travel more efficiently when creating or using a new pathway.

For example, when trying to recognize a new bird, new connections are made among specific neurons. Neurons in the visual cortex determine its color, the auditory cortex identifies its song, and other, the name of the bird. In order to know what bird it is, its attributes, its color, song, and name are repeated many times. Revisiting the neural circuit and re-establishing neuronal transmission between the implicated neurons at each new attempt enhances the efficiency of synaptic transmission. Communication between the relevant neurons is facilitated, cognition made faster and faster. Synaptic plasticity is perhaps the pillar on which the brain's amazing malleability rests.

source: https://www.cognifit.com/brain-plasticity-and-cognition

Quote

Bryan said : Telling all the people around the world that the gods do not exist is like telling people that they themselves do not feel hunger or pain. They feel it, they know it.

Telling people not for the existence of gods actually. Telling them of how usefull are their preconceptions or anticipations of gods in their daily life. Do gods eliminate their hunger and thirst? Because hunger and thirst need heads and mouths. Nobody saw in the Greek Agora or the Roman Praetorium people judging without heads and speaking without mouths!

Bryan my friend, you are my inspiration for this: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Epicure…28316807217253/

Shame on you, my ex-president of our fake Democracy!!!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Epicure…81730511875883/