Posts by Don

I would concur with Martin.

The word used there is εὐσυνκρίτοις and seems to possibly be word coined by Epicurus. I've seen it described as referring to men who have to help others and has the meaning of “well constituted, well composed.” (remite a los hombres que han de ayudar a otros y tiene el significado de "bien
constituido, bien compuesto"). And well-compounded, well-constituted, or discriminating, Diog.Oen.1,2.

Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, ε , εὔσπολον: , εὐσύγ-κρι^τος

The word also occurs in fragment 3 in the inscription, too:

And so, having described the second reason for the inscription, I now go on to mention my mission and to explain its character and nature.

Having already reached the sunset of my life (being almost on the verge of departure from the world on account of old age), I wanted, before being overtaken by death, to compose a [fine] anthem [to celebrate the] fullness [of pleasure] and so to help now those who are well-constituted. Now, if only one person or two or three or four or five or six or any larger number you choose, sir, provided that it is not very large, were in a bad predicament, I should address them individually and do all in my power to give them the best advice. But, as I have said before, the majority of people suffer from a common disease, as in a plague, with their false notions about things, and their number is increasing

**Excellent** episode, gentlemen!!

I found the last segment talking about the need for gods' bodies to experience pleasure especially insightful. I don't know whether I've ever heard it read that before.

Thanks for the shout-out. We'll get that episode scheduled. I continue to hold an idealist position (not strongly, but that's the way I lean), but I'll look forward to exploring the topic.

You are DEDICATED, Cassius !! Editing on battery power!

These defaced statues bring to mind the countless individual humans and their communities - including but not limited at all to Epicureans - who were persecuted, killed, marginalized, beaten into submission, by the "triumph" of Christianity. Bart Ehrman had reminded us that a "triumph" is not a metaphor in ancient Rome. It is a celebration of the subjugation of your enemy, a parade of their enslaved men, women, and children through the streets of the city. Displaying your power that has hammered an enemy into submission.

The Triumph of Christianity - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Roman triumph - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

How are you doing? Are you directly impacted by the path?

Anyone else want to check in?

Speaking of "inscriptions"...

A Hellenic or Roman Marble Statue Face (2nd-1st Century BC), of a goddess defaced with a Christian cross during the Late Antique Period. The cross was carved by a Christian, who damaged the face representation of the goddess. Crosses were also sometimes carved on ancient statues to Christianize them for reuse as images of saints. The artifact is now located in the Archeological Museum of Samos in Greece.

"From the 6th Century BC, through the 4th Century AD, sculpture had been created and destroyed, stolen and repositioned, but always prominently displayed and used in the context of Corinthian religion, economic activity, and urban life. Yet from about the 5th Century, creation of new work dropped off rapidly, preceded by a decline in technical ability and availability of raw materials, and closely followed by the defacement and then destruction of most of what existed in public and private contexts.

Between the 5th-10th Centuries, the only new sculpture created at Corinth was in the form of architectural members or Christian reliefs for church decoration, while ancient sculpture of “pagan” or “secular” significance alike was steadily marked with crosses, defaced, cut up, reused, or melted down. This new attitude to sculpture was a fundamental change of Late Antiquity, as individually and collectively people both ceased to create new sculpture, and undertook the actual physical destruction of most of what existed.

This late antique change in attitude to sculpture happened all across the Roman Empire, and led both individuals and groups to behave toward the sculpted environment in new and hostile ways."

Amelia R. Brown, “Crosses, noses, walls and wells: Christianity and the fate of sculpture in late antique Corinth” (copied from Twitter/X @archeohistories)

Welcome aboard!

In the end, we're all silly apes just trying to enjoy our time in the world

Quote from Julia

I'll try and see if I can get a nice NFFNSNC ring or pendant somehow.

For any readers coming across this at random:

Non Fui, Fui, Non Sum, Non Curo

I was not; I was; I am not; I care not.

I also found an alternate version online:

Non Fui, Fui, Memini, Non Sum, Non Curo

I was not; I was; I remember; I am not; I care not.

That strikes me as almost even more Epicurean than the other version. "The inscription is “To the gods, underworld spirits: I did not exist. I existed. I remember. I do not exist. I don’t care. I, Donnia Italia, twenty years old, rest here. Sminthius and Donnia Calliste to their very loyal freedwoman {D(is) I(nferis) M(anibus), non fui fui memini non sum non curo Donnia Italia, annnorum XX, hic qui esco Sm[in]t(h)ius et Donnia Calliste, l(ibertae) piissimae}.” 1st-2nd century CE, now housed at the Eugène-Camoreyt Museum in France."

I myself carry around on my keychain a ring of beads spelling SFOTSE "Sic fac omnia tamquam spectet Epicurus." Do all things as if Epicurus were watching (quote from Seneca's letter)

Honestly, I'm a little embarrassed for my profession. sigh. A classic example of patron-driven collection development ... gone awry, in my opinion.

(Rant complete....Steps down off soapbox)

FYI here's the ancient Greek calendar along with festivals from the Hellenion group of pagans:

Calendar – Hellenion

Looks like today is right in the middle of the Greater Eleusinian Mysteries

Eleusinian Mysteries / Eleusinia ta megala – Hellenion

Philodemus mentions Epicurus taking part in the Mysteries at Athens.

Coming from a position of ignorance:

Does this all have to do with Planck units?

Planck units - Wikipedia

I'm sorry. I cast an extremely skeptical eye on anything that tries to equate ancient Epicurean physics and modern quantum theory.

Epicurus was good, but he wasn't *that* good.

Granted, I say the same things about any Buddhist trying to pull the same trick btw (ex, The Tao of Physics)

Still one of my favorite memes...

Did you mean to upload twice? This is what I'm seeing on my podcast app:

For context, WP provides some background:

Tired light - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

More examples...

U489

489. Nature teaches us to think nothing of what fortune brings, to understand that when prospering we are unfortunate and when not prospering we are fortunate, to receive undisturbed the good things that fortune brings and to stand ready for its seeming evils. For what is good or evil to most people is fleeting, and wisdom has nothing in common with fortune.

καὶ τὰ παρὰ τῆς τύχης μικρότερα (ἡ φύσις) διδάσκει νομίζειν, καὶ εὐτυχοῦντας μὲν γινώσκειν ἀτυχεῖν, δυστυχοῦντας δὲ μὴ παρὰ μέγα τίθεσθαι ὄν τὸ εὐτυχεῖν, καὶ δέχεσθαι μὲν ἀθορύβως τὰ παρὰ τῆς τύχης ἀγαθά, παρατετάχσθαι δὲ πρὸς τὰ παρʼ αὐτῆς δοκοῦντα εἶναι κακά· ὡς ἐφήμερον μὲν πᾶν τὸ τῶν πολλῶν ἀγαθόν ἐστι καὶ κακὸν, σοφία δὲ οὐδαμῶς τύχῃ κοινωνεῖ.

VS17

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 by chance 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.

VS67

67. A free person is unable to acquire great wealth, because that is not easily achieved without enslavement to the masses or to the powers that be. Instead, he already has everything he needs, and in abundance. But if by chance he should have great wealth, he could easily share it with his fellows to win their goodwill.

ἐλεύθερος βίος οὐ δύναται κτήσασθαι χρήματα πολλὰ διὰ τὸ τὸ πρᾶγμα <μὴ> ῥᾴδιον εἶναι χωρὶς θητείας ὄχλων ἢ δυναστῶv, ἀλλὰ συνεχεῖ δαψιλείᾳ πάντα κέκτηται· ἄν δέ που καὶ τύχῃ χρημάτων πολλῶv, καὶ ταῦτα ῥᾳδίως ἃν εἰς τὴν τοῦ πλησίον εὔνοιαν διαμετρήσαι.

Mathematical probabilities. There are a number of quotes from the Epicurean texts that address this idea, especially:

Quote from Epicurus, Letter to Menoikeus

[133] "Who, then, is superior in thy judgement to such a man ? He holds a holy belief concerning the gods, and is altogether free from the fear of death. He has diligently considered the end fixed by nature, and understands how easily the limit of good things can be reached and attained, and how either the duration or the intensity of evils is but slight. Destiny, which some introduce as sovereign over all things, he laughs to scorn, affirming rather that some things happen of necessity, others by chance, others through our own agency. For he sees that necessity destroys responsibility and that chance or fortune is inconstant ; whereas our own actions are free, and it is to them that praise and blame naturally attach. [134] It were better, indeed, to accept the legends of the gods than to bow beneath that yoke of destiny which the natural philosophers have imposed. The one holds out some faint hope that we may escape if we honour the gods, while the necessity of the naturalists is deaf to all entreaties. Nor does he hold chance to be a god, as the world in general does, for in the acts of a god there is no disorder ; nor to be a cause, though an uncertain one, for he believes that no good or evil is dispensed by chance to men so as to make life blessed, though it supplies the starting-point of great good and great evil. He believes that the misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool. [135] It is better, in short, that what is well judged in action should not owe its successful issue to the aid of chance.

Replace "chance" with "luck" and that's a pretty good summary of Epicurus's views.

Quote from Cassius

So maybe I shouldn't take such a dim view of the collage -- if we could all receive a blood transfusion from Epicurus, we'd probably all be much better off! We may have to adopt that kind of imagery ourselves at some point!

I do hope you're being intentionally provocative, because I come to the opposite view. Epicurus is very clear that we have to do our own work. Too many commentators take Epicurus's "dogmatic" position to mean blind loyalty. I go back to its literal Greek use of taking a position vs remaining skeptical of everything. Using that "blood transfusion" metaphor, to me, plays into that erroneous stereotype, even in jest.

Herodotus, 10.38 (Hicks)

Next, we must by all means stick to our sensations, that is, simply to the present impressions whether of the mind or of any criterion whatever, and similarly to our actual feelings, in order that we may have the means of determining that which needs confirmation and that which is obscure.

"Ἔτι τε44 τὰς αἰσθήσεις δεῖ πάντως τηρεῖν καὶ ἁπλῶς τὰς παρούσας ἐπιβολὰς εἴτε διανοίας εἴθ᾽ ὅτου δήποτε τῶν κριτηρίων, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ τὰ ὑπάρχοντα παθη, ὅπως ἂν καὶ τὸ προσμένον καὶ τὸ ἄδηλον ἔχωμεν οἷς σημειωσόμεθα.

Quote from Cassius

I can't confirm the Greek, but, for example, it seems important in this passage that the phrasing would be "perceptIBLE" (able to be perceived) rather than "that which has already been perceived.

That passage doesn't seem to do what you want. I read it as:

τὰς παρούσας ἐπιβολὰς "the present impressions"

παρούσας is "of things, to be by, i.e. ready or at hand; to be present in or at." These are the impressions of the mind being experienced. So, it seems to me to be neither "perceptIBLE" (able to be perceived)" nor "that which has already been perceived" but what is present at the moment, at least in this particular passage.

τὰ ὑπάρχοντα παθη (ta hyparkhonta pathē) "the actual feelings"

ὑπάρχοντα is "to be already in existence; to be laid down, to be taken for granted." We need to take our feelings - pathē - of pleasure/pain into account.

This passage says to me we need to use what we have experienced or are experiencing to determine the nature of that which needs additional evidence or that which is unseen or not evident to the senses.