Epicurus (-341 to -270) of Athens founded the Epicurean school of Greek philosophy, one of the five great school of ancient times. Its glory days ran from about -300 to +200. It taught that the world is nothing more than matter in motion, that things happen by chance – not even the gods are in control. To live well in such a world and have peace of mind, one must avoid pain and seek pleasure.
Although the Epicureans later got a bad name as immoral pleasure seekers, Epicurus himself lived very simply as an example to his followers. He lived in a house in a garden where he taught his followers. His school was therefore called the Garden. It stood there in Athens from –310 to +529.
Epicurus said that the aim of life was peace of mind. To attain it you must seek pleasure and avoid pain according to the following principles:
- Fear no god: Gods exists, yes, but they want to live in peace. They do not care about us. The universe is ruled not by gods but by matter, motion and chance.
- Do not care about death: it does not hurt, you will not even know you are dead! You will be gone, even your soul. There is no hell to fear.
- The good is easy to get: Man does not need much – he can live on “water and barley cakes.”
- The bad is easily endured: if sickness or pain is horrible it is short-lived. If it is long-lasting, it is bearable.
Epicurus was against suicide because it goes against the fourth principle. Some later Epicureans, however, were for it.
For Epicurus there is no such thing as morals, as right and wrong – just pleasure and pain. Not just those of the flesh, but, even more important, those of the mind.
To attain peace of mind it helps to be just, prudent and honourable. So does friendship. Family and political affairs, on the other hand, do not.
The Stoics also sought peace of mind, but looked for it in duty, not pleasure.
Epicurus’s physics was based on the atoms of Democritus. Democritus said that everything was made up of atoms: very small bits of matter – too small to see and too small to cut up into smaller parts. They are uncreated and eternal.
The universe is just atoms moving about. To some degree they follow the rules of physics, but there is also an element of chance as well. There is certainly no divine design or purpose to it all.
Epicurus said that even the gods were made of atoms. While his universe does not require gods, either to create it or rule it, he believed they existed because it is a universal belief among mankind. Gods should be worshipped out of respect not fear.
Famous Epicureans: Cassius, Lucretius, Lucian, Lorenzo Valla, Gassendi, Thomas Jefferson.
Influenced by Epicurean thought: Virgil, Horace, Locke, Boyle, Newton.
Against it: Cicero, Plutarch, Origen and Augustine.
See also:
Brilliant post. Thank-you for explaining Epicureanism so well.
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Good food, pleasure comfort, I could love that life.
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@ Mary, this post has me thinking! I am thinking more about the Greeks — not just of Antiquity, but of today, and when I have more time, I’d like to share some thoughts with you and ask your opinion (about Epicurus’ outlook).
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@ Bulaink: That’s fine.
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@ mary. I am thinking about what Epicurus was really saying about life and what he would say about death. Will get back to you about that after I get my thoughts straight on this one 😀
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And another early Abagond post;being an atheist ,about five or six years ago a was researching (basically confirming my bias) and came upon Epicurus and his philosophy – what he had to say about gods and the afterlife rang so true to me ,as it always has and probably always will.
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Also my sources on Epicurus at the time had the main focus on why should not worship gods,however give it to Abagond in his 500 words or less summary to give focus:
3.The good is easy to get: Man does not need much – he can live on “water and barley cakes.”
4.The bad is easily endured: if sickness or pain is horrible it is short-lived. If it is long-lasting, it is bearable.
Considering much of the content of this site in the last few years, wise words indeed.
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@ mary. First of all, I love Epicurus’s cheerfulness.
Nevertheless, there’s a part of the Epicurean teaching that might not satisfy, especially when your life is being touched by death:
Epicurus believed:
It’s bothersome because I feel there are some people who wouldn’t be happy to realize their souls become extinct at death.
For some, there is no comfort in that.
Some do find comfort and peace in the prospect that their souls will be tranquil.
I’m not sure what the Ancient Greeks thought about death.
Perhaps, those ideas changed a lot then, depending on the era, and what philosophy was fashionable at the time. I don’t have the impression they believed in an afterlife, not in the way a lot of people believe in it now, that after we are dead our soul has the same memories and identity as it had in life.
What the Ancient Greeks believed in was an underworld, a place invisible to the living, somewhere at the ends of the ocean, or the far reaches of the earth. And, depending on what kind of life you had lead, you went to a different place in that underworld. The worst souls went to a hell-like dungeon, Tartaros, and the best souls, to Elysium.
But they did believe that death brought higher consciousness — that much is clear — a person became very clear in their dying moments, and what they said on the deathbed was probably the most significant words/signals of their lives.
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@ mary, contd.
When I was young girl (about 7 or 8 years of age), the older Greek women that used to live around me were always dressed in black — head to foot, everyday.
They were in perpetual mourning. This was part of living.
(This was also true of the people from the southernmost Mediterranean from what I have heard, covering the area of Greek influence.)
When I heard about the Greek way of preparing the dead for burial, it sounded “familiar”, e.g.:
–the eyes and mouth of dead were closed.
–the body of the deceased was cleansed by the women, and with seawater if it was available.
–the body was dressed in something simple, pale in colour.
However, it was the funeral lament that stood out.
Powerful lamentations are still a big part of Greek life, from what I have seen and heard — and even though they are Christian and form part of the the Eastern Orthodox Church, the ancient ways are still traceable in the modern forms, and although allowed by the Church, I am not sure how commonplace now. The ritual element of SHOWING grief (wailing, tearing out hair, scratching one’s own face, etc.) is not unusual in the lament. Apart from singing, there is the giving of food, and much grave-visiting. Contemporary, rural Greece has changed since joining the EU, but not all of the traditions are gone.
The custom of the family exhuming the dead after a few years has not died out, AFAIK. Apparently, what happens here is that the corpse is removed from it grave to access the progress of the soul:
— if the corpse’s flesh had wasted away completely, the bones are then washed in wine and re-buried. But,
— if the corpse is putrid, the belief is that the dead person has become a ghost that haunts the living, and that they are in hell. Such remains are usually cremated.
Strenuous mourning at funerals, in the past, at least, was sometimes led by women who were professional mourners, such as this example from Sardinia filmed in the 1960s:
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJUQxelrZX4)
The music of Greek funerals (usually performed by men) may not have changed greatly either. An example from Epirus, now part of Albania:
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIug_U6–9g)
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*Correction: Sentence should read:
Apparently, what happens here is that the corpse is removed from its grave to assess the progress of the soul.
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@ mary, there was a 2nd-hand book I once saw about this subject, and didn’t buy, and now wish I had.
It was called “The Death Rituals of Rural Greece”. At that time, I thought it was very morbid and an irrelevant subject unworthy of spending good money on.
*
But death is part of life, and it catches up on you. Always. I have struggled to mourn and make my way through living with death. I think everyone does, but we’re all individuals and cultures vary from place to place. I have to face the death of another, I hope the wait will be long, but it not be. It’s not a bad thing to think about death then, in my PoV.
This book is really about the dead and the relationships that go on with the survivors. Now that I know more about Greece than I did when I was 7 or 8 (lol), I have a new respect for all those women I saw dressed in black in the parts of the city where the Greek immigrants lived. The Church might designate 40 days of mourning. The women (and a couple of men) I have seen dressed totally and always in black, had chosen to extend this period to one year or even longer. In some instance widows or widowers continue to wear black for the rest of their lives.
I might still try to get the book, at least for another perspective of how a human being can cope.
The description of the book is as follows:
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This particular study, “The Death Rituals of Rural Greece”, when I was thumbing through it, never gave me the impression that I was looking at anything “primitive” or exotic. It looked very moving and real, something purely human. I think what was “different” about it was that it was looking at death and surviving a loved-one’s death as a NORMAL thing, and I was looking at it as a thing to AVOID.
I think that is quite standard in modern, Western culture, where we don’t celebrate someone’s death as a central ritual of social life and symbolic experience.
I was used to rationalizing death, instead, which was the wrong way because, death isn’t something which is controlled under mental conditioning!
It’s the human condition, simply.
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Comment ^^ intended for maryburrell.
Previous comment in moderation.
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Bulainik, Thank you every so much for the cultural enlightening.
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@ mary, you’re welcome — but please understand me, I am enlightening myself as I go along. We’re in the same boat!
The question I wanted to ask you was: what helps a person to mourn?
It’s a general question, you don’t have to go into personal specifics, of course.
Mourning, it seems, can take some kind of skill, and the grieving person needs “permission” to vent their emotions.
When I found this video of a training workshop for professional mourners in the States — should I laugh or cry?
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-B3e-FZxi0)
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Epicureanism rings truest for me of the 5 philosophy schools. Thanks Abagond for clarifying about pleasures/pains of the mind as well as body.
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