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(, "An recte dictum sit latenter esse vivendum") 1128c; cf.
Flavius Philostratus, "Vita Apollonii" 8.28.12.
But the Epicureans did have an innovative theory of justice as a social contract.
Justice, Epicurus said, is an agreement neither to harm nor be harmed, and we need to have such a contract in order to enjoy fully the benefits of living together in a well-ordered society.
Laws and punishments are needed to keep misguided fools in line who would otherwise break the contract.
But the wise person sees the usefulness of justice, and because of his limited desires, he has no need to engage in the conduct prohibited by the laws in any case.
Laws that are useful for promoting happiness are just, but those that are not useful are not just.
(Principal Doctrines 31-40)
========,2,Legacy.
Elements of Epicurean philosophy have resonated and resurfaced in various diverse thinkers and movements throughout Western intellectual history.
The atomic poems (such as 'All Things are Governed by Atoms') and the philosophy of naturalism espoused by Margaret Cavendish were influenced by Epicurus.
His emphasis on minimising harm and maximising happiness in his formulation of the Ethic of Reciprocity was later picked up by the democratic thinkers of the French Revolution, and others, like John Locke, who wrote that people had a right to "life, liberty, and property."
To Locke, one's own body was part of one's property, and thus one's right to property would theoretically guarantee safety for one's person, as well as one's possessions.
This triad, as well as the egalitarianism of Epicurus, was carried forward into the American freedom movement and Declaration of Independence, by the American founding father, Thomas Jefferson, as "all men are created equal" and endowed with certain "unalienable rights," such as "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Jefferson considered himself an Epicurean.
In "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding", David Hume uses Epicurus as a character for explaining the impossibility of our knowing God to be any greater or better than his creation proves him to be.
Karl Marx's doctoral thesis was on "The Difference Between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature".
Epicurus was first to assert human freedom as coming from a fundamental indeterminism in the motion of atoms.
This has led some philosophers to think that for Epicurus free will was "caused directly by chance".
In his "On the Nature of Things" ("De rerum natura"), Lucretius appears to suggest this in the best-known passage on Epicurus' position.
But in his Letter to Menoeceus, Epicurus follows Aristotle and clearly identifies "three" possible causes - "some things happen of necessity, others by chance, others through our own agency."
Aristotle said some things "depend on us" ("eph'hemin").
Epicurus agreed, and said it is to these last things that praise and blame naturally attach.
For Epicurus, the "swerve" (or "clinamen") of the atoms simply defeated determinism to leave room for autonomous agency.
Epicurus was also a significant source of inspiration and interest for both Arthur Schopenhauer, having particular influence on the famous pessimist's views on suffering and death, as well as one of Schopenhauer's successors: Friedrich Nietzsche.
Nietzsche cites his affinities to Epicurus in a number of his works, including "The Gay Science", "Beyond Good and Evil", and his private letters to Peter Gast.
Nietzsche was attracted to, among other things, Epicurus' ability to maintain a cheerful philosophical outlook in the face of painful physical ailments.
Nietzsche also suffered from a number of sicknesses during his lifetime.
However, he thought that Epicurus' conception of happiness as freedom from anxiety was too passive and negative.
========,2,Works.
The only surviving complete works by Epicurus are three letters, which are to be found in book X of Diogenes Laërtius' "Lives of Eminent Philosophers", and two groups of quotes: the "Principal Doctrines" (Κύριαι Δόξαι), reported as well in Diogenes' book X, and the "Vatican Sayings", preserved in a manuscript from the Vatican Library.
Numerous fragments of his thirty-seven volume treatise "On Nature" have been found among the charred papyrus fragments at the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum.
In addition, other Epicurean writings found at Herculaneum contain important quotations from his other works.
Moreover, numerous fragments and testimonies are found throughout ancient Greek and Roman literature, a collection of which can be found in Usener's "Epicurea".
According to Diogenes Laertius, the major works of Epicurus include:
***LIST***.
========,2,Hero cult.
According to Diskin Clay, Epicurus himself established a custom of celebrating his birthday annually with common meals, befitting his stature as "heros ktistes" (or founding hero) of the Garden.
He ordained in his will annual memorial feasts for himself on the same date (10th of Gamelion month).
Epicurean communities continued this tradition, referring to Epicurus as their "saviour" (soter) and celebrating him as hero.
Lucretius apotheosized Epicurus as the main character of his epic poem De rerum natura.
The hero cult of Epicurus may have operated as a Garden variety civic religion.
However, clear evidence of an Epicurean hero cult, as well as the cult itself, seems buried by the weight of posthumous philosophical interpretation.
Epicurus' cheerful demeanour, as he continued to work despite dying from a painful stone blockage of his urinary tract lasting a fortnight, according to his successor Hermarchus and reported by his biographer Diogenes Laërtius, further enhanced his status among his followers.
========,2,In literature and popular media.
Paul the Apostle encountered Epicurean and Stoic philosophers as he was ministering in Athens.
Horace describes himself as "Epicuri de grege porcum" "a swine from Epicurus's herd" in his "Epistles".
In Canto X Circle 6 ("Where the heretics lie") of Dante's Inferno, Epicurus and his followers are criticised for supporting a materialistic ideal when they are mentioned to have been condemned to the Circle of Heresy.
Chaucer's Frankeleyn, in the General Prologue of his "Canterbury Tales," is described as an Epicurean: "Wel loved he by the morwe a sop in wyn; / To lyven in delit was evre his wone, / For he was Epicurus owene sone, / That heeld opinioun that pleyn delit / Was verray felicitee parfit" (344-38).
[He well loved bread soaked in wine for breakfast; / To live in pleasure was ever his custom, / For he was a son of Epicurus, / Who was of the opinion that pure pleasure / Was true perfect happiness.]
"Epicurus the Sage" is a two-part comic book by William Messner-Loebs and Sam Kieth portraying Epicurus as "the only sane philosopher" by anachronistically bringing him together with many other well-known Greek philosophers.
It was republished as graphic novel by the Wildstorm branch of DC Comics.
========,2,Epicurus and "Epicursim".
In Rabbinic literature the term "Epikoros" is used, without a specific reference to Epicurus, yet it seems apparent that the term was derived from his name.
Epicurus's apparent hedonistic views (as Epicurus' ethics was hedonistic) and philosophical teachings, though opposed to the Hedonists of his time, countered Jewish scripture, the strictly monotheistic conception of God in Judaism and the Jewish belief in the afterlife and the world to come.
The Talmudic interpretation is that the Aramaic word is derived from the root-word פק"ר (PKR; lit.
"licentious"), hence disrespect.
The Christian censorship of the Jewish Talmud in the aftermath of the Disputation of Barcelona and during the Spanish Inquisition and Roman Inquisition, let the term spread within the Jewish classical texts, since Roman Catholic Church censors replaced terms like "Minim" ("sectarians", coined on the Christians) with the term "Epikorsim" or "Epicursim", meaning heretics.
========,1,preface.
An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement.
The word is derived from the "epigramma" "inscription" from ἐπιγράφειν "epigraphein" "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two millennia.
The presence of wit or sarcasm tends to distinguish non-poetic epigrams from aphorisms and adages, which may lack them.
========,2,Ancient Greek.
The Greek tradition of epigrams began as poems inscribed on votive offerings at sanctuariesincluding statues of athletesand on funerary monuments, for example "Go tell it to the Spartans, passersby...".
These original epigrams did the same job as a short prose text might have done, but in verse.
Epigram became a literary genre in the Hellenistic period, probably developing out of scholarly collections of inscriptional epigrams.
Though modern epigrams are usually thought of as very short, Greek literary epigram was not always as short as later examples, and the divide between "epigram" and "elegy" is sometimes indistinct (they share a characteristic metre, elegiac couplets); all the same, the origin of the genre in inscription exerted a residual pressure to keep things concise.
Many of the characteristic types of literary epigram look back to inscriptional contexts, particularly funerary epigram, which in the Hellenistic era becomes a literary exercise.
Many "sympotic" epigrams combine sympotic and funerary elementsthey tell their readers (or listeners) to drink and live for today because life is short.
Epigrams are also thought of as having a "point"that is, the poem ends in a punchline or satirical twist.
By no means do all Greek epigrams behave this way; many are simply descriptive.
Epigram is associated with 'point' because the European epigram tradition takes the Latin poet Martial as its principal model; he copied and adapted Greek models (particularly the contemporary poets Lucillius and Nicarchus) selectively and in the process redefined the genre, aligning it with the indigenous Roman tradition of 'satura', hexameter satire, as practised by (among others) his contemporary Juvenal.
Greek epigram was actually much more diverse, as the Milan Papyrus now indicates.
A major source for Greek literary epigram is the "Greek Anthology", a compilation from the 10th century AD based on older collections.
It contains epigrams ranging from the Hellenistic period through the Imperial period and Late Antiquity into the compiler's own Byzantine eraa thousand years of short elegiac texts on every topic under the sun.
The "Anthology" includes one book of Christian epigrams as well as one book of erotic and amorous epigrams called the Μουσα Παιδικη (Mousa Paidike, "The Boyish Muse").
========,2,Ancient Roman.
Roman epigrams owe much to their Greek predecessors and contemporaries.
Roman epigrams, however, were often more satirical than Greek ones, and at times used obscene language for effect.
Latin epigrams could be composed as inscriptions or graffiti, such as this one from Pompeii, which exists in several versions and seems from its inexact meter to have been composed by a less educated person.
Its content, of course, makes it clear how popular such poems were:
However, in the literary world, epigrams were most often gifts to patrons or entertaining verse to be published, not inscriptions.
Many Roman writers seem to have composed epigrams, including Domitius Marsus, whose collection "Cicuta" (now lost) was named after the poisonous plant "Cicuta" for its biting wit, and Lucan, more famous for his epic "Pharsalia".
Authors whose epigrams survive include Catullus, who wrote both invectives and love epigrams – his poem 85 is one of the latter.
Martial, however, is considered to be the master of the Latin epigram.
His technique relies heavily on the satirical poem with a joke in the last line, thus drawing him closer to the modern idea of epigram as a genre.
Here he defines his genre against a (probably fictional) critic (in the latter half of 2.77):
Poets known for their epigrams whose work has been lost include Cornificia.
========,2,English.
In early English literature the short couplet poem was dominated by the poetic epigram and proverb, especially in the translations of the Bible and the Greek and Roman poets.
Since 1600, two successive lines of verse that rhyme with each other, known as a couplet featured as a part of the longer sonnet form, most notably in William Shakespeare's sonnets.
Sonnet 76 is an excellent example.
The two line poetic form as a closed couplet was also used by William Blake in his poem Auguries of Innocence and also by Byron (Don Juan (Byron) XIII); John Gay (Fables); Alexander Pope (An Essay on Man).
The first work of English literature penned in North America was Robert Hayman's "Quodlibets, Lately Come Over from New Britaniola, Old Newfoundland," which is a collection of over 300 epigrams, many of which do not conform to the two-line rule or trend.
While the collection was written between 1618 and 1628 in what is now Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, it was published shortly after his return to Britain.
In Victorian times the epigram couplet was often used by the prolific American poet Emily Dickinson.
Her poem No.
1534 is a typical example of her eleven poetic epigrams.
The novelist George Eliot also included couplets throughout her writings.
Her best example is in her sequenced sonnet poem entitled "Brother and Sister" in which each of the eleven sequenced sonnet ends with a couplet.