Diogenes: Plague and Epicureanism

[guy]

We sometimes forget the pervasiveness and influence of Greek philosophy throughout the Roman Empire.

(Not surprisingly, the majority of papyri salvaged at the Villa of Papyri were texts on Epicureanism.)

Here is an interesting inscription from the Second Century AD by the Epicurean Diogenes of Oinoanda, Turkey. Diogenes gives advice about a local plague.

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"The majority of people suffer from a common disease, as in a plague, with their false notions about things, and their number is increasing. ...I wished to use this stoa to advertise publicly the [medicines] that bring salvation.”

The “medicines” Diogenes hoped to use to cure the “disease” of false understanding was Epicureanism, a system of philosophy founded in the fourth century B.C. by the Greek philosopher Epicurus.

 

These are background articles on the find. Diogenes tried to bring a rational approach to a plague that caused so much fear and superstition.

 

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In the winter of 1884, two young French epigraphers were exploring the ancient Greco-Roman town of Oinoanda in southwestern Turkey and made an intriguing discovery. Scattered in the well-preserved ruins on a hilltop covered in cedar trees, they found five stone fragments inscribed with writings of a then-unknown philosopher, Diogenes of Oinoanda.

 

The philosophy of Epicureanism was based on the philosophy of Epicurus.

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Epicurus was an atomic materialist, leading him to assail the evils of superstition and divine intervention in every single event — such as weather — that occurred on the Earth.

Although Epicureanism is a form of hedonism insofar as it declares pleasure to be its sole intrinsic goal, its concept that the absence of pain and fear constitutes the greatest pleasure, and its advocacy of a simple life, make it very different from hedonism, or the unbridled pursuit of bodily pleasures.

The inscription, a quote from the Second century AD philosopher Diogenes, exhorts readers to follow Epicureanism, the way of life that encourages its adherents to seek modest, sustainable pleasure in the form of a state of ataraxia (tranquility and freedom from fear) through knowledge of the workings of the world, and limiting their desires.

https://www.archaeology.org/issues/180-1507/features/3344-turkey-oinoanda-epicurean-inscription

 

https://greekreporter.com/2021/10/01/ancient-inscription-benefits-epicuranism/

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_of_the_Papyri

Edited February 11 by guy