Episode Two - The Achievement of Epicurus

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I found it interesting to look up the Latin for exactly what is being condemned, variously translated as Superstition, or Religion. It is actually "religio" which Martin Furguson Smith annotates as:

"false religion," not "religion,"... The Epicureans were opposed not to religion, but to the traditional religion which taught that the gods govern the world."

I believe that's from the Loeb edition?

I think there is strong tendency to put the cart before the horse with that word. Whether religio should be translated as religion or superstition is of secondary concern. What Lucretius meant for us, his readers, to actually understand by religio, he laid out for us in the surrounding lines and with the story of Iphigenia.

Religio is believing that:

-Humans are hemmed in, above and below,

-In a specially created world

-By supernatural, intervening gods,

-(And their oracles and priests),

-Whose natures are threatening and capricious, and

-Whose ultimate power is to torment us beyond the grave.

To follow Epicurus is to believe that:

-We are free agents,

-In one natural world among innumerable worlds

-(Where the gods, if they exist, do not create or intervene),

-who ignore the priests, choosing instead the philosopher

-whose foundation is material nature and whose end is pleasure,

-and for whom death is nothing.

I probably could have made that a little smoother, but I was aiming for symmetry.

That's an excellent question, Susan! He is a translator in his own right, as well as the most recent editor of Rouse's translation.

Here is his translation available on Amazon;

https://www.amazon.com/Nature-Things-Lucretius/dp/0872205878

It was published in 1969, and Professor Smith is still alive. So the text is not in the public domain—unless he's made arrangements that I wouldn't know about.

But probably people are referring to the Loeb edition, which ought to be the gold standard. I'm probably guilty of misnaming it myself.

You've done it again, Joshua ! You are a consummate wordsmith, and I so enjoy reading your posts! Pure pleasure!

You are correct! Getting caught up in the weeds of vocabulary can be a distraction from what is conveyed by the words. "You're asking what kinds of evils can religio do? What religio is?" Lucretius asks. "Didn't I just tell you the story of Iphigenia? That's what I'm talking about!"