History and Culture of Early Epicureans: Ancient Greece and Rome

Thinking it might be good to start a new category under the forum list on early Epicureans in ancient Greece and Rome, focusing on history, culture, food, clothing, lifestyle, etc.

Regarding honey in ancient times:

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In Athens, beekeeping was so organized that the great legislator Solon (640-558 BC) was forced to define by law the distances that should exist between apiaries so as not to create misunderstandings about the ownership of flocks.

They did not have sugar, but they had honey, as part of their diet and medicine.

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Some of the ways in which the ancient Greeks used honey in their daily lives were the following:

Acid honey. Honey with vinegar. How to deal with fever.

Apple honey. Apples preserved in honey throughout the year. The honey acquired the characteristic smell of apples. They parsed the same recipe with other fruits.

Mead honey. Liqueur resulting from alcoholic fermentation of honey.

Melikrato. Honey with milk. Food for children.

Wine honey. Honey with wine. It is reported that Democritus lived to a ripe old age because he consumed wine honey with bread.

Hippocrates excludes the beneficial effect of “wine honey” on healthy and sick, Pythagoras finds that honey eliminates fatigue, while Democritus writes about well-being and longevity because of honey.

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Honey in history: Ancient Greece

Greece has always been a land with beautiful and various flora. Honey bees have always been at home here. Today their excellent honey is sold all over the…

healthywithhoney.com

I found this book "The Invention and Gendering of Epicurus" (when Googling "Epicureans and effeminancy") which looks like it could shed some light on the culture of Epicureans. Though tracking down a library copy might be a bit difficult, unless anyone lives near a good university library.

The Invention and Gendering of Epicurus

The school of Greek philosopher Epicurus, which became known as the Garden, famously put great stock in happiness and pleasure. As a philosophical community,…

www.press.umich.edu

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The school of Greek philosopher Epicurus, which became known as the Garden, famously put great stock in happiness and pleasure. As a philosophical community, and a way of seeing the world, Epicureanism had a centuries-long life in Athens and Rome, as well as across the Mediterranean.

The Invention and Gendering of Epicurus studies how the Garden's outlook on pleasure captured Greek and Roman imaginations—particularly among non-Epicureans—for generations after its legendary founding. Unsympathetic sources from disparate eras generally focus not on historic personages but on the symbolic Epicurean. And yet the traditions of this imagined Garden, with its disreputable women and unmanly men, give us intermittent glimpses of historical Epicureans and their conceptions of the Epicurean life.

Pamela Gordon suggests how a close hearing and contextualization of anti-Epicurean discourse leads us to a better understanding of the cultural history of Epicureanism. Her primary focus is on sources hostile to the Garden, but her Epicurean-friendly perspective is apparent throughout. Her engagement with ancient anti-Epicurean texts makes more palpable their impact on modern responses to the Garden.

Intended both for students and for scholars of Epicureanism and its response, the volume is organized primarily according to the themes common among Epicurus' detractors. It considers the place of women in Epicurean circles, as well as the role of Epicurean philosophy in Homer and other writers.

Pamela Gordon is Chair of the Department of Classics at the University of Kansas and the author of Epicurus in Lycia: The Second-Century World of Diogenes of Oenoanda.

Ancient Greek clothing / Ancient Roman clothing, if anyone is interested.

An idea -- that it could be fun at some point to dress up for the 20th celebration, as a way to make it more festive. And I could help anyone with getting their costume together.

For ancient Greek clothing:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clothing_in_ancient_Greece

And for ancient Roman clothing:

Clothing in ancient Rome - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Ancient Roman Clothing | UNRV

beasain, I just looked up about propolis, and found an online article which says that

Greek and Roman physicians used it as mouth disinfectant and as an antiseptic and healing product in wound treatment, prescribed for topical therapy of cutaneous and mucosal wounds.

Here is some info on the history of Ancient Athens during the time that Epicurus was alive.

Wikipedia says Epicurus lived 341-270BC. Diogenes Laertius says 341-271BC.

The following short section is from Wikipedia:

Hellenistic Athens

Further information: Hellenistic Greece, Lamian War, Phocion, Demetrius of Phalerum, Chremonidean War, Second Macedonian War, First Mithridatic War, Lycurgus of Athens, Antigonid dynasty, and Seleucid Empire

Shortly after the death of Alexander the Great, Antipater and Craterus became joint generals of Greece and Macedonia.^[21] Athens joined Aetolia and Thessaly in facing their power, known as the Lamian War.^[22] Craterus fell in a battle against Eumenes in 320 BC,^[23] leaving Antipater alone to rule for a year, till his death in 319 BC.^[24] Athens had a central role in the struggle for his succession, when Antipater's son, Cassander, secured the Piraeus leaving Athens without a source of supplies,^[21] to contest Antipeter's successor, Polyperchon. To consolidate power against Cassander, Polyperchon restored Athens's democracy, as it was before the Lamian War. However, after losing the fleet one year prior, Polyperchon had to flee Macedon when in 316 BC Cassander secured control of Athens. Cassander appointed Demetrius of Phalerum as head of the administration of Athens. Demetrius remained in power until 307 BC when Cassander's enemy, Demetrius Poliorcetes captured Athens,^[25] and Macedon, ending the short-lived Antipatrid dynasty and installing his own.

Athens and the rise of the Roman empire

After the Pyrrhic War (280–275 BC) Rome asserted its hegemony over Magna Grecia and became increasingly involved in Greece and the Balkans peninsula.

I thought this was an interesting read, about the differences between Greek and Roman clothing:

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“Now wait a minute,” you might say. “How is the enkyklon different from a toga?” After all, a flat bedsheet is the fabric of choice for many attending toga parties in movies. The primary difference between togas and enkykla lies in the shape. While enkykla were rectangular, togas were semicircular, which is what gave them the wonderful drape and folds you can see on the stone versions worn by ancient statues.

The Truth About Togas

To many people, togas are synonymous with ancient Greece. The only problem? Togas aren’t Greek.

pieceworkmagazine.com

This shows how vibrantly Greek statues were originally painted:

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Ancient Greek and Roman sculpture was once colorful, vibrantly painted and richly adorned with detailed ornamentation. Chroma: Ancient Sculpture in Color reveals the colorful backstory of polychromy—meaning “many colors,” in Greek—and presents new discoveries of surviving ancient color on artworks in The Met’s world-class collection. Exploring the practices and materials used in ancient polychromy, the exhibition highlights cutting-edge scientific methods used to identify ancient color and examines how color helped convey meaning in antiquity, and how ancient polychromy has been viewed and understood in later periods.

https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2022/chroma

Mythology --The Three Graces --- daughters of Zeus and Eurynome:

"It is traditional to offer them the first draught of wine at a gathering to invoke their blessing and aid.”

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The Three Graces are (most consistently named), from youngest to oldest, Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia (2, 12). Roman mythology depicts these Goddesses as The Graces (The Gratiae), having been previously referred to as the Charities (Kharites) in Greek mythology. In the Roman custom, in addition to their other benefits, The Gratiae signify gratitude (as in gratia), as well as benevolence (9), and according to Seneca, each of the three Goddesses is linked in a chain to causality, which pertains to the divine manifestation of Grace, and as related to their differing ages (15).

• Aglaia – the eldest, (literal: splendor, beautiful, bright) (4), beauty, nature, amusement; sometimes wife of Hephaestus (14), divine artistry; “The Grace symbolizing beauty (9).”
• Euphrosyne – (literal; mirth, merriment, cheerful, or a good mind) (5), good cheer, joy, and being well. “The Grace incarnate of delight (9).”
• Thalia – (literal; luxuriant, blooming) (6), plentiful, rich, festivity. “The Grace of blossoming (9).”

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“It is traditional to offer them the first draught of wine at a gathering to invoke their blessing and aid.”
— 365 Goddess

The Graces vs The Muses vs. The Fates

The Graces are most principle in relationship to Venus (15) appearing as handmaidens within her extended entourage, and spending much time at the Goddess's sanctuary at Cypress. It was in this temple of refuge where Venus was maintained in health and comfort, regularly bathed in the divinely anointed oils of The Gratiae, and where for example, the Goddess was presented with a magnificent immortal robe (10). Eros and The Muses (8) were frequent companions of The Graces as well, and they all loved to spend time together, dancing around in a circle to the music of Apollo (8). Another of their colleagues, the Goddess Dike (one of The Hours), often attended The Graces, and particularly in matters of peace and justice (1).

The individual identities of the nine Muses are often intermingled with the three Graces as the two groups sometimes overlap in benefit. However, The Graces and The Muses dwell from slightly different origins. All of the Goddesses share a parent Zeus, though, in some Roman lore, The Graces are instead, fathered by Bacchus. Eurynome an Oceanid - daughter of Oceanus (God of the Sea) and Tethys (fresh water), (an incestuous Titanian brother/sister marital couple), is their mother (14).

https://owlcation.com/humanities/The-Gratiae-Goddesses