In addition to the opening of Lucretius Book 2, we have good textual reason to think that Epicurus identified escape from calamity as "the nature of good." This subject came up tonight in a zoom discussion when Onenski made the same observation that Emily Austin makes in Chapter 22 of "Living For Pleasure" -- that the full story of the Plague of Athens contains an additional paragraph that is not in our extant texts of Lucretius, but which screams out to have been included (and in my speculation probably was included in the original texts!) Thanks to Don for this link to the Thucydides version where the key extra paragraph is found.
The full argument is best expressed in Austin's book, but we have brought this up in a prior thread and I think this is going to prove to be a vastly productive topic in years to come. Below is the text from U423 that is most appropriate to the discussion, but the reason this post is placed in the Music category is that I think a good way to dramatize the issue is to think of movie scenes and/or songs that embody this feeling -- and there are LOTS of disaster movies we can draw from. The one that made the most impression when I was growing up was the song from the video below -- the Poseidon Adventure! Please add to the thread suggestions of your own because the whole disaster genre of movies is probably filled with dramatic scenes and memorable music.
U423: Plutarch, That Epicurus actually makes a pleasant life impossible, 7, p. 1091A: Not only is the basis that they assume for the pleasurable life untrustworthy and insecure, it is quite trivial and paltry as well, inasmuch as their “thing delighted” – their good – is an escape from ills, and they say that they can conceive of no other, and indeed that our nature has no place at all in which to put its good except the place left when its evil is expelled. … Epicurus too makes a similar statement to the effect that the good is a thing that arises out of your very escape from evil and from your memory and reflection and gratitude that this has happened to you. His words are these: “That which produces a jubilation unsurpassed is the nature of good, if you apply your mind rightly and then stand firm and do not stroll about {a jibe at the Peripatetics}, prating meaninglessly about the good.”
Ibid., 8, p. 1091E: Thus Epicurus, and Metrodorus too, suppose {that the middle is the summit and the end} when they take the position that escape from ill is the reality and upper limit of the good.
So - as above - the video below is the first song that occurs to me. Please add others that have been meaningful to you. I think this might turn out to be a highly inspirational thread! I still remember this movie and song from 40+ years ago like it was yesterday, and the opening to book two of Lucretius remains one of its most memorable excerpts after 2000 years.
There's got to be a morning after
If we can hold on through the night
We have a chance to find the sunshine
Let's keep on looking for the light
Oh, can't you see the morning after
It's waiting right outside the storm
Why don't we cross the bridge together
And find a place that's safe and warm
It's not too late
We should be giving
Only with love can we climb
It's not too late
Not while we're living
Let's put our hands out in time
There's got to be a morning after
We're moving closer to the shore
I know we'll be there by tomorrow
And we'll escape the darkness
We won't be searching any more
There's got to be a morning after
(There's got to be a morning after)
