For Level 3 and above members - Coming up in one week is our Twentieth Celebration! This one is our special annual birth of Epicurus celebration!
Agenda:
Bring a beverage of choice to sip on, if it pleases you! Hope to see you there!
Level 3 - message Cassius if you need the Zoom link.
Level 1 - message Cassius to find out about how to become a Level 3 member.
Here is an excerpt of what Don wrote regarding his research at the end of 2022, and which sheds light onto our decision for the day on which to hold the annual celebration:
...there is reason to accept, with a high degree of confidence, that Epicurus's birthday was customarily celebrated annually on Gamelion 20 because that was his actual birthday. It is to this "Annual Feast of the 20th" (εἰκάδα δειπνίζων ἐνιαύσιον) to which Philodemus was inviting Piso in Epigram 11.44 in the Greek Anthology. It follows that the decision to choose the 20th of each month as the date for the monthly assembly of Epicurus's students would be in keeping with other monthly observances of the “birthdays” of “divine beings” in the Athenian calendar. In fact, Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History (35.2), states explicitly that Epicurus's birthday was celebrated every 20th of the month.
Furthermore, since the ancient Athenian month of Gamelion most closely matches January in the current Gregorian calendar, an optimal choice for modern Epicureans to keep to the spirit of Epicurus's Will would be to celebrate Epicurus’s Birthday on January 20 every year.
The two other Epicureans on our calendar to mention tonight are Hermarchus and Polyaenus.
Hermarchus or Hermarch (Greek: Ἕρμαρχoς, Hermarkhos; c. 325-c. 250 BC[1]), sometimes incorrectly written Hermachus (Greek: Ἕρμαχoς, Hermakhos), was an Epicurean philosopher. He was the disciple and successor of Epicurus as head of the school. None of his writings survives. He wrote works directed against Plato, Aristotle, and Empedocles. A fragment from his Against Empedocles, preserved by Porphyry, discusses the need for law in society. His views on the nature of the gods are quoted by Philodemus.
Hermarchus was a son of Agemarchus, a poor man of Mytilene (in insular Greece), and was at first brought up as a rhetorician, but afterwards became a faithful disciple of Epicurus, who left to him his garden, and appointed him his successor as the head of his school, about 270 BC.[2] He died in the house of Lysias at an advanced age, and left behind him the reputation of a great philosopher. Cicero has preserved a letter of Epicurus addressed to him.[3]
Diogenes Laërtius mentioned from a letter written by Epicurus, "All my books to be given to Hermarchus. And if anything should happen to Hermarchus before the children of Metrodorus grow up, Amynomachus and Timocrates shall give from the funds bequeathed by me, so far as possible, enough for their several needs, as long as they are well ordered. And let them provide for the rest according to my arrangements; that everything may be carried out, so far as it lies in their power."[4]
Hermarchus was the author of several works, which are characterised by Diogenes Laërtius[5] as "excellent" (Greek: κάλλιστα):
All of these works are lost, and save for the fragmentary Against Empedocles we know nothing about them but their titles.[6][7] But from an expression of Cicero,[8] we may infer that his works were of a polemical nature, and directed against the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, and on Empedocles.[9]
A long fragment (quotation or paraphrase) from an unspecified work of Hermarchus' has been preserved by Porphyry.[10] This fragment is probably from his Against Empedocles.[11] In this fragment, Hermarchus discusses the reasons for punishment for murder. He argues that early law-makers were guided by the principle that murder was not good for society, and were able to educate other people that this was a rational principle. They then created punishments for those people who could not be educated. For everyone who understood that murder was not useful, laws would not be needed; punishments are only needed for those who fail to understand this. For Hermarchus, this was an example of social progress and an increase in rationality.[12]
Philodemus in his On the Way of Life of the Gods,[13] quotes the view of Hermarchus that the gods breathe, because the gods are living beings and all living things breathe.[14] Philodemus goes on to say that, according to Hermarchus, the gods must talk to one another, because conversation is conducive to happiness:
And one must say that they use speech and converse with one another; for, he [Hermarchus] says, we would not consider them more fortunate and indestructible if they did not, but rather similar to mute human beings. For since in fact all of us who are not maimed make use of language, to say that the gods either are maimed or do not resemble us in this respect (there being no other way either they or we could give shape to utterances) is extremely foolish, especially since conversation with those like themselves is a source of indescribable pleasure to the good.[15]
Polyaenus of Lampsacus (/ˌpɒliːˈiːnəs/ POL-ee-EE-nəs; Greek: Πoλύαινoς Λαμψακηνός, Polyainos Lampsakēnos; c. 340 – c. 285 BCE), also spelled Polyenus, was an ancient Greek mathematician and a friend of Epicurus.
He was the son of Athenodorus. His friendship with Epicurus started after the latter's escape from Mytilene in 307 or 306 BC when he opened a philosophical school at Lampsacus associating himself with other citizens of the town, like Pythocles, Colotes, and Idomeneus. With these fellow citizens he moved to Athens, where they founded a school of philosophy with Epicurus as head, or hegemon, while Polyaenus, Hermarchus and Metrodorus were kathegemones.
A man of mild and friendly manners, as Philodemus refers, he adopted fully the philosophical system of his friend, and, although he had previously acquired great reputation as a mathematician, he now maintained with Epicurus the worthlessness of geometry.[1][2] But the statement may be at least doubted, since it is certain Polyaenus wrote a mathematical work called Puzzles (Greek: Aπoριαι) in which the validity of geometry is maintained. It was against this treatise that another Epicurean, Demetrius Lacon, wrote Unsolved questions of Polyaenus (Greek: Πρὸς τὰς Πoλυαίνoυ ἀπoρίας) in the 2nd century BCE. Like Epicurus, a considerable number of spurious works seem to have been assigned to him; one of these was Against the Orators, whose authenticity was attacked both by Zeno of Sidon and his pupil Philodemus.
The works attributed to Polyaenus include:[3]
"There was also Polyaenus, son of Athenodorus, of Lampsacus, a modest and friendly man, as Philodemus and his followers say.' [ Diogenes Laertius 24] Polyaenus was the son of Athenodorus. His friendship with Epicurus started after the latter's escape from Mytilene in 307 or 306 BC when he opened a philosophical school at Lampsacus associating himself with other citizens of the town, like Pythocles, Colotes, and Idomeneus. With these fellow citizens he moved to Athens, where they founded a school of philosophy with Epicurus as head, or hegemon, while Polyaenus, Hermarchus and Metrodorus were kathegemones. A man of mild and friendly manners, as Philodemus refers, he adopted fully the philosophical system of his friend, and, although he had previously acquired great reputation as a mathematician, he now maintained with Epicurus the worthlessness of geometry.[1][2] But the statement may be at least doubted, since it is certain Polyaenus wrote a mathematical work called Puzzles (Greek: Aπoριαι) in which the validity of geometry is maintained. It was against this treatise that another Epicurean, Demetrius Lacon, wrote Unsolved questions of Polyaenus (Greek: Πρὸς τὰς Πoλυαίνoυ ἀπoρίας) in the 2nd century BCE. Like Epicurus, a considerable number of spurious works seem to have been assigned to him; one of these was Against the Orators, whose authenticity was attacked both by Zeno of Sidon and his pupil Philodemus. The works attributed to Polyaenus include: On Definitions, On Philosophy, Against Aristo, Puzzles (Aporiai), On the Moon, Against the Orators, His collected Letters. Wikipedia.
Porphyry, On abstinence from animal food (1823) Book 1. pp.11-44
Hermarchus' arguments are parts 7-12.
