Latest Threads (Previews)

Seen online...

Or in Scots: "Be happy while y'er leevin, fer y'er a lang time deid."

Decline of Christianity in the U.S. Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off

After years of decline, the U.S. Christian share now shows signs of leveling off. The new Religious Landscape Study explores trends in identity, beliefs and…

www.pewresearch.org

We got some work to do

• 86% believe people have a soul or spirit in addition to their physical body.
• 83% believe in God or a universal spirit.
• 79% believe there is something spiritual beyond the natural world, even if we can’t see it.
• 70% believe in an afterlife (heaven, hell or both).

Interesting study from Pew Research.

DON: I'm starting this thread as a place for people to share their experiences in trying to learn the ancient languages and to share their go-to resources (print, online, in person). This will also be a place for people to ask questions about where to start, what worked, what didn't, etc. We'll deal with actual translation issues in their appropriate textual threads, but this can be a nuts and bolts "how-to" thread.

[Cassius' Admin Edit: This thread was branched off from the lengthy "gods" thread as it is a new and important topic, and that's why this first post comes from Burninglights, as it was requested there. ]

Don, by the way, reading your various comments here and your translation of the Menoeceus letter where you proudly proclaimed yourself an amateur inspired me to take a first leap into ancient Greek today. I'm not sure how far I will go with it, but thank you for the inspiration all the same!

In recent podcasts i've heard Nietzsche's name mentioned here and there. As someone who is also taking interest in Nietzsche, i wanted to clarify for myself some distinctions between Nietzsche and Epicurus, and answer the question why i preffer the latter.

So i engaged in a chat with chat gpt which i found interesting -

Epicure views pleasure as the guide for the good life. Does Nietzsche has an equivalent to that.

Yes, Nietzsche has an equivalent, but it's quite different from Epicurus’ idea of pleasure. While Epicurus sees pleasure (understood as the absence of pain and a state of tranquility) as the highest good, Nietzsche focuses on the will to power as the guiding principle of a flourishing life.

For Nietzsche, the good life isn’t about seeking comfort or avoiding suffering, but about embracing struggle, overcoming, and self-transformation. He sees pain and hardship as necessary for growth, as they lead to the development of strength and greatness. Instead of avoiding suffering (as

I thought this might be better as a forum post.

I am very interested if anyone has specific evidence or documentation of Epicurus' time in Teos with Nausiphanes. Colophon is 16 hours on-foot from Teos, and just a short time in a boat to Mytilene, from which Praxiphanes hailed, his second teacher, a Peripatetic whom he may have been inspired to meet while Theophrastus spoke during his consciption in Athens ... all being pure speculation, because Praxiphanes spent most of his adult life in Rhodes. Still, it may have given Epicurus a reason to visit Mytilene in the first place, and then he decided that he liked it, and tried to teach there half-a-decade later, after he got fed up with Nausiphanes' skepticism.)

I sort of wonder ... was Epicurus repelled by Platonism as represented to him as a teenager by Pamphilius, but then re-invigorated by Philosophy when he heard Aristotelians speak against the Platonic gymnasiums during his two years in Athens? And then perhaps that compelled him to

National Pig Day - Wikipedia

Greetings, all!

I'm centralizing some of the Epicurean art, merchandise, and related paraphernalia I've created in the Epicurean Emporium. My wife was previously hosting some of the material – including her historical portraits and digital illustrations – on Etsy and RedBubble, but we've made some changes, so it is now available through https://twentiers-shop.fourthwall.com/.

I'm still uploading things and organizing the navigation. It's a big bucket of products right now, but I'm working it out.

I'm also hosting a digital copy of The Hedonicon through the site. As I posted elsewhere, I jumped off of Musk and Zuckerberg's platforms, and I'd like to move away from Bezos' as much as possible, too, so I've ported e-book to this site. It's better, anyway. Amazon only pays the author/editor pennies for a cheap e-book or kindle file, and this site isn't quite as hungry.

Some personal thoughts regarding the purpose of the study of Epicurean philosophy.

The purpose of studying Epicurean philosophy here on the forum is intellectual growth and personal development.

Epicurean intellectual growth is multifaceted:

• development of reading and comprehension skills
• knowledge, memory and synthesis

Epicurean personal development is multifaceted:

• Understanding the nature of anxiety toward death, as well as anxiety toward unknown potential events of the future (war, government instability, pandemics, etc), and working with these anxieties to find clarity and peace. Understanding the nature of the soul and the nature of death - we no longer exist after death.

  (*Edit note - development of coping skills: "Epicurean serenity prayer" and memorization of key Principal Doctrines/Vatican Sayings - added on Feb. 18, 2025)

• Dropping old habits of superstitious thinking (understanding some things by necessity, some by chance, and some by our own control) and when we do not have enough

We speak frequently about translating words from the Greek, but much less frequently about Greek numbering. This subject came up in tonight's Wednesday Zoom meeting and Bryan has graciously forwarded me the information below about how the Greeks recorded numbers. All of us know the Arabic system and most of us know some Roman numerals, but this is to start a thread on the Greek numbering system. I am not at first thought able to name any immediate philosophical implications of how the Greeks counted, but I bet there are some. Thanks again to Bryan for this material:

The Greek system seems simple compared to what the Romans were doing. It is closer to our decimal system, although still more rigid.

Stuff you can do with AI.

In one of the scenes, you can see Vesuvius as it was with its top still on in the background. The eruption blew the top of the mountain right off.

Pompei Then and now