Discourses and Selected Writings (36 page)

Epaphroditus
. Greek freedman who served the emperor Nero as his secretary in charge of petitions; Epictetus’ master when he was still a slave.

Epicurus of Athens
, 341–271
BC
. Founder of an important contemporary school of philosophy in rivalry with Stoicism. His physics revived the atomism of the fifth-century
BC
Greek philosopher
Democritus, denying any element of design or divine involvement in the world’s composition; in ethics he was a principled hedonist, identifying pleasure as the goal of life.

Eteocles
.
See
Polyneices.

Euphrates of Tyre
, died
c.
120
AD
. Stoic philosopher; like Epictetus, a former student of Musonius Rufus. He was known for his powers of oratory.

Eurystheus
. In Greek mythology Eurystheus was king of Tiryns in the Peloponnese. Partly out of fear for Heracles’ strength he devised and imposed on him the twelve famous labours.

Favorinus
, fl. late first–early second centuries
AD
. Academic philosopher and contemporary of Epictetus.

Gratilla
. Wife of a Roman senator exiled by Domitian; also mentioned in III.11 of Pliny the Younger’s
Letters
.

Gyara (or Gyaros)
. A barren island in the Aegean that served as a place of exile during the early Principate.

Hector
. In Homer’s
Iliad
a prince of Troy and the chief Trojan warrior.

Helvidius Priscus
. Roman senator and Stoic, son-in-law of Thrasea Paetus, executed by the emperor Vespasian in 75
AD
for challenging the power of the Principate.

Heracles
. Most famous of the Greek heroes of legend; completed twelve labours at the behest of King Eurystheus; adopted by the Cynics and Stoics as a model of manly virtue.

Heraclitus
, fl.
c.
500–480
BC
. Major Presocratic philosopher, acknowledged to be a major influence on the Stoics, with whom he shared a belief in the periodicity of time and other doctrines.

Lateranus
. Platius Lateranus, Roman senator and consul designate in 65
AD
, member of the Pisonian conspiracy to replace the emperor Nero; condemned with the rest and executed.

Meletus
. One of the Athenians who in 399
BC
brought charges against Socrates leading to his execution.

Milo
. Name of a famous ancient Greek athlete.

Musonius Rufus
. Stoic philosopher, and Epictetus’ teacher at Rome.

Nero
. Emperor of Rome (54–68
AD
), the very type of the ‘tyrant.’ Epictetus resided at his court when he was slave to Epaphroditus in Rome.

Panthoides
, fl. early third century
BC
. Member of the Dialectical school, a contributor to the debate on the Master Argument.

Paris
. In Greek mythology Paris was a prince of Troy. Tradition has it that he ran off with Helen, wife of his then host, Menelaus, the king of Sparta. As Homer relates it in the
Iliad
, this blatant breach of hospitality precipitated the Trojan War.

Patroclus
. In Homer’s
Iliad
Patroclus is a Greek warrior close to Achilles; when he dies at Hector’s hands Achilles indulges in a dramatic and protracted bout of grief.

Peripatetic School and Peripatetics
. Name given to the school founded in Athens by Aristotle in the fourth century
BC
, and its adherents.

Phidias
, fifth century
BC
. Greek sculptor, best known for his gold-and-ivory statues of Zeus at Olympia, and of Athena in the Parthenon at Athens.

Philip II
. King of Macedon (359–336 bc) and father of Alexander the Great.

Plato of Athens
, 427–347
BC
. Student of Socrates, founder of the Academy, author of the
Apology
,
Gorgias
and other dialogues that are frequently quoted in the
Discourses
with approval. In Epictetus’ day, the Academy had become, along with Pyrrhonism, one of the two main Sceptical schools of philosophy.

Polyneices and Eteocles
. In Greek mythology, brothers who fight each other for control of Thebes after their father, Oedipus, went into self-exile.

Posidonius of Apamea
,
c.
135–
c.
50
BC
. Major Stoic philosopher, noted for his scientific researches and historical writings.

Pyrrho of Elis
,
c.
365–270
BC
. Semi-legendary founder of the Sceptical movement in philosophy, figurehead of the revived Pyrrhonism (so-called) of Epictetus’ day.

Pythia (or Pythian priestess)
. The mouthpiece of Apollo’s oracles delivered in Delphi.

Rufus
.
See
Musonius Rufus.

Saturnalia
. Major Roman holiday, lasting five days, marked by inversion rituals such as releasing slaves from their duties and allowing them certain privileges usually reserved to their masters.

Sceptics
. Generic title for the Academics and Pyrrhonists, philosophers committed to the doctrine,
contra
the Stoics, that nothing can be known with absolute certainty.

Socrates
, 470–399
BC
. Philosopher and dialectician. Native of Athens. Served honourably in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta. Convicted on politically motivated charges of impiety and corrupting the youth and executed. Plato’s
Apology
purports to transmit his defence speech at the trial. Socrates continues as main speaker in most of Plato’s dialogues.

Syrians
. Generic name for the non-Jewish Semitic peoples of the Near East.

Thermopylae
. Narrow pass in Greece, site of a desperate stand made by the Spartans in 480
BC
against a far larger invading troop from Persia.

Thersites
. In Greek mythology Thersites was a low-ranking soldier in the Greek army during the Trojan War. He is described as ugly inside and out: bow-legged, hunched, bald – also vulgar and rude to his superior officers.

Thrasea Paetus
. Roman senator and Stoic, father-in-law of Helvidius Priscus; committed suicide in 66
AD
after being implicated in the Pisonian conspiracy against Nero.

Trajan
. Emperor of Rome (98–117
AD
), the pattern of the ‘good emperor’, as Nero represented the typical tyrant for Epictetus and his generation.

Vespasian
. Emperor of Rome (69–79
AD
), restored order and dignity to the imperial office after Nero’s disastrous reign, but still had to contend with republican sentiment among certain senators, including the Stoic Helvidius Priscus, who was put to death by the emperor in 75
AD
.

Xanthippe
. Wife of Socrates, a proverbial nag.

Xenophon of Athens
,
c.
430–
c.
355
BC
. Follower of Socrates, author of the
Memorabilia
, considered inferior only to Plato’s dialogues as a primary source for our knowledge of Socrates’ life and teachings.

Zeno of Citium (Cyprus)
, 334–262
BC
. Founder of the Stoa at Athens,
c.
300
BC
.

Zephyrus (Zephyr)
. In Greek mythology, name of the west wind.

1.
when Epaphroditus… to your master:
The meaning of the anecdote in §20 is obscure.

2.
I would sooner be killed… tomorrow:
Thrasea was a Roman senator with Republican sympathies. He literally regarded exile as a fate worse than death; ‘tomorrow’ stands for any date in the future.

3.
the purple stripe:
A toga with a purple stripe was the uniform of a Roman senator.

4.
five denarii:
A sum that might buy a modestly priced book.

5.
Dear Crito… so be it:
A quotation of Socrates from Plato’s
Crito
43d. It is cited again at I 29, 18; IV 4, 21; and
Enchiridion
53, 3. ‘Prison’ and ‘hemlock’ allude to the circumstances of Socrates’ death.

6.
A benefactor… has shown us the way:
The reference is to Chrysippus.

7.
Triptolemus:
In Greek mythology, Triptolemus was inventor of the plough and the first person to sow grain.

8.
Against the Sceptics:
The Sceptics maintained that nothing could be known for certain. In Epictetus’ day, Sceptics were represented by two schools: the Academics and the Pyrrhonists. This essay seems directed not only against these philosophers but against the common human frailty of ‘a foolish consistency’.

9.
two kinds of petrifaction:
Actually, three forms of petrifaction are described in this section. Two generic forms of petrifaction, that of the body, and that of the soul, are recognized. Then within the soul two species of petrifaction are distinguished, of the intellect, and of the sense of honour.

10.
add and subtract impressions… related:
Epictetus alludes first to the formation of such concepts as a pygmy (by picking a concept formed by a sense impression – e.g. a man – then ‘subtracting’), or a giant (by ‘adding’), or a centaur (by ‘combining’), or a painting of a man (by analogy, i.e. by ‘passing from certain things to others in some way connected’). Compare I 14, 7-8.

11.
If not, it’s left to us… on their own:
Epictetus indirectly opposes the Epicurean explanation of nature as the product of ‘accident and chance’.

12.
God needed animals… their use:
Epictetus means that the beasts use their impressions, and so do we; but what distinguishes us from them is that we regard impressions critically, refer them to a standard and consider them within a larger context.

13.
You eagerly travel… sight:
The colossal gold-and-ivory statue of Zeus inside his temple at Olympia was designed by Phidias in the fifth century
BC
; it was numbered among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

14.
So what should I do… premises:
This paragraph alludes to the subject of changing arguments, mentioned above in §1. In Stoicism changing arguments contain a temporal component and involve the element of ‘truth-at-a-time’. Sextus Empiricus
(Outlines of Pyrrhonism
II 229) gives an example: ‘It is not the case both that I have already presented you with a proposition and that it is not the case that the stars are even in number. But I have presented you with a proposition. Therefore the number of the stars is even.’ The truth-value of the first premise – ‘I have already presented you with a proposition’ – changes in the course of the argument, indeed during the time the premise itself is propounded; or, as Epictetus puts it (§20), ‘in the very process of questioning, answering, [or] drawing conclusions’. The argument as a whole is fallacious, insofar as it leads to the conclusion that the stars are not even in number when the argument begins, but odd by the time the argument ends. Moreover, it is fallacious on purpose – a sophism of the kind Epictetus says ‘cause[s] the untutored to become confused when confronted with the conclusions’ – since the number of the stars was the standard example of something that could not be certainly decided one way or another. The first premise, however, does change its truth-value in the course of being articulated, if we conceive of the argument literally as a sequence of words, articulated aloud, in real time, in a prearranged order.

15.
I will make you accept… impossible:
On hypothetical arguments
in general cf. I 25, 11-12; for an example of an ‘impossible’ proposition in Stoic logic, cf. Alexander of Aphrodisias,
On Aristotle’s Prior Analytics
177. 27-30: ‘Chrysippus… says that in the conditional “If John is dead, this one is dead,” which is true when John is being demonstratively referred to, the antecedent “John is dead” is possible, since it can one day become true that John is dead; but “This one is dead” is impossible. For when John has died the proposition “This one is dead” is destroyed, the object of the demonstrative reference no longer existing.’

16.
But wasn’t Plato a philosopher?:
The objection is based on the stylistic elegance of Plato’s dialogues.

17.
 
if I were a philosopher… lame as well?:
Epictetus was lame – and of course a philosopher also, but he modestly disclaims this title.

18.
Can Jews… for example?:
The Jews were well known for their elaborate dietary laws, and peculiarities of diet are duly noted by ancient authors in the case of the Syrians and Egyptians as well; like the Jews, for instance, Egyptian priests were forbidden to eat pork. The line of questioning in this passage assumes that the races are not just different in this respect, but actually either ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, the reason being that the basis of their dietary laws was assumed to be religious (cf. I 22, 4); and the Stoics had very definite views about the gods, as the next discourse (I 12) shows, and confidence that they were right (and other schools of philosophy wrong).

19.
 
On the subject of the gods… God’s notice:
These five groups can be roughly identified. The atheists of the first group include Diagoras of Melos and Critias of Athens. The second group, those who say ‘that God exists… and does not pay attention to anything’, are the Epicureans. The third group represents Aristotle and his followers. The view that God looks after the greater good, and ‘doesn’t sweat the details’ (as a contemporary expression has it) is widely attested, even for some Stoics. The fifth group presents the orthodox Stoic view; it was also attributed to Socrates. The quotation, ‘I cannot make a move…’ is from the
Iliad
10. 279-280, where Odysseus addresses his patron deity, Athena.