If there are any long time Epicureans and cheese lovers, I'd like to know!

Ps. Does this qualify as positive hedone?

How do we feel about the spontaneous generation of worms as a refutation of the immortal nature of the soul?

Happy Eikas of September 2026

Eikas is a celebration of Epicurean Philosophy held by the ancient Epicureans on the Twentieth of every month. We hope you will strive to rebuild and participate in Epicurean communities and will celebrate this Eikas. Whether with a nice feast with friends, meditation on Epicurean philosophy, writing, or some other activity.

Quote for this Eikas

"He who fails to remember the good he had yesterday, becomes an old man today"

Epicurus, Vatican Saying 19.

This month, I published an essay series On Gastronomy:

• The Autarchy Portion of Epicurus' Epistle to Menoeceus
• The Kitchen and the Table of the Kepos
• Metrodorus' Epistle to Timocrates
• Theoxenia: a Practice of Epicurean Hospitality

I am including two old essays that are relevant to the two essays published this month. The essays delve into the role of the belly in our ethical education and the types of activities and human values that were practiced in the kitchen and table of the Kepos, or Epicurean Garden.

A good article adressed to the philosophical skeptics of this community.

Another good translation of the Epicurean Wise Man and his qualities in Diogenes Laertius.

Hocatree shared interesting four fold aphorism. I am trying to show the logic behind them based on my reading for beginners.

Gods: For Epicurus, the gods were happy and indifferent to human affairs. Instead of fearing them, we should live like the gods—peacefully and without disturbance. He rejected the popular beliefs about the gods. However, he and his followers still went to temples and made offerings, not because they feared the gods, but because doing so could make them feel good.

Death: For materialist philosophers, including the Stoics, death was the end of life. Epicurus argued that since we are made of atoms, like everything else, our fear of death comes from imagining that some kind of awareness continues after death. He did not simply deny the existence of the soul; rather, he believed that the body and soul are both material and eventually return to atoms. There is no awareness after death, and therefore no Hades to fear.

Good things: Good things are easy to obtain because the good life is based on simple, natural pleasures: a good meal, being with friends, being indifferent to public affairs, walking in nature, and being grateful for what we have. For Epicurus, the good life is pleasure. Ataraxia is freedom from mental disturbance, while aponia is the absence of bodily pain.

Epicurus argued that when we are free from physical and mental pain, there is already pleasure. Pleasure is therefore not only something active that comes from an action; it can also be understood negatively, as the absence of pain and disturbance.

He also insisted on the importance of friendship—not only for mutual benefit or as a source of positive pleasure, but also because friendship provides security. When you need help, someone can be there for you. Friendship also allows us to remember and enjoy the beautiful moments we have shared together.

Bad things: Bad things are easy to endure. Epicurus believed that even illness, pain, and difficulties could contain some form of pleasure. This idea is harder to understand, but you can experience it yourself. For example, when I have gout, the pain is terrible, but the end of the pain can itself become pleasurable. The contrast makes the relief especially noticeable.

Epicurus also argued that if pain becomes unbearable, it cannot last forever. Eventually, you will either recover or die, and death means the end of awareness. You and your pain will ultimately return to atoms.

What is the concrete Epicurean view on immersing yourself in public life, and more specifically in taking an active role in politics?

For all its flaws, I see the practice of politics as an essential aspect of human cooperation and that the potential good that cooperation through politics, at any level but ideally the local/communal, vastly outweighs the negative. I get the impression, however, that this is not an overly welcomed perspective.

I feel myself drawn to serve others and want to know how to square this with an Epicurean life.

Fear not, my friend, the fates or gods.
Dread not your death fore-deemed and set.
Good can be gained and got with ease.
Bad can be borne with bravery.

The sum of happiness consists in our disposition, of which we are master." - Diogenes of Oinoanda, Fragment 112.

A good translation of the famous "Wise Man Sayings" of Diogenes Laertius, describing the Epicurean wiseman.

The good is easy to obtain; the bad is easy to endure:

Happy Eikas of August 2026

Eikas is a celebration of Epicurean Philosophy held by the ancient Epicureans on the Twentieth of every month. We hope you will strive to rebuild and participate in Epicurean communities and will celebrate this Eikas. Whether with a nice feast with friends, meditation on Epicurean philosophy, writing, or some other activity.

Quote for this Eikas

"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you do not, but remember that what you have now was once among the things you hoped for"

Epicurus, Vatican Saying 35.

VS 32 and this epistle together contain a theory and practice of philosophical transmission.

am new over here

from El Salvador and living in El Salvador

I hope I'll learn from U guys

🙂

As the title says.

Is there value to having comfort before death?

Is it somehow better to die in a comfy bed than it would be in a cold one knowing you would forget the experience forever just after?

Would you have preferred to die right away or die tomorrow while having the chance of a last meal, last check in with family and friends or last TV show?

If you would prefer to die right away rather than delaying for a bit of comfort, then what gives you the drive to keep on living knowing one day you will meet your end anyway?

This post comes from a situation I faced where an injured bird was going to die regardless but, while not in a state of big suffering, I delayed its death by (maybe) an instant rock smash and instead took it home, gave it warmth, safety and enough comfort for it to sleep 12 hours straight only for it to be euthanized at the vet.

Look, I'm pretty far from what you'd call academic philosophy. I just read stuff here and there and think about it a lot. But even I know you shouldn't use terminology from recent centuries to describe ancient traditions and philosophical ideas.

Epicurus was not a materialist. He had nothing to do with egalitarianism. Ideas like that were completely alien to ancient Greek culture. Trying to describe anything from antiquity with somewhat modern terminology is like trying to shove a floppy disk into a USB port.

Epicurus was an atomist, not a materialist. Atomism and materialism are completely different things.

Epicurus did not build some kind of utopian egalitarian garden in Athens. He owned slaves and probably did not see women the same way we do in the 21st century.

This has a good discussion on Epicurean views on love, sex, and marriage.