Is mental tranquillity the answer? And how can we integrate an Ancient Greek philosopher’s teachings into modern life? Last year inflicted ill-health, death, bereavement, unemployment and poverty on some, and led others to look inwards and re-evaluate lifestyle and priorities. Many have sought therapeutic remedies for anxiety and insomnia as well as advice on how to feel happier. Some ancient Mediterranean answers to such psychological issues can be found in John Sellars’s little book. It explores the ideas of the Athenian philosopher Epicurus, born in 341BC, 19 years before Aristotle died. Epicurus taught that the most important factor in achieving happiness is mental tranquillity. Epicureanism can ease contemporary worries, Sellars believes; in some ways it resembles cognitive behavioural therapy. In 307BC, Epicurus founded his community at a site he called the Garden, north-west of Athens’s urban centre, near the Academy that Plato had founded 80 years before. Irrigated by the Eridanus river, it offered a private, secluded space for Epicurus’s calm followers to assemble (they included, ancient tradition held, both women and slaves). They did not abandon themselves to the satisfaction of excessive appetites for food, drink and other carnal pleasures. Although their ancient critics peddled this caricature, it misrepresented Epicurean belief that pleasure (_hēdonē_)_ _was the most important goal in life. Continue reading...
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