[lit-ideas] Re: Marius the Epicurean
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2007 02:03:39 EST
E. Yost says
>ataraxia
>you're thinking Aristippus.
--- Well, yes Aristippus is credited twice in the OED, one:
1656 STANLEY Hist. Philos. IV. (1701) 134/1 Aristippus..Instituted a Sect
called Cyrenaick from the place, by some Hedonick, or voluptuous, from the
Doctrine.
But there is a use of "Epicureran" that it is also what I meant.
"Devoted to the pursuit of pleasure; hence, luxurious, sensual, gluttonous.
Now chiefly: Devoted to refined and tasteful sensuous enjoyment."
1641 MILTON Ch. Discip. II. (1851) 66 Warming their Palace Kitchins, and
from thence their unctuous, and epicurean paunches. 1656 COWLEY Poems,
Grasshopper, Voluptuous, and Wise withal, Epicurean Animal! 1850 CARLYLE
Latter-d.
Pamph. vi. (1872) 192 No longer an earnest Nation, but a light epicurean one.
1868 TENNYSON Lucretius 215 Nothing to mar the sober majesties Of settled,
sweet, Epicurean life.
---- When Walter Pater called Marius the Epicurean -- and I haven't read the
novel -- I think he is combining different 'connotations' that Epicurus
carries in the English-speaking word -- and indeed classical world. While
there
is no Loeb for Epicurus, it seems most Romans were (from Lucretius to ... most
of them).
Wonder if the thing by Pater is available online, and what classic quotes he
gives. Under 'hedonism', Pater is quoted as saying,
1876 PATER in E. Gosse Crit. Kit-Kats (1896) 258, I wish they wouldn't call
me ‘a hedonist’; it produces such a bad effect on the minds of people who
don't know Greek.
Geary is the expert on philosophical Greek sects.
Genius!
Cheers,
JL
The Swimming Pool Library
Bordighera and Buenos Aires.
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