Eikas | Society of Friends of Epicurus

In his final will, Epicurus left provisions and instructions related to holding a monthly feast of reason and pleasure, where Epicureans would enjoy each other’s company while eating delicacies and studying philosophy. This Epicurean feast is traditionally celebrated on the 20th of each month and is meant to honor the memory of Epicureans who came before us, to study them, and to transmit to future generations this noble wisdom tradition through the cultivation of friendships and through sincere study. Eikas is a memorial service: it’s about preserving the memory of the original Garden and its doctrines.

Today, thanks to the internet, this tradition has taken the form of monthly essays and Eikas gatherings via zoom. For Luis Granados, the 20th is a more private and intimate alternative to the atheistic churches that have become fashionable and follow a rather ecclesiastical, congregational model to create community, which he considers impersonal. The Twentieth should be interpersonal, celebrated with an intimate society of good friends by meleta-ing and enjoying fine (even if simple) foods.

Eikas – The Epicurean Feast of the Twentieth (Video)

An Eikas Manifesto: A Clarion Call to Revive an Epicurean Tradition that Strengthens Friendships and Communities

How to Eikas (PDF)

EIKAΔIΣTAI

The current consensus at SoFE is that Eikas must incorporate three elements:

it must occur either on the Twentieth or on the most advantageous date close to it, as agreed by the members of that particular Koinonia–what we call “The Event”,
it must honor in some way the memory of Metrodorus of Lampsacus and Epicurus of Samos, as well as (why not?) that of other Epicureans after them, and of our own Epicurean friends who are gone. This we call “The Libation”, usually a toast in memory of the First Guides, and
it must include some specifically Epicurean educational content, which allows participants to practice both philia (friendship) and philosophy. This is what we at SoFE call “The Program”, or “Eikas Program”, and it’s how we remember the Hegemon’s Doctrines.

SoFE’s Eikas Updates and Essays Archive

February 2026 – The Pig in Various Cultures: On Pleasure, the Belly, and Redeeming the Earth; The Sculpted Word: Synopsis and Commentary, & Other Literary and Lecture Updates

January 2026 – Commentary on the Method of Multiple Interpretations

RHI Conference 2025: On the Simultaneity Between Pleasure and Praxis in Epicurean Salvific Theory

December 2025 – Epicurus and Nietzsche on Experimentation; Giving Epicurean Books During the Holidays; On the Need to Mourn Loved Ones

November 2025 – Goddess Spirituality in Lucretius

October 2025 – A Smooth Contentment: On the Future Causes of Pleasures, Pleasure and Prudence in the Dhammapada and other literary updates

September 2025 – Choosing To Remember and to Forget: On the Past Causes of Pleasures and The Elements of Epicurean Psychedelia

August 2025 – The Practice of Presentism

July 2025 – Metrodorus the Communicator; Commentaries on Metrodorus (the full seven-essay series with a supplementary commentary on the belly and two supplementary epitomes for study); and Hymn to Hedone

June 2025 – Metrodorus the Autarch: a theory and practice of self-rule

May 2025 – Mithras the Syrian, and A Life of Epikouros: a Translation for The Twentiers

April 2025 – Metrodorus the Mystes

March 2025 – The First Ancestor of the Twentiers

February 2025 – Commentary on Leontion the Epicurean

January 2025 – The Five Lucretian Hymns to the Hegemon

December 2024 – Nature Must Not Be Forced

November 2024 – Theoxenia: a Practice of Epicurean Hospitality

October 2024 – Update and Commentary on Colotes of Lampsacus

September 2024 – Upar and Onar: On Correct and Incorrect Activity and Rest

August 2024 – The Activities of Vatican Saying 41

July 2024 – Comparing Syggenis Hedone and Buddha-garbha