Happy and Peaceful Eikas to all! Every month on or around the 20th, members of the Society of Friends of Epicurus gather in memory of the two main founders of our School, Epicurus of Samos and Metrodorus of Lampsacus. But while most students of philosophy have at least a basic familiarity with the first founder, very few people have even heard of his best friend. This series means to raise the profile of Metrodorus of Lampsacus, as I recently did with Colotes and Leontion.
- The First Ancestor of the Twentiers – a rough outline of the biography of the co-founder of the Epicurean Garden, Metrodorus of Lampsacus, and some notes on the tribe-building and soul-healing projects of the founders
- Metrodorus the Mystes – a commentary on Vatican Saying 10 and Metrodorus’ Epistle to Timarchus, which explores the intersection between Hellenistic mystery religions and the practices of the first Epicureans
- Mithras the Syrian – an exploration of the intersection between Zoroastrianism and the Epicureans (supplemented by The 22 Excellent Books on Empedocles), and also how the first Epicureans propagated wholesome human values by retelling stories of sacred friendship
- Metrodorus the Autarch: a theory and practice of self-rule – on Metrodorus’ self-sufficiency and economics, supplemented by Epitome On Wealth
- Metrodorus the Communicator – a commentary on Metrodorus’ efforts to reform his native language
- Epistle to Timocrates – a commentary on the controversies between Metrodorus and his brother
- The Activities of Vatican Saying 41 – a detailed elaboration of what I consider to be Metrodorus’ most important teaching, which connects theory and practice, and initiates us into the wisdom of the Epicurean laughing philosophers
The essays on Timocrates and VS 41 had been written previously, but I have added them here for the sake of convenience and easy reference, so that all of my commentaries on Metrodorus will be easily found in one place.
Additional Notes on the Belly
I do not wish to conclude this essay series without addressing the issue of the belly in Metrodorus’ philosophy. After re-reading these last two essays and the one on autarchy–since the belly prepares us for self-sufficiency by teaching us about the limits of our desires–, I developed one additional possible theory for why Metrodorus says “the seat of good is the belly” in his Epistle to Timocrates. In Mithras the Syrian I mention:
… the wisdom of PD 5 evolved into VS 41 when he attempted to connect theory and praxis. Metrodorus may have asked: “By what signs do I know that I’m living pleasantly?”, and answered with laughter …
Following the logic of this led me to think about the anatomy of laughter. Might Metrodorus not have been referring to laughter when he said that pleasure begins in, or has its seat in, the belly? Laughter (the “sign” or evidence of pleasure in the body) is a movement or tremor within the body that expels air suddenly. The lungs are constantly at work with the movement of breath, and their activity is mostly unconscious: the movement of laughter, on the other hand, requires the incitement of some pleasant motivation and originates in the belly. I invite you to observe this in your own laughter. It seems to me that the muscles of the belly, just under the lungs, must contract in order for laughter to take place. And so, the “seat of pleasure” might, among other things, be a reference to how the belly expresses pleasure in the form of laughter.
I unfortunately had to experience the grief of losing my oldest brother Junior on April 28th from cancer. During this experience, I took notice of how the belly also has a role in the anatomy of crying: air is expelled by the muscles of the belly and tremors take place there. Both crying and laughing have huge therapeutic benefits. It seems that much of the emotional wisdom within the body is found in the belly, or that many of our feelings are processed in the belly in some way.
Non-Epicurean philosophers have independently taken notice of the role of the belly. In Thus Spake Zarathustra, Nietzsche asserts that spirit is a stomach and acknowledges that much of what we associate with mental or “spiritual” states is really a series of organic and chemical signals that often originate in the belly. The belly has a role in stabilizing and centering the body in many contemplative and martial arts wisdom traditions. In Lie-zi’s Garden of Pleasure (in the parallel sayings section titled “The Belly as a Point of Reference”), I noted the importance of the belly in the distinction that Taoists make between the internal (which renders us self-sufficient and whole) and the external, and I invited students to read Chapter 12 of the Tao Te Ching.
Racing through the field and hunting make the mind wild. Searching for precious goods leads astray. Therefore, the sage attends to the belly, and not to what he sees. He rejects the latter and chooses the former. – Tao te Ching 12
Here, the appeal to the belly helps to keep us grounded and stable.
Other Literary Updates
In addition to the Metrodorus series, I published essays on other companions of the Hegemon and Metro in recent months:
Nathan recently published A Hymn to Hedone, The Life of Epíkouros: A Translation for Twentiers and an expansive translation of the fragments of Book 2 from On Nature.
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