A Non-Spoiler Review of The Epicuriana Novel by Friend Harmonious

“I AM EPICURUS” 

The Epicuriana follows in the tradition of A Few Days in Athens, presenting itself as the reconstructed remains of a Herculaneum scroll recovered by archaeologists in the modern era. It is a fictional, historically plausible (though not always accurate), philosophical coming-of-age and romantic novel that explores the life of Epicurus primarily from his boyhood years through to later developments in his life as he travels across Ionia, amassing followers and spreading his new philosophy of tranquility and friendship.

The Good

It is deeply character-driven, exploring the intimate lives of Epicurus and those who contributed most importantly to his maturation both as a man and as a philosophical innovator, including but not limited to his father Neocles, mother Chaerestrata, and his childhood friend Servilia and her father Valerius. It includes flashback episodes to Epicurus in boyhood and concludes with a brief glimpse of Epicurus at the end of his life, and thus spans effectively his entire life.

It is clearly very well researched, drawing on a rather substantial bibliography to inform the historical plausibility of its narrative – though not completely avoiding all anachronisms and historical impossibilities.

It explores various themes such as the unpredictability of necessary and chance events, and how one’s actions as a free agent can affect dramatic changes with lasting consequences in one’s life. It touches on themes of Epicurean friendship and the love between friends (as distinct from Platonic or familial love, which are held in contrast). It explores a broad spectrum of human emotions as well as the fear of the unknown and of death.

The flow of the text certainly has the ability to evoke emotion in the reader and I found myself hooting and laughing and having other pleasant emotional responses occasionally throughout the reading of the text.

There are many interesting sequences throughout the novel, with Epicurus meeting and interacting with new characters who are pivotal to the development of the plot and of his own character. For example, there is a humorous and somewhat vicious encounter with a tag-team of Aristotelians who infiltrated the private house discussions of Epicurus and company while at Mytilene, an amusing conversation between Epicurus and the Gymnasiarch of Mytilene, and a number of adventurous episodes between Epicurus and the characters involved with the plotline of delivering Epicurus from Colophon to Lampsacus, including the captain of the ship, Master Panyotis, and a ragtag band of pirates, the latter of whom experience the fruits of Epicurus’ hoplite training skills firsthand.

One other reviewer had this to say of The Epicuriana after reading the whole work:

“[It is] A lovely personal story which mirrors the struggles and doubts of many of us today, but comes a full circle when we reflect on the past and the present. I still find it so interesting that [Epicurus’] struggles within himself, doubts, situations and successes have been repeated throughout the ages – perhaps we as people should spend time to look back at these ancient writings to learn for our future. But perhaps we are in too much of a hurry to make our own mistakes! The story really makes you think.”

The Bad

I wish that it had explored Epicurus’ friendships with Hermarchus and Metrodorus more. An individual chapter depicts a dialogue between Hermarchus and Epicurus, but the discourse was centered primarily around addressing the accusations and concerns of sexual impropriety in the Garden as advanced by the apostate Timocrates. Metrodorus is only very briefly present and his character is of singular dimension. Unfortunately, Polyaenus does not make an appearance as far as I remember, neither do any of Epicurus’ brothers (Neocles, Chaeredemus and Aristobulus), who are reported by Diogenes Laertius to have been members of the Garden School.

There are numerous minor historical anachronisms, such as the author positing that Epicurus heard the lectures of Aristotle in person in Athens, which is impossible because Aristotle had left Athens by the time Epicurus arrived, leaving his disciple Theophrastus in charge of the Lyceum (whom Epicurus may actually have heard lecture). Another glaring anachronism was evident when Epicurus was reflecting on the various philosophical schools vying for influence in the agora of Mytilene, and pauses to briefly consider the Stoics. Zeno of Citium had not started the Stoic school until a number of years after Epicurus had already established the Garden in Athens. These events (when Epicurus was still much younger and on Mytilene) being well before that time are an obvious impossibility. These inaccuracies caused me to suspend belief in some cases. The taking of certain liberties may have been deliberately chosen by the author to advance the narrative – if so, then I would view these as a disservice to the reader, as it is partly the duty of the presenter of historical fiction to clarify when they are deviating from the factual timeline.

There is also a contemporary timeline exploring the Herculaneum papyri scholars who are uncovering The Epicuriana scroll. The character relationships there are notably less interesting and fleshed-out than the ones in the ancient timeline. We only return to this timeline a few times and it may have sufficed to just leave it wholly out of the work.

The prose is impressive but is perhaps a bit too lavish in its use of rare or otherwise obscure vocabulary, especially being a contemporary piece of writing. Be prepared to have a dictionary or thesaurus near at hand to accompany the reading experience. In many cases, it would have sufficed to convey a similar meaning choosing less opulent words for the sake of the comprehensibility of the reader. It definitely interrupted the flow. These occurrences struck me somewhat as an attempt to signal the author’s own facility with language.

There is a bit too much inter-familial intrigue and melodrama for my taste, bordering close to soap opera. Without going into too much detail, it would have been tolerable if that was only central to one major plot reveal, but that’s how all the major plot reveals went.

Conclusions

I would still recommend reading A Few Days in Athens over it for an early student of Epicurean philosophy. I would only recommend The Epicuriana after one has the historical and philosophical facts clearly sorted in their mind and after having been exposed to the primary sources and the biographies by Diogenes Laertius and Norman DeWitt.

It is some pleasant and sweet fun for someone who is confident that they would be able to recognize where it goes wrong and not be susceptible to misinterpretation. I moderately recommend it.