The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 3 (of 3)Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Philosophy
The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 3 (of 3)
Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Civilization, Greco-Roman; Dinners and dining -- Greece; Greece -- Social life and customs; Homosexuality -- Greece
pointing out that his death was partly caused by his fondness for
drunkenness.
Speusippus also, the relation of Plato, and his successor in his
school, was a man very fond of pleasure. At all events Dionysius, the
tyrant of Sicily, in his letter to him blaming him for his fondness for
pleasure, reproaches him also for his covetousness, and for his love of
Lasthenea the Arcadian, who had been a pupil of Plato.
[Sidenote: EPICURUS.]
67. But not only did Aristippus and his followers embrace
that pleasure which consists in motion, but also Epicurus and his
followers did the same. And not to say anything of those sudden
motions, and irritations, and titillations, and also those prickings
and stimuli which Epicurus often brings forward, I will merely cite
what he has said in his treatise on the End. For he says—"For I
am not able to perceive any good, if I take away all the pleasures
which arise from flavours, and if I leave out of the question all
the pleasures arising from amorous indulgences, and all those which
are caused by hearing sweet sounds, and all those motions which are
excited by figures which are pleasant to the sight." And Metrodorus
in his Epistles says—"My good natural philosopher Timocrates, reason
which proceeds according to nature devotes its whole attention to the
stomach." And Epicurus says—"The origin and root of all good is the
pleasure of the stomach; and all excessive efforts of wisdom have
reference to the stomach." And again, in his treatise concerning the
End, he says—"You ought therefore to respect honour and the virtues,
and all things of that sort, if they produce pleasure; but if they do
not, then we may as well have nothing to do with them:" evidently in
these words making virtue subordinate to pleasure, and performing as
it were the part of a handmaid to it. And in another place he says—"I
spit upon honour, and those who worship it in a foolish manner, when it
produces no pleasure."
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