This volume contains the proceedings of a conference on the Presocratic philosophers Pythagoras and Heraclitus. Investigated by a team of international scholars are key problems in doxography, Pythagorean Communities, logos, harmony, psychology, flux, number theory, ethics, and theology. Designed for all students of ancient philosophy, this volume will spur further investigations into these cardinal concerns of early Greek scientific thinkers.

Designed to offer a critical survey of trends and developments in recent scholarship on Philodemus of Gadara and Hellenistic literary theory, the essays in this volume treat the papyrus texts of Philodemus' treatises on poetry and the related subjects of rhetoric and music, establishing links with his Roman contemporaries Lucretius, Catullus, Horace, and Virgil. The volume contains a complete translation of Philodemus' On Poems Book 5. The essays evaluate Philodemus' formalism, which denied the moral utility of poetry as it sought (...) to demonstrate the convergence of the Epicurean and the traditionally poetic. The distinguished contributors are D. Obbink, D. Clay, E. Asmis, D. Sider, M. Wigodsky, R. Janko, J. Porter, D. Blank, D. Armstrong, and S. Oberhelman. (shrink)

The fifteen essays in this volume, rooted in the work of the Hellenistic Moral Philosophy and Early Christianity Section of the SBL, examine the works of Philodemus and how they illuminate the cultural context of early Christianity. Born in Gadara in Syria, Philodemus (ca. 110-40 BCE) was active in Italy as an Epicurean philosopher and poet. This volume comprises three parts; the first deals with Philodemus' works in their own terms, the second situates his thought within its larger Greco-Roman context, (...) and the third explores the implications of his work for understanding the earliest Christians, especially Paul. It will be useful to all readers interested in Hellenistic philosophy and rhetoric as well as Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity. (shrink)

The standard histories give notice of a polemical treatise entitled Letters on Empedocles, 'Eπιστολικ. περ'Eμπεδοκλους in twenty two books by Hermarchus, Epicurus' favourite pupil and successor. The work survives in some twenty fragments of more than probable ascription. The most important of these is an extensive extract preserved by Porphyry at De Abstinentia 1.7–12 on the origin in human history of justice, homicide law, and expiatory purifications, which has been the subject of much discussion. Porphyry himself never names the title (...) of Hermarchus' treatise, though he makes it clear that it was in the form of a polemical attack on the views of Empedocles. A recent papyrus find gives the title not as Letters on Empedocles, but as φρς 'Eμπεδοκλα . In what follows it will be convenient to show that this is no mere variant but in fact the original and correct form of the title, and to determine what can be known with certainty as a result about the make-up of the work. (shrink)

Introducing a new method of reconstructing the fragmented papyrus rolls excavated from Herculaneum, Philodemus On Piety offers a new critical text of the philosophical part of Philodemus' De pietate, together with an English translation and commentary. The best known among the papyri from Herculaneum, Philodemus's On Piety was adapted by Cicero in De natura deorum I. An innovative format presents on facing pages the technical details of the papyrus, and a continuous text with English translation and interpretive notes. New work (...) on ancient religion and philosophy and the history of atheism is brought to bear on the interpretation of the text, which expounds Epicurus' theory of the gods and religious cults as an outgrowth of cultural history. (shrink)

Introducing a new method of reconstructing the fragmented papyrus rolls excavated from Herculaneum, Philodemus On Piety offers a new critical text of the philosophical part of Philodemus' De pietate, together with an English translation and commentary. The best known among the papyri from Herculaneum, Philodemus's On Piety was adapted by Cicero in De natura deorum I. An innovative format presents on facing pages the technical details of the papyrus, and a continuous text with English translation and interpretive notes. New work (...) on ancient religion and philosophy and the history of atheism is brought to bear on the interpretation of the text, which expounds Epicurus' theory of the gods and religious cults as an outgrowth of cultural history. (shrink)