The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

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THE STOIC CREED
himself frequently made such summaries for the use of
inquiring followers. Three such we have, as already
hinted, in the tenth book of Diogenes Laertius s Lives
of the Philosophers, in the shape of Letters giving a
sort of epitome of his philosophy one addressed to
Herodotus, on the Epicurean cosmogony and theory
of knowledge ;
another to Pythocles, regarding the
heavenly bodies, offering natural explanations of their
phenomena, so as to dispel superstition and rid the
soul of superstitious fear ;
and a third to Menceceus,
on the Epicurean Ethics, or Pleasure as the Chief Good.
Moreover, every Epicurean had for the master the most
ardent personal devotion. He even exalted him to the
place of deity in his veneration. This comes out again
and again in Lucretius, whose language in extolling
Epicurus is that of the enthusiastic worshipper, dis
closing whole-hearted and unbounded admiration. 1
is not even second in this respect to Lucian, who
He
a saint indeed, who was inspired
designates Epicurus
in the highest sense ;
who alone combined, and taught
others to combine, the good with the true, and was
thus the deliverer and saviour of those who would con
sent to learn from him"
(see his Alexander of Abonoteichus].
Furthermore, it was characteristic of the disciples of
Epicurus that they had likenesses of the master "not
only in pictures, but even on their
(Cicero, DC Finibus, v.
i).
goblets and rings
Taking all these things into consideration, then, and
remembering also that the teaching of Lucretius, in
1
See, particularly, the prologues to Books I. in. V. and vi.