Ricerc@Sapienza

The paper aims at individuating and analyzing some key features of Epicurus’s doctrine and literary style against the background of the basic notion of mneme. Since he wants to gain a widespread audience and since all the people are in the condition of understanding his message and taking benefits from it, in many occasions he seems to stress the fact that the best way to accomplish the task just described is easily at disposal of his disciples and readers. At any level, they have indeed to pay attention to Epicurean physical tenets and especially keep them actively alive in their memory, so that they can recall and apply them, if and when needed. We shall examine here two different but interrelated claims: the Epicurean philosopher has to be able to ‘seize the day’, to intercept the kairos, for example in a situation of alleged embarrassment or puzzlement, but he can do that only if and because he is able to find out in the well-ordered magazine of his memory the appropriate doctrine or principle for obtaining the right answer and conquering what Epicurus defines galene, namely ‘stillness of the sea’ or (not metaphorically) calmness of life. The task of this paper will be therefore double: it will explore both the special function attributed to theoria, which must be intended as proper observation of nature and its structure, and the different forms of concrete boetheia it can offer, thanks to a substantial help based on the exercise of memory. As a final step, one cannot forget that when as Epicureans we speak of memory we refer to a thoroughly materialistic process, as confirmed by the use of the technical term typos, the mark impressed in the atomistic cluster of our soul. In order to reinforce such a process and to give the best assurance against any risk of kenodoxia or vain opinion, Epicurus offers to his students the new device of his correct epitome, applied to some central aspects of his physics but useful also for penetrating other and most specific questions related to the complete clarification of the world make-up