The Ethical Passion: Greek Philosophers, Roman Poets,

Do not seek to bring things to pass in accordance with your wishes, but wish for them as they are, and you will find them.

Considering the Classics: Greek Philosophers, Roman Satirists, Old Testament Prophets

A small group has enjoyed reading closely various classics in translation. In January we will review our study of Dante’s Comedy. Then we'll turn to some of the ancient roots of ethical thinking and its reflection in history and satire, beginning with two representatives of Stoicism and Epicureanism:

Epictetus: All religions must be tolerated...for every man must get to heaven in his own way.

Epicurus: Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not.

Further readings will explore some of the ethical issues raised by historians like Plutarch and Thucydides and historical figures such as Diogenes and Pericles. Further selections may come from Juvenal, Horace, Plato, Aristotle, Jeremiah and the Book of Job.

We invite you to join us in 2008!

North Library Conference Room

Wednesdays 10:15 – 12:15 (Library opens at 10)

Jan. 9, 23, 30

Feb. 13, 27 -- Mar. 12, 26

April 9, 23, 30 -- May 14, 28

When a soft eunuch takes to matrimony, and Maevia, with spear in hand and breasts exposed, to pig-sticking in Etruria; when a guttersnipe of the Nile like Crispinus—a slave-born denizen of Canopus—hitches a Tyrian cloak on to his shoulder, whilst on his sweating finger he airs a summer ring of gold, unable to endure the weight of a heavier gem—it is hard not to write satire. ~ Juvenal.