Art Scatter

I love our words for “hot” here in the middle of August (and in Portland, anyway, it is hot, especially by wimpy Northwest standards). My favorite is “sizzling.” The nameless Oregonian headline writer today employed “baked,” “broiled” and “grilled” all in one deck that might have escaped from FoodDay. Good one! If it were a little more humid, it would be “steamy” or “sauna-like.” Of course, “boiling.” The more poetical might veer toward “molten” or such expression as “hotter than the underside of hell.” That one’s Southern, right? “Scorching,” “simmering,” and, yikes, “blistering.”

So what do our thoughts turn to on a blistering summer day, or rather, the relatively cool morning before the “furnace” of the afternoon? Why to Epicurus and Vesuvius and the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, naturally!

It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and honorably and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely and honorably and justly without living pleasantly. Whenever any one of these is lacking, when, for instance, the man is not able to live wisely, though he lives honorably and justly, it is impossible for him to live a pleasant life.

That’s Epicurus. And he comes to mind today because of an article that ArtsJournal linked — which suggests that new technologies and some more digging will allow us to have a much more complete understanding of Epicurean philosophy. That’s because the blocks of carbon — into which an extensive philosophical papyrus library of the ancient world was turned by the Vesuvius eruption in 79 AD — may be “translatable” after all. Epicurus wasn’t all about eating well as “epicurean” would suggest; he had a LOT more on his mind, much of it involving the physical world but also the conditions that lead to human happiness. And the library may have the complete text of his most famous ancient treatise, On Nature..

So, what would Epicurus say about the heat, if we could research those carbon blocks (think Hans Solo in Return of the Jedi, perhaps)? Well, he’d probably say that today’s heat isn’t a visitation from the gods, because that was a big issue during his lifetime (341–270 BC). We are not being punished. Or rewarded. The gods do not manifest in the weather. It’s all just atoms. And then he might riff (in a Stoic sort of way): Extreme pain is of short duration (one way or another) and so tolerable; and mild pain does not preclude pleasantness. This is excellent advice! So, maybe a movie this afternoon? A dip in the pool? Or just a cool spot to read? Epicurus would approve.