Friday, April 17, 2020

Our common plague

Fragment 12, supposedly
"the majority of people suffer from a common disease, as in a plague, with their false notions about things, and their number is increasing (for in mutual emulation they catch the disease from one another, like sheep)".

     Diogenes of Oenoanda (2nd century A.D.), The philosophical inscription, fragment 3 IV, ed. & trans. M. F. Smith.  I was put onto this by Kyle Harper, "Epicurus today," First things no. 302 (April 2020):  49 (47-49), but have been prevented from procuring the latest critical edition by our current literal pandemic.

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