About Ho Kepos

The main philosophical competitors of Ho Kepos, in Ancient Athens, were the Academy of Plato, Aristotle’s Lyceum and the school of Zeno, who taught in a public space called the Stoa Poikile. Unusually for the time, both women and slaves were welcomed at Ho Kepos. Modern humanists have recently been rediscovering the ancient insights of Epicurus and his friends.

In his last will and testament, Epicurus (341–270 BCE) left an endowment for purposes including the organisation of commemorative events, where enthusiasts of his ideas might gather to partake of pleasurable philosophical discussions, accompanied by simple food and wine.

Epicurus was born on the Greek island of Samos (from whence also came Pythagoras, Melissus and - according to Herodotus - Kolaios, the first Greek to land in Iberia c. 640 BCE), but lived and taught in Athens for the last 35 years of his life. His final wishes were also intended to preserve and maintain his property in Athens, so that likeminded people could meet there to discuss all manner of subjects in a peaceful, garden environment (unfortunately, that property may now lie beneath a highway).

For approximately 700 years after Epicurus’ death, followers of his ideas spread his philosophy throughout the Ancient Mediterranean world. It has even been demonstrated that the rising Christian religion may have annexed Epicurean teachings (whilst simultaneously slandering Epicurus, who had rejected divine inspiration in favour of reason and observation) and that St Paul emulated concepts from the Canon, Physics, and Ethics of Epicurus as well as from other Classical sources. Epicureanism was so admired by c.50 BCE that Virgil wrote, of the foremost Epicurean teacher of the time, “I am setting sail for the heavens of the blessed to seek the wise sayings of great Siro, and will redeem my life from all care.” Epicureanism and Christianity both arose amongst the educated poor; were non-political; and, spread by missionaries - yet it was the intellectual rebellion of Epicurus against received mythology that caused the Hebrew/Old Testament ‘god of wrath’ to be transmogrified into the Christian/New Testament ‘god of love’.

The modern village of Costa Natura is located in a prominent coastal region of the Ancient Greco-Roman world; during which period, an aristocratic Roman poet by the name Titus Lucretius Carus (c.99 to c.55 BCE) wrote the best surviving masterpiece of Epicurean philosophy, “De rerum natura” (‘On the Nature of Things’). There can be no doubt that Epicureanism had expanded far beyond Greece, to become a popular and thriving tradition in the Roman world, many decades before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.

Both Epicurus and Lucretius lived at times of political turmoil, from which they may have sought respite through a common belief that the continual experience of modest and easily obtainable pleasures was all that a person needs for a satisfying life. Such (naturally) autarkical survival strategy may be what led them to question received religion and superstitions; thereby, liberating their minds for developing pre-Socratic theories about the world into an ancient precursor of the European Enlightenment. The anarcho-syndicalist movement of late 19th and early 20th century Spain also shares some features with this historical theme.