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Handout #15 |
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Stoicism |
| Epictetus (c.50-c. 125 A.D.), who came from Phrygia,
was brought to Rome as a slave. Freed there,
opened a school of Stoic philosophy in Rome and then withdrew to
Greece, to Nicopolis. He was lame as a result of tortures he
suffered when he was slave. One of his disciples, Arrian, set down his
teachings in writing.
Since most of you have become blind, ought there not be someone to fulfill this office for you and sing the hymn of praise to God on behalf of all? Why, what else can I, a lame old man, do but sing hymns to God? If I were a nightingale, I should be singing like a nightingale; if I were a swan, I should be singing like a swan. But as it is, I am a rational being. Therefore I must be singing hymns of praise to God. This is my task. I do it, and will not desert this post, as long as it may be given me to fill it, and I exhort you to join me in this same song. Epictetus, Discourses, 1, 16,19-21. |
