Metrodorus the Mystes

Second Commentary on Metrodorus of Lampsacus

This is the second essay in a series on Metrodorus.

Somewhere in Western Anatolia, around the year 300 BCE, a chorus sings about mysteries related to what was, what is, and what will be for all eternity while a holy procession of torch bearers—among them the servants Mys, Nicias, Lycon, and Phaedrium—leads an ascent up to a high place with an open-air, incense-filled shrine to the heavenly, ever-blissful Aphrodite Urania. It is otherwise dark, and the stars are clearly visible. At the lower levels, their songs are solemn, sober, and low pitched, but as they make their ascent, their song becomes a faster, more Dionysian, and higher-pitched chant. Once at the summit, the cheering initiates festively sing hymns to their hearts’ content until a bell announces the commencement of the mysteries. Metrodorus stands and offers a libation to Urania, the Muse of astronomy and cosmology, asking her to “commune with us”, and invites all to the mysteries. Once all are seated and the assembly is ready for the revelation of the mysteries, Epicurus appears to initiate us into contemplations of nature. At the end of the evening, we are epoptes, those who have seen.

At least this is what my imagination conjures up when I read Metrodorus’ description in his Epistle to Timarchus of what he experienced, what he lived, while contemplating nature with his friend Epicurus and their companions. In reality, Epicurus “revealed” his doctrines on nature not at once but over many years to his disciples, and his discussions were documented on 37 books “On Nature”, only fragments of which remain. Our friend Nathan here shared the approximate dates during which these books are believed by scholars to have been written from 311 BCE to after 295 BCE, which includes his time in Lampsacus prior to moving to Athens in 306 BCE. This took place for well over a decade and reminds me of how the Islamic prophet also “revealed” his Qur’an during decades, with the early verses being from the city of Mecca and the latter ones being from Medina. I am using language of divine “revelation” because this is the language that Metrodorus used, and the subject of this essay.

The Sources

In his Epistle to Timarchus, Metrodorus says:

"Let us respond to beauty with beauty: for, by plunging, so to speak, into a communion of affection, we have freed ourselves from earthly life to rise to the mysteries of Epicurus, a truly divine revelation." - as reported in Against Colotes, 1117

The above translation is my own, from the French (as found in Les Epicuriens): “Répondons à la beauté par la beauté, car, en plongeant pour ainsi dire dans une communion d’affection, nous nous sommes liberés de la vie terre a terre pour nous élever jusqu’aux mystères d’Épicure, une révélation véritablement divine”. The translation given by Perseus (Column 17) is as follows:

Let us do some extraordinarily excellent thing, not suffering ourselves to be plunged in reciprocal affections, but retiring from this low and terrestrial life, and elevating ourselves to the truly holy and divinely revealed ceremonies and mysteries of Epicurus.

Notice that Metrodorus here uses the emphatic distinction of “truly holy”, which was later used by Lucian in Alexander the Oracle Monger when describing Epicurus’ character so as to differentiate him from the charlatans he is criticizing. He also uses the term “so to speak” (pour ainsi dire), which makes me think that he was forcing himself to use the expression “plunging”, or to accommodate his meaning to this popular expression which (as we will see) links to the Greek mysteries.

There may be an error in the Perseus translation, since the initial part of the fragment is almost the opposite of the Les Epicuriens translation. Knowing what we know of the Epicureans, plunging into a communion of affection (omopatheiais, literally the practice of nurturing same-feeling-ness) makes sense as part of the sacred technology of the Epicurean mysteries, and reminds me of Vatican Saying 61 and other sources. We see a practice of nurturing good feelings (pathe) in Epicurus, Metrodorus (VS 41) and even the much later Scholarch Zeno of Sidon, as well as a practice of laughter where philosopher-friends feel good together. Omopatheiais reminds me of the most familiar modern vestige of the Greek mysteries: the Catholic sacrament of communion, which serves as a modern case study in how the mysteries function. It also reminds me of the Rasta chant One Love.

Participants in the ancient Hellenistic mysteries felt a sense of camaraderie because only initiates had experienced what went on in them, and this camaraderie was one of the benefits of the mysteries. Only initiates of the Eleusinian mysteries had been inside the sanctuary of the telesterion—just as only modern initiates of Santería have been to the igbodu, or the sacred chamber of initiation. Participants in the Burning Man festival call each other burners in mutual recognition. Only they know what experiencing this festival is like. Metrodorus is perhaps alluding to a similar sense of insider camaraderie within the Kepos when he spoke to Timarchus of omopatheiais.

Here’s the original Greek fragment of the Epistle to Timarchus:

ἀλλ᾽ ὅμως ὁ μὲν Μητρόδωρος τὸν Τίμαρχον παρακαλῶν φησι ‘ποιήσωμέν τι καλὸν ἐπὶ καλοῖς, μονονοὺ καταδύντες ταῖς ὁμοιοπαθείαις καὶ ἀπαλλαγέντες ἐκ τοῦ χαμαὶ βίου εἰς τὰ Ἐπικούρου ὡς ἀληθῶς θεόφαντα ὄργια’

In the words theophanta orgia (θεόφαντα ὄργια, divinely revealed mysteries or ceremonies), theo refers to the divine, and phanta to revelation or manifestation. Orgies in this context refers to the secret rites or mysteries of Dionysus and similar mystery religions which require initiation. Mysteries were independent and divorced from the official cults sponsored by the state. They were private, and subject to admission into the community by those already initiated. During the Hellenistic Era, mystery cults proliferated and became commonplace, as people sought more intimate and personal forms of spirituality.

The ancient Greek word from which English mystery derives, mystḗrion (μυστήριον), means "mystery or secret rite" and is related with the verb myéō (μυέω), which means "(I) teach, initiate into the mysteries", and the noun mýstēs (μύστης), which means "one initiated". The word mystikós (μυστικός), source of the English mystic, means "connected with the mysteries, or private, secret" - Wikipedia essay on the Eleusinian Mysteries

Etymologically, the word mystery is derived from the Greek verb myein (“to close”), referring to the lips and the eyes. - Britannica

Another source (also attributed to Metrodorus in the book Les Epicuriens) that, I believe, connects to Epicurus’ mysteries is Vatican Saying 10 :

Remember that you are mortal and that, although having but a limited span of life, you have entered into discussions about nature for all time, and see “all things that are and will be and were before.” - Epicurus.info translation

Epicurus.info gives a footnote that says that the portion in quotation marks is a quote from Homer’s Iliad, I.70. Quotes from works like the Odyssey and Iliad were used in a similar way to how the Bible is used in many Christian societies, and this may have been a formula used in Greek mysteries or ceremonies. The Epicurus wiki gives this as the original Greek version of VS 10:

Μέμνησο ὅτι θνητός ὤν τῇ φύσει καὶ λαβών χρόνον ὡρισμένον ἀνέβης τοῖς περὶ φύσεως διαλογισμοῖς ἑπὶ τὴν ἀπειρίαν καὶ τὸν αἰώνα καὶ κατεῖδες τά τ’ ἐόντα τά τ’ ἐσσόμενα πρό τ’ ἐόντα. 

Mémneso (Μέμνησο; remember) implies that he is speaking to someone who is an initiate, who already has an acquaintance with the Epicurean mysteries and carries an impression of them in their memory.

Peri fyseos dialogismois (περὶ φύσεως διαλογισμοῖς) means “contemplations on nature”. Dialogismos is also the Greek translation of meditation. Peri fyseos is the name of Epicurus’ 37 books On Nature, which frequently mention the ongoing conversations with Metrodorus and other Kathegemones and friends with the help of whom Epicurus’ ideas were slowly developed. A note must be added here on the choice of this word as a title for the Epicurean Guides, since Kathegemones was the title of the priests of Dionysus, a deity tied to one of the most prototypical of mystery religions—which makes me wonder what other Dionysian-like activities happened in the Garden that may have inspired Metrodorus to speak of Epicurus’ doctrine as a mystery. By choosing the word Kathegemones for his representatives, Epicurus is presenting his teaching as a mystery doctrine.

You may have noticed a certain rhythm and rhyme in the formula eonta ta t’essomena pro t’eonta (ἐόντα τά τ’ἐσσόμενα πρό τ’ἐόντα), which is drawn from the Iliad. It’s not hard to imagine this formula being used by a chorus in some type of Epicurean mystery, since it lends itself to ceremonial use as a chant, and a paraphrased version of it is used in Principal Doctrine 16 (more on this later).

Let us now turn our attention to the word anebis (ἀνέβης), which means “ascend” and connects with the fragment quoted above from Metrodorus’ Epistle to Timarchus. The epicurus.info translation says “entered into”, but Epicurus Wiki (more accurately) says “you have ascended”. You may have noticed that in both quotes (Epistle to Timarchus and VS 10) there is an upwards movement. Metrodorus invites Timarchus to retire “from this low and terrestrial life” and to “elevate” themselves to “the truly holy and divinely revealed ceremonies and mysteries of Epicurus.” Unlike the Platonists, Epicureans were not known for disparaging terrestrial life, and the lowliness that Metrodorus refers to could not have been meant to disparage matter or nature. My theory is that this may have been a reference to the mysteries themselves, which seem to have involved some kind of ascent.

One anachronistic yet curious thought that comes to mind when I read of the descent and ascent movement in the Epicurean mysteries is Nietzsche’s down-going and up-going movements. Nietzsche speaks of the lowlands as the place where he approaches the people and speaks in their own language in order to reach them, while the highlands are the places of the sublime, of solitude and inner work.

When I think of ascent, the main thought that comes to mind is the scientific and cosmological wisdom of the Muse of astronomy, Urania. It’s possible that these mysteries involved things like the doctrine of innumerable worlds, the infinity of particles and space, and similar teachings. But I could be wrong. Ascent also reminds me of flights of fancy, of the imagination, of a magic carpet, and of shamanic journeys. Of course, this idea may remind some of getting high, and it is documented that entheogenic substances (like kykeon) were in fact consumed during the Greek mysteries, so this is not entirely outside the realm of possibility, although a case could be made against this based on Epicurus’ use the term “sober reasoning” in his Epistle to Menoeceus. These theories are not mutually contradictory, but I think the most plausible explanation for this talk of ascent is that it’s actually an echo of the Eleusinian (and/or other) mysteries, which are once-in-a-lifetime life-changing experiences into which the interlocutors may have been initiated together:

The Mysteries represented the myth of the abduction of Persephone from her mother Demeter by the king of the underworld Hades, in a cycle with three phases: the descent (loss), the search, and the ascent, with the main theme being the ascent (ἄνοδος) of Persephone and the reunion with her mother … with contrasted emotions from sorrow to joy which roused the mystae (initiates) to exultation. - Wikipedia essay on the Eleusinian Mysteries

In spring, Kore (Persephone) returns from the underworld and the Earth turns green again. Similarly, Jesus descends to the underworld and rises on the third day according to the Christian mysteries, as does Inanna in the Sumerian ones, Osiris according to the Isian ones, and Dionysus according to the Orphic ones. This theme would have been familiar to Eleusinian initiates, and to the first Epicureans. Descent and ascent were part of many mysteries tied to the agricultural cycles.

The idea of ascent also reminds me of a process of being raised to divine status or to a higher state of being, and in fact this is what Epicurus teaches in the meleta portion of his Epistle to Menoeceus (“you will live like gods among mortals”).

On Rising and Incorruptibility

Although the Epicureans rejected the traditional religious beliefs related to the afterlife that were justified by the mystery cults, there is a possible reason why the first Epicureans were devoted to these mysteries, as Philodemus adamantly affirms in his scroll On Piety. I think it’s possible that initiation may have given the Epicureans some insight into or encounter with one of the two non-negotiable attributes of the Gods of the Garden: the quality of aftharton (ἄφθαρτον), which usually translates as “immortal”, but apparently the most accurate translation is “incorruptible”.

The belief of the annual return of Kore, Osiris, Dionysus or any other deity, year after year after year, in an eternal cycle of recurrence of vitality, implies a theme of eternal return, of eternal cyclical renewal and replenishing of life-force. This had to be an attribute of the Epicurean gods, if they were truly incorruptible. There had to be a way to imagine or approach the idea of their immortality or incorruptibility, their ability to constantly replenish their atoms and their vitality, and their power to fight off entropy. Furthermore, to the extent that we could (through initiation into some mystery, or by some other method) absorb some of this incorruptible quality into ourselves, this serves the purposes of Epicurean homoiosis theoi (becoming like the gods).

The Nature of Time

Apeirían kai aiona (ἀπειρίαν καὶ τὸν αἰώνα) means infinity and eternity / aeon. It’s possible that Metrodorus’ reference to aeons or eternity in VS 10 may have been an Epicurean medicine, antidote, or remedy against existential boredom and other anxieties related to mortality or to the shortness of life. Lucretius, in Liber Tertivs’ banquet parable, attributes these words to Nature:

For all I may devise or find
To pleasure thee is nothing: all things are
The same forever. Though not yet thy body
Wrinkles with years, nor yet the frame exhausts
Outworn, still things abide the same, even if
Thou goest on to conquer all of time
With length of days, yea, if thou never diest.

The declaration that all things are the same forever seems like part of an arsenal of arguments meant to heal existential anxieties related to time. Perhaps this means that, as we advance in the study of nature, we may come to see that all phenomena that are naturally possible are always happening somewhere in an infinite cosmos. We would maybe then have less fear of missing out on life due to its shortness. I imagine that the effects of participating in these mysteries may have involved some sense that we are participating in eternity here and now, in this instant.

One common feature of the ancient mysteries was that they alleviated fear of death, which Epicurus also does with his doctrine. There seems to have been a general idea in antiquity that Time is swallowing us, that we will never recover the time that has been wasted, but through myth-telling, this allegory degenerated into people being terrified of the Old God of Time. Cronos was imagined swallowing his children, and in chapter 11 of the Bhagavad Gita, we find Sri Krishna manifesting as Lord Time and swallowing the men who are about to die at the Kurukshetra war. Immediately after this vision, the terrified Arjuna begs Lord Krishna to once again take on his original form.

People have always feared the Fates (who weave the threads of time, of history, of life) and the oracles. Principal Doctrine 16 (have been, are and will be) sounds like the above quotes by Metrodorus. Notice the Promethean way in which he places reason in charge, and not the Fates.

Chance steals only a bit into the life of a wise person: for throughout the complete span of his life the greatest and most important matters have been, are, and will be directed by the power of reason. - Principal Doctrine 16

The connection between VS 10 and PD 16 is strengthened by the fact that Doctrine 16 implies a taboo against traditional oracular practices, and the passage in Iliad I.70 cited in VS 10 refers to Kalchas, the oracle of Apollo who was said to be “the best interpreter of birds”.

As a remedy for strange, superstitious, or fear-based apprehensions regarding oracles, the future, and the nature of time, in his Epistle to Herodotus (Portion 72), Epicurus explains that even time emerges from matter. Even time is an emergent property of bodies in motion. When Metrodorus uses terms like “aeons” and “infinity” and “things that are now and are to come and have been”, he is using the type of mystifying language that may have been common in the Greek mysteries, even though Epicurus was in fact demystifying time while taking pleasure in the study and contemplation of nature with his friends.

Were Epicurean Mysteries a Parody?

Some modern students of Epicurus have suggested that the ancient Epicureans referred to their “mysteries” as “divinely revealed” in a comedic fashion and therefore a form of satire. This may have been at least partially true, based on our meleta on VS 41. In that saying we learn that laughter and any other activity attached to the practice of philosophy are not mutually contradictory but must occur at one and the same time. However, Metrodorus’ emphatic mention of “truly holy” or “truly” (alethos, related to aletheia; truth) in his Epistle to Timarchus might be interpreted as an assertion that the other mysteries are false, and these are the correct mysteries.

We know that Epicurus’ mother Chaerestrate was a priestess, instilled godly practices in him from a young age, and that in his household these types of pious expressions and ceremonies were part of everyday life. Philodemus attests to this persistently. Epicurus had grown up with these types of ritual and could have repurposed the concept of the mysteries with an ethical reform in mind. Hence Metrodorus’ attribution of the mysteries to Epicurus in his Epistle to Timarchus. They were his mysteries: Epicurus was a mystagogos. Furthermore, Philodemus reports on the piety of Epicurus (as did the biographer Laertius) in On Piety:

Theodotus, he says that he shared in all the festivals … and that while he was joining in celebrating the festival of the Choes and the urban mysteries and the other festivals at a meagre dinner … and that it was necessary for him to celebrate this feast of the twentieth for distinguished revelers, while those in the house decorated it most piously, after making invitations to host a feast for all of them.

The mysteries cited mostly have to do with Dionysus and involved wine. Epicurus established Eikas—a memorial feast inspired in traditional familial piety practices that he would have learned from his mother—in memory of Metrodorus after he died. We know that Epicurus was comfortable creating ceremonies for his friends and applying the logic of filial piety to his holy friendships. Epicurus functioned as the mystagogos (leader of the mysteries) or the master of ceremonies in the Garden. Therefore, I do not believe that his mysteries can be strictly interpreted as a parody, since (as we have seen) we find in his doctrine and practices a distinct version of almost all the features seen in popular Greek mysteries of his day.

Conclusion

I believe both Metrodorus and Epicurus, as well as their companions, were natural mystics. Like Carl Sagan and Neil DeGrasse, they derived blissful awe from the study and contemplation of nature. They were mystics in the Greek sense of the word mystes: they had been initiated into certain doctrines, which unified them and made them an inner group of like-minded co-religionaries.

Metrodorus’ emphatic use of “truly” in his Epistle to Timarchus demonstrates that these mysteries were not a mere parody, but were considered an initiation into an accurate, scientific, natural cosmology that freed initiates from superstitious fears and errors. I conclude that the Epicurean Kathegemones—although they rejected supernatural claims—were, therefore, in their own way, no less than mystics, and that they in fact saw themselves as mystics according to the true prolepsis of the word.

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