DEATH AND IMMORTALITY IN ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Death and immortality played a central role in Greek and Roman thought, from Homer and early Greek philosophy to Marcus Aurelius.InthisbookA.G.Longexplainsthesignificanceofdeath and immortality in ancient ethics, particularly Plato’s dialogues, StoicismandEpicureanism;healsoshowshowphilosophicalcosmo- logy and theology caused immortality to be reimagined. Ancient arguments and theories are related both to the original literary and theologicalcontextsandtocontemporarydebatesonthephilosophy ofdeath.Thebookwillbeofmajorinteresttoscholarsandstudents workingonGreekandRomanphilosophy,and tothosewishingto exploreancientprecursorsofcontemporarydebatesaboutdeathand itsoutcomes. a. g. long is Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of St Andrews. He has translated (with David Sedley) Plato’s Meno and Phaedo(Cambridge,2010)andistheauthorofConversationandSelf- SufficiencyinPlato(2013)aswellastheeditorofPlatoandtheStoics (Cambridge,2013). KEY THEMES IN ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY series editors CatherineOsborne ReaderinPhilosophy,UniversityofEastAnglia G.R.F.Ferrari ProfessorofClassics,UniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley Eachbookinthisseriesoffersaconciseandaccessibletreatmentbyasingleauthor of a topic of major philosophical importance in the ancient Greek and Roman world. The emphasis is on a discussion of those debates of real philosophical interest,placedwithintheirhistoricalcontext.Futurevolumeswillconsidertopics suchasloveandfriendship,theology,space,legislationandtheconceptofnature. Thebooksaredesignedforuseinateachingcontext,wheretheywillbridgeagap betweengeneralintroductionstoindividualphilosophersorperiodsandspecialist monographs.Theywillalsoappealtoanyoneinterestedintheenduringinfluence andsignificanceofancientphilosophy. DEATH AND IMMORTALITY IN ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY A. G. LONG UniversityofStAndrews UniversityPrintingHouse,Cambridgecb28bs,UnitedKingdom OneLibertyPlaza,20thFloor,NewYork,ny10006,USA 477WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,vic3207,Australia 314–321,3rdFloor,Plot3,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre, NewDelhi–110025,India 79AnsonRoad,#06–04/06,Singapore079906 CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107086593 doi:10.1017/9781316091562 ©A.G.Long2019 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2019 PrintedandboundinGreatBritainbyClaysLtd,ElcografS.p.A. AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData names:Long,Alex,author. title:Deathandimmortalityinancientphilosophy/A.G.Long,Universityof StAndrews. description:NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress,2019.|Series:Key themesinancient philosophy|Includesbibliographicalreferencesand index. identifiers:lccn2019008215|isbn9781107086593(alk.paper) subjects:lcsh:Immortality(Philosophy)|Death.|Philosophy,Ancient. classification:lccb187.i45l662019|ddc129.0938–dc23 LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2019008215 isbn978-1-107-08659-3Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. Contents Acknowledgements pagevi ListofAbbreviations vii Introduction 1 part i immortality 5 1 ImmortalityinEarlyGreekPoetryandPhilosophy 7 2 PlatonicImmortalities 29 3 ImmortalityandtheEthicsofaFiniteLifespan:Aristotle, EarlyStoicsandEpicureanism 63 part ii death 87 4 Death,DoubtsandScepticism 89 5 EpicureanEvaluationsofDeath 115 6 StoicAgnosticismandSymmetryArguments 152 7 Suicide,ReligionandtheCity 174 Conclusion 205 Bibliography 208 IndexofPassages 220 GeneralIndex 230 v Acknowledgements IstartedwritingthisbookattheUniversityofTorontoduringaResearch Fellowship provided by the Leverhulme Trust. My thanks to the Leverhulme Trust and to the scholars and students in Toronto with whomIstartedtoexploreimmortalityinPlatoandEmpedocles,especially LloydGerson,BradInwoodandMartinPickavé.DuringthevisittoNorth AmericaDavidEbreyandSuzanneObdrzalekgavemeveryhelpfulcom- mentsonmyinterpretationofPlatonicimmortality.BackintheUKSarah Broadie and Anthony Hooper kindly commented on parts of the book, andIhavebeenhelpedbyotherscholarsvisitingorworkinginStAndrews, particularly Mehmet Erginel, Stephen Halliwell and Peter Woodward. I have also benefited from discussing immortality in early Greek philoso- phy with Phil Horky and Simon Trépanier, and Stoic eschatology with GeorgeBoys-Stones.InthefinalstagesoftheprojectLiFan,YunZou,Siyi Chen, Kaicheng Fang and Rui Xu organized seminars in Beijing and Shanghai on immortality and the philosophy of death, and I received excellentsuggestionsandobjectionsfromthemandtheotherparticipants. My thanks to the organizers and participants at all the other events (in Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh, Northwestern, St Andrews and Toronto) where parts of the book were presented and discussed, and to theeditorsofthisseriesfortheirexpertguidance.ThanksasevertoJessfor her love and encouragement – and now to Ben for imposing a non- negotiabledeadline. Parts of my discussion of Plato in chapter 4 have been taken from my contribution to Authors and Authorities in Ancient Philosophy (edited by Jenny Bryan, Robert Wardy and James Warren), also published by CambridgeUniversityPress. vi Abbreviations LSJ H.G.Liddell,R.Scott,H.StuartJonesandR.McKenzie(1996) AGreek-EnglishLexicon.Oxford,ClarendonPress. SVF H. von Arnim (1903–24) Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta, 4 vols, Leipzig,Teubner. vii