In search of an epicurean catharsis

Recent scholarship has stressed the fact that the Epicureans were not hostile to poetry in general. It is more probable that these philosophers rejected only those poetic compositions, processes and devices that do not lead to the goal of ‘katastematic’ pleasure, i.e. to happiness. In the light of this premise, the paper investigates whether the Epicureans recognized a positive cathartic poetry, or whether they simply rejected all forms of poetic catharsis as harmful experiences. It is argued that the former hypothesis is more probable. In order to prove this point, the paper is divided into three parts. Part 1 shows that the Epicureans recognized the existence of a positive catharsis, namely that conveyed by reason and teaching, which are capable of dispelling from the mind those damaging emotions (love, fear of the divine, excessive desire, etc.) that hinder the achievement of happiness, or ‘katastematic’ pleasure. Part 2 shows that Epicurus and his pupils would surely have rejected the catharsis of tragedy described in Aristotle’s Poetics, because this experience conflicts with many key doctrines of Epicureanism and is not pleasurable in the proper Epicurean sense. Part 3 proposes that the only possible kind of poetic catharsis that the Epicureans could have admitted is the one that aids reason and teaching in exercising their cleansing effects. A possible example of this practice consists in Lucretius’ poem De rerum natura, where poetry is not considered cathartic per se, but only when it assists Epicurean philosophy in its quest for happiness