Moses Against the Egyptian: the Anti-Epicurean Polemic in Philo

In this contribution the difficult task of delineating the relationship between Philo and Epicurean philosophy is faced. Besides three explicit references to Epicureanism, the Author draws out a series of implicit references and allusions to what may be considered the major object of Philo's philosophical aversion. Among the most interesting passages in which an Epicurean doctrine is at least adumbrated are Somn. 1. 184 (on the theory of intermundia), Conf. 114-115 (on the dominance of chance and denial of divine providence), Opif. 171 (on infinity of worlds), Fug. 148 and QG 4.42 (on the assumption of both atoms as principles of being and pleasure as the final goal of life); Leg. 3.140-143 (Philo's use of technical terms of Epicurean ethics as exegetical tools), Somn. 2.48-49 (a curious renversement of a sentence from the Epistle to Menoeceus). Two significant results emerge from this essay: the first is that Philo was well acquainted with Epicurean philosophy, if not directly from the writings of Epicurus and Epicureans, then certainly from reliable doxographical material; the second result is that Philo's appropriation of the lexicon and conceptual apparatus of a school to which he was radically hostile, should be seen as an example of the tendency to 'standardisation' of philosophical thought, starting from late Hellenism; in such a context Epicurean philosophy appeared as the main reference point and 'depository' for all that might be argued about pleasure.