Epicurus of Samos

Epicurus of Samos (341–270 BCE) established his famous school, 'The Garden' (*Kepos*), in Athens, welcoming disciples of all social ranks, including women and enslaved people. Far from advocating reckless sensual indulgence, Epicurus defined genuine pleasure negatively as the absence of physical pain (*aponia*) and the absence of mental disturbance (*ataraxia*).

By combining Democritean atomism with an enlightened humanism, Epicurus emancipated humanity from religious terror, demonstrating that death is nothing to us because while we exist death is not, and when death comes we no longer exist.