Ataraxia
The Epicurean ideal of tranquility, a state of undisturbed peace free from anxiety and fear.
The Meaning of Ataraxia
If apatheia was the Stoic goal, ataraxia was the Epicurean one — though the two words are often confused. Ataraxia literally means "without disturbance," from the prefix a- and tarassein, to trouble. Epicurus identified two great sources of human misery: fear of the gods and fear of death. Eliminate both through rational philosophy, and ataraxia follows naturally. The gods exist but do not intervene in human affairs, so fearing their punishment is irrational. Death is the dissolution of atoms, so there is no afterlife to dread. With these fears removed, a person can live in simple pleasure — friendship, modest food, philosophical conversation in the garden. Pyrrho and the Skeptics also claimed ataraxia as their goal, though they reached it differently. Where Epicurus used physics to dispel fear, Pyrrho used suspension of judgment. If you never commit to any belief about how things truly are, you cannot be disturbed by being wrong. Democritus had used the related term euthymia — good spirits — for a similar state. All three schools agreed: philosophy was not an academic exercise but medicine for the soul.
Parents
Epicurean philosophical tradition
Symbols
Fun Fact
Psychiatric drugs that reduce anxiety are still called "ataractic" agents — a term borrowed directly from Epicurus's philosophy of the calm mind.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Ataraxy
💭 conceptphilosophy, ethics
Undisturbedness of mind — the tranquil mental state achieved by removing false beliefs and unnecessary desires, the goal of Epicurean philosophy.
Apatheia
💭 conceptStoic Philosophy
The Stoic ideal of freedom from destructive passions, achieved through rational discipline.
Epicureanism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A Hellenistic school teaching that pleasure through modesty, knowledge, and friendship is the highest good
Stoicism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A Hellenistic school teaching virtue, rational self-control, and acceptance of fate as the path to flourishing
Phobia
💭 conceptFear, irrational dread, anxiety disorder
An irrational persistent fear of a specific thing, from Phobos, the divine personification of fear and panic.
Neoplatonism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A late antique philosophical system teaching that all reality emanates from a transcendent, ineffable One
Aporia
💭 conceptThe productive state of philosophical puzzlement
The state of intellectual impasse that Socrates deliberately induced — the recognition that you do not know what you thought you knew.
Catharsis
💭 conceptEmotional purification through art
Aristotle's concept that tragedy purifies the audience by arousing and then releasing pity and fear.
Athanasia
💭 conceptImmortality
Athanasia was the concept of deathlessness — the fundamental divide between gods (athanatoi, the deathless) and mortals (thnetoi, the dying), which defined Greek cosmology.
Eudaimonia
💭 concepthappiness, flourishing
The Greek concept of human flourishing — the highest good achievable in a mortal life.
Enthousiasmos
💭 conceptReligion and Inspiration
The state of being possessed by a god, the original meaning of divine inspiration in Greek religion.
Nous
💭 conceptPhilosophy and Mind
The Greek concept of pure intellect or mind, the highest faculty of the soul and the organizing principle of the cosmos.