Nerdy Jews and also People Who Know Greek: I'm not wrong in assuming there's gotta be some sort of connection (etymologically) between Epicurus and afikoman, right? I mean... www.sefaria.org/sheets/30894... - ThreadSky

rjmedwed.bsky.social • 6 days ago

Nerdy Jews and also People Who Know Greek:

I'm not wrong in assuming there's gotta be some sort of connection (etymologically) between Epicurus and afikoman, right?

I mean... https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/308943?lang=en

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shamsito.bsky.social•6 days ago

Afikomen does derive from Greek, but according to Google, Afikoman is based on Greek epikomon [ἐπὶ κῶμον] or epikomion [ἐπικώμιον], meaning "that which comes after" or "dessert".

Whereas "Epicurus" comes from the Greek word epikouros, which means "pleasure-seeker".

shamsito.bsky.social•6 days ago

Although with the caveat that although epicureanism is in common usage understood to mean pleasure-seeking, Epicurus as a philosopher had a lot more going on and his philosophy cannot be boiled down to hedonism.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epicurus/#:~:text=The%20philosophy%20of%20Epicurus%20(341,pleasure%20and%20pain%2C%20are%20infallible

shamsito.bsky.social•6 days ago

For clarification, I am not Greek or Jewish, just the child of a classicist/Byzantine philosopher who learned koine and Latin as a kid.

rjmedwed.bsky.social•6 days ago

Right, and I'm definitely not going in that direction, it just seems like there *could* or *should* be a connection, somewhere, way back when. Maybe.

rjmedwed.bsky.social•6 days ago

Right - that part I knew, but, I mean, can we go back even farther, historically, and find a connection? Since "dessert" can often relate to the pleasure aspect...

joeinaustralia.bsky.social•6 days ago

I don't see how there can be, except I suppose in the first element.

The identification of "afikomen" with the Greek "epi komos", basically "after-party" seems plausible to me, but that would rule out any direct link with Epicurus.

rjmedwed.bsky.social•6 days ago

Really? Even though the after party was all kinds of debauchery?

joeinaustralia.bsky.social•6 days ago

From what I gather the popular image of Epicurean philosophy is very misconceived: he actually advocated a simple life. OTOH the komos wasn't necessarily more debached (from our perspective) then the symposium itself, more like drunk college students singing on their way back home.

rjmedwed.bsky.social•6 days ago

Right - but, the rabbis didn't much care about that nuance, either

joeinaustralia.bsky.social•6 days ago

The Mishna uses both words and doesn't draw a connection between them. Even the Talmud doesn't associate "apikorus" with food, as one might imagine if they thought "afikoman" came from "Epicurean".

rjmedwed.bsky.social•6 days ago

Fair

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