The Logos Scripture · Gospel of Aristippus
Gospel of Aristippus 1 · Third Witness: The Wave of Sovereignty, and Living in the Hour
Aristippus, born at Cyrene in north Africa about 435 before this era, died about 356. Student of Socrates, founder of the Cyrenaic school. He held the pleasure of the present to be the good, but the point of it was mastery and not indulgence: taunted with keeping company with a famous courtesan, he answered that he had her, and she did not have him. Of the four witnesses he alone took fees for teaching, which the others held shameful. He lived at the court of the tyrant of Syracuse, and asked how he could bear it, said that he knew when to keep his mouth shut. Not one of his books survives; everything known comes through later hands, so what is recorded of him here is to be doubted more than the rest. What this volume brings is a man who enjoyed himself. Without him the scripture is left with nothing but a severe face. This book is written at ease. Whoever reads it and does not laugh once has not read this book.