ABSTRACT
“With justice we may say that the Stoic rules are the head of Medusa, turning to marble all who look upon them”. Using these words, about 500 years ago, the Italian humanist Lorenzo Valla warned his readers against the risks of molding a culture based on a dehumanizing philosophy, like stoicism, as Valla contended. Gorgona, or “Medusa’s head“, is described in Greek mythology as a hideous creature, which turns into marble whoever looks at her. In the same way, Valla considered the stoic philosophy as harmful for making its followers drained of human feelings as if made of stones. The warning made by the Italian humanist appears in his famed work De Voluptate (1431), a dialogue which advocates for the philosopher Epicurus against the poisonous philosophy and hardening of soul from his stoical opponent, Seneca. Epicurus’ philosophy was embraced as an antidote to that poison, like a substance that neutralizes the effects of Stoicism. The antidote idea is recurrent in his book, and it touches on the corner-stone of that which separates both schools of thought from one another, namely, how they view the healing of human diseases differently. One, the Stoic, seeks for a kind of moral rigidity, depriving mankind of pain and anguish. This ultimately results in an unforeseen effect that is even more terrifying because it deprives men of the possibility of joy and pleasure, thus transforming them into stone. The other, the Epicurist, opposes beauty to the hideous creature. It is no coincidence Valla quotes at the beginning of this statement from poets (Antonio Beccadelli and Maffeo Vegio, from different versions of the work). How may the poetic beauty be an antidote against the petrifying effects of Gorgona’s head? How can the Stoic philosophy cause similar effects? These are the questions that I will challenge from a critical reading of Lorenzo Valla’s De Voluptate.
Keywords: Renaissance, Valla, Ethic, Epicureanism, Stoicism.