Endymion
mythological figure · 6 works · 6 mentions · 6 anchored passages
the Endymions of the Stoics
in the texts
Nicomachean Ethics
Mythological figure known for eternal sleep, invoked as a contrast to argue that the gods, being alive, must be active rather than dormant.
Yet nevertheless they have always been conceived as, at all events, living, and therefore living actively, for we cannot suppose they are always asleep like Endymion.
On Moral Ends
Mythological figure granted eternal sleep, invoked as a negative example of desired but actually undesirable perpetual rest.
And so, not even if we thought we should use the most pleasant dreams, would we wish the sleep of Endymion to be given us;
Tusculan Disputations
Mythological figure who fell into eternal sleep on Mount Latmos, used as an image of the insensibility of death.
Endymion, indeed — if we are willing to listen to fables — as he fell asleep, I know not when, on Latmos, a mountain of Caria, has not yet, I suppose, awakened.
Orations
Mythological figure famed for eternal sleep, invoked as a simile.
One Thasian jar fills up the drunkard, and, having drunk, he sleeps more sweetly than Endymion;
Phaedo
Mythological figure known for eternal sleep, used by Socrates as an illustrative example in the argument about opposites.
For example, if the process of falling asleep existed, but not the opposite process of waking from sleep, in the end, you know, that would make the sleeping Endymion mere nonsense;
De Anima
Mythological youth associated with eternal sleep near the moon, invoked to mock the Stoic doctrine of a lunar afterlife.
But our slumber, you say, is in the ether with the boy-lovers of Plato, or in the air with Arius, or about the moon with the Endymions of the Stoics.