ataraxia

plural ataraxias

1. Greekliteraryuncountableusuallyhuman sciencesTranquility of mind; absence of mental disturbance.

   Near-synonyms: ataraxy, peace of mind, unflappability, unperturbedness

   5 more examples

   And what happineſs is there in a ſtorm of paſſions? On this account the Scepticks affected an indifferent æquipondious neutrality as the only means to their Ataraxia, and freedom from paßionate diſturbances.

   1665, Joseph Glanvill, chapter XXVII, in Scepsis Scientifica: Or, Confest Ignorance, the Way to Science; in an Essay of the Vanity of Dogmatizing, and Confident Opinion with a Reply to the Exceptions of the Learned Thomas Albius, London: E. Cotes, page 168

   O, for that apathy of soul, that sweet ataraxia, of which I have heard, which forbids alike the approaches of pleasure and pain, hope and despair!

   1838, Piomingo, John Robinson, The Savage, 2nd edition, Philadelphia: J. Ferral, →OCLC, →OL, page 194

   That terrible Latin poet Lucretius, whose apparent serenity and Epicurean ataraxia conceal so much despair, said that piety consists in the power to contemplate all things with a serene soul—pacata posse mente omnia tueri.

   1921, J.E. Crawford Flitch, transl., The Tragic Sense Of Life, translation of Del sentimiento trágico de la vida by Miguel de Unamuno

   […] he was an Epicurean not in the commonly misunderstood sense, as a seeker after luxury, but in the true meaning, as a pursuer of what the Greeks call ataraxia, or freedom from disturbance.

   2006, Robert Harris, Imperium, London: Arrow Books, Part 2, Chapter 15, p. 400

   Once they’d seen that the world is nothing but atoms and void, and that we simply disintegrate after death, and so have no need to fear the Torments of Hell, they would be in a better position to cultivate ataraxia—the Greek word for the calm, unruffled composure that was the Epicurean ideal.

   2020, Coulter H. George, How Dead Languages Work, Oxford: Oxford University Press, Chapter 3 'Latin' p.67

   Synonyms: ataraxy, peace of mind, unflappability, unperturbedness