The Tetrapharmakos "four-part remedy" is a summary of the first four of the Κύριαι Δόξαι in Epicureanism, a recipe for leading the happiest possible life. They are recommendations to avoid anxiety or existential dread. The "tetrapharmakos" was originally a compound of four drugs ; the word has been used metaphorically by Roman-era Epicureans. to refer to the four remedies for healing the soul.
The four-part cure
As expressed by Philodemos, and preserved in a Herculaneum Papyrus, the tetrapharmakos reads: This is a summary of the first four of the forty EpicureanPrincipal Doctrines given by Diogenes Laërtius, which in the :wikisource:Lives_of_the_Eminent_Philosophers/Book_X#Kuriai_Doxai|translation by Robert Drew Hicks read as follows:
Don't fear god
In Hellenistic religion, the gods were conceived as hypothetical beings in a perpetual state of bliss, indestructible entities that are completely invulnerable. Gods in this view are mere role models for human beings, who are to "emulate the happiness of the gods, within the limits imposed by human nature."
As D. S. Hutchinson wrote concerning this line, "While you are alive, you don't have to deal with being dead, but when you are dead you don't have to deal with it either, because you aren't there to deal with it." In Epicurus' own words in his Letter to Menoeceus, "Death means nothing to us...when we exist, death is not yet present, and when death is present, then we do not exist," for there is no afterlife. Death, says Epicurus, is the greatest anxiety of all, in length and intensity. This anxiety about death impedes the quality and happiness of one's life by the theory of afterlife: the worrying about whether or not one's deeds and actions in life will translate well into the region of the gods, the wondering whether one will be assigned to an eternity of pain or to an eternity of pleasure.
What is good is easy to get
Sustenance and shelter, these things can be acquired by anyone — by both animal and human — with minimal effort, regardless of wealth. But if one wants more than one needs, one is limiting the chances of satisfaction and happiness, and therefore creating a “needless anxiety” in one’s life. "What is good is easy to get" implies that the minimum amount of necessity it takes to satisfy an urge is the maximum amount of interest a person should have in satisfying that urge.
What is terrible is easy to endure
The Epicureans understood that, in nature, illness and pain is not suffered for very long, for pain and suffering is either "brief or chronic... either mild or intense, but discomfort that is both chronic and intense is very unusual; so there is no need to be concerned about the prospect of suffering." Like "What is good is easy to get," recognizing one's physical and mental limit and one's threshold of pain — understanding how much pain the body or mind can endure — and maintaining confidence that pleasure only follows pain, is the remedy against prolonged suffering.
