Ekpyrosis (/ˌɛkpɪˈroʊsɪs/; Ancient Greek: ἐκπύρωσις ekpurōsis, "conflagration") is a Stoic belief in the periodic destruction of the cosmos by a great conflagration every Great Year. The cosmos is then recreated (palingenesis) only to be destroyed again at the end of the new cycle. This form of catastrophe is the opposite of kataklysmos (κατακλυσμός, "inundation"), the destruction of the earth by water.[1]
The concept of ekpyrosis is attributed to Chrysippus by Plutarch.[2][3]
See also
Notes
- ^ Thomas G. Rosenmeyer, Senecan Drama and Stoic Cosmology, University of California Press, 1989, p. 149.
- ^ Plutarch, De Stoicorum repugnantiis 1053b
- ^ Rist (1978), p. 183.
References
- Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta, 2.605
- Michael Lapidge, 'Stoic Cosmology,' in: John M. Rist (ed.), The Stoics, Cambridge University Press, 1978, pp. 161–186, pp. 180–184.
- J. Albert Harrill, "Stoic Physics, the Universal Conflagration, and the Eschatological Destruction of the “Ignorant and Unstable” in 2 Peter", in: Tuomas Rasimus, Troels Engberg-Pedersen, Ismo Dunderberg (eds.), Stoicism in Early Christianity, Baker Academic, 2010, p. 121.