Stoicism: What is Ataraxia?

A State of Mind for Troubled Times

A State of Mind for Troubled Times

Ataraxia was the ideal state of mind of a soldier going into battle. Pictured here is Alexander the Great in battle as depicted in a mosaic from “The House of the Faun” in Pompeii (c. 100 BC). (Public Domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons)

There’s a story told by the historian Diogenes Laertius of the ancient Greek philosoph…