Beyond the Garden of Epicurus
THE GARDEN HAS FROM TIME IMMEMORIAL been a part of utopia and the creation of utopian spaces.1 Raw nature may threaten or it may beckon; it may terrify us or draw us in. The terrifying aspect of nature we may wish to tame while the alluring aspect becomes something we wish to capture. In both instances, the human impulse is one of inscription, of control, and the result is the enjoyment of amoenitas, pleasantness.2 This enjoyment is no frivolous thing, for
people need contact with trees and plants and water. In some way, which is hard to express, people are able to be more whole in the presence of nature, are able to go deeper into themselves, and are somehow able to draw sustaining energy from the life of plants and trees and water. (Alexander, Ishikawa, and Silverstein 806)
It is thus hardly surprising that Eden, the Christian world's first paradise, was a garden. Indeed the origins of Paradise itself lie in the garden. The term "paradise" is derived from the Greek paradeisos, which is in turn a translation of the old Persian pairidaeza, "an enclosed space." The "para dises" that captured the imagination of the Greeks were the hunting grounds of Persian kings, for these teemed with a stunning variety of plant and ani mal life. The Persian prince Cyrus himself reportedly found working in his paradise garden a source of "security and contentment" (Thacker 16). Fur ther, it is entirely apposite that Socrates and Phaedrus select a grassy, cool, and shady spot beneath a tall plane tree as a location for their discourse on the nature of the soul.3 The place they select too is a garden, for the very act of choosing is a form of demarcation and separation from the general land scape. Regardless of its "shape," it may be said that a garden affords seclu sion, security, and tranquility, precisely what is needed for philosophical reflection and for a general restoration of the spirit.
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