Note 22 — Chapter XVII · THE EPICUREAN VIEWS ON NATURE.
Oswald J. (Oswald Joseph) Reichel translation
(2) Nature of the Epicurean gods. The two essential characteristics of the Gods, according to Epicurus, are immortality and perfect happiness.22 Both of these characteristics would be impaired were we to attribute to the bodies of the Gods the same dense corporeity which belongs to our own. We must, therefore, only assign to them a body analogous to our body, ethereal, and consisting of the finest atoms.23 Such bodies would be of little use in a world like ours. In fact, they could not live in any world without being exposed to the temporal ruin which will in time overwhelm it, and, meantime, to a state of fear, which would mar their bliss. Epicurus, therefore, assigns the space between the worlds for their habitation, where, as Lucretius remarks, troubled by no storms, they live under a sky ever serene.24