AudioStoa 4 continues our exploration of Epictetus' Discourses. This week's program features readings from Book I, Chapter 4 of the Discourses entited "Of Progress or Improvement" introduced by a passage bearing on the same topic, chapter fourty-nine of the Manual.

The small bit of conversation used in the Discourses passage concerning "Crito" is voiced by Socrates in Plato's dialogue of the same name. Socrates represents for Epictetus the very model of a Stoic sage, and his attitude in the face of misfortune is contrasted to that of Priam (in Homer's Iliad) and Oedipus (in the tragedies concerning him), who for all their kingly power fail to appreciate the Stoic distinction between what is 'up to us' and what isn't. You may download the episode here.