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Batis (or Bates) (Ancient Greek: Βατίς) of Lampsacus, was a student of Epicurus at Lampsacus in the early 3rd century BC. According to Diogenes Laertius, she was the sister of Metrodorus and wife of Idomeneus.[1]
Seneca the Younger recounts that when Batis' son died, Metrodorus wrote a letter to his sister offering comfort,[2] telling her that "all the Good of mortals is mortal,"[2] and "that there is a certain pleasure akin to sadness, and that one should give chase thereto at such times as these."[3] Fragments of a letter from Epicurus to Batis on the death of Metrodorus in 277 BC have also been discovered among the papyri at Herculaneum.[4] Some of the other fragments may have been written by Batis.[5]
