Image of the week: Portrait bust of Epicurus, an early near-atheist

Portrait bust of Epicurus (c. 341-270 BC), a Greek philosopher who argued that the universe was made of atoms and empty space. The gods, too, were made of atoms, and played no part in human affairs; the soul died with the body and there was no afterlife. Copy of a Greek original dating from c. 275-50 BC, in the Hall of the Philosophers, Capitoline Museums, Rome.