The meaning of the word apatheia is quite different from that of the modern English apathy, which has a distinctly negative connotation that includes feelings of inertness, indifference, and impassiveness.
Whereas Aristotle had claimed that virtue was to be found in the golden mean between an excess and a deficiency of emotion (metriopatheia), the Stoics thought that living virtuously provided freedom from the passions, resulting in apatheia.
So let us also win the way to victory in all our struggles, – for the reward is... virtue, steadfastness of soul, and a peace that is won for all time.Followers of Epicurus were the main opponents of Stoicism and apatheia.
[2] The term was later adopted by Plotinus in his development of Neoplatonism, in which apatheia was the soul's freedom from emotion achieved when it reaches its purified state.
It passed into early Christian teaching in which apatheia meant freedom from unruly urges or compulsions and instead replace them with new and better energy.
Evagrius Ponticus believed there to be eight passions that the soul must be free of which include lust, gluttony, pride, envy, greed, boredom, anger, and self-love.