Recorded oral teaching · Essential works
Discourses (as reported by Arrian)
Ἀρριανοῦ τῶν Ἐπικτήτου διατριβῶν βιβλία
Four surviving books (of the eight Photius knew) containing ninety-five talks given by Epictetus at his school in Nicopolis, preceded by Arrian's letter to Lucius Gellius. They are not treatises but lively conversations in which the master challenges pupils and visitors, invents dialogues, draws on examples from daily life—the bath, the sea voyage, the dinner, the gymnasium—and offers Socrates, Diogenes and Zeno as models. The theme running through them all is the distinction between what is up to us (our judgements, desires, impulses: prohairesis) and what is not (body, goods, reputation, office), and the freedom that comes from applying it. They deal with providence and man's kinship with God, friendship and family, illness, exile and death, the true Cynic and the false philosopher. They are preserved by an eleventh- or twelfth-century Bodleian manuscript on which all other copies depend.
Authorship note
Epictetus wrote nothing. The Discourses are notes of his lectures taken by his pupil Flavius Arrian, who says in the prefatory letter to Lucius Gellius that he transcribed them word for word; the language (colloquial Koine, unlike the Attic of Arrian's own works) supports the view that they preserve the master's voice, though the selection and final wording are Arrian's. A minority of scholars (Robert Dobbin) has argued that Epictetus wrote them himself.
Editions and translations
Editions in your language first, without hiding the others. Each with its cover and its store.
English
Discourses, Fragments, Handbook
Oxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics), 2014
Translation: Robin Hard
ISBN 9780199595181
Introducción y notas de Christopher Gill.
Discourses and Selected Writings
Penguin Classics, 2008
Translation: Robert Dobbin
ISBN 9780140449464
Selección de las Disertaciones con el Manual completo.
Epictetus: The Discourses as Reported by Arrian, the Manual, and Fragments (Loeb Classical Library)
Harvard University Press / Heinemann, 1928
Translation: W. A. Oldfather
ISBN 9780674992405
El registro de Open Library no indica el volumen; por el contenido corresponde al vol. II (LCL 218: libros III–IV, Manual y fragmentos), publicado en 1928.
Epictetus
Epictetus: The Discourses, vol. I (Internet Archive)
The Conscious LibraryEpictetus: The Discourses, vol. I (Internet Archive)
Heinemann / Putnam, 1926
Translation: W. A. Oldfather
Reimpresión de la ed. Loeb de 1925. Dominio público.
Epictetus I: Discourses, Books 1–2 (Loeb Classical Library 131)
Harvard University Press / Heinemann, 1925
Translation: W. A. Oldfather
ISBN 9780674991453
Edición bilingüe griego-inglés.
Epictetus
The Discourses of Epictetus; with the Encheiridion and Fragments
The Conscious LibraryThe Discourses of Epictetus; with the Encheiridion and Fragments
George Bell and Sons; Wikisource, 1877
Translation: George Long
Dominio público.
Epictetus
All the Works of Epictetus, Which Are Now Extant
The Conscious LibraryAll the Works of Epictetus, Which Are Now Extant
Wikisource (ed. de Dublín de 1759), 1758
Translation: Elizabeth Carter
Primera traducción inglesa completa. Dominio público.
Español
Epictetus
Pláticas por Arriano
The Conscious LibraryPláticas por Arriano
Alma Mater / Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Colección Hispánica de Autores Griegos y Latinos), 1957
Translation: Pablo Jordán de Urríes
Edición bilingüe en varios volúmenes (1957–1973), registrada en Open Library sin ISBN.
Disertaciones por Arriano
Gredos (Biblioteca Clásica Gredos, 185), 1993
Translation: Paloma Ortiz García
ISBN 9788424916282
Introducción, traducción y notas.
Other works by Epictetus
- Discourses, Book I · 108
- Discourses, Book II · 108
- Discourses, Book III · 108
- Discourses, Book IV · 108
- Handbook (Enchiridion) · 130
- Fragments
- Discourses, Books V–VIII (lost) · 108
- Conversations (lost)
- Life and Death of Epictetus (by Arrian, lost)
- Debate of the Emperor Hadrian and the Philosopher Epictetus
- Christian paraphrases of the Handbook
- Simplicius' Commentary on the Handbook · 530
Sources
- Epicteto. Disertaciones (por Arriano) y Manual. Texto griego en Wikisource en griego; trad. inglesa de George Long, The Discourses of Epictetus; with the Encheiridion and Fragments (Londres: George Bell, 1877), en Wikisource en inglés.
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