Correspondence · Essential works
Letter to Menoeceus
Ἐπιστολὴ πρὸς Μενοικέα
Epicurus' most widely read text: a short moral treatise in the form of a letter. It opens by urging philosophy at any age, since it is never too early or too late for the health of the soul; recalls that the gods are immortal and blessed and do not concern themselves with men; shows that death is nothing to us; classifies desires as natural and necessary, natural and unnecessary, and empty; defines pleasure as the absence of pain in the body and of disturbance in the soul, not the enjoyment of the profligate; places prudence above philosophy; and closes with the portrait of the sage, who lives "like a god among men".
Authorship note
Authentic. Preserved in full by Diogenes Laertius (X 122–135), who presents it as the summary of Epicurus' ethics. Its date is unknown; the addressee, Menoeceus, is not known from other sources.
Editions and translations
Editions in your language first, without hiding the others. Each with its cover and its store.
English
The Art of Happiness
Penguin Classics, 2013
Translation: George K. Strodach
ISBN 9780143107217
Prólogo de Daniel Klein.
The Epicurus Reader: Selected Writings and Testimonia
Hackett Publishing, 1994
Translation: Brad Inwood y L. P. Gerson
ISBN 9780872202412
Introducción de D. S. Hutchinson.
Epicurus
Epicurus: The Extant Remains
The Conscious LibraryEpicurus: The Extant Remains
Clarendon Press (ed. digital en Internet Archive), 1926
Translation: Cyril Bailey
Texto griego y traducción inglesa; dominio público en EE. UU. (publicado en 1926), no en la UE hasta 2028 (Bailey murió en 1957).
Epicurus
Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, Book X
The Conscious LibraryLives of the Eminent Philosophers, Book X
Wikisource (trad. de R. D. Hicks, Loeb, 1925), 1925
Translation: R. D. Hicks
Dominio público (Hicks murió en 1929).
Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Volume II: Books 6–10 (Loeb Classical Library 185)
Harvard University Press (Loeb Classical Library), 1925
Translation: R. D. Hicks
ISBN 9780674992047
Edición bilingüe griego-inglés; el libro X contiene los textos de Epicuro.
Español
Epicurus
Los diez libros de Diógenes Laercio sobre las vidas, opiniones y sentencias de los filósofos más ilustres, tomo II
The Conscious LibraryLos diez libros de Diógenes Laercio sobre las vidas, opiniones y sentencias de los filósofos más ilustres, tomo II
Imprenta Real (ed. digital en Internet Archive), 1792
Translation: José Ortiz y Sanz
Dominio público; incluye el libro X.
Epicuro
Alianza Editorial, 1981
Translation: Carlos García Gual
ISBN 9788420618067
Monografía de Carlos García Gual sobre la vida y la doctrina de Epicuro, con textos traducidos.
Obras completas
Cátedra (Letras Universales), 1995
ISBN 9788437613307
Reúne las tres cartas, las Máximas capitales, las Sentencias vaticanas y fragmentos; Open Library registra la reimpresión de 2004. Traductor no comprobado en catálogo.
Obras
Tecnos (Clásicos del Pensamiento), 2007
ISBN 9788430942572
Registro de Open Library de 2007; traductor no comprobado en catálogo.
Vidas y opiniones de los filósofos ilustres
Alianza Editorial, 2013
Translation: Carlos García Gual
ISBN 9788420676975
Traducción completa de Diógenes Laercio; el libro X contiene las cartas, las Máximas y el testamento.
Other works by Epicurus
- Letter to Herodotus
- Letter to Pythocles
- Principal Doctrines (Kyriai Doxai)
- Vatican Sayings
- On Nature · 300
- Last Will · 270
- Letter to Idomeneus (on his last day) · 270
- Letters (fragments)
- On Atoms and Void
- On Love
- Epitome of Objections to the Physicists
- Against the Megarians
- Problems
- On Choice and Avoidance
- On the End
- On the Criterion, or Canon
- Chaeredemus
- On the Gods
- On Piety
- Hegesianax
- On Lives (4 books)
- On Just Dealing
- Neocles, to Themista
- Symposium
- Eurylochus, to Metrodorus
- On Vision
- On the Angle in the Atom
- On Touch
- On Fate
- Opinions on the Feelings, against Timocrates
- Prognostic
- Exhortation (Protrepticus)
- On Images
- On Presentation
- Aristobulus
- On Music
- On Justice and the Other Virtues
- On Gifts and Gratitude
- Polymedes
- Timocrates (3 books)
- Metrodorus (5 books)
- Antidorus (2 books)
- Opinions on Diseases, to Mithres
- Callistolas
- On Kingship
- Anaximenes
- On Rhetoric
- Larger Epitome
Sources
- Diógenes Laercio. Vidas y opiniones de los filósofos ilustres, libro X (Epicuro: vida, testamento, cartas a Heródoto, Pitocles y Meneceo, Máximas capitales), s. III d. C. Trad. inglesa de R. D. Hicks, Loeb Classical Library 185, 1925 (Wikisource en inglés); texto griego en Wikisource griega; trad. de C. D. Yonge, Bohn, 1853 (Project Gutenberg n.º 57342).
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