Correspondence
Letter to Idomeneus (on his last day)
Ἐπιστολὴ πρὸς Ἰδομενέα
A short letter written on the day of his death to his disciple Idomeneus of Lampsacus: Epicurus calls that day "blissful" and at the same time the last of his life, describes his bladder and bowel pains, which could not be greater, and says he sets against them the joy of the soul at the memory of their conversations; he ends by commending Metrodorus' children to him. It is the most direct illustration of his doctrine that the pleasure of memory can counter the pain of the body.
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Authorship note
Authentic according to ancient tradition. Diogenes Laertius (X 22) copies it as written "when near his end"; Cicero (De finibus II 96) quotes a Latin version addressed to Hermarchus, suggesting that copies or different versions circulated.
Editions and translations
Editions in your language first, without hiding the others. Each with its cover and its store.
English
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.
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 Menoeceus
- Letter to Herodotus
- Letter to Pythocles
- Principal Doctrines (Kyriai Doxai)
- Vatican Sayings
- On Nature · 300
- Last Will · 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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