Epicurus
Letters (fragments)
Correspondence
Letters (fragments)
Ἐπιστολαί
Epicurus' correspondence with his friends and disciples in Lampsacus, Mytilene and other cities was an essential part of the school's life and was collected by his followers. Fragments survive in quotations by Diogenes Laertius, Plutarch, Seneca, Philodemus and others, and remains on papyrus: in them Epicurus asks for "a little pot of cheese" to have a feast, declares himself content with bread and water, replaces the usual greeting with "live well" and rebukes or encourages his disciples. The editions of Usener, Bailey and Arrighetti collect these fragments.
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Authorship note
Mostly authentic, though lost except for fragments. Diogenes Laertius lists the correspondence among the works (X 28) and quotes phrases from letters to Leontion, Themista, Pythocles, Eurylochus and the philosophers of Mytilene; he also warns that the Stoic Diotimus spread fifty false obscene letters under his name (X 3).
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).
Griego antiguo
Epicurus
Epicurea (ed. Hermann Usener)
The Conscious LibraryEpicurea (ed. Hermann Usener)
Teubner (ed. digital en Internet Archive), 1887
Edición crítica clásica de textos y testimonios; dominio público.
Italiano
Epicurus
Epicuro. Opere (ed. Graziano Arrighetti)
The Conscious LibraryEpicuro. Opere (ed. Graziano Arrighetti)
Einaudi, 1973
Translation: Graziano Arrighetti
2.ª edición; texto griego y traducción italiana, con los papiros de Sobre la naturaleza.
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
- Letter to Idomeneus (on his last day) · 270
- 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
- Usener, Hermann (ed.). Epicurea. Teubner, Leipzig, 1887 (Internet Archive). Edición clásica de los textos y testimonios; numeración «Us.» de los fragmentos.
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