1 Epicurus and ethics; and the Letter to Pythocles, on astron- omy and meteorology. Diogenes also records Epicureanism the Principal Doctrines (Kyriai Doxai), a collec- PAMELA GORDON tion of forty sayings articulated by Epicurus or culled from Epicurean sources. Also extant is Epicurus (341–270 BCE) was a Hellenistic a larger collection now called the “Vatican Greek moral philosopher who identified the Sayings.” Two types of fragments also survive: goal of life as happiness. The study of science ancient quotations and paraphrases of lost was an essential but subsidiary component works, and severely damaged papyri found in of his all-encompassing system, which a villa in HERCULANEUM that was covered with attracted Greek and Roman practitioners for volcanic ash in 79 CE. Most of the former centuries. appear (often translated into Latin) in much The main source for the biography of later works by Cicero, Epictetus, Plutarch, Epicurus is DIOGENES LAERTIUS’ Lives and Seneca, Sextus Empiricus, and others whose Opinions of the Eminent Philosophers.Hewas stances toward Epicureanism are generally born on the Greek island of Samos to Athenian hostile. The latter include numerous parents who later moved to Kolophon in Asia fragments of Epicurus’ On Nature (peri Minor. Diogenes and Cicero report that phuseos). Many references to writings by Epicurus claimed to be self-taught, but Epicurus’ direct associates survive, and POR- Diogenes cites ancient sources that name PHYRY quotes or paraphrases Hermarchos various teachers, including Pamphilos and extensively. We owe much of our knowledge Nausiphanes. The latter would have taught of Epicureanism to sources that postdate him about DEMOCRITUS’ atomic theory, which Epicurus by centuries. Most important is the became an essential foundation of Epicurean epic De Rerum Natura by the first-century BCE science. Epicurus first attracted followers in Roman poet Lucretius, who transferred Kolophon, Mytilene, and Lampsakos. Around Epicurean teachings into Latin verse. Also 306, he acquired in Athens a house with a crucial are the many fragmentary Greek texts garden (kepos) that gave its name to a com- by the first-century BCE poet and Epicurean munity of friends, and then to the scholar PHILODEMOS, whose works are found philosophical school in general. His first alongside those of Epicurus in Herculaneum. colleagues included a slave named Mys and at The monumental second-century CE Epicu- least two women (Leontion and Themista). rean inscription of Diogenes at Oinoanda is Three close associates of Epicurus whose also significant. Scholars have generally treated (nonextant) works became authoritative were later works in both Latin and Greek as faithful Hermarchos, Metrodoros, and Polyainos. sources for early Epicureanism, but many now PLUTARCH and others mention several (possibly exercise caution. Lucretius attests to Epicurean fictitious) hetairai from the Garden (see conservatism when he addresses Epicurus: HETAIRA). Diogenes Laertius also records “You are our father (pater), the discoverer of Epicurus’ will, which passes leadership of the things, you provide for us a father’s precepts” Garden on to Hermarchos, and gives instruc- (3.9–10). But Torquatus, the Epicurean tions for Epicurean communal gatherings mouthpiece in Cicero’s On Moral Ends (de (10.16–21). finibus), acknowledges deviations from Epicurus was prolific, but the only full Epicurean orthodoxy (1.66–70), as does works to survive are three epistles preserved Philodemos, who describes disagreements by Diogenes Laertius: the Letter to Herodotus, with the founding Epicureans as “almost on physical theory; the Letter to Menoeceus,on parricide” (Rhetorica A, col. VII). The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine, and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 2437–2441. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah09101 2 EPICUREAN PLEASURE possible to live pleasantly without living wisely and honorably and justly ... for virtues are Epicurus denied that humanity or any aspect naturally part of a pleasant life, and a pleasant of the universe has a predetermined purpose, life is inseparable from them” (132). and taught that pleasure (hedone) is the goal or end (telos). Thus the Epicureans were hedonists, but Epicurus writes in the Letter EPICUREAN SCIENCE to Menoeceus (131), “Whenever we say that pleasure is the telos, we do not mean the The objective of Epicurean reflections pleasures of degenerates and pleasures that about natural phenomena was the release consist in carnal indulgence, as some assume from fear and the attainment of happiness. (out of ignorance or disagreement, or because The 11th Principal Doctrine states, “If we had they misinterpret us), but we mean the absence not been oppressed by misapprehensions of pain in the body and the absence of distress about the phenomena of the sky, or about in the spirit.” A doctrine of “choice and avoid- death (which means nothing to us), or by ance” was essential. The Epicurean pleasures ignorance of the limits of pains and desires, included the enjoyment of friendship and the we would not have needed to study natural pursuit of philosophy. Pleasures that brought science.” Principal Doctrine 12 adds that the turmoil, such as overindulgence and the study of nature is a prerequisite for the enjoy- satisfaction of lust, were to be avoided. ment of unmixed pleasure. The foundation of Principal Doctrine 8 states, “No pleasure is in Epicurean scientific method was an unprece- itself evil, but the things that produce some dented degree of empiricism. Diogenes pleasures also bring disturbances many Laertius records that Epicurus presented his times greater than the pleasures.” Epicurus theory of knowledge in a work called the made a distinction between kinetic pleasure Canon (“measuring stick”), whose central (a process) and katastematic pleasure assertion was that the senses are an infallible (a state). These terms are interpreted variously, gauge of the truth (10.30). When judgments but most scholars agree that the latter based on the senses cannot be confirmed, Epi- connoted a spiritual happiness that was valued curean science proposes plausible explanations more highly than bodily pleasure. for phenomena, but declines to choose Friendship (but not marriage or erotic between them. Scholars agree that sensory attachment) is essential to Epicurean content- observation was fundamental, but there is little ment: “Of the things wisdom acquires to consensus about the methods of Epicurus’ ensure happiness for life as a whole, far the empiricism. greatest is the acquisition of friendship” Like Democritus, Epicurus taught that (Principal Doctrine 27). The development nothing exists other than the infinite void of social ties was a crucial stage in Epicurus’ (empty space) and atoms (atoma, indivisible theory of the evolution of human society pieces of matter). This thoroughly materialist (Lucretius 5.925–1457). Epicurus stressed conception of reality meant that Epicurean utility: friends offer security. Detractors noted science included theology, human history, Epicurus’ devotion to his friends, but objected and metaphysics, as well as physics and that his theory of friendship denied the impor- biology. Even the mind and soul are composed tance of altruism (e.g., Cicero, de finibus of atoms that are dispersed throughout the 2.78–85). Pleasure, rather than abstract moral body. In Epicurus’ view, the atoms have principles, also guided the Epicurean’s pursuit various fixed qualities such as size, shape, and of the good and the just. The Letter to weight. Atomic combinations produce color, Menoeceus states succinctly that “it is not smell, and other secondary properties. The 3 atoms are in constant downward motion. LATER EPICUREANS AND CRITICS OF To account for the joining of atoms to form EPICURUS complex bodies, Epicureanism posits that atoms sometimes swerve at random from As a philosophical community, and more their otherwise steady course. The swerve of generally as a worldview, Epicureanism was the atoms also releases humanity from deter- long-lived. Diogenes Laertius mentions many minism and provides for the existence of early Greek disciples, including Kolotes human volition. Extant Epicurean texts do (ca. 310–260), whose criticism of philo- not elucidate precisely how human freedom sophical skepticism was later countered by is explained by this theory, which we know Plutarch. Papyri from Herculaneum have primarily from Lucretius (2.251–93), Diogenes revealed texts by or about other early of Oinoanda (fragment 33), and Cicero’s and Greek Epicureans, including Apollodoros, Plutarch’s ridicule. Effluences streaming off Carneiscus, Philonides, and Polystratos. from the atoms of solid bodies cause all There is abundant evidence for intense interest sensory perceptions, including vision, and during the Late Roman Republic. Although are the basis for thoughts and memories. Epicurus did not advocate the composition of These simulacra, as Lucretius calls them poetry, the two best-known first-century BCE (4.30), retain the relevant features of the Epicureans are the poets Lucretius and source. They may outlast the source itself, Philodemos. Well-informed allusions to and may mix with other effluences, thus pro- Epicurean traditions also appear in the poetry ducing misconceptions of reality, such as illu- of VERGIL and HORACE. Epicurean teachers and sions and nightmares.