Epicurus (Greek: Epikouros "ally comrade"; 341 BC 270 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism. Only a few fragments and letters remain of Epicurus's 300 written works. Much of what is known about Epicurean philosophy derives from later followers and commentators.

For Epicurus the purpose of philosophy was to attain the happy tranquil life characterized by ataraxia peace and freedom from fear and aponia the absence of pain and by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. He taught that pleasure and pain are the measures of what is good and evil that death is the end of the body and the soul and should therefore not be feared that the gods do not reward or punish humans that the universe is infinite and eternal and that events in the world are ultimately based on the motions and interactions of atoms moving in empty space. Contents 1 Biography 2 The school 3 Teachings 3.1 Prefiguring science and ethics 3.2 Pleasure as absence of suffering 4 Legacy 5 Works 6 Hero cult 7 In literature and popular media 8 See also 9 Notes 10 Further reading 11 External links Biography

His parents Neocles and Chaerestrate both Athenian-born and his father a citizen had emigrated to the Athenian settlement on the Aegean island of Samos about ten years before Epicurus's birth in February 341 BC.1 As a boy he studied philosophy for four years under the Platonist teacher Pamphilus. At the age of 18 he went to Athens for his two-year term of military service. The playwright Menander served in the same age-class of the ephebes as Epicurus.

After the death of Alexander the Great Perdiccas expelled the Athenian settlers on Samos to Colophon on the coast of what is now Turkey. After the completion of his military service Epicurus joined his family there. He studied under Nausiphanes who followed the teachings of Democritus. In 311/310 BC Epicurus taught in Mytilene but caused strife and was forced to leave. He then founded a school in Lampsacus before returning to Athens in 306 BC. There he founded The Garden a school named for the garden he owned about halfway between the Stoa and the Academy that served as the school's meeting place.

Even though many of his teachings were heavily influenced by earlier thinkers especially by Democritus he differed in a significant way with Democritus on determinism. Epicurus would often deny this influence denounce other philosophers as confused and claim to be "self-taught".

Epicurus never married and had no known children. He suffered from kidney stones2 to which he finally succumbed in 270 BC3 at the age of 72 and despite the prolonged pain involved he wrote to Idomeneus:

I have written this letter to you on a happy day to me which is also the last day of my life. For I have been attacked by a painful inability to urinate and also dysentery so violent that nothing can be added to the violence of my sufferings. But the cheerfulness of my mind which comes from the recollection of all my philosophical contemplation counterbalances all these afflictions. And I beg you to take care of the children of Metrodorus in a manner worthy of the devotion shown by the young man to me and to philosophy.4 The school

Epicurus' school which was based in the garden of his house and thus called "The Garden"5 had a small but devoted following in his lifetime. The primary members were Hermarchus the financier Idomeneus Leonteus and his wife Themista the satirist Colotes the mathematician Polyaenus of Lampsacus and Metrodorus of Lampsacus the most famous popularizer of Epicureanism. His school was the first of the ancient Greek philosophical schools to admit women as a rule rather than an exception.6 The original school was based in Epicurus's home and garden. An inscription on the gate to The Garden is recorded by Seneca in epistle XXI of Epistulae morales ad Lucilium:7

Stranger here you will do well to tarry; here our highest good is pleasure. Epicurus emphasized friendship as an important ingredient of happiness and the school resembled in many ways a community of friends living together. However he also instituted a hierarchical system of levels among his followers and had them swear an oath on his core tenets. Teachings Main article: Epicureanism Prefiguring science and ethics Epicurus is a key figure in the development of science and the scientific method because of his insistence that nothing should be believed except that which was tested through direct observation and logical deduction. Many of his ideas about nature and physics presaged important scientific concepts of our time. He was a key figure in the Axial Age the period from 800 BC to 200 BC during which similarly revolutionary thinking appeared in China India Iran the Near East and Ancient Greece. His statement of the Ethic of Reciprocity as the foundation of ethics is the earliest in Ancient Greece and he differs from the formulation of utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill by emphasizing the minimization of harm to oneself and others as the way to maximize happiness. Epicurus's teachings represented a departure from the other major Greek thinkers of his period and before but was nevertheless founded on many of the same principles as Democritus. Like Democritus he was an atomist believing that the fundamental constituents of the world were indivisible little bits of matter (atoms Greek atomos indivisible) flying through empty space (kenos). Everything that occurs is the result of the atoms colliding rebounding and becoming entangled with one another with no purpose or plan behind their motions. (Compare this with the modern study of particle physics.) His theory differs from the earlier atomism of Democritus because he admits that atoms do not always follow straight lines but their direction of motion may occasionally exhibit a 'swerve' (clinamen). This allowed him to avoid the determinism implicit in the earlier atomism and to affirm free will.8 (Compare this with the modern theory of quantum physics which postulates a non-deterministic random motion of fundamental particles.) He regularly admitted women and slaves into his school and was one of the first Greeks to break from the god-fearing and god-worshiping tradition common at the time even while affirming that religious activities are useful as a way to contemplate the gods and to use them as an example of the pleasant life. Epicurus participated in the activities of traditional Greek religion but taught that one should avoid holding false opinions about the gods. The gods are immortal and blessed and men who ascribe any additional qualities that are alien to immortality and blessedness are according to Epicurus impious. The gods do not punish the bad and reward the good as the common man believes. The opinion of the crowd is Epicurus claims that the gods "send great evils to the wicked and great blessings to the righteous who model themselves after the gods" when in reality Epicurus believes the gods do not concern themselves at all with human beings. It is not the man who denies the gods worshipped by the multitude who is impious but he who affirms of the gods what the multitude believes about them.9 Pleasure as absence of suffering Epicurus' philosophy is based on the theory that all good and bad derive from the sensations of pleasure and pain. What is good is what is pleasurable and what is bad is what is painful. Pleasure and pain were ultimately for Epicurus the basis for the moral distinction between good and bad. If pain is chosen over pleasure in some cases it is only because it leads to a greater pleasure. Although Epicurus has been commonly misunderstood to advocate the rampant pursuit of pleasure what he was really after was the absence of pain (both physical and mental i.e. suffering) - a state of satiation and tranquility that was free of the fear of death and the retribution of the gods. When we do not suffer pain we are no longer in need of pleasure and we enter a state of 'perfect mental peace' (ataraxia)citation needed. Epicurus' teachings were introduced into medical philosophy and practice by the Epicurean doctor Asclepiades of Bithynia who was the first physician who introduced Greek medicine in Rome. Asclepiades introduced the friendly sympathetic pleasing and painless treatment of patients. He advocated humane treatment of mental disorders had insane persons freed from confinement and treated them with natural therapy such as diet and massages. His teachings are surprisingly modern therefore Asclepiades is considered to be a pioneer physician in psychotherapy physical therapy and molecular medicine.10 Epicurus explicitly warned against overindulgence because it often leads to pain. For instance Epicurus warned against pursuing love too ardently. He defended friendships as ramparts for pleasure and denied them any inherent worth.11 He also believed (contra Aristotle12) that death was not to be feared. When a man dies he does not feel the pain of death because he no longer is and he therefore feels nothing. Therefore as Epicurus famously said "death is nothing to us." When we exist death is not and when death exists we are not. All sensation and consciousness ends with death and therefore in death there is neither pleasure nor pain. The fear of death arises from the belief that in death there is awareness. In this context Epicurus said: Non fui fui non sum non curo (I was not; I have been; I am not; I do not care) which is inscribed on the gravestones of his followers and seen on many ancient gravestones of the Roman Empire. This quote is often used today at humanist funerals.13 The "Epicurean paradox" is a version of the problem of evil. It is a trilemma argument (God is omnipotent God is good but Evil exists); or more commonly seen as this quote: Is God willing to prevent evil but not able Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able but not willing Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing Then whence cometh evil Is he neither able nor willing Then why call him God14 This argument was a type favoured by the ancient Greek skeptics and may have been wrongly attributed to Epicurus by Lactantius who from his Christian perspective regarded Epicurus as an atheist.15 According to Reinhold F. Glei it is settled that the argument of theodicy is from an academic source which is not only not epicurean but even anti-epicurean.16 The earliest extant version of this trilemma appears in the writings of the skeptic Sextus Empiricus.17 Epicurus didnt deny the existence of gods. Instead he stated that what gods there may be do not concern themselves with us and thus would not seek to punish us either in this or any other life.18 Epicurus emphasized the senses in his epistemology and his Principle of Multiple Explanations ("if several theories are consistent with the observed data retain them all") is an early contribution to the philosophy of science. There are also some things for which it is not enough to state a single cause but several of which one however is the case. Just as if you were to see the lifeless corpse of a man lying far away it would be fitting to list all the causes of death in order to make sure that the single cause of this death may be stated. For you would not be able to establish conclusively that he died by the sword or of cold or of illness or perhaps by poison but we know that there is something of this kind that happened to him.19 In contrast to the Stoics Epicureans showed little interest in participating in the politics of the day since doing so leads to trouble. He instead advocated seclusion. His garden can be compared to present-day communes. This principle is epitomized by the phrase lathe bisas . Plutarch elaborated in his essay Is the Saying "Live in Obscurity" Right ( - An recte dictum sit latenter esse vivendum) 1128c; Flavius Philostratus Vita Apollonii 8.28.12 meaning "live in obscurity" "get through life without drawing attention to yourself" i. e. live without pursuing glory or wealth or power but anonymously enjoying little things like food the company of friends etc. As an ethical guideline Epicurus emphasized minimizing harm and maximizing happiness of oneself and others: It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and well and justly (agreeing "neither to harm nor be harmed"20) and it is impossible to live wisely and well and justly without living a pleasant life.21 Legacy Bust of Epicurus leaning against his disciple Metrodorus in the Louvre Museum Elements of Epicurean philosophy have resonated and resurfaced in various diverse thinkers and movements throughout Western intellectual history. The atomic poems (such as 'All Things are Governed by Atoms') and natural philosophy of Margaret Cavendish were influenced by Epicurus. His emphasis on minimizing harm and maximizing happiness in his formulation of the Ethic of Reciprocity was later picked up by the democratic thinkers of the French Revolution and others like John Locke who wrote that people had a right to "life liberty and property."citation needed To Locke one's own body was part of their property and thus one's right to property would theoretically guarantee safety for their persons as well as their possessions. This triad as well as the egalitarianism of Epicurus was carried forward into the American freedom movement and Declaration of Independence by the American founding father Thomas Jefferson as "all men are created equal" and endowed with certain "inalienable rights such as life liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Jefferson considered himself an Epicurean. 2 In An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding David Hume uses Epicurus as a character for explaining the impossibility of our knowing God to be any greater or better than his creation proves him to be. Karl Marx's doctoral thesis was on "The Difference Between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature." 3 Epicurus was first to assert human freedom as coming from a fundamental indeterminism in the motion of atoms. This has led some philosophers to think that for Epicurus free will was caused directly by chance. In his "On the Nature of Things" Lucretius appears to suggest this in the best-known passage on Epicurus's position.22 But in his Letter to Menoeceus Epicurus follows Aristotle and clearly identifies three possible causes - "some things happen of necessity others by chance others through our own agency." Aristotle said some things "depend on us" (eph hemin). Epicurus agreed and said it is to these last things that praise and blame naturally attach. For Epicurus the chance "swerve" of the atoms simply defeated determinism to leave room for autonomous agency.23 Epicurus was also a significant source of inspiration and interest for both Arthur Schopenhauer having particular influence on the famous pessimist's views on suffering and death as well as one of Schopenhauer's successors: Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche cites his affinities to Epicurus in a number of his works including The Gay Science Beyond Good and Evil and his private letters to Peter Gast. Nietzsche was attracted to among other things Epicurus's ability to maintain a cheerful philosophical outlook in the face of painful physical ailments. Nietzsche also suffered from a number of sicknesses during his lifetime. However he thought that Epicurus's conception of happiness as freedom from anxiety was too passive and negative. Works The only surviving complete works by Epicurus are three letters which are to be found in book X of Diogenes Laertius's Lives of Eminent Philosophers and two groups of quotes: the Principal Doctrines reported as well in Diogenes's book X and the Vatican Sayings preserved in a manuscript from the Vatican Library. Numerous fragments of his thirty-seven volume treatise On Nature have been found among the charred papyrus fragments at the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum. In addition other Epicurean writings found at Herculaneum contain important quotations from his other works. Moreover numerous fragments and testimonies are found throughout ancient Greek and Roman literature a collection of which can be found in Usener's Epicurea. Hero cult According to Diskin Clay Epicurus himself established a custom of celebrating his birthday annually with common meals befitting his stature as hero ctistes (or founding hero) of the Garden. He ordained in his will annual memorial feasts for himself on the same date (10th of Gamelion month).24 Epicurean communities continued this tradition25 referring to Epicurus as their "savior" (soter) and celebrating him as hero. Lucretius apotheosized Epicurus as the main character of his epic poem De rerum natura. The hero cult of Epicurus may have operated as a Garden variety civic religion.26 However clear evidence of an Epicurean hero cult as well as the cult itself seems buried by the weight of posthumous philosophical interpretation.27 Epicurus' cheerful demeanor as he continued to work despite dying from a painful stone blockage of his urinary tract lasting a fortnight according to his successor Hermarchus and reported by his biographer Diogenes Laertius further enhanced his status among his followers.2 In literature and popular media In Canto X Circle 6 ("Where the heretics lie") of Dante's Inferno Epicurus and his followers are criticized for supporting a materialistic ideal when they are mentioned to have been condemned to the Circle of Heresy. Epicurus the Sage is a two-part comic book by William Messner-Loebs and Sam Kieth portraying Epicurus as "the only sane philosopher" by anachronistically bringing him together with many other well-known Greek philosophers. It was republished as graphic novel by the Wildstorm branch of DC Comics. See also Epikoros (Judaism) Philosophy of happiness Notes Apollodorus (reported by Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers 10.14-15) gives his birth on the fourth day of the month February in the third year of the 109th Olympiad in the archonship of Sosigenes a b Bitsori Maria; Galanakis Emmanouil (2004). "Epicurus death". World Journal of Urology 22 (6): 466469. doi:10.1007/s00345-004-0448-2. PMID 15372192.  In the second year of the 127th Olympiad in the archonship of Pytharatus according to Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers 10.15 Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers 10.22 (trans. C.D. Yonge). A. A. Long Hellenistic philosophy: Stoics Epicureans Sceptics1986 pg.15 Two women Axiothea and Lastheneia were known to have been admitted by Plato. See Hadot Pierre. Qu'est-ce que la philosophie antique page 99 Gillimard 1995. Pythagoras is also believed to have inducted one woman Theano into his order. "Epistulae morales ad Lucilium". http://www.intratext.com/IXT/LAT0230/PL.HTM.  The only fragment in Greek about this central notion is from the Oenoanda inscription (fr.54 in Smith's edition). The best known reference is in Lucretius's On the nature of things 2.216-224 284-293. letter by Epicurus to Menoeceus; see Diogenes Lartius de clarorum philosophorum vitis dogmatibus et apophthegmatibus libri decem (X 123) Yapijakis C (2009). "Hippocrates of Kos the father of clinical medicine and Asclepiades of Bithynia the father of molecular medicine. Review". In Vivo 23 (4): 50714. PMID 19567383.  Cicero Marcus Tullius. "II.82". De finibus bonorum et malorum. ISBN 3519012197.  Rosenbaum Stephen. Appraising Death In Human Life: Two Modes Of Valuation in French Peter and Wettstein Howard (editors) Life And Death: Metaphysics And Ethics Midwest Studies In Philosophy volume XXIV. Blackwell Publishers Inc. 2000 p.153 (Aristotle 'seems to have believed in fearing death ... . But his conclusion should be understood to be merely that the fact that a person dies is bad because nothing is any longer good or bad for him or her.') Books.Google.com (accessed 2011-Feb-04) Epicurus (c 341-270 BC) British Humanist Association 1 Mark Joseph Larrimore (2001) The Problem of Evil pages xix-xxi. Wiley-Blackwell Reinhold F. Glei Et invidus et inbecillus. Das angebliche Epikurfragment bei Laktanz De ira dei 1320-21 in: Vigiliae Christianae 42 (1988) p. 47-58 Sextus Empiricus Outlines of Pyrrhonism 175: "those who firmly maintain that god exists will be forced into impiety; for if they say that he god takes care of everything they will be saying that god is the cause of evils while if they say that he takes care of some things only or even nothing they will be forced to say that he is either malevolent or weak" O'Keefe Tim. "Epicurus." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved on 2008-02-12. Lucretius. Tim O'Keefe Epicurus on Freedom Cambridge University Press 2005 p.134 Epicurus Principal Doctrines tranls. by Robert Drew Hicks (1925) On the Nature of Things 2.251-262 289-293. Epicurus page on Information Philosopher Reason and religion in Socratic philosophy By Nicholas D. Smith Paul Woodruff Page 160 ISBN 0195133226 Paul and Philodemus: adaptability in Epicurean and early Christian psychology By Clarence E. Glad Page 176 ISBN 9004100679 The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics By Martha Craven Nussbaum Page 119 ISBN 0691141312 Paradosis and survival: three chapters in the history of Epicurean philosophy By Diskin Clay Page 76 ISBN 0472108964 Further reading Part of a series on Utilitarianism Predecessors Epicurus David Hume  William Godwin  Francis Hutcheson People Jeremy Bentham  John Stuart Mill Henry Sidgwick  Richard Mervyn Hare  Peter Singer Types of utilitarianism Preference  Rule  Act Two-level  Total  Average Relative  Negative  Hedonism Enlightened self-interest Key concepts Pain  Suffering  Pleasure Utility  Happiness  Eudaimonia Consequentialism  Felicific calculus Problems Mere addition paradox Paradox of hedonism Utility monster Related topics Rational choice theory  Game theory Social choice  Neoclassical economics   Politics portal v d e Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Epicurus Bailey C. (1928). The Greek Atomists and Epicurus Oxford: Clarendon Press. Bakalis Nikolaos (2005). Handbook of Greek philosophy : from Thales to the Stoics : analysis and fragments ; substantial and complete essay on ancient Greek philosophy with fragments included. Victoria: Trafford. ISBN 1412048435.  Diogenes of Oinoanda (1993). The Epicurean inscription. Martin Ferguson Smith trans. Napoli: Bibliopolis. ISBN 8870882705.  Durant Will (1939). The Life of Greece. New York: Simon and Schuster.  Epicurus (1994). Inwood Brad; Gerson. eds. The Epicurus reader : selected writings and testimonia. Indianapolis: Hackett. ISBN 0872202429.  Epicurus (1993). The essential Epicurus : letters principal doctrines Vatican sayings and fragments. Eugene O'Connor trans. Buffalo N.Y.: Prometheus Books. ISBN 0879758104.  Epicurus (1964). Letters principal doctrines and Vatican sayings. Russel M. Geer trans. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.  Farrington Benjamin (1965). Science and Politics in the Ancient World. New York: Barnes and Noble.  Fischer John Martin (2000). The metaphysics of death. Stanford CA: Stanford Univ. Press. ISBN 0804721041.  Gordon Pamela (1996). Epicurus in Lycia : the second-century world of Diogenes of Oenoanda. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press. ISBN 0472104616.  Gottlieb Anthony (2000). The dream of reason : a history of western philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0393049515.  Hibler Richard W. (1984). Happiness through tranquillity : the school of Epicurus. Lanham MD: University Press of America. ISBN 0819138614.  Hicks R. D. (1910). Stoic and Epicurean. New York: Scribner.  Jones Howard (1989). The Epicurean tradition. London: Routledge. ISBN 0415020697.  Krte Alfred (1987) (in Greek). Epicureanism : two collections of fragments and studies. New York: Garland. ISBN 0824069153.  Laertius Diogenes (1969). Caponigri A. Robert. ed. Lives of the Philosophers. Chicago: Henry Regnery Co.  Lucretius Carus Titus (1976). On the nature of the universe. R. E. Latham trans. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0140440186.  Oates Whitney J. (1940). The Stoic and Epicurean philosophers The Complete Extant Writings of Epicurus Epictetus Lucretius and Marcus Aurelius. New York: Modern Library. Panichas George Andrew (1967). Epicurus. New York: Twayne Publishers.  Rist J.M. (1972). Epicurus : an introduction. London: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521084261.  External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Epicurus Epicurus.info - Epicurean Philosophy Online: features classical e-texts & photos of Epicurean artifacts. Epicurus.net - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy Epicurus entry by David Konstan in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Epicurus entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy by Tim OKeefe Diogenes Lartius Life of Epicurus translated by Robert Drew Hicks (1925). Epicurus & Lucretius - Small article by "P. Dionysius Mus" The Difference Between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature - Karl Marxs doctoral thesis. "Epicurus on Happiness" - A documentary on the philosophy of Epicurus first 11:25 of below Greek subtitles. Epicurus's Guide to Happiness - 24 minute documentary Alain de Botton UK Channel 4 no subtitles. Epicurus on Free Will Principal Doctrines Vatican Sayings The Garden of Epicurus - useful summary of the teachings of Epicurus Philosophy of Happiness (PDF) Letters Letter to Herodotus Letter to Pythocles Letter to Menoeceus Portrait http://www.digitalsculpture.org/epicurus/index.html Discussion bibliography 3D models of the lost portrait v d eEpicureanism Philosophers Greek era Epicurus  Polyaenus  Metrodorus  Batis  Leontion  Carneiscus  Idomeneus  Hermarchus  Colotes  Themista  Leonteus  Polystratus  Dionysius of Lamptrai  Basilides  Philonides  Diogenes of Tarsus  Alcaeus and Philiscus  Apollodorus  Demetrius Lacon  Zeno of Sidon Roman era Amafinius  Rabirius  Titus Albucius  Phaedrus  Philodemus  Lucretius  Patro  Catius  Siro  Diogenes of Oenoanda Philosophy Epicureanism  Tetrapharmakos Concepts Aponia  Ataraxia  Clinamen  Eudaimonia  Hedone  Metakosmia Works On the Nature of Things v d eAncient Greece Outline       Timeline Periods Cycladic civilization  Minoan civilization  Mycenaean civilization  Greek Dark Ages  Archaic period  Classical Greece  Hellenistic Greece  Roman Greece Geography Aegean Sea  Hellespont  Macedonia  Sparta  Athens  Corinth  Thebes  Thermopylae  Ionian Sea  Ionia  Aeolis  Doris  Antioch  Alexandria  Pergamon  Miletus  Ephesus  Delphi  Delos   Olympia  Troy  Rhodes  Crete  Peloponnesus  Epirus  Cyprus  Pontus  Magna Graecia  Ancient Greek Colonies Politics Apella  Ecclesia  Heliaia  Boule  Agora  Graph paranmn  Areopagus  League of Corinth  Diadochi Rulers Kings of Sparta  Kings of Athens  Archons of Athens  Kings of Macedon  Kings of Pontus  Kings of Paionia  Roman Emperors  Kings of Kommagene  Kings of Lydia  Attalid Kings of Pergamon  Diadochi   Kings of Argos  Tyrants of Syracuse Life Agriculture  Clothing  Cuisine  Democracy  Economy  Education  Festivals  Homosexuality  Law  Marriage  Mourning ritual  Olympic Games  Pederasty  Philosophy  Prostitution  Religion  Slavery  Warfare  Wine Military Wars  Army of Macedon  Antigonid Macedonian army  Pezhetairoi  Hoplite  Seleucid army  Hellenistic armies  Phalanx formation  Peltast  Sarissa  Xyston  Sacred Band of Thebes People Philosophers Anaxagoras  Anaximander  Anaximenes  Antisthenes  Aristotle  Democritus  Diotima of Mantinea  Diogenes of Sinope  Epicurus  Empedocles  Heraclitus  Hypatia  Leucippus  Gorgias  Parmenides  Plato  Protagoras  Pythagoras  Socrates  Thales  Themistoclea  Zeno Authors Aeschylus  Aesop  Aristophanes  Euripides  Herodotus  Hesiod  Homer  Lucian  Menander  Pindar  Plutarch  Polybius  Sappho  Sophocles  Thucydides  Xenophon Others Alexander the Great  Alcibiades  Archimedes  Aspasia  Demosthenes  Euclid  Hipparchus  Hippocrates  Leonidas  Lycurgus  Milo of Croton  Pericles  Ptolemy  Solon  Themistocles Buildings Parthenon  Temple of Artemis  Acropolis  Ancient Agora  Temple of Zeus at Olympia  Temple of Hephaestus  Samothrace temple complex Arts Architecture  Coinage  Literature  Music  Pottery  Sculpture  Theatre Sciences Astronomy  Mathematics  Medicine  Technology Language Proto-Greek  Mycenaean  Homeric  Dialects (Aeolic  Arcadocypriot  Attic  Doric  Ionic  Locrian  Macedonian  Pamphylian)  Koine Writing Linear A  Linear B  Greek alphabet Lists Ancient Greek tribes  Greeks  Thracian Greeks  Cities in Epirus  Ancient Macedonians  Playwrights  Theatres  Poets  Tyrants  Philosophers  Cities  Mythological figures  Place names Portal Persondata Name Epicurus Alternative names Epikouros; Short description ancient Greek philosopher and the founder of Epicureanism Date of birth 341 BC Place of birth Samos Date of death 270 BC Place of death Athens