Delphi Complete Works of Epictetus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 86)

1198 Pages·2018·2.57 MB·english

by  Epictetus

The Complete Works of
EPICTETUS
(AD 55–135)
Contents
The Translations
DISCOURSES
THE ENCHEIRIDION
FRAGMENTS
The Greek Texts
LIST OF GREEK TEXTS
The Dual Text
DUAL GREEK AND ENGLISH TEXT
The Biography
INTRODUCTION TO EPICTETUS by W. A. Oldfather
The Delphi Classics Catalogue
© Delphi Classics 2018
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The Complete Works of
EPICTETUS
By Delphi Classics, 2018
COPYRIGHT
Complete Works of Epictetus
First published in the United Kingdom in 2018 by Delphi Classics.
© Delphi Classics, 2018.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher,
nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.
ISBN: 978 1 78656 395 8
Delphi Classics
is an imprint of
Delphi Publishing Ltd
Hastings, East Sussex
United Kingdom
Contact: [email protected]
www.delphiclassics.com
The Translations
Ruins at Hierapolis, Phrygia, south-western Anatolia, close to modern Pamukkale in Turkey —
Epictetus’ traditional birthplace
DISCOURSES
Translated by George Long and W. A. Oldfather
A Greek Stoic philosopher of the first and second century, Epictetus (c. AD
55 – 135) was a crippled Greek slave of Phrygia during Nero’s reign. He is
recorded as having heard lectures by the Stoic Musonius before he was
freed. Expelled with the other prominent philosophers of Rome by
Domitian in c. 89, Epictetus settled permanently in Nicopolis in Epirus,
where he founded his own school, which he called a “healing place for sick
souls.” There he taught a practical philosophy, which has been detailed by
his principal student Arrian, the famous author of the historical work
Anabasis of Alexander — the best source on the campaigns of Alexander
the Great. Epictetus’ ideas have only survived through the works of Arrian.
There are four books of Discourses and a smaller Encheiridion, a handbook
that summarises the chief doctrines of the Discourses. Epictetus is believed
to have lived into the reign of Hadrian.
The Ἐπικτήτου διατριβαί (Discourses) are a series of extracts of
Epictetus’ teachings, set down by Arrian in c. AD 108. They were
originally composed of eight books, but only four remain in their entirety,
along with a few fragments of the lost books. In a preface attached to the
text, Arrian narrates how he wrote the texts, explaining, “I neither wrote
these in the way in which a man might write such things; nor did I make
them public myself, inasmuch as I declare that I did not even write them.
But whatever I heard him say, the same I attempted to write down in his
own words as nearly as possible, for the purpose of preserving them as
memorials to myself afterwards of the thoughts and the freedom of speech
of Epictetus.”
The Discourses are unlikely to be exact transcriptions of Epictetus’
words, but are instead taken down in the form of lecture notes. They present
Epictetus’ Stoic ethics as broad and firm in method, and occasionally
humorous and gloomy in spirit. The work propounds challenging questions,
such as “How should one live righteously?” The philosopher also presents a
compelling demonstration of the ideal Stoic man.
The earliest manuscript is a twelfth-century copy kept at the Bodleian
Library, Oxford, which contains a blot on one of the pages, rendering a
series of words illegible. As in all the other known manuscripts these words
are omitted, we know that they must have been derived from the Bodleian
copy.