Epicurean Mockery of Opposing Philosophers and Schools

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    ADMIN EDIT BY CASSIUS 04-23-26: Due to the importance of this material and the need for easy cutting and pasting I am adapting Bryan's work (which will remain the gold standard for accuracy into a reformatted table https://epicurustoday.com/02-key-sources/mockery/


    I wanted to share this incomplete rough draft of the mocking epithets applied to other schools. I'm looking for any critiques, large and small. Most of the pairings of epithet to the particular philosopher are clear, but not all, given the higgledy-piggledy presentation given in Plutarch, Non Posse, 1086 D.




    Edited once, last by Bryan (July 4, 2025 at 3:21 PM).

    I did something similar to the m Epicurus' nicknames for others in Diogenes Laertius a couple years ago:

    Post

    RE: Epicurus' Favorite Insults

    Okay, done! That was fun! I didn't do Plato since @Joshua did a good job above.

    Enjoy!

    Nausiphanes:

    ‘The mollusk,’ πλεύμονά (pleumona "lung-fish, jellyfish"> related etymologically to English "pleurisy")

    http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?do…ry%3Dpleu%2Fmwn

    Hicks note: Cf. Sext. Emp. Adv. math. i. 3 νῦν πλεύμον α καλῶν τὸν Ναυσιφ άνην ὡς ἀναίσθ ητον; Plato, Phil. 21 c ζῆν δὲ οὐκ ἀνθρώπο υ βίον ἀλλά τινος…
    Don
    May 28, 2022 at 7:55 AM

    I really enjoyed chewing on these ancient slurs.

    I appreciate that there seems to be a universal preconception for "Hater" or "Haters". ^^

    In particular, I like thinking that Plato is not just "golden", but "gilded", as in, "cheap" and "superficial", like modern currency, or that his dialogues are just gold leaf painted over bad philosophy.

    Good find on Sannídōros! I missed that etymology completely.

    • New

    I am bumping this old thread because in tonight's Zoom meeting we started going through this list as part of reviewing Bryan's Usener material. I personally had not focused on the fact that there is a list in both Diogenes Laertius and in Plutarch, and that to get full picture there are several sources that have to be brought together. Bryan's work here is valuable because beyond the colorful nature of the descriptions we get insight into the particular aspects of other philosophies that he found to be worth criticizing.

  • Cassius April 22, 2026 at 9:50 PM

    Changed the title of the thread from “Mocking Epithets” to “Mocking Epithets (Working Toward A Complete List of Epicurus' Characterizations of Opposing Philosophers/Schools)”.

  • Cassius April 23, 2026 at 6:36 AM

    Changed the title of the thread from “Mocking Epithets (Working Toward A Complete List of Epicurus' Characterizations of Opposing Philosophers/Schools)” to “Epicurean Mockery of Opposing Philosophers and Schools”.

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