Kyria Doxai Comparison

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The EpicureanFriends Files section is where our Level 3 and above participants store longer documents created offsite which are of special interest to the study of Epicurus. You can use the "Categories" box on the right to find specific sections of the library.

This sheet grew out of the interest to understand Kyriai Doxai (Principal Doctrines) as a text and not a "list."

This sheet grew out of the interest to understand Kyriai Doxai (Principal Doctrines) as a text and not a "list." The fact that the 1739 text has 44 "doctrines" and not 40, plus individual doctrines are scattered in Vatican Sayings and Diogenes' wall led evidence to there not being a canonical number of divisions in the work.
This spreadsheet provides a comparison as a start.
See this thread for additional information:

Post

RE: What if Kyriai Doxai was NOT a list?

Following up on a post of mine from Cassius' thread about PDs in narrative form on a list of 44 PDs in a 1739 Greek/Latin translation:

I used a 1739 Greek with Latin translation to compare with the text at Perseus Digital Library:

1739: https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nn…id=27021597768674761-1400

Perseus Greek (DL, Book 10): http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/h…3Abook%3D10%3Achapter%3D1

Perseus English (DL, Book 10): http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/h…3Abook%3D10%3Achapter%3D1

I used the Greek text to compare…
Don
August 2, 2023 at 12:00 AM
June 11, 2025 at 1:20 PM

Thank you for sharing this. An interesting idea to pursue would be to also locate instances of the PDs and VSs in the letters correlate them with this work
June 11, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Author

Interesting. You're referring to the letters to Herodotus and Pythocles? I'm not sure how much overlap there is since (in the words of Diogenes Laertius): The first epistle is addressed to Herodotus and deals with physics ; the second to Pythocles and deals with astronomy or meteorology ; the third is addressed to Menoeceus and its subject is human life.

Nonetheless, looking for the themes or text of PDs in other sources is well put.

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