During the time of Epicurus, who could read well enough to study philosophy?

The question of literacy at the time of Epicurus came to me because I've been thinking about who exactly were the people that were engaging with the teachings of Epicurus...

And because it also answers the question of who was Epicurus writing for...

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Google query: during 341 bc to 270 bc what percentage of people could read philosophical texts in athens greece?

Scholars estimate that overall literacy in ancient Athens from 341 to 270 BC was between 10% and 15% of the general population. However, the percentage of people who could read complex philosophical texts was much lower, likely around 3% to 5%. This specialized reading class primarily consisted of elite, wealthy, and educated adult male citizens. [1, 2, 3, 4]

While Athenian democracy required basic reading skills to participate in civic duties, reading dense philosophy like the works of Epicurus or the earlier Platonist and Aristotelian texts demanded extensive formal education, which was heavily restricted by gender and socioeconomic class. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Any women who were present were likely either part of Epicurus' household (unfree slaves)...or educated hetaira...or perhaps wives who were taught by their wealthy philosophical husbands who were part of the school. The only male slave that was specifically mentioned by name in Diogenes Laertius was Mys, who was within Epicurus' household.

The census of Demetrius Phalereus in 317 BC found 21,000 citizens, 10,000 metics and 400,000 slaves living in Athens.

The metics were foreign born or freed slaves, who were not land owners, and yet some may have been wealthy and had free time.

So then that leaves mainly the elite, wealthy, and educated adult male citizens and the sons of those men.

And, this also frames the bigger picture regarding Epicurean philosophy as an important consideration in the interpretation of the texts. I can hardly think that Epicurus was telling these elite wealthy men to dispose of their wealth and possessions and become minimalists who only engage with the bare basic necessities in life.

Epicurus was speaking to the same people as Lucretius was... in De Rerum Natura, book 6...which talks about the leaky jar / tainted jar:

[Bailey-6:09] For when he saw that mortals had by now attained well-nigh all things which their needs crave for subsistence, and that, as far as they could, their life was established in safety, that men abounded in power through wealth and honours and renown, and were haughty in the good name of their children, and yet not one of them for all that had at home a heart less anguished, but with torture of mind lived a fretful life without any respite, and was constrained to rage with savage complaining, he then did understand that it was the vessel itself which wrought the disease, and that by its disease all things were corrupted within, whatsoever came into it gathered from without, yea even blessings; in part because he saw that it was leaking and full of holes, so that by no means could it ever be filled; in part because he perceived that it was tainted as with a foul savor all things within it, which it had taken in.

I found this with Google:

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There is significant, explicit textual evidence detailing Epicurus’s deliberate reliance on written texts as a central tool for learning, specifically designed to substitute for or supplement oral teaching. [1]

Unlike Socrates, who famously rejected writing in favor of oral dialogue, Epicurus was a highly prolific writer who engineered a text-based educational system. The core textual evidence for this includes: [1, 2, 3]

1. Epicurus's Own Statements on Epitomization

In the surviving introductions to his letters preserved by Diogenes Laërtius, Epicurus explicitly states that his written texts are meant to act as a substitute for direct instruction. [1, 2]

• The Letter to Herodotus: Epicurus explicitly writes that he has prepared this text as an epitome (an abridgment) for those who "are unable to study carefully all my physical writings" or "cannot digest the more detailed books." He states the text is designed so that even advanced students can have a ready handbook to memorize and recall core principles without needing a teacher present. [1, 2, 3]
• The Letter to Pythocles: The prologue notes that the text was written specifically to provide a handy, easily memorable distillation of natural philosophy to help the reader navigate life when oral guidance isn't available. [1, 2]

2. Evidence from the Herculaneum Papyri

The recovery of the Herculaneum library—which preserved the carbonized scrolls of the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus—provides physical and textual proof of how the school operated. [, 2]

• Philodemus’s treatise On Frank Criticism (Peri Parresias) describes the pedagogical structure of Epicurean communities.
• The texts reveal that when Epicurean groups spread across the Mediterranean, away from Epicurus’s physical presence in Athens, they relied entirely on reading, copying, and dissecting Epicurus’s written texts as the structural foundation of their regular community meetings. [1, 2, 3, 4]

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Thanks Don and thinking further...it appears that you may be hinting that we can't be totally certain about who exactly was attending Epicurus' Kepos, and what types of people attended the Epicurean communities. And yet, I don't think that it would be correct to compare Epicurean communities with early Christian communities. The teachings are very different and they will attract different people.

We see in Lucretius that there is an emphasis on the natural physics with the majority of DRN focusing on the causes of things, so as to dispell the incorrect beliefs about gods causing natural phenomenon. We need to ask ourselves what types of people are interested in this focus, and to see that this aspect of Epicurean philosophy was shining the light on Nature as moving with its own driving force, and this was an "early science" to examine the world and learn about the things that causes various phenomenon. The study of natural physics requires a certain intelligence level, and so then these would be the people more likely to have aquired the skill of reading. So I still stand by my hypothesis that most people who studied Epicurean philosophy in ancient Greece could read.