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We do not always look for a work, a text, or a passage in the same way. Browse by work as you would in a traditional library, travel through time, follow a semantic concept, or go straight to a precise excerpt. This Library exists to support practice and deeper study by bringing old texts into contact with daily experience and present questions.

Works
305
Authors
94
Passages
89,767
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Corpus works
259
Private works
46
Private records
56
Private excerpts
20,006
Text representations
223,819
Editions and translations
849
Languages
17
Works in French and English
259
Multilingual works
259
Tracked concepts
9
Estimated sentences
1,456,557
Words
27,541,029

A representation is one language version of a canonical passage. Private excerpts come from source files. Sentence count is estimated from punctuation.

By work6
Epicurus

Works

Books, collections and works from the Private collection share this shelf. Each card keeps its editions and sources.

Photorealistic editorial illustration of Letter to Herodotus in the Prokopton42.com Library Letter to HerodotusEpicurus

Fragments or testimony

Letter to Herodotus

Epicurus condenses for Herodotus the principles of his physics: atoms and void, formation of worlds, perception, soul, and language. This memorable outline offers a coherent view of nature able to dispel mythical explanations that generate fear.

What you will learn
Composition
late 4th or early 3rd century BCE
Editions / translations
Dates to be documented
Languages
Ancient Greek · English · French
Extent
1 passage · 6,463 words
Photorealistic editorial illustration of Letter to Menoeceus in the Prokopton42.com Library Letter to MenoeceusEpicurus

Fragments or testimony

Letter to Menoeceus

Epicurus links happiness to a sober examination of desires, death, and choice. The pleasure at stake is stability freed from needless fear, not a race toward excess.

What you will learn
Composition
late 4th or early 3rd century BCE
Editions / translations
Dates to be documented
Languages
Ancient Greek · English · French
Extent
1 passage · 1,933 words
Photorealistic editorial illustration of Letter to Pythocles in the Prokopton42.com Library Letter to PythoclesEpicurus

Fragments or testimony

Letter to Pythocles

The Letter to Pythocles offers several possible natural explanations for celestial and meteorological phenomena. Epicurus does not always seek one cause; he aims to exclude threatening divine stories when several mechanisms remain compatible with experience.

What you will learn
Composition
late 4th or early 3rd century BCE
Editions / translations
Dates to be documented
Languages
Ancient Greek · English · French
Extent
1 passage · 4,286 words
Photorealistic editorial illustration of Principal Doctrines in the Prokopton42.com Library Principal DoctrinesEpicurus

Work

Principal Doctrines

The Principal Doctrines condense Epicurean ethics into propositions about gods, death, desire, justice, friendship, and security. Their sequence supplies a doctrinal aid to memory rather than continuous demonstration.

What you will learn
Composition
3rd century BCE; compilation of sayings by Epicurus and associates
Editions / translations
Dates to be documented
Languages
English · Ancient Greek · French
Extent
40 passages · 1,635 words
Photorealistic editorial illustration of Surviving Fragments of Epicurus in the Prokopton42.com Library Surviving Fragments of EpicurusEpicurus

Fragments or testimony

Surviving Fragments of Epicurus

These dispersed fragments preserve parts of Epicurus’ lost works through papyri, inscriptions, quotations, and testimony. They illuminate physics and ethics, but every claim remains tied to the source extracting or paraphrasing it.

What you will learn
Composition
4th-3rd centuries BCE; later fragmentary transmission
Editions / translations
Dates to be documented
Languages
English · Ancient Greek · French
Extent
48 passages · 1,222 words
Photorealistic editorial illustration of Vatican Sayings in the Prokopton42.com Library Vatican SayingsEpicurus

Work

Vatican Sayings

Discovered in a Vatican manuscript, these sayings transmit maxims from Epicurus and his tradition on desire, friendship, gratitude, death, and self-sufficiency. The collection is a school anthology, not a work arranged by one author.

What you will learn
Composition
anthology formed between the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE
Editions / translations
Dates to be documented
Languages
English · Ancient Greek · French
Extent
61 passages · 1,507 words

Before reading

What you will learn

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