Epicurus#
Summary#
Epicurus appears in these texts as both exemplar and critic. Marcus Aurelius praises him for maintaining philosophical discourse during illness, refusing to let bodily suffering disturb his mind or give physicians undue importance. Nietzsche, however, portrays Epicurus as a malicious critic who mocked Plato and the Platonists as mere actors, perhaps out of envy from his hidden garden in Athens where he wrote prolifically in obscurity.