mitgeteilt von Jing Huang

MA II, WS 192, KSA 2.638, Z. 21–23:

Der Philosoph der Ueppigkeit. – Ein Gärtchen, Feigen, kleine Käse und dazu drei oder vier gute Freunde, – das war die Ueppigkeit Epikur’s.

Vgl. Diogenes Laertios, De vitis, dogmatis et apophthegmatis clarorum philosophorum libri decem. Graeca emendatiora edidit, notatione emendationum, latina Ambrosii interpretatione castigata, appendice critica atque indicibus instruxit Henricus Gustavus Huebnerus Lipsiensis. Volumen Secundum, Leipzig 1831 (BN), Buch X, Abschnitt 10–11, S. 448 f.:

οἳ καὶ πανταχόϑεν πρὸς αὐτὸν ἀφικνοῦντο, καὶ συνεβίουν αὐτῷ ἐν τῷ κήπῳ, καϑά φησι καὶ Ἀπολλόδωρος· […] εὐτελέστατα καὶ λιτότατα διαιτώμενοι. “Κοτύλῃ γοῦν”, φησὶν, “οἰνιδίου ἠρκοῦντο· τὸ δὲ πᾶν ὕδωρ ἦν αὐτοῖς ποτόν.” […] Αὐτός τε φησὶν ἐν ταῖς ἐπιστολαῖς, ὕδατι μόνον ἀρκεῖσϑαι, καὶ ἄρτῳ λιτῷ. Καί, “πέμψον μοι τυροῦ”, φησὶ, “κυϑρίδου, ἵν᾿ ὅταν βούλωμαι πολυτελεύσασϑαι, δύνωμαι.” Τοιοῦτος ἦν ὁ τὴν ἡδονὴν εἶναι τέλος δογματίζων^[2]

[Epicurus’s friends] flocked to him from all sides and lived with him in his garden, as Apollodorus says […], living very frugally and simply. “They made do, at any rate,” he says, “with a half pint of weak wine; otherwise, all they drank was water.” […] [Epicurus] says in his letters that he managed on a diet of plain bread and water. Elsewhere he says, “Send me a small pot of cheese, that I may feast luxuriously whenever I like.” Such was the man who asserted that pleasure is the goal of life^[3]

HH II, WS 192 is an implicit reference to Diogenes Laertius’s account of Epicurus’s simple lifestyle, which includes the following saying of Epicurus about his way to “live luxuriously” (πολυτελεύομαι): πέμψον μοι τυροῦ κυϑριδίου, ἵν᾽ ὅταν βούλωμαι πολυτελεύσασϑαι δύνωμαι. The witty twist is that Epicurus, who takes pleasure to be the greatest good, does not pursue a life of extravagance, as we might expect, but is satisfied with very modest sensual enjoyment, for habituation to luxury will generate cravings to luxury, which are more difficult to fulfill than natural and necessary desires (such as the desire for food and clothing) and whose frustration is a source of pain. GS 45 emphasizes a similar point.^[4]