Editing Epicurus (section)

===Teaching career===
[[File:Epikur Statue.jpg|thumb|Reconstruction by K. Fittschen of an Epicurus enthroned statue, presumably set up after his death. [[University of Göttingen]], [[Plaster cast|Abgußsammlung]].<ref>Zanker, Paul. ''[https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft3f59n8b0&chunk.id=d0e1974&toc.depth=1&toc.id=d0e1974&brand=ucpress The Mask of Socrates: The Image of the Intellectual in Antiquity. III.&nbsp;The Rigors of Thinking. The "Throne" of Epicurus.]'' Berkeley, Calif:&nbsp;University of California Press,&nbsp;1995.</ref>]]

During Epicurus's lifetime, Platonism was the dominant philosophy in higher education.{{sfn|DeWitt|1976|pages=9, 11}} Epicurus's opposition to Platonism formed a large part of his thought.{{sfn|DeWitt|1976|page=11}}{{sfn|Long|1999|pages=239–240}} Over half of the forty Principal Doctrines of Epicureanism are flat contradictions of Platonism.{{sfn|DeWitt|1976|page=11}} In around 311 BC, Epicurus, when he was around thirty years old, began teaching in [[Mytilene]].{{sfn|DeWitt|1976|page=11}}{{sfn|Wasson|2016}} Around this time, [[Zeno of Citium]], the founder of [[Stoicism]], arrived in Athens, at the age of about twenty-one, but Zeno did not begin teaching what would become Stoicism for another twenty years.{{sfn|DeWitt|1976|page=11}} Although later texts, such as the writings of the first-century BC Roman orator [[Cicero]], portray Epicureanism and Stoicism as rivals,{{sfn|DeWitt|1976|page=11}} this rivalry seems to have only emerged after Epicurus's death.{{sfn|DeWitt|1976|page=11}}

Epicurus's teachings caused strife in Mytilene and he was forced to leave. He then founded a school in [[Lampsacus]] before returning to Athens in {{circa}} 306 BC, where he remained until his death.{{sfn|Barnes|1986|page=367}} There he founded The Garden (κῆπος), a school named for the garden he owned that served as the school's meeting place, about halfway between the locations of two other schools of philosophy, the [[Stoa Poikile|Stoa]] and the [[Platonic Academy|Academy]].<ref name="Stanford">{{cite encyclopedia|author=David Konstan|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epicurus/|title=Epicurus|encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|year=2018}}</ref>{{sfn|Wasson|2016}} The Garden was more than just a school;{{sfn|Gordon|2012|page=3}} it was "a community of like-minded and aspiring practitioners of a particular way of life."{{sfn|Gordon|2012|page=3}} The primary members were [[Hermarchus]], the financier [[Idomeneus of Lampsacus|Idomeneus]], [[Leonteus of Lampsacus|Leonteus]] and his wife [[Themista of Lampsacus|Themista]], the [[satire|satirist]] [[Colotes]], the mathematician [[Polyaenus of Lampsacus]], and [[Metrodorus of Lampsacus (the younger)|Metrodorus of Lampsacus]], the most famous popularizer of Epicureanism. His school was the first of the ancient Greek philosophical schools to admit women as a rule rather than an exception,{{citation needed|date=April 2019}} and the biography of Epicurus by Diogenes Laërtius lists female students such as [[Leontion]] and [[Nikidion]].<ref>Diogenes Laërtius, ''Lives of the Eminent Philosophers,'' Book X, Section 7</ref> An inscription on the gate to The Garden is recorded by [[Seneca the Younger]] in epistle XXI of {{lang|la|[[Epistulae morales ad Lucilium]]}}: "Stranger, here you will do well to tarry; here our [[highest good]] is pleasure."<ref name=intra/>

According to Diskin Clay, Epicurus himself established a custom of celebrating his birthday annually with common meals, befitting his stature as ''heros ktistes'' ("founding hero") of the Garden. He ordained in his will annual memorial feasts for himself on the same date (10th of [[Attic calendar|Gamelion month]]).<ref name=smitwood/> Epicurean communities continued this tradition,<ref name=glad/> referring to Epicurus as their "saviour" ([[soter]]) and celebrating him as hero. The [[hero cult]] of Epicurus may have operated as a Garden variety [[civic religion]].<ref name=nussb/> However, clear evidence of an Epicurean hero cult, as well as the cult itself, seems buried by the weight of posthumous philosophical interpretation.<ref name=clay/> Epicurus never married and had no known children. He was most likely a [[vegetarian]].<ref name=brita/><ref name=dombr/>