Abstract
Abstract This chapter is a careful look at the different aspects of laughter in the history of Epicurean philosophy, from its very beginning (Epicurus and his fellow philosophers) to the Imperial period (Diogenes of Oenoanda). More precisely, the following facets of Epicurean laughter are examined: (1) its philosophical foundation (laughter is connected with truth in Epicurus and Polystratus, with true freedom in Metrodorus); (2) its objects (widespread opinions and empty ideals, famous statesmen and generals, philosophical opponents); (3) its function (Epicurean laughter is usually polemical laughter; e.g., Colotes and Metrodorus); (4) its nature (especially in the earlier generations of the Garden, we find a clever but sharp, polemical laughter [cf. 3]; in later times, the Epicurean laughter is milder and tamed, as it were, by social decorum [e.g., in Diogenes of Oenoanda]); (5) its results (laughing together in Epicurean communities, but sharp and “serious” reactions in anti-Epicurean literature).
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