Nietzsche ed Epicuro. Una questione di stile

Abstract

In the Lessons of History of Greek Literature Friedrich Nietzsche investigates the changes that occurred within the literary panorama of Classical Greece during and after the 4th century b.C.. Many phenomena, seemingly independent, converge at that time in a common process of “modernization” of the ancient world. The culture based on oral practices is progressively replaced by a massive use of writing for literary purposes. In the meantime, the desertion of the poetry and the spreading of prose, favored by the development of rhetoric, allow to structure increasingly longer and syntactically articulated texts. What Nietzsche calls the “progressive scientification” of the Greek language is the result of such a literary revolution and the philosophical literature starting from Plato can be considered its accomplishment.

Among the stylistic analysis, that Nietzsche devoted to the authors of the ancient philosophical tradition, Plato and Aristotle in the first place, stands the case of Epicurus. According to Diogenes Laertius, he was one of the most prolific writers of his time. Nevertheless, the testimonies speak of an explicit refusal by Epicurus of every form of rhetorical sophistication in the composition of his writings. What does Epicure’s rejection of literary stylistic aids while not giving up the advantages of writing mean? Is such a choice dictated by necessity of a scientific nature or may it depend on a specific moral instance connected to his philosophical project? These and other issues will be addressed by the philologist Nietzsche, who in the years 1874-79 is engaged in a review of the philosophical landscape of the authors of ancient Greece through the interpretative filter of the literary style.