Editing Epicurus (section)

===Teaching career===
[[File:Portrait of the philosopher Metrodoros back to back with one of his masters Epicurus, Roman Imperial (second half of 2nd century AD?), discovered in Rome, Louvre Museum - 51036370948.jpg|right|thumb|[[Herm (sculpture)|Herm]] of Epicurus (left) leaning against his disciple [[Metrodorus of Lampsacus (the younger)|Metrodorus]] in the [[Louvre|Louvre Museum]]]]
During Epicurus's lifetime, Platonism was the dominant philosophy in higher education. Epicurus's opposition to Platonism formed a large part of his thought. Over half of the forty Principal Doctrines of Epicureanism are flat contradictions of Platonism. In around 311 BC, Epicurus, when he was around thirty years old, began teaching in [[Mytilene]]. 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. Although later texts, such as the writings of the first-century BC Roman orator [[Cicero]], portray Epicureanism and Stoicism as rivals, this rivalry seems to have only emerged after Epicurus's death.{{sfn|DeWitt|1976|pages=8–12}}

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}} 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]].{{sfn|Konstan}} 

[[Philodemus of Gadara]] list four "guides" (hoi kathēgemones) of the first generation of the Garden who worked to establish its fundamental principles:  [[Metrodorus of Lampsacus (the younger)|Metrodorus]], [[Hermarchus]], [[Polyaenus of Lampsacus|Polyaneus]], and Epicurus himself. Other disciples of Epicurus whose doctrines are known include [[Colotes]], whose work ''On the Impossibility of Living According to the Doctrines of Other Philosophers'' was disputed in two extant works by [[Plutarch]], and [[Carneiscus]], whose work criticizing the [[Peripatetic school|peripatetic]] conception of friendship survives in a fragmentary state.{{sfn|Dorandi|2020|pp=19-21}}  Other students include [[Idomeneus of Lampsacus|Idomeneus]], [[List of Epicurean philosophers#Pythocles|Pythocles]], and Epicurus' three brothers: [[List of Epicurean philosophers#Neocles|Neocles]], [[List of Epicurean philosophers#Chaeridemus|Chaeridemus]], and [[List of Epicurean philosophers#Aristobulus|Aristobulus]]. The Garden also welcomed many female students during Epicurus tenure, including [[Themista of Lampsacus|Themista]], [[Batis of Lampsacus|Batis]], [[List of Epicurean philosophers#Boidion|Boidion]], [[List of Epicurean philosophers#Demetria|Demetria]], [[List of Epicurean philosophers#Hedeia|Hedeia]], [[Leontion]], [[List of Epicurean philosophers#Mammarion|Mammarion]], and [[Nikidion]].{{sfn|Dorandi|2020|p=15}} 
[[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]]]]
During the first generation, Epicurus and the other members of The Garden lived together in a communal lifestyle, with the assets of all the members held in common, and no rigid hierarchy between teachers and students. They shared celebrations, festivals, banquets and funerals. Several rites that were celebrated at different times of the year: an annual funeral rite established by Epicurus in memory of his brothers and parents, two rites established for Epicurus himself; an annual one on his birthday (the 20th of [[Attic calendar|Gamelion month]]) and one celebrated on the 20th of every other month in honor of both Epicurus and Metrodorus, another day dedicated to the memory of his brothers in the month of [[Attic calendar|Poseidon]], and another one for [[Polyaenus]] in the month of [[Attic calendar|Metageitneon]].{{sfn|Dorandi|2020|pp=37-38}}