The laughter of Epicurus: happy pleasure of the gods and friendly soul balm of free human beings

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to define the meaning of laughter in Epicurus' philosophical project. Thus, after a brief contextualisation, we first present the antecedent of the laughing gods, the Olympic ones. From an Epicurean perspective, the relationship between friendship, happiness and laughter for the gods is established; then, regarding human beings, the link between freedom (of speech) and friendly laughter is pointed out; finally, with the antecedent of Democritus, the value of laughter as a non-verbal language that disrupts the discursive expectations of others is studied. Finally, its global value as a psychotherapeutic element in the Garden is discussed.