Leontion

Leontion (Latin: Leontium, Greek: Λεόντιον; fl. 300 BC) was a Greek Epicurean philosopher.

Ill. from De mulieribus claris
"Leontium" redirects here. For the ancient town, see Leontium (Achaea).

Biography

Leontion was a pupil of Epicurus and his philosophy. She was the companion of Metrodorus of Lampsacus.[1] The information we have about her is scant. She was said to have been a hetaera – a courtesan or prostitute.[2]

Diogenes Laërtius has preserved a line from a letter that Epicurus evidently wrote to Leontion, in which Epicurus praises her for her well-written arguments against certain philosophical views (which aren't mentioned in Diogenes' quote).[3] According to Pliny, she was painted by Aristides of Thebes in a work entitled "Leontion thinking of Epicurus."[4]

According to Cicero, Leontion is said to have published arguments criticizing the famous philosopher Theophrastus:

Leontium, that mere courtesan, who had the effrontery to write a riposte to Theophrastus – mind you, she wrote elegantly in good Attic, but still, this was the licence which prevailed in the Garden of Epicurus.[5]

This anecdote was later adopted by Pliny, in the preface of his Naturalis historia.[6]

Notes
  1. Diogenes Laertius, x. 23
  2. Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, xiii. 588, 593
  3. Diogenes Laertius, x. 5
  4. Pliny, Nat. Hist., 35.99
  5. Cicero, De Natura Deorum i. 33/93.
  6. Pliny, Nat. Hist., praefatio, 29.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.