#metrodorus

[1five1two]

What is inside us affects our happiness more than what follows from the things of the outside world.

Metrodorus

[daylightings]

really appreciate your spotify playlist names

hahah thanks man

[would-be-fyp-ladies]

Leontion

fl. 300 BCE

Leontion (Λεόντιον) was a student of Epicurus, as well as a companion of Metrodorus of Lamsacus, another prolific Epicurean. She is rumoured to have been a courtesan, however it is likely that these accusations were anti-Epicurean slander. That being said hetaerae often enjoyed a peculiar kind of independence denied to most women in Ancient Greece and that she might have been a hetaera would have little effect on her schooling, as Epicurus' school permitted an unlikely host of foreigners, slaves and women. 

Diogenes Laërtius has preserved a single line from a letter Epicurus wrote to Leontion, in which he celebrates her well-written arguments against particular philosophical views (not mentioned in Diogenes' quote).

"By Apollo, my dear little Leontion, with what uproarious applause you filled us as we read your letter." [1]

Pliny describes her portrait, painted Leontion by Aristides of Thebes entitled "Leontion thinking of Epicurus," however it has been lost. Cicero tells us that Leontion is said to have written and published criticisms of the renowned philosopher Theophrastus:

 "Was it on such dreams that Epicurus and Metrodorus and Hermarchus relied in speaking out against Pythagoras, Plato and Empedocles? Or the little prostitute Leontion in daring to write a treatise against Theophrastus? Of course, she writes in fine Attic style, but really! Such license the Garden of Epicurus allowed!" [2]

Pliny was baffled that she could have conducted such a rhetorical feat against Theophrastus. 

Regretfully nothing survives of Leontion's work, but her scholastic presence lives on in the manner in which she offended her male contemporaries and impressed Epicurus. That even Cicero felt obliged to commend her skills as he attempted to slander her ought to give licensed speculation that her work was excellent. Alternatively, she was highly praised in the writings of her mentors and peers, and if she was as gifted as her reception suggests, a focus on scandalizing her would be a convenient means of distracting from these accolades.  

Whether a hetaera, prostitute or scholar (or all three?) - Leontion's works are lost to us. She is survived by how many men she pissed off. 

Suggested Texts: Fragments by Diogenes Laertius, Pliny, Cicero Source

[1] McIntosh-Snyder, J (1991). The Woman and the Lyre: Women Writers in Classical Greece and Rome. Southern Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press. 104.

[2] Cicero, De Natura Deorum i. 33/93.

Source

[darkcoastphotography]

Love your work, thanks for sharing.

Thank you for enjoying it!

[returningasechoes]

just accept me as your elijah wood

._.

[faerieguts]

metrodorus replied to your post: metrodorus replied to your post: metrodorus...

OH

yes, jeremy!! (: talk to me some time i miss you!

[faerieguts]

metrodorus replied to your post: metrodorus replied to your post: i remember one...

I wasn’t saying that I was saying that he might eventually say that, you know?

haha i know i was joking along with you, silly!! (:

[faerieguts]

metrodorus replied to your post: i remember one time this guy asked me to be his gf...

inb4 stop breathing it bothers me :(

sorry :(