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