Abstract:

The establishment of a heroic cult for various intellectuals, particularly poets and philosophers, is a phenomenon that appears with particular relevance from the Hellenistic period onwards, coinciding with the divinisation of sovereigns, but which takes on even greater importance in the imperial period. Undoubtedly, the biographical genre, which, precisely, also developed strongly during this period, accompanies and contributes not a little to consolidate this new religious mechanism by means of the narrative. It is also important to note that the authors of the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D. rather try to disprove this process of heroisation for some philosophers, whom they openly declare to be falsifiers because they have pretended to receive a heroic cult after their death by using fraudulent methods. This image of the false philosopher who seeks a post-mortem glory he does not deserve is the subject of criticism in authors as diverse as Lucian of Samosata and Diogenes Laertius, and, although with different approaches, it defines a certain vision of philosophers that contrasts with that of the so-called θεῖοι ἄνδρες, just at the time of the emergence of this new figure.