Abstract:

Few today would question the notion that the ancient Greek biographies, particularly the Peripatetic ones, such as those of Satyrus, Hermippus and Aristoxenus, drew heavily on Comedy. This brief article focuses on the frequent barbs levelled at a particular group of ancient Greek philosophers by hostile biographical traditions, which labelled them gluttons, drunkards, lechers and misers. In order to conjecture that this ridicule of philosophical asceticism betrays the influence –and, indeed, on occasion represents a blatant reworking– of material from Comedy, I argue my case chiefly through an exploration of Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of Eminent Philosophers, a singular repository of anecdotes about the philosophers drawn from a variety of sources.