Nourishing Paideia: the art of knowledge and the art of eating in Lucian

Abstract

A topic in the Greek literature of the Roman imperial period is the attack against the false philosophers. Lucian condemns with special hardness their shameful behaviour in symposiac gatherings, where the wise men are only interested in satisfying an insatiable appetite. The purpose of this paper is to analyse how Lucian criticises the philosophers at the banquet in comparison with the parasite, because the eating patterns of false philosophers make them similar to parasites. If the aim of parasitism is happiness, then parasites do not pursue anything different from philosophers, as Lucian makes clear in The Symposium or the Lapiths. Nevertheless, in The Parasite, Simon argues that the parasite’s techne is superior, inasmuch as it achieves the same aim as the philosophers, without the hypocritical and ridiculous attitudes of the false pepaideumenoi.