Le Démonax de Lucien entre réalité et fiction

Abstract

This paper is devoted to Lucian's account of the figure and thought of Demonax the Chypriote in the Life he has written on this philosopher, eclectic but deeply influenced by cynicism, who had been his master. It stresses how Demonax' figure was intentionaly manipulated: Lucian wanted to embody in him the best of that Greek philosophical tradition he had himself benefited during his studies in Athens and which he wanted to extol. In Lucian's eyes, Demonax is the paragon of the genuine and consistent philosopher, one to be totally distinguished from those professional would-be philosophers altogether despised by Lucian. Consequently, Demonax becomes in Lucian's biography a half historical and half fictional figure. The sentences saved by the gnomological tradition about this philosopher may be useful to retrieve a less idealised and artificial, that is to say more historical image, of Demonax' thought.