Source edition
Lucian, Vol. 2. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1915.
Source data
Perseus Digital Library · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This work is a satirical dialogue in which Zeus, the king of the gods, and Hermes, the messenger god, put various philosophical schools of thought up for auction like slaves. At the auction, Pythagoras, who speaks of the purification of the soul and the harmony of numbers, and Diogenes the Cynic, who advocates an extreme and frugal lifestyle, appear and engage in comical exchanges with potential buyers. As the auction progresses, Heraclitus weeping over the transience of things, Democritus laughing at the world, and Socrates discussing his theory of Ideas are put on the block, with some sold at high prices while others remain unsold. Later, an Epicurean and the Stoic Chrysippus, who confounds buyers with his complex paradoxes and sophistry, are auctioned off. Finally, with the sale of a Peripatetic and a Skeptic who advocates the suspension of judgment (epoche), this lively auction concludes, having humorously exposed the doctrines and eccentricities of the major philosophical schools.