Leontion (, ; fl. 300 BC) was a Greek Epicurean philosopher. Biography Leontion was a pupil of Epicurus and his philosophy. She was the companion of Metrodorus of Lampsacus. The information we have about her is scant. She was said to have been a hetaera – a courtesan or prostitute. Diogenes Laërtius has preserved a line from a letter that Epicurus evidently wrote to Leontion, in which Epicurus praises her for her well-written arguments against certain philosophical views (which aren't mentioned in Diogenes' quote). According to Pliny, she was painted by Aristides of Thebes in a work entitled "Leontion thinking of Epicurus." According to Cicero, Leontion is said to have published arguments criticizing the famous philosopher Theophrastus: Leontium, that mere courtesan, who had the effrontery to write a riposte to Theophrastus – mind you, she wrote elegantly in good Attic, but still, this was the licence which prevailed in the Garden of Epicurus. This anecdote was later adopted by Pliny, in the preface of his Naturalis historia. Notes 4th-century BC births 3rd-century BC deaths 3rd-century BC women writers 3rd-century BC writers 3rd-century BC philosophers Ancient Greek women philosophers Greek female prostitutes Hetairai Epicurean philosophers Hellenistic-era philosophers 3rd-century BC Greek women