Sur la hiérarchie des biens dans l’Ancienne Acádemie : Crantor et la morale au théâtre

This paper examines the classification of the goods exposed by Crantor’s fr. 7a Mette, handed down by Sextus Empiricus (M 11.51–59). In this fragment, Crantor imagines that on the scene of a pan-Hellenic theater the various goods compete with each other for convincing the Greeks of their superiority. In order, Wealth, Pleasure, Health and Courage parade. The palm of victory is, after a series of twists and turns, assigned to Virtue, of which Courage is considered part and semantically equivalent. Through an in-depth analysis of the structure and content of the passage, the paper attempts, on the one hand, to demonstrate how Crantor wisely and sometimes originally re-uses the tradition of his school, from Plato’s ‘Socratic’ dialogues to the ethical teaching of his master Polemon; to see, on the other hand, whether he makes this towards a polemic more or less directed against Zeno of Citium.