METRODORUS  , the name of five philosophers . 1 . METRODORUS of

Athens was a philosopher and painter who flourished in the 2nd century B.C . It chanced that Paullus Aemilius, visiting Athens on his return from his victory over Perseus in 168 B.C., asked for a tutor for his children and a painter to glorify his triumph . The inhabitants suggested Metrodorus as capable of discharging both duties, and it is recorded that Aemilius was entirely satisfied (see Pliny, Nat . Hist. xxv . 135) . 2 . METRODORUS of Chios was an important member of the Atomistic school . A pupil of Nessus, or, as some accounts prefer, of Democritus himself, he was a complete sceptic . He accepted the Democritean theory of atoms and void and the plurality of worlds, but held a theory of his own that the stars are formed from day to day by the moisture in the air under the heat of the sun . His radical scepticism is seen in the first sentence of his Hepi Ouvews, quoted by Cicero in the Academics ii .

23 § 73 . He says, " We know nothing, no, not even whether we know or not!" and maintains that everything is to each

person only what it appears to him to be . Metrodorus is especially interesting as the teacher of Anaxarchus, the friend of Pyrrho, and, therefore, as the connecting link between atomism proper and the later scepticism . It cannot be decided whether a work entitled the Tpmina quoted by Athenaeus (iv . 184 a) is by this, or another, Metrodorus . The same difficulty is found in the case of the Hepl taroptas referred to by the scholiast on Apollonius . 3 . METRODORUS of Lampsacus was the disciple and intimate friend of Epicurus, and is described by Cicero (de Fin. ii . 28 . 92) as " almost a second Epicurus." He died in 277 B.C. at the age of fifty-three, seven years before his master, who adopted his children and in his will commended them to the care of his pupils . The wife of Metrodorus was Leontion, herself, like many other women of the time, a member of the Epicurean society . Athenaeus (vii .

279 F.) quotes from the words of Metrodorus showing that he was in entire agreement with Epicurus, and was, if possible, even more dogmatic in his

doctrine of pleasure . He censures his brother, Timocrates, who, though professedly Epicurean, maintained the existence of pleasures other than those of the body . 4 . Another METRODORUS of Lampsacus was a pupil of Anaxagoras, and one of the earliest to attempt to interpret Homer allegorically . He explained not only the gods but also the heroes Agamemnon, Achilles, Hector, as representing primary elements and natural phenomena . 5 . METRODORUS of Stratonice was a pupil, first of Apollodorus, and later of Carneades . He flourished about no B.C., and is reputed to have been an orator of great power . His defection from the Epicurean school is almost unique . It is explained by Cicero as being due to his theory that the scepticism of Carneades was merely a means of attacking the Stoics on their own ground . Metrodorus held that Carneades was in reality a loyal follower of Plato .