Hérodote et Plutarque: concernant la rencontre entre Solon et Crésus, roi de Lydie

Abstract

At a first sight, reading Plutarch’s Life of Solon, the confluence of three kinds of ‘Solon’ raises among its pages, namely, the poet, the legislator, and the imaginary. It seems that the passages of his travels, thorough which Solon met supposedly most egregious figures of Egypt, Lydia, and also Cyprus, must be ascribed to the former. In the present paper we will focus on one of those invented anecdotes, as it is the meeting of Solon and Croesus, king of Lydia. Therefore, it is our aim to analyze not only the reference inserted in the Live of Solon about this topic, but also those earlier conceptions of Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, as well as those of Plutarch’s contemporary authors, to wit, Favorinus of Arelata, Arrian, Lucian of Samosata, and Diogenes Laërtius. As a result, we shall obtain a panoramic view of this story, such as authors among Greek literature conceived it.