Abstract

Generally categorised as pertaining to the genre of paradoxical eulogies, the Encomium on Hair by Dio Chrysostom was until recently considered an example of the author’s strictly sophistic works, which the author would have pursued prior to his conversion to philosophy. Rather, the markedly autobiographical nature of the text, with references to the author’s mop of hair and the extremely well groomed hair of the filoκomoi, allows the Encomium on Hair to be classified as one of the numerous prolaliai scattered throughout Dio’s corpus under fallacious titles. In these works the orator chose to speak about himself in order to claim, albeit in a Socratic style, his status as a philosopher of the most upright and uncompromising character. A comparison with the Encomium on Hair by Apollonius of Tyana also allows us to appreciate the rich symbolism inherent in Dio’s text. Despite its misleading title, the Encomium on Hair by Dio, therefore, should be considered less as a futile school exercise and more as a living document of the author’s personal life-story during the period of his so-called ‘exile’.