Aristoxenus of Cyrene
Aristoxenus (Ancient Greek: Ἀριστόξενος) was a philosopher of ancient Greece who followed the peripatetic school. He was ostensibly from Cyrene, Libya, though some scholars doubt whether he was in fact from there, and wonder whether his name instead indicates he followed the philosophical school of the Cyrenaics.[1] He wrote a number of works mentioned by the writer Diogenes Laërtius, including a work called On Pythagoras and his school and a biography of the philosopher Plato.[2]
He was somewhat infamous for his love of luxury and gluttony, from which he was given the epithet of kolein (κωλήν), which may have meant "leggy" or "haunches" or "hams", and the writer Athenaeus relates that there was in fact a kind of ham called an "Aristoxenus" named after him.[3][4]
Of his time, we know only that he lived in or before the second century CE.
References[edit]
- ^ Lampe, Kurt (2017). The Birth of Hedonism: The Cyrenaic Philosophers and Pleasure as a Way of Life. Princeton University Press. p. 20. ISBN 9780691176383. Retrieved 2023-04-23.
- ^ Curnow, Trevor (2006). "Aristoxenus of Cyrene". The Philosophers of the Ancient World: An A-Z Guide. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 48. ISBN 9780715634974. Retrieved 2023-04-23.
- ^ Athenaeus. Deipnosophistae. p. 1.7. Retrieved 2023-04-23.
Aristoxenus, the Cyrenaic philosopher, practiced literally the system of philosophy which arose in his country, and from him a kind of ham specially prepared is called Aristoxenus; in his excess of luxury he used to water the lettuce in his garden at evening with wine and honey, and taking them up in the morning used to say that they were blanched cakes produced by the earth for him.
- ^ Suda Ἀριστόξενος
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Schmitz, Leonhard (1870). "Aristoxenus(2)". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. p. 345.