Aristippus

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Aristippus

Aristippus of Cyrene

Cyrene

Cyrene may refer to:* Cyrene , a Greek mythological figure* Cyrene, Libya, an ancient Greek colony in North Africa* The USS Cyrene , a motor torpedo boat tender...
, (c. 435-c. 356 BCE), was the founder of the Cyrenaic school

Cyrenaics

The Cyrenaics were an ultra-hedonist Greek school of philosophy founded in the 4th century BC, supposedly by Aristippus of Cyrene, although many of the principles of the school are believed to have been formalized by his grandson of the same name, Aristippus the Younger....
of Philosophy. He was a pupil of Socrates

Socrates

Socrates was a Classical Greece Philosophy. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known only through the classical accounts of his students....
, but adopted a very different philosophical outlook, teaching that the goal of life was to seek pleasure by adapting circumstances to oneself by maintaining proper control over both adversity and prosperity.

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Aristippus of Cyrene

Cyrene

Cyrenaics

Socrates

Arete of Cyrene

Arete of Cyrene was the daughter of Aristippus of Cyrene, a follower of Socrates. Arete is sometimes described as the successor of her father as head of the Cyrenaic school, but in fact it is not known whether Aristippus himself or his grandson – Aristippus the Younger – was the founder of that school....
.

Life

Aristippus, the son of Aritades, was born at Cyrene

Cyrene

Cyrene may refer to:* Cyrene , a Greek mythological figure* Cyrene, Libya, an ancient Greek colony in North Africa* The USS Cyrene , a motor torpedo boat tender...
, c. 435 BCE. He came over to Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
to be present at the Olympic games

Ancient Olympic Games

The Ancient Olympic Games, originally referred to as simply the Olympic Games were a series of athletic competitions held for representatives of various city-states of Ancient Greece....
, where he fell in with Ischomachus the agriculturist, and by his description was filled with so ardent a desire to see Socrates

Socrates

Socrates was a Classical Greece Philosophy. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known only through the classical accounts of his students....
, that he went to Athens for the purpose, and remained with him almost up to the time of his execution, 399 BCE. Diodorus

Diodorus Siculus

Diodorus Siculus , was a Roman Greece historian who flourished in the 1st century BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agira in Sicily ....
dates him to 366 BCE, which agrees very well with the facts which we know about him, and with the statement, that Lais

Lais of Corinth

Lais of Corinth was a legendary hetaera or courtesan of ancient Greece who was probably born in Corinth. Another hetaera with the same name was Lais of Hyccara....
, the courtesan with whom he was intimate, was born 421 BCE.

Though a disciple of Socrates, he wandered very far both in principle and practice from the teaching and example of his great master. He lived luxuriously; he was happy to seek sensual gratification, and the company of the notorious Lais; he took money for his teaching, and told Socrates that he resided in a foreign land in order to escape the trouble of involving himself in the politics of his native city. He passed part of his life at the court of Dionysius I of Syracuse

Dionysius I of Syracuse

Dionysius I or Dionysius the Elder , tyrant of Syracuse, Italy, conquered several cities in Sicily and southern Italy, opposed Carthage's influence in Sicily and made Syracuse the most powerful of the Western Ancient Greece colonies....
or Dionysius the Younger, and is also said to have been taken prisoner by Artaphernes

Artaphernes

Artaphrenes, was the brother of Darius I of Persia, and satrap of Sardis.It was he who received the embassy from Athens sent probably by Cleisthenes in 497 BC, and subsequently warned the Athenians to receive back the tyrant Hippias ....
, the satrap who drove the Spartans from Rhodes

Rhodes

Rhodes is a Greece List of islands of Greece approximately southwest of Turkey in eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007 of which 53,709 resided in the Rhodes capital city of the island....
, 396 BCE. He appears, however, at last to have returned to Cyrene, and there he spent his old age.

Philosophy

The anecdotes which are told of him, and of which we find lots in Diogenes Laërtius

Diogenes Laertius

Diogenes La?rtius , the biographer of the Greece philosophers, is supposed by some to have received his surname from the town of Laerte in Cilicia, Asia Minor, and by others from the Roman Empire family of the La?rtii....
, by no means give us the notion of a person who was the mere slave of his passions, but rather of one who took a pride in extracting enjoyment from all circumstances of every kind, and in controlling adversity and prosperity alike. They illustrate and confirm the two statements of Horace

Horace

This article is about the Roman poet Horace. For other uses, see Horace .Quintus Horatius Flaccus, , known in the English language world as Horace, was the leading Roman Empire Lyric poetry during the time of Augustus....
, that to observe the precepts of Aristippus is "to endeavour to adapt circumstances to myself, not myself to circumstances" and that, "every complexion of life, every station and circumstance sat gracefully upon him." Thus when reproached for his love of bodily indulgences, he answered, that there was no shame in enjoying them, but that it would be disgraceful if he could not at any time give them up. When Dionysius, provoked at some of his remarks, ordered him to take the lowest place at table, he said, "You wish to dignify the seat." Whether he was prisoner to a satrap, or grossly insulted and even spit upon by a tyrant, or enjoying the pleasures of a banquet, or reviled for faithlessness to Socrates by his fellow-pupils, he maintained the same calm temper. He seemed insulting to Xenophon

Xenophon

Xenophon , son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens and Xenophon of Thebes, was a soldier, mercenary and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates....
and Plato

Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greece Greeks philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Platonic Academy in Ancient Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world....
, as we see from the Memorabilia
Memorabilia (Xenophon)

The Memorabilia are also known by the alternate Latin title Commentarii, the Greek title Apomnemoneumata , and a variety of English translations ....
, where he maintains a discussion against Socrates in defence of voluptuous enjoyment, and from the Phaedo
Phaedo

Plato's Phaedo is one of the great dialogues of his middle period, along with the Republic and the Symposium . The Phaedo, which depicts the death of Socrates, is also Plato's fourth and last dialogue to detail the philosopher's final days....
, where his absence at the death of Socrates, though he was only at Aegina

Aegina

Aegina is one of the Greek islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, 17 miles from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina, the mother of Aeacus, who was born in and ruled the island....
, 200 stadia

Stadia

Stadium or stadion has the plural stadia in both Latin and Greek. Stadia refers to a unit of length, the Ancient_Greek_units_of_measurement#Length....
from Athens, is doubtless mentioned as a reproach. Aristotle, too, calls him a sophist, and notices a story of Plato speaking to him, with rather undue vehemence, and of his replying with calmness.

He imparted his doctrine to his daughter Arete

Arete of Cyrene

Aristippus the Younger

Aristippus the Younger, of Cyrene, was the grandson of Aristippus of Cyrene, and is widely believed to have formalized the principles of Cyrenaic philosophy....
, and by him it was said to have been reduced to a system. Diogenes Laërtius, on the authority of Sotion

Sotion

Sotion of Alexandria was a Greek doxographer and biographer, and an important source for Diogenes Laertius. None of his works survive; they are known only indirectly....
and Panaetius

Panaetius

Panaetius of Rhodes, , was a Stoic philosopher. He was a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon and Antipater of Tarsus in Athens, before travelling with his friend Scipio Aemilianus Africanus to Rome where he did much to introduce Stoic doctrines to the city....
, gives a long list of books whose authorship is ascribed to Aristippus, though he also says that Sosicrates

Sosicrates

Sosicrates of Rhodes was a Greeks history writer. Sosicrates was born on the island Rhodes and is noted, chiefly, for his frequent mention by Diogenes La?rtius in his Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers ? referencing Sosicrates as the sole authority behind such facts as Aristippus having written nothing....
of Rhodes states that he wrote nothing. Some letters attributed to him are forgeries.

In Book VI of De architectura

De architectura

File:De Architectura027.jpg is a treatise on architecture written by the Ancient Rome architect Vitruvius and dedicated to his patron, the emperor Caesar Augustus as a guide for Caesar Augustus#Building projects....
, Vitruvius

Vitruvius

File:Vitruvius.jpgMarcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Ancient Rome writer, architect and engineer , active in the 1st century BC. By his own description Vitruvius served as a Ballista , the third class of arms in the military offices....
describes one of Aristippus writings:

It is related of the Socratic
Socratic

Socratic may refer to:*Socrates*Socratic method*Socratic ...
philosopher Aristippus that, being shipwrecked and cast ashore on the coast of the Rhodians, he observed geometrical figures drawn thereon, and cried out to his companions: "Let us be of good cheer, for I see the traces of man." With that he made for the city of Rhodes, and went straight to the gymnasium
Gymnasium (ancient Greece)

The gymnasium in ancient Greece functioned as a training facility for competitors in public games. It was also a place for socializing and engaging in intellectual pursuits....
. There he fell to discussing philosophical subjects, and presents were bestowed upon him, so that he could not only fit himself out, but could also provide those who accompanied him with clothing and all other necessaries of life. When his companions wished to return to their country, and asked him what message he wished them to carry home, he bade them say this: that children ought to be provided with property and resources of a kind that could swim with them even out of a shipwreck.

Sources

External links

Diogenes Laërtius,