Menedemus of Eretria

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The man on the left has been identified as Menedemos by some researchers. Roman wall painting between 40 BC. And 79 in the Villa Boscoreale , today in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples .

Menedemos of Eretria ( ancient Greek Μενέδημος Menédēmos , Latinized Menedemus ; * between 350 and 345 BC in Eretria ; † between 265 and 260 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher . Occasionally he is assigned to the Elish-Eretrian school .

If Menedemos wrote the writings, they are lost; Extensive testimony (ancient accounts) about the life of Menedemus have been preserved, but only a few about his teaching.

Lore

A comprehensive report on Menedemos can be found in Diogenes Laertios , who is based, among other things, on the lost biography of Menedemos Antigonos by Karystos . Further sources are Plutarch , Athenaios , Simplikios and Lycophron from Chalkis .

Life

Menedemos' dates of life are roughly known. According to Diogenes Laertios, he died at the age of 84 (the earlier reading 74 instead of 84 is probably wrong). Since he was in the second half of the 260s BC. Died, he must have been born between 350 and 345.

He came from a noble but impoverished family. Like his father Kleisthenes, he learned the trades as a builder and set painter. In the course of military conflicts (probably 323/322 BC, during the Lamian War ) he came to Megara , where he and his older friend Asklepiades von Phleius became pupils of the Megarian philosopher Stilpon . In addition, he visited Athens and heard Xenocrates in the Platonic Academy (a misinformation is the alleged encounter with Plato himself). Later, Asklepiades and Menedemus went to Elis and became students of the philosophical descendants of Phaedo of Elis , namely Anchipylos and Moschos . Before 311/310 the two also visited Salamis , where they were staying at the court of Nikokreon . Since about 300 BC BC Menedemus began to occupy an important position within the political life of Eretria. He is said to have campaigned for the independence of Eretria, which was not one of the great powers of the time, and accompanied numerous embassies to other Greek cities. So he used to have a close relationship with Antigonus II Gonatas ; an inscription was found at Delphi , which testifies that he was in the years 274/273 and 268 BC. Held the function of a hieromic neon. When he was accused of treason by his fellow citizens, he went first to Oropos , then to Antigonos Gonatas in Pella . There he is said to be desperate and possibly even starved to death.

If Diogenes Laertios 'statements are correct, Menedemos' family relationships were not uncomplicated. He is said to have married the mother of the wife of his older friend Asklepiades. When Asklepiades' wife died, he is said to have left his wife to him and married a richer one, with whom he had three daughters. His first wife continued to run the household. Menedemus was friends with the poets Aratos from Soloi , Lycophron from Chalkis and Antagoras . Diogenes Laertios mentions Dionysius of Herakleia , Antigonos Gonatas and a woman of unknown name as possible pupils of Menedemus . Whether and to what extent one can speak of Menedemos belonging to a school is dealt with in the article Elisch-Eretrische Schule.

According to a hypothesis by Jean Bousquet, Menedemos invented a kind of tachygraph .

Teaching

In Diogenes Laertios one can read that Menedemus did not write any writings and did not represent a set doctrine (that he was a Platonist is misinformation), but that he was a belligerent debater.

ethics

Like Euclid of Megara , Menedemus was of the opinion - as Plutarch reports - that there is only one good ( agathón ) and only one virtue ( aretḗ ). What one denotes the various virtues and individual goods are only numbers for the one virtue and the one good. According to Cicero , he meant that this one good "is based on thinking and in the sharpness of thinking with which the true is recognized."

logic

According to Diogenes Laertios, Menedemus canceled the negative statements and replaced them with affirmative ones. Of the affirmative statements he only accepted the simple ones ( aplá ) and canceled the not simple ones . According to Simplikios, he is said to have taken over from Stilpon the view that only identity statements are valid, that one shouldn't say anything about something else.

In general, Klaus Döring assumes that Menedemos did not really take dialectics (today, for example, the discipline of logic ) seriously, but played his game with it.

Portraits

On a Roman wall painting dating between 40 BC. And was painted in the Villa Boscoreale in 79, an old man, interpreted as a philosopher, can be seen leaning on a stick and looking at Antigonos Gonatas and his mother Phila . Because of Menedemos' close relationship with Antigonus, this man has been identified with Menedemos by some researchers. Others, however, see Epicurus or Zeno represented by Kition . The painting is now in the Naples National Archaeological Museum.

Charles Picard then tried to identify a similar looking man on a silver cup from Berthouville (see: Treasure of Berthouville ) as Menedemos. The cup is now kept in the Cabinet des Médailles of the French National Library.

Source collections

  • Gabriele Giannantoni (Ed.): Socratis et Socraticorum Reliquiae. Volume 1, Bibliopolis, Naples 1990, pp. 503-518 (= Section III-F, online )
  • Basil A. Kyrkos: Ho Menédēmos kaì hḗ Eretrikḕ schlḗ , Hetaireia Euboïkōn Spudōn, Athens 1980 (testimonies to Menedemos and his successors)
  • Denis Knoepfler: La vie de Ménédème d'Éritrie de Diogène Laërce. Contributions à l'histoire et à la critique du texte des vies des philosophes , Reinhardt, Basel 1991 (new edition of Diogenes Laertios' report including an analysis of the traditional findings)

literature

Remarks

  1. ^ Klaus Döring: Phaedo from Elis and Menedemos from Eretria . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity , Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 238–245, here: pp. 241–242.
  2. ↑ See Denis Knoepfler: La vie de Ménédème d'Éritrie de Diogène Laërce. Contributions à l'histoire et à la critique du texte des vies des philosophes , Reinhardt, Basel 1991, pp. 16-18.
  3. ^ Corpus des inscriptions de Delphes , Volume 2, Paris 1989, Numbers 124 and 129B.
  4. ↑ The biographical section is based on Klaus Döring ( Phaidon from Elis and Menedemos from Eretria . In: Hellmut Flashar (Ed.): Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie. Die Philosophie der Antike , Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, p. 238–245, here: pp. 242–243), who bases his report on Diogenes Laertios ( On the life and teachings of famous philosophers 2,125–144).
  5. ^ Jean Bousquet: L'inscription sténographique de Delphes . In: Bulletin de Correspondance hellénique , number 80, 1956, pp. 20-32.
  6. ↑ Diogenes Laertios, On the Lives and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 2,136.
  7. ↑ Plutarch, De virtute morali 440e
  8. ^ Cicero, Lucullus sive Academicorum priorum liber 2 129.
  9. ^ Klaus Döring: Phaedo from Elis and Menedemos from Eretria . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity , Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 238–245, here: p. 245.
  10. ↑ Diogenes Laertios, On the Lives and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 2,135.
  11. ↑ Simplikios, In Aristotelis physicorum 91: 28-91, 31.
  12. ^ Klaus Döring: Phaedo from Elis and Menedemos from Eretria . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity , Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 238–245, here: p. 244.
  13. ↑ Particularly emphatically Karl Schefold: The portraits of ancient poets, speakers and thinkers , 2nd edition, Schwabe, Basel 1997, p. 260.
  14. ↑ a b Klaus Döring: Phaidon from Elis and Menedemos from Eretria . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity , Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 238–245, here: p. 242.
  15. ↑ Charles Picard, Un cénacle littéraire hellénistique sur deux vases d'argent du trésor de Berthouville-Bernay . In: Monuments et Mémoires par l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres , number 44, 1950, pp. 53–82, here: pp. 67–76.
personal data
SURNAME Menedemus of Eretria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH around 350 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH around 278 BC Chr.