Onesikritos

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Onesikritos ( ancient Greek Ὀνησίκριτος Onēsíkritos , Latinized Onesicritus ; * in the 4th century BC ; † in the 4th or 3rd century BC ) from Astypalea was a Greek historian . He wrote a biography of Alexander the Great that has only survived in fragments . As a philosopher he was a cynic .

Life

Onesikritus was a pupil of Diogenes von Sinope and, at an advanced age, took part in the Alexander procession in the retinue of Alexander the great . Alexander is said to have him 326 BC In India to hold a conference with the gymnosophists . When the fleet built on the Hydaspes river started its return voyage, Onesikritos (who probably also had seafaring experience) served first as helmsman, then as chief helmsman under the command of Nearchus , with some tensions between the two. How long he lived after the Alexander campaign is unknown.

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Onesikritos wrote a biography of Alexander (πῶς Ἀλέξανδρος ἤχθη, How Alexander grew up ), which in addition to the historical details also contained descriptions of the countries visited, especially India. After the death of Alexander Onesikritus completed his work at the court of Lysimachus , King of Thrace . The reliability of the work, which has only been preserved in fragments, is considered to be low. Strabo especially criticized Onesikritos for his hymns of praise, exaggerations and for his penchant for the fantastic. Through Clitarchus we know that Onesikritos also founded the myth of an encounter between Alexander and the Queen of the Amazons . Strictly speaking, the work is not to be regarded as a historical work, but rather as a kind of historical novel. His periplus (description of the coasts of India) was probably part of his work and was also used by Pliny the Elder .

Onesikritos was a student of the Cynical philosopher Diogenes of Sinope and is counted among the Cynics by the ancient historian of philosophy Diogenes Laertios . The surviving fragments of Alexander's biography also show that he was influenced by Cynical ideas. For example, the way of life of the gymnosophists and of the people in the land of the musician on the lower Indus - as Onesikritos describes them - bears clear features of the way of life propagated by the Cynics. For example, they are said to have renounced luxury and lived in asceticism.

Text editions, source collections, translations

Original texts (fragments and testimonies)

translation

literature

  • Truesdell S. Brown: Onesicritus. A study in Hellenistic historiography . University of California Press, Berkeley 1949; Reprinted by Kraus Reprint, Millwood (NY) 1974.
  • Marie-Odile Goulet-Cazé: Onésicrite d'A Typalaea. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques . Volume 4, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-271-06386-8 , pp. 776-780.
  • Klaus Meister : The Greek historiography . Stuttgart 1990, pp. 108-110.
  • Marek Winiarczyk: The Hellenistic Utopias (= contributions to antiquity . Volume 293). De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2011, ISBN 978-3-11-026381-7 , pp. 73-115.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Diogenes Laertios, Lives and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 6,84; Strabon, geography 15,1,65; Plutarch , De Alexandri Magni fortuna aut virtute oratio 331e.
  2. ↑ Diogenes Laertios, Lives and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 6:84.
  3. ^ Klaus Döring : Onesikritos . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy . The philosophy of antiquity , Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 295–296.
personal data
SURNAME Onesikritos
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Onesicritus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek writer
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 4th century BC BC or 3rd century BC Chr.