Proxenus of Atarneus ( el, Πρόξενος ὁ Ἀταρνεύς) is most famous for being
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ...
's guardian after the death of his parents. Proxenus educated Aristotle for a couple of years before sending him to Athens to
Plato's Academy. He lived in
Atarneus
Atarneus (; grc, Ἀταρνεύς), also known as Atarna (Ἄταρνα) and Atarneites (Ἀταρνείτης), was an ancient Greek city in the region of Aeolis, Asia Minor. It lies on the mainland opposite the island of Lesbos. It was on the ...
, a city in Asia Minor.
Proxenus had married Aristotle's older sister
Arimneste
Arimneste ( grc, Ἀριμνήστη) was the daughter of Nicomachus and Phaestis, and Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Clas ...
, whereby they had a daughter Hero and a son Nicanor. Hero's own son,
Callisthenes, would later become a student and collaborator with his great-uncle Aristotle. Nicanor eventually married Aristotle's daughter,
Pythias
Pythias (; el, Πυθιάς, translit=Pūthiás), also known as Pythias the Elder, was a Greek biologist and embryologist. She was the adoptive daughter of Hermias of Atarneus, as well as Aristotle's first wife.
Personal life and family
Whils ...
.
References
*
Diogenes Laërtius
Diogenes Laërtius ( ; grc-gre, Διογένης Λαέρτιος, ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is definitively known about his life, but his surviving ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal sour ...
, ''Life of Aristotle''. ''Translated b
C.D. Yonge'.
* Eduard Zeller, ''Aristotle and the Earlier Peripatetics'' (1897).
4th-century BC Athenians
Aristotle