Aristaenetus () was an

ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

epistolographer who flourished in the 5th or 6th century. Under his name, two books of love stories, in the form of letters, are extant; the subjects are borrowed from the

erotic Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, sculp ...

elegies of such

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

n writers as

Callimachus Callimachus (; ; ) was an ancient Greek poet, scholar, and librarian who was active in Alexandria during the 3rd century BC. A representative of Ancient Greek literature of the Hellenistic period, he wrote over 800 literary works, most of which ...

, and the language is a patchwork of phrases from

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

Lucian Lucian of Samosata (Λουκιανὸς ὁ Σαμοσατεύς, 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridi ...

, Alciphron and others.

Texts

* Boissonade (1822);

Hercher Rudolf Hercher (; 11 January 182126 March 1878) was a Germans, German classical philologist, who worked as a grammar school teacher in Rudolstadt (1847–1859) and Berlin (1861–1878). He is especially known for his conjecture, textual criticism ...

, ''Epistolographi Graeci'' (1873). *English translations:

Abel Boyer Abel Boyer (1667? – 16 November 1729) was a French-English lexicographer, journalist and miscellaneous writer. Biography Abel Boyer was probably born on 24 June 1667 at Castres, in Upper Languedoc, southern France. His father, Pierre Boyer, o ...

(1701); Thomas Brown (1715); R. B. Sheridan and Nathaniel Halhed (1771 and later).

References

External links

The Love Epistles of Aristænetus
1771 Translated by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 1751-1816 *''Epistolographi graeci'', R. Hercher (ed.), Parisiis, editore Ambrosio Firmin Didot, 1873
pp. 133-171
5th-century Byzantine writers 6th-century Byzantine writers Ancient Greek letter writers {{Byzantine-bio-stub