Phaenias of Eresus (, ''Phainias''; also Phanias (Φανίας)) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

philosopher from

Lesbos Lesbos or Lesvos ( ) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of , with approximately of coastline, making it the third largest island in Greece and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, eighth largest ...

, important as an immediate follower of and commentator on

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

. He came to

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

about 332 BCE, and joined his compatriot,

Theophrastus Theophrastus (; ; c. 371 – c. 287 BC) was an ancient Greek Philosophy, philosopher and Natural history, naturalist. A native of Eresos in Lesbos, he was Aristotle's close colleague and successor as head of the Lyceum (classical), Lyceum, the ...

, in the

Peripatetic school The Peripatetic school ( ) was a philosophical school founded in 335 BC by Aristotle in the Lyceum in ancient Athens. It was an informal institution whose members conducted philosophical and scientific inquiries. The school fell into decline afte ...

. His writings on

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...

and science appear to have been commentaries or supplements to the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus. He also wrote extensively on history. His works have only survived in fragments quoted by other authors.

Life

Phaenias was born in

Eresos Eresos (; ; ) and its twin beach village Skala Eresou are located in the southwest part of the Greek island of Lesbos. They are villages visited by considerable numbers of tourists. From 1999 until 2010, Eresos and the village of Antissa const ...

. He was the friend and fellow-citizen of

, a letter of whose to Phaenias is mentioned by

Diogenes Laërtius Diogenes Laërtius ( ; , ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Little is definitively known about his life, but his surviving book ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal source for the history of ancient Greek ph ...

. He came to

around 332 BCE, and joined Theophrastus in the

. He was the most distinguished disciple of

, after Theophrastus. He wrote upon every department of philosophy, as it was studied by the Peripatetics, especially

botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

, history, and literature.

Philosophy

Logic

We have little information concerning his works on

. He seems to have written commentaries and supplements to the works of

, which eventually became eclipsed by the writings of the master himself. In a passage of Ammonius we are told that Eudemus, Phaenias, and

wrote, in emulation of their master, ''Categories'' and ''De Interpretatione'' and ''Analytics''. There is also an important passage respecting

ideas In philosophy and in common usage, an idea (from the Greek word: ἰδέα (idea), meaning 'a form, or a pattern') is the results of thought. Also in philosophy, ideas can also be mental representational images of some object. Many philosophe ...

, preserved by

Alexander of Aphrodisias Alexander of Aphrodisias (; AD) was a Peripatetic school, Peripatetic philosopher and the most celebrated of the Ancient Greek Commentaries on Aristotle, commentators on the writings of Aristotle. He was a native of Aphrodisias in Caria and liv ...

, from a work of Phaenias, ''Against

Diodorus Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (; 1st century BC) was an ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental universal history '' Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which survive intact, b ...

'', which may possibly be the same as the work ''Against the Sophists'', from which

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (, or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; ) was an ancient Greek rhetorician and Grammarian (Greco-Roman), grammarian, flourishing about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century ...

cites a criticism on certain musicians.

Natural history

A work ''On Plants'' is repeatedly quoted by Athenaeus, and frequently in connection with the work of Theophrastus on the same subject, to which, therefore, it may have been a supplement. The fragments quoted by Athenaeus are sufficient to give us some notion of the contents of the work and the style of the writer. He seems to have paid special attention to plants used in gardens and otherwise closely connected with

humans Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...

; and, in his style, we trace the exactness and the care about definitions which characterize the

History

Phaenias is spoken of by

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

, who quotes him as an authority, as "a philosopher well read in history." He wrote a sort of

chronicle A chronicle (, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events ...

called ''Prytaneis Eresioi'', the second book of which is quoted by Athenaeus. It was either a history of his native place or a general history of Greece arranged according to the period of the Eresian magistracy. He also concerned himself with the history of the

tyrants A tyrant (), in the modern English usage of the word, is an absolute ruler who is unrestrained by law, or one who has usurped a legitimate ruler's sovereignty. Often portrayed as cruel, tyrants may defend their positions by resorting to r ...

, upon which he wrote several works. One of these was called ''On the Tyrants in

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

''. Another was entitled ''On Killing Tyrants for Revenge'', in which he appears to have discussed further the question touched upon by Aristotle in his ''

Politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

''. We have several quotations from this work, and among them the story of

Antileon Antileon () was an ancient Greek author who wrote a work on chronology (Περὶ Χρόνων), the second book of which is referred to by Diogenes Laërtius. Whether he is the same person as the Antileon mentioned by Julius Pollux is uncertain.J ...

and Hipparinus who killed the tyrant of Herakleia.

Literature

Concerning literary history two works of Phaenias are mentioned. In ''On Poets'', which is quoted by Athenaeus, he seems to have paid particular attention to the Athenian musicians and comedians. ''On the Socratic philosophers'', is twice referred to by

. Phaenias of Eresus was also among the first to make systematic collections towards a Greek musical history. His treatise and others, now lost, were key sources for compilers in Imperial times, such as Athenaeus and pseudo-Plutarch, and ultimately supplied much material for the late

lexicon A lexicon (plural: lexicons, rarely lexica) is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Greek word () ...

s. "Such compilations reflect the Greek cosmopolitanism, with its more generalized forms of language, literature, art and music, which was the hallmark of the

Hellenistic age In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the Roma ...

."Franklin 2001

Notes

References

* Hellmann, Oliver & Mirhady, David (eds.). ''Phaenias of Eresus. Text, Translation and Discussion'', New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2015. (RUSCH XIX).
John Curtis Franklin, ''Dictionaries of music'' 2001
* {{Authority control 4th-century BC births 4th-century BC Greek philosophers Metic philosophers in Classical Athens Ancient Eresians Hellenistic-era philosophers in Athens Peripatetic philosophers Year of death unknown