Ο Εύδοξος κατα την αρχαίαν βιογραφικήν παράδοσιν
Part of : Πλάτων : περιοδικό της Εταιρείας Ελλήνων Φιλολόγων ; Vol.53, No.1, 2003, pages 306-327
Issue:
Pages:
306-327
Parallel Title:
Eudoxus in the ancient biographical tradition
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Abstract:
According to Sotion of Alexandria, it was widely known that, during hisfirst visit to Athens, Eudoxus attended not only a course of lectures onrhetoric given by Alcidamas but also a course of lectures on mathematicsgiven by Theaetetus, who was working in collaboration with Plato. On theother hand, Strabo explained that, according to some authorities, Platoand Eudoxus together spent thirteen years in Egypt, because he waskeeping in mind that the number thirteen represented the intervalbetween the date of Plato's visit to Egypt (386 B.C.) and that of Eudoxus(373 B.C.). Far from being favourable to the tradition about the personalhostility between Plato and Eudoxus, which may go back to ApolloniusMolo, we consider that the tradition about the close friendship betweenPlato and Eudoxus, which may go back to Eratosthenes, is in line withEudoxus' approach to Pythagoreanism. Taking into account that Aristotlejoined the Academy «in the time of Eudoxus», we are of the opinion thatAristotle's entry coincided with Eudoxus' presence in Athens, which tookplace at the time of Diomedon's arrival in Delphi (368 B.C.), and we thinkthat Eudoxus never became «acting scholarch» of the Academy because henever merged his School into the Academy. Keeping in mind that, far frombeing a member of the Academy, Eudoxus was said to have been relatedto the Academy as a «disciple of the friends of Plato», we may concludethat Eudoxus was regarded as a Πλατωνικός because, during his secondvisit to Athens, his mathematical and astronomical researches resulted insome amazing discoveries.
