Arete of Cyrene

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arete of Cyrene (fl. 4th century BCE) was the daughter of Aristippus of Cyrene, a follower of Socrates. Arete is sometimes described as the successor of her father as head of the Cyrenaic school, but in fact it is not known whether Aristippus himself or his grandson – also called Aristippus of Cyrene – was the founder of that school. In any case, there is no reason to reject the suggestion that Arete was a philosopher in her own right. Her son was nicknamed "Mother-taught", evidently because his best philosophical teacher was Arete.