Ariston of Athens

Ariston of Collytus (Greek: Ἀρίστων; died c. 424 BC), was the father of the Greek philosopher Plato (originally named Aristocles). Legend holds that he was descended from Codrus, the ancient king of Athens.[1] Diogenes Laërtius on the authority of Speusippus and others, relates a story that "Ariston made violent love to Perictione, then in her bloom, and failed to win her; and that, when he ceased to offer violence, Apollo appeared to him in a dream, whereupon he left her unmolested until her child was born."[2] Ariston died when Plato was still a boy, and his mother Perictione remarried Pyrilampes, a friend of the Athenian politician Pericles.[3]

Ariston had three other children by Perictione: Glaucon, Adeimantus, and Potone.[4]

Notes

  1. Diogenes Laërtius, iii. 1
  2. Diogenes Laërtius, iii. 2
  3. Plato, The Republic, Trans. G.M.A. Grube, Cambridge: Hackett, 1992. viii
  4. Diogenes Laërtius, iii. 4

References

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