Chamaeleon (or Chameleon; grc-gre, Χαμαιλέων; c. 350 – c. 275 BC), was a
Peripatetic
Peripatetic may refer to:
*Peripatetic school, a school of philosophy in Ancient Greece
*Peripatetic axiom
* Peripatetic minority, a mobile population moving among settled populations offering a craft or trade.
*Peripatetic Jats
There are several ...
philosopher of
Heraclea Pontica
__NOTOC__
Heraclea Pontica (; gr, Ἡράκλεια Ποντική, Hērakleia Pontikē), known in Byzantine and later times as Pontoheraclea ( gr, Ποντοηράκλεια, Pontohērakleia), was an ancient city on the coast of Bithynia in Asi ...
. He was one of the immediate disciples of
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...
. He wrote works on several of the ancient Greek poets, namely:
*περὶ Ἀνακρέοντος - ''On
Anacreon
Anacreon (; grc-gre, Ἀνακρέων ὁ Τήϊος; BC) was a Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and erotic poems. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of Nine Lyric Poets. Anacreon wrote all of his poetry in the ...
''
*περὶ Σαπφοῦς - ''On
Sappho
Sappho (; el, Σαπφώ ''Sapphō'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her Greek lyric, lyric poetry, written to be sung while ...
''
*περὶ Σιμωνίδου - ''On
Simonides
Simonides of Ceos (; grc-gre, Σιμωνίδης ὁ Κεῖος; c. 556–468 BC) was a Greek lyric poet, born in Ioulis on Kea (island), Ceos. The scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria included him in the canonical list of the nine lyric p ...
''
*περὶ Θεσπίδος - ''On
Thespis
Thespis (; grc-gre, Θέσπις; fl. 6th century BC) was an Ancient Greek poet. He was born in the ancient city of Icarius (present-day Dionysos, Greece). According to certain Ancient Greek sources and especially Aristotle, he was the first pe ...
''
*περὶ Αἰσχύλου - ''On
Aeschylus
Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...
''
*περὶ Λάσου - ''On
Lasus''
*περὶ Πινδάρου - ''On
Pindar
Pindar (; grc-gre, Πίνδαρος , ; la, Pindarus; ) was an Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian wrote, "Of the nine lyric poets, Pindar is ...
''
*περὶ Στησιχόρου - ''On
Stesichorus
Stesichorus (; grc-gre, Στησίχορος, ''Stēsichoros''; c. 630 – 555 BC) was a Greek lyric poet native of today's Calabria (Southern Italy). He is best known for telling epic stories in lyric metres, and for some ancient traditions abou ...
''
He also wrote on the
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odysse ...
, and on Comedy (περὶ κωμῳδίας). In this last work he treated, among other subjects, of the dances of comedy. This work is quoted by
Athenaeus
Athenaeus of Naucratis (; grc, Ἀθήναιος ὁ Nαυκρατίτης or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; la, Athenaeus Naucratita) was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourishing about the end of th ...
by the title περὶ τῆς ἀρχαίας κωμῳδίας, which is also the title of a work by the Peripatetic philosopher
Eumelus Eumelus ( grc, Εὔμηλος ''Eúmēlos'' means "rich in sheep") was the name of:
''Mythology''
*Eumelus ( Gadeirus), the younger twin brother of Atlas in Plato's myth of Atlantis, and the son of Poseidon and Cleito, daughter of the autocht ...
. It would seem also that he wrote on
Hesiod
Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet i ...
, for
Diogenes Laërtius
Diogenes Laërtius ( ; grc-gre, Διογένης Λαέρτιος, ; ) was a biographer of the Ancient Greece, Greek philosophers. Nothing is definitively known about his life, but his surviving ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a ...
says, that Chamaeleon accused
Heraclides Ponticus
Heraclides Ponticus ( grc-gre, Ἡρακλείδης ὁ Ποντικός ''Herakleides''; c. 390 BC – c. 310 BC) was a Greek philosopher and astronomer who was born in Heraclea Pontica, now Karadeniz Ereğli, Turkey, and migrated to Athens. He ...
of having stolen from him his work concerning Homer and Hesiod.
[Diogenes Laërtius]
v. 6. § 92
The above works were probably both biographical and critical. He also wrote works entitled περὶ θεῶν, and περὶ σατύρων, and some moral treatises, περι ἡδονῆς (which was also ascribed to
Theophrastus
Theophrastus (; grc-gre, Θεόφραστος ; c. 371c. 287 BC), a Greek philosopher and the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He was a native of Eresos in Lesbos.Gavin Hardy and Laurence Totelin, ''Ancient Botany'', Routledge ...
), προτρεπικόν, and περι μέθης (on Drunkenness). Of all his works only a few fragments are preserved by Athenaeus and other ancient writers.
Notes
References
* Martano, A., Matelli, E., Mirhady, D. (eds.), ''Praxiphanes of Mytilene and Chamaeleon of Eraclea'', New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2012 (RUSCH XVIII).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chamaeleon
3rd-century BC Greek people
4th-century BC writers
4th-century BC philosophers
4th-century BC births
3rd-century BC deaths
Ancient Greek writers
Ancient Pontic Greeks
Hellenistic-era philosophers from Anatolia
People from Bithynia
Peripatetic philosophers