Talk:Arimneste

Any WP:SIGCOV beyond a trivial mention?

did a brief check, couldn't find anything. we should probably redirect this to aristotle and merge in a few words about Aristotle having a sister if there isn't any analysis beyond what's in Diogenes Laertius - car chasm (talk) 22:57, 13 September 2022 (UTC)

Aristotle's sister Armineste had a significant impact on the philosopher's life.

I have good familiarity with the important biographies of Aristotle in the English language so I can recommend Anton-Hermann Chroust's study, Aristotle; New light on his life and on some of his lost works as the work with the most thorough investigation of Aristotle's genealogy and family. In it, Chroust mentions Arimneste dozens of times in several different contexts, among them including the evidence that she was considerably older than Aristotle and was married twice, first to an Olynthian, either Demotimus (elsewhere also spelled Damotimos) or possibly a Callisthenes, by whom she became the mother of a daughter, Hero, who was to become the mother of the prominent historian Callisthenes, a student and colleague of his great uncle Aristotle and official historian to Alexander the Great until caught up in Alexander's (possibly paranoid) enmity. After the death of Hero's father, Arimneste married Proxenus, a native of Atarneus in Asia Minor who may have been instrumental in introducing Aristotle and his Academic companions to Hermias of Atarneus who became a Platonist himself and who, after Plato's death, sponsored an "Academy East" in the city of Assos opposite the island of Lesbos, where Aristotle, Xenocrates, and other Academics taught. Proxenus settled in Armineste's native city of Stagira where, on the death of Aristotle's and Armineste's father Nicomachus, they adopted or foster-parented Aristotle and raised him until he left to study with Plato at age seventeen in 367 BC. Around this time they parented Nicanor of Stagira, who as a teen was adopted by Aristotle — still with Plato in Athens — after the deaths of Arimneste and Proxenus, possibly in 349 BC in Philip II's sack of Stagira. Nicanor — Arimneste's son and Aristotle's nephew — studied with Aristotle (as well as Arimneste's grandson Callisthenes) in Assos and later in Mieza in Macedonia at the school Aristotle opened for the purpose of educating Philip II's son Alexander and his companions in the principles of just rule. Nicanor would go on to serve under Alexander, was trusted to carry Alexander's Exiles Decree and Divine Honors decree to Olympia, and after Aristotle's death became husband of Aristotle's daughter Pythias and continued his military career.

At this time in Greece, the education of a boy until the age of seven or eight was the duty of his mother and thus, most of the character lessons a boy would absorb would be through his mother's civilizing influence. Chroust (p. 78) summarizes the importance of this notable sister-brother relationship:

"In his last will and testament, Aristotle also provides that the executors 'shall see to it that the image . . . of Nicanor's mother [Arimneste], executed by Gryllion, shall be set up.' By this generous gesture the testator gratefully remembers not only his departed sister, but apparently also honors his former 'foster mother' to whom he must have been greatly attached. Moreover, in his last will Aristotle makes some very magnanimous provisions for Nicanor, the son of Proxenus and Arimneste, thus commemorating also his 'foster parents.' "

The brackets are Chroust's. I stay with Chroust's spellings above, though I generally prefer Greek transliterations to his Romanizations. I will try to reference/cite this material and add it to the article when I have the time. Meanwhile let us acknowledge that the mothers — and sometimes sisters — of great achievers may also be notable in their contributions to civilization. Blanchette (talk) 01:10, 7 December 2022 (UTC)