Menedemus

Menedemus of Eretria (Ancient Greek: Μενέδημος ὁ Ἐρετριεύς; 345/44 – 261/60 BC¹) was a Greek philosopher and founder of the Eretrian school.² He learned philosophy first in Athens, and then, with his friend Asclepiades, he subsequently studied under Stilpo and Phaedo of Elis. Nothing survives of his philosophical views apart from a few scattered remarks recorded by later writers.

Life

Menedemus was born at Eretria. He was a member of the noble Theopropidai family, which held significant religious authority but had become impoverished by Menedemus's time. Like his father, Cleisthenes, he worked as a builder and tent maker.

In the course of military conflicts (probably 323/322 BC, during the Lamian War) he was sent with a military expedition to Megara, from where he traveled to the Platonic Academy in Athens and resolved to devote himself to philosophy.³ At Megara he formed a lifelong friendship with Asclepiades of Phlius, with whom he toiled in the night that he might study philosophy by day.⁴ Later, Asclepiades and Menedemus went to Elis and became students of the philosophical descendants of Phaedo of Elis, namely Anchipylus and Moschus. He was subsequently a pupil first of Stilpo and then of, whose school he transferred to Eretria, by which name it was afterward known.² Around 310 BC, and Menedemus visited in , where they stayed at the court of .