Aristoxenus biography channel

4th century BC Greek Peripatetic philosopher

For other people named Aristoxenus, see Aristoxenus (disambiguation).

Aristoxenus of Tarentum (Greek: Ἀριστόξενοςὁ Ταραντῖνος; born c. 375, fl. 335 BC) was a GreekPeripateticphilosopher, and a pupil of Aristotle.

Most of his writings, which dealt with philosophy, ethics and music, have been lost, but one musical treatise, Elements of Harmony (Greek: Ἁρμονικὰ στοιχεῖα; Latin: Elementa harmonica), survives incomplete, as well as some fragments concerning rhythm and meter. The Elements is the chief source of our knowledge of ancient Greek music.^[1]

Life

Aristoxenus was born at Tarentum (in modern-day Apulia, southern Italy) in Magna Graecia, and was the son of a learned musician named Spintharus (otherwise Mnesias).^[2] He learned music from his father, and having then been instructed by Lamprus of Erythrae and Xenophilus the Pythagorean, he finally became a pupil of Aristotle,^[3] w