Eudemus of Rhodes - Editor of Aristotle's Work

Editor of Aristotle's Work

Eudemus, Theophrastus, and other pupils of Aristotle took care that the intellectual heritage of their master after his death would remain accessible in a reliable form, by recording it in a long series of publications. These were based on Aristotle's writings, their own lecture notes, personal recollections, etcetera.

Thus one of Aristotle's writings is still called the Eudemian Ethics, probably because it was Eudemus who edited (though very lightly) this text. More important, Eudemus wrote a number of influential books that clarified Aristotle's works:

• Eudemus's Physics (Φυσικά) was a compact, and more didactical version of Aristotle's homonymous work.
• Eudemus wrote two or three books dealing with logics (Analytics and Categories (possibly the same book), and On discourse (Περι λεξεως)), which probably expounded Aristotle's ideas.
• Finally, a geometrical work, On the angle (Περὶ γωνίας).

A comparison between the Eudemus fragments and their corresponding parts in the works of Aristotle shows that Eudemus was a gifted teacher: he systematizes subject matter, leaves out digressions that distract from the main theme, adds specific examples to illustrate abstract statements, formulates in catching phrases, and occasionally inserts a joke to keep the reader attentive.