Theophrastus (redirected from Therophrasteus)

Theophrastus (thē'ōfrăs`təs) [Gr.,=divinely speaking], c.372–c.287 B.C., Greek philosopher, Aristotle's successor as head of the Peripatetics. The school flourished under his leadership. He wrote on many subjects, but his works on plants are perhaps the most important of his technical writings. His Characters, a series of sketches of various ethical types, provides a valuable picture of his time. It anticipates such studies as those by Sir Thomas Overbury, John Earle, and La Bruyère.

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Theophrastus

?372--?287 bc, Greek Peripatetic philosopher, noted esp for his Characters, a collection of sketches of moral types

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Theophrastus 

(“possessor of divine speech”; real name, Tyrtamos). Born circa 372 B.C. in Eresus, Lesbos; died circa 287 B.C. in Athens. Greek philosopher and natural scientist. One of history’s earliest botanists.

Theophrastus studied first with Plato and then with Aristotle. He was the author of A Manual of Rhetoric, which has not been preserved, and of Characters, a collection of 30 short sketches of character types, such as the flatterer and the idle talker. Characters has served as a model for many modern moralists.

WORKS

Les Caractères. Edited by O. Navarre. Paris, 1952.
In Russian translation:
Issledovanie o rasteniiakh. Moscow, 1951.
In [Menander] Komedii [Herodas] Mimiamby. Moscow, 1964.

REFERENCE

Stroux, J. De Theophrasti virtutibus dicendi. Leipzig-Berlin, 1907.