Aristotle

48 works in the library, 7 with an English translation.

Greek philosopher, born at Stageira. From Wikidata; Wikipedia.

Lived: 4th c. BC
Kinds of writing: Philosophy (23), Physics (7), Biology (6), Medicine (4), Rhetoric (2), Epistolography, Engineering, Paradoxography
Dialect: Attic
Analysed: 1,115,839 words

The 48 works

First the work Aristotle is best known for; then the works here with a translation and the most familiar vocabulary: the fewest rare words to look up. That is vocabulary only; grammar, dialect and ideas may still be demanding.

Nicomachean EthicsἨθικὰ ΝικομάχειαStart hereEnglish81% common wordsAbout
Metaphysicsτὰ Μετὰ τὰ ΦυσικάStart hereEnglish85% common wordsAbout
Eudemian EthicsἨθικὰ ΕὐδήμειαStart hereEnglish82% common wordsAbout
Prior AnalyticsAnalytica prioraGreek only81% common wordsAbout
On the SoulDe animaGreek only81% common wordsAbout
Constitution of the AtheniansRes Publica AtheniensiumGreek only73% common wordsAbout
On Things HeardἘκ τοῦ περὶ ἀκουστῶνDe audibilibusGreek onlyAbout
On the HeavensDe caeloPhysicsGreek only82% common wordsAbout
CategoriesCategoriaeGreek only84% common wordsAbout
On ColoursΠερί χρωμάτωνDe coloribusPhysicsGreek only71% common wordsAbout
On Divination in SleepDe divinatione per somnumGreek onlyAbout
LettersEpistulaeEpistolographyGreek onlyAbout
On the Generation of AnimalsDe Generatione AnimaliumBiologyGreek only76% common wordsAbout
On Generation and CorruptionDe generatione et corruptionePhysicsGreek only80% common wordsAbout
History of AnimalsHistoria animaliumBiologyGreek only72% common wordsAbout
On the Progression of AnimalsDe animalium incessuBiologyGreek only82% common wordsAbout
On DreamsDe insomniisGreek only77% common wordsAbout
On InterpretationDe interpretationeGreek only85% common wordsAbout
On Youth and Old Age, On Life and DeathDe iuventute et senectute, De vita et morteMedicineGreek onlyAbout
On Indivisible LinesΠερὶ ἀτόμων γραμμῶνDe lineis insecabilibusGreek onlyAbout
On Length and Shortness of LifeDe longitudine et brevitate vitaeMedicineGreek onlyAbout
On the Motion of AnimalsDe animalium motioneBiologyGreek only77% common wordsAbout
Great EthicsMagna MoraliaGreek only83% common wordsAbout
MechanicsΜηχανικάMechanicaEngineeringGreek only76% common wordsAbout
On Memory and RecollectionDe memoria et reminiscentiaGreek only80% common wordsAbout
MeteorologyMeteorologicaPhysicsGreek only76% common wordsAbout
On Marvellous Things HeardΠερὶ θαυμασίων ἀκουσμάτωνMirabilium auscultationesParadoxographyGreek only70% common wordsAbout
EconomicsΟἰκονομικάEnglish75% common wordsAbout
On the Parts of AnimalsDe partibus animaliumBiologyGreek only76% common wordsAbout
PhysicsPhysicaPhysicsGreek only83% common wordsAbout
PhysiognomyΦυσιογνωμονικάPhysiognomonicaMedicineGreek only68% common wordsAbout
PoeticsΠερὶ ποιητικῆςRhetoricEnglish78% common wordsAbout
PoliticsΠολιτικάEnglish81% common wordsAbout
Problems᾿Αριστοτέλους φυσικά προβλήματα κατ᾿ εἶδος συναγώγηςProblemataGreek only73% common wordsAbout
On BreathingDe respirationeMedicineGreek only75% common wordsAbout
RhetoricῬητορικήRhetoricEnglish80% common wordsAbout
On PlantsΠερὶ φυτῶνDe plantisBiologyGreek only72% common wordsAbout
Sophistical RefutationsDe sophisticis elenchisGreek only83% common wordsAbout
On Sense and the SensibleDe sensu et sensibilibusGreek only79% common wordsAbout
On Sleep and WakingDe somno et vigiliaGreek only77% common wordsAbout
On BreathDe spirituPhysicsGreek only78% common wordsAbout
TopicsTopicaGreek only84% common wordsAbout
On Virtues and Vicesπερὶ Ἀρετῶν καὶ ΚακιῶνGreek onlyAbout
On the Positions and Names of the WindsἈνέμων θέσεις καὶ προσηγορίαιDe ventorum situ et nominibusGreek onlyAbout
On Xenophanes, Zeno and GorgiasΠερὶ Ξενοφάνους, περὶ Ζήνωνος, περὶ ΓοργίουDe Xenophane, de Zenone, de GorgiaGreek only88% common wordsAbout
Aristotelian DivisionsDivisiones AristoteleaeGreek onlyAbout
On the Soul (fragments of a version different from the usual one, from manuscript E)De anima (codicis E fragmenta recensionis a vulgata diversae)Greek only80% common wordsAbout
Physics (the other version)Physica (textus alter)PhysicsGreek only80% common wordsAbout

The road of the text

Follow the text from Aristotle's own day to the book in your hands. The gaps are the long silences between one mark and the next.

Before you read. Little numbers like ¹ are footnotes. Tap one and it jumps to the source at the bottom of the page, so you can check us. Ancient tradition / legend This is what ancient writers told; it may not be what happened. No label? Then the sources simply state it as fact.

The author
Copies
Print and editions

384 BCThe authorBorn at Stagira, in Chalcidice, in the first year of the 99th Olympiad by Apollodorus' count^1,2
about 17 years laterc. 367 BCThe authorJoins Plato's Academy at seventeen, and stays about twenty years^2,5
about 20 years laterc. 347 BCThe authorPlato dies; Aristotle leaves Athens, going to Hermias, and to Assos and Lesbos for research^2,5
about 4 years laterc. 343 BCThe authorGoes to the court of Philip of Macedon, to teach the young Alexander^3,5
about 8 years laterc. 335 BCThe authorBack in Athens, he lectures at the Lyceum for thirteen years^3,5
about 13 years later322 BCThe authorDies at Chalcis, aged about sixty-three, the year Demosthenes also died³
about 1,270 years laterc. AD 950CopiesThe Florence codex Laurentianus LXXXI.11 (Kb), the oldest surviving manuscript of the Nicomachean Ethics, is made in the 10th century¹¹
about 550 years laterc. 1495Print and editionsAldus Manutius prints the Greek Aristotle in five volumes at Venice (1495–98)¹⁵
about 13 years later1508Print and editionsThe Aldine press prints the Greek Poetics, inside an anthology called Rhetores graeci¹⁴
about 320 years later1831Print and editionsThe Berlin Academy's edition begins (1831–70); its page and column numbers, such as 1094a, are still the standard way to cite Aristotle⁶
60 years later1891Print and editionsFrederic Kenyon publishes the Constitution of the Athenians, from a papyrus bought in Egypt in 1890¹⁰

Life and work

Checked against sources · 30 September 2026

Diogenes Laertius gives the outline of Aristotle's life. He was born at Stagira (384–322 BC), the son of Nicomachus, who lived at the court of Amyntas, king of Macedon, as physician and friend.¹ By Apollodorus' chronology he joined Plato at seventeen and stayed with him twenty years.² When Plato died, he went to Hermias and stayed three years; he came to Philip's court when Alexander was in his fifteenth year; he arrived back in Athens and lectured at the Lyceum for thirteen years; then he retired to Chalcis, where he died a natural death at about sixty-three, the same year Demosthenes died at Calauria.³

Ancient tradition / legend Some said differently. Eumelus claimed that Aristotle died at Chalcis by drinking aconite, at seventy, and that he came to Plato at thirty. Diogenes says he is mistaken: Aristotle lived to sixty-three, and was seventeen when he became Plato's pupil.⁴ And “it is said” that he displeased the king by introducing Callisthenes to him.³

After Plato's death Aristotle left Athens with Xenocrates for Assos in Asia Minor. There he and Theophrastus did extensive research in botany and marine biology, which they carried on at nearby Lesbos.⁵ He returned to Athens, founded the Lyceum, and from it his school took the name Peripatetic.⁵

Only about a third of what he wrote survives, and the treatises we have are generally thought to be lecture aids for his students.⁵ The polished dialogues he published, among them On Philosophy, Eudemus, On Justice and On Good Birth, survive only in fragments.⁶ His books had a strange journey. Plutarch says Sulla seized the library of Apellicon of Teos, in which were most of the treatises of Aristotle and Theophrastus, “not yet well known” to the public. In Rome Tyrannio the grammarian arranged them, and Andronicus of Rhodes was given copies, published them and drew up the lists then current. The older Peripatetics, Plutarch adds, had known these writings neither widely nor exactly, because the estate of Neleus of Scepsis, to whom Theophrastus left his books, fell to careless and uneducated people.⁷ Andronicus' edition was the first complete edition of the works, and the texts we have are based on it.⁶

His Greek builds technical terms from plain words. τὸ τί ἦν εἶναι, literally “what it was to be” (our translation), is his phrase for what makes a thing what it is, and Book 7 of the Metaphysics turns it over at length.⁸ ἐνέργεια, in LSJ's words “activity, operation”, is another; LSJ's first example is from his Nicomachean Ethics.⁹

Things readers still argue about

Who wrote the Constitution of the Athenians? It is attributed to Aristotle or one of his students. A papyrus of it was bought in Egypt in 1890 and acquired for the British Museum, and Frederic Kenyon published the first edition in January 1891. Some think Aristotle wrote it himself as a model for the rest; a number of prominent scholars doubt it.¹⁰

One ethics or two? Books 5, 6 and 7 of the Nicomachean Ethics are identical to Books 4, 5 and 6 of the Eudemian Ethics.¹¹ The Nicomachean Ethics also handles pleasure in two places: Book 7, chapters 11–14, and Book 10, chapters 1–5.¹²¹³

What is really his? Many works carried under his name are generally agreed to be spurious, among them On Colours, On Things Heard, Physiognomonics, On Plants, On Marvellous Things Heard, Mechanics, On Indivisible Lines, the Rhetoric to Alexander, and On Virtues and Vices. The authenticity of the Magna Moralia, the Problemata and the Economics is disputed.⁶

How the words reached us

Manuscripts & transmission

Passed from hand to hand

Sulla's library and Andronicus. Plutarch's account of Apellicon's library, its arrival in Rome and Andronicus' lists is above; it is the ancient story of how the treatises came into the form we have.⁷⁶

The page numbers. References like 1094a are Bekker numbers, based on the pages of the Prussian Academy of Sciences' edition, Aristotelis Opera, published in Berlin from 1831 to 1870; the letter marks a column.⁶

Print. The first printed Greek Aristotle was Aldus Manutius' five volumes at Venice, 1495–98.¹⁵

The oldest Ethics. The oldest surviving manuscript of the Nicomachean Ethics is the Florence codex Laurentianus LXXXI.11, called Kb, of the tenth century.¹¹

The Poetics on a thin thread. The main Greek source is a manuscript in Paris (gr. 1741) of the tenth or eleventh century; another Greek manuscript, in Florence, is of the fourteenth.²¹ A second route is an Arabic version, made from a Syriac one that descends from a Greek manuscript of before AD 700 and is independent of Paris 1741. William of Moerbeke made an accurate Latin translation in 1278, which was virtually ignored. Only the first part survives, on tragedy and epic; the second, on comedy, is lost. The Greek text was first printed by the Aldine press in 1508.¹⁴

The Constitution. Two papyrus fragments were found in the Fayum in 1879 and published in 1880. A much larger papyrus was bought in Egypt in 1890 and acquired for the British Museum, and Kenyon published it in 1891.¹⁰

Textual variants

Where the copies disagree

An Arabic witness. The Arabic version of the Poetics descends from a Syriac translation that departed widely in vocabulary from the original, and Wikipedia's account says it started a misreading of Aristotle that lasted through the Middle Ages.¹⁴

Three shared books. The same three books are printed in both ethical works, and editors must decide how to handle the duplication.¹¹

Doubtful works. Whole works are in question, rather than readings: many are generally agreed to be spurious, and three are disputed.⁶

Books to read it in

I. Bywater, Aristotelis Ethica Nicomachea (Oxford Classical Texts, 1894).¹⁶ The Greek Nicomachean Ethics in the reader, with H. Rackham's Loeb translation (1926).¹⁸
W. D. Ross's Oxford text of the Rhetoric and J. H. Freese's Loeb translation (1926, reprinted 1947).¹⁸ The Rhetoric in the reader.
R. Kassel, Aristotelis De arte poetica liber (Oxford Classical Texts, 1965).¹⁷ The Greek Poetics in the reader, with W. H. Fyfe's Loeb translation (the printing of 1939).¹⁸
I. Bekker (ed.), Aristotelis Opera, for the Prussian Academy of Sciences (Berlin, 1831–70).⁶ The source of the Bekker numbers.
R. A. Gauthier and J. Y. Jolif, L'Éthique à Nicomaque (Louvain and Paris, 1970, revising the first edition of 1958–59).¹⁹ With commentary.
J. Barnes (ed.), The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation, 2 vols (Princeton University Press, 1984).²⁰

Where this comes from

Sources (21)

We checked every statement above against these sources on 30 September 2026. Where they disagree, we say so. What we could not confirm, we left out.

In The Painted Stoa

Entries that quote or point to Aristotle's Greek.

OstracismOnce a year the citizens of Athens could decide to hold a strange election.The silver of LaurionThe fleet that beat the Persians at Salamis in 480 BC was paid for with silver dug out of the hills of southern Attica.Black-figure and red-figureThe painted pots of Athens are the largest body of Greek pictures to survive: gods and heroes, athletes and drinkers, weddings, funerals and battles, on thousands of vessels that were made to be used.PericlesFor about thirty years in the middle of the fifth century BC, the most powerful man in Athens held only an office the Assembly filled by vote every year: general.

All 10 entries

Chosen by lot: the allotment machineModern democracies choose their officials by election.The Eleusinian MysteriesEvery autumn for about a thousand years, crowds walked the fourteen miles from Athens to Eleusis to be initiated into the Mysteries of Demeter and her daughter Persephone.Love, sex and marriageA Greek marriage was a deal between two households, made so that a man would have legitimate children to inherit his house.The householdA Greek oikos was more than a house.SlaveryGreek cities had slaves, and classical Athens, the city that invented democracy, had a great many.Women's livesAlmost everything we read about Greek women was written by men.

The most mentioned words in Aristotle (the Census)
Your own notes on Aristotle (the Treasury)