Aristippus

Aristippus is a wealthy nobleman of Cyprus whose response to his son Cimon’s transformation gives the story of Cimon and Iphigenia a second measure of its argument about love: the force that awakens Cimon also changes how his father understands him. Aristippus first sees his son as a source of distress; when love makes Cimon a man of learning and accomplishment, he becomes a patient and encouraging father.

Identity and Family

Aristippus is described as a very noble gentleman and the richest man in Cyprus in worldly possessions. He has several children, but his concern centers on Cimon, whose true name is Galesus. Though Cimon is physically handsome and exceptionally tall, Aristippus regards his habits and abilities as a deep disappointment: instruction, affection, punishment, and effort have failed to teach him letters or good manners.

The contrast between the father’s social standing and his son’s condition shapes Aristippus’s early response. Cimon’s rough voice, uncouth behavior, and preference for country life make him seem more suited to a rustic household than to the family’s position. Aristippus eventually sends him to the country estate to live among the farm workers, partly so he need no longer have the cause of his distress constantly before him. Cimon welcomes the move, since rustic customs suit him better than the ways of townspeople.

A Father Confronted by Change

Cimon’s encounter with Iphigenia reverses the course Aristippus had accepted as settled. After seeing her, Cimon refuses to return to the country and tells his father that he intends to remain at home. The change puzzles Aristippus and the family, who wait to discover what has prompted this new resolve. Love soon supplies the answer: Cimon begins to learn, adopts the dress and conduct of a gentleman, and develops abilities that had seemed beyond him.

Within a short time, he masters the first elements of letters and distinguishes himself among students of philosophy. He also improves his speech, learns music, and becomes skilled in riding and martial exercises on land and sea. Aristippus is among those astonished by the transformation. The young man who had resisted every attempt at instruction now advances through study and training with striking speed.

Support for Cimon’s Love

Aristippus does not treat Cimon’s new character as a reason to restrain him. Seeing that love has turned his son from a dunce into a man, he patiently tolerates the excesses to which Cimon may sometimes be led and encourages him to pursue love’s desires. His approval is not presented as ignorance of the risks: Cimon seeks to marry Iphigenia, but her father has promised her to Pasimondas, a nobleman of Rhodes. Aristippus has his son’s proposal carried to Iphigenia’s father, who refuses because he will not break that promise.

The story marks a change in Aristippus’s judgment as well as in Cimon’s abilities. Before the transformation, he sends his son away to escape the sight of his failings; afterward, he bears with Cimon’s passionate conduct because he has seen what love has awakened in him. His support helps make the young man’s new identity possible within the family, even when Cimon’s pursuit of Iphigenia moves beyond the limits of a marriage request.

Narrative Role

Aristippus frames the transformation as more than a private improvement in manners. His initial despair establishes how completely Cimon had seemed incapable of education; his later patience registers the scale of the change. By recognizing that love has made his son a man, Aristippus becomes a witness to the story’s claim that love can release capacities hidden beneath apparent dullness and barbarity.

His response also distinguishes him from a father who would simply suppress his son’s desire. Aristippus accepts the force that has altered Cimon and chooses to encourage it, although the desired marriage is blocked by an earlier promise. In this way, his part joins parental judgment to the story’s larger contrast between Cimon’s former exclusion from civilized life and the accomplishments that love brings into view.