Here are who some of the figures are supposed to be (were you able to guess which one
is which?):
- Aristotle: Greek philosopher, ~350 BC, pupil of Plato, tutor of Alexander the Great
- Diogenes: Greek philosopher, ~400 BC, reputedly in search of an honest man
- Euclid: Greek mathematician of the 3rd century BC
(click here for a close up
of Euclid in Raphael's fresco in the Vatican)
- Heraclitus (looking a lot like Michelangelo)
- Hypatia: Alexandrian mathematician, ~400 AD; a non-Christian female murdered by
early Christian religious bigots
- Plato: Greek philosopher, ~400 BC
- Ptolemy: Greek mathematician and astronomer, 2nd century AD, Alexandria
- Pythagoras: Greek philosopher of 6th century BC
- Raffaello himself: the painter, 1483-1520
- Socrates: Greek philosopher, ~400 BC, received the death penalty
for being inquisitive
- Zeno: Greek philosopher, ~300 BC, known for a series of paradoxes (such
as why you can't outrun a turtle, if you give the turtle a headstart...)
- Zoroaster: Persian prophet of 6th century BC
For the names of more of the figures, visit
the site where I obtained some of this information.
