Myrto

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Myrto is - after Xanthippe - the second wife of the Greek philosopher Socrates (469-399 BC).

After Socrates married Xanthippe, who is now the epitome of the quarrelsome and possessive wife , when he was around 50, Socrates took Myrto, an impoverished widow, into his house. Possibly she was a daughter (or granddaughter) of the well-known Athenian politician and statesman Aristeides , with whose family Socrates was friends.

According to some sources, Socrates entered his second marriage mainly because the population of Athens had fallen drastically due to numerous wars and he wanted to provide additional children in this way. In fact, Xanthippe gave him the son Lamprokles , while the sons Sophroniskos and Menexenus are said to come from Myrto. Perhaps for social reasons he was also obliged to take the destitute woman, with whose relative Lysimachus he was friends, into his household during the difficult times of war.

Since Myrto - according to later accounts - is said to have lived in constant quarrels with Xanthippe, Socrates is said to have preferred to spend a lot of time outside his own house in the streets and squares of Athens, where he could engage his fellow citizens in philosophical discussions. When asked how he could endure the quarrelsome women, he replied that it was useful to live like this, for it was like taming wild horses; one is better armed when one faces the others in the agora.

The existence of Myrtos is attested in some ancient sources, but is also disputed, and indeed already by ancient authors such as Panaitios .

Remarks

  1. ↑ daughter: Diogenes Laertios 2,26 ; Granddaughter: Plutarch , Aristeides 27.2 .
  2. ↑ Plutarch, Aristeides 27: 2-3 .

literature

  • Klaus Döring : Myrto [2]. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 8, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01478-9 , Sp. 607.
  • JW Fitton: That Was No Lady, That Was ... In: The Classical Quarterly. Volume 20, No. 1, 1970, pp. 56-66.
  • Debra Nails: The People of Plato. Indianapolis / Cambridge 2002, pp. 208 ff.
  • Leonard Woodbury: Socrates and the Daughter of Aristides. In: Phoenix. Volume 27, No. 1, 1973, pp. 7-25.
personal data
SURNAME Myrto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION second wife of the Greek philosopher Socrates
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 5th century BC BC or 4th century BC Chr.