Pyrilampes

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Pyrilampes ( Greek  Πυριλάμπης Pyrilámpēs ; * probably around 480 BC; † before 413 BC) was an Athenian politician and diplomat and the stepfather of the philosopher Plato .

Origin and family

All that is known about the origin of the Pyrilamp is that its father was a wealthy horse breeder named Antiphon.

From his first marriage to an unknown woman, Pyrilampes had a son named Demos , who lived around 440 BC. Was born in BC. In his second marriage he married the widowed Periktione around 423 , whose first husband Ariston had died around 424. Periktiones mother was a sister of Pyrilampes, so he was an uncle of his second wife. On the paternal side, Periktione was of noble origin; one of their ancestors was a friend and relative of the legendary Athenian legislature Solon . From her marriage to Ariston she had four children who were underage at the time of her second marriage and who have now become Pyrilampes' stepchildren: the three sons Adeimantos , Glaucon and Plato and the daughter Potone . From Pyrilampes' marriage with Periktione only one child emerged, the son Antiphon , who was named after his grandfather and who later, like him, mainly devoted himself to breeding horses.

Activity in public life

From the middle of the 5th century, Pyrilampes developed a brisk political activity. He was friends with the leading statesman Pericles , the most prominent representative of Attic democracy , and shared his fundamental convictions. The name Demos ("people"), which he gave his first son, was programmatic. With this name he expressed his democratic sentiments.

Allegedly, Pyrilampes was accused by Pericles before the Areopagus and successfully defended by Thucydides , a prominent opponent of the politics of Pericles. The credibility of this message is viewed with skepticism in research. However, it cannot be ruled out that Pyrilampes initially belonged to the camp of the oligarchical -minded forces around Thucydides and only later switched to the democrats.

As Plato reports, Pyrilampes was a strikingly handsome man. This contributed significantly to his reputation in the beauty-conscious, partly homoerotic society of that time. He served his hometown several times as envoy to the Persian court. The Persian great king Artaxerxes I of the Achaemenid family gave him peacocks , apparently at least one breeding pair. Pyrilampes opened a peacock farm, which his son Demos continued after his death. The extremely valuable birds, fascinating because of their beauty, were regularly exhibited on the first of the month and caused a great sensation. Plutarch reports of defamatory gossip according to which Pyrilampes, on behalf of Pericles, rewarded women whom he coveted for sexual services with peacocks.

At the Peloponnesian War Pyrilampes participated. In 424 he was wounded in the Battle of Delion and was taken prisoner by the Boeotians , from which he soon returned. He died not long before 413.

literature

  • John K. Davies: Athenian Property Families, 600-300 BC Clarendon Press, Oxford 1971, pp. 329f., 335
  • Debra Nails: The People of Plato. A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics . Hackett, Indianapolis 2002, ISBN 0-87220-564-9 , pp. 257-259 (and family tree p. 244)
  • John S. Traill: Persons of Ancient Athens , Volume 15: Pros to Syllas. Athenians, Toronto 2006, ISBN 0-9685232-8-5 , pp. 104f. (No. 795965; compilation of the documents)

Remarks

  1. On Antiphon see Debra Nails: The People of Plato. A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics , Indianapolis 2002, p. 30 (Antiphon I).
  2. ^ John K. Davies: Athenian Property Families, 600-300 BC , Oxford 1971, pp. 322-326.
  3. ^ Plato, Parmenides 126b – c.
  4. Michael Erler : Platon (= Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy . The philosophy of antiquity , Volume 2/2), Basel 2007, p. 41; Debra Nails: The People of Plato. A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics , Indianapolis 2002, p. 258.
  5. ^ John K. Davies: Athenian Property Families, 600-300 BC , Oxford 1971, pp. 329f .; Hans Gärtner : Pyrilampes . In: Pauly-Wissowa RE, Volume 24, Stuttgart 1963, Sp. 50f., Here: 51.
  6. ^ Plato, Charmides 158a.
  7. ^ Plutarch, Pericles 13.
  8. Plutarch, Moralia 581d.
  9. ^ Debra Nails: The People of Plato. A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics , Indianapolis 2002, p. 258.