Pythias

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Pythias was the wife of the philosopher Aristotle .

She was a relative of Hermias , who ruled the cities of Assos and Atarneus on the coast of Asia Minor opposite the island of Lesbos and was friends with Aristotle. Hermias was an opponent of the Persians and allied with Macedonia. In his will, Aristotle decreed that he wanted to be buried next to his wife. His formulation shows that Pythias had already died at the time the will was drawn up.

The information provided by the sources about the relationship between Pythias and Hermias is contradictory. The doxographer Aristocles von Messene , a Peripatetic philosopher who defends Aristotle against slander, claims that she was a sister and at the same time an adopted daughter of Hermias. Another doxographer, Diogenes Laertios , who refers to the text About poets and writers of the same name by the scholar Demetrios of Magnesia (1st century BC), writes that Pythias was either a daughter or a niece of Hermias. Strabo calls her the daughter of Hermias' brother. For chronological reasons, it is unlikely that she was a sister of Hermias.

The information about the time and motive of the marriage also differ. Demetrios of Magnesia and Strabo report that Hermias himself gave the philosopher Pythias to wife; in this case the marriage took place during Aristotle's stay in Assos (347–345 / 344). Aristocles presents the situation differently; According to his information, Aristotle married Pythias only after the death of Hermias, who died around 341 on the orders of the Persian king Artaxerxes III. had been captured by a ruse and executed. The question of the motive for getting married is related to this question of dating. Opponents of Aristotle insinuated that he had only married Pythias because of her father's position of power, with whom he had wanted to ingratiate himself; accordingly, the wedding would have to be placed before the death of Aristotle's father-in-law. Aristocles, the defender of the honor of Aristotle, however, reports that the marriage was only concluded after Hermias' death, when the connection with the family of the overthrown ruler no longer offered any advantages. Aristotle had written to Antipater about this; To justify the marriage, he pointed out his friendship with the executed Hermias, after whose death Pythias found himself in an unfortunate position. Whether the letter of Aristotle, to which Aristocles refers, was real is a matter of dispute in scholarship. What is certain is that there were bad rumors about the philosopher's marriage.

With Pythias, Aristotle had a daughter who was also called Pythias. It is unclear who the mother of his son Nicomachus was. Diogenes Laertios, who cites Timaeus of Tauromenion , reports that it was Herpyllis who was allegedly Aristotle's companion after Pythias' death. Athenaios also claims this with reference to Hermippus . Herpyllis is said to have become the second wife of the philosopher. The reports from the narrative sources concerning Herpyllis are, however, of dubious credibility. A far better source is the will of Aristotle, from whose provisions it can be inferred indirectly that Nicomachus' mother was probably Pythias. Herpyllis, who was remarkably generous in the will, may have been a relative of Aristotle from Stageira who lived in his household and thus gave his opponents cause for gossip.

literature

  • Hans B. Gottschalk: Notes on the Wills of the Peripatetic Scholarchs . In: Hermes Vol. 100, 1972, pp. 314-342
  • Paul Moraux : Aristotelianism among the Greeks from Andronikos to Alexander of Aphrodisias . Vol. 2, de Gruyter, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-11-009919-5 , pp. 141-143
  • Martin Hose (Ed.): Aristoteles: Works in German translation . Vol. 20, part 3: The historical fragments . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-05-003755-5 , pp. 290-292

Remarks

  1. ↑ Diogenes Laertios 5.3.
  2. ↑ Strabo 13,1,57.
  3. ^ Hans B. Gottschalk: Notes on the Wills of the Peripatetic Scholarchs . In: Hermes 100, 1972, pp. 314–342, here: p. 322 note 1.
  4. ^ Richard Goulet: Pythias . In: Richard Goulet (Ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 5, Part 2, Paris 2012, pp. 1780 f.
  5. ↑ Diogenes Laertios 5.1. As a result of an oversight, "Timotheos" is used instead of "Timaeus" in the traditional text.
  6. ↑ Athenaios 13, 589c.
  7. ^ Hans B. Gottschalk: Notes on the Wills of the Peripatetic Scholarchs . In: Hermes 100, 1972, pp. 314-342, here: 323-326; Jean-Pierre Schneider: Nicomaque de Stagire . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 4, Paris 2005, pp. 694-696, here: 694. See Richard Goulet: La famille d'Aristote . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 1, Paris 1989, pp. 418-422, here: 419 f.
  8. ^ Hans B. Gottschalk: Notes on the Wills of the Peripatetic Scholarchs . In: Hermes 100, 1972, pp. 314-342, here: 326-328.
personal data
SURNAME Pythias
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek wife of the philosopher Aristotle
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 4th century BC Chr.