Pythias

Pythias (/ˈpɪθiəs/; Greek: Πυθιάς, romanized: Pūthiás), also known as Pythias the Elder, was the adopted daughter of Hermias, ruler of the cities Assos and Atarneus on the Anatolian coast opposite the island of Lesbos. She was also Aristotle's first wife.¹ Hermias was an enemy of Persia and allied with Macedonia. In his will, Aristotle ordered that he be buried next to his wife. From his wording, it is known that Pythias was already dead by the time he wrote his will.

Personal life and family

While Pythias' date of birth is unclear, she was active around 355 BC² and she died in Athens sometime after 330 BC. Sources about the familial relationship between Pythias and Hermias provide contradictory information. The doxographer Aristocles of Messene, a Peripatetic philosopher, defended Aristotle from slander that claimed Pythias was both Hermias' adopted daughter and sister. Citing the text On Poets and Writers of the Same Name by the scholar Demetrius of Magnesia (1st century BCE), another doxographer, Diogenes Laertius writes that Pythias was either Hermias' niece or daughter.³ Strabo identifies her as the daughter of Hermias' brother.⁴ For chronological reasons, it is unlikely that she was Hermias' sister.⁵

Information about the exact time of and motives behind the marriage also differ. Demetrius of Magnesia and Strabo report that Hermias himself gave Pythias to Aristotle as a bride; if this was the case their marriage would fall in the time period of Aristotle's stay in Assos (347-345/344). Aristocles portrays the matter differently: according to his information, Aristotle married Pythias only after the death of Hermias, who was captured and executed through subterfuge on the orders of the Persian King . The question of the motive behind the marriage depends upon its date. Aristotle's enemies insinuated that he only married Pythias as a way to ingratiate himself with her father; because of that, the wedding would have been held before the death of his father-in-law. However, defending Aristotle's marriage, Aristocles claims the wedding only occurred after Hermias' death, when the connection with the family of fallen rulers would offer no advantage whatsoever. Aristotle spoke out against in a letter: As justification for the marriage he pointed out his friendship with the executed Hermias, after whose death Pythias was left in an unfortunate situation. Whether or not the letter by Aristotle that Aristocles refers to was real is contested by researchers. It is only certain that nasty rumours circulated about the marriage of the philosopher.