And so, we come to the end of the A to Z, to one of the least documented of the women in this series, Phythias the Elder, the first wife of Aristotle. Born sometime around 344 BC, Phythias was the niece and adopted daughter of King Hermias of Atarneus, an ancient Greek city in Asia Minor near the island of Lesbos. Today this would be on the west coast of Turkey.
King Hermias’s rule extended from Atarneus to the city of Assos, where Aristotle had opened an academy. In addition to being a great philosopher, Aristotle was a practicing botanist, zoologist and marine biologist. He and Hermias became friends, which is how Aristotle met and eventually married eighteen-year-old Phythias. Aristotle was thirty-seven.
King Hermias’s rule extended from Atarneus to the city of Assos, where Aristotle had opened an academy. In addition to being a great philosopher, Aristotle was a practicing botanist, zoologist and marine biologist. He and Hermias became friends, which is how Aristotle met and eventually married eighteen-year-old Phythias. Aristotle was thirty-seven.
The two honeymooned on the island of Lesbos in the port city of Mytilene on the Agean Sea. Apparently, Phythias was a budding embryologist, biologist and zoologist. The honeymooners spent time collecting living specimens of every sort. Although sources are sketchy and some doubtful, one source claims that Phythias was Aristotle’s “assistant” in research. She had her own collection of manuscripts and some claim she was the first female marine zoologist. As coauthor (uncredited) she collaborated with Aristotle on two works for an encyclopedia of animals: History of Animals and On the Parts of Animals and On the Generation of Animals.
Phythias and Aristotle had one daughter, Phythias the Younger. After only ten years of marriage Phythias died around 326 BC, leaving Aristotle to raise a daughter alone. He then remarried and had a son, but his love for Phythias lasted a lifetime. When he died in his sixties, he requested their bones be buried together, as had also been requested by Phythias.
Source:http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141130-aristotle-natural-history-seashells-biology-philosophy/; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythias; Anthony Kenny. A New History of Western Philosophy, Vol. 5, 2007.
Elisabeth Brooke. Women Healers: Portraits of Herbalists, Physicians, and Midwives, 1995 p. 12.
Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie, Joy Dorothy Harvey. The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z, 2000.
http://www.ancientgreece.com/s/People/Aristotle/; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assos
Sharon M. Himsl
Writer/Author. Blogging since 2011.
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