Pyrilampes had served many times as an ambassador to the Persian court and was a friend of Pericles, the leader of the democratic faction in Athens.[2] He was injured at the Battle of Delium in 424 BC, when he was in his mid-fifties.[3] Pyrilampes raised and showed peacocks, gifts he had received on his Asian embassies. Plutarch states accusations against Pyrilampes, according to which he used the peacocks to procure freeborn women for Pericles.[4]

Pyrilampes appears to have married his first wife in the late 440s;[3] he had a son from this marriage, Demus, who was famous for his beauty.[5] C. 423 BC Pyrilampes had been widowed, and he was free to marry his niece, Perictione, Plato's mother. Perictione gave birth to Pyrilampes' second son, Antiphon, the half-brother of Plato, who appears in Parmenides, where he is said to have given up philosophy, in order to devote most of his time to horses.[6]

Citations

1. ^ D. Nails, "Pyrilampes", 257-258
   
2. ^ Plato, Charmides, 158a
   
3. * Plutarch, Pericles, IV
   
4. ^ a b D. Nails, "Pyrilampes", 258
   
5. ^ Plutarch, Pericles, IV
   
6. ^ Plato, Gorgias, 481d and 513b
   
7. * Aristophanes, Wasps, 97
   
8. ^ Plato, Parmenides, 126c
   
   

References

• Aristophanes, The Wasps. See original text in Perseus program.
  
• Nails, Debra (2002). "Pyrilampes", The People of Plato: A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics. Hackett Publishing. ISBN 0-872-20564-9.
  
• Plato: Charmides . See original text in Perseus program.
  
• Plato: Gorgias See original text in Perseus program.
  
• Plato, Parmenides. See original text in Perseus program.
  
• Plutarch, Pericles. See original text in Perseus program.