Myrto

Neither Plato nor Xenophon, the earliest sources on Socrates' life, mention Myrto.^[1] Diogenes Laertius, Athenaeus, and Plutarch all cite Aristotle's treatise On Being Well-Born as the source of Myrto's story. Though surviving fragments of the treatise do mention a "daughter of Aristides", they neither talk about Myrto by name or suggest any relationship with Socrates. Additionally, in the Rhetoric, Aristotle cites Socrates' family alongside those of Pericles and Cimon as being of noble birth; this may allude to the story that he had children by Myrto.^[2]

Ten surviving ancient sources discuss Myrto's relationship with Socrates; eight ultimately draw their information from Aristotle, while two more may be independent of this. These are the philosophical dialogue Halcyon, which was preserved as part of the works of both Plato and Lucian of Samosata but is by neither author; and a letter supposedly from Socrates' pupil Aristippus to his daughter Arete but in reality probably composed in the second century AD.^[3]

Different sources call Myrto either the daughter, granddaughter, or great-granddaughter of Aristides.^[4] As any daughter of Aristides must have been no more than a few years younger than Socrates,^[a] and hence at least sixty-seven by the time of Socrates' trial – when her sons would supposedly have still been children – she cannot have been the daughter of Aristides;^[6] David Lévystone argues on both textual and chronological grounds that the most plausible interpretation is that Myrto was the granddaughter of Aristides.^[7]

According to Diogenes Laërtius, the order of Socrates' marriages to Myrto and Xanthippe was disputed in antiquity, with different authors holding that either he married Myrto first, or Xanthippe first, or that he was married to both simultaneously.^[b][9] As several sources say that Myrto was the mother of Socrates' younger sons, Sophroniscus and Menexenus, she cannot have been the wife of Socrates before Xanthippe; however in the Phaedo Plato notes Xanthippe's presence when Socrates was imprisoned before his execution, so nor can Myrto have been Socrates' wife after Xanthippe.^[10] Thus Lévystone argues that Socrates had simultaneous relationships with Myrto and Xanthippe.^[11]

Both Athenaeus and the Suda describe both Myrto and Xanthippe as legitimate wives of Socrates; other sources use the more ambiguous term "gyne" which can mean both "wife" and "woman" and can refer to less formal relationships than marriage. Two ancient scholars, Satyrus the Peripatetic and Hieronymus of Rhodes, apparently referred to an Athenian decree which legalised bigamous relationships when discussing Socrates' dual relationships with Myrto and Xanthippe. In the form quoted by Diogenes Laertius, however, the decree merely recognises children born from two Athenians as eligible for citizenship, regardless of whether they were legally married, and does not legalise bigamy.^[12]

Since the nineteenth century, scholars have frequently doubted the historicity of Myrto's relationship with Socrates, although since the 1970s some have begun to accept it again.^[13] Scholars such as J. W. Fitton, Peter J. Bicknell, and David Lévystone have argued that it was in fact Myrto who was the legitimate wife of Socrates.^[14][15][16]

Although Diogenes Laërtius describes Myrto as Socrates' second wife living alongside Xanthippe, Myrto was presumably a common-law wife,^[17] and Plutarch describes Myrto as merely living "together with the sage Socrates, who had another woman but took up this one as she remained a widow due to her poverty and lacked the necessities of life."^[18] Athenaeus and Diogenes Laërtius report that Hieronymus of Rhodes attempted to confirm the story by pointing to a temporary decree the Athenians passed:

For they say that the Athenians were short of men and, wishing to increase the population, passed a decree permitting a citizen to marry one Athenian woman and have children by another; and that Socrates accordingly did so.

A different account of Xanthippe and Myrto is given in Aristoxenus's Life of Socrates written in the latter part of the fourth century BC that Aristoxenus asserts is based on first-person accounts by his father. This claims that Myrto was his legitimate wife and Xanthippe his mistress, whose child became legitimate.^[19]

Neither Plato nor Xenophon mention Myrto, and not everyone in ancient times believed the story: according to Athenaeus, Panaetius "refuted those who talk about the wives of Socrates."^[20]

The story has generally not been believed by modern scholars, though some have accepted it – for instance J. W. Fitton, who argues that Myrto was Socrates' wife whereas Xanthippe was a citizen pallake ("concubine").^[5]