Demos (Plato)

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Demos (Dḗmos, also Demos of Athens; * around 440 BC in Athens; † after 391 BC) was the stepbrother of the philosopher Plato.

Origin and family

Demos was the – apparently only – Son of the Athenian politician Pyrilampes from his first marriage to an unknown woman. In his second marriage, Pyrilampes married his niece, the widowed Periktione, whose first husband Ariston had died around 424. From marriage to Ariston, Periktione had four children: the three sons of Adeimanto, Glaukon and Plato, and the daughter Potone. Demos was older than his four stepsiblings. He got another half-brother named Antiphon from his father’s second marriage.

The name Demos, which means "people", was programmatic; Demos was – as far as known – the first bearer of this very rare name in Athens. Pyrilampes expressed his democratic sentiment with this naming.

Live life

In his youth, Demos was famous in the homoerotic milieu for its beauty. In the comedy The Wasps of Aristophanes listed in 422 it is mentioned that on front doors one could read inscriptions of his admirers, who praised him as the beautiful son of the pyri lamp. Even in the only fragmentarily preserved comedy Poleis by the poet Eupolis, demos are mentioned, but the meaning of the transmitted text fragment is unclear. According to an interpretation often represented in the research literature, Demos is ridiculed as a fool, but this may be a misunderstanding. Plato mentions his half-brother Demos in his literary dialogue Gorgias. There he has the dialogue participant Socrates twice point out in conversation with the sophist Kallikles that Kallikles is in love with demos. Therefore, Kallikles speak to his favorite and do not shy away from absurdities. He also behaved as a speaker in the People’s Assembly towards the people (demos) of Athens.

When Pyrilampes died (before 413), Demos inherited the famous peacocks, descended from a couple his father had brought from the Persian Empire as a gift from the Persian Great King. Pyrilampes had been an envoy at the court of the Persian ruler. The birds, fascinating by their beauty, were extremely valuable; External visitors came to Athens especially for their visit. From the peacocks of the demonstration was the court speech “Against Erasistratos about the peacocks”, which the logographer (court speaker) Antiphon of Rhamnus wrote. Only short fragments have been preserved. In the trial, Demos was apparently the plaintiff. Presumably, he accused the defendant Erasistratos of trying to steal the peacocks or their eggs.

Demos also appears in a court speech written by the famous logographer Lysias. The case concerned the property of the executed politician Aristophanes, which was confiscated. The accusation was directed against the brother-in-law of Aristophanes, de