Page:Aristotle (Grant).djvu/37

 posed of seems considerable, analogous perhaps to an estate of £50,000 in the present day. The chief beneficiary under the will is Nicanor (before mentioned), whom Aristotle appoints to marry Pythias,—his daughter by the niece of Hermeias,—so soon as she shall be of marriageable age. Aristotle’s first wife had died, and he had subsequently married Herpyllis of Stageira, who became the mother of his son Nicomachus. The will places Nicomachus under the care of Nicanor, and makes liberal provision for Herpyllis, who is mentioned in terms of affection and gratitude. Several of the slaves are thought of, and are to be presented with money and set at liberty; all the young slaves are to be freed, “if they deserve it,” as soon as they are grown up. Nicanor is charged to transfer the bones of Aristotle’s first wife Pythias to his own place of interment, to provide and dedicate suitable busts of various members of Aristotle’s family, and to fulfil a vow formerly made by himself of four marble figures of animals to Zeus the Preserver and Athene the Preserver. This last clause throws suspicion on the genuineness of the document, for it looks like a mere imitation of the dying injunction of Socrates: “We owe a cock to Asculapius; pay the debt and do not fail.” Other points also suggest doubt: for instance, Antipater is named as chief executor, and this detail has the appearance of being the work of a forger availing himself of a well-known name; again, there is a difficulty about Pythias the daughter of Aristotle being too young for marriage at the time of her father’s death,—he had married her mother some twenty-three