Pittacus of Mytilene

Mytilenian ruler (r. 590-580 b.c.e.)

• Born: c. 645 b.c.e.
• Birthplace: Mytilene, Lesbos, Greece
• Died: c. 570 b.c.e.
• Place of death: Mytilene, Lesbos, Greece

Elected tyrant by the people of Mytilene, Pittacus brought an end to his state’s bitter aristocratic party struggles and established a government that remained stable for years after he had relinquished power. Though he was vilified by his political opponent Alcaeus, later Greeks considered Pittacus one of the “Seven Sages.”

Early Life

Pittacus (PIHT-ah-kuhs), the son of Hyrras (or Hyrrhadius), was raised in Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, famous for its wine and the richest and most powerful of the Aeolian Greek settlements in the eastern Aegean Sea. Mytilene had colonized territories on the mainland (notably Sestos, c. 670), had dealings with the nearby Lydian kingdom, and maintained commercial connections throughout the northeastern Aegean. The citizens of Mytilene were enterprising and bold in their projects and vigorous in defense of their mainland interests. Furthermore, Mytilene’s citizens fought in the service of Asiatic rulers, and the city was the only one of its Aeolian neighbors to take part in the Greek trading colony at Naucratis in Egypt. In short, Pittacus was reared in a cosmopolitan city, familiar with merchants, soldiers, and colonists.

In addition to being a progressive and dynamic state, the Mytilene of Pittacus’s childhood was steeped in its old Aeolian traditions. Lesbos was within sight of the territory of Troy, and heroic poetry dealing with the Trojan saga was prominent in its early literature. Pittacus’s younger contemporary Alcaeus wrote a poem describing with pride a collection of armor that harked back to the heroic age.

In addition, a rich tradition of popular song on the island gave rise to the lyric monodies of Sappho and Alcaeus, performed at symposia (drinking parties). The Aeolians valued their descent from the house of Agamemnon, the victor of the Trojan War, and young Pittacus respected the traditions of his ancestors and the hereditary rights of his family. Although Pittacus’s father’s name was Thracian, there is every indication that the family was a member of the nobility.

The civic strife in the aristocracy at Mytilene was the single most important factor in Pittacus’s early life. At that time, his city was involved in bitter quarrels among the nobles vying for control of the state. During his childhood, the Penthilid clan ruled at Mytilene, claiming descent from Agamemnon’s son Orestes, whose own son Penthilus was said to have colonized Aeolis. The Penthilids gained a reputation for cruelty and were said to have clubbed their aristocratic rivals. Pittacus witnessed an uprising against that family, led by Megacles, followed by Smerdis’s murder of Penthilus and the establishment of a tyranny by Melanchrus.

During Pittacus’s youth, the aristocratic government of Mytilene functioned through a council that submitted its deliberations to an assembly for discussion and approval. As a young man, Pittacus attended the meetings of the assembly and probably became familiar with the council through his father’s connections.

Life’s Work

There are two main sources for Pittacus’s life and work: the poetry of his political enemy Alcaeus, which is hostile, and the writings of other writers, which extol his wisdom and place him among the so-called Seven Sages of the Greeks. From the praise and blame of the two traditions a somewhat coherent picture of his life emerges.

During the forty-second Olympiad (612-608 b.c.e.), Pittacus and the older brothers of Alcaeus deposed Melanchrus, an aristocrat of Mytilene who had made himself tyrant and become odious to the other noble families of the city. Pittacus’s role in the action is unclear, but he must have established a reputation for leadership and daring, for soon afterward the people of Mytilene put him in charge of their army in a military encounter against the Athenians in a territorial dispute over Sigeum, near Troy. One early story records that in the course of this struggle he fought and won a duel with the Athenian general and Olympic victor Phrynon (c. 607 b.c.e.), killing him with a trident and knife, having first caught him in a net (perhaps a reference to a popular song describing Pittacus as a fisherman hunting his prey).

In the power struggle that ensued after the fall of Melanchrus, Pittacus allied himself with the political coterie of Alcaeus against Myrsilus, another aristocratic claimant to power. After an indeterminate period of maneuvering, Pittacus forsook the coalition that he had pledged to help and gave his support to Myrsilus’s party. Alcaeus and his supporters went into exile on Lesbos, where they railed against Pittacus’s defection. Pittacus married into the Penthilid family, probably during Myrsilus’s rule, thereby gaining a larger political base. His wife, a sister of a man named Draco, was said to be the daughter of one Penthilus. Pittacus’s son Tyrraeus was murdered in nearby Cyme while sitting in a barbershop. Pittacus was said to have forgiven his murderer.

Myrsilus ruled as tyrant until he died in 590. Alcaeus was overjoyed at his death and wrote a poem calling for everyone to get drunk in celebration. The poet’s hopes of repatriation, however, were disappointed, for the people of Mytilene immediately chose Pittacus to succeed Myrsilus. The new tyrant maintained a policy of subduing party strife by forcing Alcaeus and his supporters to leave Lesbos altogether. Although poems of Alcaeus call for his overthrow and mention Lydian support for the rebels, there is no indication that Pittacus’s rule was ever seriously threatened from without or within. One anecdote tells of Alcaeus falling into Pittacus’s hands during this period. Instead of punishing his enemy for his savage attacks, the tyrant is reported to have freed him and uttered the maxim “Pardon is better than revenge.” Pittacus held supreme power in Mytilene until 580, when he voluntarily gave up his post and returned to private life.

Pittacus’s rule at Mytilene was benevolent and was probably the source of his excellent reputation in later years. He did not overthrow the traditional constitution but respected its institutions while adding new laws to those already in existence. His respect for the law produced his description of the best rule as one of “the painted wood” (that is, of laws written on wooden tablets). His most famous statute, aimed at curbing alcohol abuse, provided a double penalty for anyone committing a crime while drunk. This law calls to mind both the reputation of Lesbian wine and the poems of Alcaeus extolling its use.

The only physical descriptions of Pittacus come from Alcaeus’s abusive poems and therefore can probably be dismissed as rhetorical excess. Alcaeus calls Pittacus flat-footed, dirty, and pot-bellied. Yet everything known about Pittacus from other sources makes doubtful the validity of these libels. Indeed, Alcaeus also calls Pittacus “base-born,” a charge that can also be explained as simply part of the vocabulary of invective.

Several sayings of Pittacus are preserved, including “Even the gods do not fight against Necessity” and “Office reveals the man.” Because of the fighting he had witnessed all of his life, Pittacus is credited with a rather un-Greek notion when he urged people to seek “victories without blood.” His statement that “It is a difficult thing to be good” was the basis of a poem by Simonides and a long discussion in Plato’s Prōtagoras (399-390 b.c.e.; Protagoras, 1804) Numerous other quotations of his are preserved, mostly commonplace sentiments.

A number of stories tell that Pittacus had dealings with the Lydian king Croesus, and although chronology of their lives makes it unlikely that they ever met while both were in power, Croesus was the governor of the Lydian province close to Lesbos before he became king, and therefore it is possible that he could have met Pittacus at that time. It is most likely that stories relating the two are the result of an ancient attempt to create stories analogous to those that connected the Athenian sage and lawgiver Solon with the Lydian king. Pittacus’s name has been identified on an inscription of his contemporary Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylonia, providing evidence that Mytilene did have important relations with the great powers to the east.

Pittacus died in 570 b.c.e., having lived more than seventy years. He left behind a stable and prosperous city as well as an enviable reputation—despite the protests of Alcaeus’s poetry. Few ancient biographies have such happy endings. His traditional epitaph is: “With her own tears, Holy Lesbos who bore him/ Bewails Pittacus who has died.”

Significance

Pittacus of Mytilene must have been very successful in quelling the party strife that had troubled the state for so long. He felt comfortable enough with the political situation to retire after only ten years, and there is no evidence of further civil disturbances thereafter. Indeed, Pittacus entered the ranks of the traditional Greek Seven Sages for his work. The Seven Sages were contemporaries of Pittacus who held similar positions as lawgivers and tyrants and included Periander of Corinth and Solon of Athens. More is known of them than of Pittacus, although Pittacus is admired as much as the others by later tradition.

Diodorus of Sicily said that Pittacus not only was outstanding for his wisdom but also was a citizen whose like Lesbos had never before produced—nor would produce, until such time as when it would make more and sweeter wine (that is, never). Diodorus called Pittacus an excellent lawgiver and a kindly man who was well-disposed toward his fellow citizens. He released his homeland from the three greatest misfortunes: tyranny, civil strife, and war. In addition, he was serious, gentle, and humble, perfect in respect to every virtue. His legislation was just, public-spirited, and thoughtful, and he himself was courageous and outstandingly free from greed.

Encomiums such as this made up the bulk of the later tradition dealing with Pittacus and form a strong contrast with the poetry of his contemporary Alcaeus. Diogenes Laertius wrote a “Life of Pittacus” in his Peri biōn dogmatōn kai apophthegmatōn tōn en philosophia eudokimēsantōn (early third century c.e.; Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, 1688), which includes numerous anecdotes illustrating his wisdom and justice. In his “Life of Thales,” Diogenes Laertius gives various ancient lists of the Seven Sages, and Pittacus appears in each one. Plutarch provided a similar portrait of Pittacus in his work “Banquet of the Seven Sages,” in Ethika (after c. 100; Moralia, 1603). Strabo’s Geōgraphica (c. 7 b.c.e.; Geography, 1917-1933) twice mentions Pittacus, each time emphasizing that he was one of “The Seven Wise Men,” and notes that Pittacus used his monarchic powers to rid the state of dynastic struggles and to establish the city’s autonomy. Aristotle wrote that Pittacus’s position of elective tyrant was a distinct form of rule called aesymneteia, but he gives no other examples of it, and no others are known.

The impression made by Pittacus on his countrymen is revealed in the fact that the rich Lesbian folk song tradition preserves his memory: “Grind, mill, grind./ For even Pittacus grinds,/ As he rules great Mytilene.”

Historians have few details to illustrate these ancient generalizations about Pittacus’s exceptional character and achievements. Further discoveries of ancient evidence about archaic Lesbos and its most admired citizen would help fill in the gaps about Pittacus’s life.

Bibliography

Andrewes, Antony. The Greek Tyrants. Reprint. New York: Harper and Row, 1963. Solid and balanced discussion of the tyrannies at Mytilene, of Alcaeus, and of Pittacus in the chapter “Aristocratic Disorder at Mytilene.” Best comparative material with other archaic tyrannies, and general discussion of the phenomenon. Puts Pittacus in perspective. Notes, index, bibliography.

Campbell, David A., ed. Greek Lyric Poetry. Bristol, Gloucestershire, England: Bristol Classical Press, 1982. Contains all fragments of Sappho and Alcaeus, translations, and brief notes to each poem. Includes an introduction with good discussion of how to date events in the life of Pittacus. Lists ancient evidence for lives of Alcaeus and Pittacus. With an index.

Lefkowitz, Mary R. The Lives of the Greek Poets. London: Duckworth, 1981. Includes important perspective on ancient biography, claiming that most material in the lives is fiction—based on the poems, not history. Relevant to Alcaeus’s information used for his life and that of Pittacus. With a chapter on ancient lyric poets and an index and bibliography.

Murray, Oswyn. Early Greece. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993. Good general background on ancient Greece, with a short section on Alcaeus and Pittacus and examples of Alcaeus’s poems. Points out the unique political position held by Pittacus. With maps, illustrations, useful chronological chart, and annotated list of primary sources.

Podlecki, Anthony J. The Early Greek Poets and Their Times. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1984. A substantial chapter on Alcaeus and Sappho offers chronological analysis of Pittacus and his contemporaries on Lesbos, with analysis of the use of Alcaeus’s poems in creating the picture of Pittacus. A thoughtful and readable treatment, with good use of all available sources. Includes an index and bibliography.

Romer, F. E. “The Aisymneteia: A Problem in Aristotle’s Historic Method.” American Journal of Philology 103 (1982): 25-46. Discusses sources for the rule of Pittacus and Aristotle’s definition of the aisymneteia, or elective tyranny. Proves that this definition originated in his own philosophical ideas about civil strife and political harmony. Well documented, with many notes and a list for further reading.