Aristotle then accompanied Xenocrates to the court of his friend Hermias of Atarneus in Asia Minor. There, he traveled with Theophrastus to the island of Lesbos, where together they researched the botany and zoology of the island. Aristotle married Pythias,
either Hermias's adoptive daughter or niece. She bore him a daughter,
whom they also named Pythias. Soon after Hermias' death, Aristotle was
invited by Philip II of Macedon to become the tutor to his son Alexander in 343 BCE.[4]
Aristotle was appointed as the head of the royal academy of Macedon. During that time he gave lessons not only to Alexander, but also to two other future kings: Ptolemy andCassander.[15] Aristotle encouraged Alexander toward eastern conquest and his attitude towards Persia was unabashedly ethnocentric.
In one famous example, he counsels Alexander to be "a leader to the
Greeks and a despot to the barbarians, to look after the former as after
friends and relatives, and to deal with the latter as with beasts or
plants".[15]
By 335 BCE, Artistotle had returned to Athens, establishing his own school there known as the Lyceum.
Aristotle conducted courses at the school for the next twelve years.
While in Athens, his wife Pythias died and Aristotle became involved
with Herpyllis of Stagira, who bore him a son whom he named after his father, Nicomachus. According to the Suda, he also had an eromenos, Palaephatus of Abydus.[16]
This period in Athens, between 335 and 323 BCE, is when Aristotle is believed to have composed many of his works.[4] He wrote many dialogues of which only fragments have survived. Those works that have survived are in treatise form
and were not, for the most part, intended for widespread publication;
they are generally thought to be lecture aids for his students. His most
important treatises include Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, De Anima (On the Soul) and Poetics.
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