Aristotle (384 BCE - 322 BCE),the Greek philosopher and scientist,leaving Athens to go into voluntary exile following charges of impiety. After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE,anti-Macedonian sentiment resurfaced in Athens. Aristotle,founder of the Lyceum,but who had been born in a Greek colony in Macedon,was considered anti-Athenian and he was accused of making his wife a goddess by Eurymedon,the Hierophant and high priest of Demeter. The charge was laid before the Council of the Areopagus by Demophilus the Orator but Aristotle refused to attend and,possibly considering the fate of Socrates who had faced a similar charge,chose to go into self-exile on the island of Euboea at Chalcis. He died a year later in 322 BCE |