Milo of Croton - Personal Life

Personal Life

Ancient commentators mention an association between Milo and the philosopher Pythagoras, who lived at or near Croton for many years. Commentators may have confused the philosopher with an athletic trainer, Pythagoras of Samos, but it is also possible the trainer and the philosopher were the same person.

It was said Milo saved Pythagoras's life when a pillar collapsed in a banquet hall and he supported the roof until Pythagoras could reach safety. He may have married Myia, a Pythagorean herself or possibly Pythagoras' daughter. Diogenes Laertius says Pythagoras died in a fire in Milo's house, but Dicaearchus says Pythagoras died in the temple of the Muses at Metapontum of self-imposed starvation. Porphyry says Milo's house at Croton was burned and the Pythagoreans within stoned.

Herodotus, who lived one hundred years after Milo's death, says the wrestler accepted a large sum of money from the distinguished physician Democedes for the privilege of marrying Milo's daughter. If Herodotus is indeed correct then Milo was probably not a member of Croton's nobility for such an arrangement with a wage-earning physician would have been beneath the dignity of a Greek noble. Democedes was a native of Croton and enjoyed a successful career as a physician at Croton, Aegina, Athens, and Samos. He was captured by Darius in the defeat of the Samian tyrant Polycrates and taken to the Persian capital of Susa as a slave. There, he carefully tended both the king and queen and was eventually permitted to revisit Croton but under guard. He escaped his Persian guards and made his way to Croton where he married Milo's daughter. The physician sent a message regarding his marriage to Darius who was an admirer of the wrestler and can only have learned of him through Democedes during his slavery at Susa.