Pythias

In Greek mythology, the legend of Damon and Pythias (or Phintias) symbolizes trust and loyalty in a true friendship. The use of Damon as a first name derives from this Damon.

Greek legend

As told by Aristoxenus, and after him Cicero and others, around the 4th century BC, Pythias and his friend Damon, both followers of the philosopher Pythagoras, traveled to Syracuse. Pythias was accused of plotting against the tyrant of Syracuse, Dionysius I. As punishment for this crime, Pythias was sentenced to death.

Accepting his sentence, Pythias asked to be allowed to return home one last time, to settle his affairs and bid his family farewell. Not wanting to be taken for a fool, Dionysius refused, believing that once released, Pythias would flee and never return.

Pythias called for Damon and asked him to take his spot while he went. Dionysius agreed, on the condition that, should Pythias not return when promised, Damon would be put to death in his place. Damon agreed, and Pythias was released.

Dionysius was convinced that Pythias would never return, and as the day Pythias promised to return came and went, Dionysius prepared to execute Damon. But just as the executioner was about to kill Damon, Pythias returned.

Apologizing to his friend for his delay, Pythias told of how pirates had captured his ship on the passage back to Syracuse and thrown him overboard. Dionysius listened to Pythias as he described how he swam to shore and made his way back to Syracuse as quickly as possible, arriving just in the nick of time to save his friend.

Dionysius was so taken with the friends' trust and loyalty, that he freed both Damon and Pythias, and kept them on as counsel to his court.

Works based on the legend

• In 1564, the material was made into a tragicomic play by the English poet Richard Edwards (Damon and Pythias).

• The best-known modern treatment of the legend is the German ballad Die Bürgschaft, written in 1799 by Friedrich Schiller, based on the Gesta Romanorum version. (In this work, Damon is sentenced to death, not Pythias.)

• In Japan, the short story "Run, Melos!" by Osamu Dazai and a nursery tale by Miekichi Suzuki were based on the legend, and in 1992 Toei Company, Ltd. adapted it into an anime.

• In 1821, the Irish poet John Banim wrote a play based on the legend (Damon and Pythias). Familiarity with this play led Justus H. Rathbone to found the fraternal order Knights of Pythias.

• A chapter in Little Men, Louisa May Alcott's 1871 novel, is titled "Damon and Pythias".

• The film The Delicate Delinquent (1957) featured characters "Mike Damon" (Darren McGavin, but imagined for Dean Martin) and "Sidney Pythias" (Jerry Lewis). As released, the film only vaguely resembled the legend - Pythias avoids jail - but it originated as a testament to the Martin & Lewis friendship.

• In 1961, Episode 13, Second Season of the TV comedy series My Three Sons, is entitled "Damon and Pythias".

• The 1962 MGM film Damon and Pythias remained true to the ancient story; it starred Guy Williams as Damon, and Don Burnett as Pythias.

• Part of the plot of the 2003 animated film Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas is based on Damon and Pythius.

• A short film entitled "Lines" was shot in Dallas, Texas in July 2007 by Twisted15 (Tw15t'D) (a collaboration of Twisted Reel Productions and Studio15) for entry into the 48 Hour Film Project. The main character, named Damon (though unspoken in the film, it is noted in the credits), mentions the "Pythias System". The entire film is loosely based on ideas from Pythagoras (of whom Damon and Pythias were followers). At the end of the film one can infer that Pythias has returned to Damon. The film won Best Cinematography.

• Leave It to Beaver, "Friendship" (7 May 1959: Season 2, Episode 32): Beaver and Larry get into an argument. Ward finds out that the two boys had a fight and abruptly end their friendship. Ward tells the story of Damon and Pythias. Beaver sees Larry and makes a friendship pact with him, like Damon and Pythias. Larry then asks to test it out. He wants to take Beaver's homework assignment because he did not do his. Beaver relents, giving Larry his homework. When Miss Landers collects the assignments, Beaver doesn't have his, and she makes him stay after school and lose recess privileges for a week. Larry shows no remorse, happy that Beaver is taking the fall for him; of course Larry actually does the right thing in the end.

Idiomatic use

"Damon and Pythias" came to be an idiomatic expression for "true friendship". Thus, Denis Diderot's short story, "The Two Friends from Bourbonne" (1770), begins "There used to be two men here who might be called the Damon and Pythias of Bourbonne." Bummer and Lazarus at Bummer's death (1865) were eulogized as "the Damon and Pythias of San Francisco".

In Robert Louis Stevenson's novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Henry Jekyll's two oldest friends, Dr. Lanyon and Mr. Utterson (a lawyer), have the following exchange while discussing Dr. Jekyll's apparent self-imposed isolation:

...said Utterson. “I thought you had a common bond of interest.” “We had,” was the reply. “But it is more than ten years since Henry Jekyll became too fanciful for me. He began to go wrong, wrong in the mind… Such unscientific balderdash,” said the doctor, flushing suddenly purple, “would have estranged Damon and Pythias.” This little spirit of temper was somewhat of a relief to Mr. Utterson. “They have only differed on some point of science,” he thought…

The use of the Damon-and-Pythias idiom would seem to indicate that, whether the difference was on a point of science or something else, it was not "only" some trivial difference.

Reference to this myth is also seen within Shakespeare's Hamlet, where the eponymous character addresses his close friend Horatio as "O Damon dear".

A reference to this myth is also seen in the story A Bell for Adano, where Captain Purvis's and Mayor Joppolo's friendship is compared to the friendship of Damon and Pythias because they dated sisters.

In 1997 the TV series "Highlander" starring Adrian Paul in an episode entitled "A Modern Prometheus", a character portraying Lord Byron references the dynamic duo of Damon and Pythias before he jumps with another man to their "death."

In the 1940 movie "The Philadelphia Story," Tracy Lord (Katherine Hepburn) remarks ironically that C. K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) and George Kittredge (John Howard) are just like Damon and Pythias.