Paralus and Xanthippus ( Gr. and ) were the two legitimate sons of

Pericles Pericles (; ; –429 BC) was a Greek statesman and general during the Golden Age of Athens. He was prominent and influential in Ancient Athenian politics, particularly between the Greco-Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War, and was acclaimed ...

, Xanthippus being the older one and Paralus the younger, and hence members of the Alcmaeonid family. Xanthippus was named after Pericles' father, while Paralus was named after the sacred trireme and flagship of the Athenian fleet. They were educated by their father with the greatest care, but they both appear to have been of inferior capacity, which was uncompensated by their poor worth of character, although contemporary and some later writers seemed to consider Paralus to have been a somewhat more hopeful youth with more potential than his brother. Both of them had the nickname of ''Blitomammas'' (, literally "cabbage sucker", an epithet for a slow or dim-witted person). Both Xanthippus and Paralus, along with their mother, fell victims to the plague in 429 BC. Pericles himself succumbed shortly thereafter.

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (, or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; ) was an ancient Greek rhetorician and Grammarian (Greco-Roman), grammarian, flourishing about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century ...

, xi. p. 505, 506

References

{{SmithDGRBM 429 BC deaths 5th-century BC Athenians 5th-century BC births Alcmaeonidae