text: The traditional story about his departure records that he was disappointed with the Academy's direction after control passed to Plato's nephew Speusippus, although it is possible that he feared the anti-Macedonian sentiments in Athens at that time and left before Plato died.Aristotle then accompanied Xenocrates to the court of his friend Hermias of Atarneus in Asia Minor.After the death of Hermias, Aristotle travelled with his pupil Theophrastus to the island of Lesbos, where together they researched the botany and zoology of the island and its sheltered lagoon.While in Lesbos, Aristotle married Pythias, either Hermias's adoptive daughter or niece.They had a daughter, whom they also named Pythias.In 343 BC, Aristotle was invited by Philip II of Macedon to become the tutor to his son Alexander.Aristotle was appointed as the head of the royal Academy of Macedon.During Aristotle's time in the Macedonian court, he gave lessons not only to Alexander but also to two other future kings: Ptolemy and Cassander.Aristotle encouraged Alexander toward eastern conquest, and Aristotle's own 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".By 335 BC, Aristotle 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.They had a son whom Aristotle named after his father, Nicomachus.If the Suda an uncritical compilation from the Middle Ages is accurate, he may also have had an erômenos, Palaephatus of Abydus.This period in Athens, between 335 and 323 BC, is when Aristotle is believed to have composed many of his works.