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- | Lives of the Eminent Philosophers | + | The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, |
- | ====== | + | ====== Diogenes Laertius: The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers Book 1 ====== |
- | ===== Prologue | + | ===== The Seven Sages ===== |
+ | ===== BOOK I ===== | ||
- | 1. There are some who say that the study of philosophy had its beginning among the barbarians. They urge that the Persians have had their Magi, the Babylonians or Assyrians their Chaldaeans, and the Indians their Gymnosophists; | + | ===== INTRODUCTION. ===== |
- | If we may believe the Egyptians, Hephaestus was the son of the Nile, and with him philosophy began, priests and prophets being its chief exponents. 2. Hephaestus lived 48,863 years before Alexander of Macedon, and in the interval there occurred 373 solar and 832 lunar eclipses. The date of the Magians, beginning with Zoroaster the Persian, was 5000 years before the fall of Troy, as given by Hermodorus the Platonist in his work on mathematics; | ||
- | 3. These authors forget | + | I. SOME say that the study of philosophy originated with the barbarians. In that among the Persians there existed the Magi,1 and among the Babylonians or Assyrians the Chaldaei,2 among the Indians the Gymnosophistae,3 and among the Celts and Gauls men who were called Druids4 and Semnothei, as Aristotle relates in his book on Magic, and Sotion in the twenty-third book of his Succession of Philosophers. Besides those men there were the Phoenician Ochus, the Thracian Zamolxis,5 and the Libyan Atlas. For the Egyptians say that Vulcan |
- | Musaeus, to his sire Eumolpus dear, | + | II. From his age to that of Alexander, king of the Macedonians, |
- | In Phalerean soil lies buried here; | + | |
- | and the Eumolpidae at Athens get their name from the father | + | Again, from the time of the Magi, the first of whom was Zoroaster the Persian, to that of the fall of Troy, Hermodorus the Platonic philosopher, |
- | 4. Linus again was (so it is said) the son of Hermes and the Muse Urania. He composed a poem describing | + | III. But those who say this, ignorantly impute to the barbarians the merits of the Greeks, from whom not only all philosophy, but even the whole human race in reality originated. For Musaeus was born among the Athenians, and Linus among the Thebans; and they say that the former, who was the son of Eumolpus, was the first person who taught |
- | | + | |
+ | Musaeus dead, Eumolpus' | ||
- | and this idea was borrowed by Anaxagoras when he declared | + | And it is from the father of Musaeus |
- | | + | |
- | | + | |
- | And thus it was from the Greeks | + | From which Anaxagoras derived his theory, when he said that all things had been produced at the same time, and that then intellect had come and arranged them all in order. |
- | 5. But those who attribute its invention to barbarians bring forward Orpheus the Thracian, calling him a philosopher of whose antiquity there can be no doubt. Now, considering the sort of things he said about the gods, I hardly know whether he ought to be called a philosopher; | + | They say, moreover, that Linus died in Euboea, having been shot with an arrow by Apollo, and that this epitaph was set over him: |
- | | + | |
- | | + | |
- | 6. But the advocates of the theory that philosophy | + | IV. And thus did philosophy |
- | 8. With the art of magic they were wholly unacquainted, | + | Here the bard buried by the Muses lies, |
+ | The Thracian Orpheus | ||
+ | Whom mighty Jove, the Sovereign | ||
+ | Removed from earth by his dread lightning' | ||
- | 10. The philosophy of the Egyptians is described as follows so far as relates to the gods and to justice. They say that matter was the first principle, next the four elements were derived from matter, and thus living things | + | V. But they who say that philosophy had its rise among the barbarians, give also an account |
- | 12. But the first to use the term, and to call himself a philosopher | + | VI. Accordingly Clitarchus, in his twelfth book, says that the Gymnosophists despise death, and that the Chaldaeans study astronomy and the science of soothsaying--that the Magi occupy themselves about the service |
- | 13. The men who were commonly regarded | + | VII. The following is the account that authors give of the philosophy of the Egyptians, |
- | But philosophy, the pursuit of wisdom, has had a twofold origin; it started with Anaximander on the one hand, with Pythagoras on the other. The former was a pupil of Thales, Pythagoras was taught by Pherecydes. The one school was called Ionian, because Thales, a Milesian | + | They also have made laws about justice, which they attribute to Mercury, and they consider those animals which are useful to be gods. They claim to themselves |
- | 15. There is another which ends with Chrysippus, that is to say by passing from Socrates to Antisthenes, then to Diogenes the Cynic, Crates of Thebes, Zeno of Citium, Cleanthes, Chrysippus. And yet again another ends with Theophrastus; | + | VIII. But Pythagoras was the first person who invented the term Philosophy, and who called himself a philosopher; |
- | In the Italian school the order of succession is as follows: first Pherecydes, next Pythagoras, next his son Telauges, then Xenophanes, Parmenides, | + | But the wise men were also called Sophists. And not only they, but poets also were called Sophists: |
- | 16. Philosophers may be divided into dogmatists and sceptics: all those who make assertions about things assuming that they can be known are dogmatists; while all who suspend their judgement on the ground that things are unknowable are sceptics. Again, some philosophers left writings behind them, while others wrote nothing at all, as was the case according to some authorities with Socrates, Stilpo, Philippus, Menedemus, Pyrrho, Theodorus, Carneades, Bryson; some add Pythagoras and Aristo of Chios, except that they wrote a few letters. Others wrote no more than one treatise each, as Melissus, Parmenides, Anaxagoras. Many works were written by Zeno, more by Xenophanes, more by Democritus, more by Aristotle, more by Epicurus, and still more by Chrysippus. 17. Some schools took their name from cities, as the Elians and the Megarians, the Eretrians and the Cyrenaics; others from localities, as the Academics | + | IX. Now these were they who were accounted wise men. Thales, Solon, Periander, Cleobulus, Chilo, Bias, Pittacus. To these men add Anacharsis the Scythian, Myson the Chenean, Pherecydes |
- | 18. Philosophy | + | X. But of Philosophy |
- | 19. The founders of these schools were: of the Old Academy, Plato; | + | Antisthenes was the pupil of Socrates, and the master |
- | Hippobotus in his work On Philosophical Sects declares that there are nine sects or schools, and gives them in this order: (1) Megarian, (2) Eretrian, (3) Cyrenaic, (4) Epicurean, (5) Annicerean, | + | Aristotle was the pupil of Plato, Theophrastus |
- | 21. One word more: not long ago an Eclectic | + | Now the Italian |
- | It remains to speak of the philosophers | + | XI. Now, of Philosophers some were dogmatic and others were inclined to suspend their opinions. By dogmatic, I mean those who explain their opinions about matters, as if they could be comprehended. By those who suspend their opinions, I mean those who give no positive judgment, thinking that these things cannot be comprehended. And the former class have left many memorials of themselves; but the others have never written a line; as for instance, according to some people, Socrates, and Stilpo, and Philippus, and Menedemus, and Pyrrho, and Theodorus, and Carneades, and Bryson; and, as some people say, Pythagoras, and Aristo |
- | ===== Thales ===== | + | XII. Again, of philosophers some derived a surname from cities, as, the Elians, and Megaric sect, the Eretrians, and the Cyrenaics. Some from the places which they frequented, as the Academics and Stoics. Some from accidental circumstances, |
+ | Some again from their dispositions, | ||
- | 22. Herodotus, Duris, and Democritus | + | The Dialecticians |
- | 23. After engaging in politics he became a student | + | XIII. Now there are three divisions |
- | Who first of men the course made plain | + | Natural philosophy prevailed till the time of Archelaus; but after the time of Socrates, Ethical philosophy was predominant; |
- | Of those small stars we call the Wain, | + | |
- | Whereby Phoenicians sail the main.[18] | + | |
- | But according to others he wrote nothing but two treatises, one On the Solstice and one On the Equinox, regarding all other matters as incognizable. He seems by some accounts to have been the first to study astronomy,[19] the first to predict eclipses of the sun and to fix the solstices; so Eudemus in his History of Astronomy. It was this which gained for him the admiration | + | Ethical philosophy was subdivided into ten sects; the Academic, the Cyrenaic, |
- | 24. And some, including Choerilus the poet, declare | + | But Hippobotus, in his Treatise on Sects, says that there are nine sects and schools: |
- | Aristotle[20] and Hippias affirm that, arguing from the magnet and from amber, he attributed a soul or life even to inanimate objects. Pamphila states that, having learnt geometry from the Egyptians, he was the first to inscribe a right-angled triangle in a circle, whereupon he sacrificed an ox. Others tell this tale of Pythagoras, amongst them Apollodorus | + | These, then, are the beginnings, these are the successive masters, these are the divisions, and schools of philosophy. |
- | Thales is also credited with having given excellent advice on political matters. For instance, when Croesus sent to Miletus offering terms of alliance, he frustrated | + | XIV. Moreover, it is not long ago, that a new Eclectic school was set up by Potamo, of Alexandria, who picked out of the doctrines of each school what pleased him most. And as he himself says, in his Elementary Instruction, |
- | 27. His doctrine was that water is the universal primary substance, | + | But we must now speak of the men themselves; |
+ | Notes by Yonge | ||
- | He had no instructor, except that he went to Egypt and spent some time with the priests there. Hieronymus informs us that he measured | + | 1. "The religion of the ancient Persians was the worship of fire or of the elements, in which fire was symbolical of the Deity. At a later period in the time of the Greeks, the ancient worship was changed into the adoration |
- | The well-known story of the tripod found by the fishermen | + | 2. "The Chaldeans were devoted to the worship |
- | Who shall possess the tripod? Thus replies | + | 3. "Cicero speaks of those who in India are accounted philosophers, |
- | Apollo: " | + | |
- | Accordingly they give it to Thales, and he to another, and so on till it comes to Solon, who, with the remark that the god was the most wise, sent it off to Delphi. Callimachus in his Iambics has a different version | + | 4. "The religion of the Britons was one of the most considerable parts of their government, and the Druids who were their priests, possessed great authority among them. Besides ministering at the altar, and directing all religious duties, they presided over the education of youth; they possessed both the civil and criminal jurisdiction; |
- | Lord of the folk of Neleus' | + | "No species |
- | Thales, of Greeks adjudged most wise, | + | |
- | Brings | + | |
- | His offering, a twice-won prize. | + | |
- | But the prose inscription is: | + | 5. Zamolxis, or Zalmoxis, so called from the bear-skin (zalmos) in which he was wrapped as soon as he was born, was a Getan, and a slave cf Pythagoras at Samos; having been emancipated by his master, he travelled into Egypt; and on his return to his own country he introduced the ideas which he had acquired in his travels on the subject of civilisation, |
- | Thales | + | 6. The real time of Zoroaster is, as may be supposed, very uncertain, but he is said by some eminent writers to have lived in the time of Darius Hystaspes; though others, apparently on better grounds, place him at a very far earlier date. He is not mentioned by Herodotus at all. His native country too is very uncertain. Some writers, among whom are Ctesias and Ammian, call him a Bactrian, while Porphyry speaks of him as a Chaldaean, and Pliny as a native of Proconnesus; |
- | The bowl was carried from place to place by the son of Bathycles, whose name was Thyrion, so it is stated by Eleusis in his work On Achilles, and Alexo the Myndian in the ninth book of his Legends. | + | . . . As a legislator, Zoroaster " |
- | But Eudoxus of Cnidos and Euanthes of Miletus agree that a certain man who was a friend of Croesus received from the king a golden goblet in order to bestow it upon the wisest of the Greeks; this man gave it to Thales, and from him it passed to others and so to Chilon. | + | 7. This is the account given by Virgil: |
- | 30. Chilon laid the question "Who is a wiser man than I?" before the Pythian Apollo, and the god replied "Myson." Of him we shall have more to say presently. (In the list of the Seven Sages given by Eudoxus, Myson takes the place of Cleobulus; Plato also includes him by omitting Periander.) The answer of the oracle respecting him was as follows[27]: | + | Spretae Ciconum quo munere matres |
+ | Inter sacra Deum nocturnique orgia Bacchi, | ||
+ | Discerptum latos juvenem sparsere per agros.-GEORG. IV.520. | ||
- | Myson of Chen in Oeta; this is he | + | Which Dryden translates: |
- | Who for wiseheartedness surpasseth thee; | + | |
- | and it was given in reply to a question put by Anacharsis. Daimachus | + | The Thracian matrons who the youth accus' |
+ | Of love disdain' | ||
+ | With furies | ||
+ | At length against his sacred life conspir' | ||
+ | Whom ev' | ||
+ | And strew' | ||
- | The story told by Andron[28] in his work on The Tripod is that the Argives offered a tripod as a prize of virtue to the wisest of the Greeks; Aristodemus of Sparta was adjudged the winner but retired in favour of Chilon. 31. Aristodemus is mentioned by Alcaeus thus:[29] | + | ===== LIFE OF THALES ===== |
- | Surely no witless word was this of the Spartan, I deem, | ||
- | " | ||
- | Some relate that a vessel with its freight was sent by Periander to Thrasybulus, tyrant of Miletus, and that, when it was wrecked in Coan waters, | + | I. THALES, then, as Herodotus |
- | There is yet another version, that it was the work of Hephaestus presented by the god to Pelops on his marriage. Thence it passed | + | II. After having been immersed in state affairs he applied himself |
- | | + | |
- | | + | |
- | | + | |
- | Whose wisdom makes past, present, future clear. | + | |
- | That of the Milesians beginning "Who shall possess | + | According to others he wrote two books, and no more, about the solstice and the equinox; thinking that everything else was easily to be comprehended. According to other statements, he is said to have been the first who studied astronomy, and who foretold the eclipses and motions |
- | Hermippus in his Lives refers to Thales the story which is told by some of Socrates, namely, | + | III. Some again (one of whom is Choerilus the poet) say that he was the first person who affirmed that the souls of men were immortal; and he was the first person, too, who discovered the path of the sun from one end of the ecliptic to the other; and who, as one account tells us, defined the magnitude of the sun as being seven hundred and twenty times as great as that of the moon. He was also the first person who called the last day of the month the thirtieth. And likewise the first to converse about natural philosophy, as some say. But Aristotle |
- | Thales among the Seven the sage astronomer. | + | IV. Some assert that he was married, and that he had a son named Cybisthus; others, on the contrary, say that he never had a wife, but that he adopted |
- | His writings are said by Lobon of Argos to have run to some two hundred lines. His statue is said to bear this inscription: | + | V. |
- | Pride of Miletus | + | VI. He asserted water to be the principle |
- | Wisest astronomer, here Thales stands. | + | |
- | 35. Of songs still sung these verses belong | + | VII. Now it is known to every one what happened with respect to the tripod that was found by the fishermen and sent to the wise men by the people of the Milesians, For they say that some Ionian youths bought a cast of their nets from some Milesian fishermen. And when the tripod was drawn up in the net there was a dispute about it; until the Milesians sent to Delphi: and the God gave them the following answer: |
- | | + | |
- | Seek one sole wisdom. | + | |
- | Choose one sole good. | + | |
- | | + | |
- | Here too are certain current apophthegms assigned | + | Accordingly they gave it to Thales, and he gave it to someone, who again handed it over to another, till it came to Solon. But he said that it was the God himself who was the first in wisdom; and so he sent it to Delphi. But Callimachus gives a different account of this in his Iambic taking the tradition which he mentions from Leander the Milesian; for he says that a certain Arcadian of the name of Bathycles, when dying, left a goblet behind |
- | | + | |
- | The most beautiful is the universe, for it is God' | + | |
- | The greatest is space, for it holds all things. | + | |
- | | + | |
- | The strongest, necessity, for it masters all. | + | |
- | The wisest, time, for it brings everything | + | |
- | He held there was no difference between life and death. "Why then," said one, "do you not die?" " | + | And the prose inscription runs thus: |
- | Apollodorus in his Chronology places his birth in the first year of the 35th Olympiad.[32] 38. He died at the age of 78 (or, according | + | Thales |
- | There have lived five other men who bore the name of Thales, as enumerated by Demetrius | + | And the name of the son of Bathycles who carved the goblet about from one to the other, was Thyrion, as Eleusis tells us in his History |
- | | + | |
- | | + | |
- | | + | |
- | A person mentioned by Duris in his work On Painting. | + | |
- | An obscure person in more recent times who is mentioned by Dionysius in his Critical Writings. | + | |
- | 39. Thales | + | The person who went to the temple to ask the question |
- | | + | |
- | | + | Uttered |
+ | | ||
+ | Is counted neither good nor honourable. | ||
- | I may also cite one of my own, from my first book, Epigrams | + | But some say that a vessel fully loaded was sent by Periander to Thrasybulus the tyrant |
- | | + | |
- | | + | |
- | | + | |
- | | + | |
+ | Is from your city sent, and justly given | ||
+ | To that wise being who knows all present things, | ||
+ | And all that's past, and all that is to come. | ||
- | 40. To him belongs | + | And the reply given to the Milesians |
- | This seems the proper place for a general notice of the Seven Sages, of whom we have such accounts as the following. Damon of Cyrene in his History of the Philosophers carps at all sages, but especially the Seven. Anaximenes remarks that they all applied themselves to poetry; Dicaearchus that they were neither sages nor philosophers, | + | You ask about the tripod |
- | Chilon of Lacedaemon' | + | and so on, as I have related it before. And now we have said enough on this subject. |
- | Nothing too much; good comes from measure due. | + | |
- | Nor is there any agreement how the number is made up; for Maeandrius, in place of Cleobulus and Myson, includes Leophantus, son of Gorgiadas, of Lebedus or Ephesus, and Epimenides the Cretan in the list; Plato in his Protagoras admits Myson and leaves out Periander; Ephorus substitutes Anacharsis | + | But Hermippus, in his Lives, refers to Thales what has been by some people reported |
- | Here follow | + | VIII. It is said that once he was led out of his house by an old woman for the purpose |
- | Thales | + | Like Thales, wisest of the seven sages, |
+ | That great astronomer. | ||
- | 43. "I hear that you intend to be the first Ionian to expound theology to the Greeks. | + | And Lobon, of Argos, says, that which was written by him extends |
- | Thales | + | Miletus, fairest of Ionian cities, |
+ | Gave birth to Thales, great astronomer, | ||
+ | Wisest of mortals in all kinds of knowledge. | ||
- | "If you leave Athens, it seems to me that you could most conveniently set up your abode at Miletus, which is an Athenian colony; for there you incur no risk. If you are vexed at the thought that we are governed by a tyrant, hating | + | IX. And these are quoted |
- | ===== Solon ===== | + | It is not many words that real wisdom proves; |
+ | Breathe rather one wise thought, | ||
+ | Select one worthy object, | ||
+ | So shall you best the endless prate of silly men reprove.— | ||
+ | And the following are quoted as sayings of his: "God is the most ancient of all things, for he had no birth: the world is the most beautiful of things, for it is the work of God: place is the greatest of things, for it contains all things: intellect is the swiftest of things, for it runs through everything: necessity is the strongest of things, for it rules everything: time is the wisest of things, for it finds out everything." | ||
- | 45. Solon , the son of Execestides, was born at Salamis. His first achievement | + | He said also that there was no difference between life and death. "Why, then," said some one to him, "do not you die?" " |
- | He next went on to frame the rest of his laws, which would take time to enumerate, and inscribed them on the revolving pillars. | + | X. |
- | 46. His greatest service was this: Megara and Athens laid rival claims to his birthplace Salamis, and after many defeats | + | XI. There have also been other men of the name of Thales, as Demetrius of Magnesia says, in his Treatise on People |
- | Would I were citizen of some mean isle | + | XII. But this wise Thales died while present as a spectator at a gymnastic contest, being worn out with heat and thirst and weakness, |
- | Far in the Sporades! For men shall smile | + | |
- | And mock me for Athenian: "Who is this?" | + | |
- | "An Attic slave who gave up Salamis"; | + | |
- | and[39] | + | You see this tomb is small—but recollect, |
+ | The fame of Thales reaches to the skies. | ||
- | Then let us fight for Salamis and fair fame, | + | I have also myself composed this epigram on him in the first book of my epigrams or poems in various metres: |
- | Win the beloved isle, and purge our shame! | + | |
- | He also persuaded | + | O mighty sun our wisest Thales sat |
+ | Spectator of the games, when you did seize upon him; | ||
+ | But you were right to take him near yourself, | ||
+ | Now that his aged sight could scarcely reach to heaven. | ||
- | Ajax twelve ships from Salamis commands, | + | XIII. The apophthegm, "know yourself," |
- | Solon inserted one of his own: | + | XIV. Now concerning the seven, (for it is well here to speak of them all together,) the following traditions are handed down. Damon the Cyrenaean, who wrote about the philosophers, |
- | | + | |
+ | Seek no excess—all timely things are good | ||
- | 49. Thereafter | + | There is also a difference of opinion with respect to their number. Leander inserts in the number instead of Cleobulus |
- | A little while, and the event will show | + | XV. The following letters are preserved as having been written by Thales: |
- | To all the world if I be mad or no. | + | |
- | 50. That he foresaw the tyranny of Pisistratus is proved by a passage from a poem of his:[43] | + | THALES TO PHERECYDES. |
- | | + | |
- | Clouds | + | |
- | So from proud men comes ruin, and their state | + | |
- | Falls unaware | + | |
- | When Pisistratus was already established, | ||
- | 51. There is a story that Croesus in magnificent array sat himself down on his throne and asked Solon if he had ever seen anything more beautiful. " | + | THALES TO SOLON. |
- | 52. If ye have suffered sadly through your own wickedness, lay not the blame for this upon the gods. For it is you yourselves who gave pledges | + | XVI. |
- | Thus Solon. After he had gone into exile Pisistratus wrote to him as follows: | ||
- | Pisistratus to Solon | ||
- | 53. "I am not the only man who has aimed at a tyranny in Greece, nor am I, a descendant of Codrus, unfitted for the part. That is, I resume the privileges which the Athenians swore to confer upon Codrus and his family, although later they took them away. In everything else I commit no offence against God or man; but I leave to the Athenians the management of their affairs according to the ordinances established by you. And they are better governed than they would be under a democracy; for I allow no one to extend his rights, and though I am tyrant I arrogate to myself no undue share of reputation and honour, but merely such stated privileges as belonged to the kings in former times. Every citizen pays a tithe of his property, not to me but to a fund for defraying the cost of the public sacrifices or any other charges on the State or the expenditure on any war which may come upon us. | ||
- | 54. "I do not blame you for disclosing my designs; you acted from loyalty to the city, not through any enmity to me, and further, in ignorance | + | 1. This was the temple |
- | 55. So far Pisistratus. To return to Solon: one of his sayings is that 70 years are the term of man's life. | + | The Bohn original has " |
- | He seems to have enacted some admirable laws; for instance, if any man neglects to provide for his parents, he shall be disfranchised; | + | ===== LIFE OF SOLON ===== |
- | 56. The effect of this was that many strove to acquit themselves as gallant soldiers in battle, like Polyzelus, Cynegirus, Callimachus and all who fought at Marathon; or again like Harmodius and Aristogiton, | ||
- | Are worn threadbare, cloaks that have lost the nap; | + | I.SOLON the son of Execestides, a native of Salamis, was the first person who introduced among the Athenians, an ordinance for the lowering1 of debts; for this was the name given to the release of the bodies and possessions of the debtors. For men used to borrow on the security of their own persons, and many became slaves in consequence of their inability to pay; and as seven talents were owed to him as a part of his paternal inheritance when he succeeded to it, he was the first person who made a composition with his debtors, and who exhorted the other men who had money owing to them to do likewise, and this ordinance was called seisachtheia; |
- | and Solon, perceiving this, treated them with scant respect.[46] Excellent, too, is his provision that the guardian of an orphan should not marry the mother of his ward, and that the next heir who would succeed on the death of the orphans | + | II. But what was his most important act of all was, when there had been a great dispute about his native land Salamis, between |
- | He has provided | + | Would that I were a man of Pholegandros,2 |
+ | Or small Sicinna,3 rather than of Athens: | ||
+ | For soon this will a common proverb be, | ||
+ | That's an Athenian | ||
- | 58. Solon was the first to call the 30th day of the month the Old-and-New day, and to institute meetings of the nine archons for private conference, as stated by Apollodorus in the second book of his work On Legislators. When civil strife began, he did not take sides with those in the city, nor with the plain, nor yet with-the coast section. | + | And another |
- | One of his sayings is: Speech is the mirror of action; and another that the strongest and most capable is king. He compared laws to spiders' | + | Let's go and fight for lovely Salamis, |
+ | And wipe off this our present infamy. | ||
- | Would that by no disease, no cares opprest, | + | He also persuaded them to take possession of the Thracian Chersonesus, |
- | I in my sixtieth year were laid to rest; | + | |
- | 61. and to have replied thus:[49] | + | With these appear the Salaminian bands, |
+ | Whom Telamon' | ||
- | Oh take a friend' | + | These other verses: |
- | Grudge not if my invention better thine; | + | |
- | Surely a wiser wish were thus expressed, | + | |
- | At eighty years let me be laid to rest. | + | |
- | Of the songs sung this is attributed | + | In twelve black ships to Troy they steer their course, |
+ | And with the great Athenians join their force.4 | ||
- | Watch every man and see whether, | + | III. And ever after this time the people was willingly obedient to him, and was contented to be governed by him: but he did not choose to be their ruler, and moreover, as Sosicrates relates, he, as far as in him lay, hindered also his relative Pisistratus from being so, when he saw that he was inclined to such a step. Rushing into one of the assemblies armed with a spear and shield, he forewarned the people of the design of Pisistratus, and not only that but told them that he was prepared to assist them; and these were his words: "Ye men of Athens, I am wiser than some of you, and braver than others. Wiser than those of you who do not perceive the treachery of Pisistratus; |
- | hiding hatred | + | |
- | | + | |
- | | + | |
- | He is undoubtedly the author of the laws which bear his name; of speeches, and of poems in elegiac metre, namely, counsels addressed | + | A short time will to all my madness prove, |
+ | When stern reality presents itself. | ||
- | 62. His statue has the following inscription: | + | And these elegiac verses were written by him about the tyranny of Pisistratus, |
- | | + | |
- | | + | And thunder after brilliant lightning roars, |
+ | | ||
+ | The ignorant mob becoming slaves to kings. | ||
- | He flourished, according to Sosicrates, about the 46th Olympiad, in the third year of which he was archon at Athens;[52] it was then that he enacted his laws. He died in Cyprus at the age of eighty. His last injunctions to his relations were on this wise: that they should convey | + | IV. And when Pisistratus had obtained the supreme power, he, as he would not influence him, laid down his arms before |
- | This is my island home; my dust, men say, | + | V. And when he learnt that Pisistratus continued to rule in Athens as a tyrant, he wrote these verses on the Athenians: |
- | Is scattered far and wide o'er Ajax' land. | + | |
- | 63. An epigram of my own is also contained in the collection | + | If through your vices you afflicted are, |
+ | Lay not the blame of your distress on God; | ||
+ | You made your rulers mighty, gave them guards, | ||
+ | So now you groan 'neath slavery' | ||
+ | Each one of you now treads | ||
+ | Bearing a weak, inconstant, faithless mind, | ||
+ | Trusting the tongue | ||
+ | Though in his acts alone you truth can find. | ||
- | Far Cyprian fire his body burnt; his bones, | + | This, then, he said to them. |
- | Turned into dust, made grain at Salamis: | + | |
- | Wheel-like, his pillars bore his soul on high; | + | |
- | So light the burden of his laws on men. | + | |
- | It is said that he was the author of the apophthegm " | + | VI. But Pisistratus, when he was leaving Athens, wrote him a letter in the following terms: |
- | The following letters are attributed to Solon: | + | PISISTRATUS TO SOLON. |
- | Solon to Periander | + | I am not the only one of the Greeks who has seized the sovereignty of his country, nor am I one who had no right whatever |
- | 64. "You tell me that many are plotting against | + | But I do not blame you for laying open my plans, for I know that you did so out of regard for the city rather than out of dislike to me; and also because you did not know what sort of government I was about to establish; since, if you had been acquainted with it, you would have been content |
- | Solon to Epimenides | + | Thus wrote Pisistratus. |
- | "It seems that after all I was not to confer much benefit on Athenians by my laws, any more than you by purifying | + | VII. Solon also said, that the limit of human life was seventy years, and he appears |
- | 65. "Nor are my laws nor all my enactments any better; but the popular leaders did the commonwealth harm by permitting licence, and could not hinder Pisistratus from setting up a tyranny. And, when I warned them, they would not believe me. He found more credit when he flattered the people than I when I told them the truth. I laid my arms down before the generals' | + | But as for the Athletes, their training is very expensive, and their victories injurious, and they are crowned rather |
- | Solon to Pisistratus | + | They' |
- | "I am sure that I shall suffer | + | IX. So Solon, appreciating these facts, treated them with moderation. This also was an admirable regulation of his, that a guardian of orphans should not live with their mother, and that no one should be appointed a guardian, to whom the orphans' |
- | Solon to Croesus | + | Full fifty more from Athens stem the main. |
- | "I admire you for your kindness to me; and, by Athena, if I had not been anxious before all things to live in a democracy, I would rather have fixed my abode in your palace than at Athens, where Pisistratus is setting up a rule of violence. But in truth to live in a place where all have equal rights is more to my liking. However, I will come and see you, for I am eager to make your acquaintance." | + | And the rest of that passage—"And Solon was the first person who called the thirtieth day of the month evê kai nea."7 |
- | ===== Chilon ===== | + | He was the first person also who assembled the nine archons together to deliver their opinions, as Apollodorus tells us in the second book of his Treatise on Lawgivers. And once, when there was a sedition in the city, he took part neither with the citizens, nor with the inhabitants of the plain, nor with the men of the sea-coast. |
+ | X. He used to say, too, that speech was the image of actions, and that the king was the mightiest man as to his power; but that laws were like cobwebs—for that if any trifling or powerless thing fell into them, they held it fast; but if a thing of any size fell into them, it broke the meshes and escaped. He used also to say that discourse ought to be sealed by silence, and silence by opportunity. It was also a saying of his, that those who had influence with tyrants, were like the pebbles which are used in making calculations; | ||
- | 68. Chilon , son of Damagetas, was a Lacedaemonian. He wrote a poem in elegiac metre some 200 lines in length; and he declared that the excellence of a man is to divine the future so far as it can be grasped by reason. When his brother grumbled that he was not made ephor as Chilon was, the latter replied, "I know how to submit to injustice and you do not." He was made ephor in the 55th Olympiad; Pamphila, however, says the 56th. He first became ephor, according | + | XI. He it was who taught |
- | As Herodotus relates in his first book, when Hippocrates was sacrificing at Olympia and his cauldrons boiled of their own accord, it was Chilon who advised him not to marry, or, if he had a wife, to divorce her and disown his children. 69. The tale is also told that he inquired of Aesop what Zeus was doing and received the answer: "He is humbling | + | XII. He gave the following advice, as is recorded by Apollodorus in his Treatise on the Sects of Philosophers: " |
- | 71. Of his songs the most popular is the following: "By the whetstone gold is tried, giving manifest proof; and by gold is the mind of good and evil men brought to the test." He is reported to have said in his old age that he was not aware of having ever broken the law throughout his life; but on one point he was not quite clear. In a suit in which a friend of his was concerned he himself pronounced sentence according to the law, but he persuaded his colleague who was his friend to acquit the accused, in order at once to maintain the law and yet not to lose his friend. | + | XIII. They say also that when Mimnermus had written: |
- | He became very famous in Greece by his warning about the island of Cythera off the Laconian coast. For, becoming acquainted with the nature of the island, he exclaimed: "Would it had never been placed there, or else had been sunk in the depths of the sea." 72. And this was a wise warning; for Demaratus, when an exile from Sparta, advised Xerxes to anchor | + | Happy' |
+ | And dies contented | ||
- | He was a man of few words; hence Aristagoras of Miletus calls this style of speaking Chilonean. . . . is of Branchus, founder of the temple at Branchidae. Chilon was an old man about the 52nd Olympiad, when Aesop the fabulist was flourishing. According to Hermippus, his death took place at Pisa, just after he had congratulated his son on an Olympic victory in boxing. It was due to excess of joy coupled with the weakness of a man stricken in years. And all present joined in the funeral procession. | + | Solon rebuked him, and said: |
- | I have written an epitaph on him also, which runs as follows: | + | Be guided now by me, erase this verse, |
+ | Nor envy me if I'm more wise than you. | ||
+ | If you write thus, your wish would not be worse, | ||
+ | May I be eighty ere death lays me low. | ||
- | 73. I praise thee, Pollux, for that Chilon' | + | The following are some lines out of his poems: |
- | By boxing feats the olive chaplet won. | + | |
- | Nor at the father' | + | |
- | He died of joy; may such a death be mine. | + | |
- | The inscription on his statue runs thus:[57] | + | Watch well each separate citizen, |
+ | Lest having in his heart of hearts | ||
+ | A secret spear, one still may come | ||
+ | Saluting you with cheerful face, | ||
+ | And utter with a double tongue | ||
+ | | ||
- | Here Chilon stands, of Sparta' | + | As for his having made laws, that is notorious; he also composed speeches to the people, and a book of suggestions to himself, and some elegiac poems, and five thousand verses about Salamis and the constitution |
- | Who of the Sages Seven holds highest place. | + | |
- | His apophthegm is: "Give a pledge, and suffer for it." A short letter | + | XV. And on his statue |
- | Chilon to Periander | + | Salamis that checked the Persian insolence, |
+ | Brought forth this holy lawgiver, wise Solon. | ||
- | "You tell me of an expedition against foreign enemies, in which you yourself will take the field. In my opinion affairs | + | He flourished about the forty-sixth Olympiad, in the third year of which he was archon |
- | ===== Pittacus ===== | + | And as men say, I still this isle inhabit, |
+ | Sown o'er the whole of Ajax' famous city. | ||
+ | There is also an epigram in the before mentioned collection of poems, in various metres, in which I have made a collection of notices of all the illustrious men that have ever died, in every kind of metre and rhythm, in epigrams and odes. And it runs thus: | ||
- | 74. Pittacus was the son of Hyrrhadius and a native of Mitylene. Duris calls his father a Thracian. Aided by the brothers of Alcaeus he overthrew Melanchrus, tyrant of Lesbos; and in the war between Mitylene and Athens for the territory of Achileis he himself had the chief command on the one side, and Phrynon, who had won an Olympic victory in the pancratium, commanded the Athenians. Pittacus agreed to meet him in single combat; with a net which he concealed beneath | + | The Cyprian flame devour' |
+ | Far in a foreign land; but Salamis | ||
+ | Retains | ||
+ | The tablets of his laws do bear aloft | ||
+ | His mind to heaven. Such a burden light | ||
+ | Are these immortal rules to th' happy wood. | ||
- | 75. At the time, however, the people | + | XVI. He also, as some say, was the author |
- | 76. Pamphila in the second book of her Memorabilia narrates that, as his son Tyrraeus sat in a barber' | + | XVII. The following letters also are attributed |
- | Among the laws which he made is one providing that for any offence committed in a state of intoxication the penalty should be doubled; his object was to discourage drunkenness, | + | SOLON TO PERIANDER. |
- | Of his songs the most popular | + | You send me word that many people are plotting against you; but if you were to think of putting everyone of them out of the way, you would do no good; but some one whom you do not suspect would still plot against you, partly because he would fear for himself, and partly out of dislike to you for fearing all sorts of things; and he would think, too, that he would make the city grateful to him, even if you were not suspected. It is better, therefore, to abstain from the tyranny, in order to escape from blame. But if you absolutely must be a tyrant, then you had better provide for having a foreign force in the city superior to that of the citizens; and then no one need be formidable to you, nor need you put any one out of the way. |
- | With bow and well-stored quiver | ||
- | We must march against our foe, | ||
- | Words of his tongue can no man trust, | ||
- | For in his heart there is a deceitful thought. | ||
- | 79. He also wrote poems in elegiac metre, some 600 lines, and a prose work On Laws for the use of the citizens. | + | SOLON TO EPIMENIDES. |
- | He was flourishing about the 42nd Olympiad. He died in the archonship of Aristomenes, in the third year of the 52nd Olympiad,[59] having lived more than seventy years, to a good old age. The inscription | + | XVIII. My laws were not destined to be long of service to the Athenians, nor have you done any great good by purifying |
- | Here holy Lesbos, with a mother' | ||
- | Bewails her Pittacus whom death laid low. | ||
- | To him belongs the apophthegm, "Know thine opportunity." | + | SOLON TO PISISTRATUS. |
- | There was another Pittacus, | + | I am well assured that I should suffer no evil at your hands. For before your assumption of the tyranny I was a friend |
- | To return to the Sage: the story goes that a young man took counsel with him about marriage, and received this answer, as given by Callimachus in his Epigrams: | ||
- | 80. A stranger of Atarneus thus inquired of | + | SOLON TO CROESUS. |
- | Pittacus, the son of Hyrrhadius: | + | |
- | Old sire, two offers of marriage are made to me; | + | |
- | the one bride is in wealth and birth my equal; | + | |
- | The other is my superior. Which is the better? | + | |
- | Come now and advise me which of the two I shall wed. | + | |
- | So spake he. But Pittacus, raising his staff, | + | |
- | an old man's weapon, | + | |
- | said, "See there, yonder boys will tell you the whole tale." | + | |
- | The boys were whipping their tops to make them go fast | + | |
- | and spinning them in a wide open space. | + | |
- | " | + | |
- | So he approached near, | + | |
- | and the boys were saying, | + | |
- | "Keep to your own sphere." | + | |
- | When he heard this, the stranger desisted from | + | |
- | aiming at the lordlier match, | + | |
- | assenting to the warning of the boys. | + | |
- | And, even as he led home the humble bride, | + | |
- | so do you, Dion, keep to your own sphere. | + | |
- | 81. The advice seems to have been prompted by his situation. For he had married | + | XX. I thank you for your goodwill towards me. And, by Minerva, if I did not think it precious above everything to live in a democracy, I would willingly prefer living |
- | Alcaeus nicknamed him σαράπους and σάραπος because he had flat feet and dragged them in walking; also " | ||
- | The following short letter is ascribed to him: | ||
- | Pittacus to Croesus | ||
- | "You bid me come to Lydia in order to see your prosperity: but without seeing it I can well believe that the son of Alyattes is the most opulent of kings. There will be no advantage to me in a journey to Sardis, for I am not in want of money, and my possessions are sufficient for my friends as well as myself. Nevertheless, | + | 1. Vide Thirlwall, Hist. of Greece, ii. p. 34. |
- | ===== Bias ===== | + | 2. One of the Sporades. |
+ | 3. An island near Crete. | ||
- | 82. Bias , the son of Teutames, was born at Priene, and by Satyrus is placed at the head of the Seven Sages. Some make him of a wealthy family, but Duris says he was a labourer living in the house. Phanodicus relates that he ransomed certain Messenian maidens captured in war and brought them up as his daughters, gave them dowries, and restored them to their fathers in Messenia. In course of time, as has been already related, the bronze tripod with the inscription "To him that is wise" having been found at Athens by the fishermen, the maidens according to Satyrus, or their father according to other accounts, including that of Phanodicus, came forward into the assembly and, after the recital of their own adventures, pronounced Bias to be wise. And thereupon the tripod was dispatched to him; but Bias, on seeing it, declared that Apollo was wise, and refused to take the tripod. 83. But others say that he dedicated it to Heracles in Thebes, since he was a descendant of the Thebans who had founded a colony at Priene; and this is the version of Phanodieus. | + | 4. Hom. II 2. 671. Dryden' |
- | A story is told that, while Alyattes was besieging Priene, Bias fattened two mules and drove them into the camp, and that the king, when he saw them, was amazed at the good condition of the citizens actually extending to their beasts of burden. And he decided to make terms and sent a messenger. But Bias piled up heaps of sand with a layer of corn on the top, and showed them to the man, and finally, on being informed of this, Alyattes made a treaty of peace with the people of Priene. Soon afterwards, when Alyattes sent to invite Bias to his court, he replied, "Tell Alyattes, from me, to make his diet of onions," | + | 5. Vide Herod. lib. 1. c. 30-33. |
- | If you happen to be prosecuting a suit, plead as they do at Priene; | + | 6. A drachma was something less than ten pence. |
- | and Hipponax thus: "More powerful in pleading causes than Bias of Priene."[62] | + | 7. "Enê kai nea the last day of the month: elsewhere trianias. So called for this reason. The old Greek year was lunar; now the moon's monthly orbit is twenty-nine and a half days. So that if the first month began with the sun and moon together at sunrise at the month' |
- | This was the manner of his death. He had been pleading in defence of some client in spite of his great age. When he had finished speaking, he reclined his head on his grandson' | + | ===== LIFE OF CHILON ===== |
- | Here Bias of Priene lies, whose name | ||
- | Brought to his home and all Ionia fame. | ||
- | My own epitaph | + | I. CHILON was a Lacedaemonian, |
- | Here Bias rests. A quiet death laid low | + | II. They tell a story, also of his having asked Aesop what Jupiter was doing, and that Aesop replied "He is lowering what is high, and exalting what is low." Being asked in what educated men differed |
- | The aged head which years had strewn with snow. | + | |
- | His pleading done, his friend preserved | + | |
- | A long sleep took him in his grandson' | + | |
- | He wrote a poem of 2000 lines on Ionia and the manner of rendering it prosperous. Of his songs the most popular is the following: | + | And of all his songs this one was the most approved: |
- | | + | |
+ | Which gives a certain proof of purity; | ||
+ | And gold itself acts as the test of men, | ||
+ | By which we know the temper of their minds. | ||
- | For this earns most gratitude; the headstrong spirit often flashes forth with harmful bane. | + | III. They say, too, that when he was old he said, that he was not conscious of having ever done an unjust action in his life; but that he doubted about one thing. For that once when judging in a friend' |
- | 86. The growth of strength in man is nature' | + | IV. But he was most especially celebrated among the Greeks for having delivered an early opinion about Cythera, an island belonging |
- | 87. Being asked "What is sweet to men," he answered, " | + | V. He was very brief in his speech. On which account Aristagoras, the Milesian, calls such conciseness, the Chilonean fashion; |
- | Bias is mentioned by Hipponax as stated above, and Heraclitus, who is hard to please, bestows upon him especial praise in these words:[65] "In Priene lived Bias, son of Teutames, a man of more consideration than any." And the people | + | I thank you, brightest Pollux, that the son |
+ | Of Chilon wears the wreath | ||
+ | Nor need we grieve if at the glorious sight | ||
+ | | ||
- | ===== Cleobulus ===== | + | And the following inscription is engraved on his statue: |
+ | The warlike Sparta called this Chilon son, | ||
+ | The wisest man of all the seven sages. | ||
- | 89. Cleobulus , the son of Euagoras, | + | One of his sayings |
- | He was the author of songs and riddles, making some 3000 lines in all. | + | CHILON TO PERIANDER. |
- | The inscription on the tomb of Midas is said by some to be his:[66] | + | You desire me to abandon |
- | I am a maiden of bronze and I rest upon Midas' | + | ===== LIFE OF PITTACUS ===== |
- | So long as water shall flow and tall trees grow, | + | |
- | and the sun shall rise and shine, 90. and the bright moon, | + | |
- | and rivers shall run and the sea wash the shore, | + | |
- | here abiding on his tearsprinkled tomb I shall tell the passers-by | + | |
- | – Midas is buried here. | + | |
- | The evidence they adduce is a poem of Simonides in which he says:[67] | ||
- | Who, if he trusts his wits, | + | I. PITTACUS was a native of Mitylene, and son of Hyrradius. But Duris says, that his father was a Thracian. He, in union with the brothers |
- | will praise Cleobulus the dweller at Lindus | + | |
- | for opposing the strength | + | |
- | | + | |
- | and the golden moon and the eddies | + | |
- | But all things fall short of the might of the gods; | + | |
- | even mortal hands break marble | + | |
- | this is a fool's devising. | + | |
- | The inscription cannot be by Homer, because | + | II. In consequence of this victory the Mitylenaeans held Pittacus in the greatest honour, and committed the supreme power into his hands. And he held it for ten years, and then, when he had brought the city and constitution into good order, he resigned the government. And he lived ten years after that, and the Mitylenaeans assigned him an estate which he consecrated to the God, and to this day it is called the Pittacian land. But Sosicrates says that he cut off a small portion of it, saying that half was more than the whole; and when Croesus offered him some money he would not accept it as he said that he had already twice as much as he wanted; for that he had succeeded to the inheritance of his brother, who had died without children. |
- | The following riddle | + | III. But Pamphila says, in the second book of her Commentaries, |
- | 91. One sire there is, he has twelve sons, | + | IV. It was a saying of his that it was a hard thing to be good, and this apophthegm |
- | and each of these has twice thirty daughters different | + | |
- | | + | |
- | they are immortal, and yet they all die. | + | |
- | And the answer | + | V. He wrote also some songs, of which the following |
- | Of his songs the most popular are: It is want of taste that reigns most widely among mortals and multitude of words; but due season will serve. Set your mind on something good. Do not become thoughtless or rude. He said that we ought to give our daughters to their husbands maidens | + | The wise will only face the wicked man, |
+ | With bow in hand well bent, | ||
+ | And quiver full of arrows— | ||
+ | | ||
+ | Prompted | ||
+ | To utter double speeches. | ||
- | He died at the ripe age of seventy; and the inscription over him is:[70] | + | He also composed six hundred verses in elegiac metre; and he wrote a treatise in prose, on Laws, addressed to his countrymen. |
- | Here the wise Rhodian, Cleobulus, sleeps, | + | VI. He flourished about the forty-second Olympiad; and he died when Aristomenes was Archon, in the third year of the fifty-second Olympiad; having lived more than seventy years, being a very old man. And on his tomb is this inscription: |
- | | + | |
- | His apophthegm was: Moderation is best. And he wrote to Solon the following letter: | + | Lesbos who bore him here, with tears doth bury |
+ | Hyrradius' | ||
- | Cleobulus to Solon | + | Another saying of his was, "Watch your opportunity." |
- | "You have many friends and a home wherever you go; but the most suitable for Solon will, say I, be Lindus, which is governed by a democracy. The island lies on the high seas, and one who lives here has nothing to fear from Pisistratus. And friends from all parts will come to visit you." | + | VII. There was also another Pittacus, |
- | ===== Periander ===== | + | VIII. But it is said that the wise Pittacus once, when a young man consulted him on the subject of marriage, made him the following answer, which is thus given by Callimachus in his Epigrams. |
+ | Hyrradius' | ||
+ | The pride of Mitylene, once was asked | ||
+ | By an Atarnean stranger; "Tell me, sage, | ||
+ | I have two marriages proposed to me; | ||
+ | One maid my equal is in birth and riches; | ||
+ | The other' | ||
+ | Advise me now which shall I take to wife?" | ||
+ | Thus spoke the stranger; but the aged prince, | ||
+ | Raising his old man's staff before his face, | ||
+ | Said, "These will tell you all you want to know;" | ||
+ | And pointed to some boys, who with quick lashes | ||
+ | Were driving whipping tops along the street. | ||
+ | " | ||
+ | And heard them say, "Let each now mind his own." | ||
+ | So when the stranger heard the boys speak thus, | ||
+ | He pondered on their words, and laid aside | ||
+ | Ambitious thoughts of an unequal marriage. | ||
+ | As then he took to shame the poorer bride, | ||
+ | So too do you, O reader, mind thy own. | ||
- | 94. Periander | + | And it seems that he may have here spoken from experience, for his own wife was of more noble birth than himself, since she was the sister of Draco, the son of Penthilus; |
- | When the son whose name was Lycophron grieved for his mother, he banished him to Corcyra. And when well advanced in years he sent for his son to be his successor | + | IX. Alcaeas calls Pittacus sarapous and sarapos, because |
- | Periander lost heart and died at the age of eighty. Sosicrates' | + | X. There is a letter |
- | 96. Aristippus in the first book of his work On the Luxury of the Ancients[72] accuses him of incest with his own mother Crateia, and adds that, when the fact came to light, he vented his annoyance in indiscriminate severity. Ephorus records his now that, if he won the victory at Olympia in the chariot-race, | + | PITTACUS TO CROESUS. |
- | There is a story that he did not wish the place where he was buried | + | You invite me to come to Lydia in order that I may see your riches; but I, even without seeing them, do not doubt that the son of Alyattes is the richest of monarchs. But I should get no good by going to Sardis; for I do not want gold myself, but what I have is sufficient for myself |
- | 97. In mother earth here Periander lies, | + | ===== LIFE OF BIAS ===== |
- | The prince of sea-girt Corinth rich and wise. | + | |
- | My own epitaph on him is:[74] | + | I. BIAS was a citizen of Priene, and the son of Teutamus, and by Satyrus he is put at the head of the seven wise men. Some writers affirm that he was one of the richest men of the city; but others say that he was only a settler: And Phanodicus says, that he ransomed some Messenian maidens who had been taken prisoners, and educated them as his own daughters, and gave them dowries, and then sent them back to Messina to their fathers. And when, as has been mentioned before, the tripod was found near Athens by some fishermen, the brazen tripod I mean, which bore the inscription—" |
- | Grieve not because | + | II. But others say that he consecrated it at Thebes to Hercules |
- | But take with gladness all the gods may send; | + | |
- | Be warned by Periander' | + | |
- | Of grief that one desire should be denied. | + | |
- | To him belongs the maxim: Never do anything for money; leave gain to trades pursued for gain. He wrote a didactic poem of 2000 lines. He said that those tyrants who intend to be safe should make loyalty their bodyguard, not arms. When some one asked him why he was tyrant, | + | III. It is said that he was very energetic and eloquent when pleading causes; but that he always reserved his talents for the right side. In reference |
- | He was the first who had a bodyguard and who changed | + | IV. Having pleaded a cause for some one when he was exceedingly old, after he had finished speaking, he leaned back with his head on the bosom of his daughter' |
- | He flourished about the 38th Olympiad and was tyrant for forty years. | + | Beneath this stone lies Bias, who was born |
+ | In the illustrious Prienian land, | ||
+ | The glory of the whole Ionian race. | ||
- | Sotion and Heraclides and Pamphila in the fifth book of her Commentaries distinguish two Perianders, one a tyrant, the other a sage who was born in Ambracia. 99. Neanthes of Cyzicus also says this, and adds that they were near relations. | + | And we ourselves have also written an epigram on him— |
- | His apophthegm is: Practice makes perfect. He planned a canal across the Isthmus. | + | Here Bias lies, whom when the hoary snow |
+ | Had crowned his aged temples, Mercury | ||
+ | Unpitying led to Pluto' | ||
+ | | ||
+ | In his child' | ||
- | A letter | + | V. He also wrote about two thousand verses on Ionia, to show in what matter a man might best arrive at happiness; and of all his poetical sayings these have the greatest reputation: |
- | Periander | + | Seek to please all the citizens, even though |
+ | Your house may be in an ungracious city. | ||
+ | For such a course will favour win from all: | ||
+ | But haughty manners oft produce destruction. | ||
- | "Very grateful am I to the Pythian Apollo that I found you gathered together; and my letters will also bring you to Corinth, where, as you know, I will give you a thoroughly popular reception. I learn that last year you met in Sardis at the Lydian court. Do not hesitate therefore to come to me, the ruler of Corinth. The Corinthians will be pleased to see you coming to the house of Periander." | + | And this one too: |
- | Periander | + | Great strength of body is the gift of nature; |
+ | But to be able to advise whate' | ||
+ | Is most expedient for one's country' | ||
+ | Is the peculiar work of sense and wisdom. | ||
- | 100. "The murder of my wife was unintentional; | + | Another |
- | There is also a letter written | + | Great riches come to many men by chance. |
- | Thrasybulus | + | He used also to say that that man was unfortunate who could not support misfortune; and that it is a disease of the mind to desire what was impossible, and to have no regard for the misfortunes of others. Being asked what was difficult, he said—" |
- | "I made no answer to your herald; but I took him into a cornfield, and with a staff smote and cut off the over-grown ears of corn, while he accompanied me. And if you ask him what he heard and what he saw, he will give his message. And this is what you must do if you want to strengthen your absolute rule: put to death those among the citizens who are pre-eminent, whether they are hostile to you or not. For to an absolute ruler even a friend is an object of suspicion." | + | VI. Hipponax also mentions Bias, as has been said before; and Heraclitus too, a man who was not easily pleased, has praised him; saying, in Priene there lived Bias the son of Teutamus, whose reputation is higher than that of the others; and the Prienians consecrated a temple to him which is called |
- | ===== Anacharsis | + | ===== LIFE OF CLEOBULUS |
+ | |||
+ | I. CLEOBULUS was a native of Lindus, and the son of Evagoras; but according to Duris he was a Carian; others again trace his family back to Hercules. He is reported to have been eminent for personal strength and beauty, and to have studied philosophy in Egypt; he had a daughter named Cleobulina, who used to compose enigmas in hexameter verse, and she is mentioned by Cratinus in his play of the same name, except that the title is written in the plural number. They say also that he restored the temple of Minerva which had been built by Danaus. | ||
+ | |||
+ | II. Cleobulus composed songs and obscure sayings in verse to the number of three thousand lines, and some say that it was he who composed the epigram on Midas. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I am a brazen maiden lying here | ||
+ | Upon the tomb of Midas. And as long | ||
+ | As water flows, as trees are green with leaves, | ||
+ | As the sun shines and eke the silver moon, | ||
+ | As long as rivers flow, and billows roar, | ||
+ | So long will I upon this much wept tomb, | ||
+ | Tell passers by, "Midas lies buried here." | ||
+ | |||
+ | And as an evidence of this epigram being by him they quote a song of Simonides, which runs thus: | ||
+ | |||
+ | What men possessed of sense | ||
+ | Would ever praise the Lindian Cleobulus? | ||
+ | Who could compare a statue made by man | ||
+ | To everflowing streams, | ||
+ | To blushing flowers of spring, | ||
+ | To the suns rays, to beams o' the golden morn, | ||
+ | And to the ceaseless waves of mighty Ocean? | ||
+ | All things are trifling when compared to God. | ||
+ | While men beneath their hands can crush a stone; | ||
+ | So that such sentiments can only come from fools. | ||
+ | |||
+ | And the epigram cannot possibly be by Homer, for he lived many years, as it is said, before Midas. | ||
+ | |||
+ | III. There is also the following enigma quoted in the Commentaries of Pamphila, as the work of Cleobulus : | ||
+ | |||
+ | There was one father and he had twelve daughters, | ||
+ | Each of his daughters had twice thirty children. | ||
+ | But most unlike in figure and complexion; | ||
+ | For some were white, and others black to view, | ||
+ | And though immortal they all taste of death. | ||
+ | |||
+ | And the solution is, "the year." | ||
+ | |||
+ | IV. Of his apophthegms, | ||
+ | |||
+ | V. And he died at a great age, having lived seventy years, and this inscription was put over him : | ||
+ | |||
+ | His country, Lindus, this fair sea-girt city | ||
+ | Bewails wise Cleobulus here entombed. | ||
+ | |||
+ | VI. One of his sayings was, " | ||
+ | |||
+ | CLEOBULUS TO SOLON. | ||
+ | |||
+ | You have many friends, and a home everywhere, but yet I think that Lindus will be the most agreeable habitation for Solon, since it enjoys a democratic government, and it is a maritime island, and whoever dwells in it has nothing to fear from Pisistratus, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== LIFE OF PERIANDER ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | I. PERIANDER was a Corinthian, the son of Cypselus, of the family of the Heraclidae. He married Lyside (whom he himself called Melissa), the daughter of Procles the tyrant of Epidaurus, and of Eristhenea the daughter of Aristocrates, | ||
+ | |||
+ | II. But afterwards, when he was now extremely old, he sent for him back again, in order that he might succeed to the tyranny. But the Corcyreans, anticipating his intention, put him to death, at which he was greatly enraged, and sent their children to Corcyra to be made eunuchs of; and when the ship came near to Samos, the youths, having made supplications to Juno, were saved by the Samians. And he fell into despondency and died, being eighty years old. Sosicrates says that he died forty-one years before Croesus, in the last year of the forty-eighth Olympiad. Herodotus, in the first book of his History, says that he was connected by ties of hospitality with Thrasybulus the tyrant of Miletus. And Aristippus, in the first book of his Treatise on Ancient Luxury, tells the following story of him; that his mother Cratea fell in love with him, and introduced herself secretly into his bed; and he was delighted; but when the truth was discovered he became very oppressive to all his subjects, because he was grieved at the discovery. Ephorus relates that he made a vow that, if he gained the victory at Olympia in the chariot race, he would dedicate a golden statue to the God. Accordingly he gained the victory; but being in want of gold, and seeing the women at some national festival beautifully adorned, he took away their golden ornaments, and then sent the offering which he had vowed. | ||
+ | |||
+ | III. But some writers say that he was anxious that his tomb should not be known, and that with that object he adopted the following contrivance. He ordered two young men to go out by night, indicating a particular road by which they were to go, and to kill the first man they met, and bury him; after them he sent out four other men who were to kill and bury them. Again he sent out a still greater number against these four, with similar instructions. And in this manner he put himself in the way of the first pair, and was slain, and the Corinthians erected a cenotaph over him with the following inscription: | ||
+ | |||
+ | The sea-beat land of Corinth in her bosom, | ||
+ | Doth here embrace her ruler Periander, | ||
+ | Greatest of all men for his wealth and wisdom. | ||
+ | |||
+ | We ourselves have also written an epigram upon him: | ||
+ | |||
+ | Grieve not when disappointed of a wish, | ||
+ | But be content with what the Gods may give you — | ||
+ | For the great Periander died unhappy, | ||
+ | At failing in an object he desired. | ||
+ | |||
+ | IV. It was a saying of his that we ought not to do anything for the sake of money; for that we ought only to acquire such gains as are allowable. He composed apophthegms in verse to the number of two thousand lines; and said that those who wished to wield absolute power in safety, should be guarded by the good will of their countrymen, and not by arms. And once, being asked why he assumed tyrannical power, he replied, " | ||
+ | |||
+ | V. This prince was the first who had body-guards, | ||
+ | |||
+ | VI. And he flourished about the thirty-eighth Olympiad, and enjoyed absolute power for forty years. But Sotion, and Heraclides, and Pamphila, in the fifth book of her Commentaries, | ||
+ | |||
+ | VII. The following letter of his is quoted: | ||
+ | |||
+ | PERIANDER TO THE WISE MEN. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I give great thanks to Apollo of Delphi that my letters are able to determine you all to meet together at Corinth; and I will receive you all, as you may be well assured, in a manner that becomes free citizens. I hear also that last year you met at Sardis, at the court of the King of Lydia. So now do not hesitate to come to me, who am the tyrant of Corinth; for the Corinthians will all be delighted to see you come to the house of Periander. | ||
+ | |||
+ | VIII. There is this letter too: | ||
+ | |||
+ | PERIANDER TO PROCLES. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The injury of my wife was unintended by me; and you have done wrong in alienating from me the mind of my child. I desire you, therefore, either to restore me to my place in his affections, or I will revenge myself on you; for I have myself made atonement for the death of your daughter, by burning in her tomb the clothes of all the Corinthian women.1 | ||
+ | |||
+ | IX. Thrasybulus also wrote him a letter in the following terms: | ||
+ | |||
+ | I have given no answer to your messenger; but having taken him into a field, I struck with my walking-stick all the highest ears of corn, and cut off their tops, while he was walking with me: And he will report to you, if you ask him, everything which he heard or saw while with me; and do you act accordingly if you wish to preserve your power safely, taking off the most eminent of the citizens, whether he seems an enemy to you or not, as even his companions are deservedly objects of suspicion to a man possessed of supreme power. | ||
+ | |||
+ | 1. Herodotus mentions the case of Periander' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== LIFE OF ANACHARSIS ===== | ||
101. Anacharsis the Scythian was the son of Gnurus and brother of Caduidas, king of Scythia. His mother was a Greek, and for that reason he spoke both languages. He wrote on the institutions of the Greeks and the Scythians, dealing with simplicity of life and military matters, a poem of 800 lines. So outspoken was he that he furnished occasion for a proverb, "To talk like a Scythian." | 101. Anacharsis the Scythian was the son of Gnurus and brother of Caduidas, king of Scythia. His mother was a Greek, and for that reason he spoke both languages. He wrote on the institutions of the Greeks and the Scythians, dealing with simplicity of life and military matters, a poem of 800 lines. So outspoken was he that he furnished occasion for a proverb, "To talk like a Scythian." | ||
Line 578: | Line 680: | ||
"I have come, O King of the Lydians, to the land of the Greeks to be instructed in their manners and pursuits. And I am not even in quest of gold, but am well content to return to Scythia a better man. At all events here I am in Sardis, being greatly desirous of making your acquaintance." | "I have come, O King of the Lydians, to the land of the Greeks to be instructed in their manners and pursuits. And I am not even in quest of gold, but am well content to return to Scythia a better man. At all events here I am in Sardis, being greatly desirous of making your acquaintance." | ||
- | ===== Myson ===== | + | ===== LIFE OF MYSON ===== |
- | 106. Myson was the son of Strymon, according to Sosicrates, who quotes Hermippus as his authority, and a native of Chen, a village in the district of Oeta or Laconia; and he is reckoned one of the Seven Sages. They say that his father was a tyrant. We are told by some one that, when Anacharsis inquired if there were anyone wiser than himself, the Pythian priestess gave the response which has already been quoted in the Life of Thales as her reply to a question by Chilon:[79] | ||
- | Myson of Chen in Oeta; this is he | + | I. MYSON, the son of Strymon, as Sosicrates states, quoting Hermippus as his authority, a Chenean by birth, of some Aetaean or Laconian village, |
- | Who for wiseheartedness surpasseth thee. | + | |
- | His curiosity aroused, Anacharsis went to the village in summer time and found him fitting a share to a plough and said, "Myson, this is not the season for the plough." | + | I say that Myson the Aetaean sage, |
+ | The citizen | ||
+ | In his deep mind than you. | ||
- | Myson is mentioned by Hipponax, the words being:[80] | + | And that he, having taken a great deal of trouble, came to the village, and found him in the summer season fitting a handle to a plough, and he addressed him, " |
- | | + | II. And Anaxilaus says that he was an Arcadian. Hipponax also mentions him, saying, "And Myson, whom Apollo |
- | Wisest | + | |
- | Aristoxenus in his Historical Gleanings says he was not unlike Timon and Apemantus, for he was a misanthrope. 108. At any rate he was seen in Lacedaemon laughing to himself in a lonely spot; and when some one suddenly appeared and asked him why he laughed when no one was near, he replied, "That is just the reason." | + | III. It used to be a common saying of his that men ought not to seek for things in words, but for words in things; for that things are not made on account of words, but that words are put together for the sake of things. |
- | He used to say we should not investigate facts by the light of arguments, but arguments by the light of facts; for the facts were not put together to fit the arguments, but the arguments to fit the facts. | + | IV. He died when he had lived ninety-seven years. |
- | He died at the age of ninety-seven. | + | ===== LIFE OF EPIMENIDES ===== |
- | ===== Epimenides ===== | ||
+ | I. EPIMENIDES, as Theopompus and many other writers tell us, was the son of a man named Phaedrus*, but some call him the son of Dosiadas; and others of Agesarchus. He was a Cretan by birth, of the city of Cnossus; but because he let his hair grow long, he did not look like a Cretan. | ||
- | 109. Epimenides , according to Theopompus and many other writers, was the son of Phaestius; some, however, make him the son of Dosiadas, others of Agesarchus. He was a native of Cnossos in Crete, though from wearing his hair long he did not look like a Cretan. One day he was sent into the country | + | II. He once, when he was sent by his father |
- | Hence, when the Athenians were attacked | + | III. And when he was recognized he was considered by the Greeks as a person especially beloved by the Gods, on which account |
- | 111. The Athenians | + | And the Athenians |
- | So he returned home and soon afterwards | + | IV. And not long after he had returned home he died, as Phlegon |
- | He wrote a poem On the Birth of the Curetes and Corybantes and a Theogony, | + | V. He wrote a poem of five thousand verses on the Generation and Theogony |
- | There is extant | + | VI. He also wrote a treatise |
- | Epimenides | + | Likewise he built at Athens the temple which is there dedicated |
- | 113. " | + | VII. There are some people |
- | 114. This is the tenor of the letter. But Demetrius | + | VIII. A letter of his is quoted, addressed to Solon the lawgiver, in which he discusses |
- | 115. Theopompus relates in his Mirabilia that, as he was building a temple to the Nymphs, a voice came from heaven: " | + | IX. But I have also discovered another letter of his which runs thus: |
- | And he became old in as many days as he had slept years; for this too is stated by Theopompus. Myronianus in his Parallels declares that the Cretans called him one of the Curetes. The Lacedaemonians guard his body in their own keeping in obedience to a certain oracle; this is stated by Sosibius the Laconian. | + | EPIMENIDES TO SOLON. |
- | There have been two other men named Epimenides, namely, the genealogist | + | Be of good cheer, my friend; for if Pisistratus had imposed his laws on the Athenians, they being habituated to slavery and not accustomed to good laws previously, he would have maintained his dominion for ever, succeeding easily in enslaving his fellow countrymen; but as it is, he is lording it over men who are no cowards, but who remember |
- | ===== Pherecydes ===== | + | He wrote thus. |
+ | X. But Demetrius says that some writers report that he used to receive food from the nymphs and keep it in a bullock' | ||
- | 116. Pherecydes | + | XI. Some authors say also that the Cretans sacrifice to him as a god, for they say that he was the wisest |
- | Many wonderful stories are told about him. He was walking along the beach in Samos and saw a ship running before the wind; he exclaimed | + | XII. He pretended also, that he grew old rapidly, in the same number of days as he had been years asleep; at least, so Theopompus says. But Mysonianus*, |
- | 117. He bade the Lacedaemonians set no store by gold or silver, as Theopompus says in his Mirabilia. He told them he had received this command from Heracles in a dream; and the same night Heracles enjoined upon the kings to obey Pherecydes. But some fasten this story upon Pythagoras. | + | XIII. There were also two other Epimenides, one the genealogist; |
- | Hermippus relates that on the eve of war between Ephesus and Magnesia he favoured | + | 1. This refers to the result |
- | Andron of Ephesus says that there were two natives of Syros who bore the name of Pherecydes: the one was an astronomer, the other was the son of Babys and a theologian, teacher of Pythagoras. Eratosthenes, | + | ===== LIFE OF PHERECYDES ===== |
- | There is preserved a work by Pherecydes of Syros, a work which begins thus: "Zeus and Time and Earth were from all eternity, and Earth was called Γῆ because Zeus gave her earth (γῆ) as guerdon (γέρας)." | ||
- | Duris in the second book of his Horae gives the inscription on his tomb as follows: | + | I. PHERECYDES was a Syrian, |
- | 120. All knowledge | + | II. Theopompus says that he was the first person who ever wrote among the Greeks on the subject of Natural Philosophy and the Gods. And there are many marvellous stories told of him. For it is said that he was walking along the sea-shore at Samos, and that seeing |
- | Yet tell Pythagoras, were more thereby, | + | |
- | That first of all Greeks is he; I speak no lie. | + | |
- | Ion of Chios says of him:[87] | + | III. And he is said to have told the Lacedaemonians to honour neither gold nor silver, as Theopompus |
- | With manly worth endowed | + | IV. And Hermippus relates that when there was a war between the Ephesians |
- | Though | + | |
- | If wise Pythagoras indeed saw light | + | |
- | And read the destinies | + | |
- | There is also an epigram | + | V. But some writers say that he went to Delphi, and threw himself down from the Corycian hill; Aristoxenus, |
- | The famous | + | VI. But Andron, the Ephesian, says that there were two men of the name of Pherecydes, |
- | He lived in the 59th Olympiad. He wrote the following letter: | + | VII. But Duris, |
- | Pherecydes to Thales[89] | + | The limit of all wisdom is in me; |
+ | And would be, were it larger. But report | ||
+ | To my Pythagoras that he's the first | ||
+ | Of all the men that tread the Grecian soil; | ||
+ | I shall not speak falsehood, saying this. | ||
- | 122. "May yours be a happy death when your time comes. Since I received your letter, I have been attacked by disease. I am infested with vermin and subject to a violent fever with shivering fits. I have therefore given instructions to my servants to carry my writing to you after they have buried me. I would like you to publish it, provided that you and the other sages approve of it, and not otherwise. For I myself am not yet satisfied with it. The facts are not absolutely correct, nor do I claim to have discovered the truth, but merely such things as one who inquires about the gods picks up. The rest must be thought out, for mine is all guess-work. As I was more and more weighed down with my malady, I did not permit any of the physicians or my friends to come into the room where I was, but, as they stood before the door and inquired how I was, I thrust my finger through the keyhole and showed them how plague-stricken I was; and I told them to come to-morrow to bury Pherecydes." | + | And Ion, the Chian, says of him: |
- | So much for those who are called | + | Adorned with valour while alive, and modesty, |
+ | Now that he's dead he still exists in peace; | ||
+ | For, like the wise Pythagoras, he studied | ||
+ | The manners | ||
- | ===== Footnotes ===== | + | And I myself have composed an epigram on him in the Pherecratean metre : |
+ | The story is reported, | ||
+ | That noble Pherecydes | ||
+ | Whom Syros calls her own, | ||
+ | Was eaten up by lice; | ||
+ | And so he bade his friends, | ||
+ | Convey his corpse away | ||
+ | To the Magnesian land, | ||
+ | That he might victory give | ||
+ | To holy Ephesus. | ||
+ | For well the God had said, | ||
+ | (Though he alone did know | ||
+ | Th' oracular prediction), | ||
+ | That this was fate's decree. | ||
+ | So in that land he lies. | ||
+ | This then is surely true, | ||
+ | That those who're really wise | ||
+ | Are useful while alive, | ||
+ | And e'en when breath has left them. | ||
- | ↑ The alteration of the numeral from 23 to 13 is supported by what little we know of Sotion' | + | VIII. And he flourished about the fifty-ninth Olympiad. There is a letter |
- | ↑ Anth. Pal. vii. 615.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Pal. vii. 616.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Pal. ii. 99.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Compare Pliny, N. H. xx. 11. 242: Zoroaster lived in the wilderness on cheese (cf. Yasht, xxii. 18 " | + | |
- | ↑ This popular etymology, though wide-spread, | + | |
- | ↑ In this clause the word ἐπικλήσεσι is usually taken as equivalent to ὀνόμασι (names). The meaning then would be: "What exists now will exist hereafter under its own present name." Diels would alter ἐπικλήσεσι to περικυκλήσεσι, | + | |
- | ↑ This is confirmed by Clement, Strom. i. 61, who also repeats (Strom. i. 24) the statement that σοφιστής=σοφός.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Compare Clem. Alex. Strom. i. 59. His authority includes another candidate for admission to the Seven, Acusilaus of Argos, but makes no mention of Pisistratus.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ See iv. 59-61, where Lacydes is made the founder of the New Academy, although other authorities, | + | |
- | ↑ This succession (Pythagoras, | + | |
- | ↑ The separation of the followers of Anniceris from the Cyrenaic school was made by the author whom Clement of Alexandria followed in ii. 130. This author may have been Antiochus of Ascalon. Strabo x. 837 s.f. supports the same view: Ἀννίκερις ὁ δοκῶν ἐπανορθῶσαι τὴν Κυρηναϊκὴν αἵρεσιν, | + | |
- | ↑ Cf. the distinction drawn by Sextus Empiricus in Pyrrh. Hyp. i. 16, 17. If by rules for conduct dogmas are implied, then the Pyrrhonians are not a sect, i.e. a dogmatic school.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Certainly not the same as the person mentioned by Porphyry in his Life of Plotinus, 9, 11, for Polemo, not Potamo, is the correct form of the name in that place. Potamo is said by Suidas (s.v. Ηοτάμων Ἀλ.) to have lived shortly before and contemporary with Augustus, whence it follows that Diogenes has taken without alteration a statement by an earlier writer who might truthfully say "not long ago" of the reign of Augustus. Suidas, whose article αἵρεσις agrees closely with our text, naturally omits πρὸ ὀλίγου.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Nelidac, if Bywater' | + | |
- | ↑ 582 B.C.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Cf. Simplicius, In Phys. i. 23, 29-33 d.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Greek mariners steered by the Great Bear, the Phoenicians by the Little Bear, as Ovid states, Tristia, iv. 3. 1, 2.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ See Sir T. L. Heath, Aristarchus of Samos, pp. 12-23.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ De anima, A 2, 405 a 19.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ i.e. a theory concerned with lines, γραμμαί, | + | |
- | ↑ Namely, in a dialogue. Cf. viii. 4.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Because, having created a monopoly, | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Plan. vi. 51.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Or in prose: " | + | |
- | ↑ Although disguised as Leandrius, the writer meant is Maeandrius, who is known (Inscr. Gr. no. 2905) to have written a local history of Miletus. Such histories, eg. of Sicyon, Megara, Samos, Naxos, Argolis, Epirus, Thessaly, abounded in the Alexandrian age.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Plan. vi. 40.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Andron of Ephesus (§119) is known to have written in the life-time (or at least before the death) of Theopompus, who is accused of having plagiarized from The Tripod: Eusebius, Praep. Ev. x. 3, 7.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Fr. 49 Bergk; cf. Schol. Pindar, Isthm. ii. 17.29\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Fr. 23 Diels.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Pal. vii. 83.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ 640 B.C.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Pal. vii. 84.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Pal. vii. 85.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ In plain prose: "As the wise Thales was one day watching the contest of the racers, thou, O Sun-god, O Zeus, didst snatch him from the stadium. I praise thee for removing him to be near thee; for verily the old man could no more discern the stars from earth." | + | |
- | ↑ The opinion of Dicaearchus thus expressed is correct. With the exception of Thales, no one whose life is contained in Book I. has any claim to be styled a philosopher. The tradition of the Seven Wise Men and of their meeting at some court, whether of a native tyrant like Periander or of a foreign prince like Croesus, was used by Plato (Protag. 343 A) and, largely through his influence, grew into a romantic legend, the result being late biographies, | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Plan. iv. 22.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Fr. 2 Bergk.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Ib. 3.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ If these words are pressed, they contradict the precise statement in Plutarch' | + | |
- | ↑ Il. ii. 557.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Fr. 10 Bergk.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Fr. 9 Bergk.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Fr. 11 Bergk.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Autolycus, Fr. 1, 1. 12 Nauck, T.G.F.2, Eur. 282.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ This censure of athletes recurs Diod. Sic. ix. 2. 3 f. It was probably a commonplace κεφάλαιον in some earlier life of Solon.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Or "in succession," | + | |
- | ↑ Iliad, ii. 546.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Fr. 20 Bergk.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Fr. 42 Bergk.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Pal. vii. 86.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ 594 B.C.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Fr. 5 Meineke, C.G.F. ii. 149.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Pal. vii. 87.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ There seems to be some confusion in these extracts. Possibly Diogenes Laertius found among his materials some such note as this: Χίλων τῶν ἑπτὰ σοφῶν πρῶτος ἔφορος, | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Pal. vii. 88.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ 'Anth. Pal. ix. 596.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ 345d.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ 570 B.C.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Plan. ii. 3.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Pal. vii. 89.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ P. 79 Bergk; Strabo xiv. p. 636.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Pal. vii. 90.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Pal. vii. 91.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ P. 39 d, 112 b.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Pal. vii. 153.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Fr. 57 Bergk.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Pal. xiv. 101; Stob. Ecl. Phys. i. 99. 15 W.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ These moral precepts are similar to those of Stobaeus in the Florilegium, | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Pal. vii. 618.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ 584-580 B.C.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ An unsavoury work by a scandal-monger who, to judge from the fragment of bk. iv., bore a grudge against philosophers, | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Pal. vii. 619.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Pal. vii. 620.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Periander | + | |
- | ↑ 591-588 B.C.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Pal. vii. 92.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ i.e. in the form of charcoal. Cf. A. S. Ferguson in Class. Rev. vol. xxxi. p. 97.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Plan. vi. 40.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Fr. 45 Bergk.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ 343 a.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ 595-592 B.C.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ These long poems may have been written by Lobon himself on the Hesiodic model; or Lobon may merely have affirmed their existence in his treatise On Poets.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ This is the meaning of ἐκπατεῖν in three other passages, iv. 19, ix. 3, 63, in the last of which it is glossed by ἐρημάζειν, | + | |
- | ↑ These stories no doubt come from Theopompus, whose work on Marvels is cited in the next paragraph.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Pal. vii. 93.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Fr. 4 Bergk.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ Anth. Plan. iii. 128.\\ | + | |
- | ↑ This forgery is easily analysed. There is the tradition of the malady which proved fatal to Pherecydes (cf. Porphyry, Vit. Pyth. §55), with the anecdote of his protruding his finger through the door. There is also an allusion to the alleged obscurity of the work on the gods which passed current as written by him.\\ | + | |
+ | PHERECYDES TO THALES. | ||
+ | May you die happily when fate overtakes you. Disease has seized upon me at the same time that I received your letter. I am all over lice, and suffering likewise under a low fever. Accordingly, | ||
+ | These, then, are they who were called wise men; to which list some writers add the name of Pisistratus. But we must also speak of the philosophers. And we will begin first with the Ionic philosophy, the founder of which school was Thales, who was the master of Anaximander. | ||
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