1.32. The whole air is full of souls which are called genii or heroes; these are they who send men dreams and signs of future disease and health, and not to men alone, but to sheep also and cattle as well; and it is to them that purifications and lustrations, all divination, omens and the like, have reference. The most momentous thing in human life is the art of winning the soul to good or to evil. Blest are the men who acquire a good soul; [if it be bad] they can never be at rest, nor ever keep the same course two days together.
1.32. εἶναί τε πάντα τὸν ἀέρα ψυχῶν ἔμπλεων· καὶ ταύτας δαίμονάς τε καὶ ἥρωας ὀνομάζεσθαι· καὶ ὑπὸ τούτων πέμπεσθαι ἀνθρώποις τούς τʼ ὀνείρους καὶ τὰ σημεῖα νόσου τε καὶ ὑγιείας, καὶ οὐ μόνον ἀνθρώποις, ἀλλὰ καὶ προβάτοις καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις κτήνεσιν· εἴς τε τούτους γίνεσθαι τούς τε καθαρμοὺς καὶ ἀποτροπιασμοὺς μαντικήν τε πᾶσαν καὶ κληδόνας καὶ τὰ ὅμοια. μέγιστον δέ φησιν εἶναι τῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποις τὸ τὴν ψυχὴν πεῖσαι ἐπὶ τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἢ ἐπὶ τὸ κακόν. εὐδαιμονεῖν τʼ ἀνθρώπους ὅταν ἀγαθὴ ψυχὴ προσγένηται, μηδέποτε δʼ ἠρεμεῖν μηδὲ τὸν αὐτὸν * * ῥόον κρατεῖν.
1.33. Right has the force of an oath, and that is why Zeus is called the God of Oaths. Virtue is harmony, and so are health and all good and God himself; this is why they say that all things are constructed according to the laws of harmony. The love of friends is just concord and equality. We should not pay equal worship to gods and heroes, but to the gods always, with reverent silence, in white robes, and after purification, to the heroes only from midday onwards. Purification is by cleansing, baptism and lustration, and by keeping clean from all deaths and births and all pollution, and abstaining from meat and flesh of animals that have died, mullets, gurnards, eggs and egg-sprung animals, beans, and the other abstinences prescribed by those who perform mystic rites in the temples.
1.33. Ὅρκιόν τʼ εἶναι τὸ δίκαιον καὶ διὰ τοῦτο Δία ὅρκιον λέγεσθαι. τήν τʼ ἀρετὴν ἁρμονίαν εἶναι καὶ τὴν ὑγίειαν καὶ τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἅπαν καὶ τὸν θεόν· διὸ καὶ καθʼ ἁρμονίαν συνεστάναι τὰ ὅλα. φιλίαν τʼ εἶναι ἐναρμόνιον ἰσότητα. τιμὰς θεοῖς δεῖν νομίζειν καὶ ἥρωσι μὴ τὰς ἴσας, ἀλλὰ θεοῖς ἀεὶ μετʼ εὐφημίας λευχειμονοῦντας καὶ ἁγνεύοντας, ἥρωσι δʼ ἀπὸ μέσου ἡμέρας. τὴν δʼ ἁγνείαν εἶναι διὰ καθαρμῶν καὶ λουτρῶν καὶ περιρραντηρίων καὶ διὰ τοῦ καθαρεύειν ἀπό τε κήδους καὶ λεχοῦς καὶ μιάσματος παντὸς καὶ ἀπέχεσθαι βρωτῶν θνησειδίων τε κρεῶν καὶ τριγλῶν καὶ μελανούρων καὶ ᾠῶν καὶ τῶν ᾠοτόκων ζῴων καὶ κυάμων καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ὧν παρακελεύονται καὶ οἱ τὰς τελετὰς ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς ἐπιτελοῦντες.
1.34. According to Aristotle in his work On the Pythagoreans, Pythagoras counselled abstinence from beans either because they are like the genitals, or because they are like the gates of Hades... as being alone unjointed, or because they are injurious, or because they are like the form of the universe, or because they belong to oligarchy, since they are used in election by lot. He bade his disciples not to pick up fallen crumbs, either in order to accustom them not to eat immoderately, or because connected with a person’s death; nay, even, according to Aristophanes, crumbs belong to the heroes, for in his Heroes he says: “Nor taste ye of what falls beneath the board!” Another of his precepts was not to eat white cocks, as being sacred to the Month and wearing suppliant garb—now supplication ranked with things good— sacred to the Month because they announce the time of day; and again white represents the nature of the good, black the nature of evil. Not to touch such fish as were sacred; for it is not right that gods and men should be allotted the same things, any more than free men and slaves. Not to break bread; for once friends used to meet over one loaf, as the barbarians do even to this day; and you should not divide bread which brings them together; some give as the explanation of this that it has reference to the judgement of the dead in Hades, others that bread makes cowards in war, others again that it is from it that the whole world begins.
1.34. φησὶ δʼ Ἀριστοτέλης ἐν τῷ Περὶ τῶν Πυθαγορείων παραγγέλλειν αὐτὸν ἀπέχεσθαι τῶν κυάμων ἤτοι ὅτι αἰδοίοις εἰσὶν ὅμοιοι ἢ ὅτι ᾍδου πύλαις. * * ἀγόνατον γὰρ μόνον· ἢ ὅτι φθείρει ἢ ὅτι τῇ τοῦ ὅλου φύσει ὅμοιον ἢ ὅτι ὀλιγαρχικόν· κληροῦνται γοῦν αὐτοῖς. τὰ δὲ πεσόντα μὴ ἀναιρεῖσθαι, ὑπὲρ τοῦ ἐθίζεσθαι μὴ ἀκολάστως ἐσθίειν ἢ ὅτι ἐπὶ τελευτῇ τινος· καὶ Ἀριστοφάνης δὲ τῶν ἡρώων φησὶν εἶναι τὰ πίπτοντα, λέγων ἐν τοῖς Ἥρωσι, μηδὲ γεύεσθʼ ἅττʼ ἂν ἐντὸς τῆς τραπέζης καταπέσῃ· Ἀλεκτρυόνος μὴ ἅπτεσθαι λευκοῦ, ὅτι ἱερὸς τοῦ Μηνὸς καὶ ἱκέτης· τὸ δʼ ἦν τῶν ἀγαθῶν· τῷ τε Μηνὶ ἱερός· σημαίνει γὰρ τὰς ὥρας. καὶ τὸ μὲν λευκὸν τῆς τἀγαθοῦ φύσεως, τὸ δὲ μέλαν τοῦ κακοῦ. τῶν ἰχθύων μὴ ἅπτεσθαι, ὅσοι ἱεροί· μὴ γὰρ δεῖν τὰ αὐτὰ τετάχθαι θεοῖς καὶ ἀνθρώποις, ὥσπερ οὐδʼ ἐλευθέροις καὶ δούλοις. ἄρτον μὴ καταγνύειν, ὅτι ἐπὶ ἕνα οἱ πάλαι τῶν φίλων ἐφοίτων, καθάπερ ἔτι καὶ νῦν οἱ βάρβαροι·
1.35. He held that the most beautiful figure is the sphere among solids, and the circle among plane figures. Old age may be compared to everything that is decreasing, while youth is one with increase. Health means retention of the form, disease its destruction. Of salt he said it should be brought to table to remind us of what is right; for salt preserves whatever it finds, and it arises from the purest sources, sun and sea.
1.35. μηδὲ διαιρεῖν, ὃς συνάγει αὐτούς· οἱ δέ, πρὸς τὴν ἐν ᾅδου κρίσιν· οἱ δʼ εἰς πόλεμον δειλίαν ποιεῖν· οἱ δέ, ἐπεὶ ἀπὸ τούτου ἄρχεται τὸ ὅλον. Καὶ τῶν σχημάτων τὸ κάλλιστον σφαῖραν εἶναι τῶν στερεῶν, τῶν δʼ ἐπιπέδων κύκλον. γῆρας καὶ πᾶν τὸ μειούμενον ὅμοιον· καὶ αὔξην καὶ νεότητα ταὐτόν. ὑγίειαν τὴν τοῦ εἴδους διαμονήν, νόσον τὴν τούτου φθοράν. περὶ τῶν ἁλῶν, ὅτι δεῖ παρατίθεσθαι πρὸς ὑπόμνησιν τοῦ δικαίου· οἱ γὰρ ἅλες πᾶν σῴζουσιν ὅ τι ἂν παραλάβωσι καὶ γεγόνασιν ἐκ τῶν καθαρωτάτων ἡλίου καὶ θαλάσσης.
1.36. This is what Alexander says that he found in the Pythagorean memoirs. What follows is Aristotle’s. But Pythagoras’s great dignity not even Timon overlooked, who, although he digs at him in his Silli, speaks ofPythagoras, inclined to witching works and ways,Man-snarer, fond of noble periphrase. Xenophanes confirms the statement about his having been different people at different times in the elegiacs beginning: “Now other thoughts, another path, I show.” What he says of him is as follows:They say that, passing a belaboured whelp,He, full of pity, spake these words of dole:“Stay, smite not!’Tis a friend, a human soul;I knew him straight whenas I heard him yelp!”
1.36. Καὶ ταῦτα μέν φησιν ὁ Ἀλέξανδρος ἐν τοῖς Πυθαγορικοῖς ὑπομνήμασιν εὑρηκέναι, καὶ τὰ ἐκείνων ἐχόμενα ὁ Ἀριστοτέλης. Τὴν δὲ σεμνοπρέπειαν τοῦ Πυθαγόρου καὶ Τίμων ἐν τοῖς Σίλλοις δάκνων αὐτὸν ὅμως οὐ παρέλιπεν, εἰπὼν οὕτω·Πυθαγόρην τε γόητας ἀποκλίναντʼ ἐπὶ δόξαςθήρῃ ἐπʼ ἀνθρώπων, σεμνηγορίης ὀαριστήν.περὶ δὲ τοῦ ἄλλοτʼ ἄλλον αὐτὸν γεγενῆσθαι Ξενοφάνης ἐν ἐλεγείᾳ προσμαρτυρεῖ, ἧς ἀρχή, νῦν αὖτʼ ἄλλον ἔπειμι λόγον, δείξω δὲ κέλευθον. ὃ δὲ περὶ αὐτοῦ φησιν, οὕτως ἔχει·καί ποτέ μιν στυφελιζομένου σκύλακος παριόνταφασὶν ἐποικτῖραι καὶ τόδε φάσθαι ἔπος·παῦσαι μηδὲ ῥάπιζʼ, ἐπεὶ ἦ φίλου ἀνέρος ἐστὶψυχή, τὴν ἔγνων φθεγξαμένης ἀΐων.
1.37. Thus Xenophanes. But Cratinus also lampooned him both in the Pythagorizing Woman and also in The Tarentines, where we read:They are wont,If haply they a foreigner do find,To hold a cross-examinationOf doctrines’ worth, to trouble and confound himWith terms, equations, and antithesesBrain-bung’d with magnitudes and periphrases.Again, Mnesimachus in the Alcmaeon:To Loxias we sacrifice: Pythagoras his rite,Of nothing that is animate we ever take a bite.
1.37. Καὶ ταῦτα μὲν ὁ Ξενοφάνης. ἔσκωψε δʼ αὐτὸν Κρατῖνος μὲν ἐν Πυθαγοριζούσῃ· ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν Ταραντίνοις φησὶν οὕτως·ἔθος ἐστὶν αὐτοῖς, ἄν τινʼ ἰδιώτην ποθὲνλάβωσιν εἰσελθόντα, διαπειρώμενοντῆς τῶν λόγων ῥώμης ταράττειν καὶ κυκᾶντοῖς ἀντιθέτοις, τοῖς πέρασι, τοῖς παρισώμασιν,τοῖς ἀποπλάνοις, τοῖς μεγέθεσιν νουβυστικῶς.Μνησίμαχος δʼ Ἀλκμαίωνι·ὡς Πυθαγοριστὶ θύομεν τῷ Λοξίᾳ,ἔμψυχον οὐδὲν ἐσθίοντες παντελῶς.
1.38. And Aristophon in the Pythagorist:A. He told how he travelled in Hades and looked on the dwellers below,How each of them lives, but how different by far from the lives of the deadWere the lives of the Pythagoreans, for these alone, so he said,Were suffered to dine with King Pluto, which was for their piety’s sake.B. What an ill-tempered god for whom such swine, such creatures good company make;and in the same later:Their food is just greens, and to wet it pure water is all that they drink;And the want of a bath, and the vermin, and their old threadbare coats so do stinkThat none of the rest will come near them.
1.38. Ἀριστοφῶν Πυθαγοριστῇ·ἔφη καταβὰς ἐς τὴν δίαιταν τῶν κάτωἰδεῖν ἑκάστους, διαφέρειν δὲ πάμπολυτοὺς Πυθαγοριστὰς τῶν νεκρῶν· μόνοισι γὰρτούτοισι τὸν Πλούτωνα συσσιτεῖν ἔφηδιʼ εὐσέβειαν. β. δυσχερῆ θεὸν λέγεις,εἰ τοῖς ῥύπου μεστοῖσιν ἥδεται ξυνών.ἔτι ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ·ἐσθίουσί τελάχανά τε καὶ πίνουσιν ἐπὶ τούτοις ὕδωρ·φθεῖρας δὲ καὶ τρίβωνα τήν τʼ ἀλουσίανοὐδεὶς ἂν ὑπομείνειε τῶν ἑτέρων 〈νεκρῶν〉.
1.39. Pythagoras met his death in this wise. As he sat one day among his acquaintances at the house of Milo, it chanced that the house was set ablaze out of jealousy by one of the people who were not accounted worthy of admittance to his presence, though some say it was the work of the inhabitants of Croton anxious to safeguard themselves against the setting-up of a tyranny. Pythagoras was caught as he tried to escape; he got as far as a certain field of beans, where he stopped, saying he would be captured rather than cross it, and be killed rather than prate about his doctrines; and so his pursuers cut his throat. So also were murdered more than half of his disciples, to the number of forty or thereabouts; but a very few escaped, including Archippus of Tarentum and Lysis, already mentioned.
1.39. Ἐτελεύτα δʼ ὁ Πυθαγόρας τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον. συνεδρεύοντος μετὰ τῶν συνήθων ἐν τῇ Μίλωνος οἰκίᾳ [τούτου], ὑπό τινος τῶν μὴ παραδοχῆς ἀξιωθέντων διὰ φθόνον ὑποπρησθῆναι τὴν οἰκίαν συνέβη· τινὲς δʼ αὐτοὺς τοὺς Κροτωνιάτας τοῦτο πρᾶξαι, τυραννίδος ἐπίθεσιν εὐλαβουμένους. τὸν δὴ Πυθαγόραν καταληφθῆναι διεξιόντα· καὶ πρός τινι χωρίῳ γενόμενος πλήρει κυάμων, ἵνα [αὐτόθι] ἔστη, εἰπὼν ἁλῶναι ἂν μᾶλλον ἢ πατῆσαι [ἀναιρεθῆναι δὲ κρεῖττον ἢ λαλῆσαι]· καὶ ὧδε πρὸς τῶν διωκόντων ἀποσφαγῆναι. οὕτω δὲ καὶ τοὺς πλείους τῶν ἑταίρων αὐτοῦ διαφθαρῆναι, ὄντας πρὸς τοὺς τετταράκοντα· διαφυγεῖν δʼ ὀλίγους, ὧν ἦν καὶ Ἄρχιππος ὁ Ταραντῖνος καὶ Λῦσις ὁ προειρημένος.
1.40. Dicaearchus, however, says that Pythagoras died a fugitive in the temple of the Muses at Metapontum after forty days’ starvation. Heraclides, in his Epitome of the Lives of Satyrus, says that, after burying Pherecydes at Delos, he returned to Italy and, when he found Cylon of Croton giving a luxurious banquet to all and sundry, retired to Metapontum to end his days there by starvation, having no wish to live longer. On the other hand, Hermippus relates that, when the men of Agrigentum and Syracuse were at war, Pythagoras and his disciples went out and fought in the van of the army of the Agrigentines, and, their line being turned, he was killed by the Syracusans as he was trying to avoid the beanfield; the rest, about thirty-five in number, were burned at the stake in Tarentum for trying to set up a government in opposition to those in power.
1.40. Φησὶ δὲ Δικαίαρχος τὸν Πυθαγόραν ἀποθανεῖν καταφυγόντα εἰς τὸ ἐν Μεταποντίῳ ἱερὸν τῶν Μουσῶν, τετταράκοντʼ ἡμέρας ἀσιτήσαντα. Ἡρακλείδης δέ φησιν ἐν τῇ τῶν Σατύρου βίων ἐπιτομῇ μετὰ τὸ θάψαι Φερεκύδην ἐν Δήλῳ ἐπανελθεῖν εἰς Ἰταλίαν καὶ * * πανδαισίαν εὑρόντα Κύλωνος τοῦ Κροτωνιάτου εἰς Μεταπόντιον ὑπεξελθεῖν κἀκεῖ τὸν βίον καταστρέψαι ἀσιτίᾳ, μὴ βουλόμενον περαιτέρω ζῆν. Ἕρμιππος δέ φησι, πολεμούντων Ἀκραγαντίνων καὶ Συρακοσίων, ἐξελθεῖν τὸν Πυθαγόραν μετὰ τῶν συνήθων καὶ προστῆναι τῶν Ἀκραγαντίνων· τροπῆς δὲ γενομένης περικάμπτοντα αὐτὸν τὴν τῶν κυάμων χώραν ὑπὸ τῶν Συρακοσίων ἀναιρεθῆναι· τούς τε λοιπούς, ὄντας πρὸς τοὺς πέντε καὶ τριάκοντα, ἐν Τάραντι κατακαυθῆναι, θέλοντας ἀντιπολιτεύεσθαι τοῖς προεστῶσι.
1.41. Hermippus gives another anecdote. Pythagoras, on coming to Italy, made a subterranean dwelling and enjoined on his mother to mark and record all that passed, and at what hour, and to send her notes down to him until he should ascend. She did so. Pythagoras some time afterwards came up withered and looking like a skeleton, then went into the assembly and declared he had been down to Hades, and even read out his experiences to them. They were so affected that they wept and wailed and looked upon him as divine, going so far as to send their wives to him in hopes that they would learn some of his doctrines; and so they were called Pythagorean women. Thus far Hermippus.
1.41. Καὶ ἄλλο τι περὶ Πυθαγόρου φησὶν ὁ Ἕρμιππος. [λέγει γὰρ] ὡς γενόμενος ἐν Ἰταλίᾳ κατὰ γῆς οἰκίσκον ποιήσαι καὶ τῇ μητρὶ ἐντείλαιτο τὰ γινόμενα εἰς δέλτον γράφειν σημειουμένην καὶ τὸν χρόνον, ἔπειτα καθιέναι αὐτῷ ἔστʼ ἂν ἀνέλθῃ. τοῦτο ποιῆσαι τὴν μητέρα. τὸν δὲ Πυθαγόραν μετὰ χρόνον ἀνελθεῖν ἰσχνὸν καὶ κατεσκελετευμένον· εἰσελθόντα τʼ εἰς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν φάσκειν ὡς ἀφῖκται ἐξ ᾅδου· καὶ δὴ καὶ ἀνεγίνωσκεν αὐτοῖς τὰ συμβεβηκότα. οἱ δὲ σαινόμενοι τοῖς λεγομένοις ἐδάκρυόν τε καὶ ᾤμωζον καὶ ἐπίστευον εἶναι τὸν Πυθαγόραν θεῖόν τινα, ὥστε καὶ τὰς γυναῖκας αὐτῷ παραδοῦναι, ὡς καὶ μαθησομένας τι τῶν αὐτοῦ· ἃς καὶ Πυθαγορικὰς κληθῆναι. καὶ ταῦτα μὲν ὁ Ἕρμιππος.
1.42. Pythagoras had a wife, Theano by name, daughter of Brontinus of Croton, though some call her Brontinus’s wife and Pythagoras’s pupil. He had a daughter Damo, according to the letter of Lysis to Hippasus, which says of him, “I am told by many that you discourse publicly, a thing which Pythagoras deemed unworthy, for certain it is that, when he entrusted his daughter Damo with the custody of his memoirs, he solemnly charged her never to give them to anyone outside his house. And, although she could have sold the writings for a large sum of money, she would not, but reckoned poverty and her father’s solemn injunctions more precious than gold, for all that she was a woman.”
1.42. Ἦν δὲ τῷ Πυθαγόρᾳ καὶ γυνή, Θεανὼ ὄνομα, Βροντίνου τοῦ Κροτωνιάτου θυγάτηρ· οἱ δέ, γυναῖκα μὲν εἶναι Βροντίνου, μαθήτριαν δὲ Πυθαγόρου. ἦν αὐτῷ καὶ θυγάτηρ Δαμώ, ὥς φησι Λῦσις ἐν ἐπιστολῇ τῇ πρὸς Ἵππασον, περὶ Πυθαγόρου λέγων οὕτως· λέγοντι δὲ πολλοὶ τὺ καὶ δαμοσίᾳ φιλοσοφέν, ὅπερ ἀπαξίωσε Πυθαγόρας, ὅς γέ τοι Δαμοῖ τᾷ ἑαυτοῦ θυγατρὶ παρακαταθέμενος τὰ ὑπομνάματα ἐπέσκαψε μηδενὶ τῶν ἐκτὸς τᾶς οἰκίας παραδιδόμεν. ἁ δὲ δυναμένα πολλῶν χραμάτων ἀποδίδοσθαι τὼς λόγως οὐκ ἐβουλάθη· πενίαν δὲ καὶ τὰς τῶ πατρὸς ἐπισκάψιας ἐνόμιζε χρυσῶ τιμιωτέρας ἦμεν, καὶ ταῦτα γυνά.
1.43. They also had a son Telauges, who succeeded his father and, according to some, was Empedocles’ instructor. At all events Hippobotus makes Empedocles say:Telauges, famedSon of Theano and Pythagoras.Telauges wrote nothing, so far as we know, but his mother Theano wrote a few things. Further, a story is told that being asked how many days it was before a woman becomes pure after intercourse, she replied, “With her own husband at once, with another man never.” And she advised a woman going in to her own husband to put off her shame with her clothes, and on leaving him to put it on again along with them. Asked “Put on what?” she replied, “What makes me to be called a woman.”
1.43. Ἦν καὶ Τηλαύγης υἱὸς αὐτοῖς, ὃς καὶ διεδέξατο τὸν πατέρα καὶ κατά τινας Ἐμπεδοκλέους καθηγήσατο· Ἱππόβοτός γέ τοί φησι λέγειν Ἐμπεδοκλέα, Τήλαυγες, κλυτὲ κοῦρε Θεανοῦς Πυθαγόρεώ τε. σύγγραμμα δὲ [φέρεται] τοῦ Τηλαύγους οὐδέν, τῆς δὲ μητρὸς αὐτοῦ Θεανοῦς τινα. ἀλλὰ καί φασιν αὐτὴν ἐρωτηθεῖσαν ποσταία γυνὴ ἀπʼ ἀνδρὸς καθαρεύει, φάναι, ἀπὸ μὲν τοῦ ἰδίου παραχρῆμα, ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ ἀλλοτρίου οὐδέποτε. τῇ δὲ πρὸς τὸν ἴδιον ἄνδρα μελλούσῃ πορεύεσθαι παρῄνει ἅμα τοῖς ἐνδύμασι καὶ τὴν αἰσχύνην ἀποτίθεσθαι, ἀνισταμένην τε πάλιν ἅμʼ αὐτοῖσιν ἀναλαμβάνειν. ἐρωτηθεῖσα, ποῖα; ἔφη, ταῦτα διʼ ἃ γυνὴ κέκλημαι.
1.44. To return to Pythagoras. According to Heraclides, the son of Serapion, he was eighty years old when he died, and this agrees with his own description of the life of man, though most authorities say he was ninety. And there are jesting lines of my own upon him as follows:Not thou alone from all things animateDidst keep, Pythagoras. All food is deadWhen boil’d and bak’d and salt-besprinkle-èd;For then it surely is inanimate.Again:So wise was wise Pythagoras that heWould touch no meats, but called it impious,Bade others eat. Good wisdom: not for usTo do the wrong; let others impious be.
1.44. Ὁ δʼ οὖν Πυθαγόρας, ὡς μὲν Ἡρακλείδης φησὶν ὁ τοῦ Σαραπίωνος, ὀγδοηκοντούτης ἐτελεύτα, κατὰ τὴν ἰδίαν ὑπογραφὴν τῶν ἡλικιῶν· ὡς δʼ οἱ πλείους, ἔτη βιοὺς ἐνενήκοντα. καὶ ἡμῶν ἐστιν εἰς αὐτὸν πεπαιγμένα οὕτως ἔχοντα·οὐ μόνος ἐμψύχων ἄπεχες χέρας, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡμεῖς·τίς γὰρ ὃς ἐμψύχων ἥψατο, Πυθαγόρα;ἀλλʼ ὅταν ἑψηθῇ τι καὶ ὀπτηθῇ καὶ ἁλισθῇ,δὴ τότε καὶ ψυχὴν οὐκ ἔχον ἐσθίομεν.ἄλλο·ἦν ἄρα Πυθαγόρης τοῖος σοφός, ὥστε μὲν αὐτὸςμὴ ψαύειν κρειῶν καὶ λέγεν ὡς ἄδικον,σιτίζειν δʼ ἄλλους. ἄγαμαι σοφόν· αὐτὸς ἔφα μὲνοὐκ ἀδικεῖν, ἄλλους δʼ αὐτὸς ἔτευχʼ ἀδικεῖν.
1.45. And again:If thou wouldst know the mind of old Pythagoras,Look on Euphorbus’ buckler and its boss.He says “I’ve lived before.” If, when he says he was,He was not, he was no-one when he was.And again, of the manner of his death: “Woe! Woe! Whence, Pythagoras, this deep reverence for beans? Why did he fall in the midst of his disciples? A bean-field there was he durst not cross; sooner than trample on it, he endured to be slain at the cross-roads by the men of Acragas.” He flourished in the 60th Olympiad and his school lasted until the ninth or tenth generation.
1.45. καὶ ἄλλο·τὰς φρένας ἢν ἐθέλῃς τὰς Πυθαγόραο νοῆσαι,ἀσπίδος Εὐφόρβου βλέψον ἐς ὀμφάλιον.φησὶ γὰρ οὗτος, Ἐγὼν ἦν πρόβροτος· ὃς δʼ ὅτε οὐκ ἦν,φάσκων ὥς τις ἔην, οὔτις ἔην ὅτʼ ἔην.καὶ ἄλλο, ὡς ἐτελεύτα·αἲ, αἴ, Πυθαγόρης τί τόσον κυάμους ἐσεβάσθη;καὶ θάνε φοιτηταῖς ἄμμιγα τοῖς ἰδίοις.χωρίον ἦν κυάμων· ἵνα μὴ τούτους δὲ πατήσῃ,ἐξ Ἀκραγαντίνων κάτθανʼ ἐνὶ τριόδῳ. Ἤκμαζε δὲ καὶ κατὰ τὴν ἑξηκοστὴν Ὀλυμπιάδα, καὶ αὐτοῦ τὸ σύστημα διέμενε μέχρι γενεῶν ἐννέα ἢ καὶ δέκα·
1.46. For the last of the Pythagoreans, whom Aristoxenus in his time saw, were Xenophilus from the Thracian Chalcidice, Phanton of Phlius, and Echecrates, Diocles and Polymnastus, also of Phlius, who were pupils of Philolaus and Eurytus of Tarentum. There were four men of the name of Pythagoras living about the same time and at no great distance from one another: (1) of Croton, a man with tyrannical leanings; (2) of Phlius, an athlete, some say a trainer; (3) of Zacynthus; (4) our subject, who discovered the secrets of philosophy [and taught them], and to whom was applied the phrase, “The Master said” (Ipse dixit), which passed into a proverb of ordinary life.
1.46. τελευταῖοι γὰρ ἐγένοντο τῶν Πυθαγορείων, οὓς καὶ Ἀριστόξενος εἶδε, Ξενόφιλός τε ὁ Χαλκιδεὺς ἀπὸ Θρᾴκης καὶ Φάντων ὁ Φλιάσιος καὶ Ἐχεκράτης καὶ Διοκλῆς καὶ Πολύμναστος, Φλιάσιοι καὶ αὐτοί. ἦσαν δʼ ἀκροαταὶ Φιλολάου καὶ Εὐρύτου τῶν Ταραντίνων. Γεγόνασι δὲ Πυθαγόραι τέτταρες περὶ τοὺς αὐτοὺς χρόνους, οὐ πολὺ ἀπʼ ἀλλήλων ἀπέχοντες· εἷς μὲν Κροτωνιάτης, τυραννικὸς ἄνθρωπος· ἕτερος Φλιάσιος, σωμασκητής, [ἀλείπτης, ὥς φασί τινες]· τρίτος Ζακύνθιος· τέταρτος αὐτὸς οὗτος, οὗ φασιν εἶναι τἀπόρρητα τῆς φιλοσοφίας· [αὐτῶν διδάσκαλος·] ἐφʼ οὗ καὶ τὸ Αὐτὸς ἔφα παροιμιακὸν εἰς τὸν βίον ἦλθεν.
1.47. Some say there was also another Pythagoras, a sculptor of Rhegium, who is thought to have been the first to aim at rhythm and symmetry; another a sculptor of Samos; another a bad orator; another a doctor who wrote on hernia and also compiled some things about Homer; and yet another who, so we are told by Dionysius, wrote a history of the Dorian race. Eratosthenes says, according to what we learn from Favorinus in the eighth book of his Miscellaneous History, that the last-named was the first to box scientifically, in the 48th Olympiad, keeping his hair long and wearing a purple robe; and that when he was excluded with ridicule from the boys’ contest, he went at once to the men’s and won that;
1.47. οἱ δὲ καὶ ἄλλον ἀνδριαντοποιὸν Ῥηγῖνον γεγονέναι φασὶ Πυθαγόραν, πρῶτον δοκοῦντα ῥυθμοῦ καὶ συμμετρίας ἐστοχάσθαι· καὶ ἄλλον ἀνδριαντοποιὸν Σάμιον· καὶ ἕτερον ῥήτορα μοχθηρόν· καὶ ἰατρὸν ἄλλον, τὰ περὶ κήλης γεγραφότα καί τινα περὶ Ὁμήρου συντεταγμένον· καὶ ἕτερον Δωρικὰ πεπραγματευμένον, ὡς Διονύσιος ἱστορεῖ. Ἐρατοσθένης δέ φησι, καθὸ καὶ Φαβωρῖνος ἐν τῇ ὀγδόῃ Παντοδαπῆς ἱστορίας παρατίθεται, τοῦτον εἶναι τὸν πρῶτον ἐντέχνως πυκτεύσαντα ἐπὶ τῆς ὀγδόης καὶ τετταρακοστῆς Ὀλυμπιάδος, κομήτην καὶ ἁλουργίδα φοροῦντα· ἐκκριθέντα τʼ ἐκ τῶν παίδων καὶ χλευασθέντα αὐτίκα προσβῆναι τοὺς ἄνδρας καὶ νικῆσαι.
1.48. this is declared by Theaetetus’s epigram:Know’st one Pythagoras, long-haired Pythagoras,The far-fam’d boxer of the Samians?I am Pythagoras; ask the EliansWhat were my feats, thou’lt not believe the tale. Favorinus says that our philosopher used definitions throughout the subject matter of mathematics; their use was extended by Socrates and his disciples, and afterwards by Aristotle and the Stoics. Further, we are told that he was the first to call the heaven the universe and the earth spherical, though Theophrastus says it was Parmenides, and Zeno that it was Hesiod.
1.48. δηλοῦν δὲ τοῦτο καὶ τοὐπίγραμμα ὅπερ ἐποίησε Θεαίτητος·Πυθαγόρην τινά, Πυθαγόρην, ὦ ξεῖνε, κομήτην,ᾀδόμενον πύκτην εἰ κατέχεις Σάμιον,Πυθαγόρης ἐγώ εἰμι· τὰ δʼ ἔργα μου εἴ τινʼ ἔροιοἨλείων, φήσεις αὐτὸν ἄπιστα λέγειν. Τοῦτον ὁ Φαβωρῖνός φησιν ὅροις χρήσασθαι διὰ τῆς μαθηματικῆς ὕλης, ἐπὶ πλέον δὲ Σωκράτην καὶ τοὺς ἐκείνῳ πλησιάσαντας, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτʼ Ἀριστοτέλην καὶ τοὺς στωικούς. Ἀλλὰ μὴν καὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν πρῶτον ὀνομάσαι κόσμον καὶ τὴν γῆν στρογγύλην· ὡς δὲ Θεόφραστος, Παρμενίδην· ὡς δὲ Ζήνων, Ἡσίοδον.
1.49. It is said that Cylon was a rival of Pythagoras, as Antilochus was of Socrates. Pythagoras the athlete was also the subject of another epigram as follows:Gone to box with other ladsIs the lad Pythagoras,Gone to the games OlympianCrates’ son the Samian.The philosopher also wrote the following letter: Pythagoras to Anaximenes. “Even you, O most excellent of men, were you no better born and famed than Pythagoras, would have risen and departed from Miletus. But now your ancestral glory has detained you as it had detained me were I Anaximenes’s peer. But if you, the best men, abandon your cities, then will their good order perish, and the peril from the Medes will increase.”
1.49. τούτῳ φασὶν ἀντιπαρατάσσεσθαι Κύλωνα καθάπερ Ἀντίλοχον Σωκράτει. Ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ ἀθλητοῦ Πυθαγόρου καὶ τοῦτʼ ἐλέγετο τὸ ἐπίγραμμα·οὗτος πυκτεύσων ἐς Ὀλύμπια παισὶν ἄνηβοςἤλυθε Πυθαγόρης ὁ Κράτεω Σάμιος.ὁ δὲ φιλόσοφος καὶ ὧδε ἐπέστειλε· Πυθαγόρης Ἀναξιμένει. “Καὶ σύ, ὦ λῷστε, εἰ μηδὲν ἀμείνων ἦς Πυθαγόρεω γενεήν τε καὶ κλέος, μεταναστὰς ἂν οἴχεο ἐκ Μιλήτου· νῦν δὲ κατερύκει σε ἡ πατρόθεν εὔκλεια, καὶ ἐμὲ δὲ ἂν κατείρυκεν Ἀναξιμένει ἐοικότα. εἰ δὲ ὑμεῖς οἱ ὀνήιστοι τὰς πόλιας ἐκλείψετε, ἀπὸ μὲν αὐτέων ὁ κόσμος αἱρεθήσεται, ἐπικινδυνότερα δʼ αὐτῇσι τὰ ἐκ Μήδων.
1.50. “For always to scan the heavens is not well, but more seemly is it to be provident for one’s mother country. For I too am not altogether in my discourses but am found no less in the wars which the Italians wage with one another.” Having now finished our account of Pythagoras, we have next to speak of the noteworthy Pythagoreans; after them will come the philosophers whom some denominate “sporadic” [i.e. belonging to no particular school]; and then, in the next place, we will append the succession of all those worthy of notice as far as Epicurus, in the way that we promised. We have already treated of Theano and Telauges: so now we have first to speak of Empedocles, for some say he was a pupil of Pythagoras.
1.50. οὔτε δὲ αἰεὶ καλὸν αἰθερολογέειν μελεδωνόν τε εἶναι τῇ πατρίδι κάλλιον. καὶ ἐγὼ δὲ οὐ πάντα περὶ τοὺς ἐμεωυτοῦ μύθους, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν πολέμοις οὓς διαφέρουσιν ἐς ἀλλήλους Ἰταλιῶται. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ περὶ Πυθαγόρου διεληλύθαμεν, ῥητέον περὶ τῶν ἐλλογίμων Πυθαγορικῶν· μεθʼ οὓς περὶ τῶν σποράδην κατά τινας φερομένων· ἔπειθʼ οὕτως ἐξάψομεν τὴν διαδοχὴν τῶν ἀξίων λόγου ἕως Ἐπικούρου καθὰ καὶ προειρήκαμεν. περὶ μὲν οὖν Θεανοῦς καὶ Τηλαύγους διειλέγμεθα· λεκτέον δὲ νῦν περὶ Ἐμπεδοκλέους πρῶτον· κατὰ γάρ τινας Πυθαγόρου διήκουσεν.
2.51. Empedocles was, according to Hippobotus, the son of Meton and grandson of Empedocles, and was a native of Agrigentum. This is confirmed by Timaeus in the fifteenth book of his Histories, and he adds that Empedocles, the poet’s grandfather, had been a man of distinction. Hermippus also agrees with Timaeus. So, too, Heraclides, in his treatise On Diseases, says that he was of an illustrious family, his grandfather having kept racehorses. Eratosthenes also in his Olympic Victories records, on the authority of Aristotle, that the father of Meton was a victor in the 71st Olympiad.
2.51. Ἐμπεδοκλῆς, ὥς φησιν Ἱππόβοτος, Μέτωνος ἦν υἱὸς τοῦ Ἐμπεδοκλέους, Ἀκραγαντῖνος. τὸ δʼ αὐτὸ καὶ Τίμαιος ἐν τῇ πεντεκαιδεκάτῃ τῶν Ἱστοριῶν 〈λέγει προσιστορῶν〉 ἐπίσημον ἄνδρα γεγονέναι τὸν Ἐμπεδοκλέα τὸν πάππον τοῦ ποιητοῦ. ἀλλὰ καὶ Ἕρμιππος τὰ αὐτὰ τούτῳ φησίν. ὁμοίως καὶ Ἡρακλείδης ἐν τῷ Περὶ νόσων, ὅτι λαμπρᾶς ἦν οἰκίας ἱπποτροφηκότος τοῦ πάππου. λέγει δὲ καὶ Ἐρατοσθένης ἐν τοῖς Ὀλυμπιονίκαις τὴν πρώτην καὶ ἑβδομηκοστὴν Ὀλυμπιάδα νενικηκέναι τὸν τοῦ Μέτωνος πατέρα, μάρτυρι χρώμενος Ἀριστοτέλει.
2.52. The grammarian Apollodorus in his Chronology tells us that “He was the son of Meton, and Glaucus says he went to Thurii, just then founded.” Then farther on he adds: “Those who relate that, being exiled from his home, he went to Syracuse and fought in their ranks against the Athenians seem, in my judgement at least, to be completely mistaken. For by that time either he was no longer living or in extreme old age, which is inconsistent with the story.” For Aristotle and Heraclides both affirm that he died at the age of sixty. The victor with the ridinghorse in the 71st Olympiad was “This man’s namesake and grandfather,” so that Apollodorus in one and the same passage indicates the date as well as the fact.
2.52. Ἀπολλόδωρος δʼ ὁ γραμματικὸς ἐν τοῖς Χρονικοῖς φησιν ὡςἦν μὲν Μέτωνος υἱός, εἰς δὲ Θουρίουςαὐτὸν νεωστὶ παντελῶς ἐκτισμένους〈ὁ〉 Γλαῦκος ἐλθεῖν φησιν.εἶθʼ ὑποβάς·οἱ δʼ ἱστοροῦντες, ὡς πεφευγὼς οἴκοθενεἰς τὰς Συρακούσας μετʼ ἐκείνων ἐπολέμειπρὸς Ἀθηνάους ἐμοί 〈γε〉 τελέως ἀγνοεῖνδοκοῦσιν· ἢ γὰρ οὐκέτʼ ἦν ἢ παντελῶςὑπεργεγηρακώς, ὅπερ οὐχὶ φαίνεται.Ἀριστοτέλης γὰρ αὐτόν, ἔτι τε Ἡρακλείδης, ἑξήκοντα ἐτῶν φησὶ τετελευτηκέναι. ὁ δὲ 〈τὴν〉 μίαν καὶ ἑβδομηκοστὴν Ὀλυμπιάδα νενικηκὼς κέλητι τούτου πάππος ἦν ὁμώνυμος, ὥσθʼ ἅμα καὶ τὸν χρόνον ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἀπολλοδώρου σημαίνεσθαι.
2.53. But Satyrus in his Lives states that Empedocles was the son of Exaenetus and himself left a son named Exaenetus, and that in the same Olympiad Empedocles himself was victorious in the horse-race and his son in wrestling, or, as Heraclides in his Epitome has it, in the foot-race. I found in the Memorabilia of Favorinus a statement that Empedocles feasted the sacred envoys on a sacrificial ox made of honey and barley-meal, and that he had a brother named Callicratides. Telauges, the son of Pythagoras, in his letter to Philolaus calls Empedocles the son of Archinomus.
2.53. Σάτυρος δʼ ἐν τοῖς Βίοις φησὶν ὅτι Ἐμπεδοκλῆς υἱὸς μὲν ἦν Ἐξαινέτου, κατέλιπε δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς υἱὸν Ἐξαίνετον· ἐπί τε τῆς αὐτῆς Ὀλυμπιάδος τὸν μὲν ἵππῳ κέλητι νενικηκέναι, τὸν δʼ υἱὸν αὐτοῦ πάλῃ ἤ, ὡς Ἡρακλείδης ἐν τῇ Ἐπιτομῇ, δρόμῳ. ἐγὼ δʼ εὗρον ἐν τοῖς Ὑπομνήμασι Φαβωρίνου ὅτι καὶ βοῦν ἔθυσε τοῖς θεωροῖς ὁ Ἐμπεδοκλῆς ἐκ μέλιτος καὶ ἀλφίτων, καὶ ἀδελφὸν ἔσχε Καλλικρατίδην. Τηλαύγης δʼ ὁ Πυθαγόρου παῖς ἐν τῇ πρὸς Φιλόλαον ἐπιστολῇ φησι τὸν Ἐμπεδοκλέα Ἀρχινόμου εἶναι υἱόν.
2.54. That he belonged to Agrigentum in Sicily he himself testifies at the beginning of his Purifications: “My friends, who dwell in the great city sloping down to yellow Acragas, hard by the citadel.” So much for his family. Timaeus in the ninth book of his Histories says he was a pupil of Pythagoras, adding that, having been convicted at that time of stealing his discourses, he was, like Plato, excluded from taking part in the discussions of the school; and further, that Empedocles himself mentions Pythagoras in the lines: “And there lived among them a man of superhuman knowledge, who verily possessed the greatest wealth of wisdom.” Others say that it is to Parmenides that he is here referring.
2.54. Ὅτι δʼ ἦν Ἀκραγαντῖνος ἐκ Σικελίας, αὐτὸς ἐναρχόμενος τῶν Καθαρμῶν φησιν· ὦ φίλοι οἳ μέγα ἄστυ κατὰ ξανθοῦ Ἀκράγαντος ναίετʼ ἀνʼ ἄκρα πόλεος. καὶ τὰ μὲν περὶ τοῦ γένους αὐτοῦ τάδε. Ἀκοῦσαι δʼ αὐτὸν Πυθαγόρου Τίμαιος διὰ τῆς ἐνάτης ἱστορεῖ, λέγων ὅτι καταγνωσθεὶς ἐπὶ λογοκλοπίᾳ τότε, καθὰ καὶ Πλάτων, τῶν λόγων ἐκωλύθη μετέχειν. μεμνῆσθαι δὲ καὶ αὐτὸν Πυθαγόρου λέγοντα·ἦν δέ τις ἐν κείνοισιν ἀνὴρ περιώσια εἰδώς,ὃς δὴ μήκιστον πραπίδων ἐκτήσατο πλοῦτον.οἱ δὲ τοῦτο εἰς Παρμενίδην αὐτὸν λέγειν ἀναφέροντα.
2.55. Neanthes states that down to the time of Philolaus and Empedocles all Pythagoreans were admitted to the discussions. But when Empedocles himself made them public property by his poem, they made a law that they should not be imparted to any poet. He says the same thing also happened to Plato, for he too was excommunicated. But which of the Pythagoreans it was who had Empedocles for a pupil he did not say. For the epistle commonly attributed to Telauges and the statement that Empedocles was the pupil of both Hippasus and Brontinus he held to be unworthy of credence. Theophrastus affirms that he was an admirer of Parmenides and imitated him in his verses, for Parmenides too had published his treatise On Nature in verse.
2.55. Φησὶ δὲ Νεάνθης ὅτι μέχρι Φιλολάου καὶ Ἐμπεδοκλέους ἐκοινώνουν οἱ Πυθαγορικοὶ τῶν λόγων. ἐπεὶ δʼ αὐτὸς διὰ τῆς ποιήσεως ἐδημοσίωσεν αὐτά, νόμον ἔθεντο μηδενὶ μεταδώσειν ἐποποιῷ. τὸ δʼ αὐτὸ καὶ Πλάτωνα παθεῖν φησι· καὶ γὰρ τοῦτον κωλυθῆναι. τίνος μέντοι γε αὐτῶν ἤκουσεν ὁ Ἐμπεδοκλῆς, οὐκ εἶπε· τὴν γὰρ περιφερομένην ὡς Τηλαύγους ἐπιστολὴν ὅτι τε μετέσχεν Ἱππάσου καὶ Βροντίνου, μὴ εἶναι ἀξιόπιστον. Ὁ δὲ Θεόφραστος Παρμενίδου φησὶ ζηλωτὴν αὐτὸν γενέσθαι καὶ μιμητὴν ἐν τοῖς ποιήμασι· καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖνον ἐν ἔπεσι τὸν Περὶ φύσεως ἐξενεγκεῖν λόγον.
2.56. But Hermippus’s account is that he was an admirer not so much of Parmenides as of Xenophanes, with whom in fact he lived and whose writing of poetry he imitated, and that his meeting with the Pythagoreans was subsequent. Alcidamas tells us in his treatise on Physics that Zeno and Empedocles were pupils of Parmenides about the same time, that afterwards they left him, and that, while Zeno framed his own system, Empedocles became the pupil of Anaxagoras and Pythagoras, emulating the latter in dignity of life and bearing, and the former in his physical investigations.
2.56. Ἕρμιππος δὲ οὐ Παρμενίδου, Ξενοφάνους δὲ γεγονέναι ζηλωτήν, ᾧ καὶ συνδιατρῖψαι καὶ μιμήσασθαι τὴν ἐποποιίαν· ὕστερον δὲ τοῖς Πυθαγορικοῖς ἐντυχεῖν. Ἀλκιδάμας δʼ ἐν τῷ Φυσικῷ φησι κατὰ τοὺς αὐτοὺς χρόνους Ζήνωνα καὶ Ἐμπεδοκλέα ἀκοῦσαι Παρμενίδου, εἶθʼ ὕστερον ἀποχωρῆσαι, καὶ τὸν μὲν Ζήνωνα κατʼ ἰδίαν φιλοσοφῆσαι, τὸν δὲ Ἀναξαγόρου διακοῦσαι καὶ Πυθαγόρου· καὶ τοῦ μὲν τὴν σεμνότητα ζηλῶσαι τοῦ τε βίου καὶ τοῦ σχήματος, τοῦ δὲ τὴν φυσιολογίαν.
2.57. Aristotle in his Sophist calls Empedocles the inventor of rhetoric as Zeno of dialectic. In his treatise On Poets he says that Empedocles was of Homer’s school and powerful in diction, being great in metaphors and in the use of all other poetical devices. He also says that he wrote other poems, in particular the invasion of Xerxes and a hymn to Apollo, which a sister of his (or, according to Hieronymus, his daughter) afterwards burnt. The hymn she destroyed unintentionally, but the poem on the Persian war deliberately, because it was unfinished.
2.57. Ἀριστοτέλης δʼ ἐν τῷ Σοφιστῇ φησι πρῶτον Ἐμπεδοκλέα ῥητορικὴν εὑρεῖν, Ζήνωνα δὲ διαλεκτικήν. ἐν δὲ τῷ Περὶ ποιητῶν φησιν ὅτι καὶ Ὁμηρικὸς ὁ Ἐμπεδοκλῆς καὶ δεινὸς περὶ τὴν φράσιν γέγονεν, μεταφορητικός τε ὢν καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις τοῖς περὶ ποιητικὴν ἐπιτεύγμασι χρώμενος· καὶ διότι γράψαντος αὐτοῦ καὶ ἄλλα ποιήματα τήν τε τοῦ Ξέρξου διάβασιν καὶ προοίμιον εἰς Ἀπόλλωνα, ταῦθʼ ὔστερον κατέκαυσεν ἀδελφή τις αὐτοῦ (ἢ θυγάτηρ, ὥς φησιν Ἱερώνυμος), τὸ μὲν προοίμιον ἄκουσα, τὰ δὲ Περσικὰ βουληθεῖσα διὰ τὸ ἀτελείωτα εἶναι.
2.58. And in general terms he says he wrote both tragedies and political discourses. But Heraclides, the son of Sarapion, attributes the tragedies to a different author. Hieronymus declares that he had come across forty-three of these plays, while Neanthes tells us that Empedocles wrote these tragedies in his youth, and that he, Neanthes, was acquainted with seven of them. Satyrus in his Lives says that he was also a physician and an excellent orator: at all events Gorgias of Leontini, a man pre-eminent in oratory and the author of a treatise on the art, had been his pupil. Of Gorgias Apollodorus says in his Chronology that he lived to be one hundred and nine.
2.58. καθόλου δέ φησι καὶ τραγῳδίας αὐτὸν γράψαι καὶ πολιτικούς· Ἡρακλείδης δʼ ὁ τοῦ Σαραπίωνος ἑτέρου φησὶν εἶναι τὰς τραγῳδίας. Ἱερώνυμος δὲ τρισὶ καὶ τετταράκοντά φησιν ἐντετυχηκέναι, Νεάνθης δὲ νέον ὄντα γεγραφέναι τὰς τραγῳδίας καὶ αὐτῶν ἑπτὰ ἐντετυχηκέναι. Φησὶ δὲ Σάτυρος ἐν τοῖς Βίοις ὅτι καὶ ἰατρὸς ἦν καὶ ῥήτωρ ἄριστος. Γοργίαν γοῦν τὸν Λεοντῖνον αὐτοῦ γενέσθαι μαθητήν, ἄνδρα ὑπερέχοντα ἐν ῥητορικῇ καὶ Τέχνην ἀπολελοιπότα· ὅν φησιν Ἀπολλόδωρος ἐν Χρονικοῖς ἐννέα πρὸς τοῖς ἑκατὸν ἔτη βιῶναι.
2.59. Satyrus quotes this same Gorgias as saying that he himself was present when Empedocles performed magical feats. Nay more: he contends that Empedocles in his poems lays claim to this power and to much besides when he says: “And thou shalt learn all the drugs that are a defence to ward off ills and old age, since for thee alone shall I accomplish all this. Thou shalt arrest the violence of the unwearied winds that arise and sweep the earth, laying waste the cornfields with their blasts; and again, if thou so will, thou shalt call back winds in requital. Thou shalt make after the dark rain a seasonable drought for men, and again after the summer drought thou shalt cause tree-nourishing streams to pour from the sky. Thou shalt bring back from Hades a dead man’s strength.”
2.59. τοῦτόν φησιν ὁ Σάτυρος λέγειν ὡς αὐτὸς παρείη τῷ Ἐμπεδοκλεῖ γοητεύοντι. ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὸν διὰ τῶν ποιημάτων ἐπαγγέλλεσθαι τοῦτό τε καὶ ἄλλα πλείω, διʼ ὧν φησι· φάρμακα δʼ ὅσσα γεγᾶσι κακῶν καὶ γήραος ἄλκαρ πεύσῃ, ἐπεὶ μούνῳ σοὶ ἐγὼ κρανέω τάδε πάντα. παύσεις δʼ ἀκαμάτων ἀνέμων μένος, οἵ τʼ ἐπὶ γαῖαν ὀρνύμενοι πνοιαῖσι καταφθινύθουσιν ἄρουραν· καὶ πάλιν, ἢν ἐθέλῃσθα, παλίντιτα πνεύματʼ ἐπάξεις· θήσεις δʼ ἐξ ὄμβροιο κελαινοῦ καίριον αὐχμὸν ἀνθρώποις, θήσεις δὲ καὶ ἐξ αὐχμοῖο θερείου ῥεύματα δενδρεόθρεπτα, τά τʼ αἰθέρι ναιήσονται, ἄξεις δʼ ἐξ Ἀΐδαο καταφθιμένου μένος ἀνδρός.
2.60. Timaeus also in the eighteenth book of his Histories remarks that Empedocles has been admired on many grounds. For instance, when the etesian winds once began to blow violently and to damage the crops, he ordered asses to be flayed and bags to be made of their skin. These he stretched out here and there on the hills and headlands to catch the wind and, because this checked the wind, he was called the “wind-stayer.” Heraclides in his book On Diseases says that he furnished Pausanias with the facts about the woman in a trance. This Pausanias, according to Aristippus and Satyrus, was his bosom-friend, to whom he dedicated his poem On Nature thus:
2.60. Φησὶ δὲ καὶ Τίμαιος ἐν τῇ ὀκτωκαιδεκάτῃ κατὰ πολλοὺς τρόπους τεθαυμάσθαι τὸν ἄνδρα. καὶ γὰρ ἐτησίων ποτὲ σφοδρῶς πνευσάντων ὡς τοὺς καρποὺς λυμῆναι, κελεύσας ὄνους ἐκδαρῆναι καὶ ἀσκοὺς ποιῆσαι περὶ τοὺς λόφους καὶ τὰς ἀκρωρείας διέτεινε πρὸς τὸ συλλαβεῖν τὸ πνεῦμα· λήξαντος δὲ κωλυσανέμαν κληθῆναι. Ἡρακλείδης τε ἐν τῷ Περὶ νόσων φησὶ καὶ Παυσανίᾳ ὑφηγήσασθαι αὐτὸν τὰ περὶ τὴν ἄπνουν. ἦν δʼ ὁ Παυσανίας, ὥς φησιν Ἀρίστιππος καὶ Σάτυρος, ἐρώμενος αὐτοῦ, ᾧ δὴ καὶ τὰ Περὶ φύσεως προσπεφώνηκεν οὕτως·
2.61. “Give ear, Pausanias, thou son of Anchitus the wise!” Moreover he wrote an epigram upon him: “The physician Pausanias, rightly so named, son of Anchitus, descendant of Asclepius, was born and bred at Gela. Many a wight pining in fell torments did he bring back from Persephone’s inmost shrine.” At all events Heraclides testifies that the case of the woman in a trance was such that for thirty days he kept her body without pulsation though she never breathed; and for that reason Heraclides called him not merely a physician but a diviner as well, deriving the titles from the following lines also:
2.61. Παυσανίη, σὺ δὲ κλῦθι, δαΐφρονος Ἀγχίτου υἰέ. ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπίγραμμα εἰς αὐτὸν ἐποίησε·Παυσανίην ἰητρὸν ἐπώνυμον Ἀγχίτου υἱὸνφῶτʼ Ἀσκληπιάδην πατρὶς ἔθρεψε Γέλα,ὃς πολλοὺς μογεροῖσι μαραινομένους καμάτοισιφῶτας ἀπέστρεψεν Φερσεφόνης ἀδύτων.τὴν γοῦν ἄπνουν ὁ Ἡρακλείδης φησὶ τοιοῦτόν τι εἶναι, ὡς τριάκοντα ἡμέρας συντηρεῖν ἄπνουν καὶ ἄσφυκτον τὸ σῶμα· ὅθεν καὶ εἶπεν αὐτὸν καὶ ἰητρὸν καὶ μάντιν, λαμβάνων ἅμα καὶ ἀπὸ τούτων τῶν στίχων·
2.62. “My friends, who dwell in the grcat city sloping down to yellow Acragas, hard by the citadel, busied with goodly works, all hail! I go about among you an immortal god, no more a mortal, so honoured of all, as is meet, crowned with fillets and flowery garlands. Straightway as soon as I enter with these, men and women, into flourishing towns, I am reverenced and tens of thousands follow, to learn where is the path which leads to welfare, some desirous of oracles, others suffering from all kinds of diseases, desiring to hear a message of healing.”
2.62. ὦ φίλοι, οἳ μέγα ἄστυ κατὰ ξανθοῦ Ἀκράγαντοςναίετʼ ἀνʼ ἄκρα πόλεος, ἀγαθῶν μελεδήμονες ἔργων,χαίρετʼ· ἐγὼ δʼ ὑμῖν θεὸς ἄμβροτος, οὐκέτι θνητὸςπωλεῦμαι μετὰ πᾶσι τετιμένος, ὥσπερ ἔοικα,ταινίαις τε περίστεπτος στέφεσίν τε θαλείοις·τοῖσιν ἅμʼ 〈εὖτʼ〉 ἂν ἵκωμαι ἐς ἄστεα τηλεθάοντα,ἀνδράσιν ἠδὲ γυναιξί, σεβίζομαι· οἱ δʼ ἅμʼ ἕπονταιμυρίοι, ἐξερέοντες ὅπῃ πρὸς κέρδος ἀταρπός·οἱ μὲν μαντοσυνέων κεχρημένοι, οἱ δʼ ἐπὶ νούσωνπαντοίων ἐπύθοντο κλύειν εὐηκέα βάξιν.