Lives of the Eminent Philosophers

by Pamela Mensch

  He wrote the following short letter.

  Pittacus to Croesus

  You bid me come to Lydia that I may behold your wealth. But even without seeing it, I am convinced that the son of Alyattes158 is the richest of kings. There is no advantage to me in a journey to Sardis; for I have no need of gold, and have acquired goods sufficient even for my friends. Nevertheless I will come, that I may join you as your guest.

  Bias

  82,83 Bias, son of Teutames, a native of Priene, was the sage whom Satyrus preferred among the Seven. Some say he was wealthy, though Duris says he was a foreigner. Phanodicus says that he ransomed some young Messenian women who had been captured in war, raised them as his daughters, provided them with dowries, and sent them back to their fathers in Messenia. In time, as has been related, when the bronze tripod bearing the inscription “To the wise man” was found by fishermen at Athens, Satyrus says that the young women came forward to the Assembly (though others, including Phanodicus, say it was their father), recounted their story, and declared that Bias was wise. And the tripod was sent off to him. And Bias, when he saw it, declared that Apollo was wise, and would not accept it. But some say that he dedicated it to Heracles in Thebes, since he was a descendant of the Thebans who had established a colony at Priene. Phanodicus says the same.

  84 It is said that when Alyattes159 was besieging Priene, Bias fattened two mules and drove them into the camp, and that Alyattes was amazed that the citizens’ prosperity extended even to their beasts. Hoping to obtain a truce, he sent a messenger. But Bias, after he had piled up heaps of sand and placed a layer of wheat on the top, showed them to the man. And finally, on being informed of this, Alyattes concluded a peace with the people of Priene. Shortly thereafter, when Alyattes sent word inviting Bias to his court, Bias said, “I, in turn, invite Alyattes to eat onions,” that is, to weep. It is said that he was a formidable legal counselor. But he used his powers of speech for a good end. It is to this that Demodicus of Leros is alluding when he says:

  If you happen to be arguing a case, plead as they do at Priene.

  Gold-painted, cast-lead medal, designed by Valerio Belli, sixteenth century, Italian.Left: The obverse side features a bust of Bias with Greek inscription “Of Bias of Priene.” Right: Statue of Apollo holding a lyre within a niche; the smaller niches on each side contain a tripod and an altar surmounted by a flaming bowl, respectively. The Greek inscription on the border reads, “I alone receive the tripod.”

  And Hipponax:

  Better at pleading cases than Bias of Priene.

  85 He died in the following way. Late in life he had been pleading on behalf of some client. When he finished his speech, he leaned his head on his grandson’s chest. Opposing counsel made his speech, and when the judges voted and issued a verdict in favor of the man Bias was representing, the court was dismissed and Bias was found dead in his grandson’s arms. The city gave him a magnificent funeral and had these words inscribed on his tomb:

  This stone conceals Bias, glorious Priene’s

   Native son, and the Ionians’ great ornament.

  My own epitaph is:

  Bias Weeps and Condemns (detail), by Joachim Wtewael, 1605.

  Here lies Bias, whom Hermes guided calmly to Hades,

   The snow of old age upon his head.

  For he spoke, pleaded a case on behalf of a friend.

   Then, inclining his head in his grandson’s arms, he prolonged his long sleep.

  He wrote a poem of two thousand lines about Ionia, explaining how its prosperity could be assured. Of his songs the following is the most famous:

  Please all the citizens in the city you inhabit.

  For this earns the most gratitude.

  But a stubborn manner often flashes forth with harmful mischief.

  86 “The growth of strength is the work of nature; but the power to speak in aid of one’s country belongs to soul and good sense. Abundant wealth comes to many merely by chance.” He said that he is unfortunate who cannot bear misfortune, and that it is a disease of the soul to desire what is unattainable and to be forgetful of the misfortunes of others. When asked what was difficult, he said, “To bear nobly a change for the worse.” He was once on a voyage with impious men. When a storm overtook the ship and even they called upon the gods, he said, “Be silent, lest they notice you aboard this ship.” When asked by an impious man what piety was, he was silent. And when the man asked him the reason, he said, “I am silent because you ask about matters that do not concern you.”

  87,88 When asked what is sweet to men, he said, “Hope.” He said it was more agreeable to decide a dispute between two enemies than between two friends. For in the latter case one would be sure to make one of his friends an enemy, while in the former he would make one of his enemies a friend. When asked what activity gives a man pleasure, he said, “Making a profit.” He said that men should measure life as if they were going to live both for a short and a long time, and to love their friends as if they would one day hate them, since the majority of men are bad. And he gave this advice: Be slow to undertake any enterprise; but persevere steadfastly in whatever you undertake. Do not rush to speak, for that is a sign of madness. Love wisdom. As concerns the gods, say that they exist. If a man is unworthy, do not praise him because of his wealth. Prevail by persuasion, not by force. Attribute to the gods whatever good you do. Take wisdom as your provision from youth to old age, for it is more dependable than all other possessions.

  Bias is mentioned by Hipponax, as has been said; and the implacable Heraclitus praised him highly, writing, “In Priene lived Bias, son of Teutames, a man of more account than all the rest.” And the people of Priene dedicated a sacred precinct to him, which is called the Teutameum. His maxim is: Most are bad.

  Cleobulus

  89 Cleobulus, son of Eugoras, was a native of Lindos,160 though Duris says he was a Carian. Some say that he traced his descent back to Heracles, that he was distinguished for strength and beauty, and that he was conversant with Egyptian philosophy. He had a daughter Cleobuline, who composed riddles in hexameters. She is mentioned by Cratinus, who used her name, in the plural form, as the title of one of his comedies. He is also said to have restored the temple of Athena founded by Danaus.161 He composed songs and riddles whose verses number three thousand.

  And some say that he composed the epigram on Midas’s162 tomb:

  90 I am a maiden of bronze, and I rest upon the tomb of Midas.

  As long as water flows and tall trees grow,

  And the sun rises and shines, and the bright moon,

  And rivers run, and the sea washes against the shore,

  Abiding on his tear-drenched tomb I shall announce

  To passersby that Midas is buried here.

  They cite as evidence a song of Simonides in which he says,

  What man with any sense would praise

  Cleobulus, the denizen of Lindos,

  Who has compared the might of a pillar

  To ever flowing rivers and the flowers of spring,

  To the flame of the sun and the golden moon,

  And even to the ocean’s eddies?

  For all things are inferior to the gods.

  And as for stone, even mortal hands

  May crumble it. His is the advice of a fool.

  The epitaph is not composed by Homer,163 who they say lived many years before Midas.

  91 The following riddle in Pamphila’s Commentaries is attributed to Cleobulus:

  One father, twelve sons. Each of these has twice

  Thirty daughters who have two possible forms.

  Some are white, the others black.

  And though immortal, they all die.

  The answer is, “The year.”164

  Of his songs the following is the most famous:

  Want of taste prevails among mortals,

  And a multitude of words; but the right moment will suffice.

  Set your mind on something noble. May gratitude not be vain.


  92,93 He said that we should give our daughters in marriage when they are maidens in years, but women in wisdom, thereby indicating that we must also educate our daughters. He said that we should render a service to a friend to make him an even better friend, and to any enemy to make him a friend. For we must guard against the censure of friends and the schemes of enemies. Whenever a man leaves his house, let him first ask himself what he intends to do; and on his return let him ask himself what he has done. He advised men to train the body well; to be fonder of hearing than of speaking; to prefer knowledge to ignorance; to restrict their speech to words of good omen; to be friendly to virtue, hostile to vice; to avoid injustice; to counsel their city for the best; to prevail over pleasure; to do nothing by violence; to educate their children; to bring an end to enmity. Do not show affection to your wife or quarrel with her when strangers are present; for the former is a sign of folly, the latter of madness. Do not chastise a servant when you have been drinking, for you will be thought the worse for wine. Marry a person of your own rank; for if you take a wife who is your superior, he said, you will have her kinsmen as masters. Do not laugh at those who are being mocked, for you will incur their hatred. Be not arrogant in prosperity, nor abject in poverty. Know how to bear reversals of fortune with nobility.

  He died in old age, having lived seventy years. His inscription reads:

  Here Lindos, glory of the sea, bewails the passing

   Of her native son, the sage Cleobulus.

  His maxim is: Moderation is best. And to Solon he wrote the following letter:

  Cleobulus to Solon165

  You have companions and a home everywhere. But I maintain that Lindos, which is governed by a democracy, will be most agreeable to Solon. The island lies in the ocean, and one who lives here has nothing to fear from Pisistratus. And friends from everywhere will come to visit you.

  Periander

  94 Periander, son of Cypselus, a native of Corinth, was of the family of the Heraclidae.166 His wife, Lysida, whom he called Melissa, was the daughter of Procles, the tyrant of Epidaurus, and Eristheneia, the daughter of Aristocrates and sister of Aristodemus, who together reigned over almost all of Arcadia, as Heraclides of Pontus says in his work On Power. By Lysida he had two sons, Cypselus and Lycophron, the younger a man of intelligence, the elder weak-minded. After some time, in a fit of anger, he killed his wife, either throwing a footstool at her, or with a kick, when she was pregnant, having trusted the false accusations of concubines, whom he later burned alive.

  95 To Corcyra he banished the son named Lycophron, who grieved for his mother. But when Periander had grown old, he sent for his son to succeed him in the tyranny. The Corcyraeans, anticipating his plan, killed his son. Thereupon, in a fit of rage, Periander sent the sons of the Corcyraeans to Alyattes167 to be castrated. But when their ship touched at Samos, they took refuge in the temple of Hera, and were saved by the Samians.168

  Periander died of grief at the age of eighty. Sosicrates says that he died forty-one years before Croesus, three years before the forty-ninth Olympiad.169 Herodotus, in his first book, says that he was a guest-friend of Thrasybulus, the tyrant of Miletus.

  96 Aristippus,170 in the first book of his work On the Luxuriousness of the Ancients, relates the following story about Periander. His mother, Crateia, conceiving a passion for him, had intercourse with him in secret, and he took pleasure in it. And when the affair came to light, he became harsh to everyone, so pained was he at being detected. And Ephorus reports Periander’s vow: that if he won a victory in the chariot race at Olympia, he would dedicate a golden statue. But after his triumph he found himself short of gold; and at a local festival, noticing that the women had adorned themselves, he confiscated all their ornaments and sent the promised offering.

  Some say that, wishing to keep his burial place unknown, he devised the following stratagem. He ordered two young men, to whom he had shown a certain road, to go there at night, kill the man they met, and bury him. Then he instructed four others to go in pursuit of the first men, and to kill and bury them; and again, he sent out a larger number to pursue the four. And thus he himself was slain when he encountered the first pair.171 The Corinthians inscribed these words on his cenotaph:

  97 Here Corinth holds in her sea-girt bosom

   Periander, a prince of wealth and wisdom.

  Portraits of Sinan Pasha and Odet de Foix, used as images of Cleobulus and Periander by an anonymous printmaker, seventeenth century, Amsterdam.

  My own verses about him run as follows:

  Grieve not that you have not gained your end.

  Instead delight in all that god gives.

  For the sage Periander perished in despair

  At not gaining an end he desired.

  98 His maxim is: Do nothing for money; for one should gain that which deserves to be gained. He composed a didactic poem in two thousand verses. He said that those who would reign securely as tyrants should make goodwill their bodyguard, not weapons. When someone asked him why he was tyrant, he replied, “Because to step down voluntarily and to be deposed are both dangerous.” His other sayings include: Tranquillity is beautiful. Rashness poses danger. Shameful gain is <…>. Democracy is better than tyranny. Pleasures fade, but honors are immortal. Be moderate in prosperity, sensible in adversity. Be the same to your friends whether they are in prosperity or adversity. Keep your promises. Betray no secrets. Correct not only those who transgress, but also those who are about to do so.

  He was the first to have a bodyguard and to transform his rule into a tyranny. And he did not let anyone live in the town without his consent, as Ephorus and Aristotle say. He flourished in the eighty-third Olympiad172 and was tyrant for forty years.

  99 Sotion, Heraclides,173 and Pamphila in the fifth book of her Commentaries say that there were two men named Periander, one a tyrant, the other a sage of Ambracia. Neanthes of Cyzicus agrees and says that the two men were related to each other. And Aristotle says that the Corinthian Periander was the sage; but Plato denies this.

  His maxim is: Practice is everything. He also wished to dig a canal across the isthmus.174

  The following brief letters are attributed to him.

  Periander to the Sages

  Many thanks to Phoebus Apollo that I found you together, and that my letters will also bring you to Corinth. For my part, I shall receive you, as you know yourselves, in the most democratic manner. I hear that last year you assembled at the Lydian court in Sardis. So do not hesitate now to come to me, the ruler of Corinth. For the Corinthians will be pleased to see you coming to the house of Periander.

  100 Periander to Procles175

  The murder of my wife was unintentional. But you injure me deliberately when you set my son against me. So either dispel my son’s hostility, or I will take my revenge. For I long ago paid my debt for your daughter by burning on her pyre the clothes of all the women of Corinth.176

  And Thrasybulus wrote to him as follows:

  Thrasybulus to Periander

  I gave your herald no answer; but I took him to a cornfield, and cut off the ears of corn that grew higher than the rest, striking them with a staff while he accompanied me. And he will report to you, if you ask him, what he heard or saw. And you must follow my example if you wish to strengthen your dictatorship: Slay the citizens who are preeminent, whether or not they appear hostile to you. for a dictator, every man, even a friend, arouses suspicion.

  Anacharsis

  101 Anacharsis the Scythian was the son of Gnurus, and brother of Caduidas, the Scythian king.177 But his mother was a Greek, which is why he spoke both languages. He composed a poem of eight hundred verses on the customs of the Greeks and the Scythians with regard to simplicity of life and military matters. And because of his outspokenness he furnished the occasion for a proverb: “To talk like a Scythian.”

  Corinthian terra-cotta dinos (a vessel used to mix the wine and water that were then served at symposia), attributed to the Polyteleia Painter
, c. 630–615 BC.

  102 Sosicrates says that he came to Athens in the forty-seventh Olympiad,178 during the archonship of Eucrates. Hermippus says that on arriving at Solon’s house Anacharsis told one of his servants to announce that he had come and wished to see Solon and, if possible, to become his guest-friend. And the servant, when he conveyed the message, was ordered by Solon to tell Anacharsis that men generally make guests only of persons from their own country. In response Anacharsis said that he was now in Solon’s own country and had a right to be entertained as a guest. And Solon, struck by his quick-wittedness, admitted him and made him his greatest friend.

  After a while, when he returned to Scythia and was thought to be subverting his country’s customs (since he made much of Greek ways), he was shot by his brother’s arrow while hunting, and perished after having said that he had returned from Greece in safety thanks to logos, but was killed in his native land thanks to phthonos.179 Some say that he was slain while performing Greek rites.180

  Here is my own epigram about him: