On the Magnet
These are his unclassified works.
48 His mathematical works include the following:
On a Difference in an Angle or On Tangency with a Circle and a Sphere
On Geometry
Geometrical Matters
Numbers
On Irrational Lines and Solids, two books
Projections
The Great Year or Astronomy, a Calendar
Contest of the Water-Clock and the Heaven
Description of the Heaven
Geography
Description of the Pole
Description of the Rays of Light
These are his mathematical works.
His works on literature and music include the following:
On Rhythms and Harmony
On Poetry
On the Beauty of Verse
On Sweet-Sounding and Harsh-Sounding Letters
On Homer or On Correct Diction and On Glosses
On Song
On Words
A Vocabulary
Large Atom, by Pamela Sunday, 2016. Stoneware with gunmetal glaze, 43.2 × 43.2 × 43.2 cm.
These are his works on literature and music.
His works on the arts81 include the following:
Prognostication
On Diet or Dietetics
Medical Judgment
Causes Concerned with Things Timely and Untimely
On Agriculture or On Land Measurement
On Painting
Treatise on Tactics, and
Treatise on Fighting in Armor
So much for these works.
49 Some list separately the following excerpts from his notebooks:
On the Sacred Writings in Babylon
On Those in Meroe
A Voyage Around the Ocean
On History
A Chaldaean Treatise
A Phrygian Treatise
On Fever and on Coughing as a Symptom of Disease
Legal Causes
Problems Concerned with the Functioning of the Hand
As for the other works that some have attributed to him, several are compilations from his writings; the rest are generally thought to have been written by others. So much for his books.
There have been six men named Democritus: the first was our present subject, the second a musician of Chios of the same era, the third a sculptor whom Antigonus mentions, the fourth an author who wrote about the temple at Ephesus82 and the city of Samothrace, the fifth a writer of epigrams whose style was lucid and flowery, and the sixth a native of Pergamon who wrote rhetorical discourses.
Protagoras
50 Protagoras, son of Artemon, or of Maeandrius (according to Apollodorus, and Dinon in the fifth book of his History of Persia), was a native of Abdera, as Heraclides Ponticus says in his treatise On Laws; Heraclides also says that Protagoras made laws for Thurii.83 Eupolis, however, in his Flatterers, says that Protagoras was a native of Teos;84 for he says,
Inside we have Protagoras of Teos.
He and Prodicus of Ceos used to give readings at which fees were charged;85 and Plato in the Protagoras says that Prodicus had a deep voice.86 Protagoras was a student of Democritus;87 he was nicknamed Wisdom, as Favorinus says in his Miscellaneous History.
51,52 Protagoras was the first to say that there are two sides to every question, opposed to each other; he even conducted his arguments in this manner, being the first to do so. Moreover, he began one of his works thus: “Man is the measure of all things, of things that are, that they are, and of things that are not, that they are not.” He used to say that soul is nothing apart from the senses, as Plato says in his Theaetetus,88 and that all things are true. He begins another work as follows: “As for the gods, I cannot know either that they exist or that they do not exist; for many things hinder knowledge, including uncertainty and the brevity of human life.” For this introduction to his book he was expelled by the Athenians, who burned his books in the marketplace after sending a herald around to collect them from all who had obtained a copy.
He was the first to charge a fee of a hundred minas89 and the first to distinguish the parts of time,90 to stress the importance of the opportune moment, and to furnish disputants with rhetorical gambits. In argument he neglected meaning in favor of verbal jousting, and he gave rise to today’s throng of shallow debaters. This is why Timon alludes to him as
Protagoras, man of the crowd, a cunning wrangler.
53,54 He was also the first to deploy the Socratic form of argument.91 And according to Plato in the Euthydemus92 he was the first to address the argument advanced by Antisthenes to prove that contradiction is impossible. He was also the first to demonstrate how any proposition may be attacked, as Artemidorus the Dialectician says in his work A Reply to Chrysippus. He was also the first to invent the tulē, on which porters carry their wares,93 as Aristotle says in his work On Education. For Protagoras had been a porter, as Epicurus somewhere says.94 And this was how he came to be noticed by Democritus, who had observed him bundling wood. He was the first to divide discourse into four parts: wish, question, response, and command; others divide it into seven parts: narration, question, response, command, description, wish, and invocation; these he called the foundations of speech. (Alcidamas95 says there are four kinds of speech: affirmation, denial, question, and address.)
The first of his books that he read in public was On the Gods, whose opening we quoted above. He read it in Athens at Euripides’ house, or, as some say, at the house of Megaclides; others say he read it in the Lyceum,96 where he availed himself of the voice of his student Archagoras, son of Theodotus. His accuser was Pythodorus, son of Polyzelus, one of the Four Hundred;97 Aristotle, however, says that it was Euathlus.
55 His surviving books include the following:
<…>98
The Art of Eristics
On Wrestling
On Mathematics
On Government
On Ambition
On Virtues
On the Primitive State
On What Happens in Hades
On the Misdeeds of Mankind
Imperative Discourse
A Lawsuit Concerning a Fee
Opposing Arguments, two books
These are his books. Plato also wrote a dialogue about him.
56 Philochorus says that when Protagoras was on a voyage to Sicily his ship sank, and that Euripides hints at this in his Ixion.99 And some say that he died on a journey, at nearly ninety years of age. But Apollodorus says that he was seventy when he died, and that he had been a sophist for forty years and flourished in the eighty-fourth Olympiad.100
My own verses about him run as follows:
I heard a rumor, Protagoras, that you died,
An old man, on your way from Athens;
For the city of Cecrops101 chose to expel you; but you,
Though you escaped the city of Pallas,102 did not escape that of Pluto.103
It is reported that once when he asked his student Euathlus for his fee, and the man said, “But I haven’t won a case yet,” Protagoras replied, “That doesn’t matter. For if I win this case, I should get the fee for winning it; and if you win it, I should get the fee because you did.”104
There was another Protagoras, an astronomer for whom Euphorion wrote a funeral dirge, and a third, a Stoic philosopher.
Diogenes105
57 Diogenes, son of Apollothemis, a native of Apollonia,106 was a natural philosopher and was held in very high regard. According to Antisthenes he was a student of Anaximenes.107 He was a contemporary of Anaxagoras.108 Demetrius of Phalerum, in his Apology of Socrates, says that owing to the Athenians’ strong dislike, Diogenes was in no small danger in Athens.
His views were as follows. The basic element is air; there are numberless worlds and an unlimited void. The air, condensing and rarefying, gives birth to the worlds. Nothing comes into being from what is not, nor perishes into what is not. The earth is round; it is supported
in the center, deriving its constitution from the rotation that results from heat and from the congelation caused by cold.
The opening of his treatise runs thus: “At the beginning of every discourse, it seems to me, one should provide an unequivocal starting point and a simple and dignified exposition.”
Anaxarchus
58,59 Anaxarchus was a native of Abdera.109 He was a student of Diogenes of Smyrna. Diogenes had been a student of Metrodorus of Chios, who used to say that he knew nothing, not even the fact that he knew nothing. Metrodorus had studied with Nessas of Chios, though some say he was a student of Democritus. Anaxarchus accompanied Alexander110 and flourished in the 110th Olympiad.111 He made an enemy of Nicocreon, the tyrant of Cyprus. Once at a drinking-party, when Alexander asked him what he thought of the banquet, Anaxarchus is said to have replied, “Perfectly splendid, sire. The only dish we lacked was the head of some satrap,” a barb aimed at Nicocreon.112 Nicocreon never forgot this; and after the king’s death, when in the course of a voyage Anaxarchus was forced against his will to land at Cyprus, the tyrant had him arrested, thrown into a mortar,113 and beaten with iron pestles. But Anaxarchus, belittling the punishment, made the well-known remark “Pound the sack that contains Anaxarchus, but you will never pound Anaxarchus.” And when Nicocreon commanded that Anaxarchus’ tongue be cut out, the story goes that Anaxarchus bit off his tongue and spat it at the tyrant. My own verses about him run as follows:
Anaxarchos of Abdera Bites Off Tongue, by Peter Gallo, 2014. Oil on linen, 122 × 81 × 4 cm.
Pound, then, Nicocreon, and pound again even harder: it’s only a sack.
Pound away: Anaxarchus has long been with Zeus.
And after Persephone tears you for a while <…>,114
She will say these words: “Be off with you, wicked miller.”
60 Because of his impassivity and contentment in life, Anaxarchus was called Eudaimonicus (“Sir Happy”). And he was capable of recalling people to reason with the greatest ease. When Alexander, at any rate, imagined that he was a god, Anaxarchus managed to deter him: seeing blood flowing from a wound Alexander had sustained, Anaxarchus pointed to it and said, “That’s blood, and not
ichor, which flows in the veins of the blessed gods.”115
Plutarch says that Alexander himself said this to his friends. And on another occasion, when Anaxarchus was toasting Alexander, he pointed to his goblet and said,
“One of the gods will be struck by a mortal hand.”116
Pyrrho
61 Pyrrho of Elis117 was the son of Pleistarchus, as Diocles relates. According to Apollodorus in his Chronology, he was first a painter. He studied with Bryson, son of Stilpo,118 according to Alexander in his Successions, and then with Anaxarchus,119 whom he accompanied everywhere, so that he even associated with the Naked Sages in India and with the Magi.120 As a result, he seems to have adopted a profoundly noble philosophy, having introduced the notion of inability to attain conviction and that of suspension of judgment, as Ascanius of Abdera reports. For he said that nothing is beautiful or ugly, or just or unjust, and that likewise in all instances nothing exists in truth, but men do everything by custom and by habit; for each thing is no more this than that.
62 He lived a life consistent with these doctrines, avoiding nothing, taking no precautions, facing everything as it came, whether wagons, cliffs, or dogs, and in general judging nothing by the evidence of his senses. But he was kept safe, as Antigonus of Carystus says, by the friends who accompanied him. Aenesidemus, however, says that though in his philosophy Pyrrho embraced the principle of suspension of judgment, he nevertheless exercised forethought in his daily life. He lived to be nearly ninety.
63 Antigonus of Carystus, in his work On Pyrrho, reports about him as follows. At first he was a poor and unknown painter. And some of his middling portraits of torch runners may still be seen in the gymnasium at Elis. He used to go off by himself and live in solitude, showing himself rarely to his relatives. He did this because he had heard an Indian reproach Anaxarchus, saying that he would never teach anyone to be good while he himself frequented the courts of kings.121 He remained always in the same state—to the point where, if someone left him in the middle of a conversation, he would complete the conversation by himself—though he was excitable <…> in his youth. Often, says Antigonus, he would go abroad without telling anyone, and would roam about with whomever he met. One day, when Anaxarchus fell into a muddy pool, Pyrrho walked by without helping him; and when others reproached him, Anaxarchus himself praised his indifference and lack of attachment.
64 One day he was discovered talking to himself; when asked the reason, he said that he was training to be good. In dialectical investigations he was despised by no one, since he could speak at length and respond to questioning. This was how he captivated Nausiphanes122 when the latter was still a young man. In any case, Nausiphanes used to say that a man should emulate the character of Pyrrho, but adopt his own doctrines. And he often said that Epicurus, who admired Pyrrho’s way of life, was constantly asking for information about him.123 He also said that Pyrrho was so honored by his native city that they named him chief priest, and that it was on his account that they voted to exempt all philosophers from taxation.
In fact, there were many who emulated his indifference to public life. Hence Timon speaks of him thus in his Python <…>124 and in his Lampoons:
65
O Pyrrho, old fellow, how and where did you find a means of escape
From servitude to sophists and their vain opinions?
How did you free yourself of the bonds of all deceit and persuasion?
You did not care to inquire about what delusions prevail in Greece,
Whence and whither each unfolds.
And again in his Conceits:
This, O Pyrrho, my heart longs to hear,
How <, though a man,> you proceed so easily and calmly,
Alone among men, leading the way like a god.
66 The Athenians awarded him citizenship, as Diocles says, for having slain Cotys125 of Thrace. He lived piously with his sister, a midwife, as Eratosthenes says in his work On Wealth and Poverty, and there were times when he took birds to the market to sell, if any were to be found, and piglets, and he would clean and dust at home, not minding any task. He is even reported to have washed a pig, so indifferent was he to what he did. Once when he was angered on behalf of his sister, who was called Philista, and someone took him to task for it, he said that where a little woman was concerned it was not appropriate to display indifference. Once when a dog attacked him and he was scared away, he said to someone who criticized him that it was difficult entirely to strip away human nature; but one should struggle against adversity, by deeds if at all possible, and if not, by word.
67 They say that when septic ointments and surgery and cautery were used to treat a wound he had sustained, he would not even grimace. Timon brings his character to light in the detailed account he gives of him to Python.126 Philo of Athens, who became an intimate of his, used to say that Pyrrho most often cited Democritus,127 and then Homer, whom he admired, often quoting the line
As is the generation of leaves, so is that of men.128
He also enjoyed Homer’s likening men to wasps, flies, and birds; and he used to quote the verses
No, friend, you too die. Why groan in this way?
Patroclus also died, a far better man than you.129
68 and all the passages that draw attention to the waywardness, vain pursuits, and childish folly of man.
69 Posidonius also relates some such story about him. When on a voyage the crew were disconcerted by a storm, he himself, remaining calm and confident, pointed to a little pig on board that went on eating, and told them that that was the imperturbable state the wise man should maintain. Only Numenius says that Pyrrho affirmed doctrines. In addition to these men, Pyrrho had a number of distinguished students, one of whom was Eurylochus, who failed to live up to his principles. For they say that he wa
s once so enraged that he brandished a spit (with its roasted meat still on it) and chased his cook all the way to the marketplace. And in Elis, harassed by his interlocutors’ questions, he stripped off his clothes and swam across the Alpheus. He was exceedingly hostile to the sophists, as Timon also says.
The Philosopher Pyrrho in a Stormy Sea, by Hans Weiditz, early sixteenth century. The texts read, from top to bottom: “Pyrrho—Greek—Son of Plistarchus”; “It is right wisdom then that all imitate this security”; “Whoever wishes to avail himself of true wisdom should pay no heed to worry and grief.”
Philo, in turn, was always talking
The man who, far from men, passes his time alone and talks to himself—
Philo, who cares nothing for fame or quarrels.
70 Besides these, Pyrrho’s students included Hecataeus of Abdera and Timon of Phlius, the author of the Lampoons, of whom we will speak,130 and Nausiphanes of Teos, whom some say was a teacher of Epicurus. All of these are called Pyrrhonians after their teacher, but are also known as Aporetics, Skeptics, and even Ephectics and Zetetics, from their doctrines, if we may thus refer to them. The Zetetics were so called because they were constantly seeking (zētein) the truth; the Skeptics because they were always researching (skeptesthai) and never discovering; the Ephectics because of the state of mind that attended their search (I mean their suspension of judgment [epochē]); and the Aporetics because <…>.131 The Pyrrhonians derived their name from Pyrrho. Theodosius, in his Skeptic Chapters, says that one should not call Skepticism Pyrrhonian; for if the movement of the mind in any direction cannot be comprehended, then we will never know Pyrrho’s state of mind. And without knowing that, we cannot call ourselves Pyrrhonians; furthermore, there is the fact that Pyrrho was not the founder of Skepticism, nor did he have any doctrine. But someone who resembles Pyrrho in thought and life could be called a Pyrrhonian.
Lives of the Eminent Philosophers Page 55
