Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database

4479

Diogenes Laertius, Lives Of The Philosophers, 9.18-9.20
nan 2. XENOPHANESXenophanes, a native of Colophon, the son of Dexius, or, according to Apollodorus, of Orthomenes, is praised by Timon, whose words at all events are:Xenophanes, not over-proud, perverter of Homer, castigator.He was banished from his native city and lived at Zancle in Sicily [and having joined the colony planted at Elea taught there]. He also lived in Catana. According to some he was no man's pupil, according to others he was a pupil of Boton of Athens, or, as some say, of Archelaus. Sotion makes him a contemporary of Anaximander. His writings are in epic metre, as well as elegiacs and iambics attacking Hesiod and Homer and denouncing what they said about the gods. Furthermore he used to recite his own poems. It is stated that he opposed the views of Thales and Pythagoras, and attacked Epimenides also. He lived to a very great age, as his own words somewhere testify:
nan Seven and sixty are now the years that have been tossing my cares up and down the land of Greece; and there were then twenty and five years more from my birth up, if I know how to speak truly about these things.He holds that there are four elements of existent things, and worlds unlimited in number but not overlapping [in time]. Clouds are formed when the vapour from the sun is carried upwards and lifts them into the surrounding air. The substance of God is spherical, in no way resembling man. He is all eye and all ear, but does not breathe; he is the totality of mind and thought, and is eternal. Xenophanes was the first to declare that everything which comes into being is doomed to perish, and that the soul is breath.
nan He also said that the mass of things falls short of thought; and again that our encounters with tyrants should be as few, or else as pleasant, as possible. When Empedocles remarked to him that it is impossible to find a wise man, Naturally, he replied, for it takes a wise man to recognize a wise man. Sotion says that he was the first to maintain that all things are incognizable, but Sotion is in error.One of his poems is The Founding of Colophon, and another The Settlement of a Colony at Elea in Italy, making 2000 lines in all. He flourished about the 60th Olympiad. That he buried his sons with his own hands like Anaxagoras is stated by Demetrius of Phalerum in his work On Old Age and by Panaetius the Stoic in his book Of Cheerfulness. He is believed to have been sold into slavery by [... and to have been set free by] the Pythagoreans Parmeniscus and Orestades: so Favorinus in the first book of his Memorabilia. There was also another Xenophanes, of Lesbos, an iambic poet.Such were the sporadic philosophers.

Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

12 results
1. Sappho, Fragments, 44 (7th cent. BCE - 6th cent. BCE)
2. Sappho, Fragments, 44 (7th cent. BCE - 6th cent. BCE)
3. Sappho, Fragments, 44 (7th cent. BCE - 6th cent. BCE)
4. Xenophanes, Fragments, b2, b7, b8, 3 (6th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
5. Xenophanes, Fragments, b2, b7, b8, 3 (6th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
6. Xenophanes, Fragments, b2, b7, b8, 3 (6th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
7. Empedocles, Fragments, b129 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
8. Cicero, Academica, 2.74 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
9. Sextus, Against The Mathematicians, 7.49, 7.110 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
10. Sextus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism, 1.223-1.225 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
11. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of The Philosophers, 1.111, 2.117, 2.125, 4.4, 4.17, 4.22, 8.36, 9.2, 9.19-9.20, 9.109, 9.111 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) 1.111. The Athenians voted him a talent in money and a ship to convey him back to Crete. The money he declined, but he concluded a treaty of friendship and alliance between Cnossos and Athens.So he returned home and soon afterwards died. According to Phlegon in his work On Longevity he lived one hundred and fifty-seven years; according to the Cretans two hundred and ninety-nine years. Xenophanes of Colophon gives his age as 154, according to hearsay.He wrote a poem On the Birth of the Curetes and Corybantes and a Theogony, 5000 lines in all; another on the building of the Argo and Jason's voyage to Colchis in 6500 lines. 2.117. When Crates asked him whether the gods take delight in prayers and adorations, he is said to have replied, Don't put such a question in the street, simpleton, but when we are alone! It is said that Bion, when he was asked the same question whether there are gods, replied:Will you not scatter the crowd from me, O much-enduring elder?In character Stilpo was simple and unaffected, and he could readily adapt himself to the plain man. For instance, when Crates the Cynic did not answer the question put to him and only insulted the questioner, I knew, said Stilpo, that you would utter anything rather than what you ought. 4.4. Plutarch in the Lives of Lysander and Sulla makes his malady to have been morbus pedicularis. That his body wasted away is affirmed by Timotheus in his book On Lives. Speusippus, he says, meeting a rich man who was in love with one who was no beauty, said to him, Why, pray, are you in such sore need of him? For ten talents I will find you a more handsome bride.He has left behind a vast store of memoirs and numerous dialogues, among them:Aristippus the Cyrenaic.On Wealth, one book.On Pleasure, one book.On Justice,On Philosophy,On Friendship,On the Gods,The Philosopher,A Reply to Cephalus,Cephalus,Clinomachus or Lysias,The Citizen,of the Soul,A Reply to Gryllus 4.17. Antigonus of Carystus in his Biographies says that his father was foremost among the citizens and kept horses to compete in the chariot-race; that Polemo himself had been defendant in an action brought by his wife, who charged him with cruelty owing to the irregularities of his life; but that, from the time when he began to study philosophy, he acquired such strength of character as always to maintain the same unruffled calm of demeanour. Nay more, he never lost control of his voice. This in fact accounts for the fascination which he exercised over Crantor. Certain it is that, when a mad dog bit him in the back of his thigh, he did not even turn pale, but remained undisturbed by all the clamour which arose in the city at the news of what had happened. In the theatre too he was singularly unmoved. 4.22. Hence Arcesilaus, who had quitted Theophrastus and gone over to their school, said of them that they were gods or a remt of the Golden Age. They did not side with the popular party, but were such as Dionysodorus the flute-player is said to have claimed to be, when he boasted that no one ever heard his melodies, as those of Ismenias were heard, either on shipboard or at the fountain. According to Antigonus, their common table was in the house of Crantor; and these two and Arcesilaus lived in harmony together. Arcesilaus and Crantor shared the same house, while Polemo and Crates lived with Lysicles, one of the citizens. Crates, as already stated, was the favourite of Polemo and Arcesilaus of Crantor. 8.36. 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 ! 9.2. Again he would say: There is more need to extinguish insolence than an outbreak of fire, and The people must fight for the law as for city-walls. He attacks the Ephesians, too, for banishing his friend Hermodorus: he says: The Ephesians would do well to end their lives, every grown man of them, and leave the city to beardless boys, for that they have driven out Hermodorus, the worthiest man among them, saying, 'We will have none who is worthiest among us; or if there be any such, let him go elsewhere and consort with others.' And when he was requested by them to make laws, he scorned the request because the state was already in the grip of a bad constitution. 9.19. Seven and sixty are now the years that have been tossing my cares up and down the land of Greece; and there were then twenty and five years more from my birth up, if I know how to speak truly about these things.He holds that there are four elements of existent things, and worlds unlimited in number but not overlapping [in time]. Clouds are formed when the vapour from the sun is carried upwards and lifts them into the surrounding air. The substance of God is spherical, in no way resembling man. He is all eye and all ear, but does not breathe; he is the totality of mind and thought, and is eternal. Xenophanes was the first to declare that everything which comes into being is doomed to perish, and that the soul is breath. 9.20. He also said that the mass of things falls short of thought; and again that our encounters with tyrants should be as few, or else as pleasant, as possible. When Empedocles remarked to him that it is impossible to find a wise man, Naturally, he replied, for it takes a wise man to recognize a wise man. Sotion says that he was the first to maintain that all things are incognizable, but Sotion is in error.One of his poems is The Founding of Colophon, and another The Settlement of a Colony at Elea in Italy, making 2000 lines in all. He flourished about the 60th Olympiad. That he buried his sons with his own hands like Anaxagoras is stated by Demetrius of Phalerum in his work On Old Age and by Panaetius the Stoic in his book of Cheerfulness. He is believed to have been sold into slavery by [... and to have been set free by] the Pythagoreans Parmeniscus and Orestades: so Favorinus in the first book of his Memorabilia. There was also another Xenophanes, of Lesbos, an iambic poet.Such were the sporadic philosophers. 9.109. 12. TIMONTimon, says our Apollonides of Nicaea in the first book of his commentaries On the Silli, which he dedicated to Tiberius Caesar, was the son of Timarchus and a native of Phlius. Losing his parents when young, he became a stage-dancer, but later took a dislike to that pursuit and went abroad to Megara to stay with Stilpo; then after some time he returned home and married. After that he went to Pyrrho at Elis with his wife, and lived there until his children were born; the elder of these he called Xanthus, taught him medicine, and made him his heir. 9.111. There are also reputed works of his extending to twenty thousand verses which are mentioned by Antigonus of Carystus, who also wrote his life. There are three silli in which, from his point of view as a Sceptic, he abuses every one and lampoons the dogmatic philosophers, using the form of parody. In the first he speaks in the first person throughout, the second and third are in the form of dialogues; for he represents himself as questioning Xenophanes of Colophon about each philosopher in turn, while Xenophanes answers him; in the second he speaks of the more ancient philosophers, in the third of the later, which is why some have entitled it the Epilogue.
12. Porphyry, Life of Pythagoras, 30 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) 30. He soothed the passions of the soul and body by rhythms, songs and incantations. These he adapted and applied to his friends. He himself could hear the harmony of the Universe, and understood the universal music of the spheres, and of the stars which move in concert with them, and which we cannot hear because of the limitations of our weak nature. This is testified to by these characteristic verses of Empedocles: "Amongst these was one in things sublimest skilled,His mind with all the wealth of learning filled, Whatever sages did invent, he sought;And whilst his thoughts were on this work intent,All things existent, easily he viewed,Through ten or twenty ages making search." SPAN

Subjects of this text:

subject	book bibliographic info
agora	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 237
alexinus	Long, From Epicurus to Epictetus Studies in Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy (2006) 98
amorgos	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 237
antigonus gonatas	Long, From Epicurus to Epictetus Studies in Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy (2006) 98
antigonus of carystus	Long, From Epicurus to Epictetus Studies in Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy (2006) 98
argos, argive	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404
aristotle	Vogt, Pyrrhonian Skepticism in Diogenes Laertius (2015) 116
athena	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404
athenaeus	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404
athletes	Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 53
bowra, maurice	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 237
burkert, walter	Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 51
casaubon, isaac	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404
citizen	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 237
colonisation	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 237, 404
colophon	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 237; Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 51
criterion	Vogt, Pyrrhonian Skepticism in Diogenes Laertius (2015) 116
croton	Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 51
dante	Long, From Epicurus to Epictetus Studies in Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy (2006) 86
darius i	Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 51
detienne, marcel	Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 51
diodorus cronus	Vogt, Pyrrhonian Skepticism in Diogenes Laertius (2015) 116
diogenes, cynic	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404
diogenes laertius	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404; Vogt, Pyrrhonian Skepticism in Diogenes Laertius (2015) 116
diomedes	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404
elea	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 237, 404
empedocles, on experience and wisdom	Tor, Mortal and Divine in Early Greek Epistemology (2017) 151
epic, i	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404
epic (poetry)	Iribarren and Koning, Hesiod and the Beginnings of Greek Philosophy (2022) 84
epimenides, his longevity	Tor, Mortal and Divine in Early Greek Epistemology (2017) 151
epimenides	Tor, Mortal and Divine in Early Greek Epistemology (2017) 151
epistemology	Vogt, Pyrrhonian Skepticism in Diogenes Laertius (2015) 116
genre	Iribarren and Koning, Hesiod and the Beginnings of Greek Philosophy (2022) 84
hesiod	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404; Long, From Epicurus to Epictetus Studies in Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy (2006) 86; Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 51
hexameter (poetry)	Iribarren and Koning, Hesiod and the Beginnings of Greek Philosophy (2022) 84
hexameters	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404
history, early	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404
homer	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404; Long, From Epicurus to Epictetus Studies in Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy (2006) 86; Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 51; Vogt, Pyrrhonian Skepticism in Diogenes Laertius (2015) 116
horse, wooden	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404
hybris	Wolfsdorf, Early Greek Ethics (2020) 34
hymn	Iribarren and Koning, Hesiod and the Beginnings of Greek Philosophy (2022) 84
ibycus	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 237
ionian cosmology and science	Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 53
italy	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 237, 404
kingship, persian	Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 51
law	Iribarren and Koning, Hesiod and the Beginnings of Greek Philosophy (2022) 84
lloyd, g.e.r.	Tor, Mortal and Divine in Early Greek Epistemology (2017) 152
luxury	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 237
lydia, lydian	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 237
lyric (poetry)	Iribarren and Koning, Hesiod and the Beginnings of Greek Philosophy (2022) 84
mede	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 237
medes, coming of the	Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 51
menedemus	Long, From Epicurus to Epictetus Studies in Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy (2006) 98
mimnermus	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404
motion	Vogt, Pyrrhonian Skepticism in Diogenes Laertius (2015) 116
myth	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404
nestor	Tor, Mortal and Divine in Early Greek Epistemology (2017) 152
odysseus	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404
olympia	Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 53
orphic rites and mysticism	Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 51
palladium	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404
panhellenic	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404
persia and persians, sovereignty claimed by	Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 51
pherecydes	Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 51
polis	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 237
polycrates	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 237; Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 51
purification	Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 51
purity	Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 51, 53
pythagoras, pythagoreans	Long, From Epicurus to Epictetus Studies in Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy (2006) 86
pythagoras and pythagoreans	Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 51, 53
pythagoras and the pythagoreans, and metempsychosis	Tor, Mortal and Divine in Early Greek Epistemology (2017) 151
rhegium	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 237
sacadas	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404
sacrifice'	Tor, Mortal and Divine in Early Greek Epistemology (2017) 151
sacrifice	Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 51, 53
samos	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 237
schweighäuser, johann	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404
semonides	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 237
sextus empiricus	Long, From Epicurus to Epictetus Studies in Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy (2006) 86; Vogt, Pyrrhonian Skepticism in Diogenes Laertius (2015) 116
sicily and sicilians	Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 51
silloi	Long, From Epicurus to Epictetus Studies in Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy (2006) 86
silloi (mockeries)	Wolfsdorf, Early Greek Ethics (2020) 34
socrates, and xenophanes	Wolfsdorf, Early Greek Ethics (2020) 34
socrates	Long, From Epicurus to Epictetus Studies in Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy (2006) 98
stesichorus	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404
suda	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 237
timon	Vogt, Pyrrhonian Skepticism in Diogenes Laertius (2015) 116
timon of philus	Wolfsdorf, Early Greek Ethics (2020) 34
timon of phlius	Long, From Epicurus to Epictetus Studies in Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy (2006) 86
troy	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404
tyranny	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 237
tyrtaeus	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404
virgil	Long, From Epicurus to Epictetus Studies in Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy (2006) 86
writing	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 404
xenophanes, criticisms of traditional religious attitudes	Tor, Mortal and Divine in Early Greek Epistemology (2017) 151
xenophanes, divinatory language in	Tor, Mortal and Divine in Early Greek Epistemology (2017) 152
xenophanes, his attitude to divine disclosure, his attitude to divine disclosure	Tor, Mortal and Divine in Early Greek Epistemology (2017) 151, 152
xenophanes, insisting on a strict boundary between mortal and divine	Tor, Mortal and Divine in Early Greek Epistemology (2017) 151
xenophanes, mockeries	Wolfsdorf, Early Greek Ethics (2020) 34
xenophanes, on divination	Tor, Mortal and Divine in Early Greek Epistemology (2017) 151, 152
xenophanes, on his longevity	Tor, Mortal and Divine in Early Greek Epistemology (2017) 151, 152
xenophanes, on his own wisdom	Tor, Mortal and Divine in Early Greek Epistemology (2017) 151, 152
xenophanes, self-presentation	Wolfsdorf, Early Greek Ethics (2020) 34
xenophanes	Bowie, Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture (2021) 237, 404; Long, From Epicurus to Epictetus Studies in Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy (2006) 86, 98; Vogt, Pyrrhonian Skepticism in Diogenes Laertius (2015) 116; Wolfsdorf, Early Greek Ethics (2020) 34
xenophanes of colophon	Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 51, 53
zeno of elea	Vogt, Pyrrhonian Skepticism in Diogenes Laertius (2015) 116
zeus, cults and shrines of	Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 53
zeus, olympian	Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 53
zeus	Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion (2006) 53