Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers: Thales 1.35-37
“These sayings are also attributed to him:
God is the oldest of all things in existence, since god* was never born.
The most beautiful thing is the universe, since it is god’s creation and it contains everything.
Mind is the fastest thing since it runs through everything.
Compulsion is the strongest thing, since it overpowers everything.
The wisest thing is time, since it uncovers all.
Thales claimed that there was no difference between death and being alive. When someone asked why he didn’t die then, he said “because it would make no difference.”
“[Thales] the wise died while watching a sporting contest because of heat, thirst, weakness, and old age. This is inscribed on his tomb:
While Thales lies in this small tomb on the ground
The fame of his wisdom spans the sky without bound
And I can also add this epigram of my own from my Epigrams of Various Meters:
As wise Thales watched the athletic games
The sun came to the stadium to tack him away
That you took him Zeus I praise
For he could not see the stars from earth because of age.
So those two yelled out to encourage the Greeks to fight
And just as waves of snowfall thick on a winter’s day
When Zeus the master of all urges it to snow
On human beings, showing them what his weapons are like—
And he reins in the winds to pour it constantly
So that he covers the high mountains and the jutting cliffs
As well as the flowering meadows and men’s rich fields,
Snowing onto the harbors and the promontories of the gray sea,
Even as the wave resists it when it strikes. But everything else
Is covered beneath it whenever Zeus’ storm drives it on.
That’s how the stones fell thick from both sides,
Some falling against the Trojans, others from the Trojans
against the Greeks and a great din overwhelmed the whole wall.”
Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers: Thales 1.35-37
“These sayings are also attributed to him:
God is the oldest of all things in existence, since god* was never born.
The most beautiful thing is the universe, since it is god’s creation and it contains everything.
Mind is the fastest thing since it runs through everything.
Compulsion is the strongest thing, since it overpowers everything.
The wisest thing is time, since it uncovers all.
Thales claimed that there was no difference between death and being alive. When someone asked why he didn’t die then, he said “because it would make no difference.”
Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers: Thales 1.35-37
“These sayings are also attributed to him:
God is the oldest of all things in existence, since god* was never born.
The most beautiful thing is the universe, since it is god’s creation and it contains everything.
Mind is the fastest thing since it runs through everything.
Compulsion is the strongest thing, since it overpowers everything.
The wisest thing is time, since it uncovers all.
Thales claimed that there was no difference between death and being alive. When someone asked why he didn’t die then, he said “because it would make no difference.”
14 “Similarly, near Kosê there is a spring which, if you place a container filled with wine in it until it covers the mouth, then it becomes more bitter than vinegar right away according to the same author.”
7 “In Naxos Aglaosthenês says that wine bubbles up on its own for the earth and when it goes into rivers it does not mix with water. The person who tastes it goes crazy”
You came,
I sought after you,
And you cooled my soul burnt up with longing.
Catullus 70
My woman says there’s nobody she prefers to marry
than me—not even if Jupiter himself wooed her,
She says. But what a woman says to a burning lover
One should scribble in the breeze and in the fast-flowing water.
Nulli se dicit mulier mea nubere malle
quam mihi, non si se Iuppiter ipse petat.
dicit: sed mulier cupido quod dicit amanti
in vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua.
“[Thales] the wise died while watching a sporting contest because of heat, thirst, weakness, and old age. This is inscribed on his tomb:
While Thales lies in this small tomb on the ground
The fame of his wisdom spans the sky without bound
And I can also add this epigram of my own from my Epigrams of Various Meters:
As wise Thales watched the athletic games
The sun came to the stadium to tack him away
That you took him Zeus I praise
For he could not see the stars from earth because of age.
“Gaius Julius, Masinissa’s son, who controlled all the lands of the city [Zama], fought alongside the emperor. He was my guest from time to time. In our daily conversations we often were compelled to argue about philology.
Once we had a debate about the power of water and its finer qualities. He told me that there were springs which came from his own land along which whoever was born there developed exceptional singing voices. Because of this, people used to purchase fine looking lads and full-grown girls to mate with them, so that the children who were born from them would be exceptional in voice and form.”
Gaius Iulius Masinissae filius, cuius erant totius oppidi agrorum possessiones, cum patre Caesare militavit. Is hospitio meo est usus. Ita cotidiano convictu necesse fuerat de philologia disputare. Interim cum esset inter nos de aquae potestate et ius virtutibus sermo, exposuit esse in ea terra eiusmodi fontes, ut, qui ibi procrearentur, voces ad cantandum egregias haberent, ideoque semper transmarinos catlastros emere formonsos et puellas maturas eosque coniungere, ut, qui nascerentur ex his, non solum voce egregia sed etiam forma essent non invenusta.
Frescoes of Marine Life found on a wall along the via La Portuense in the river port of San Paolo Rome CE) – National Museum of Rome
Frescoes found, in the river port of San Paolo Rome – National Museum of Rome
Pindar, Ol. 1 1–7
“Water is best, yet gold shining as a fire
Clear in the night is beyond all noble wealth—
But if you desire,
Dear heart, to sing of contests,
Don’t look farther than the sun
For any bright star warmer by day, alone in the sky.
And let us sing no contest greater than Olympia.”
“Gaius Julius, Masinissa’s son, who controlled all the lands of the city [Zama], fought alongside the emperor. He was my guest from time to time. In our daily conversations we often were compelled to argue about philology.
Once we had a debate about the power of water and its finer qualities. He told me that there were springs which came from his own land along which whoever was born there developed exceptional singing voices. Because of this, people used to purchase fine looking lads and full-grown girls to mate with them, so that the children who were born from them would be exceptional in voice and form.”
Gaius Iulius Masinissae filius, cuius erant totius oppidi agrorum possessiones, cum patre Caesare militavit. Is hospitio meo est usus. Ita cotidiano convictu necesse fuerat de philologia disputare. Interim cum esset inter nos de aquae potestate et ius virtutibus sermo, exposuit esse in ea terra eiusmodi fontes, ut, qui ibi procrearentur, voces ad cantandum egregias haberent, ideoque semper transmarinos catlastros emere formonsos et puellas maturas eosque coniungere, ut, qui nascerentur ex his, non solum voce egregia sed etiam forma essent non invenusta.
Frescoes of Marine Life found on a wall along the via La Portuense in the river port of San Paolo Rome CE) – National Museum of Rome
Frescoes found, in the river port of San Paolo Rome – National Museum of Rome
Pindar, Ol. 1 1–7
“Water is best, yet gold shining as a fire
Clear in the night is beyond all noble wealth—
But if you desire,
Dear heart, to sing of contests,
Don’t look farther than the sun
For any bright star warmer by day, alone in the sky.
And let us sing no contest greater than Olympia.”
