ἱστορίαι Historiai
D.L. 1.10-12 Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Volume I (Books I-V), Diogenes Laertius; served verbatim
The sun and the moon are gods bearing the names of Osiris and Isis respectively ; they make use of the beetle, the dragon, the hawk, and other creatures as symbols of divinity, according to Manetho in his Epitome of Physical Doctrines, and Hecataeus in the first book of his work On the Egyptian Philosophy. They also set up statues and temples to these sacred animals because they do not know the true form of the deity. They hold that the universe is created and perishable, and that it is spherical in shape. They say that the stars consist of fire, and that, according as the fire in them is mixed, so events happen upon earth ; that the moon is eclipsed when it falls into the earth’s shadow; that the soul survives death and passes into other bodies; that rain is caused by change in the atmosphere ; of all other phenomena they give physical explanations, as related by Hecataeus and Aristagoras. They also laid down Jaws on the subject of justice, which they ascribed to Hermes; and they deified those animals which are serviceable to man. They also claimed to have invented geometry, astronomy, and arithmetic. Thus much concerning the invention of philosophy. But the first to use the term, and to call himself a philosopher or lover of wisdom, was Pythagoras ; 4 for, said he, no man is wise, but God alone. Heraclides of Pontus, in his De mortua, makes him say this at Sicyon in conversation with Leon, who was the prince of that city or of Phlius. All too quickly the study was called wisdom and its professor a sage, to denote his attainment of mental perfection ; while the student who took it up was a philosopher or lover of wisdom. Sophists was another name for

The Greek stands ready in the workroom; the English is served. Both faces will read together.

← D.L. 1.8-10 contents D.L. 1.12-14 →

Filed here — the addresses this episode attests; counted by the house’s first pass
Hermes — a candidate entry

Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Volume I (Books I-V), Diogenes Laertius — translated by R. D. Hicks, 1925
Apparatus shelf — Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, vol. I (R. D. Hicks translation, Loeb L184) · R. D. Hicks, Loeb Classical Library, London: William Heinemann / New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, MCMXXV (1925)
license: public-domain (US: published 1925, pre-1930 — the MCMXXV title page verified by the 2026-07-08 acquisition lane, pin in ops/sources/MANIFEST.md; only the English rectos are served, Hicks's translation)