declared that all things were originally together until Mind came and set them in order. Linus died in Euboea, slain by the arrow of Ree oet and this is his epitaph ¢: Here Theban Linus, whom Urania bore, The fair-crowned Muse, sleeps on a foreign shore. And thus it was from the Greeks that philosophy took its rise : its very name refuses to be translated into foreign speech. But those who attribute its invention to barbarians bring forward Orpheus the Thracian, calling him a philosopher of whose antiquity there can be no doubt. Now, considering the sort of things he said about the gods, I hardly know whether he ought to be called a philosopher ; for what are we to make of one who does not scruple to charge the gods with all human suffering, and even the foul crimes wrought by the tongue_amongst a few of mankind? The story goes that he met his death at the hands of women; but according to the epitaph at Dium in Macedonia he was slain by a thunderbolt ; it runs as follows? : Here have the Muses laid their minstrel true, The Thracian Orpheus whom Jove’s thunder slew. But the advocates of the theory that philosophy took its rise among the barbarians go on to explain the different forms it assumed in different countries. As to the Gymnosophists and Druids we are told that they uttered their philosophy in riddles, bidding men to reverence the gods, to abstain from wrongdoing, and to practise courage. That the Gymno-
The Greek stands ready in the workroom; the English is served. Both faces will read together.
Druids — a candidate entry Linus — 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)