Lives of the Eminent Philosophers

by Pamela Mensch

  270 Agamemnon, leader of the Greek army at Troy, is portrayed in Homer’s Iliad as a vain and pompous king. The name Hegesipolis is not known elsewhere but translates as “leader of the city,” and here implies excessive ambition.

  271 Wine drinking was thought by the Greeks to help prevent certain diseases.

  272 Of these three poets of the third century BC, two are still read today: Aratus of Soli (c. 315–before 240 BC) is famous for his Phaenomena, a didactic poem about the constellations that survives intact, while Lycophron of Chalcis is likely the author of a prophetic poem called Alexandra (the authorship is disputed). The work of Antagoras of Rhodes, including an epic poem titled Thebais, has entirely perished.

  273 Satyr plays, featuring choruses of randy satyrs, were burlesque dramas performed at the end of each full day of tragedies at the Athenian tragic festival. Achaeus was a tragic poet who hailed from Menedemus’ native Eretria.

  274 There was widespread suspicion in antiquity, almost certainly unfounded, that the Medea attributed to Euripides was actually by another playwright, Neophron, or relied substantially on Neophron’s work.

  275 One of Plato’s successors as head of the Academy. Diogenes discusses his life and views at 4.6–15.

  276 A Cyrenaic philosopher, the teacher of Hegesias and Anniceris (see 2.86).

  277 A proverbial expression for superfluous activity, like our “beating a dead horse.”

  278 The trip would have required several days of travel on both land and sea. Chalcis, the chief town of Euboea, lay at the narrowest part of the Euripus Strait.

  279 In mythology, Pylades was the closest companion of Orestes, son of Agamemnon. Their bond was often cited in the ancient world as a model of perfect friendship.

  280 That is, after Menedemus had divorced her, apparently so as to give her to Asclepiades.

  281 It seems the remark was meant as an obscene pun, following a pattern Menedemus displayed elsewhere (see 2.127–28).

  282 The equivalent of three thousand drachmas each.

  283 The term “dog” was often used for “Cynic philosopher,” on the basis of the ascetic lifestyle and combative methods of the Cynic sect; here though it seems a simple insult.

  284 Two of the dynasts who controlled various parts of Alexander’s former empire. The Ptolemy referred to here might be either Ptolemy I Soter, who played host to Theodorus and Stilpo, or that ruler’s son, Ptolemy II Philadelphus. Lysimachus, king of Thrace and, at times, Macedonia, died in 281 BC.

  285 Demetrius Poliorcetes, another post-Alexander dynast, controlled various parts of Asia and Europe during the late fourth and early third centuries BC.

  286 In 288 BC, Ptolemy Soter was competing with Demetrius for control of mainland Greece.

  287 Clearly not the great tragic poet but a later namesake.

  288 The date and circumstances are not clear. Oropus was the hometown of one of Menedemus’ wives (2.137).

  289 A city on the northwest shore of the Sea of Marmara. Antigonus defeated an army of Gauls there in 278 BC.

  290 It is unclear which of several Aristodemuses Diogenes refers to.

  291 In the power struggles over control of Greece, in the early third century BC, various dynasts, including Demetrius, helped install democracies in the principal Greek cities in exchange for the support of the populace.

  292 A disciple of Zeno, Persaeus of Citium resided at the court of Antigonus II along with Menedemus (see 7.6).

  293 The connection between Eretria and weeklong fasting is obscure, but the reference to a “guide” in the following line may be a hit at the notorious betrayal of the Greeks by an Eretrian in 480 BC. When Greek forces were attempting to hold the pass at Thermopylae against Persian invaders, an Eretrian “guide” showed the Persians a secret path that allowed them to turn the Greek position.

  Book 3

  PLATO

  c. 429–347 bc Greek Philosophers (Platonic Philosophers), by Giorgio de Chirico, 1925.

  Plato

  1 Plato, son of Ariston and Perictione—or Potone—was an Athenian, his mother tracing her descent back to Solon.1 For Solon’s brother was Dropides, and Dropides was the father of Critias, who was the father of Callaeschrus, who was the father of Critias (one of the Thirty2) and of Glaucon, who was the father of Charmides and Perictione, by whom Ariston fathered Plato. Thus Plato was in the sixth generation from Solon. Solon himself traced his descent to Neleus3 and Poseidon, and his father is said to have traced his descent to Codrus,4 son of Melanthus; both, according to Thrasyllus, trace their descent to Poseidon.

  2 Speusippus in Plato’s Funeral Feast, and Clearchus in his Encomium on Plato, and Anaxilaides in his second book On Philosophy say that there was a story in Athens that Ariston tried to force himself on Perictione, who was then in the bloom of youth, and was rebuffed; and that when he ceased resorting to force, he saw a vision of the god Apollo, after which he abstained from conjugal relations until Perictione gave birth.5

  3,4 Plato was born, as Apollodorus says in his Chronicles, in the eighty-eighth Olympiad, on the seventh day of the month of Thargelion,6 on the day on which Apollo was born, according to the Delians.7 He died—at a wedding feast, according to Hermippus—in the first year of the 108th Olympiad8 at the age of eighty-one. Neanthes, however, says that Plato died at the age of eighty-four. (He was therefore six years younger than Isocrates.9 For the latter was born during the archonship of Lysimachus, the former during that of Ameinas, the year Pericles died.)10 He was of the deme of Collytus, as Antileon says in the second book of his work Chronology. He was born, according to some, in Aegina—in the house of Phidiades, son of Thales,11 as Favorinus says in his Miscellaneous History. For Plato’s father had been sent there with others as a settler, but returned to Athens when the Athenians were expelled by the Spartans who came to aid the Aeginetans. As Apollodorus says in the eighth book of his Discourses, Plato was also a choregos12 at Athens, Dion13 defraying his expenses. Plato had two brothers, Adeimantus and Glaucon,14 and a sister, Potone, who was the mother of Speusippus.15

  Multiple views of a marble portrait head of Plato, c. third century AD, Roman.

  5 He was taught letters at the school of Dionysius,16 whom he mentions in Rivals in Love. He studied gymnastics with Ariston the Argive wrestler, from whom he received the name Plato because of his robust constitution.17 (He was originally named Aristocles, after his grandfather, as Alexander says in his Successions.) But some say he was given this name because of the breadth of his style, or because his face was broad, as Neanthes claims. There are also some who say that he wrestled at the Isthmian games, as Dicaearchus states in the first book of his work On Lives, and that he applied himself to painting and writing poems—first dithyrambs, then lyric poetry and tragedies. He is said to have been weak-voiced, as Timotheus the Athenian says in his work On Lives. Socrates is said to have dreamt that he had a newborn swan18 in his lap, and that the bird suddenly sprouted feathers and flew up with a sweet cry. And the next day Plato was introduced to him, and Socrates realized that the young man was the bird of the dream.

  Plato studied philosophy at first in the Academy,19 then in the garden at Colonus20 (as Alexander says in his Successions), where he read the works of Heraclitus.21 Later, when he was about to compete for a prize in tragedy, he listened to Socrates in front of the theater of Dionysus, after which he burned his poems, saying

  Come hither, Hephaestus; Plato needs you now.22

  6 From then on, they say, having reached the age of twenty, he became a disciple of Socrates. After Socrates died, he attached himself to Cratylus the Heraclitean and Hermogenes, who professed the philosophy of Parmenides.23 Then, at the age of twenty-eight, according to Hermodorus, he withdrew to Megara to be with Euclides,24 along with a number of Socrates’ disciples. Later he went to Cyrene to visit Theodorus the mathematician.25 And from there he departed for Italy to meet the Pythagoreans Philolaus and Erytus.26 Then he traveled to Egypt to see the priests. It is said that Euripides accompani
ed him.27 Falling ill there, he was cured by the priests, who treated him with seawater; this may have inspired the line:

  The sea washes away all human ills.28

  I Am Plato, by Gorka Garcia, 2016. Oil on wood, 45 × 45 cm.

  7 He also declared that according to Homer the Egyptians surpass all mankind as healers.29 Plato was then planning to meet with the Magi,30 but departed because of the wars in Asia. On his return to Athens, he resided at the Academy, a gymnasium on the outskirts of the city in a woodland named after a hero, one Hecademus,31 as is stated by Eupolis32 in his Shirkers:

  In the shady walks of divine Hecademus.

  And Timon says of Plato:

  Broadest,33 he led all; a sweet-voiced speaker,

  Musical as the cicadas who, perching on a tree

  Of Hecademus, send forth their gentle voices.

  8 Originally, because of the syllable “he” in the hero’s name, the place was called Hecademia.

  The philosopher was a friend of Isocrates.34 And Praxiphanes describes a conversation of theirs about poets that was held at the country estate where Isocrates was Plato’s guest. Aristoxenus says that Plato served in three military campaigns: the first time at Tanagra, the second at Corinth, and the third at Delium,35 where he also won the prize of valor. He created a synthesis of the doctrines of Heraclitus, Pythagoras, and Socrates: about perceptible things he agreed with Heraclitus, about objects of thought with Pythagoras, and about political philosophy with Socrates.

  9 Some, including Satyrus, say that Plato wrote to Dion in Sicily instructing him to purchase from Philolaus three books about the doctrines of Pythagoras for one hundred minas.36 For they say he was well provided for, having received more than eighty talents from Dionysius,37 as Onetor says in the essay where he addresses the question “Whether the wise man will make money.” He also derived considerable assistance from Epicharmus the comic poet, having edited a great many of his writings, as Alcimus says in his work To Amyntas, which consists of four books.38 In the first of these he writes as follows:

  10,11 Plato appears to draw heavily on the words of Epicharmus. Just consider. Plato says that the object of sense is that which never remains fixed in quality or quantity, but is always changing and in flux, the assumption being that the things from which one may take away number are no longer equal or determinate, nor do they have quantity or quality. These are things that are always engaged in becoming, but never in being.39 The object of thought, on the other hand, is something from which nothing is subtracted, and to which nothing is added. This is the nature of eternal things, the character of which is to be always alike and the same. And indeed Epicharmus has expressed himself clearly about objects of sense and objects of thought:

  Two of the gods as they were rendered in marble during Plato’s lifetime. Left: The elaborate hairstyle of this herm head, c. 450 BC, is often found on images of Zeus or Poseidon. Right: Persephone and Hygeia were often represented with hair separated into thick coils pulled back to the top of the head and tied loosely in a knot, as on this carved head from the fourth century BC.

  A. But gods always existed and were never lacking,

  While things in our world are always the same and always arise from the

       [same cause.

  B. But it is said that Chaos was the first of the gods.

  A. How so, if there was nothing out of which or into which it could come first?

  B. Then did nothing come first? A. No, by Zeus, nor second either

     [of the things that we are now talking about.

  A. If someone adds one to an odd or even number of pebbles,

  Whichever you like, or takes one away from an existing quantity,

  Do you think we have the same number? B. By no means.

  A. Or if one wants to add a cubit to another length,

  Or cut one from an existing length,

  Would the original length remain? B. Of course not. A. So now consider Mankind in this same way. For one man grows, the other wastes away,

  But all are changing all the time.

  Well, a thing that is naturally changing and never remaining the same

  Would always be different from the thing that has undergone the change.

  And even you and I were different yesterday, and we’re different today,

  And will be different tomorrow, and will never remain ourselves,

       [according to this argument.

  12,13 Alcimus goes on to say: “The wise maintain that the soul senses some things through the body, for example when it hears and sees, but senses other things by itself, without the body.40 This is why, among existing things, some are objects of sense, some of thought.41 Hence Plato says that those who wish to understand the principles of the universe must first distinguish the ideas by themselves, for example, similarity, unity, quantity, magnitude, rest, and motion; second, one must assume the existence, in and of itself, of beauty, goodness, justice, and other such things;42 and third, one must understand how many of the ideas relate to one another, as do knowledge, or magnitude, or ownership, bearing in mind that the things we experience have the same names as these ideas because they partake of them, by which I mean that all that partakes of justice is just, and all that partakes of beauty is beautiful.43 Each of these ideas is eternal; it is a concept that does not admit of change. Hence he says that in nature the ideas stand like archetypes, and that all other things resemble these archetypes because they are copies of them.44 And here are the words of Epicharmus about the good and about the ideas:

  14 A. Is flute playing a thing? B. By all means.

  A. Is man, then, flute playing? B. Certainly not.

  A. Let me see, then. What is a flute player? Who do you think he is?

  A man, or not? B. A man, of course. A. Then, don’t you think

  The same would be the case with the good? The good is in itself a

       [thing, and the man

  Who has learned that thing and knows it becomes good.

  For just as one becomes a flute player when he has learned flute playing,

  Or a dancer when he has learned dancing, or a plaiter when he has learn plaiting,

  And likewise in all such instances, whichever you like,

  The man himself would not be the craft, but the craftsman.

  One and Three Chairs, by Joseph Kosuth, 1965. Wood folding chair, mounted photograph of a chair, and mounted photographic enlargement of a dictionary definition of “chair.”

  15 “Plato, in developing his theory of ideas, says: If in fact there is memory, then the ideas must be present in things, because memory is of something stable and permanent, but nothing is permanent except the ideas. ‘For how,’ he asks, ‘would animals have survived unless they grasped ideas and had been endowed by nature with the intelligence to do so? As it is, they remember similarities and what their food is like, which proves that the ability to register similarity is innate in all animals; hence they also recognize their own kind.’45 Well, how does Epicharmus put it?

  16 Wisdom, Eumaeus, does not belong to one kind only,

  But all living creatures alike have understanding.

  For if you will diligently study the female among poultry,

  She does not bear her young alive,

  But broods upon her eggs and breathes life into them.

  As for her wisdom, Nature alone comprehends it;

  For the hen has learned it from her.

  “And again:

  It is not surprising that we speak this way

  And are pleased with ourselves and think ourselves

  So fine; for a dog appears the finest thing

  To a dog, an ox to an ox,

  An ass to an ass, and a pig to a pig.”

  17 Noting these and other such instances throughout his four books, Alcimus draws attention to the assistance Plato derived from Epicharmus. That Epicharmus himself was not unaware of his own wisdom one can learn from the verses in which he envisions
his emulator:

  And as I think—for that which I think I know full well—

  The memory of my words will survive.

  Someone, taking and divesting them of the meter they now possess,

  Will clothe them in a purple robe embroidered with fine phrases;

  A man hard to wrestle with, he will make everyone else seem easy to pin.

  18,19 Plato, it seems, was the first to bring to Athens the works of Sophron,46 the writer of mimes, which had been neglected, and to imitate his manner of drawing characters. His works were even found under Plato’s pillow. He sailed three times to Sicily, the first time to see the island and the craters of the volcano. It was then that Dionysius, the son of Hermocrates,47 the reigning tyrant, forced Plato to associate with him. When Plato was conversing about tyranny, and declared that the advantage of the ruler is not of value for its own sake unless he is preeminently virtuous, he offended his host. In his anger Dionysius said, “You talk like an old fart,” to which Plato replied, “And you like a tyrant.” Vexed at this, the tyrant was at first eager to have Plato put to death; then, dissuaded by Dion and Aristomenes, he did not go that far but entrusted Plato to Pollis the Spartan, who had just arrived on an embassy, with orders to sell him into slavery.48 And Pollis took him to Aegina, where he put him up for sale. Then Charmandrus, son of Charmandrides, indicted him on a capital charge in accordance with the law that had been enacted among the Aeginetans to the effect that any Athenian who set foot on the island should be put to death without trial. It was Charmandrus himself who had passed the law, as Favorinus says in his Miscellaneous History. But when someone declared, in jest, that the transgressor was a philosopher, they acquitted him. Some say that when Plato was brought into court and found himself under close scrutiny he spoke not a word, but calmly awaited the outcome. The assembly decided not to put him to death but to sell him as though he were a prisoner of war.