Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1029

Rh THALES. Dicaearchus had already remarked (Diog. Lae'rt. i. is also brought forward as the originator of phi- losophy and mathematics (apx^J^^ t^s (piAocro- (plas, Arist. Metaph. i. 3 ; Diog. Laert. i. 28, &e. ; Apul. Flor. c. iv. p. 38, Beroald), and with good reason, if he first convinced himself of the neces- sity of scientific proof, and attempted it in phi- losophy and mathematics. In the latter science we find attributed to him only proofs of proposi- tions which belong to the first elements of geo- metry, and could not possibly have put him in a position to calculate the eclipses of the sun, and the course of the heavenly bodies. Nevertheless, that careful inquirer, Eudemus of Rhodes, had attributed to him both these calculations and those proofs (Diog. Laert. I. c; Procl. in Euclid, i. p. x. 17, 19, 44, 67, 79, 92). It is possible that communi- cations from the East, where greater progress had been made in astronomy, came to the help of the Milesian. The Peripatetic Hieronymus had al- ready mentioned his stay in Egypt, Avhich was devoted to mathematical pursuits (Diog. Laert. i. 27; comp. Plin. H.N. xxxvi. 18). Others had attri- buted to him journeys to Crete and Asia (Diog, Laert. i. 47. 24. ib. Menag. ). In his dogma that water is the origin of things, that is, that it is that out of which every thing arises, and into which every thing resolves itself, Thales may have followed Orphic cosmogonies (Arist. /. c; Justin Mart. CoA. ad Gr. p. 7, Paris ; Plut. Placit. i. 3, &c. ; comp. Ch. A. Brandis, Handhuch der griecliisch-romisclien PMlosophie, i. p. 65, &c.), while, unlike them, he sought to establish the truth of the assertion. Hence, Aristotle, immediately after he has called him the originator of philosophj^ brings forward the reasons which Thales was believed to have adduced in confirmation of that assertion ; for that no written developement of it, or indeed any book by Thales, was extant, is proved by the expres- sions which Aristotle uses when he brings for- ward the doctrines and proofs of the Milesian {taws, I. c, de Anim. i. 5 ; (paaiv, de Caelo, ii. 13), nay, even in connection with the above-mentioned story (Polit. i. 11 ; comp. Plat. TJieaet. 174, AeyeraL). In other ways, also, it is established that Thales left behind him nothing in a written form (Diog. Laert. i. 23; Themist. Oral. xxvi. 317, Hard. ; Simpl. in Arid, de An. f. 8) ; a metrical work on astronomy, attributed to him, was regarded even in antiquity as the production of a Samian of the name of Pho- cas (Diog. Laert. i. 23). Verses in which Thaletic doctrines and expressions were embodied (Diog. Laert. i. 34 ; Plut. de Pyth. Orat. p. 402, e) be- longed without doubt to a later period, and to attri- bute commentaries {a.-Koixv7]fxov€vixara) to him or his school, is an error into which Joannes Philoponus has been led merely by the words of Aristotle which he explains (e| wv aiTouuT]iJ.ovevov(nu, de Anim. i. 2). Still, we can as little assume that Aristotle attributed the doctrines and their proofs to Thales from mere conjecture ; he attaches much too de- cided an importance to them for that. Besides, Theophrastus seems to have repeated and some- what modified them ; and Eudemus had distinctly stated the mathematical propositions, for which Thales adduced proofs. That the fruit and seeds of things are moist, and that warmth is developed out of moistness, are the reasons which Aristotle regards as those which may have led Thales to the assertion that water is the origin of things. Sim- THALES. lOlV plicius {in Arist. Phjs. f. 6) adds, probably after Theophrastus, to whom he refers immediately be- fore and after, that what dies, dries up, and that water is what holds all things together: and further, that water is in the highest degree plastic (euruTTWTov). The sayings also attributed by Aris- totle to Thales, that every thing is full of gods {de Anim. i. 5, p. 411. 70, BeroL), and that the soul is what originates motion, whence also he attri- buted soul to the magnet (ib. i. 2, p. 405. 19), betray the presupposition that it is by virtue of the indwelling power with which it is pervaded, as with a soul, that water produces the various phe- nomena. But neither the doctrine of the soul of the universe (Stob. Ed. Phys. i. p. 54, Heeren ; Plut. Plac. i. 20), nor that of a Deity forming the universe (Cic. de Nat. Deor. i. 10 ; Joh. Philop. in Arist. de An. p. 7) which later writers attributed to him, can be inferred therefrom : they have here, as in other cases, defined more precisely, or ampli- fied the cautious statements of Aristotle, and per- haps of Theophrastus (in all probability the only authentic sources which they had for the doctrines of Thales), and so make him teach that the soul is that which is moved eternally and by itself ( Plut. Plac. iv. 2), and immortal (Diog. Laert. i. 24), that matter is infinitely divisible (Stob. Eel. Phys. i. p. 319, &c.) and without void space (ib. 378), that out of water first of all the four elements developed themselves (Heracl. Font. Allcg. Horn. c. 22) and so forth, propositions which, as may be shown, Plato, Empedocles, and others were the first to lay down. [Ch. A. B.] THALES or THALETAS (0aA-^s, GaA^ras), the celebrated musician and lyric poet. The two forms of the name are mere varieties of the same word: but &aKrjs seems to be the more genuine ancient form ; for it not only has the authority of Aristotle, Strabo, and Plutarch, but it is also used by Pausanias (i. 14. § 4) in quoting the verses composed in honour of the musician by his con- temporary Polymnestus. Nevertheless, it is more convenient to follow the prevailing custom among modern writers, and call him Thaletas. The position of Thaletas is one of the most in- teresting, and at the same time most difficult points, in that most interesting and difficult subject, the early history of Greek music and lyric poetry. The most certain fact known of him is, fortunately, that which is also the most important; namely, that he introduced from Crete into Sparta certain principles or elements of music and rhythm, which did not exist in Terpander's system, and thereby founded the second of the musical schools which flourished at Sparta. (Plut.rfe Mus. 9, p. 1 135, b.) He was a native of Crete, and, according to the best writers, of the city of Gortyna. (Polymnes- tus, ap. Pans. I. c. ; Plut. de Mus. I. c.) Suidas has preserved other traditions, which assigned him to Cnossus or to Elyrus. (Suid. s. v., for the arti- cles QaKiiTas Kprjs and 0a^TOs Kudicrcrios refer without doubt to the same individual, and in the former article the words fj 'lAAupfoj ought to be 'EKvpios : comp. Meursius, Cret. i. 9 ; Kiister, ad loc.; Miiller, Hist. Lit. of Greex:e, vol. i. p. 159.) In compliance, according to tradition, with an invitation which the Spartans sent to him in obe- dience to an oracle, he removed to Sparta, where, by the sacred character of his paeans, and the humanizing influence of his music, he appeased the wrath of Apollo, who had visited the city with a
 * Cic.Lael. 2; Vhii. Solon. 3). Nevertheless Thales