Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/317

PHILOLAUS. different cities of Italy something like their old organization. The statements that Philolaus was the instructor of Gorgias, and a disciple of Lysis, for the purpose of paying sepulchral honours to whom he came to Thebes (Olympiodorus ad Plat. Phaed. ap. Wyttenbach ad Phaed. p. 130, who mentions him instead of Theanor). are of no authority. According to Diogenes Laërtius (viii. 46), Phanton of Phlius, Xenophilus, Echecrates, Diodes, and Polymnestus of Phlius were disciples of Philolaus. Böckh (l. c. p. 15) places no reliance whatever on the story that Philolaus was put to death at Crotona on account of being suspected of aiming at the tyranny; a story which Diogenes Laërtius has even taken the trouble to put into verse (Diog. Laërt. viii. 84 ; Suid. s. v. ). Pythagoras and his earliest successors do not appear to have committed any of their doctrines to writing. According to Porphyrius (Vit. Pyth. p. 40) Lysis and Archippus collected in a written form some of the principal Pythagorean doctrines, which were handed down as heir-looms in their families, under strict injunctions that they should not be made public. But amid the different and inconsistent accounts of the matter, the first publication of the Pythagorean doctrines is pretty uniformly attributed to Philolaus. He composed a work on the Pythagorean philosophy in three books, which Plato is said to have procured at the cost of 100 minae through Dion of Syracuse, who purchased it from Philolaus, who was at the time in deep poverty. Other versions of the story represent Plato as purchasing it himself from Philolaus or his relatives when in Sicily. (Diog. Laërt. viii. 15, 55, 84, 85, iii. 9; A. Gellius, N. A. iii. 17; lamblichus, Vit. Fyth. 31. p. 172; Tzetzes, Chiliad. x. 792, &c. xi. 38, &c.) Out of the materials which he derived from these books Plato is said to have composed his Timaeus. But in the age of Plato the leading features of the Pythagorean doctrines had long ceased to be a secret; and if Philolaus taught the Pythagorean doctrines at Thebes, he was hardly likely to feel much reluctance in publishing them; and amid the conflicting and improbable accounts preserved in the authorities above referred to, little more can be regarded as trustworthy, except that Philolaus was the first who published a book on the Pythagorean doctrines, and that Plato read and made use of it. (Böckh, l. c. p. 22.) Although in the Phaedon and the Gorgias Plato expresses himself as if he had derived his knowledge of the doctrines of Philolaus from hearsay, yet, besides that such a representation would be the more natural and appropriate as put in the mouth of Socrates, who was not a great reader, the minuteness and exactitude with which the doctrines of Philolaus are referred to, and the obvious allusions to the style in which they were expressed, show clearly enough that Plato derived his acquaintance with them from writings; and the accordance of the extant fragments of Philolaus with what is found in Plato points to the same result In one passage (viii. 85) Diogenes Laërtius speaks of the work of Philolaus as one book . Elsewhere (iii. 9, viii. 15) he speaks of three books, as do A. Gellius and Iamblichus. In all probability, what Philolaus had written was comprised in one treatise, divided into three books, though this division was doubtless made not by the author, but by the copyists. The first book of  the work is quoted by Nicomachus (Harmon. i. p. 17,) as το πρωτον Φυσικον, and the passage quoted by him is said by Stobaeus (Ecl. i. 22. § 7. p. 454) to be εκ του Φιλολάου περι κόσμου, It appears, in fact, from this, as well as from the extant fragments, that the first book of the work contained a general account of the origin and arrangement of the universe. The second book appears to have borne the title Περι φύσεως, and to have been an exposition of the nature of numbers, which in the Pythagorean theory are the essence and source of all things (Böckh, I.e. p. 27, &c.). It is no doubt from the third book that a passage is quoted by Stobaeus (Ecl. i. 21. § 2. p. 418) as being εν τψ περι ψυχης; and from other sources it appears that the third division of the treatise did, in reality, treat of the soul. There is no satisfactory evidence that any other writings of Philolaus were known except this work. More than one author mentions a work by Philolaus, entitled the Βάκχαι. But from the nature of the references to it, it appears all but certain that this is only another name for the above-mentioned work in three books, and to have been a collective name of the whole. The name was very likely given, not by Philolaus himself, but by some admirer of him, who regarded his treatise as the fruit of a sort of mystic inspiration, and possibly in imitation of the way in which the books of Herodotus were named. (Böckh, l. c. p. 34, &c.) Several important extracts from the work of Philolaus have come down to us. These have been carefully and ably examined by Böckh (Philolaos des Pythagoreers Lehren, nebst den Bruehstücken seines Werkes, Berlin, 1819). As the doctrines of Philolaus, generally speaking, coincided with those that were regarded as genuine doctrines of the Pythagorean school, and our knowledge of many features in the latter consists only of what we know of the former, an account of the doctrines of Philolaus will more fitly come in a general examination of the Pythagorean philosophy. The reader is accordingly referred on this subject to. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. i. p. 862, vol. iii. p. 61).

 PHILOMACHUS, artist. [.]

 PHILOMELA. 1. A daughter of king Pandion in Attica, who, being dishonoured by her brother-in-law Tereus, was metamorphosed into a nightingale or swallow. (Apollod. iii. 14. § 8; comp. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Tereus.)  2. The mother of Patroclus (Hygin. Fab. 97), though it should be observed that she is commonly called Polymele. (Schol. ad Hom. Od. iv. 343, xvii. 134.)  3. A daughter of Actor, and the wife of Peleus, by whom she is said to have been the mother of Achilles. (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 558; comp. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Peleus.)  4. One of the daughters of Priam. (Hygin. Fab. 90.)  PHILOMELEIDES, a king in Lesbos who compelled his guests to engage with him in a contest of wrestling, and was conquered by Odysseus (Hom. Od. iv. 343, xvii. 134). Some commentators take this name to be a metronymic derived from Philomela, No. 2. <section end="Philomeleides"/> <section begin="Philomelus"/>PHILOMELUS, a son of Iasion and Demeter, and brother of Plutos, is said to have invented the chariot when Boötes was placed among the stars by his mother. (Hygin. Poet. Astr. ii. 4.)

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