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[German version] (Μοδέρατος/ Modératos) of Gades. Neo-Pythagorean, middle of the 1st cent. AD. He was the author of a work consisting of eleven books on the Pythagoreans (Porph. Vita Pythagorica 48), on which, it seems, all accounts about him are based. M. makes a sharper distinction than Numenius [6…

[German version] [1] Philosophers Originally a sceptical expression to designate those who adopt as their own a view ( dógma; cf. S. Emp. P.H. 1,13) ─ especially a philosophical or scientific view ─ which, in sceptical thinking, cannot be justified let alone proven (S. Emp. P.H. 1,3). Also applied by the Pyrrhonians in an extended sense to those Academicians who adopted views such as that nothing can be known (cf. the ἰδίως/ idíōs in S. Emp., ibid.). Because of the close link between empiricism and Scepticism in medicine, the term ‘Dogmatists’ was often also applied by Empiricists to physicians otherwise known as Rationalists (Gal. de sect. 1, S. 2, 10 Helmreich). Because of its origin the expression readily came to connote an attitude that holds firm to a view despite all counter-arguments or that simply follows some authority.…

(Ἀρχύτας, Archỳtas) [1] of Tarentum Pythagoraean philosopher [German version] A. Life Important Pythagorean philosopher of the ‘mathematical’ orientation, politician of Tarentum, a friend of Plato's. His life and his teachings are known in little more than outline because of insufficient records; his true works, with the exception of a few fragments, are lost, as is Aristoxenus' biography, Aristotle's treatise on A.'s philosophy and his comparison of Plato's …

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(Περικτιόνη; Periktiónē). [German version] [1] Mother of Plato Mother of Plato; came from an old aristocratic Athenian family to which Critias and Charmides [1] also belonged. Also born of her marriage to Ariston were the pair of brothers Glaucon and Adeimantus, Socrates' discussion partner in the Platonian Politeía, as well as Potone, the mother of Speusippus, Plato's successor in the headship of the Academy. In her second marriage, P. was the wife of Pyrilampes, the son of an Antiphon. From this relationship was born a son who was also cal…

[German version] An abundance of writings, for the most part surviving only fragmentarily, which purport to originate from the defunct tradition of the Pythagorean School; they were published under the name of an ancient Pythagorean, but are in fact of later origin. They are to be distinguished (1) from a very small number of genuine f…

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(Μέλισσα/ Mélissa, ‘bee’). Epithet of priestesses, name of nymphs and proper name, sometimes in aetiological myths. [German version] [1] Priestesses of Demeter Mélissai are the priestesses of Demeter (Pind. Fr. 158; Callim. H. 2,110; [1. no. 91]; Apollod. FGrH 244 F 89, on Paros), and in schol. Theoc. 15,94 of Persephone as well. The name probably derives from the association of bees and their behaviour, which was thought of as especially pure (Aristot. Hist. an. 4,535a 2 f.; schol. Pin…

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[German version] Modern collective term for a several very different philosophical schools of the late Hellenistic and early Imperial period (after the late 1st cent. BC). All these schools based their teachings on Pythagoras – either of trad…

[German version] (Φίντυς; Phíntys). Pseudonymous female author of a work in Pythagorean spirit, Περὶ γυναικὸς σωφροσύνας ( Perì gynaikòs sōphrosýnas, 'On the self-control of women'; two relatively long fragments in Doric dialect are preserved in Stob. 4,23,61): a woman's characteristic virtue is self-control; some particular traits and abilities are common to both men…

[German version] (Αἰνησίδημος; Ainēsídēmos) [of Cnossus] Originally a member of the Academy (Phot. 212, 169 b 33) and the founder of Pyrrhonism. The exact dates of his life are disputed, but A.'s critique of the Academy points to the beginning of the 1st cent. BC.The fact that Cicero does not mention him and deems Pyrrho's philosophy dead is not significant as long as we clearly distinguish between Pyrrho and Pyrrhonism. None of A.'s writings survive, but Phot. 212 presents a summary of ‘Pyrrhonian…

[German version] A. Concept of the soul In order to understand the concept and the theory of the soul ('psychology': λόγος/ lógos, 'theory', from ψυχή/ psychḗ, 'soul') in Graeco-Roman Antiquity, it is important to distinguish between two ways of perceiving the soul: the soul as an essential component of a human being, as the subject of thinking and feeling,…

(Ἔκφαντος; Ékphantos). [German version] [1] Greek painter from Corinth, active probably in the mid 7th cent. BC Greek painter from Corinth, active probably in the mid 7th cent. BC. According to Pliny (HN 35,16), he was the founder of the secunda pictura, a style of painting which completely covered all surfaces with paint; an example of this style are the wooden plates handed down from Pitsa. The monochromata mentioned by Pliny in this context may refer to the unbroken and precious mineral pigments that were used. Hoesch, Nicola (Munich) Bibliography N. J. Koch, De picturae initiis, P…

[German version] (Ὄκελλος; Ókellos) from Lucania (Ocellus Lucanus); Pythagorean, unless the accounts about his brother and sister (Iambl. VP 267) are fictitious. Also the pseudonymous author of Doric texts from c. 100 BC. A letter to Plato (Diog. Laert. 8,80) with the faked authorship of Archytas (Ps.- Archytas [2]) lists the following works by O.: (1) On Law, (2) On Kingship, (3) On Piety, (4) On the origin of the universe. The letter was obviously meant to guarantee the authenticity of these writings. A fragment of (1) is transmitted in Stob. 1,13,2 p. 139 W.; Doric fragments of (4) are only extant in Stobaeus, but the text as a whole is transmitted in a vernacular Greek translation, perhaps as late as the Byzantine period. Furthermore, additional pseudo-epigraphs of O. must have existed to which we find references in testimonies by Iohannes Lydus [3], Stobaeus and Lucianus [1]. The text on the universe is first documented in Philo (Phil. De aetate mundi 12). If Diel's [3] assumption is correct that Censorinus 4,3 (where the eternal nature of the world is postulated by Pythagoras, O. and Archytas) refers to Varro, the text must have been available no later than the middle of the 1st cent. BC. It must be inauthentic due to the fact that paragraphs 24-29 are verbatim excerpts from Aristotle (Aristot. Gen. corr. 329a 32-b 2; b 16-20; 330b 25-34; b 3-5). The text apparently…

[German version] I. Definition The modern term 'sceptic' normally refers to someone who believes that in general, we know nothing with any degree of certainty or in any case nothing about the world beyond our own consciousness. There were sceptics in this sense already in Antiquity: Metrodorus [1] of Chios (4th cent. BC), a Democritean, maintained that we know nothing at all, not even whether or not we know anything, or what knowledge (εἰδέναι/ eidénai) is, or whether anything exists at all (70 B 1 DK). The Cyrenaics were of the opinion that although we are aware of our own i…

[German version] I Greek (Θεοδόσιος/ Theodósios). [German version] [I 1] Greek mathematician and astronomer, 2nd/1st cent. BC Greek mathematician and astronomer. Folkerts, Menso (Munich) [German version] I. Life and works According to Str. 12,4,9, T. was one of the most important men in Bithynia; the birthplace Tripoli given in the Suda (s. v. Θ.) may relate to another T. As Strabo also names T.’ sons as important mathematicians, T. must belong in the 2nd half of the 2nd cent. BC, or, at the latest, the…

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(Κρόνιος; Krónios). [German version] [1] Platonist Platonist (Syranus, In Aristot. Metaph. 109,11) of the Pythagorizing tendency, mostly called a Pythagorean, (perhaps older) contemporary and friend (Porph. De anthro nympharum 21) of  Numenius, about the mid 2nd cent. AD. As a rule C. is only mentioned with him but frequently b…