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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] does between Pythagoras and Plato, whom he (like Aristotle, Speusippus, Xenocrates and Aristoxenus) accused of appropriating Pythagorean ideas in such a way that made it easy for later authors not to …

[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…

(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 Timaeus and A. (no. 94 in Diog. Laert. 5,25 = no. 85 in Hesychius' catalogue). A. is described as the so…

I Greek [German version] [I 1] Author of a collection of 'gnomes' The name 'Sextus' is associated with a Greek collection of 610 maxims (Gnome) in all, known from two Greek MSS (Patm. 263, Vat. Gr. 742; Pap. Palau Rib. 225v, c. AD 400 offers 21 'gnomes'); they probably originated c. AD 200. Origenes [2] is the first to mention the title Σέξτου γνῶμαι ( Séxtou gnômai), remarking among other things that 'most Christians read them' (Orig. Contra Celsum 8,30). In about 399, Rufinus [II 6] Tyrannius translated a collection of 451 maxims into Latin, naming as author…

(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 fragments of Philolaus [2] and of Archytas [1] and (2) perhaps from a number of Pythagoreanizing fragments which are not pseudonymous but represent an attempt in the …

(Νουμήνιος/Noumḗnios). [German version] [1] Author of didactic poems from Heraclea, c. 300 BC N. from Heraclea, physician and poet, end of the 4th cent. BC. He was a pupil of the physician Dieuches [1] (Ath. 1,5), wrote on cookery and composed didactic poems on fishing (Ἁλιευτικόν/ Halieutikón, SH 568-588), on the theriac (Θηριακόν/ Thēriakón: SH 589-594), on medicinal prescriptions (SH 595) and ‘On Banquets (Δείπνων ἀναγραφαί/ Deípnōn anagraphaí: Ath. 1,5a). He may be the source on Nicander [4] (cf. schol. Theriakon 237; 257; 519; 637) and Archigenes. Fornaro, Sotera (Sassari) Bibliography Fragments: 1 SH 568-596 2 Th. Birt, De Halieuticis Ovidio poetae falso adscriptis, 1878, 127ff. 3 A. Cameron, Callimachus and His Critics, 1995, 203 4 H. Diller, s.v. Numenius (7a), RE Suppl. 7, 663-664. [German version] [2] Governor of the satrapy on the Red Sea (Hellenistic period)…

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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 (Aristo…

[German version] (Πύρρων/ Pýrrhōn) of Elis c. 365 - c. 275 BC; left no written work. He accompanied Alexander [4] the Great on the campaign to India, where he is said to have met the gymnosophists (Diog. Laert. 9,61). P. owes his place in the history of philosophy to the fact that Pyrrhonian skeptics, beginning with Aenesidemus, referred to him (Scepticism). P. was long considered the founder of the Pyrrhonian school. However, Cicero speaks repeatedly of P., Ariston [7] and Herillus as representatives of a long-abandoned thesis of complete indifference of the things of the world (Cic. Fin. 5,23; Tusc. 5,85). The early anecdotes about P.'s complete indifference (Diog. Laert. 9,62 ff.) fit with this; this thesis is not skeptic, but dogmatic, even if the ancients attempted to interpret some of these anecdotes as skeptic. The ancient representation of P. as a skeptic appears to go back primarily to P.'s student Timon, who attributed his own skepticism to P. Timon was an opponent of the Academic skeptic Arcesilaus [5], whose skepticism he sought to depict as borrowed from P., although he himself was probably influenced by Arcesilaus. Sharp distinctions must be made between P. himself, Timon and the Pyrhhonians from Aenesid…

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[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…

[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 presen…

[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, which controls one's behaviour, and the soul as the general quality that infuses a living thing with life. The first view is based on the perception of the soul ( psychḗ) as an individual's shadowy doppelgänger…

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[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 we…

[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…

[German version] (Θεάγης; Theágēs). Pseudepigraphical author of a work in the style of Pythagoras, Περὶ ἀρετῆς ( Perì aretês, 'On Virtue', two frr. in Stob. …

(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 before him and generally shares his opinion. C. was read in the school of Plotin (Porph. Vita Pythagorica 14); he composed hypomnemata (ibid., probably no commentaries on whole writings) and a treatise ‘On rebirth’ (Περὶ πα…