The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 1 (of 2)Clement, of Alexandria, Saint
Religion
The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Clement, of Alexandria, Saint
Theology -- Early works to 1800; Theology -- History -- Early Church, ca. 30-600
The Aristotelians judge it to be Chilon’s; but Didymus says the advice
was that of Thales. Then, next in order, the saying, “All men are bad,”
or, “The most of men are bad” (for the same apophthegm is expressed
in two ways), Sotades the Byzantian says that it was Bias’s. And the
aphorism, “Practice conquers everything,”[929] they will have it to
be Periander’s; and likewise the advice, “Know the opportunity,” to
have been a saying of Pittacus. Solon made laws for the Athenians,
Pittacus for the Mitylenians. And at a late date, Pythagoras, the pupil
of Pherecydes, first called himself a philosopher. Accordingly, after
the fore-mentioned three men, there were three schools of philosophy,
named after the places where they lived: the Italic from Pythagoras,
the Ionic from Thales, the Eleatic from Xenophanes. Pythagoras was
a Samian, the son of Mnesarchus, as Hippobotus says: according to
Aristoxenus, in his life of Pythagoras and Aristarchus and Theopompus,
he was a Tuscan; and according to Neanthes, a Syrian or a Tyrian. So
that Pythagoras was, according to the most, of barbarian extraction.
Thales, too, as Leander and Herodotus relate, was a Phœnician; as
some suppose, a Milesian. He alone seems to have met the prophets of
the Egyptians. But no one is described as his teacher, nor is any one
mentioned as the teacher of Pherecydes of Syros, who had Pythagoras
as his pupil. But the Italic philosophy, that of Pythagoras, grew old
in Metapontum in Italy. Anaximander of Miletus, the son of Praxiades,
succeeded Thales; and was himself succeeded by Anaximenes of Miletus,
the son of Eurustratus; after whom came Anaxagoras of Clazomenæ, the
son of Hegesibulus. [930] He transferred his school from Ionia to
Athens. He was succeeded by Archelaus, whose pupil Socrates was.
“From these turned aside, the stone-mason;
Talker about laws; the enchanter of the Greeks,”
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