[1]: He was apparently a seer versed in ritual purification; see infra, 149 D.
[2]: Cf. Parthenius, Love-affairs, 17.
[3]: The home of Bias.
[4]: The same story is told in Moralia 38 B; in 506 C, and in Plutarch’s Comment. on Hesiod, 71 (Works ad Days, 719), the same story is told of Pittacus.
[5]: Cf. Pliny, Natural History, xxxvi. 17 (82).
[6]: Specifically ascribed to Thales by Plutarch, Moralia, 578 D; cf. also infra, 152 A.
[7]: Ascribed to Bias by Plutarch, Moralia, 61 C.
[8]: The same story is found in Moralia, 467 C.
[9]: Cf. Plutarch, Life of Solon, chaps. xiv. and xv. (pp. 85 D-86 B).
[10]: Cf. Plato, Protagoras, 339 A; Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Gr. iii. p. 385 Simonides, No. 5.
[11]: The usual tradition (e.g. Herodotus, v. 92) is that Periander grew worse rather than better.
[12]: The story is familiar in other connexions also; Roman tradition, for example, makes Tarquinius Superbus give this advice to his son (Livy, i. 54).
[13]: Cf. Athenaeus, 521 C.
[14]: A similar thought is found in Moralia, 660 B.
[15]: Plutarch expands this thought in Moralia, 708 D.
[16]: A remark to like effect is assigned to Agesilaus in Moralia, 208 D, and to Damonidas in Moralia, 219 E. The idea is also credited to Aristippus by Diogenes Laertius, ii. 73.
[17]: Cf. Phaedrus, Fabulae iii. 3.
[18]: Cf. Pausanias, ii. 31. 3.
[19]: Cf. No. 140 in the collection of fables that passes under the name of Aesop.
[20]: Cf. No. 140 in the collection of fables that passes under the name of Aesop.
[21]: Dionysus was the god of wine.
[22]: Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Graec. ii. p. 440, Cleobulina, No. 3. The restoration of Bernardakis here adopted is found in the editio minor.
[23]: The Egyptian god Set presumably, a malignant deity, who was sometimes represented with features of an ass. Cf. for example, O. Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte, pp. 102 and 409. Cf. also Plutarch, Moralia, 362 F, where the present statements are slightly expanded.
[24]: The story of Amasis’s low birth and his rise to power is told by Herodotus, ii. 172.
[25]: Odyssey, xiii. 14.
[26]: The earlier Athenian laws, which Solon changed, as Lycurgus changed the laws of Sparta. Those who would emend the passage would make it refer to Solon’s own laws, but it should be remembered that Solon only desired that the Athenians should try out his laws for a certain length of time, and it is inconceivable that Solon with his great practical wisdom should not realize that his own laws might later need revision.
[27]: Plutarch cites a concrete case in his Life of Aratus, chap. xxv. (p. 1039 A).
[28]: Aesop, now received as an equal among people of the highest standing, had been a slave in his earlier years, and does not hesitate to joke about the fact.
[29]: A reason for the prohibition is given in Plutarch’s Life of Solon, chap. i. (p. 79 A).
[30]: So as to obtain happiness; Aesop twists Thales’ remark made a few moments before (supra, 152 A).
[31]: Cf. Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Graec. ii. p. 708, Archilochus, No. 89. The reference is to a well-known form of cipher message in use among the Spartans. A narrow leather thong was wrapped around a cylinder, and on the surface thus formed the message was written. When the thong was received it was applied to a duplicate cylinder kept by the recipient, and so the message was read.
[32]: Plutarch, Moralia, 1081 C-1082 D, argues at some length about the Stoic conception of time.
[33]: Probably an adaptation of one of Epicurus’s leading principles ο θάνατος οὐδὲν πρὸς ἡμᾶς, death is nothing to us, who are alive. Cf. Diogenes Laertius, x. 129, and Plutarch, Moralia, 37 A.
[34]: Either Thales or a copyist has transposed (c) and (d).
[35]: Most of these sentiments are attributed to Thales in works of other authors, as wel as in other places in the Moralia. It may suffice here to refer, for example, to Diogenes Laertius, i. 35. The two numbered (f) and (g) are rather suggestive of the Stoic school of philosophy.
[36]: Ἴσον τῷ κλαίειν was the old explanation; that is, weep, or go hang.
[37]: Some MSS. make Lesches propound the question, and other traditions make Hesiod the questioner, to whom Homer replies. Cf. note c below.
[38]: It is of interest to compare the long and variant account given in the Contest of Homer and Hesiod, a work of the second century A.D. which is usually included at the end of editions of Hesiod, also in the 5th vol. of the edition of Homer in the Oxford Classical Texts.
[39]: Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Graec. ii. p. 440, Cleobulina, No. 1.
[40]: Mnesiphilus, according to Plutarch, Life of Themistocles, chap. ii. (p. 112 D), handed down the political wisdom of Solon to Themistocles. At any rate Herodotus, viii. 57, represents Mnesiphilus as advising Themistocles against withdrawing the Greek fleet from Salamis. Cf. also Plutarch, Moralia, 869 D-E.
[41]: Chilon, a rather strict Spartan (cf. 152 D supra), is impatient of opinions which suggest that the attitude of the people is more important than the law.
[42]: Herodotus, i. 30. Plutarch, Life of Solon, chap xxviii. (p. 94 C), represents Aesop as being present on this occasion.
[43]: No. 159 in the collection of fables that passes under the name of Aesop; repeated also by Plutarch, Moralia, 500 C.
[44]: Repeated in Moralia, 189 E, 228 D, and Life of Lycurgus, chap. xix. (p. 52 A).
[45]: Bathycles in his will left his beaker to the most helpful of the wise men. It was given to Thales, and he passed it on to another of the wise men, who in turn gave it to another until finally it came back to Thales again, and he dedicated it to Apollo. Cf. Diogenes Laertius, i. 28, and Plutarch, Life of Solon, chap. iv. (p. 80 E).
[46]: Plutarch quotes these lines also in Moralia, 751 E, and Life of Solon, chap. xxxi. (p. 96 E); cf. Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Gr. ii. p. 430, Solon, No. 26.
[47]: Pittacus’s law is often referred to; for example, Aristotle, Politics, ii. 12, 13; Nicomachean Ethics, iii. 5, 8.
[48]: Cf. Athenaeus, 437 f.
[49]: Supra, 150 B.
[50]: Cf. Moralia, 769 A.
[51]: Works and Days, 744.
[52]: Homer, Il. iv. 262.
[53]: Plutarch seems to have made a natural slip in referring this to Ajax, when, in fact, Homer records this of Odysseus (Od. viii. 475); Ajax, of course, was the great eater, as witness Il. vii. 321, where Agamemnon favours Ajax with the sirloin and tenderloin entire. Cf. also Athenaeus, 14 a.
[54]: From Orchomenos in Boeotia; he is known only from this essay and Pausanias, ix. 38, 9-10, where two lines of his (?) are quoted.
[55]: Homer, Od.xii. 62.
[56]: A recipe (probably forged) for making this compound may be found in Tzetzes’ scholium on Hesiod, Works and Days, 41.
[57]: Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Graec. iii. p. 673.
[58]: Hesiod, Works and Days, 41.
[59]: Hesiod, Works and Days, 45, 46; quoted also in Moralia, 527 B. Cf. also Hesiod, Works and Days, 629.
[60]: Hesiod, Works and Days, 45, 46; quoted also in Moralia, 527 B. Cf. also Hesiod, Works and Days, 629.
[61]: Does Plutarch connect Epimenides with the purification of Delos by Peisistratus (Herodotus, i. 67; Thucydides iii. 107)?
[62]: Hesiod, Works and Days, 405-821.
[63]: Ibid. 368-9; 744-5 may be referred to.
[64]: Ibid. 595, 737-741.
[65]: Ibid. 736-741, 753.
[66]: Ibid. 373-5, 699-705.
[67]: Ibid. 735-6, 812.
[68]: Ibid. 750-2.
[69]: Ibid. 203.
[70]: Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Solon, chap. xii. (p. 84 C).
[71]: A Stoic definition; cf. Porphyry quoted by Stobaeus, Eclogae ethicae, ii. p. 201 (272), vol. ii. p. 140 of Meineke’s edition.
[72]: Cf. Moralia, 654 D and 1089 A.
[73]: This somewhat exaggerated description of the digestive tract is probably influenced by Homer Od. x. 513 and ix. 157, and Il. i. 52 and viii. 13.
[74]: Cf. Lucretius, De rerum natura, iii. 701 ff.
[75]: Orpheus is said to have abstained from animal food (Euripides, Hippolytus, 992; Plato, Laws, p. 782 C).
[76]: The explanation may be found in Pausanias, iv. 19; cf. also Plutarch, Moralia, 660 F and Life of Romulus, chap. xxv. (p. 33 D).
[77]: Il. v. 341.
[78]: Cf. Moralia, 731 D, where the same idea is put in different words.
[79]: Cf. Porphyry, De abstinentia, iii. 27.
[80]: Probably a covert reference to Arion as the inventor of the dithyramb (Herodotus, i. 23).
[81]: Possibly a reference to a line of an unknown tragedian found in Moralia, 1124 F.
[82]: Ino also threw herself into the sea when the crazed Athamas was about to kill her, and was metamorphosed into the sea-goddess Leucothea.
[83]: The story is referred to as early as Thucydides (iii. 96), and seems to have received some embellishments later. Of the many references to the story (which may be found in Wyttenbach’s note on the passage) perhaps the most interesting is in the Contest of Homer and Hesiod, lines 215-254 of Allen’s edition (in the Oxford Classical Texts, 1912), which also assigns names to the persons concerned in it.
[84]: Cf. Moralia 984 D.
[85]: These were common beliefs in ancient times as is attested by many writers. It may suffice here to refer only to Plutarch Moralia, 704 F and 984 A-985 C.
[86]: See preceiding note on page 438.
[87]: The story is briefly mentioned by Plutarch, Moralia, 984 E, and is given in full with some variations by Athenaeus, 466 C, who quotes as his authority Anticleides an Athenian.
[88]: Athenaeus (466 C) says a golden cup was brought out of the sea by Enalus.
[89]: Cf. Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, vol i. p. 12 (A 22).
[90]: Athenaeus (466 c) says a golden cup was brought out of the sea by Enalus. b Cf. Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, vol. i. p. 12
[91]: Cf. Moralia, 404 B.
[92]: The story is found in Herodotus, v. 92.
[93]: The frogs and the palm-tree are mentioned also in Moralia, 399 F.
[94]: For information about these famous precepts reference may be made to Plato, Protagoras, p. 343 B, and Charmides, p. 165 A; Aristotle, Rhetoric, ii. 12, 14: Pausanias, x. 24. 1; Plutarch, Moralia, 116 C, 385 D, and 511 B, and De vita et poesi Homeri, 151.
[95]: Homer, Il. xi. 542 (Moralia, 24 C).
[96]: Homer, Il. x. 249 (Moralia, 57 E)
[97]: Homer, Od., viii. 351.
[98]: Homer, Il. xix. 91-131.
[99]: Ibid. vii. 282 and 293.
[100]: Homer, Il. x. 249 (Moralia, 57 e) b Homer, Od. viii. 351. c Homer, Il. xix. 91-131. d Ibid. vii. 282 and 293.