Thales
- = Θαλῆς, a celebrated Greek philosopher of Miletus, one of the seven wise men, and founder of the Ionic sect, Varr. R. R. 2, 1, 3; Cic. N. D. 1, 10, 25; 1, 33, 91; id. Ac. 2 (Luc.), 37, 118; id. Leg. 2, 11, 26; Sen. Q. N. 3, 13, 1; Min. Fel. 19, 4; Aug. Civ. Dei, 18, 25.—Gen. Thalis, Prob. Cath. 1466 P.: Thaletis, Mel. 1, 17, 1; Sen. Q. N. 3, 14, 1; Juv. 13, 184.—Dat. Thali, App. Flor. 18: Thaleti, Sen. Q. N. 4, 2, 22; Val. Max. 4, 1, ext. 7; Arn. 2, n. 9; Aug. Civ. Dei, 18, 25; 18, 37.—Acc. Thalem, Plaut. Capt. 2, 2, 24 (274); Cic. Div. 1, 49, 111; App. Flor. 18, (Thalen Helm); Lact. 3, 14, 5: Thalen, Cic. de Or. 3, 34, 137; id. Div. 2, 27, 58: Thaleta, Serv. Verg. G. 4, 363; 4, 382: Thaletem, Cic. Rep. 1, 16, 25; Serv. Verg. A. 3, 241.—Abl. Thale, Cic. N. D. 1, 33, 91.
- —Hence, Thălētĭcus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to Thales: dogmata, Sid. Carm. 15, 89.
➳ acc. -letem Cic. Rep. 1, 25 ; Serv. En. 3, 241 ; -lem Pl. Capt. 274 ; Cic. Div. 1, 111 ; -len Cic. de Or. 3, 137 ; Div. 2, 58 ; -leta Serv. Georg. 4, 363 ; 382 || abl. -lete Cic. Rep. 1, 22 ; -le Cic. Nat. 1, 91.
(Θαλῆς), the Ionian philosopher, was born at Miletus in the 35th Olympiad, according to Apollodorus (D. L. 1.37). He is said (Hdt. 1.74) to have predicted the eclipse of the sun, which happened in the reign of the Lydian king Alyattes (according to Oltmann's calculations, in the Abhandl. der Königl. Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin, 1812, 1813, in the year B. C. 609), and under Croesus to have managed the diversion of the course of the Halys (Hdt. 1.75), and later, in order to unite and strengthen the Ionians when threatened by the Persians, to have instituted a federal council in Teos (Ib. 170). These statements, and the mention of Thales in the books of Xenophanes and Heracleitus (D. L. 1.33) accord very well with the reckoning of Apollodorus. which may have been founded on the statement of Demetrius Phalereus, that Thales received the appellation of the Sage in the time of the Athenian archon Damasius (D. L. 1.22). They confirm at the same time the statements respecting the long duration of his life, which extended to 78, or even 90 years (D. L. 1.38). In the different lists of the seven sages his name seems to have stood at the head (D. L. 1.41, &100.22; comp. Cic. Ac. 2.37), and, as his wisdom is said to have shown itself in political sagacity, so also it manifested itself in prudence in acquiring wealth (Arist. Eth. Nic. 1.1, comp. D. L. 1.26). And, generally speaking, the above honourable designation which was given to those seven men, denoted, not scientific inquirers, but men of sound understanding, and famed for their legislative talents, as Dicaearchus had already remarked (D. L. 1.10; Cic. Lael. 2 ; Plut. Solon. 3). Nevertheless Thales is also brought forward as the originator of philosophy and mathematics (ἀρχηγὸς τῆς φιλοσοφίας, Arist. Metaph. 1.3; D. L. 1.28, &c. ; Apul. Flor. c. iv. p. 38, Beroald), and with good reason, if he first convinced himself of the necessity of scientific proof. and attempted it in philosophy and mathematics. In the latter science we find attributed to him only proofs of propositions which belong to the first elements of geometry, and could not possibly have put him in a position to calculate the eclipses of the sun, and the course of the heavenly bodies. Nevertheless, that careful inquirer, Eudemus of Rhodes, had attributed to him both these calculations and those proofs (Diog. Laert. l.c. ; Procl. in Euclid. i. p. 10.17, 19, 44, 67, 79, 92). It is possible that communications from the East, where greater progress had been made in astronomy, came to the help of the Milesian. The Peripatetic Hieronymus had already mentioned his stay in Egypt, which was devoted to mathematical pursuits (D. L. 1.27 ; comp. Plin. Nat. 36.18). Others had attributed to him journeys to Crete and Asia D. L. 1.47. 24. ib. Menag.). In his dogma that water is the origin of things, that is, that it is that out of which every thing arises, and into which every thing resolves itself, Thales may have followed Orphic cosmogonies (Arist. l.c. ; Justin Mart. Coh. ad Gr. p. 7, Paris; Plut. Placit. 1.3, &c.; comp. Ch. A. Brandis, Handbuch der griechisch-römischen Philosophic, i. p. 65, &c.), while, unlike them, he sought to establish the truth of the assertion. Hence, Aristotle, immediately after he has called him the originator of philosophy, brings forward the reasons which Thales was believed to have adduced in confirmation of that assertion; for that no written development of it, or indeed any book by Thales, was extant, is proved by the expressions which Aristotle uses when he brings forward the doctrines and proofs of the Milesian (ἴσως, l.c., de Anim. 1.5; φασίν, de Caelo, 2.13). nay, even in connection with the above-mentioned story (Polit. 1.11; comp. Plat. Thcact. 174, λέγεται). In other ways, also, it is established that Thales left behind him nothing in a written form (D. L. 1.23; Themist. Orat. 26.317, Hard.; Simpl. in Arist. de An. f. 8); a metrical work on astronomy, attributed to him, was regarded even in antiquity as the production of a Samian of the name of Phocas (D. L. 1.23). Verses in which Thaletic doctrines and expressions were embodied (D. L. 1.34; Plut. de Pyth. Orat. p. 402e) belonged without doubt to a later period, and to attribute commentaries (ἀπομνημονεύματα) to him or his school, is an error into which Joannes Philoponus has been led merely by the words of Aristotle which he explains (ἐξ ὧν ἀπομνημονεύουσιν, de Anim. 1.2). Still, we can as little assume that Aristotle attributed the doctrines and their proofs to Thales from mere conjecture; he attaches much too decided an importance to them for that. Besides, Theophrastus seems to have repeated and somewhat modified them; and Eudemus had distinctly stated the mathematical propositions, for which Thales adduced proofs. That the fruit and seeds of things are moist, and that warmth is developed out of moistness, are the reasons which Aristotle regards as those which may have led Thales to the assertion that water is the origin of things. Simplicius (in Arist. Phys. f. 6) adds, probably after Theophrastus, to whom he refers immediately before and after, that what dies, dries up, and that water is what holds all things together : and further, that water is in the highest degree plastic (εὐτύπωτον). The sayings also attributed by Aristotle to Thales, that every thing is full of gods (de Anim. 1.5, p. 411. 70, Berol.), and that the soul is what originates motion, whence also he attributed soul to the magnet (ib. 1.2, p. 405. 19). betray the presupposition that it is by virtue of the indwelling power with which it is pervaded, as with a soul, that water produces the various phenomena. But neither the doctrine of the soul of the universe (Stob. Ecl. Phys. i. p. 54, Heeren ; Plut. Plac. 1.20), nor that of a Deity forming the universe (Cic. de Nat. Deor. 1.10; Joh. Philop. in Arist. de An. p. 7) which later writers attributed to him, can be inferred therefrom : they have here, as in other cases, defined more precisely, or amplified the cautious statements of Aristotle, and perhaps of Theophrastus (in all probability the only authentic sources which they had for the doctrines of Thales), and so make him teach that the soul is that which is moved eternally and by itself (Plut. Plac. 4.2), and immortal (D. L. 1.24), that matter is infinitely divisible (Stob. Ecl. Phys. i. p. 319, &c.) and without void space (ib. 378), that out of water first of all the four elements developed themselves (Herael. Pont. Allcg. Hom. 100.22) and so forth, propositions which, as may be shown, Plato, Empedocles, and others were the first to lay down. [Ch. A. B.]
or Thale'tas (Θαλῆς, Θαλήτας), the celebrated musician and lyric poet. The two forms of the name are mere varieties of the same word: but Θαλῆς seems to be the more genuine ancient form; for it not only has the authority of Aristotle, Strabo, and Plutarch, but it is also used by Pausanias (1.14.4) in quoting the verses composed in honour of the musician by his contemporary Polymnestns. Nevertheless, it is more convenient to follow the prevailing custom among modern writers, and call him Thaletas.
The position of Thaletas is one of the most interesting, and at the same time most difficult points, in that most interesting and difficult subject, the early history of Greek music and lyric poetry. The most certain fact known of him is, fortunately, that which is also the most important; namely, that he introduced from Crete into Sparta certain principles or elements of music and rhythm, which did not exist in Terpander's system, and thereby founded the second of the musical schools which flourished at Sparta. (Plut. de Mus. 9, p. 1135b. )
He was a native of Crete, and, according to the best writers, of the city of Gortyna. (Polymnestus, apud Paus. l.c. ; Plut. de Mus. l.c.) Suidas has preserved other traditions, which assigned him to Cnossus or to Elyrus. (Suid. s.v. for the articles Θαλήτας Κρής and Θαλήτας Κνώσσιος refer without doubt to the same individual, and in the former article the words ἢ Ἰλλυρίος ought to be Ἐλύριος : comp. Meursius, Cret. 1.9; Küster, ad loc. ; Müller, Hist. Lit. of Greece, vol. i. p. 159.)
In compliance, according to tradition, with an invitation which the Spartans sent to him in obedience to an oracle, he removed to Sparta, where, by the sacred character of his paeans, and the humanizing influence of his music, he appeased the wrath of Apollo, who had visited the city with a plague, and composed the factions of the citizens, who were at enmity with each other. (Paus. l.c. ; Plut. Lycurg. 4 ; Ephorus, apud Strab. x. pp. 480, 482; Sext. Empir. ad v. Rhet. ii. p. 292, Fabric. ; Ael. VH 12.50.) At Sparta he became the head of a new school (κατάστασις) of music, which appears never afterwards to have been supplanted, and the influence of which was maintained also by Xenodamus of Cythera, Xenocritus of Locris, Polymnestus of Colophon, and Sacadas of Argos. (Plut. de Mus. l.c.) These matters will be examined more fully presently; but the brief outline just given is necessary for the understanding of the chronological investigation which follows.
In studying the early history of Greek lyric poetry, nothing would be more desirable, if it were possible, than to fix the precise dates of the musicians and poets who contributed to its development ; that so we might trace the steps of its progress, in relation to the time they occupied, the social state of the people amongst whom they were made, and the order in which they followed from one another. It must, however, be confessed that, after all the labour which scholars have bestowed on the subject, there is an uncertainty, generally to the extent of half a century, and in some cases more, respecting the dates of the earliest poets, while the more important point of their relative order of succession and their distance from each other in time is beset with great difficulties. These remarks apply most strongly to Thaletas, the various dates assigned to whom, by ancient and modern writers, range over a period from before the time of Homer down to the year B. C. 620.
How uncertain, and even fabulous, were the traditions followed by the generality of the ancient writers respecting the date of Thaletas, is manifest from the statements of Suidas, that he lived before the time of Homer, of Demetrius Magnes (apud D. L. 1.38), that he was " very ancient, about the time of Hesiod and Homer and Lycurgus," and of the many other writers, who make him contemporary with Lycurgus, and even an elder contemporary. In nearly all the accounts, above referred to, of the removal of Thaletas to Sparta, he is said to have gone thither at the invitation of Lycurgus, who used his influence to prepare the minds of the people for his own laws ; while some even speak of him as if he were a legislator, from whom Lycurgus derived some of his laws. (Sext. Empir. l.c. ; Arist. Pol. 2.9.5, 2.12.) These accounts, which Aristotle (l.c.) condemns as anachronisms, can easily be explained. The influence of music upon character and manners was in the opinion of the ancients so great, that it was quite natural to speak of Terpander and Thaletas as fellow-workers with the great legislator of the Spartans in forming the character of the people; and then such statements were interpreted by later writers in a chronological sense; for similar traditions are recorded of Terpander as well as of Thaletas. [Terpander.] Moreover, in the case of Thaletas, the supposed connection with Lycurgus would assume a more probable appearance on account of his coming from Crete, from whence also Lycurgus was supposed to have derived so many of his institutions; and this is, in fact, the specific form which the tradition assumed (Ephor. apud Strab. x. p.482; Plut. Lycurg. 4), namely, that Lycurgus, arriving at Crete in the course of his travels, there met with Thaletas, who was one of the men renowned in the island for wisdom and political abilities (ἕνα τῶν νομιζομένων ἐκεῖ σοφῶν καὶ πολιτικῶν), and who, while professing to be a lyric poet, used his art as a pretext, but in fact devoted himself to political science in the same way as the ablest of legislators (ποιητὴν μὲν δοκοῦντα λυπικῶν μελῶν καὶ πρόσχημα τὴν τέχνην ταύτην πεποιημένον, ἔρλῳ δὲ ἅπερ οἱ κράτιστοι τῶν νομοθετῶν διαπραττόμενον). Add to this the great probability that later writers mistook the sense of the word νόμοι in the ancient accounts of Thaletas; and his association with Lycurgus is explained. It is not worth while to discuss the statement of Jerome (Chron. s. a. 1266, B. C. 750), who says that Thales of Miletus (probably meaning Thales of Crete, for the philosopher's age is well known) lived in the reign of Romulus. Perhaps this may only be another form of the tradition which made him contemporary with Lycurgus.
The strictly historical evidence respecting the date of Thaletas is contained in three testimonies. First, the statement of Glaucus, one of the highest authorities on the subject, that he was later than Archilochus. (Plut. de Mus. 10, p. 1134d. e.) Secondly, the fact recorded by Pausanias (1.14.4), that Polymnestus composed verses in his praise for the Lacedaemonians, whence it is probable that he was an elder contemporary of Polymnestus, and therefore older than Alcman, by whom Polymnestus was mentioned. (Plut. de Mus. 5, p. 1133a.) Thirdly, in his account of the second school or system (κατάστασις) of music at Sparta, Plutarch tells us (de Mus. 9, p. 1134c.) that the first system was established by Terpander; but of the second the following had the best claim to be considered as the leaders (μάλιστα αἰτίαν ἔχουσιν ἡγεμόνες γενέσθαι), Thaletas, Xenodamus, Xenocritus, Polymnestus, and Sacadas; and that to them was ascribed the origin of the Gymnopaedia in Lacedaemon, of the Apodeixeis in Arcadia, and of the Endymatia in Argos. This important testimony is very probably derived from the work of Glaucus. Lastly, Plutarch (de Mus. 10, p. 1134e.) mentions a vague tradition, which is on the face of it improbable, and which is quite unworthy to be placed by the side of the other three, that Thaletas derived the rhythm called Maron and the Cretic rhythm from the music of the Phrygian flute-player Olympus (ἐκ γὰρ τῆς Ὀλύμπου αὐλήσεως Θαλήταν φασὶν ἐξειργάσθαι ταῦτα· the context shows that Plutarch here deserts his guide, Glaucus, and sets up against him the traditions of other writers, we know not whom).
Now, from these testimonies we obtain the results, that Thaletas was younger than Archilochus and Terpander, but older than Polymnestus and Alcman, that he was the first of the poets of the second Spartan school of music, by whose influence the great Dorian festivals which have been mentioned were either established, or, what is the more probable meaning, were systematically arranged in respect of the choruses which were performed at them.
These conditions would all be satisfied by supposing that Thaletas began to flourish early in the seventh century B. C., provided that we accept the argument for an earlier date of Terpander than that usually assigned to him [Terpander]. To escape from the difficulty as Clinton does (F. H. vol. i. s. a. 644), by making Terpander later than Thaletas, is altogether inadmissible; for, if we reject Plutarch's account of the two musical schools at Sparta, the first founded by Terpander, and the second by Thaletas, the whole matter is thrown into hopeless confusion. Such a mistake, made by so eminent a chronologer, through following implicitly Eusebius and the Parian marble, is an excellent example of the danger of trusting to the positive statements of the chronographers in opposition to a connected chain of inference from more detailed testimonies. On the other hand, Müller, while pointing out Clinton's error, appears to us to place Thaletas much too low, in consequence of accepting the tradition recorded by Plutarch respecting Olympus, whom also he places later than Terpander (Hist. Lit. vol. i. pp. 158, 159). The fact is that we have no sufficient data for the time of Olympus; and even if we had, the tradition recorded by Plutarch is much too doubtful to be set up against the evidence derived from the relations of Thaletas to Archilochus and Alcman. When Müller says that Clinton " does not allow sufficient weight to the far more artificial character of the music and rhythms of Thaletas " (i. e. than those of Terpander), he seems to imply that a long time must necessarily have intervened between the two. Not only is there no ground for this idea, but it is opposed to analogy. There is no ground for it; for it is clear from all accounts that the second system of music was not gradually developed out of the first, by successive improvements, but was formed by the addition of new elements derived from other quarters, of which the first and chief were those introduced by Thaletas from Crete. It is also opposed to analogy, which teaches us that the period of most rapid improvement in any art is that in which it is first brought under the dominion of definite laws, by some great genius, whose first efforts are the signal for the appearance of a host of rivals, imitators, and pupils. Moreover, if there be any truth in the tradition, it would seem probable that Terpander and Thaletas were led to Sparta by very similar causes at no very distant period; and it seems most improbable that, after music had attained the degree of developement to which Terpander brought it at Sparta, the important additional elements, which existed in the Cretan system, should not have been introduced for a period of forty years, which is the interval placed by Müller, between Terpander and Thaletas. Müller's mode of computing backwards the date of Thaletas from that of Sacadas (B. C. 590) is altogether arbitrary; but if such a method he allowable at all, surely thirty years is far too short a time to assign as the period during which the second school of Spartan music chiefly flourished. On the whole, decidedly as Clinton is wrong as to Terpander, he is probably near the mark in fixing the period of Thaletas at B. C. 690-660 ; though it might be better to say that he deems to have flourished about B. C. 670 or 660, and how much before or after those dates cannot be determined. It appears not unlikely that he was already distinguished in Crete, while Terpander flourished at Sparta.
The improvement effected in music by Thaletas appears to have consisted in the introduction into Sparta of that species of music and poetry which was associated with the religious rites of his native country; in which the calm and solemn worship of Apollo prevailed side by side with the more animated songs and dances of the Curetes, which resembled the Phrygian worship of the Magna Mater (Müller, p. 160). His chief compositions were paeans and hyporchemes, which belonged respectively to these two kinds of worship. In connection with the paean he introduced the rhythm of the Cretic foot, with its resolutions in the Paeons; and the Pyrrhic dance, with its several variations of rhythm, is also ascribed to him. He seems to have used both the lyre and the flute. (See Müller, pp. 160, 161.)
Plutarch and other writers speak of him as a lyric poct, and Suidas mentions, as his works, μέλη and ποιήματά τινα μυθικά, and it is pretty certain that the musical compositions of his age and school were often combined with suitable original poems, though sometimes, as we are expressly told of many of the nomes of Terpander, they were adapted to the verses of Homer and others of the older poets. Be this as it may, we have now no remains of the poetry of Thaletas. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. i. pp. 295-297; Müller, Hist. of the Lit. of Anc. Greece, vol. i. pp. 159-161; Ulrici, Gesch. d. Hellen. Dichtkunst, vol. ii. pp. 212, foll., a very valuable account of Thaletas; Bernhardy, Geschichte der Griech. Lit. vol. i. pp. 267, 270, vol. ii. pp. 420, 421, 427.) [P.S]
(Θαλῆς) of Sicyon, a painter.
He is mentioned with the epithet μεγαλοφυής by Diogenes Laertius (1.38), on the authority of Demetrius Magnes. In the same passage, Diogenes speaks of another Thales, as mentioned in the work of Duris on painting; and it may be presumed, therefore, that this Thales was a painter ; but whether the two were different persons, or the same person differently mentioned by Demetrius and by Duris, cannot be determined.
A curious passage respecting an artist of this name has been discovered by Osann, in an oration of Theodorus Hyrtacenus, published in Boissonade's Anecdota Graeca, vol. i. p. 156 : --Ἕλληνες Φειδίαν Θαλῆν τε καὶ Ἀπελλῆν, τὸν μὲν λιθοξοϊκῆς, τὸν δʼ αὖ πλαστικῆς, Ἀπελλῆν δὲ γραφικῆς ἕνεκα καὶ τῶν ἐκεῖθεν χαρίτων ἐθαύμαζον. It is certainly remarkable to find a statuary, otherwise unknown (or, if he be the same person as the painter, little better than unknown), placed by a late Byzantine writer on a level with Pheidias and Apelles. There is probably some error; but whether it rests with the author or the transcriber, and what is its correction, we have not the means of deciding. Perhaps Osann may have discussed the question, but we have no opportunity of referring to his paper in the Kunstblatt, which we mention on the authority of Raoul-Rochette, who only observes that " the difficulty is not serious, as there were many artists who practised at the same time statuary and painting," as if that were the difficulty ! Further Information
Osann, Kunstblatt, 1832, No. 74; Rochette, Lettre à M. Schorn, p. 415, 2d ed. [P.S]
(Θαλῆς). An Ionian, the founder of Greek philosophy. He was a contemporary of Solon and Croesus, and one of the Seven Sages, and was born at Miletus about B.C. 636, and died about 546, at the age of ninety, though the exact dates of his birth and death are not known. He is said to have predicted the eclipse of the sun which happened in the reign of the Lydian king Alyattes; to have diverted the course of the Halys in the time of Croesus; and later, in order to unite the Ionians when threatened by the Persians, to have instituted a federal council in Teos. Aristotle preserves a story of his knowledge of meteorology which was turned to a practical use (Polyb. i. 11, p. 1259). In the lists of the Seven Sages his name seems to have stood at the head, and he displayed his wisdom both by political sagacity and by prudence in acquiring wealth. In mathematics we find attributed to him only proofs of propositions which belong to the first elements of geometry, and which could not possibly have enabled him to calculate the eclipses of the sun and the course of the heavenly bodies. He may, however, have obtained a knowledge of the higher branches of mathematics from Egypt, which country he is said to have visited. In the annals of Greek philosophy he was probably the first who looked for a physical origin of the world instead of resting upon mythology. Thales maintained that water is the origin (ἀρχή) of things, meaning thereby that it is water out of which everything arises and into which everything resolves itself, and that the earth floated upon the water. Thales left no works behind him (Herod. i. 74, 170; Diog. Laert. i. 25; Aristot. Metaph. i. 3, p. 983). See Ionian School of Philosophy; philosophia.
(Θαλῆς) or Thalētas (Θαλήτας). A celebrated musician and lyric poet. He was a native of Gortyna in Crete, and probably flourished shortly after Terpander (Pausan. i. 14, 4; Plut. De Mus. 9, p. 1135).
- one of Seven Sages: Paus. 10.24.1
- his prediction of an eclipse: Hdt. 1.74
- his diversion of the course of the Halys: Hdt. 1.75
- his advice as to a meeting-place for Ionians: Hdt. 1.170
- stayed a plague at Lacedaemon: Paus. 1.14.4