10
Witness to this also are the wisest of the Greeks: Solon, Thales, Plato, Eudoxus, Pythagoras, who came to Egypt and consorted with the priests Cf. Diodorus, i. 96 and 98; Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, i. 69. 1, chap. 15 (p. 356 Potter); Moralia, 578 f, and Life of Solon, chap. xxvi. (92 e).; and in this number some would include Lycurgus also. Eudoxus, they say, received instruction from Chonuphis of Memphis, Solon from Sonchis of Saïs, and Pythagoras from Oenuphis of Heliopolis. Pythagoras, as it seems, was greatly admired, and he also greatly admired the Egyptian priests, and, copying their symbolism and occult teachings, incorporated his doctrines in enigmas. As a matter of fact most of the Pythagorean preceptsFor these precepts Cf. Moralia, 12 e-f, and Life of Numa, chap. xiv. (69 c); Athenaeus, x. 77 (452 d); Iamblichus, Protrepticus, chap. xxi. (pp. 131-160); Diogenes Laeritus, viii. 17-18. do not at all fall short of the writings that are called hieroglyphs; such, for example, as these: Do not eat upon a stool; Do not sit upon a peck measure; Do not lop off the shoots of a palm-tree Cf. 365 b, infra, and Xenophon, Anabasis, ii. 3. 16. ; Do not poke a fire with a sword within the house.