Book 1
1.39
Thales the Sage died as he was watching an athletic contest from heat, thirst, and the weakness incident to advanced age. And the inscription on his tomb isAnth. Pal. vii. 84.: Here in a narrow tomb great Thales lies; Yet his renown for wisdom reached the skies. I may also cite one of my own, from my first book, Epigrams in Various MetresAnth. Pal. vii. 85.: As Thales watched the games one festal day The fierce sun smote him, and he passed away; Zeus, thou didst well to raise him; his dim eyes Could not from earth behold the starry skies.In plain prose: As the wise Thales was one day watching the contest of the racers, thou, O Sun-god, O Zeus, didst snatch him from the stadium. I praise thee for removing him to be near thee; for verily the old man could no more discern the stars from earth.
1.40
To him belongs the proverb Know thyself, which Antisthenes in his Successions of Philosophers attributes to Phemonoë, though admitting that it was appropriated by Chilon.
