Book 1
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The man gave the message; a day later the Ephesians attacked and defeated the Magnesians; they found Pherecydes dead and buried him on the spot with great honours. Another version is that he came to Delphi and hurled himself down from Mount Corycus. But Aristoxenus in his work On Pythagoras and his School affirms that he died a natural death and was buried by Pythagoras in Delos; another account again is that he died of a verminous disease, that Pythagoras was also present and inquired how he was, that he thrust his finger through the doorway and exclaimed, My skin tells its own tale, a phrase subsequently applied by the grammarians as equivalent to getting worse, although some wrongly understand it to mean all is going well.
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He maintained that the divine name for table is θυωρός, or that which takes care of offerings.
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Andron of Ephesus says that there were two natives of Syros who bore the name of Pherecydes: the one was an astronomer, the other was the son of Babys and a theologian, teacher of Pythagoras. Eratosthenes, however, says that there was only one Pherecydes of Syros, the other Pherecydes being an Athenian and a genealogist.
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There is preserved a work by Pherecydes of Syros, a work which begins thus: Zeus and Time and Earth were from all eternity, and Earth was called Γῆ because Zeus gave her earth (γῆ) as guerdon (γέρας). His sun-dial is also preserved in the island of Syros.
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Duris in the second book of his Horae gives the inscription on his tomb as followsAnth. Pal. vii. 93.:
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All knowledge that a man may have had I; Yet tell Pythagoras, were more thereby, That first of all Greeks is he; I speak no lie. Ion of Chios says of himFr. 4 Bergk.: With manly worth endowed and modesty, Though he be dead, his soul lives happily, If wise Pythagoras indeed saw light And read the destinies of men aright.
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There is also an epigram of my own in the Pherecratean metreAnth. Plan. iii. 128.: The famous Pherecydes, to whom Syros gave birth,
