Book 2
3.10
There is a story that he predicted the fall of the meteoric stone at Aegospotami, which he said would fall from the sun.This version agrees with Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 149 celebrant Graeci Anaxagoram Clazomenium Olympiadis septuagesimae octavae secundo anno praedixisse caelestium litterarum scientia quibus diebus saxum casurum esset e sole. Hence Euripides, who was his pupil, in the Phathon calls the sun itself a golden clod.Nauck, T.G.F.2, Eur. 783. Furthermore, when he went to Olympia, he sat down wrapped in a sheep-skin cloak as if it were going to rain; and the rain came. When some one asked him if the hills at Lampsacus would ever become sea, he replied, Yes, it only needs time. Being asked to what end he had been born, he replied, To study sun and moon and heavens. To one who inquired, You miss the society of the Athenians? his reply was, Not I, but they miss mine. When he saw the tomb of Mausolus, he said, A costly tomb is an image of an estate turned into stone.Anaxagoras, whose death falls in the fifth century, circa 428-425 b.c., could not possibly have seen the famous Mausoleum erected by Artemisia, the widow of Mausolus, not earlier than 350 b.c. Mausolus ruled over Caria, according to Diodorus, from 377 to 353. The apophthegm is therefore either wrongly attributed to Anaxagoras or, if genuine, must have been uttered on some other occasion.
3.11
To one who complained that he was dying in a foreign land, his answer was, The descent to Hades is much the same from whatever place we start.
