The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

LIVES OF EMINENT PHILOSOPHERS.

of the Magi under the names of Ostanes, Astrampsychos, Gobryas, and Pazatas, until the destruction of the Persian empire by Alexander.

III. But those who make these claims ignorantly attribute to the barbarians the achievements of the Greeks, from whom not only all philosophy but the entire human race truly originated. For Musaeus was born among the Athenians, and Linus among the Thebans. It is said that the former, son of Eumolpus, was the first to teach the genealogy of the gods and to invent the spheres. He taught that all things originated from one thing and returned to that same thing upon dissolution. He died at Phalerum, and this epitaph was inscribed on his tomb:

The family called Eumolpidae among the Athenians derives its name from the father of Musaeus. They also say that Linus was the son of Mercury and the Muse Urania, and that he invented a system of cosmogony, the motions of the sun and moon, and the generation of animals and fruits. The following is the beginning of his poem:

Anaxagoras derived his theory from this, when he stated that

original: "nature, and the little world of man is perpetually shaken by vice and misfortune... [a lengthy reflection on Zoroaster's philosophy and its ethical impact, referencing Gibbon's Decline and Fall]."