Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

Most writers relate that it was sent by Periander to Thrasybulus, the tyrant of the Milesians, on a laden ship. But when that ship was wrecked in the Coan sea, the tripod that was being carried on it was later found by fishermen. Phanodicus, however, writes that it was found in the Attic sea and brought into the city, and that a dispute having arisen, it was sent to Bias by public decree. We shall tell the cause in its own place when we come to speak of Bias. Others hand down the tradition that it was crafted by Vulcan and given by the god as a gift to Pelops when he was taking a wife, that it finally reached Menelaus, and that, having been snatched with Helen by Alexander, it was thrown into the Coan sea, the Spartan woman asserting that it would be the cause of strife. Afterward, when certain Lebedians there had bought a catch of a net, the tripod was caught [in it], and when a quarrel arose with the fishermen and they had gone up to Cos and achieved nothing, they referred the matter to Miletus, which was the metropolis. Legates sent by the Milesians to settle the matter returned with the business unfinished. The Milesians, when they saw that they were held in contempt, prepared to decide the matter by arms against the Coans, and with many falling on both sides, the divine oracle responded that the tripod should be given to the wisest. Soon both parties agreed upon Thales. He later dedicated it to Apollo Didymaeus. Thus, to the Coans the response was:

Μὴ πρότερον λύσειν νεῖκος μερόπων καὶ Ἰώνων
Πρὶν τρίποδα χρύσειον, ὃν Ἥφαιστος βάλε πόντῳ
Ἐκ πόλιος πέμψητε καὶ ἐς δόμον ἀνδρὸς ἵκηται
Ὅς δὲ τάκε τάτ’ ὄντα τάτ’ ἐσσόμενα πρότ’ ἐόντα. that is,

Not before shall the Ionians and Meropes cease from war,
Until you send from the city the golden tripod, which Vulcan
Cast into the deep sea, and it comes into the house of the man
Who knows well what is, what will be, and what was before.