Fragments of the Philosophical Poets

...and Phanodicus [fr. 4, FHG IV 473] says it was found in the sea near Athens, and when brought to the city, upon the holding of an assembly, it was sent to Bias; we will tell why in the section on Bias.

Others say it was made by Hephaestus and given by the god to Pelops at his wedding; and that it later came to Menelaus and, being stolen along with Helen by Alexander, was thrown into the Coan sea by the Spartan queen, who said it would become a cause of conflict. In time, when certain Lebedians bought a catch there, it was caught; as they fought with the fishermen, the tripod was brought up as far as Cos. And when they accomplished nothing, they notified the Milesians, as theirs was the mother city. When the Milesians were ignored in their embassy, they went to war against the Coans. As many fell on both sides, an oracle emerged to give it to the wisest; and both sides agreed on Thales. He, after the cycle was complete, dedicated it to the Didymean Apollo. To the Coans, it was prophesied in this way:

The strife between the Meropes and the Ionians will not cease,
Until you send from the city the golden tripod, which Hephaestus threw into the sea,
And it comes to the house of the man,
Who in wisdom understands things that are, things that will be, and things that were before.

To the Milesians:

Offspring of Miletus, you ask Phoebus about the tripod?

And as has been said before. And so this is the case.

Hermippus, in his Lives [fr. 12, FHG III 39], attributes to him the saying attributed by some to Socrates. For he says that he was grateful to Fortune for three things: first, that I was born a human and not a beast; second, that I was born a man and not a woman; third, that I was born a Greek and not a barbarian. It is said that while being led out of his house by an old woman so that he might observe the stars, he fell into a pit, and when he cried out, the old woman said: "Do you think, Thales, that you will know things in heaven when you cannot see what is at your feet?" Timon also knows of him as an astronomer, and in his Silloi [fr. 6 W.] he praises him, saying: