Chapter III.—Opinions of the school of Thales.

And if you decline citing the poets, because you say it is allowable for them to frame myths, and to relate in a mythical way many things about the gods which are far from true, do you suppose you have some others for your religious teachers, or how do you say that they themselves11    i.e., these teachers. have learned this religion of yours? For it is impossible that any should know matters so great and divine, who have not themselves learned them first from the initiated.12    Literally, “those who knew.” You will no doubt say, “The sages and philosophers.” For to them, as to a fortified wall, you are wont to flee, when any one quotes the opinions of your poets about the gods. Therefore, since it is fit that we commence with the ancients and the earliest, beginning thence I will produce the opinion of each, much more ridiculous as it is than the theology of the poets. For Thales of Miletus, who took the lead in the study of natural philosophy, declared that water was the first principle of all things; for from water he says that all things are, and that into water all are resolved. And after him Anaximander, who came from the same Miletus, said that the infinite was the first principle of all things; for that from this indeed all things are produced, and into this do all decay. Thirdly, Anaximenes—and he too was from Miletus—says that air is the first principle of all things; for he says that from this all things are produced, and into this all are resolved. Heraclitus and Hippasus, from Metapontus, say that fire is the first principle of all things; for from fire all things proceed, and in fire do all things terminate. Anaxagoras of Clazomenæ said that the homogeneous parts are the first principles of all things. Archelaus, the son of Apollodorus, an Athenian, says that the infinite air and its density and rarity are the first principle of all things. All these, forming a succession from Thales, followed the philosophy called by themselves physical.

Εἰ δὲ τοὺς ποιητὰς παραιτεῖσθε λέγειν, ἐπειδὴ μύθους τε αὐτοῖς πλάττειν ἐξεῖναί φατε καὶ πολλὰ πόῤῥω τῆς ἀληθείας περὶ θεῶν μυθωδῶς διεξιέναι, τίνας ἑτέρους τῆς θεοσεβείας ὑμῶν διδασκάλους ἔχειν οἴεσθε, ἢ πῶς ταύτην αὐτοὺς μεμαθηκέναι φατέ; Ἀδύνατον γὰρ τοὺς μὴ πρότερον παρὰ τῶν εἰδότων μεμαθηκότας τὰ οὕτω μεγάλα καὶ θεῖα πράγματα γινώσκειν. Τοὺς σοφοὺς πάντως δήπου καὶ φιλοσόφους λέξετε: ἐπὶ τούτους γάρ, ὥσπερ ἐπὶ τεῖχος ὀχυρόν, καταφεύγειν εἰώθατε, ἐπειδάν τις ὑμῖν τὰς τῶν ποιητῶν περὶ θεῶν ἀπαγγέλλῃ δόξας. Οὐκοῦν ἐπειδήπερ ἀπὸ τῶν παλαιῶν καὶ πρώτων ἄρξασθαι προσήκει, ἐντεῦθεν ἀρξάμενος τὴν ἑκάστου δόξαν ἐκθήσομαι, πολλῷ γελοιοτέραν τῆς τῶν ποιητῶν θεολογίας οὖσαν. Θαλῆς μὲν γὰρ ὁ Μιλήσιος, ὁ πρῶτος τῆς φυσικῆς φιλοσοφίας ἄρξας, ἀρχὴν εἶναι τῶν ὄντων ἁπάντων ἀπεφήνατο τὸ ὕδωρ: ἐξ ὕδατος γάρ φησι τὰ πάντα εἶναι καὶ εἰς ὕδωρ τὰ πάντα ἀναλύεσθαι. Ἀναξίμανδρος δὲ μετὰ τοῦτον, ἀπὸ τῆς αὐτῆς ὁρμώμενος Μιλήτου, τὸ ἄπειρον ἀρχὴν ἁπάντων ἔφησεν εἶναι: ἐκ τούτου γὰρ δὴ τὰ πάντα γίνεσθαι καὶ εἰς τοῦτο τὰ πάντα φθείρεσθαι. Τρίτος Ἀναξιμένης, καὶ οὗτος ἐκ τῆς Μιλήτου ὑπάρχων, ἀέρα τοῦ παντὸς ἀρχὴν εἶναι λέγει: ἐκ γὰρ τούτου τὰ πάντα γίνεσθαι καὶ εἰς τοῦτον τὰ πάντα ἀναλύεσθαί φησιν. Ἡράκλειτος ὁ Μεταπόντιος ἀρχὴν τῶν πάντων τὸ πῦρ εἶναι λέγει: ἐκ πυρὸς γὰρ τὰ πάντα γίνεσθαι καὶ εἰς τὸ πῦρ τὰ πάντα τελευτᾶν. Ἀναξαγόρας ὁ Κλαζομένιος ἀρχὰς τῶν πάντων τὰς ὁμοιομερείας εἶναί φησιν. Ἀρχέλαος ὁ Ἀπολλοδώρου Ἀθηναῖος ἀέρα ἄπειρον καὶ τὴν περὶ αὐτὸν πυκνότητα καὶ μάνωσιν ἀρχὴν ἁπάντων εἶναι λέγει. Οὗτοι πάντες, ἀπὸ Θαλοῦ τὰς διαδοχὰς ἐσχηκότες, τὴν φυσικὴν ὑπ' αὐτῶν καλουμένην μετῆλθον φιλοσοφίαν.