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flees away. Not only did Democritus, Chrysippus, and Epicurus say that all things happen by necessity, calling fate necessity, but also the much-renowned Pythagoras said that necessity encompasses the cosmos. And Parmenides called necessity both a Daemon and Justice and Providence; and Heraclitus also said all things happen according to fate; and he too named fate necessity. 6.14 And Chrysippus the Stoic said that the necessitated differs in no way from the fated, and that fate is an eternal, continuous, and ordered motion. And Zeno of Citium called fate a power that moves matter, and he named it both Providence and Nature. His successors said that fate is the reason of things administered by providence in the cosmos, and again in other writings they have called fate a chain of causes. 6.15 And likewise, some supposed chance to be a god and revered it as a god; but Plato said it is a cause that happens by some accident, and again he called it a coincidence of nature or of choice. And Aristotle likewise said it is a cause by accident in things that happen according to impulse for the sake of something, and it is both obscure and unstable. And Anaxagoras and Democritus and those named from the Stoa Poikile, a cause obscure to human reason. 6.16 But Philemon the comic poet, and he a writer of comedy, openly accuses those who have supposed chance to be a god and cries out explicitly: 'There is for us no god Chance; there is not, but that which happens of itself, as it befalls each one, is addressed as Chance.' He also, mocking those who use omens or portents, said: 'Whenever I see someone,' he says, 'observing who sneezed, or who spoke, or who is coming forward, I will destroy this observer at once in the marketplace. Each of us walks and speaks and sneezes for himself, not for those in the city. Things happen as they are by nature.' 6.17 And Menander in *The Superstitious Man* similarly laughs at those who observe such things, speaking thus: 'May some good thing happen to me, O highly honored gods. While putting on my shoe, I broke the strap of my right boot.' 'Naturally, you fool; for it was rotten, and you, being a miser, were not willing to buy new ones.' 6.18 Thus even those who embraced a life of laughter and theaters knew that such fears and observances are utterly ridiculous. And Antiphon, when someone was vexed and thought it signified some dire omen that a sow ate her own offspring, said: "Rejoice at the sign, that being hungry she did not eat your 6.19 children." And similar to this is that which was said by Bion. For he also, laughing at such things, said: "What is marvelous if the mouse gnawed through the bag, having nothing to eat? This would have been marvelous, if, as Arcesilaus suggested in jest, 6. the bag had eaten the mouse." And Diogenes, when a snake coiled itself around a pestle, and someone marveled at this and considered it a portent, said: "Do not marvel; for it would have been more paradoxical if you had seen the pestle coiled around the upright snake." So again, this same man, having found inscribed on the house of a certain wicked person: 'The son of Zeus, Heracles the victorious, dwells here; let nothing evil enter,' said, "And how will the master of the house enter?" 6.21 Thus even those enslaved by the error of superstition mocked the omens and the portents and the prodigies still believed in by the many even now; and they said that those who sneeze do so, not signifying anything to others, but undergoing their usual affliction; and that those who converse do not foretell anything to others, but make their speeches about the matters before them; and that the mouse, driven by hunger, gnawed through the bag, not foretelling some oracle to the master of the bag; and that the straps of the shoe broke because they were old, not as if they were oracle-mongers foretelling something dire. 6.22 Knowing these things clearly, Epicharmus the Pythagorean bids us to despise all these things, but exhorts us to fear the overseer of all; and he speaks thus: 'Nothing escapes the divine; this'

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ἀποδιδράσκει. Οὐ μόνον δὲ οἱ ἀμφὶ τὸν ∆ημόκριτον καὶ Χρύσιππον καὶ Ἐπίκουρον πάντα κατ' ἀνάγκην ἔφασαν γίνεσθαι, ἀνάγκην καλοῦντες τὴν εἱμαρμένην, ἀλλὰ καὶ Πυθα γόρας ὁ πολυθρύλητος ἀνάγκην εἶπε περικεῖσθαι τῷ κόσμῳ. Ὁ δὲ Παρμενίδης τὴν ἀνάγκην καὶ ∆αίμονα κέκληκε καὶ ∆ίκην καὶ Πρόνοιαν· καὶ ὁ Ἡράκλειτος δὲ πάντα καθ' εἱμαρμένην εἴρηκε γίνεσθαι· ἀνάγκην δὲ τὴν εἱμαρμένην καὶ οὗτος ὠνόμασεν. 6.14 Καὶ Χρύσιππος δὲ ὁ Στωϊκὸς μηδὲν διαφέρειν εἶπε τοῦ εἱμαρ μένου τὸ κατηναγκασμένον, εἶναι δὲ τὴν εἱμαρμένην κίνησιν ἀΐδιον ξυνεχῆ καὶ τεταγμένην. Ζήνων δὲ ὁ Κιτιεὺς δύναμιν κέκληκε τὴν εἱμαρμένην κινητικὴν τῆς ὕλης, τὴν δὲ αὐτὴν καὶ Πρόνοιαν καὶ Φύσιν ὠνόμασεν. Οἱ δὲ τοῦτον διαδεξάμενοι τὴν εἱμαρμένην λόγον ἔφασαν εἶναι τῶν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ προνοίᾳ διοικου μένων, καὶ πάλιν ἐν ἑτέροις ξυγγράμμασιν εἱρμὸν αἰτιῶν τὴν 6.15 εἱμαρμένην κεκλήκασιν. Καὶ τὴν τύχην δὲ ὡσαύτως οἱ μὲν θεὸν ὑπέλαβον καὶ ὡς θεὸν ἐσεβάσθησαν· ὁ δὲ Πλάτων αἰτίαν εἶναι εἶπε κατά τι ξυμβεβηκὸς γινομένην, καὶ πάλιν ξύμπτωμα φύσεως ἢ προαιρέσεως κέκληκεν. Καὶ ὁ Ἀριστοτέλης δὲ ὡσαύτως αἰτίαν ἔφη κατὰ ξυμβεβηκὸς ἐν τοῖς καθ' ὁρμὴν ἕνεκέν τινος γινομένοις ἄδηλόν τε καὶ ἄστατον. Ἀναξαγόρας δὲ καὶ ∆ημόκριτος καὶ οἱ ἐκ τῆς Ποικίλης ὠνομασμένοι ἄδηλον αἰτίαν ἀνθρωπίνῳ λόγῳ. 6.16 Φιλήμων δέ γε ὁ κωμικός, καὶ ταῦτα γέλωτος ὢν ποιητής, ἄντικρυς κατηγορεῖ τῶν θεὸν τὴν τύχην ὑπειληφότων καὶ διαρ ρήδην βοᾷ· οὐκ ἔστιν ἡμῖν οὐδεμία Τύχη θεός· οὐκ ἔστιν, ἀλλὰ ταὐτόματον ὃ γίνεται, ὡς ἔτυχ' ἑκάστῳ, προσαγορεύεται Τύχη. Οὗτος καὶ τοὺς οἰωνοῖς ἢ κληδόσι χρωμένους κωμῳδῶν ἔφη· ὅταν ἴδω φησί παρατηροῦντα, τίς ἔπταρεν, ἢ τίς ἐλάλησεν, ἢ τίς ἐστιν ὁ προϊών, ἀπολῶ σκοποῦντα τοῦτον εὐθὺς ἐν ἀγορᾷ. Αὑτῷ βαδίζει καὶ λαλεῖ καὶ πτάρνυται ἕκαστος ἡμῶν, οὐχὶ τοῖς ἐν τῇ πόλει. Τὰ πράγμαθ' ὡς πέφυκεν, οὕτω γίνεται. 6.17 Καὶ ὁ Μένανδρος δὲ ἐν ∆εισιδαίμονι παραπλησίως τοὺς τὰ τοιαῦτα παρατηροῦντας γελᾷ, λέγων ὡδί· ἀγαθόν τι γένοιτό μοι, ὦ πολυτίμητοι θεοί. Ὑποδούμενος τὸν ἱμάντα τῆς δεξιᾶς ἐμβάδος διέρρηξ'. Εἰκότως, ὦ φλήναφε· σαπρὸς γὰρ ἦν· σὺ δὲ σμικρολόγος, οὐκ ἐθέλων καινὰς πρίασθαι. 6.18 Οὕτως ᾔδεσαν καὶ οἱ τὸν ἐν γέλωτι καὶ θεάτροις ἀσπασάμενοι βίον, ὡς τὰ τοιαῦτα δείματα καὶ παρατηρήματα λίαν ἐστὶ κατα γέλαστα. Καὶ Ἀντιφῶν δέ, τινὸς δυσχεραίνοντος καὶ οἰωνὸν χαλεπά τινα σημαίνειν νομίσαντος, ὅτι ἡ ὗς τὰ οἰκεῖα κατέφαγεν ἔκγονα· "Χαῖρε" εἶπεν "ἐπὶ τῷ σημείῳ, ὅτι πεινῶσα τὰ σὰ 6.19 οὐ κατέφαγε τέκνα." Ἔοικε δὲ τούτῳ καὶ τὸ παρὰ τοῦ Βίωνος εἰρημένον. Καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖνος τὰ τοιάδε γελῶν· "Τί θαυμαστόν" ἔφη, "εἰ καὶ ὁ μῦς τὸν θύλακον διέτραγεν, οὐκ ἔχων ὅ τι φάγῃ; τοῦτο δὲ ἦν θαυμαστόν, εἰ, ὥσπερ Ἀρκεσίλαος παίζων ἐνεχεί 6. ρει, τὸν μῦν ὁ θύλακος κατέφαγεν". Καὶ ὁ ∆ιογένης δέ, ὄφεως ὑπέρῳ ἑαυτὸν ἐνειλήσαντος, καί τινος τοῦτο θαυμάσαντος καὶ τέρας εἶναι νομίσαντος· "Μὴ θαύμαζε" εἶπεν· "ἦν γὰρ παρα δοξότερον, εἰ τὸ ὕπερον περὶ ὀρθῷ τῷ ὄφει κατειλημένον ἐθεάσω". Οὕτω πάλιν οὗτος αὐτὸς ἐν οἰκίᾳ τινὸς μοχθηροῦ ἐπιγεγραμ μένον εὑρών· ὁ τοῦ ∆ιὸς παῖς καλλίνικος Ἡρακλῆς ἐνθάδε κατοικεῖ· μηδὲν εἰσίτω κακόν. "Καὶ πῶς" ἔφη "ὁ κύριος εἰσελεύσεται τῆς οἰκίας;" 6.21 Οὕτως ἐκωμῴδουν καὶ οἱ τῷ τῆς δεισιδαιμονίας πλάνῳ δεδου λευκότες τοὺς οἰωνοὺς καὶ τὰς κληδόνας καὶ τὰ παρὰ τῶν πολλῶν ἔτι καὶ νῦν νομιζόμενα τέρατα· καὶ πτάρνυσθαι μὲν τοὺς πταί ροντας ἔλεγον, οὐκ ἄλλοις τι προσημαίνοντας, ἀλλὰ τὸ ξύνηθες ὑπομένοντας πάθος· καὶ τοὺς διαλεγομένους οὐκ ἄλλοις τι προ δηλοῦν, ἀλλὰ περὶ τῶν αὐτοῖς προκειμένων ποιεῖσθαι τοὺς λόγους· καὶ τὸν μῦν ὑπὸ τῆς πείνης ὠθούμενον διατρῆσαι τὸν θύλακον, οὐ χρησμόν τινα τῷ τοῦ θυλάκου δεσπότῃ προλέγοντα· καὶ τοῦ ὑποδήματος τοὺς δεσμοὺς ὡς παλαιοὺς διαρραγῆναι, οὐχ ὡς χρησμολόγους χαλεπόν τι προαγορεῦσαι. 6.22 Ταῦτα σαφῶς ἐπιστάμενος καὶ Ἐπίχαρμος ὁ Πυθαγόρειος τού των μὲν ἁπάντων κελεύει καταφρονεῖν, τὸν δὲ τῶν ὅλων ὀπτῆρα δεδιέναι παρεγγυᾷ· λέγει δὲ οὕτως· οὐδὲν διαφεύγει τὸ θεῖον· τοῦτο