Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

​He lived piously with his sister, who was a midwife, as Eratosthenes states in his work On Wealth and Poverty, at which time he also used to carry birds and, if it so happened, piglets to the market to sell, and cleaned what was in the house with indifference. It is said that he himself even washed a sow out of indifference. And when he became somewhat irritated on behalf of his sister—she was named Philista—he said to the one who censured him that the demonstration of indifference does not belong in the case of a little woman. And once, when frightened off by a dog attacking him, he said to the one who accused him that it was difficult entirely to strip off humanity, but that one should contend against circumstances as much as possible first in deeds, and if not, at least in word.

​They say also that when caustic medicines, incisions, and cauteries were applied to an ulcer of his, he did not even knit his eyebrows. And Timon also makes clear his disposition in the passages where he discourses with Python. Moreover, Philo of Athens, who had become an acquaintance of his, used to say that he was most mindful of Democritus, and then also of Homer, admiring him and constantly repeating, "As is the generation of leaves, so also is that of men;" and that he compared human beings to wasps, flies, and birds. He used to quote these lines also: "Nay, friend, die thou too; why dost thou lament thus? Patroclus also died, who was far better than thou;" and whatever verses point to the instability, vain endeavor, and childishness of men.

​Posidonius also relates some such thing about him. For when his fellow voyagers were downcast because of a storm, he himself, being serene, cheered their spirits by pointing out a piglet eating in the vessel and saying that the wise man must abide in such tranquility. Numenius alone, however, says that he actually dogmatized. In addition to the others, famous disciples were also born of him, of whom was Eurylochus; of him this defect is reported. For they say that he was once provoked to such a degree that, seizing the spit along with the meat, he chased the cook as far as the market.

​And in Elis, when hard-pressed by questioners in arguments, he threw off his cloak and swam across the Alpheus. He was therefore most hostile to the sophists, as Timon also says. And Philo spoke mostly to himself; whence he also speaks of him thus: "Or Philo, far from men, keeping his own leisure, talking to himself, recking nothing of opinion or strife." In addition to these, Hecataeus of Abdera was a hearer of Pyrrho, as well as Timon of Phlius, who composed the Silli, of whom we shall speak, and also Nausiphanes of Teos, whom some say Epicurus heard. All these were called Pyrrhoneans from their teacher, and also Aporetics, Skeptics, and further Ephectics and Zetetics from their manner of doctrine, as it were.

​They were called Zetetics from their always seeking the truth, Skeptics from their always inspecting and never finding, Ephectics from the condition resulting after the inquiry—I mean the suspension of judgment—and Aporetics from the fact that both the dogmatists are in perplexity and they themselves. And Pyrrhoneans from Pyrrho. But Theodosius in the Skeptic Chapters says that the skeptical philosophy ought not to be called Pyrrhonean; for if the movement of another's mind is incomprehensible, we shall not know the disposition of Pyrrho, and not knowing it, we could not be called Pyrrhoneans. In addition to which, Pyrrho did not first discover skeptical philosophy, nor did he hold any doctrine. A person might, however, be called a Pyrrhonean of the same character.