Pherecydes of Syros - Life

Life

According to tradition Pherecydes was a native of the island of Syros and flourished 544-541 BC. It was said that he was a son of Babys. Anecdotes of "unknown reliability" place Pherecydes on the island of Samos, and in the city of Ephesus, where he is supposed to have been buried, although another tradition claims he was buried on Delos.

Aristotle wrote in his Metaphysics of Pherecydes being in part a mythological writer and Plutarch, in his Parallel Lives, instead wrote of him being a Theologus (theologian). He was considered to have had the greater significance in teaching on the subject of metempsychosis. His writings were extant in Hellenistic period, although only fragments have survived to the present day. His works were written in prose language, and he has been said to have been the first to have communicated or conveyed philosophical musings in prose.

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