Euclid of Megara - Life

Life

Euclid was born in Megara, but in Athens he became a follower of Socrates. So eager was he to hear the teaching and discourse of Socrates, that when, for a time, Athens had a ban on any citizen of Megara entering the city, Euclid would sneak into Athens after nightfall, disguised as a woman to hear him speak. He is represented in the preface of Plato's Theaetetus as being responsible for writing down the conversation between Socrates and the young Theaetetus many years earlier. Socrates is also supposed to have reproved Euclid for his fondness for eristic disputes. He was present at Socrates' death (399 BCE), after which Euclid returned to Megara, where he offered refuge to Plato and other frightened pupils of Socrates.

In Megara, Euclid founded a school of philosophy which became known as the Megarian school, and which flourished for about a century. Euclid's pupils were said to have been Ichthyas, the second leader of the Megarian school; Eubulides of Miletus; Clinomachus; and Thrasymachus of Corinth. Thrasymachus was a teacher of Stilpo, who was the teacher of Zeno of Citium, the founder of the Stoic school.

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