Vitae philosophorum

He maintained that the divine name for table is θυωρός, or that which takes care of offerings.

Andron of Ephesus says that there were two natives of Syros who bore the name of Pherecydes: the one was an astronomer, the other was the son of Babys and a theologian, teacher of Pythagoras. Eratosthenes, however, says that there was only one Pherecydes of Syros, the other Pherecydes being an Athenian and a genealogist.

There is preserved a work by Pherecydes of Syros, a work which begins thus: Zeus and Time and Earth were from all eternity, and Earth was called Γῆ because Zeus gave her earth (γῆ) as guerdon (γέρας). His sun-dial is also preserved in the island of Syros.

Duris in the second book of his Horae gives the inscription on his tomb as follows[*](Anth. Pal. vii. 93.):

All knowledge that a man may have had I;
1. Yet tell Pythagoras, were more thereby,
2. That first of all Greeks is he; I speak no lie.

With manly worth endowed and modesty,
1. Though he be dead, his soul lives happily,
2. If wise Pythagoras indeed saw light
3. And read the destinies of men aright.

There is also an epigram of my own in the Pherecratean metre[*](Anth. Plan. iii. 128.):

The famous Pherecydes, to whom Syros gave birth,

when his former beauty was consumed by vermin, gave orders that he should be taken straight to the Magnesian land in order that he might give victory to the noble Ephesians. There was an oracle, which he alone knew, enjoining this; and there he died among them. It seems then it is a true tale; if anyone is truly wise, he brings blessings both in his lifetime and when he is no more.

He lived in the 59th Olympiad. He wrote the following letter: