O
Ocellus Lucanus (200 – 50 BCE)
Early Pythagorean (I V.Pyth. 267) under whose name is preserved an apoc-
ryphal treatise deeply influenced by Peripatetic doctrines: the universe is eternal, indes-
tructible and ungenerated; it undergoes no change, by remaining always identical with itself.
The whole divides into a celestial or superlunary region, which, inhabited by divinities, is in
perpetual motion and governs the constantly changing sublunary realm, inhabited by mor-
tals. This part of the world, wherein generation occurs, is the realm of the four elements,
neither corrupted nor generated. The human species, which as a co-subsistent part of an
eternal world must be perpetual, attains immortality through the continuity of generation,
where intercourse should occur not for pleasure, but only for the procreation of children.
Under Ocellus’ name, we also have a brief fragment from an apocryphal On laws, where law
is described as the cause of concord in the family and the city, since God is the cause of
harmony in the world.
Ed.: R. Harder, Ocellus Lucanus. Text und kommentar (1926, repr. 1966); Thesleff (1965); K.S. Guthrie,
The Pythagoran Sourcebook and Library (1987) 203–213; DPA 4 (2005) 746–750, Bruno Centrone and
C. Macris.
Bruno Centrone
O ̄dapsos of Thebes (150 – 400 CE?)
Authored an astrological work cited several times by H T for associ-
ations between parts of the zodiacal signs and geographical regions (1.1.65, 123, 163, 221).
I “L” mentions O ̄dapsos in his De Ostentis 2 (p. 6 Wa.) as an authority on astral
omens, indicating that he postdated P.
RE 17.2 (1937) 1881–1883, W. Kroll.
Alexander Jones
Ofellius Laetus (ca 50 – 95 CE)
In his Quaestiones naturales, P cites a certain Laitos on the effect of rainfall on plants
(911F) and the harmful effect of dew on human skin (913E). Plutarch’s wording suggests
personal encounters with Laitos. He is probably identical with the Platonic philosopher
Ofellius Laetus, known from two 1st c. inscriptions, from Ephesos ( J. Nollé, ZPE 41 [1981]
197 – 206) and Athens (IG II^2 3816). Ofellius Laetus is the author of a hymn extolling the