name is primarily Hellenistic (LGPN), and need not refer solely to the hetaira of Alexander
and Ptolemy I (D S 17.72).
(*)
PTK
Thale ̄s of Mile ̄tos (ca 600 – 545 BCE)
Renowned as the founder of philosophy, mathematics, and science. Born ca 624 BCE, he is
said to have visited Egypt (a reasonable possibility since Mile ̄tos had a colony, Naukratis,
there) and to have brought back a knowledge of geometry and astronomy. Thale ̄s said all
was water and explained natural phenomena on the basis of the material composition of
things. He is supposed to have predicted the solar eclipse of 585 BCE, May 28, and to have
used geometry to measure the height of pyramids in Egypt by their shadows and the
distance of ships at sea by triangulation. He was also reputedly a brilliant engineer who
made the Halus river fordable by the army of Kroisos/Croesus, king of Ludia, by digging
a second channel to divert some of the water.
Since Thale ̄s left no writings, we cannot verify his alleged accomplishments, and many
seem anachronistic. He may have brought back a knowledge of practical astronomy from
Egypt (determining the time of year from the stars), as well as techniques of land surveying
(the root meaning of “geometry”). Eclipses were not predictable in this period, though
Thale ̄s could possibly have used some scheme of periodic recurrences to anticipate an
eclipse. Thale ̄s’ isolationist political policy makes it unlikely that he helped Kroisos start a war
by his engineering ability. One accomplishment more plausibly attributed to him is identifying
the constellation of Ursa Minor as reliable for navigation (a technique probably borrowed
from the Phoenicians). He seems also to have offered an interesting theory of why the Nile
river floods in Egypt in the summer: the etesian (summer northerly) winds cause the river to
back up.
Thale ̄s also seems to have started the tradition of explaining phenomena on the basis
of the properties of natural substances, thus replacing mythological tradition with quasi-
scientific speculation. He seems to have envisaged the Earth as a flat disk floating on a
cosmic sea; ripples in the sea cause earthquakes. He thus pioneered natural explanations of
phenomena and naturalistic cosmology. His student A gave impetus to this
tradition by publishing a written cosmology. Thale ̄s’ legendary successes provided a kind of
ideal paradigm for later theorists.
DK 11; KRS 76–99; P.F. O’Grady, Thales of Miletus (2002).
Daniel W. Graham
Thamuros (200 BCE – 80 CE)
A, in G CMLoc 9.5 (13.300 K.), records his detailed instructions for an
enema containing alum, calamine, lime, yellow orpiment, burnt papyrus, and burnt cork
from a Falernian wine-jar (famed since the mid-2nd c. BCE: C, Brutus 287; P
14.55, 76). The name is rare (LGPN 2.210, 3A.198), and probably Thrakian, cf. H Iliad
2.595–596, S 10.3.17.
Fabricius (1726) 431.
PTK
THAMUROS