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Paron: Testimonia

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This is the single ancient testimony for Paron, a Pythagorean known only from a remark recorded by Aristotle in the Physics. In discussing time, Aristotle notes that some called time the wisest of things, while Paron the Pythagorean called it the most ignorant, because in time we forget. Simplicius' commentary adds that Eudemus told the same story without naming the speaker, as a retort to the poet Simonides praising time at Olympia.

Brief as it is, the saying preserves an early Greek reflection on time, memory and forgetting, and Aristotle himself judged Paron's view the more correct. The testimony also shows how the remarks of minor Pythagoreans survived only through the arguments of later philosophers and commentators.

About this edition. The Greek text comes from the Eulogikon open corpus of public-domain editions (standard reference: DK 26). Every word has been analyzed with odyCy, a neural language model for Ancient Greek — click or tap any word for its dictionary form, part of speech, and complete morphology, together with the full entry from the Liddell–Scott–Jones Greek–English Lexicon (LSJ).

Ancient Greek · Philosophy
Testimonia
Paron · every word parsed
1
ARIST. Phys. Δ 13. 222b 17 οἱ μὲν σοφώτατον ἔλεγον [sc. τὸν χρόνον], ὁ δὲ Πυθαγόρειος Πάρων ἀμαθέστατον, ὅτι καὶ ἐπιλανθάνονται ἐν τούτωι, λέγων ὀρθότερον. SIMPL. z. d. St. 754, 9 οὗτος δὲ ἔοικεν εἶναι, οὗ καὶ Εὔδημος [fr. 52 Sp.] ἀνωνύμως ἐμνήσθη λέγων ἐν Ὀλυμπίαι Σιμωνίδου τὸν χρόνον ἐπαινοῦντος ὡς σοφώτατον, εἴπερ ἐν αὐτῶι αἱ μαθήσεις γίνονται καὶ αἱ ἀναμνήσεις, παρόντα τινὰ τῶν σοφῶν εἰπεῖν ʼτί δέ, ὦ Σιμωνίδη, οὐκ ἐπιλανθανόμεθα μέντοι ἐν τῶι χρόνωι;ʼ
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Text: Perseus Digital Library, licensed CC BY-SA. Dictionary: Liddell, Scott & Jones (Perseus, CC BY-SA). Morphology: odyCy — machine parsing, corrected against the AGDT & PROIEL treebanks and Morpheus.
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