Abstract

Among the reconstructions of the quasi-legendary figure of Pherecydes, one point of the doxography concerning possible astronomical activities of the Wise of Syros is quickly dismissed by modern commentators. The story is based on two testimonies reported by Diogenes Laertius: one attributes to Pherecydes the invention of an instrument for observing the solstices (the “heliotrope”); the other recalls the opinion of Andron of Ephesus, who distinguished between two Pherecydes of Syros: the “Wise” and the “astronomer”. The first seems to stem from a misunderstanding of Homeric poetry ; the second, if derived from the former, would have no greater value. However, the various understandings of the testimonies of Diogenes Laertius on Andron and, immediately after him, on Eratosthenes, leave open the possibility that the general issue of Pherecydes’ astronomy implied more than a simple misunderstanding of a few Homeric verses (without excluding it). It could rather depend on: (a) the confusion over the identity of Pherecyde(s) that seems to have prevailed as early as the 4th century B.C.; (b) the philosophical character that earlier doxographers were willing to attribute to his work. These neglected testimonies then became a remarkable source of information on the first reception of Pherecydes of Syros in the 4th century B.C., and on the ways in which this thinker was integrated in the history of philosophy.