Chapter 18

Athens and had great influence there, being the friend of Pericles and Euripides. He was, however, banished for unorthodoxy and died at Lampsacus aged 72.

_Leucippus_, the founder of the atomic theory. His exact date and place of birth are uncertain.

_Democritus_ of Abdera, born about 450 B.C. He developed the atomic theory of Leucippus.

_Epicurus_, like Democritus and Leucippus, maintained the atomic theory. Cp. note on chap. 15.

_Epimenides_, a seer and prophet of Crete who purified Athens of the plague with which she was afflicted in consequence of the crime of Cylon, circa 596 B.C.

_Ostanes_, or Hostanes, a famous semi-fabulous magician of Persia.

_the 'purifications' of Empedocles._ Empedocles of Agrigentum (flourished circa 450 B.C.) wrote a poem of 3,000 lines, entitled 'purifications' ([Greek: katharmoi]). In this he recommended good moral conduct as a means of averting epidemics and other evils. But as a fragment quoted by Diog. Laert. viii. 59, shows, he claimed also to have power over the winds.

_the 'demon' of Socrates_, the divine sign or voice [Greek: daimonion], which is represented by Socrates as having guided his actions, is never spoken of by him in terms that would lead us to suppose that he regarded it as a familiar spirit, though it is so treated by later writers (e.g. Plutarch, de genio Socratis, and Apuleius, de deo Socratis).

_the 'good' of Plato._ The reference is probably to the identification of [Greek: to agathon] with the [Greek: demiourgos] the creator spoken of in the Timaeus.