Pherecȳdes

, a philosopher of Scyros, disciple of Pittacus, one of the first who delivered his thoughts in prose. He was acquainted with the periods of the moon, and foretold eclipses with the greatest accuracy. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul was first supported by him, as also that of the metempsychosis. Pythagoras was one of his disciples, remarkable for his esteem and his attachment to his learned master. When Pherecydes lay dangerously ill in the island of Delos, Pythagoras hastened to give him every a istance in his power, and when all his efforts had proved ineffectual, he buried him, and after he had paid him the last offices, he retired to Italy. Some, however, suppose, that Pherecydes threw himself down from a precipice as he was going to Delphi, or, according to others, he fell a sacrifice to the lousy disease, B.C. 515, in the 85th year of his age. Diogenes Laërtius. — Lac tanti us [Placid us]. ――An historian of Leros, surnamed the A then i an. He wrote a history of Attica, now lost, in the age of Darius Hystaspes.――A tragic poet.