Timon of Phlius

Timon of Phlius ( Greek: Τίμων; * around 320 BC in Phlius; † around 230 BC in Athens ) was an ancient Greek philosopher, satirical poet and hiking speakers.

Life

Timon studied philosophy at Stilpon of Megara and Pyrrho of Elis, the founder of Pyrrhonian skepticism, of which he was strongly influenced. After Timon was made ​​famous by teaching and lecturing in Chalcedon and reasonably wealthy, he spent the rest of his life, especially in Athens, where he died. He has written many poetic and prosaic works, including epics, tragedies, comedies, and satyr plays ( as reported by Diogenes Laertius IX 12). Of these works only a few fragments survive.

Were best known, however, and are his Silloi, a great satirical hexametric poem in three books, which was partially created as a parody of Homer's epics. This Timon mocked all philosophers before Pyrrho as " bloated polymathy hoses " of that would have been recognized in reality there is no faithfulness, no wisdom, but this only vorgäben. Will be spared from the worst mockery only Xenophanes, the Timon understood as knowledge critic who had yet shown the most honest among all thinkers and acts in the Silloi as a kind of guide to the delusions of the other thinkers. Really wise but was only Pyrrho, Timon almost as the "sun" responsive and glorified.

Also from the Silloi only a few fragments survive. The praise Pyrrhons also served a preserved dialogue, a conversation between Timon and his teacher again are entitled Python that will lead them on the path to the oracle of Delphi, as well as testified by some fragments of poems in elegiac couplets. As Pyrrho himself left no written records, Timon was through his works as a mediator of thought Pyrrhons and therefore created the lasting image of Pyrrhonian skepticism.

Not to be confused with the misanthrope Timon of Phlius Timon of Athens. Both were but later equated in the anecdotal tradition. The thus fused Timon formed an inspiration for Shakespeare's unfinished drama Timon of Athens (Shakespeare ), which, however, has in common with the historical Timon of Phlius not much.