The Presocratic Reader

Metrodorus of Chios

DK 70

Tap a Greek word for an LSJ definition.

Original textTranslation

Available translations: English

οὐδεὶς ἡμῶν οὐδὲν οἶδεν οὐδ’ αὐτὸ τοῦτο, πότερον οἴδαμεν ἢ οὐκ οἴδαμεν

None of us knows anything, not even this, whether we know or do not know

E. H. Gifford · Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903)
How this fragment survives

A source citation has not yet been identified for this reading.

A source citation has not yet been identified for this reading in the reviewed records. The linked edition remains available below.

Original-text edition
Hermann Diels, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 2nd edition, volume I (Berlin: Weidmann, 1906), p. 453; historical running original-language text, excluding the critical apparatus.
Open the historical edition ↗

Notes & source

Exact published human translation; Greek is limited to the matching witness. Expanded source context is not reproduced with this reading. The unbracketed Eusebius quotation alone is paired here; no translation is claimed for Diels’s bracketed supplement or the longer Cicero witness

Published passage: Preparation for the Gospel XIV.20; Aristocles

Existing human translation retained verbatim; historical original-language passage covers the same translated quotation.

Displayed short quotation matches 1906 Eusebius quotation; the larger dossier contains a later extended conjecture and is withheld.

Supplementary context has not been verified throughout against an identified historical edition. The translated paired reading remains available.

Hermann Diels, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 2nd edition, volume I (Berlin: Weidmann, 1906), p. 453; historical running original-language text, excluding the critical apparatus. View original source ↗

English: E. H. Gifford · Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903) Published translation ↗

Original edition: Historical original edition: public domain under the recorded term review.

Available translations & credits
  • English · E. H. Gifford. Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903). Default reading. Published translation ↗ Paired original ↗

    Original edition: Historical original edition: public domain under the recorded term review.

Available translations: English

πάντα ἐστίν, ὃ ἄν τις νοήσαι.

all things are just what any one may think them.

E. H. Gifford · Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903)
How this fragment survives

A source citation has not yet been identified for this reading.

A source citation has not yet been identified for this reading in the reviewed records. The linked edition remains available below.

Original-text edition
Hermann Diels, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 2nd edition, volume I (Berlin: Weidmann, 1906), p. 453; historical running original-language text, excluding the critical apparatus.
Open the historical edition ↗

Notes & source

Exact published human translation; Greek is limited to the matching witness. Expanded source context is not reproduced with this reading

Published passage: Preparation for the Gospel XIV.20; Aristocles

Existing human translation retained verbatim; historical original-language passage covers the same translated quotation.

Complete sentence agrees with 1906 text.

Supplementary context has not been verified throughout against an identified historical edition. The translated paired reading remains available.

Hermann Diels, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 2nd edition, volume I (Berlin: Weidmann, 1906), p. 453; historical running original-language text, excluding the critical apparatus. View original source ↗

English: E. H. Gifford · Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903) Published translation ↗

Original edition: Historical original edition: public domain under the recorded term review.

Available translations & credits
  • English · E. H. Gifford. Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903). Default reading. Published translation ↗ Paired original ↗

    Original edition: Historical original edition: public domain under the recorded term review.

Available translations: English

Μ. δ’ ὁ Χῖος ἐν Τρωικοῖς σύριγγα μέν φησιν εὑρεῖν Μαρσύαν καὶ αὐλὸν ἐν Κελαιναῖς, τῶν πρότερον ἑνὶ καλάμωι συριζόντων.

But Metrodorus the Chian, in his history of the Affairs of Troy, says that Marsyas invented the pipe and flute at Celænæ, when all his predecessors had played on a single reed.

C. D. Yonge · The Deipnosophists, Book IV (1854), 184a
How this fragment survives

A source citation has not yet been identified for this reading.

A source citation has not yet been identified for this reading in the reviewed records. The linked edition remains available below.

Original-text edition
Hermann Diels, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 2nd edition, volume I (Berlin: Weidmann, 1906), p. 453; historical running original-language text, excluding the critical apparatus.
Open the historical edition ↗

Notes & source

Complete sentence concerning Metrodorus of Chios. Yonge’s original wording is retained, including his reading of pipe and flute; DK marks αὐλὸν as doubtful

Existing human translation retained verbatim; historical original-language passage covers the same translated quotation.

Restored historical article ὁ before Χῖος; removed editorial question marker. Ancient quoted sentence ends at συριζόντων.

Supplementary context has not been verified throughout against an identified historical edition. The translated paired reading remains available.

Hermann Diels, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 2nd edition, volume I (Berlin: Weidmann, 1906), p. 453; historical running original-language text, excluding the critical apparatus. View original source ↗

English: C. D. Yonge · The Deipnosophists, Book IV (1854), 184a Published translation ↗

Original edition: Historical original edition: public domain under the recorded term review.

English translation: Public domain (historical published translation).

Available translations & credits
  • English · C. D. Yonge. The Deipnosophists, Book IV (1854), 184a. Default reading. Published translation ↗ Paired original ↗

    Translation: Public domain (historical published translation).

    Original edition: Historical original edition: public domain under the recorded term review.

Available translations: English

τὸ δὲ τεκμήριον ἐλαμβάνομεν ἐκ τῶν Μητροδώρου Ἰωνικῶν· ἱστορεῖ γὰρ ὅτι

Σμυρναῖοι τὸ παλαιὸν Αἰολεῖς ὄντες θύουσι Βουβρώστει

ταῦρον μέλανα καὶ κατακόψαντες αὐτόδορον ὁλοκαυτοῦσιν.

by an argument fetched out of Metrodorus’s Ionics. For the said Metrodorus informs us that the Smyrnaeans, who were once Aeolians, sacrificed to Bubrostis a black bull cut into pieces with the skin on, and so burnt it.

T. C.; revised by W. W. Goodwin · Plutarch’s Essays and Miscellanies, vol. 3 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1911)
How this fragment survives

A source citation has not yet been identified for this reading.

A source citation has not yet been identified for this reading in the reviewed records. The linked edition remains available below.

Original-text edition
Hermann Diels, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 2nd edition, volume I (Berlin: Weidmann, 1906), p. 453; historical running original-language text, excluding the critical apparatus.
Open the historical edition ↗

Notes & source

Exact excerpt from the published human translation; Greek limited to the matching passage. The expanded source context is not reproduced with this reading

Published passage: Symposiacs VI.2 (694A)

Existing human translation retained verbatim; historical original-language passage covers the same translated quotation.

The complete Plutarch carrier sentence is printed in 1906; only whitespace differs.

Supplementary context has not been verified throughout against an identified historical edition. The translated paired reading remains available.

Hermann Diels, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 2nd edition, volume I (Berlin: Weidmann, 1906), p. 453; historical running original-language text, excluding the critical apparatus. View original source ↗

English: T. C.; revised by W. W. Goodwin · Plutarch’s Essays and Miscellanies, vol. 3 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1911) Published translation ↗

Original edition: Historical original edition: public domain under the recorded term review.

Available translations & credits
  • English · T. C.; revised by W. W. Goodwin. Plutarch’s Essays and Miscellanies, vol. 3 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1911). Default reading. Published translation ↗ Paired original ↗

    Original edition: Historical original edition: public domain under the recorded term review.

Search the collection

Search words or phrases in any included language. Greek accents are optional.

About this edition

LIDDELL · SCOTT · JONES

Greek dictionary

LSJ (1940) · Perseus Digital Library · Sources & licences