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[Diagoras], son of Telekleides or Teleklytos; a Melian, a philosopher and a lyric poet; whom Democritus from Abdera,[1] seeing that he was naturally talented, bought -- since he was a slave -- for ten thousand drachmas and made a pupil. And he also applied himself to the lyric art, being in time after Pindar and Bacchylides, but older than Melanippides:[2] he flourished in the 78th Olympiad.[3] And he was called Atheos since he held such an opinion, after the time when someone of the same art, being accused by him of stealing a paean which he himself had made, swore he did not steal this, and performing it a short while later, met with success. Thereupon Diagoras, being upset, wrote the so-called Apopyrgizontes Logoi, which includes his withdrawal and falling away from his belief concerning the divine.[4] But Diagoras, settling in Corinth, lived out his life there.

*diago/ras, *thleklei/dou, h)\ *thleklu/tou, *mh/lios, filo/sofos kai\ a)|sma/twn poihth/s: o(\n eu)fua= qeasa/menos *dhmo/kritos o( *)abdhri/ths w)nh/sato au)to\n dou=lon o)/nta muri/wn draxmw=n kai\ maqhth\n e)poih/sato. o( de\ kai\ th=| lurikh=| e)pe/qeto, toi=s xro/nois w)\n meta\ *pi/ndaron kai\ *bakxuli/dhn, *melanippi/dou de\ presbu/teros: h)/kmaze toi/nun oh# *)olumpia/di. kai\ e)peklh/qh *)/aqeos dio/ti tou=to e)do/cazen, a)f' ou(= tis o(mo/texnos ai)tiaqei\s u(p' au)tou= w(s dh\ paia=na a)felo/menos, o(\n au)to\s e)pepoih/kei, e)cwmo/sato mh\ keklofe/nai tou=ton, mikro\n de\ u(/steron e)pideica/menos au)to\n eu)hme/rhsen. e)nteu=qen ou)=n o( *diago/ras luphqei\s e)/graye tou\s kaloume/nous *)apopurgi/zontas lo/gous, a)naxw/rhsin au)tou= kai\ e)/kptwsin e)/xontas th=s peri\ to\ qei=on do/chs. katoikh/sas de\ *ko/rinqon o( *diago/ras au)to/qi to\n bi/on kate/streyen.

C5 BCE. See also delta 524, and generally OCD(4) s.v. (p.444).
[1] delta 448.
[2] Pindar pi 1617, Bacchylides beta 59, Melanippides mu 455.
[3] 468-465.
[4] For this work cf. alpha 3493, pi 3200. On the (controversial) view that it has survived -- on the so-called Derveni Papyrus -- see Richard Janko, 'The Derveni Papyrus (Diagoras of Melos, Apopyrgizontes Logoi?)', Classical Philology 96 (2001) 1-32.

Catharine Roth (minor modifications to translation; cross-references and keywords) on 6 May 2002@22:17:28.
David Whitehead (added notes; cosmetics) on 7 May 2002@03:03:43.
David Whitehead (augmented n.4) on 28 January 2005@03:29:04.
David Whitehead (more keywords; tweaking) on 27 June 2012@08:26:17.
David Whitehead (updated a ref) on 3 August 2014@04:56:50.

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