Chapter xxii.
The Druids—Progenitors of their System.
And the Celtic Druids investigated to the very highest point the Pythagorean philosophy, after Zamolxis,[1] by birth a Thracian,[2] a servant of Pythagoras, became to them the originator of this discipline. Now after the death of Pythagoras, Zamolxis, repairing thither, became to them the originator of this philosophy. The Celts esteem these as prophets and seers, on account of their foretelling to them certain [events], from calculations and numbers by the Pythagorean art; on the methods of which very art also we shall not keep silence, since also from these some have presumed to introduce heresies; but the Druids resort to magical rites likewise.
Chapter xxiii.
Hesiod—the Nine Muses—the Hesiodic Cosmogony—the Ancient Speculators, Materialists—derivative Character of the Heresies from Heathen Philosophy.
But Hesiod the poet asserts himself also that he thus heard from the Muses concerning nature, and that the Muses are the daughters of Jupiter. For when for nine nights and days together, Jupiter, through excess of passion, had uninterruptedly lain with Mnemosyne, that Mnemosyne conceived in one womb those nine Muses, becoming pregnant with one during each night. Having then summoned the nine Muses from Pieria, that is, Olympus, he exhorted them to undergo instruction:
- ↑ Or "Zamalxis," or "Zametris" (see Menagius on Diogenes Laertius, viii. 2).
- ↑ Or, "of Thracian origm." The words are omitted in two mss.
- ↑ There are several verbal differences from the original in Hippolytus' version. These may be seen on comparing it with Hesiod's own text. The particular place which Hesiod occupies in the history of philosophy
