Greek philosopher of the island of Syros, one of the Cyclades, was the son of Badyes, and the pupil of the celebrated Pittacus of Mytilene. The exact date of his birth and death is unknown, but he flourished B.C. 544, being a contemporary of Thales, Anaximenes, Anacreon, and Hipponax. There is some doubt whether he is not the astronomer Pherecydes who constructed a sun-dial at Syros; but as this person is said to have been the master of Thales, it is more likely that there was another of an earlier date. The philosopher was the instructor of Pythagoras, and is said to have foretold earthquakes by observing the movement of water in wells (Cic. Tus. i. 16; Die. i. 50). There were various accounts respecting his death, but most are agreed that he was devoured by worms and insects like Sylia; and the reason assigned was, that he had offended Apollo, because he said that he lived very happily though he had never sacrificed to the gods. (Elian. V. H. iv. 28.) Pherecydes was the author of a work on Nature and on the Gods, being the first of the Greeks who wrote on this subject. (Diogenes Laertius, Life of Pherecydes.) The fragments of Pherecydes have been collected by August Wolf, in the first part of his Litterarische Analecten, Berlin, 1817.

historian or logographer of the island of Lemnos, in the Aegean Sea, is satisfactorily proved by Vossius (De Hist. Graecis, p. 444) to be the same who is called an Athenian by some. He flourished B.C. 480, in the reign of Darius Hystaspes, and preceded Herodotus by a few years. He is said to have made a collection of the poems of Orpheus, to have written on the genealogy of the gods (Theogonia) in ten books, on the mythological part of the history of Athens ("Αντικρονες") in ten books, and moral maxims in hexameter verse. The fragments of Pherecydes, along with those of Acusilaus, have been published by Sturtz, Gera, 1789, 1798, 1824; also by C. and Th. Müller, in Fragmenta Hist. Graecorum, with a learned dissertation.