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Works of Democritus, and Callimachus's Table of his Glosses and Writings

Known · Attestedin Alexandria?Known · AttestedCallimachus's own placementLegend · Told storya told story on its tag

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I · The entry, in his form

In the table of Philosophy: “special table”

Known · AttestedCallimachus's own placement

Democritus of Abdera

Works of Democritus, and Callimachus's Table of his Glosses and Writings

Opening words not preserved.

Length: not counted

Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.

II · Does it survive? Where to read it

Survives in fragments

Some 70 titles, all lost; about 300 fragments, mostly ethical. The Suda's entry for this table is usually understood as referring to Democritus.

Was it in Alexandria?

Known · Attested

Acquired for the Library.

In the cupboard: an ancient source reports it entering the collection or the Pinakes.

Read it today

III · In the show

The show has not yet spoken of this work.

IV · Sources and the living entry

Ancient references (2)
  • Suda κ 227
  • Diogenes Laertius 9.34-49
Modern scholarship (3)
  • C. C. W. Taylor, The Atomists: Leucippus and Democritus (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999).
  • H. Tarrant, Thrasyllan Platonism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993).
  • M. Martelli, The Four Books of Pseudo-Democritus (Leeds: Maney, for the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry, 2013)

Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · no corrections · Suggest a correction ›

WORKS OF DEMOCRITUS, AND CALLIMACHUS'S TABLE OF HIS GLOSSES AND WRITINGS

Read what is told

The back of the tag: a story told of this work, in its teller's voice.

Legend: told story

Democritus among the priests and Magi

Diogenes Laertius, writing some six centuries later from earlier biographers, tells that Democritus studied geometry with the priests of Egypt and went to the Chaldeans and to the Magi.

Told by Diogenes Laertius, c. 230 CE, some six centuries later

What the evidence supports

Callimachus gave Democritus a table of his own, a list of his rare words and writings (Suda κ 227, usually read so). The travels belong to ancient biography, and the alchemical books under his name were written centuries after him (see Pseudo-Democritus).

Sources (2)
  • Diogenes Laertius 9.34–49
  • Suda κ 227
The Hall of Told Stories

Beside it in the cupboard