The Shelves · History

Library of History

Βιβλιοθήκη ἱστορική

Conjecturedin Alexandria?Conjecturedvery likely classLegend · Told storya told story on its tag

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I · The entry, in his form

In the table of History

Conjecturedvery likely class

Diodorus Siculus

Library of History

Βιβλιοθήκη ἱστορική

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 large part

Books 1-5 and 11-20 survive; the rest in fragments.

Was it in Alexandria?

Conjectured

A witness to the city.

On the ledge: written elsewhere, a witness to the city; not known in the Library.

Read it today

Greek text (Scaife Viewer) · the original · link checked 31 Oct 2026
Oldfather, Diodorus II (public-domain Loeb scan, PDF) · a translation · link checked 31 Oct 2026

III · In the show

Pythagoras in Egypt: Initiation & Study, episode 20, at 39 minutes 32 secondsTranscriptLegend: told story
Egyptian Influence on Greek Thought, episode 20, at 42 minutes 1 secondTranscriptLegend: told story
Egyptian & Babylonian Influences on Thales, episode 21, at 25 minutes 51 secondsTranscriptLegend: told story

+ 6 more

Transmission of Knowledge from Egypt to Greece, episode 21, at 1 hour 8 minutes 37 secondsTranscriptLegend: told story
What the Egyptian mysteries may have taught, episode 4, at 44 minutes 31 secondsTranscriptLegend: told story
Correction
What was said
Porphyry says Pythagoras spent 22 years in Egyptian temples.
What the sources say
The twenty-two years come from Iamblichus, not from Porphyry's Life of Pythagoras.
Reference
- Iamblichus, On the Pythagorean Life 4.19
Egyptian & Babylonian Influences on Thales, episode 21, at 25 minutes 51 secondsTranscript“he says that Thales actually went to Egypt and Babylonia”'Flut' is Plutarch (a Middle Platonist, not a Neoplatonist): On Isis and Osiris 10.Legend: told story
Plato: Philosophy, Truth & Misconceptions, episode 21, at 35 minutes 32 secondsTranscript“He learned from the wise men of Egypt studying the universe”Answered by the co-host's correction on Hermes at 36:14.Legend: told story
What the Egyptian mysteries may have taught, episode 4, at 45 minutes 20 secondsTranscript“it's attested that Plato went there it's attested that Thales the father of logic went there it's attested that Solon the lawgiver was initiated”Legend: told story
Correction
What was said
It is "attested" that Plato, Thales and Solon studied in Egypt.
What the sources say
Reported by later writers (Herodotus, Plato, Plutarch, Diogenes Laertius), not by contemporary evidence: testimony, not attestation.
Perennial traditions and Eastern influence, episode 1, at 20 minutes 17 secondsTranscript“Pythagoras spent two in 20 years in Egypt astronomizing and geometrising and was initiated in no casual or superficial way”Legend: told story
Correction
What was said
Porphyry says Pythagoras spent 22 years in Egyptian temples.
What the sources say
The twenty-two years come from Iamblichus, not from Porphyry's Life of Pythagoras.
Reference
- Iamblichus, On the Pythagorean Life 4.19

IV · Sources and the living entry

Ancient references

Diodorus Siculus 1.44, 1.49.3, 1.83.8

Modern scholarship (2)

C. H. Oldfather, Diodorus of Sicily, vol. 1 (Loeb Classical Library 279; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1933).
O. Murray, 'Hecataeus of Abdera and Pharaonic Kingship', Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 56 (1970): 141-171.

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

ΒΙΒΛΙΟΘΗΚΗ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΚΗ

Read what is told

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

Legend

Healing-place of the soul

Diodorus Siculus tells, following Hecataeus of Abdera, of a sacred library in a king's tomb-temple at Thebes, inscribed 'Healing-place of the soul'.

Told by Diodorus Siculus, c. 60–30 BCE, after Hecataeus, some two and a half centuries earlier

What the evidence supports

The inscription belongs, in Diodorus, to a library at Thebes (1.49.3), not to Alexandria. No ancient source gives it as the motto of Alexandria's Library.

Sources

Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 1.49.3

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