Philinus
Nor did Aristarchus, Timocharis, Aristyllus, and Hipparchus, and their followers make astronomy less notable by writing in prose, although in earlier days Eudoxus, Hesiod, and Thales wrote in verse, if indeed Thales, in all truth, composed the Astronomy which is attributed to him. Pindar also confesses that he is puzzled by the neglect of a mode of music and is astonished thatUnfortunately the cause of Pindar’s astonishment has been omitted by the copyist, who left a blank here. The fact is that there is nothing dreadful nor abnormal in seeking the causes of such changes; but to do away with these arts and faculties themselves because something about them has been disturbed or changed is not right.
Theon, taking up the subject, said, But these matters have actually undergone great changes and innovations, whereas you know that many of the oracles here have been given out in prose, and those that concerned no unimportant matters. For, as ThucydidesThucydides, i. 118. has recorded, when the Spartans consulted the god about their war against the Athenians, his answer was a promise of victory and power and that he himself would come to their aid, bidden or unbidden; and in another oracle that if they would not allow Pleistoanax to return from exile, they should plough with a silver ploughshare. Ibid. v. 16. The meaning seems to be that they would have to buy their grain.
