losophy. Our knowledge of Pyrrho is
gained from Aristocles, Sextus Empiricus, and Diogenes, and from
the Academic traditions given by Cicero. Diogenes gives us
details of his life which he attributes to Antigonus of
Carystius, who lived about the time of Pyrrho.[4] Pyrrho was a
disciple and admirer of Democritus,[5] some of whose teachings
bore a lasting influence over the subsequent development of
Pyrrhonism. He accompanied Alexander the Great to India, where
he remained as a member of his suite for some time, and the
philosophical ideas of India were not without influence on his
teachings. Oriental philosophy was not unknown in Greece long
before the time of Pyrrho, but his personal contact with the
Magi and the Gymnosophists of the far East, apparently impressed
upon his mind teachings for which he was not unprepared by his
previous study and natural disposition. In his indifference to
worldly goods we find a strong trace of the Buddhistic teaching
regarding the vanity of human life. He showed also a similar
hopelessness in regard to the possibility of finding a
satisfactory philosophy, or absolute truth. He evidently
returned from India with the conviction that truth was not to be
attained.[6]

[1] Diog. IX. 11, 65. Given from Mullach's edition of
Timon by Brochard, _Pyrrhon et le Scepticism primitive_,
p. 525.

[2] Diog. IX. 11, 69.

[3] Lewes _Op. cit._ p. 460.

[4] Diog. IX. 11, 62.

[5] Diog. IX. 11, 67.

[6] Compare Maccoll _Op. cit._

After the death of Alexander and Pyrrho's return to Greece, he
lived quietly with his sister at Elis, and Diogenes says that he
was consistent in his life, asserting and denying nothing, but
in everything withholding his opinion, as nothing in itself is
good or shameful, just or unjust.[1] He was not a victim of
false pride, but sold animals in the market place, and, if
necessary, washed the utensils himself.[2] He lived in equality
of spirit, and practised his teachings with serenity. If one
went out while he was talking he paid no attention, but went
calmly on with his remarks.[3] He liked to live alone, and to
travel alone, and on one occasion, being knocked about in a
vessel by a storm at sea, he did not lose his imperturbability,
but pointed to a swine calmly eating on board, and said that the
wise man should have as much calmness of soul as that. He
endured difficult surgical operations with indifference,[4] and
when his