Some authorities say that he married and had a son Cybisthus; others that he remained unmarried and adopted his sister’s son, and that when he was asked why he had no children of his own he replied because he loved children. The story is told that, when his mother tried to force him to marry, he replied it was too soon, and when she pressed him again later in life, he replied that it was too late. Hieronymus of Rhodes in the second book of his relates that, in order to show how easy it is to grow rich, Thales, foreseeing that it would be a good season for olives, rented all the oil-mills and thus amassed a fortune.Because, having created a monopoly, he could charge what he pleased. See Aristotle’s version of the story, i. 11, 1259 a 6-18.

His doctrine was that water is the universal primary substance, and that the world is animate and full of divinities. He is said to have discovered the seasons of the year and divided it into 365 days.

He had no instructor, except that he went to Egypt and spent some time with the priests there. Hieronymus informs us that he measured the height of the pyramids by the shadow they cast, taking the observation at the hour when our shadow is of the same length as ourselves. He lived, as Minyas relates, with Thrasybulus, the tyrant of Miletus.

The well-known story of the tripod found by the fishermen and sent by the people of Miletus to all the Wise Men in succession runs as follows.

Certain Ionian youths having purchased of the Milesian fishermen their catch of fish, a dispute arose over the tripod which had formed part of the catch. Finally the Milesians referred the question to Delphi, and the god gave an oracle in this form vi. 51.: Who shall possess the tripod? Thus replies Apollo: Whosoever is most wise.Or in prose: Offspring of Miletus, do you ask Phoebus concerning the tripod? Whoso in wisdom is of all the first, to him the tripod I adjudge. Accordingly they give it to Thales, and he to another, and so on till it comes to Solon, who, with the remark that the god was the most wise, sent it off to Delphi. Callimachus in his has a different version of the story, which he took from Maeandrius of Miletus.Although disguised as Leandrius, the writer meant is Maeandrius, who is known ( no. 2905) to have written a local history of Miletus. Such histories, etg. of Sicyon, Megara, Samos, Naxos, Argolis, Epirus, Thessaly, abounded in the Alexandrian age. It is that Bathycles, an Arcadian, left at his death a bowl with the solemn injunction that it should be given to him who had done most good by his wisdom. So it was given to Thales, went the round of all the sages, and came back to Thales again.

And he sent it to Apollo at Didyma, with this dedication, according to Callimachus: Lord of the folk of Neleus’ line, Thales, of Greeks adjudged most wise, Brings to thy Didymaean shrine His offering, a twice-won prize. But the prose inscription is: Thales the Milesian, son of Examyas [dedicates this] to Delphinian Apollo after twice winning the prize from all the Greeks. The bowl was carried from place to place by the son of Bathycles, whose name was Thyrion, so it is stated by Eleusis in his work and Alexo the Myndian in the ninth book of his

But Eudoxus of Cnidos and Euanthes of Miletus agree that a certain man who was a friend of Croesus received from the king a golden goblet in order to bestow it upon the wisest of the Greeks; this man gave it to Thales, and from him it passed to others and so to Chilon.

Chilon laid the question Who is a wiser man than I? before the Pythian Apollo, and the god replied Myson. Of him we shall have more to say presently. (In the list of the Seven Sages given by Eudoxus, Myson takes the place of Cleobulus; Plato also includes him by omitting Periander.) The answer of the oracle respecting him was as follows vi. 40.: Myson of Chen in Oeta; this is he Who for wiseheartedness surpasseth thee; and it was given in reply to a question put by Anacharsis. Daimachus the Platonist and Clearchus allege that a bowl was sent by Croesus to Pittacus and began the round of the Wise Men from him.