Pyrrho
（
Πύρρων). The founder of the Sceptical or Pyrrhonian
School of philosophy, a native of Elis in the Peloponnesus. He is said to have been poor, and
to have followed at first the profession of a painter. He is then said to have been attracted
to philosophy by the books of Democritus, to have attended the lectures of Bryson, a disciple
of Stilpon, to have attached himself closely to Anaxarchus, and with him to have joined the
expedition of Alexander the Great. During the greater part of his life he lived in retirement,
and endeavoured to render himself independent of all external circumstances. His disciple
Timon extolled with admiration his supreme repose of soul and his indifference to pleasure or
pain. So highly was he valued by his fellow-citizens that they made him their high-priest, and
erected a monument to him after his death. The Athenians conferred upon him the rights of
citizenship. We know little respecting the principles of his sceptical philosophy, and the
tales told about him by Diogenes Laertius are probably the invention of his enemies. He
asserted that certain knowledge on any subject was unattainable, and that the great object of
man ought to be to lead a virtuous life. Pyrrho wrote no works, except a poem addressed to
Alexander, which was rewarded by the latter in a royal manner. Pyrrho's philosophical system
was first reduced to writing by his disciple Timon the Sillographer. (See
Timon.) He reached the age of ninety years, but his dates are uncertain.
