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.
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