Editing Epimenides (section)

==Life==
While tending his father's sheep, Epimenides is said to have fallen asleep for fifty-seven years in a [[Crete|Cretan]] cave sacred to [[Zeus]], after which he reportedly awoke with the gift of prophecy ([[Diogenes Laërtius]] i. 109–115). [[Plutarch]] writes that Epimenides purified [[Athens]] after the pollution brought by the [[Alcmeonidae]], and that the seer's expertise in [[sacrifice]]s and reform of funeral practices were of great help to [[Solon]] in his reform of the Athenian state. The only reward he would accept was a branch of the sacred olive, and a promise of perpetual friendship between Athens and [[Knossos]] (Plutarch, ''Life of Solon'', 12; [[Aristotle]], ''[[Constitution of the Athenians (Aristotle)|Ath. Pol]]''. 1).

[[Athenaeus]] also mentions him, in connection with the self-sacrifice of the [[Pederasty in ancient Greece|''erastes'' and ''eromenos'']] pair of [[Aristodemus and Cratinus]], who were believed to have given their lives in order to purify Athens. Even in antiquity there were those who held the story to be mere fiction (''The Deipnosophists,'' XIII. 78–79). Diogenes Laërtius preserves a number of spurious letters between Epimenides and [[Solon]] in his ''Lives of the Philosophers''. Epimenides was also said to have prophesied at [[Sparta]] on military matters.

He died in Crete at an advanced age; according to his countrymen, who afterwards honoured him as a god, he lived nearly three hundred years. According to another story, he was taken prisoner in a war between the Spartans and Knossians, and put to death by his captors, because he refused to prophesy favourably for them. [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] reports that when Epimenides died, his skin was found to be covered with [[tattoo]]ed writing. This was considered odd, because the Greeks reserved tattooing for [[slave]]s. Some modern [[scholar]]s{{who|date=March 2025}} have seen this as evidence that Epimenides was heir to the [[Shamanism|shamanic]] [[religion]]s of [[Central Asia]], because tattooing is often associated with shamanic [[initiation]].{{citation needed|date=March 2025}} The skin of Epimenides was preserved at the courts of the [[ephores]] in [[Sparta]], conceivably as a good-luck charm.

According to Diogenes Laërtius, Epimenides met [[Pythagoras]] in Crete, and they went to the [[Mount Ida (Crete)#Idaean Cave|Cave of Ida]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Hicks |first=R.D. |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0258%3Abook%3D8%3Achapter%3D1 |title=PYTHAGORAS (c. 582-500 B.C.) |publisher=Diogenes Laertius |year=1972}}</ref>