that Thales was enrolled as a citizen in Miletus along with Neleus. Friedrich Nietzsche interprets this as meaning "only that his forefathers belonged to the seafaring people of Cadmus". However, Diogenes Laërtius then reports of a conflicting account, stating that: "Most writers, however, represent him as a genuine Milesian and of a distinguished family". In addition, his supposed mother, Cleobulina, has also been described as his companion instead of his mother. The probability is that Thales was as Greek as most Milesians. It is possible that he was of mixed ancestry as his ancestors were likely Cadmeians from Boeotia coupled with the fact of his father having a Carian name. Encyclopedia Britannica (1952) concluded that Thales was most likely a native Milesian of noble birth and that he was certainly a Greek. Diogenes continues, by delivering more conflicting reports: one that Thales married and either fathered a son (Cybisthus or Cybisthon) or adopted his nephew of the same name; the second that he never married, telling his mother as a young man that it was too early to marry, and as an older man that it was too late. Plutarch had earlier told this version: Solon visited Thales and asked him why he remained single; Thales answered that he did not like the idea of having to worry about children. Nevertheless, several years later, anxious for family, he adopted his nephew Cybisthus. Travels Some assume that Thales, at one point in his life, visited Egypt, where he learned about geometry. It is not impossible that Thales visited Egypt, since Miletus had a permanent colony there (namely Naucratis), however visits to Egypt were a commonplace attribution to various philosophers by later writers, especially when these writers tried to explain mathematical knowledge. However, Thales may have known about Egypt from accounts of others, without actually visiting it. There is no strong evidence that Thales ever visited countries in the Near East. Activities Thales (who was born about 50 years before Pythagoras and 300 years before Euclid) is often hailed as "the first Greek mathematician". While some historians, such as Colin R. Fletcher, point out that there could have been a predecessor to Thales who would have been named in Eudemus' lost book History of Geometry, it is admitted that without the work "the question becomes mere speculation." Fletcher holds that as there is no viable predecessor to the title of first Greek