adopt no other system than that of Chrysippus. He had abundance of matter, but in style he was not successful. In industry he surpassed every one, as the list of his writings shows; for there are more than 705 of them. He increased their number by arguing repeatedly on the same subject, setting down anything that occurred to him, making many corrections and citing numerous authorities. So much so that in one of his treatises he copied out nearly the whole of Euripides' Medea, and some one who had taken up the volume, being asked what he was reading, replied, "The Medea of Chrysippus."
Apollodorus of Athens in his Collection of Doctrines, wishing to show that what Epicurus wrote with force and originality unaided by quotations was far greater in amount than the books of Chrysippus, says, to quote his exact words, "If one were to strip the books of Chrysippus of all extraneous quotations, his pages would be left bare." So much for Apollodorus. Of Chrysippus the old woman who sat beside him used to say, according to Diocles, that he wrote 500 lines a day. Hecato says that he came to the study of philosophy, because the property which he had inherited from his father had been confiscated to the king's treasury.
In person he was insignificant, as is shown by the statue in the Ceramicus, which is almost hidden by an equestrian statue hard by; and this is why Carneades called him Crypsippus or Horse-hidden.
Once when somebody reproached him for not going with the multitude to hear Ariston, he rejoined, "If I had followed the multitude, I should not have studied philosophy." When some dialectician got up and attacked Cleanthes, proposing sophistical fallacies to him, Chrysippus called to him, "Cease to distract your elder from matters of importance; propound such quibbles to us juniors." Again, when somebody who had a question to ask was steadily conversing with him in private, and then upon seeing a crowd approaching began to be more contentious, he said: Ah! brother mine, thine eye is growing wild: To madness fast thou'rt changing, sane but now. Eur. Or. 253.
At wine-parties he used to behave quietly, though he was unsteady on his legs; which caused the woman-slave to say, "As for Chrysippus, only his legs get tipsy." His opinion of himself was so high that when some one inquired, "To whom shall I entrust my son?" he replied, "To me: for, if I had dreamt of there being anyone better than myself, I should myself be studying with him." Hence, it is said, the application to him of the line Od. x. 495.: He alone has understanding; the others flit shadow-like around; and But for Chrysippus, there had been no Porch.
At last, however,--so we are told by Sotion in his eighth book,--he joined Arcesilaus and Lacydes and studied philosophy under them in the Academy.
And this explains his arguing at one time against, and at another in support of, ordinary experience, and his use of the method of the Academy when treating of magnitudes and numbers.
On one occasion, as Hermippus relates, when he had his school in the Odeum, he was invited by his pupils to a sacrificial feast. There after he had taken a draught of sweet wine unmixed with water, he was seized with dizziness and departed this life five days afterwards, having reached the age of seventy-three years, in the 143rd Olympiad. 208-204 b.c. This is the date given by Apollodorus in his Chronology. I have toyed with the subject in the following verses Anth. Pal. vii.
706.: Chrysippus turned giddy after gulping down a draught of Bacchus; he spared not the Porch nor his country nor his own life, but fared straight to the house of Hades.
Another account is that his death was caused by a violent fit of laughter; for after an ass had eaten up his figs, he cried out to the old woman, "Now give the ass a drink of pure wine to wash down the figs." And thereupon he laughed so heartily that he died.
He appears to have been a very arrogant man. In §§ 185-189; cf. Wilamowitz, Antig. von K. pp. 104 sq. At any rate, of all his many writings he dedicated none to any of the kings. And he was satisfied with one old woman's judgement, says Demetrius in his work called Men of the Same Name. When Ptolemy wrote to Cleanthes requesting him to come himself or else to send some one to his court, Sphaerus undertook the journey, while Chrysippus declined to go. On the other hand, he sent for his sister's sons, Aristocreon and Philocrates, and educated them. Demetrius above mentioned is also our authority for the statement that Chrysippus was the first who ventured to hold a lecture-class in the open air in the Lyceum.
There was another Chrysippus, a native of Cnidus, a physician, Cf. viii. 89-90, and note ad loc.; also Pliny, N.H.
xxix. 5. to whom Erasistratus says that he was under great obligation. And another besides, a son Or perhaps a grandson, as Wilamowitz suggests, Antig. von Kar. p. 326. of the former, court-physician to Ptolemy, who on a false charge was dragged about and castigated with the lash. And yet another was a pupil of Erasistratus, and another the author of a work on Agriculture.
To return to the philosopher. He used to propound arguments such as the following: "He who divulges the mysteries to the uninitiated is guilty of impiety. Now the hierophant certainly does reveal the mysteries to the uninitiated, ergo he is guilty of impiety." Cf. supr. ii.
101. Or again: "What is not in the city is not in the house either: now there is no well in the city, ergo there is none in the house either." Yet another: "There is a certain head, and that head you have not. Now this being so, there is a head which you have not, therefore you are without a head."
Again: "If anyone is in Megara, he is not in Athens: now there is a man in Megara, therefore there is not a man in Athens." Again: "If you say something, it passes through your lips: now you say wagon, consequently a wagon passes through your lips." And further: "If you never lost something, you have it still ; but you never lost horns, ergo you have horns." Others attribute this to Eubulides.
There are people who run Chrysippus down as having written much in a tone that is gross and indecent. For in his work On the ancient Natural Philosophers at line 600 or thereabouts he interprets the story of Hera and Zeus coarsely, with details which no one would soil his lips by repeating.
Indeed, his interpretation of the story is condemned as most indecent. He may be commending physical doctrine; but the language used is more appropriate to street-walkers than to deities; and it is moreover not even mentioned by bibliographers, who wrote on the titles of books. What Chrysippus makes of it is not to be found in Polemo nor Hypsicrates, no, nor even in Antigonus. It is his own invention. Again, in his Republic he permits marriage with mothers and daughters and sons. He says the same in his work On Things for their own Sake not Desirable, right at the outset.
In the third book of his treatise On Justice, at about line 1000, he permits eating of the corpses of the dead.
And in the second book of his On the Means of Livelihood, where he professes to be considering a priori how the wise man is to get his living, occur the words: "And yet what reason is there that he should provide a living? For if it be to support life, life itself is after all a thing indifferent. If it be for pleasure, pleasure too is a thing indifferent. While if it be for virtue, virtue in itself is sufficient to constitute happiness. The modes of getting a livelihood are also ludicrous, as e.g. maintenance by a king; for he will have to be humoured: or by friends; for friendship will then be purchasable for money: or living by wisdom; for so wisdom will become mercenary." These are the objections urged against him.
As the reputation of his writings stands so high, I have decided to make a separate catalogue of them, arranged according to the class of subject treated. And they are as follows: I. Logic.
Logical Theses.
The Philosopher's Inquiries.
Dialectical Definitions addressed to Metrodorus, six books.
On the Terms used in Dialectic, addressed to Zeno, one book.
Art of Dialectic, addressed to Aristagoras, one book.
Probable Hypothetical Judgements, addressed to Dioscurides, four books.
II. Logic dealing with the subject matter.
First series: Of Judgements, one book.
Of Judgements which are not Simple, one book.
Of the Complex Judgement, addressed to Athenades, two books.
Of Negative Judgements, addressed to Aristagoras, three books.
Of Affirmative Judgements, addressed to Athenodorus, one book.
Of Judgements expressed by means of Privation, addressed to Thearus, one book.
Of Indefinite Judgements, addressed to Dion, three books.
On the Variety of Indefinite Judgements, four books.
On Temporal Judgements, two books.
On Judgements in the Perfect Tense, two books.
Second series: Of a True Disjunctive Judgement, addressed to Gorgippides, one book.
Of a True Hypothetical Judgement, addressed to Gorgippides, four books.
Choosing from Alternatives, addressed to Gorgippides, one book.
A Contribution to the Subject of Consequents, one book.
On the Argument which employs three Terms, also addressed to Gorgippides, one book.
On Judgements of Possibility, addressed to Clitus, four books.
A Reply to the Work of Philo on Meanings, one book.
On the Question what are False Judgements, one book.
Third series: Of Imperatives, two books.
Of Asking Questions, two books.
Of Inquiry, four books.
Epitome of Interrogation and Inquiry, one book.
Epitome of Reply, one book.
Of Investigation, two books.
Of Answering Questions, four books.
Fourth series: Of Predicates, addressed to Metrodorus, ten books.
Of Nominatives and Oblique Cases, addressed to Phylarchus, one book.
Of Hypothetical Syllogisms, addressed to Apollonides, one book.
A Work, addressed to Pasylus, on Predicates, four books.
Fifth series : Of the Five Cases, one book.
Of Enunciations classified according to subject matter, one book.
Of Modification of Significance, addressed to Stesagoras, two books.
Of Proper Nouns, two books.
III. Logic, as concerned with words or phrases and the sentence.
First series: Of Singular and Plural Expressions, six books.
On Single Words, addressed to Sosigenes and Alexander, five books.
Of Anomalous Words or Phrases, addressed to Dion, four books.
Of the Sorites Argument as applied to Uttered Words, three books.
On Solecisms, one book.
On Solecistic Sentences, addressed to Dionysius, one book.
Sentences violating Ordinary Usage, one book.
Diction, addressed to Dionysius, one book.
Second series: Of the Elements of Speech and on Words Spoken, five books.
Of the Arrangement of Words Spoken, four books.
Of the Arrangement and Elements of Sentences, addressed to Philip, three books.
Of the Elements of Speech, addressed to Nicias, one book.
Of the Relative Term, one book.
Third series: Against Those who reject Division, two books.
On Ambiguous Forms of Speech, addressed to Apollas, four books.
On Figurative Ambiguities, one book.
Of Ambiguity in the Moods of the Hypothetical Syllogism, two books.
A Reply to the Work of Panthoides on Ambiguities, two books.
Introduction to the Study of Ambiguities, five books.
Epitome of the Work on Ambiguities, addressed to Epicrates, one book.
Materials collected for the Introduction to the Study of Ambiguities, two books.
IV. Logic as concerned with syllogisms and moods.
First series: Handbook of Arguments and Moods, addressed to Dioscurides, five books.
Of Syllogisms, three books.
Of the Construction of Moods, addressed to Stesagoras, two books.
Comparison of the Judgements expressed in the Moods, one book.
Of Reciprocal and Hypothetical Syllogisms, one book.
To Agathon, or Of the Problems that remain, one book.
On the Question what Premisses are capable of demonstrating a given Conclusion with the Aid of one or more Subsidiary Premisses, one book.
Of Inferences, addressed to Aristagoras, one book.
How the same Syllogism may be drawn up in several Moods, one book.
Reply to the Objections brought against drawing out the same Argument syllogistically and without a Syllogism, two books.
Reply to the Objections against the Analyses of Syllogisms, three books.
Reply to Philo's Work on Moods, addressed to Timostratus, one book.
Collected Logical Writings, addressed to Timocrates and Philomathes: a Criticism of their Works on Moods and Syllogisms, one book.
Second series: On Conclusive Arguments, addressed to Zeno, one book.
On the Primary Indemonstrable Syllogisms, addressed to Zeno, one book.
On the Analysis of Syllogisms, one book.
Of Redundant Arguments, addressed to Pasylus, two books.
Of the Rules for Syllogisms, one book.
Of Introductory or Elementary Syllogisms, addressed to Zeno, one book.
Of the Introductory Moods, addressed to Zeno, three books.
Of the Syllogisms under False Figures, five books.
Syllogistic Arguments by Resolution in Indemonstrable Arguments, one book.
Inquiries into the Moods: addressed to Zeno and Philomathes, one book. (This appears to be spurious.)
Third series: On Variable Arguments, addressed to Athenades, one book. (This also is spurious.)
Variable Arguments concerning the Mean, three books. (Spurious.)
A Reply to Ameinias' "Disjunctive Syllogisms," one book.
Fourth series: On Hypotheses, addressed to Meleager, three books.
Hypothetical Syllogisms upon the Laws, again addressed to Meleager, one book.
Hypothetical Syllogisms to serve as Introduction, two books.
Hypothetical Syllogisms consisting of Theorems, two books.
Solutions of the Hypothetical Arguments of Hedylus, two books.
Solutions of the Hypothetical Arguments of Alexander, three books. (Spurious.)
On Explanatory Symbols, addressed to Laodamas, one book.
Fifth series: Introduction to the Mentiens A well-known fallacy; see Book II. § 108. Argument, addressed to Aristocreon, one book.
Arguments of the Mentiens Type, to serve as Introduction, one book.
Of the Mentiens Argument, addressed to Aristocreon, six books.
Sixth series: Reply to those who hold that Propositions may be at once False and True, one book.
To those who solve the Mentiens by dissecting it, addressed to Aristocreon, two books.
Proofs showing that Indefinite Arguments ought not to be dissected, one book.
Reply to Objections urged against those who condemn the Dissection of Indefinite Arguments, addressed to Pasylus, three books.
Solution in the Style of the Ancients, addressed to Dioscurides, one book.
On the Solution of the Mentiens, addressed to Aristocreon, three books.
Solutions of the Hypothetical Arguments of Hedylus, addressed to Aristocreon and Apollas, one book.
Seventh series: To those who maintain that the Premisses of the Mentiens are false, one book.
Of the Sceptic who denies, addressed to Aristocreon, two books.
Negative Arguments, to serve as Logical Exercises, one book.
Of the Argument from Small Increments, addressed to Stesagoras, two books.
Of the Arguments affecting Ordinary Suppositions and on those who are Inactive or Silent, addressed to Onetor, two books.
Of the Fallacy of "the Veiled Person," addressed to Aristobulus, two books.
On the Puzzle of "the Man who escapes Detection," addressed to Athenades, one book.
Eighth series: Of the "Nobody" Puzzle, addressed to Menecrates, eight books.
Of the Arguments derived from the Indeterminate and the Determined, addressed to Pasylus, two books.
Of the "Nobody" Argument, addressed to Epicrates, one book.
Ninth series: Of Sophisms, addressed to Heraclides and Pollis, two books.
Of Dialectical Puzzles, addressed to Dioscurides, five books.
Reply to the Method of Arcesilaus, dedicated to Sphaerus, one book.
Tenth series: Attack upon Common Sense, addressed to Metrodorus, six books.
Defence of Common Sense, addressed to Gorgippides, seven books.
V. Under Logic.
Thirty-nine investigations outside the range of the four above-mentioned main divisions dealing with isolated logical investigations not included in separate wholes of the subjects enumerated. The total of the logical writings is three hundred and eleven.
1. Ethics dealing with the classification of ethical conceptions.
First series: Outline of Ethical Theory, addressed to Theoporos, one book.
Ethical Theses, one book.
Probable Premisses for Ethical Doctrines, addressed to Philomathes, three books.
Definitions of the Good or Virtuous, addressed to Metrodorus, two books.
Definitions of the Bad or Vicious, addressed to Metrodorus, two books.
Definitions of the Morally Intermediate, addressed to Metrodorus, two books.
Definitions of the Generic Notions [in Ethics], addressed to Metrodorus, seven books.
Definitions concerned with other Branches of Science, addressed to Metrodorus, two books.
Second series: Of Similes, addressed to Aristocles, three books.
Of Definitions, addressed to Metrodorus, seven books.
Third series: Of the Objections wrongly urged against the Definitions, addressed to Laodamas, seven books.
Probabilities in Support of the Definitions, addressed to Dioscurides, two books.
Of Species and Genera, addressed to Gorgippides, two books.
Of Classifications, one book.
Of Contraries, addressed to Dionysius, two books.
Probable Arguments relative to the Classifications, Genera and Species, and the Treatment of Contraries, one book.
Fourth series: Of Etymological Matters, addressed to Diocles, seven books.
Points of Etymology, addressed to Diocles, four books.
Fifth series: Of Proverbs, addressed to Zenodotus, two books.
Of Poems, addressed to Philomathes, one book.
On the Right Way of reading Poetry, two books.
A Reply to Critics, addressed to Diodorus, one book.
2.
Ethics dealing with the common view and the sciences and virtues thence arising.
First series: Against the Touching up of Paintings, addressed to Timonax, one book.
How it is we name each Thing and form a Conception of it, one book.
Of Conceptions, addressed to Laodamas, two books.
Of Opinion or Assumption, addressed to Pythonax, three books.
Proofs that the Wise Man will not hold Opinions, Cf.
supra, § 162. one book.
Of Apprehension, of Knowledge and of Ignorance, Cf.
Cicero, Acad. post. 42 "sed inter scientiam et inscientiam comprehensionem illam, quam dixi, collocabat" [ sc. Zeno]; Sext. Emp. Adv.
math. vii. 151. four books.
Of Reason, two books.
Of the Use of Reason, addressed to Leptines.
Second series: That the Ancients rightly admitted Dialectic as well as Demonstration, addressed to Zeno, two books.
Of Dialectic, addressed to Aristocreon, four books.
Of the Objections urged against the Dialecticians, three books.
Of Rhetoric, addressed to Dioscurides, four books.
Third series: Of formed State, or Habit, of Mind, addressed to Cleon, three books.
Of Art and the Inartistic, addressed to Aristocreon, four books.
Of the Difference between the Virtues, addressed to Diodorus, four books.
Of the Characters of the several Virtues, one book.
Of Virtues, addressed to Pollis, two books.
3. Ethics, dealing with things good and evil.
First series: Of the Good or Morally Beautiful and Pleasure, addressed to Aristocreon, ten books.
Proofs that Pleasure is not the End-in-chief of Action, four books.
Proofs that Pleasure is not a Good, four books.
Of the Arguments commonly used on Behalf of [Pleasure].
BOOK VIII Chapter 1.
Having now completed our account of the philosophy of Ionia starting with Thales, as well as of its chief representatives, let us proceed to examine the philosophy of Italy, which was started by Pythagoras, Compare Clement Alex. Strom. i. 62 favours the connexion with Phoenicia, so that the boy Pythagoras was instructed there by Chaldaeans before, on his return to Samos, he enjoyed the instruction of Pherecydes of Syros and of Hermodainas of Samos. son of the gem-engraver Mnesarchus, and according to Hermippus, a Samian, or, according to Aristoxenus, a Tyrrhenian from one of those islands which the Athenians held after clearing them of their Tyrrhenian inhabitants. Some indeed say that he was descended through Euthyphro, Hippasus and Marmacus from Cleonymus, who was exiled from Phlius, and that, as Marmacus lived in Samos, so Pythagoras was called a Samian.
From Samos he went, it is said, to Lesbos with an introduction to Pherecydes from his uncle Zoïlus. He had three silver flagons made and took them as presents to each of the priests of Egypt. He had brothers, of whom Eunomus was the elder and Tyrrhenus the second; he also had a slave, Zamolxis, who is worshipped, so says Herodotus, iv. 93 sq. by the Getans, as Cronos. He was a pupil, as already stated, of Pherecydes of Syros, after whose death he went to Samos to be the pupil of Hermodamas, Creophylus's descendant, a man already advanced in years. While still young, so eager was he for knowledge, he left his own country and had himself initiated into all the mysteries and rites not only of Greece but also of foreign countries.
Now he was in Egypt when Polycrates sent him a letter of introduction to Amasis; he learnt the Egyptian language, so we learn from Antiphon in his book On Men of Outstanding Merit, and he also journeyed among the Chaldaeans and Magi. Then while in Crete he went down into the cave of Ida with Epimenides; he also entered the Egyptian sanctuaries, Compare Clement Alex. Strom. i. 66 *qalh=s...toi=s was told their secret lore concerning the gods. After that he returned to Samos to find his country under the tyranny of Polycrates; so he sailed away to Croton in Italy, and there he laid down a constitution for the Italian Greeks, and he and his followers were held in great estimation; for, being nearly three hundred in number, so well did they govern the state that its constitution was in effect a true aristocracy (government by the best).
This is what Heraclides of Pontus tells us he used to say about himself: that he had once been Aethalides and was accounted to be Hermes' son, and Hermes told him he might choose any gift he liked except immortality; so he asked to retain through life and through death a memory of his experiences. Hence in life he could recall everything, and when he died he still kept the same memories. Afterwards in course of time his soul entered into Euphorbus and he was wounded by Menelaus. Now Euphorbus used to say that he had once been Aethalides and obtained this gift from Hermes, and then he told of the wanderings of his soul, how it migrated hither and thither, into how many plants and animals it had come, and all that it underwent in Hades, and all that the other souls there have to endure.
When Euphorbus died, his soul passed into Hermotimus, and he also, wishing to authenticate the story, went up to the temple of Apollo at Branchidae, where he identified the shield which Menelaus, on his voyage home from Troy, had dedicated to Apollo, so he said: the shield being now so rotten through and through that the ivory facing only was left. When Hermotimus died, he became Pyrrhus, a fisherman of Delos, and again he remembered everything, how he was first Aethalides, then Euphorbus, then Hermotimus, and then Pyrrhus. But when Pyrrhus died, he became Pythagoras, and still remembered all the facts mentioned.
There are some who insist, absurdly enough, that Pythagoras left no writings whatever. At all events Heraclitus, the physicist, Fr. 129 D., 17 B. almost shouts in our ear, "Pythagoras, son of Mnesarchus, practised inquiry beyond all other men, and in this selection of his writings made himself a wisdom of his own, showing much learning but poor workmanship." The occasion of this remark was the opening words of Pythagoras's treatise On Nature, namely, "Nay, I swear by the air I breathe, I swear by the water I drink, I will never suffer censure on account of this work." Pythagoras in fact wrote three books. On Education, On Statesmanship, and On Nature.
But the book which passes as the work of Pythagoras is by Lysis of Tarentum, a Pythagorean, who fled to Thebes and taught Epaminondas. §§ 6-7 e)/nioi me\n kaqhgh same/no u.
Hesychius in Suidas ( s.v. ), an authority older than Schol. Plat. 600 B, proves that this passage is a coherent whole. The fragment of Heraclitus (B 129 Diels, 17 Byw.) is certainly genuine. There may be, in i(stori/ hn, an allusion to the study of mensuration in Egypt. The pretended explanation, "he spoke thus because..." introduces an extract from a work which, like all those attributed to Pythagoras, must have been a late forgery. Heraclides, the son of Serapion, in his Epitome of Sotion, says that he also wrote a poem On the Universe, and secondly the Sacred Poem which begins: Young men, come reverence in quietude All these my words ; thirdly On the Soul, fourthly Of Piety, fifthly Helothales the Father of Epicharmus of Cos, sixthly Croton, and other works as well. The same authority says that the poem On the Mysteries was written by Hippasus to defame Pythagoras, and that many others written by Aston of Croton were ascribed to Pythagoras.
Aristoxenus says that Pythagoras got most of his moral doctrines from the Delphic priestess Themistoclea. According to Ion of Chios in his Triagmi he ascribed some poems of his own making to The same fragment is found in Clem. Alex. Strom. i. 131 *)/iwn de\ o( *xi=os i=. The verbal agreement, except for tina i(store i=, is exact. They further attribute to him the Scopiads which begins thus : Be not shameless, before any man.
Sosicrates in his Successions of Philosophers says that, when Leon the tyrant of Phlius asked him who he was, he said, "A philosopher," Cf. i. 12, whence it would seem that Sosicrates used Heraclides of Pontus as his authority for this anecdote.
and that he compared life to the Great Games, where some went to compete for the prize and others went with wares to sell, but the best as spectators; for similarly, in life, some grow up with servile natures, greedy for fame and gain, but the philosopher seeks for truth. Thus much for this part of the subject.
The contents in general of the aforesaid three treatises of Pythagoras are as follows. He forbids us to pray for ourselves, because we do not know what will help us. Drinking he calls, in a word, a snare, and he discountenances all excess, saying that no one should go beyond due proportion either in drinking or in eating. Of sexual indulgence, too, he says, "Keep to the winter for sexual pleasures, in summer abstain; they are less harmful in autumn and spring, but they are always harmful and not conducive to health." Asked once when a man should consort with a woman, he replied, "When you want to lose what strength you have."
He divides man's life into four quarters thus: "Twenty years a boy, twenty years a youth, twenty years a young man, twenty years an old man; and these four periods correspond to the four seasons, the boy to spring, the youth to summer, the young man to autumn, and the old man to winter," meaning by youth one not yet grown up and by a young man a man of mature age. According to Timaeus, he was the first to say, "Friends have all things in common" and "Friendship is equality"; indeed, his disciples did put all their possessions into one common stock. For five whole years they had to keep silence, merely listening to his discourses without seeing him, Because he lectured at night; cf. § 15 nukter inh\ a)kro/as1 is. until they passed an examination, and thenceforward they were admitted to his house and allowed to see him. They would never use coffins of cypress, because the sceptre of Zeus was made from it, so we are informed by Hermippus in his second book On Pythagoras.
Indeed, his bearing is said to have been most dignified, and his disciples held the opinion about him that he was Apollo come down from the far north. There is a story that once, when he was disrobed, his thigh was seen to be of gold; and when he crossed the river Nessus, quite a number of people said they heard it welcome him. According to Timaeus in the tenth book of his History, he remarked that the consorts of men bore divine names, being called first Virgins, then Brides, and then Mothers. The allusion is to the Nymphs and the heavenly pair, mother and daughter (Demeter and Persephone). He it was who brought geometry to perfection, while it was Moeris who first discovered the beginnings of the elements of geometry: Anticlides in his second book On Alexander Scriptorum Alex. ill. fr. p. 147. affirms this, and further that Pythagoras spent most of his time upon the arithmetical aspect of geometry; he also discovered the musical intervals on the monochord. Nor did he neglect even medicine. We are told by Apollodorus the calculator that he offered a sacrifice of oxen on finding that in a right-angled triangle the square on the hypotenuse is equal to the squares on the sides containing the right angle. And there is an epigram running as follows Anth. Pal. vii. 119.: What time Pythagoras that famed figure found, For which the noble offering he brought.
He is also said to have been the first to diet athletes on meat, trying first with Eurymenes The story of Eurymenes was known to Porphyry, Vit.
Pyth. 18. We can still see how these quotations made by D. L.
himself from Favorinus disturb the context. -- so we learn from Favorinus in the third book of his Memorabilia --whereas in former times they had trained on dried figs, on butter, Or rather "soft cheese"; cf. supra,i. § 7, note. and even on wheatmeal, as we are told by the same Favorinus in the eighth book of his Miscellaneous History.
Some say it was a certain trainer named Pythagoras who instituted this diet, Cf.
Iamblichus, Vit. Pyth. 25, and Porphyry, De abstinentia, i. 26. and not our Pythagoras, who forbade even the killing, let alone the eating, of animals which share with us the privilege of having a soul. This was the excuse put forward; but his real reason for forbidding animal diet was to practise people and accustom them to simplicity of life, so that they could live on things easily procurable, spreading their tables with uncooked foods and drinking pure water only, for this was the way to a healthy body and a keen mind. Of course the only altar at which he worshipped was that of Apollo the Giver of Life, behind the Altar of Horns at Delos, for thereon were placed flour and meal and cakes, without the use of fire, and there was no animal victim, as we are told by Aristotle in his Constitution of Delos.
He was the first, they say, to declare that the soul, bound now in this creature, now in that, thus goes on a round ordained of necessity. He too, according to Aristoxenus the musician, was the first to introduce weights and measures into Greece. It was he who first declared that the Evening and Morning Stars are the same, as Parmenides maintains. Cf. inf. ix. 23. So greatly was he admired that his disciples used to be called "prophets to declare the voice of God," besides which he himself says in a written work that "after two hundred and seven years in Hades he has returned to the land of the living." Thus it was that they remained his staunch adherents, and men came to hear his words from afar, among them Lucanians, Peucetians, Messapians and Romans.
Down to the time of Philolaus it was not possible to acquire knowledge of any Pythagorean doctrine, and Philolaus alone brought out those three celebrated books which Plato sent a hundred minas to purchase. Not less than six hundred persons went to his evening lectures; and those who were privileged to see him wrote to their friends congratulating themselves on a great piece of good fortune. Moreover, the Metapontines named his house the Temple of Demeter and his porch the Museum, so we learn from Favorinus in his Miscellaneous History. See, however, Porphyry, Vit. Pyth. 4, who cites as his authority Timaeus the Sicilian historian ( F.H.G. i. p. 211, Fr. 78), who was not improbably the source used by Favorinus. And the rest of the Pythagoreans used to say that not all his doctrines were for all men to hear, our authority for this being Aristoxenus in the tenth book of his Rules of Pedagogy, where we are also told that one of the school, Xenophilus by name, asked by some one how he could best educate his son, replied, "By making him the citizen of a well-governed state." Throughout Italy Pythagoras made many into good men and true, men too of note like the lawgivers Zaleucus and Charondas; for he had a great gift for friendship, and especially, when he found his own watchwords adopted by anyone, he would immediately take to that man and make a friend of him.
The following were his watchwords or precepts: don't stir the fire with a knife, don't step over the beam of a balance, don't sit down on your bushel, The xoi=nic was about a quart, in dry measure. don't eat your heart, don't help a man off with a load but help him on, always roll your bed-clothes up, don't put God's image on the circle of a ring, don't leave the pan's imprint on the ashes, don't wipe up a mess with a torch, don't commit a nuisance towards the sun, don't walk the highway, don't shake hands too eagerly, don't have swallows under your own roof, don't keep birds with hooked claws, don't make water on nor stand upon your nail-and hair-trimmings, turn the sharp blade away, when you go abroad don't turn round at the frontier.
This is what they meant. Don't stir the fire with a knife: don't stir the passions or the swelling pride of the great. Don't step over the beam of a balance: don't overstep the bounds of equity and justice. Don't sit down on your bushel: have the same care of to-day and the future, a bushel being the day's ration. By not eating your heart he meant not wasting your life in troubles and pains. By saying do not turn round when you go abroad, he meant to advise those who are departing this life not to set their hearts' desire on living nor to be too much attracted by the pleasures of this life. The explanations of the rest are similar and would take too long to set out.
Above all, he forbade as food red mullet and blacktail, and he enjoined abstinence from the hearts of animals and from beans, and sometimes, according to Aristotle, even from paunch and gurnard. Some say that he contented himself with just some honey or a honeycomb or bread, never touching wine in the daytime, and with greens boiled or raw for dainties, and fish but rarely. His robe was white and spotless, his quilts of white wool, for linen had not yet reached those parts. He was never known to over-eat, to behave loosely, or to be drunk.
He would avoid laughter and all pandering to tastes such as insulting