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| Pythagoras; His Cosmogony; Rules of His Sect; Discoverer of Physiognomy; His Philosophy of Numbers; His System of the Transmigration of Souls; Zaratas on Demons; Why Pythagoras Forbade the Eating of Beans; The Mode of Living Adopted by His Disciples.
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Chapter
II.—Pythagoras; His Cosmogony; Rules of His Sect; Discoverer of
Physiognomy; His Philosophy of Numbers; His System of the
Transmigration of Souls; Zaratas on Demons; Why Pythagoras Forbade the
Eating of Beans; The Mode of Living Adopted by His
Disciples.
But there was also, not far from these times,
another philosophy which Pythagoras originated (who some say was a
native of Samos), which they have denominated Italian, because that
Pythagoras, flying from Polycrates the king of Samos, took up his
residence in a city of Italy, and there passed the entire of his
remaining years. And they who received in succession his
doctrine, did not much differ from the same opinion. And this
person, instituting an investigation concerning natural
phenomena,45
combined together
astronomy, and geometry, and music.46
| 46 “And
arithmetic” (added by Roeper). | And so he proclaimed that the Deity is
a monad; and carefully acquainting himself with the nature of
number, he affirmed that the world sings, and that its system
corresponds with harmony, and he first resolved the motion of the seven
stars into rhythm and melody. And being astonished at the
management of the entire fabric, he required that at first his
disciples should keep silence, as if persons coming into the world
initiated in (the secrets of) the universe; next, when it seemed that
they were sufficiently conversant with his mode of teaching his
doctrine, and could forcibly philosophize concerning the stars and
nature, then, considering them pure, he enjoins them to speak.
This man distributed his pupils in two orders, and called the one
esoteric, but the other exoteric. And to the former he confided
more advanced doctrines, and to the latter a more moderate amount of
instruction.
And he also touched on magic—as they
say—and himself47
discovered an art
of physiogony,48
laying down as a
basis certain numbers and measures, saying that they comprised the
principle of arithmetical philosophy by composition after this
manner. The first number became an originating principle, which
is one, indefinable, incomprehensible, having in itself all numbers
that, according to plurality, can go on ad
infinitum. But the primary monad became a principle of
numbers, according to substance,49
| 49 Or,
“in conformity with his hypothesis.” | —which is a male monad,
begetting after the manner of a parent all the rest of the
numbers. Secondly, the duad is a female number, and the same also
is by arithmeticians termed even. Thirdly, the triad is a male
number. This also has been classified by arithmeticians under the denomination
uneven. And in addition to all these is the tetrad, a female
number; and the same also is called even, because it is female.
Therefore all the numbers that have been derived from the genus are
four; but number is the indefinite genus, from which was constituted,
according to them, the perfect50
number,
viz., the decade. For one, two, three, four, become ten, if its
proper denomination be preserved essentially for each of the
numbers. Pythagoras affirmed this to be a sacred quaternion,
source of everlasting nature,51
having,
as it were, roots in itself; and that from this number all the numbers
receive their originating principle. For eleven, and twelve, and
the rest, partake of the origin of existence52
from ten. Of this decade, the perfect
number, there are termed four divisions,—namely, number,
monad,53
| 53 It should be
probably, “monad, number.” The monad was with
Pythagoras, and in imitation of him with Leibnitz, the highest
generalization of number, and a conception in abstraction, commensurate
with what we call essence, whether of matter or spirit. | square, (and)
cube. And the connections and blendings of these are performed,
according to nature, for the generation of growth completing the
productive number. For when the square itself is
multiplied54
| 54 Κοβισθῂ
in text must be rendered “multiplied.” The
formulary is self-evident: (a2)2 =
a4, (a2)3 = a6,
(a3)3 = a9. | into itself, a
biquadratic is the result. But when the square is multiplied into
the cube, the result is the product of a square and cube; and when the
cube is multiplied into the cube, the product of two cubes is the
result. So that all the numbers from which the production of
existing (numbers) arises, are seven,—namely, number, monad,
square, cube, biquadratic, quadratic-cube, cubo-cube.
This philosopher likewise said that the soul is
immortal, and that it subsists in successive bodies. Wherefore he
asserted that before the Trojan era he was Æthalides,55
| 55 Or
Thallis. Æthalides, a son of Hermes, was herald of the
Argonauts, and said never to have forgotten anything. In this way
his soul remembered its successive migrations into the bodies of
Euphorbus, Hermotimus, Pyrrhus, and Pythagoras. (See
Diogenes’ Lives, book viii. chap. i. sec. 4.) | and during the Trojan epoch Euphorbus, and
subsequent to this Hermotimus of Samos, and after him Pyrrhus of Delos;
fifth, Pythagoras. And Diodorus the Eretrian,56
| 56 No name
occurs more frequently in the annals of Greek literature than that of
Diodorus. One, however, with the title “of Eretria,”
as far as the translator knows, is mentioned only by Hippolytus; so
that this is likely another Diodorus to be added to the long list
already existing. It may be that Diodorus Eretriensis is the same
as Diodorus Crotoniates, a Pythagorean philosopher. See
Fabricius’ Biblioth. Græc., lib ii. cap. iii., lib.
iii. cap. xxxi.; also Meursius’ Annotations, p. 20, on
Chalcidius’ Commentary on Plato’s Timæus.
The article in Smith’s Dictionary is a transcript of
these. | and Aristoxenus57
| 57
Aristoxenus is mentioned by Cicero in his Tusculan
Questions, book i. chap. xviii., as having broached a theory in
psychology, which may have suggested, in modern times, to David Hartley
his hypothesis of sensation being the result of nerval
vibrations. Cicero says of Aristoxenus, “that he was so
charmed with his own harmonies, that he sought to transfer them into
investigations concerning our corporeal and spiritual
nature.” | the musician, assert that Pythagoras came to
Zaratas58
| 58 Zaratas is
another form of the name Zoroaster. | the Chaldean, and
that he explained to him that there are two original causes of things,
father and mother, and that father is light, but mother darkness; and
that of the light the parts are hot, dry, not heavy, light, swift; but
of darkness, cold, moist, weighty, slow; and that out of all these,
from female and male, the world consists. But the world, he says,
is a musical harmony;59
wherefore, also,
that the sun performs a circuit in accordance with harmony. And
as regards the things that are produced from earth and the cosmical
system, they maintain that Zaratas60
| 60 Zaratas,
or Zoroaster, is employed as a sort of generic denomination for
philosopher by the Orientals, who, whatever portions of Asia they
inhabit, mostly ascribe their speculative systems to a Zoroaster.
No less than six individuals bearing this name are spoken of.
Arnobius (Contr. Gentes., i. 52) mentions four—(1) a
Chaldean, (2) Bactrian, (3) Pamphylian, (4) Armenian. Pliny
mentions a fifth as a native of Proconnesus ( Nat. Hist.., xxx.
1), while Apuleius (Florida, ii. 15) a sixth Zoroaster, a native
of Babylon, and contemporary with Pythagoras, the one evidently alluded
to by Hippolytus. (See translator’s Treatise on
Metaphysics, chap. ii.) |
makes the following statements: that there are two demons, the
one celestial and the other terrestrial; and that the terrestrial sends
up a production from earth, and that this is water; and that the
celestial is a fire, partaking of the nature of air, hot and
cold.61
| 61 Or,
“that it was hot and cold,” or “hot of
moist.” | And he therefore
affirms that none of these destroys or sullies the soul, for these
constitute the substance of all things. And he is reported to
have ordered his followers not to eat beans, because that Zaratas said
that, at the origin and concretion of all things, when the earth was
still undergoing its process of solidification,62
| 62 Or it
might be rendered, “a process of arrangement.” The
Abbe Cruice (in his edition of Hippolytus, Paris, 1860) suggests
a different reading, which would make the words translate thus,
“when the earth was an undigested and solid
mass.” | and that of putrefaction had set in, the
bean was produced.63
| 63 [See
book vi. cap. xxii., infra, and note. But Clement gives
another explanation. See vol. ii. p. 385, this
series.] | And of this
he mentions the following indication, that if any one, after having
chewed a bean without the husk, places it opposite the sun for a
certain period,—for this immediately will aid in the
result,—it yields the smell of human seed. And he mentions
also another clearer instance to be this: if, when the bean is
blossoming, we take the bean and its flower, and deposit them in a jar,
smear this over, and bury it in the ground, and after a few days
uncover it, we shall see it wearing the appearance, first of a
woman’s pudendum, and after this, when closely
examined, of the head of a child growing in along with it. This
person, being burned along with his disciples in Croton, a town of
Italy, perished. And this was a habit with him, whenever one
repaired to him with a view of becoming his follower, (the candidate
disciple was compelled) to sell his possessions, and lodge the money
sealed with Pythagoras, and he continued in silence to undergo instruction, sometimes for three, but
sometimes for five years. And again, on being released, he was
permitted to associate with the rest, and remained as a disciple, and
took his meals along with them; if otherwise, however, he received back
his property, and was rejected. These persons, then, were styled
Esoteric Pythagoreans, whereas the rest, Pythagoristæ.
Among his followers, however, who escaped the
conflagration were Lysis and Archippus, and the servant of Pythagoras,
Zamolxis,64
who also is said to
have taught the Celtic Druids to cultivate the philosophy of
Pythagoras. And they assert that Pythagoras learned from the
Egyptians his system of numbers and measures; and being struck by the
plausible, fanciful, and not easily revealed wisdom of the priests, he
himself likewise, in imitation of them, enjoined silence, and made his
disciples lead a solitary life in underground chapels.65
| 65 Or,
“leading them down into cells, made them,” etc.; or,
“made his disciples observe silence,” etc. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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