The Complete Pythagoras
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THE COMPLETE PYTHAGORAS INDEX INTRODUCTION VOLUME ONE Biographies Iamblichus i) Importance of the Subject ii) Youth, Education, Travels iii) Journey to Egypt iv) Studies in Egypt and Babylonia v) Travels in Greece, Settlement at Crotona vi) Pythagorean Community vii) Italian Political Achievements viii) Intuition, Reverence, Temperance, Studiousness ix) Community and Chastity x) Advice to Youths xi) Advice to Women xii) Why he calls himself a Pythagorean xiii) He shared Orpheus’s Control over Animals xiv) Pythagoras ’s preexistence xv) He Cured by Medicine and Music xvi) Pythagorean Aestheticism xvii) Tests of Initiation xviii) Organization of the Pythagorean School xix) Abaris the Scythian xx) Psychological Requirements xxi) Daily Program xxii) Friendship xxiii) Use of parables in Instruction xxiv) Dietary Suggestions xxv) Music and poetry xxvi) Theoretical Music xxvii) Mutual political Assistance xxviii) Divinity of Pythagoras xxix) Sciences and Maxims xxx) Justice and politics xxxi) Temperance and Self-control xxxii) Fortitude xxxiii) Universal Friendship xxxiv) Nonmercenary Secrecy xxxv) Attack on Pythagoreanism xxxvi) The Pythagorean Succession Porphry Photius Diogenes Laertius i) Early Life ii) Studies iii) Initiations iv) Transmigration v) Works vi) General Views on Life vii) Ages of Life viii) Social Customs ix) Distinguished Appearance x) Women Deified by Marriage xi) Scientific culture xii) Diet and Sacrifices xiii) Measures and Weights xiv) Hesperus Identified with Lucifer xv) Students and Reputations xvi) Friendship Founded on Symbols xvii) Symbols or Maxims xviii) Personal Habits xix) Various Teachings xx) Poetic Testimonies xxi) Death of Pythagoras xxii) Pythagoras’s Family xxiii) Ridiculing Epigrams xxiv) Last Pythagoreans xxv) Various Pythagoras Namesakes xxvi) Pythagoras’s Letter to Anaximenes xxvii) Empedocles’s Connection VOLUME TWO Pythagorean Fragments Introduction Symbols of Pythagoras (570-500 B.C.) Golden Verses of Pythagoras (ca.350 B.C.) Philolaus Biography Fragments Archytas of Tarentum (400 B.C.) Biography Fragments i) Metaphysical ii) Physical and Mathematical iii) Ethical iv) Political v) Logical Ocellus Lucanus (480 B.C.) Biography Fragments i) Treatise on the Universe ii) Creation iii) The Perpetuity of the World iv) Growth of Men On Laws Hippodamus the Thurian, (443-408 B.C.) On Felicity On A Republic Diotogenes On Sanctiy Concerning A Kingdom Theages (ca. 450 B.C.) Zaleucus the Locrian (560 B.C.) Charondas of Catanaea (494 B.C.) Callicratidas (500 B.C.) Perictyone (430 B.C.) On The Duties Of A Woman On The Harmony Of A Woman Aristoxenus of Tarentum (350 B.C.) Euryphamus (ca. 450 B.C.) Hipparchus (380 B.C.) Metopus (400 B.C.) Crito (ca. 400 B.C.) Polus (ca. 450 B.C.) Sthenidas the Locrian (400 B.C.) Ecphantus of Crotona (ca. 400 B.C.) Pempelus (ca. 400 B.C.) Phintys (ca. 400 B.C.) Clinias (ca. 400 B.C.) Sextus the Pythagorean(ca. 300 B.C.) Select Pythagorean Sentences From Iamblichus From Stobaeus From Clement Hierocles (450 A.D.) Ethical Fragments i) Conduct Towards The Gods ii) Proper Conduct Towards Our Country iii) Proper Conduct Towards The Parents iv) On Fraternal Love v) On Marriage vi) Conduct Towards Our Relatives vii) On Economics Timaeus Locrius (480-450 B.C.) The Soul and The World i) Mind, Necessity, Form & Matter ii) Creation Of The World iii) Proportions Of The World-Combination iv) Planetary Revolutions and Time v) The Earth’s Creation By Geometric Figures vi) Concretion Of The Elements vii) Composition Of The Soul viii) Sentations ix) Respiration x) Disorders xi) Discipline xii) Human Destiny Welcome to The Complete Pythagoras A full-text, public domain edition for the generalist & specialist Edited by Patrick Rousell for the World Wide Web. I first came across Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie’s edition of the Complete Pythagoras while researching a book on Leonardo. I had been surfing these deep waters for a while and so the value of Guthrie’s publication was immediately apparent. As Guthrie explains in his own introduction, which is at the beginning of the second book (p 168), he was initially prompted to publish these writings in the 1920’s for fear that this information would become lost. As it is, much of this information has since been published in fairly good modern editions. However, these are still hard to access and there is no current complete collection as presented by Guthrie. The advantage here is that we have a fairly comprehensive collection of works on Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans, translated from the original Greek into English, and presented as a unified, albeit electronic edition. The Complete Pythagoras is a compilation of two books. The first is entitled The Life Of Pythagoras and contains the four biographies of Pythagoras that have survived from antiquity: that of Iamblichus (280-333 A.D.), Porphry (233-306 A.D.), Photius (ca 820- ca 891 A.D.) and Diogenes Laertius (180 A.D.). The second is entitled Pythagorean Library and is a complete collection of the surviving fragments from the Pythagoreans. The first book was published in 1920, the second a year later, and released together as a bound edition. The bound edition was produced inexpensively as a mimeographed hand-typed manuscript that was rolled-off onto cheap stock. Consequently, only a handful of copies of what must have been a very small edition are extant and were found to be highly deteriorated. Two copies were referenced for this edition. There has been no attempt on my part to modernize Guthrie’s original edition but rather to reproduce a facsimile. The reason for this is two-fold: First, to add another voice (an uninformed one at that, since I am not a classicist) would have distanced the reader yet further from the original. Second, while Guthrie’s translation may at times seem archaic and convoluted, as his English dates from the late 19th Century, it nevertheless seems to hug the original Greek texts best. It may best be understood as a transliteration, as opposed to a translation. It can therefore be used as another source to compare to modern editions. There is little that I would want to add to Guthrie’s introduction, except for this: there is one name that stands out here. While Alexander and Einstein may be household names, let us consider Archytas, a master of both the active and the contemplative life. Archytas of Tarentum (ca 375 B.C.) was not only a great general and friend of Plato’s, he was also a great mathematician and philosopher. Not only did he at one point save Plato from the Sicilian tyrant Diogenes (the younger), he also had a profound influence on Plato’s thought. As a mathematician he is believed to have solved the Delian problem (the doubling of the volume of the cube) and been responsible for most of what has come down to us as Book VIII of Euclid’s Elements. As a philosopher he was, I believe, the first to openly postulate a theory of infinity (see text) and extended the "theory of means" in music. Patrick Roussel, a.k.a. Patrick C, is an artist and writer who after living and working in NYC for 15 years, recently moved to southern France. Contact: [email protected] IAMBLICHUS of Syrian Chalcis’s LIFE OF PYTHAGORAS CHAPTER I IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT Since wise people are in the habit of invoking the divinities at the beginning of any philosophic consideration, this is all the more necessary on studying that one which is justly named after the divine Pythagoras. Inasmuch as it emanated from the divinities it could not be apprehended without their inspiration and assistance. Besides, its beauty and majesty so surpasses human capacity, that it cannot be comprehended in one glance. Gradually only can some details of it be mastered when, under divine guidance we approach the subject with a quiet mind. Having therefore invoked the divine guidance, and adapted ourselves and our style to the divine circumstances, we shall acquiesce in all the suggestions that come to us. Therefore we shall not begin with any excuses for the long neglect of this sect, nor by any explanations about its having been concealed by foreign disciplines, or mystic symbols, nor insist that it has been obscured by false and spurious writings, nor make apologies for any special hindrances to its progress. For us it is sufficient that this is the will of the Gods, which all enable us to undertake tasks even more arduous than these. Having thus acknowledged our primary submission to the divinities, our secondary devotion shall be to the prince and father of this philosophy as a leader. We shall, however have to begin by a study of his descent and nationality. CHAPTER II YOUTH, EDUCATION, TRAVELS It is reported that Ancaeus, who dwelt in Cephallenian Samos, was descended from Jupiter, the fame of which honorable descent might have been derived from his virtue, or from a certain magnanimity; in any case, he surpassed the remainder of the Cephallenians in wisdom and renown. This Ancaeus was, by the Pythian oracle, bidden form a colony from Arcadia and Thessaly; and besides leading some inhabitants of Athens, Epidaurus, and Chalcis, he was to render habitable an island, which, from the virtue of the soil and vegetation was to be called Blackleaved, while the city was to be called Samos, after Same, in Cephallenia. The oracle ran thus: "I bid you, Ancaeus, to colonise the maritime island of Same, and to call it Phyllas." That the colony originated from these places is proved first from the divinities, and their sacrifices, which were imported by the inhabitants, second by the relationships of the families, and third by their Samian gatherings. From the family and alliance of this Ancaeus, founder of the colony, were therefore descended Pythagoras’s parents Mnesarchus and Pythais.