The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
hundred and seven years in the shades below. Therefore the Lucanians
and the Peucetians, and the Messapians, and the Romans, flocked around
him, coming with eagerness to hear his discourses; but until the time of
Philolaus there were no doctrines of Pythagoras ever divulged; and he was
the first person who published the three celebrated books which Plato
wrote to have purchased for him for a hundred minæ. Nor were the number
of his scholars who used to come to him by night fewer than six hundred.
And if any of them had ever been permitted to see him, they wrote of it
to their friends, as if they had gained some great advantage.
The people of Metapontum used to call his house the temple of Ceres; and
the street leading to it they called the street of the Muses, as we are
told by Phavorinus in his Universal History.
And the rest of the Pythagoreans used to say, according to the account
given by Aristoxenus, in the tenth book of his Laws on Education, that
his precepts ought not to be divulged to all the world; and Xenophilus,
the Pythagorean, when he was asked what was the best way for a man to
educate his son, said, “That he must first of all take care that he was
born in a city which enjoyed good laws.”
Pythagoras, too, formed many excellent men in Italy, by his precepts,
and among them Zaleucus,[110] and Charondas,[111] the lawgivers.
XVI. For he was very eminent for his power of attracting friendships; and
among other things, if ever he heard that any one had any community of
symbols with him, he at once made him a companion and a friend.
XVII. Now, what he called his symbols were such as these. “Do not stir
the fire with a sword.” “Do not sit down on a bushel.” “Do not devour
your heart.” “Do not aid men in discarding a burden, but in increasing
one.” “Always have your bed packed up.” “Do not bear the image of a God
on a ring.” “Efface the traces of a pot in the ashes.” “Do not wipe a
seat with a lamp.” “Do not make water in the sunshine.” “Do not walk in
the main street.” “Do not offer your right hand lightly.” “Do not cherish
swallows under your roof.” “Do not cherish birds with crooked talons.”
“Do not defile; and do not stand upon the parings of your nails, or the
cuttings of your hair.” “Avoid a sharp sword.” “When you are travelling
abroad, look not back at your own borders.” Now the precept not to stir
fire with a sword meant, not to provoke the anger or swelling pride
of powerful men; not to violate the beam of the balance meant, not to
transgress fairness and justice; not to sit on a bushel is to have an
equal care for the present and for the future, for by the bushel is meant
one’s daily food. By not devouring one’s heart, he intended to show
that we ought not to waste away our souls with grief and sorrow. In the
precept that a man when travelling abroad should not turn his eyes back,
he recommended those who were departing from life not to be desirous to
live, and not to be too much attracted by the pleasures here on earth.
And the other symbols may be explained in a similar manner, that we may
not be too prolix here.
XVIII. And above all things, he used to prohibit the eating of the
erythinus, and the melanurus; and also, he enjoined his disciples to
abstain from the hearts of animals, and from beans. And Aristotle informs
us, that he sometimes used also to add to these prohibitions paunches
and mullet. And some authors assert that he himself used to be contented
with honey and honeycomb, and bread, and that he never drank wine in the
day time. And his desert was usually vegetables, either boiled or raw;
and he very rarely ate fish. His dress was white, very clean, and his
bed-clothes were also white, and woollen, for linen had not yet been
introduced into that country. He was never known to have eaten too much,
or to have drunk too much, or to indulge in the pleasures of love. He
abstained wholly from laughter, and from all such indulgences as jests
and idle stories. And when he was angry, he never chastised any one,
whether slave or freeman. He used to call admonishing, feeding storks.
He used to practise divination, as far as auguries and auspices go, but
not by means of burnt offerings, except only the burning of frankincense.
And all the sacrifices which he offered consisted of inanimate things.
But some, however, assert that he did sacrifice animals, limiting himself
to cocks, and sucking kids, which are called ἁπάλιοι, but that he very
rarely offered lambs. Aristoxenus, however, affirms that he permitted
the eating of all other animals, and only abstained from oxen used in
agriculture, and from rams.
XIX. The same author tells us, as I have already mentioned, that he
received his doctrines from Themistoclea, at Delphi. And Hieronymus
says, that when he descended to the shades below, he saw the soul of
Hesiod bound to a brazen pillar, and gnashing its teeth; and that of
Homer suspended from a tree, and snakes around it, as a punishment for
the things that they had said of the Gods. And that those people also
were punished who refrained from commerce with their wives; and that on
account of this he was greatly honoured by the people of Crotona.
But Aristippus, of Cyrene, in his Account of Natural Philosophers,
says that Pythagoras derived his name from the fact of his speaking
(ἀγορεύειν) truth no less than the God at Delphi (τοῦ πυθίου).
It is said that he used to admonish his disciples to repeat these lines
to themselves whenever they returned home to their houses:—
In what have I transgress’d? What have I done?
What that I should have done have I omitted?
And that he used to forbid them to offer victims to the Gods, ordering
them to worship only at those altars which were unstained with blood. He
forbade them also to swear by the Gods; saying, “That every man ought
so to exercise himself, as to be worthy of belief without an oath.” He
also taught men that it behoved them to honour their elders, thinking
that which was precedent in point of time more honourable; just as in the
world, the rising of the sun was more so than the setting; in life, the
beginning more so than the end; and in animals, production more so than
destruction.
Another of his rules was that men should honour the Gods above the
dæmones, heroes above men; and of all men parents were entitled to the
highest degree of reverence. Another, that people should associate with
one another in such a way as not to make their friends enemies, but to
render their enemies friends. Another was that they should think nothing
exclusively their own. Another was to assist the law, and to make
war upon lawlessness. Not to destroy or injure a cultivated tree, nor
any animal either which does not injure men. That modesty and decorum
consisted in never yielding to laughter, and yet not looking stern.
He taught that men should avoid too much flesh, that they should in
travelling let rest and exertion alternate; that they should exercise
memory; that they should never say or do anything in anger; that they
should not pay respect to every kind of divination; that they should
use songs set to the lyre; and by hymns to the Gods and to eminent men,
display a reasonable gratitude to them.
He also forbade his disciples to eat beans, because, as they were
flatulent, they greatly partook of animal properties [he also said that
men kept their stomachs in better order by avoiding them]; and that such
abstinence made the visions which appear in one’s sleep gentle and free
from agitation. Alexander also says, in his Successions of Philosophers,
that he found the following dogmas also set down in the Commentaries of
Pythagoras:—
That the monad was the beginning of everything. From the monad proceeds
an indefinite duad, which is subordinate to the monad as to its cause.
That from the monad and the indefinite duad proceed numbers. And from
numbers signs. And from these last, lines of which plane figures consist.
And from plane figures are derived solid bodies. And from solid bodies
sensible bodies, of which last there are four elements; fire, water,
earth, and air. And that the world, which is endued with life, and
intellect, and which is of a spherical figure, having the earth, which
is also spherical, and inhabited all over in its centre, results from a
combination of these elements, and derives its motion from them; and also
that there are antipodes,[112] and that what is below, as respects us, is
above in respect of them.
He also taught that light and darkness and cold and heat, and dryness and
moisture, were equally divided in the world; and that, while heat was
predominant it was summer; while cold had the mastery it was winter; when
dryness prevailed it was spring; and when moisture preponderated, winter.
And while all these qualities were on a level, then was the loveliest
season of the year; of which the flourishing spring was the wholesome
period, and the season of autumn the most pernicious one. Of the day, he
said that the flourishing period was the morning, and the fading one the
evening; on which account that also was the least healthy time.
Another of his theories was, that the air around the earth was
immoveable, and pregnant with disease, and that everything in it was
mortal; but that the upper air was in perpetual motion, and pure and
salubrious; and that everything in that was immortal, and on that account
divine. And that the sun, and the moon, and the stars, were all Gods;
for in them the warm principle predominates which is the cause of life.
And that the moon derives its light from the sun. And that there is a
relationship between men and the Gods, because men partake of the divine
principle; on which account also, God exercises his providence for our
advantage. Also, that fate is the cause of the arrangement of the world
both generally and particularly. Moreover, that a ray from the sun
penetrated both the cold æther and the dense æther; and they call the air
(ἀὴρ), the cold æther (ψυχρὸν αἰθέρα), and the sea and moisture they call
the dense æther (παχὺν αἰθέρα). And this ray descends into the depths,
and in this way vivifies everything. And everything which partakes of
the principle of heat lives, on which account also plants are animated
beings; but that all living things have not necessarily souls. And that
the soul is a something torn off from the æther, both warm and cold, from
its partaking of the cold æther. And that the soul is something different
from life. Also, that it is immortal, because that from which it has been
detached is immortal.
Also, that animals are born from one another by seeds, and that it is
impossible for there to be any spontaneous production by the earth.
And that seed is a drop from the brain which contains in itself a warm
vapour; and that when this is applied to the womb, it transmits virtue,
and moisture, and blood from the brain, from which flesh, and sinews, and
bones, and hair, and the whole body are produced. And from the vapour is
produced the soul, and also sensation. And that the infant first becomes
a solid body at the end of forty days; but, according to the principles
of harmony, it is not perfect till seven, or perhaps nine, or at most ten
months, and then it is brought forth. And that it contains in itself all
the principles of life, which are all connected together, and by their
union and combination form a harmonious whole, each of them developing
itself at the appointed time.
The senses in general, and especially the sight, are a vapour of
excessive warmth, and on this account a man is said to see through air,
and through water. For the hot principle is opposed by the cold one;
since, if the vapour in the eyes were cold, it would have the same
temperature as the air, and so would be dissipated. As it is, in some