The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
passages he calls the eyes the gates of the sun. And he speaks in a
similar manner of hearing, and of the other senses.
He also says that the soul of man is divided into three parts; into
intuition (νοῦς), and reason (φρὴν), and mind (θυμὸς), and that the first
and last divisions are found also in other animals, but that the middle
one, reason, is only found in man. And that the chief abode of the soul
is in those parts of the body which are between the heart and the brain.
And that that portion of it which is in the heart is the mind (θυμὸς);
but that deliberation (νοὺς), and reason (φρὴν), reside in the brain.[113]
Moreover, that the senses are drops from them; and that the reasoning
sense is immortal, but the others are mortal. And that the soul is
nourished by the blood; and that reasons are the winds of the soul.
That it is invisible, and so are its reasons, since the æther itself is
invisible. That the links of the soul are the veins, and the arteries,
and the nerves. But that when it is vigorous, and is by itself in a
quiescent state, then its links are words and actions. That when it
is cast forth upon the earth it wanders about, resembling the body.
Moreover, that Mercury is the steward of the souls, and that on this
account he has the name of Conductor, and Commercial, and Infernal,
since it is he who conducts the souls from their bodies, and from earth,
and sea; and that he conducts the pure souls to the highest region, and
that he does not allow the impure ones to approach them, nor to come
near one another; but commits them to be bound in indissoluble fetters
by the Furies. The Pythagoreans also assert, that the whole air is full
of souls, and that these are those which are accounted dæmones, and
heroes. Also, that it is by them that dreams are sent among men, and
also the tokens of disease and health; these last too, being sent not
only to men, but to sheep also, and other cattle. Also, that it is they
who are concerned with purifications, and expiations, and all kinds of
divination, and oracular predictions, and things of that kind.
They also say, that the most important privilege in man is, the being
able to persuade his soul to either good or bad. And that men are happy
when they have a good soul; yet, that they are never quiet, and that they
never retain the same mind long. Also, that an oath is justice; and that
on that account, Jupiter is called Jupiter of Oaths (Ὅρκιος). Also, that
virtue is harmony, and health, and universal good, and God; on which
account everything owes its existence and consistency to harmony. Also,
that friendship is a harmonious equality.
Again, they teach that one ought not to pay equal honours to Gods
and to heroes; but that one ought to honour the Gods at all times,
extolling them with praises, clothed in white garments, and keeping one’s
body chaste; but that one ought not to pay such honour to the heroes
till after midday. Also, that a state of purity is brought about by
purifications, and washings, and sprinklings, and by a man’s purifying
himself from all funerals, or concubinage, or pollution of every kind,
and by abstaining from all flesh that has either been killed or died of
itself, and from mullets, and from melanuri, and from eggs, and from such
animals as lay eggs, and from beans, and from other things which are
prohibited by those who have the charge of the mysteries in the temples.
And Aristotle says, in his treatise on Beans, that Pythagoras enjoined
his disciples to abstain from beans, either because they resemble some
part of the human body, or because they are like the gates of hell (for
they are the only plants without parts); or because they dry up other
plants, or because they are representatives of universal nature, or
because they are used in elections in oligarchical governments. He also
forbade his disciples to pick up what fell from the table, for the sake
of accustoming them not to eat immoderately, or else because such things
belong to the dead.
But Aristophanes says, that what falls belongs to the heroes; saying, in
his Heroes:—
Never taste the things which fall
From the table on the floor.
He also forbade his disciples to eat white poultry, because a cock of
that colour was sacred to Month, and was also a suppliant. He was also
accounted a good animal;[114] and he was sacred to the God Month, for he
indicates the time.
The Pythagoreans were also forbidden to eat of all fish that were sacred;
on the ground that the same animals ought not to be served up before both
Gods and men, just as the same things do not belong to freemen and to
slaves. Now, white is an indication of a good nature, and black of a bad
one. Another of the precepts of Pythagoras was, that men ought not to
break bread; because in ancient times friends used to assemble around one
loaf, as they even now do among the barbarians. Nor would he allow men to
divide bread which unites them. Some think that he laid down this rule in
reference to the judgment which takes place in hell; some because this
practice engenders timidity in war. According to others, what is alluded
to is the Union, which presides over the government of the universe.
Another of his doctrines was, that of all solid figures the sphere was
the most beautiful; and of all plane figures, the circle. That old
age and all diminution were similar, and also increase and youth were
identical. That health was the permanence of form, and disease the
destruction of it. Of salt his opinion was, that it ought to be set
before people as a reminder of justice; for salt preserves everything
which it touches, and it is composed of the purest particles of water
and sea.
These are the doctrines which Alexander asserts that he discovered in the
Pythagorean treatises; and Aristotle gives a similar account of them.
XV. Timon, in his Silli, has not left unnoticed the dignified appearance
of Pythagoras, when he attacks him on other points. And his words are
these:—
Pythagoras, who often teaches
Precepts of magic, and with speeches
Of long high-sounding diction draws,
From gaping crowds, a vain applause.
And respecting his having been different people at different times,
Xenophanes adds his evidence in an elegiac poem which commences thus:—
Now I will on another subject touch,
And lead the way.
And the passage in which he mentions Pythagoras is as follows:—
They say that once, as passing by he saw
A dog severely beaten, he did pity him,
And spoke as follows to the man who beat him:—
“Stop now, and beat him not; since in his body,
Abides the soul of a dear friend of mine,
Whose voice I recognized as he was crying.”
These are the words of Xenophanes.
Cratinus also ridiculed him in his Pythagorean Woman; but in his
Tarentines, he speaks thus:—
They are accustomed, if by chance they see
A private individual abroad,
To try what powers of argument he has,
How he can speak and reason: and they bother him
With strange antithesis and forced conclusions,
Errors, comparisons, and magnitudes,
Till they have filled and quite perplex’d his mind.
And Mnesimachus says in his Alcmæon:—
As we do sacrifice to the Phœbus whom
Pythagoras worships, never eating aught
Which has the breath of life.
Aristophon says in his Pythagorean:—
_A._ He said that when he did descend below
Among the shades in Hell, he there beheld
All men who e’er had died; and there he saw,
That the Pythagoreans differ’d much
From all the rest; for that with them alone
Did Pluto deign to eat, much honouring
Their pious habits.
_B._ He’s a civil God,
If he likes eating with such dirty fellows.
And again, in the same play he says:—
They eat
Nothing but herbs and vegetables, and drink
Pure water only. But their lice are such,
Their cloaks so dirty, and their unwash’d scent
So rank, that no one of our younger men
Will for a moment bear them.
XXI. Pythagoras died in this manner. When he was sitting with some of
his companions in Milo’s house, some one of those whom he did not think
worthy of admission into it, was excited by envy to set fire to it. But
some say that the people of Crotona themselves did this, being afraid
lest he might aspire to the tyranny. And that Pythagoras was caught as
he was trying to escape; and coming to a place full of beans, he stopped
there, saying that it was better to be caught than to trample on the
beans, and better to be slain than to speak; and so he was murdered
by those who were pursuing him. And in this way, also, most of his
companions were slain; being in number about forty; but that a very few
did escape, among whom were Archippus, of Tarentum, and Lysis, whom I
have mentioned before.
But Dicæarchus relates that Pythagoras died afterwards, having escaped
as far as the temple of the Muses, at Metapontum, and that he died there
of starvation, having abstained from food for forty days. And Heraclides
says, in his abridgment of the life of Satyrus, that after he had buried
Pherecydes in Delos, he returned to Italy, and finding there a superb
banquet prepared at the house of Milo, of Crotona, he left Crotona, and
went to Metapontum, and there put an end to his life by starvation, not
wishing to live any longer. But Hermippus says, that when there was war
between the people of Agrigentum and the Syracusans, Pythagoras went out
with his usual companions, and took the part of the Agrigentines; and
as they were put to flight, he ran all round a field of beans, instead
of crossing it, and so was slain by the Syracusans; and that the rest,
being about five-and-thirty in number, were burnt at Tarentum, when they
were trying to excite a sedition in the state against the principal
magistrates.
Hermippus also relates another story about Pythagoras. For he says that
when he was in Italy, he made a subterraneous apartment, and charged his
mother to write an account of everything that took place, marking the
time of each on a tablet, and then to send them down to him, until he
came up again; and that his mother did so; and that Pythagoras came up
again after a certain time, lean, and reduced to a skeleton; and that
he came into the public assembly, and said that he had arrived from the
shades below, and then he recited to them all that had happened during
his absence. And they, being charmed by what he told them, wept and
lamented, and believed that Pythagoras was a divine being; so that they
even entrusted their wives to him, as likely to learn some good from him;
and that they too were called Pythagoreans. And this is the story of
Hermippus.
XXII. And Pythagoras had a wife, whose name was Theano; the daughter of
Brontinus, of Crotona. But some say that she was the wife of Brontinus,
and only a pupil of Pythagoras. And he had a daughter named Damo, as
Lysis mentions in his letter to Hipparchus; where he speaks thus of
Pythagoras: “And many say that you philosophize in public, as Pythagoras
also used to do; who, when he had entrusted his Commentaries to Damo,
his daughter, charged her to divulge them to no person out of the house.
And she, though she might have sold his discourses for much money, would
not abandon them, for she thought poverty and obedience to her father’s
injunctions more valuable than gold; and that too, though she was a
woman.”
He had also a son, named Telauges, who was the successor of his father
in his school, and who, according to some authors, was the teacher of
Empedocles. At least Hippobotus relates that Empedocles said:—
“Telauges, noble youth, whom in due time,
Theano bore to wise Pythagoras.”