28. Divinity of Pythagoras
HENCEFORWARD we shall confine ourselves to the works flowing from Pythagoras' virtues. As usual, we shall begin from the divinities, endeavoring to exhibit his piety, and marvelous deeds. Of his piety, let this be a specimen: that he knew what his soul was, whence it came into the body, and also its former lives, of this giving the most evident indications. Again, once passing over the river Nessus along with many associates, he addressed the river, which, in a distinct and clear voice, in the hearing of all his associates, answered, "Hail, Pythagoras!"
Further, all his biographers insist that during the same day he was present in Metapontum in Italy, and at Tauromenium in Sicily, discoursing with his disciples in both places, although these cities are separated, both by land and sea by many stadia, the travelling over which consumes many days.
It is also a matter of common report that he showed his golden thigh to the Hyperborean Abaris, who said that he resembled the Apollo worshipped among the Hyperboreans, of whom Abaris was the priest; and that he had done this so that Abaris might be certified thereof, and that he was not deceived therein.
Many other more admirable and divine particulars are likewise unanimously and uniformly related of the man, such as infallible predictions of earthquakes, rapid expulsions of pestilences, and hurricanes, instantaneous cessations of hail, and tranquilizations of the waves of rivers and seas, in order that his disciples might the more easily pass over them. The power of effecting miracles of this kind was achieved by Empedocles of Agrigentum, Epimenides the Cretan, and Abaris the Hyperborean, and they performed in many places. Their deeds were so manifest that Empedocles was surnamed a wind-stiller, Epimenides an expiator, and Abaris an air-walker, because, carried on the dart given him by the Hyperborean Apollo, he passed over rivers, and seas and inaccessible places like one carried on air. Many think that Pythagoras did the same thing, when in the same day he discoursed with his disciples at Metapontum and Tauromenium. It is also said that he predicted there would be an earthquake from the water of a well which he had tasted; and that a ship sailing with a prosperous wind, would be submerged in the sea. These are sufficient proofs of his piety.
Pitching my thoughts on a higher key, I wish to exhibit the principle of the worship of the Gods, established by Pythagoras and his disciples: that the mark aimed at by all plans, with respect to undertaking or not undertaking something, is consent with the divinity. The principle of their piety, and indeed their whole life is arranged with a view to follow God. Their philosophy explicitly asserts that men act ridiculously in searching for good from any source other than God; and that in this respect the conduct of most men resembles that of a man who, in a country governed by a king should reverence one of the city magistrates, neglecting him who is the ruler of all of them. Since God exists as the lord of all things, it is evident and acknowledged that good must be requested of him. All men impart good to those they love, and admire, and the contrary to those they dislike. Evidently we should do those things in which God delights. Not easy, however, is it for a man to know which these are, unless he obtains this knowledge from one who has heard God, or has heard God himself, or procures it through divine art. Hence also the Pythagoreans were studious of divination, which is an interpretation of the benevolence of the Gods. That such an employment is worthwhile will be admitted by one who believes in the Gods; but he who thinks that either of these is folly will also believe that both are foolish. Many of the precepts of the Pythagoreans were derived from the Mysteries, which were not the fruits of arrogance, in their estimation, but were derived from divinity.
Indeed, Pythagoreans give full belief to mythological stories such as are related of Aristeas the Proconesian, and Abaris the Hyperborean, and such like. To them every such thing seems credible, and worthy of being tried out. They also frequently recollect apparently fabulous particulars, not disbelieving anything which may be referred to the divinity. For instance, it is said that the Pythagorean Eurytus, a disciple of Philolaus, related that a shepherd feeding his flock near Philolaus' tomb heard someone singing. His interlocutor, instead of disbelieving the story, asked what kind of harmony it was. Again, a certain person told Pythagoras that he once seemed to be conversing with his deceased father, in his dreams, and asked Pythagoras what this might signify. The answer was "Nothing," even though the conversation with his father was genuine. "As therefore," said he, "nothing is signified by my conversing with you, neither is anything signified by your conversing with your father."
In all these matters they considered that the stupidity lay with the sceptics, rather than with themselves; for they did not conceive that some things, and not others, are possible with the Gods, as fancy the Sophists; they thought that with the Gods all things are possible. This very assertion is the beginning of some verses attributed to Linus:
All things may be the objects of our hopes,
Since nothing hopeless anywhere is found;
All things with ease Divinity effects
And naught can frustrate his almighty power.
They thought that their opinions deserved to be believed, because he who first promulgated them was not some chance person, but a divinity. This indeed was one of their pet puzzlers: "What was Pythagoras?" For they say he was the Hyperborean Apollo, of which this was an indication: that rising up, while at the Olympian games, he showed his golden thigh; and also that he received the Hyperborean Abaris as his guest, and was presented by him with the dart on which he rode through the air. But it is said that this Abaris came from the Hyperborean regions to collect gold for his temple, and that he predicted a pestilence. He also dwelt in temples, and was never seen to eat or drink. It is likewise said that rites [of his] are performed by the Lacedaemonians, and that on this account Lacedaemon is never infested with pestilence. Pythagoras therefore caused this Abaris to acknowledge [that he was more than man], receiving from him at the same time the golden dart, without which it was not possible for him to find his way. In Metapontum also, certain persons praying that they might obtain what a ship contained that was sailing into port, Pythagoras said to them, "You will then have a dead body." In Sybaris, too, he caught a deadly serpent and drove it away. In Tyrrhenia also he caught a small serpent, whose bite was fatal. In Croton it is said that a white eagle allowed Pythagoras to stroke it. When a certain person wished to hear him converse, Pythagoras said it was impossible until some sign appeared. Later a white bear was seen in Cauconia, whose death he declared to a person who came to announce to him its death. He likewise reminded Myllias the Crotonian that he had formerly lived as Midas the son of Gordius, and Myllias journeyed to Asia to perform at the sepulchre of Midas such rites as Pythagoras had commanded him. The person who purchased Pythagoras' residence dug up what had been buried in it, but did not dare to tell anyone what he saw [on this occasion]. Although he did not suffer [any divine vengeance] for this offence, he was seized and executed for the sacrilege of taking a golden beard that had fallen from a statue. The fact that these stories and other such are related by the Pythagoreans lend authority to their opinions. As their veracity is generally acknowledged, and as they could not possibly have happened to a mere man, they consequently think it is clear that the stories about Pythagoras should be received as referring not to a mere man, but to a super-man. This also what is meant by their maxim, that man, bird, and another thing are bipeds, thereby referring to Pythagoras. Such, therefore, on account of his piety, was Pythagoras; and such he was truly thought to be.
Oaths were religiously observed by the Pythagoreans, who were mindful of that precept of theirs,
As duly by law, thy homage pay first to the immortal Gods;
Then to thy oath, and last to the heroes illustrious.
For instance, a certain Pythagorean was in court, and asked to take an oath. Rather than to disobey this principle, although the oath would have been a religiously permitted one, he preferred to pay to the defendant a fine of three talents.
Pythagoras taught that no occurrence happened by chance or luck, but rather conformably to divine Providence, and especially so to good and pious men. This is well illustrated by a story from Androcydes' treatise On Pythagoric Symbols about the Tarentine Pythagorean Thymaridas. For when he was sailing away from his country, his friends were all present to embrace him and bid him farewell. He had already embarked when someone cried to him, "O Thymaridas, I pray that the Gods may shape all your circumstances according to your wishes!" But he retorted, "Predict me better things; namely, that what may happen to me may be conformable to the will of the Gods !" For he thought it more scientific and prudent to not resist or grumble against divine providence.
If asked about the source whence these men derived so much piety, we must acknowledge that the Pythagorean number-theology was clearly foreshadowed, to some extent, in the Orphic writings. Nor is it to be doubted that when Pythagoras composed his treatise Concerning the Gods, he received assistance from Orpheus, on which account also he called it The Sacred Discourse, because it contains the flower of the most mystical place in Orpheus. [It is uncertain] whether this work was in reality written by Pythagoras, as by most authors it is said to have been, or as some of the Pythagorean school assert, was composed by Telauges, being taken by him from the commentaries which were left by Pythagoras himself to his daughter, Damo, the sister of Telauges, and which it is said after her death were given to Bitale the daughter of Damo and to Telauges the son of Pythagoras, and also to the husband of Bitale, when he was of a mature age. For when Pythagoras died, Telauges was left very young with his mother Theano. In this Sacred Discourse also, or treatise Concerning the Gods (for it has both these inscriptions), who it was that delivered to Pythagoras what is there said concerning the Gods is rendered manifest. For we read:
Pythagoras, the son of Mnesarchus was instructed in what pertains to the Gods when he celebrated rites in the Thracian Libethra, being therein initiated by Aglaophemus; and that Orpheus, the son of Calliope, having learned wisdom from his mother in the mountain Pangaeus, said that the eternal essence of Number is the most providential principle of the universe, of heaven and earth, and of the intermediate nature; and further still, that it is the root of the permanency of divine natures, of Gods, and daimons.
From this it is evident that he learned from the Orphic writers that the essence of the Gods is defined by Number. Through the same numbers also, he produced a wonderful prognostication and worship of the Gods, both of which are particularly allied to numbers.
As conviction is best produced by an objective fact, the above principle may be proved as follows. When Abaris performed sacred rites according to his customs, he procured a foreknowledge of events, which is studiously cultivated by all the Barbarians, by sacrificing animals, especially birds; for they think that the entrails of such animals are particularly adapted to this purpose. Pythagoras, however, not wishing to suppress his ardent pursuit of the truth, but to guide it into a safer way, without blood and slaughter, and also because he thought that a cock was sacred to the sun, "furnished him with a consummate knowledge of all truth, through arithmetical science." From piety, also, he derived faith concerning the Gods. For Pythagoras always insisted that nothing marvelous concerning Gods or divine teachings should be disbelieved, inasmuch as the Gods are competent to effect anything. But the divine teachings in which we must believe are those delivered by Pythagoras. The Pythagoreans therefore assumed and believed what they taught [on the a priori ground that] they were not the offspring of false opinion. Hence Eurytus the Crotonian, the disciple of Philolaus, said that a shepherd feeding his sheep near Philolaus' tomb had heard someone singing. But the person to whom this was related did not at all question this, merely asking what kind of harmony it was. Pythagoras himself also, being asked by a certain person the significance of the conversation with his defunct father in sleep, answered that it meant nothing. "For neither is anything portended by your speaking with me," said he.
Pythagoras wore clean white garments, and used clean white sheets, avoiding the woolen ones. This custom he enjoined on his disciples.
In speaking of superior natures, he used honorable appellations, and words of good omen, on every occasion mentioning and reverencing the Gods; so, while at supper, he performed libations to the divinities, and taught his disciples, daily to celebrate the superior beings with hymns. He attended likewise to rumors and omens, prophecies and lots, and in short to all unexpected circumstances. Moreover, he sacrificed to the Gods with millet, cakes, honey-combs, and fumigations. But he did not sacrifice animals, nor did any of the contemplative philosophers. His other disciples, however, the Hearers and the Politicians, were by him ordered to sacrifice animals such as a cock, or a lamb, or some other young animal, but not frequently; but they were prohibited from sacrificing oxen.
Another indication of the honor he paid the Gods was his teaching that his disciples must never use the names of the divinities uselessly in swearing. For instance, Syllus, one of the Crotonian Pythagoreans, paid a fine rather than swear, though he could have done so without violating the truth. Just as the Pythagoreans abstained from using the names of the Gods, so also, through reverence, they were unwilling to name Pythagoras, indicating him whom they meant as the inventor of the Tetraktys. Such is the form of an oath ascribed to them:
I swear by the discoverer of the Tetraktys,
Which is the spring of all our wisdom,
The perennial root of Nature's fount.
In short, Pythagoras imitated the Orphic mode of writing, and [pious] disposition, and the way they honored the Gods, representing them in images and in brass not resembling our [human form], but the divine receptacle [of the Sphere], because they comprehend and provide for all things, being of nature and form similar to the universe.
But his divine philosophy and worship was compound, having learned much from the Orphic followers, but much also from the Egyptian priests, the Chaldeans and Magi, the mysteries of Eleusis, Imbrus, Samothracia, and Delos and even the Celtic and Iberian. It is also said that Pythagoras' Sacred Discourse is current among the Latins, not being read to or by all, but only by those who are disposed to learn, the best things, avoiding all that is base.
He ordered that libations should be made thrice, observing that Apollo delivered oracles from the tripod, the triad being the first number. Sacrifices to Venus were to be made on the sixth day, because this number is the first to partake of every number and when divided in every possible way, receives the power of the numbers subtracted, and those that remain. Sacrifices to Hercules, however, should be made on the eighth day, of the month, counting from the beginning, commemorating his birth in the seventh month.
He ordained that those who entered into a temple should be clothed in a clean garment, in which no one had slept; because sleep, just as black and brown, indicates sluggishness, while cleanliness is a sign, of equality and justice in reasoning.
If blood should be found unintentionally spilled in a temple, there should be made a lustration, either in a golden vessel, or with seawater; gold being the most beautiful of all things and the measure of exchange of everything else, while the latter is derived from the principle of moistness, the food of the first and more common matter. Also, children should not be born in a temple, where the divine part of the soul should not be bound to the body. On a festal day neither should the hair be cut, nor the nails pared, as it is unworthy to disturb the worship of the Gods, to attend to our own advantage. Nor should lice be killed in a temple, as divine power should not participate in anything superfluous or degrading.
The Gods should be honored with cedar, laurel, cypress, oak and myrtle; nor should the body be purified with these; nor should any of them be cut with the teeth.
He also ordered that what is boiled should not be roasted, signifying hereby that mildness has no need of anger.
The bodies of the dead he did not suffer to be burned, herein following the Magi, being unwilling that anything [so[ divine [as fire[ should be mingled with mortal nature. He thought it holy for the dead to be carried out in white garmentsm thereby obscurely prefiguring the simple and first nature, according to Number, and the principle of all things.
Above all, he ordained that an oath should be taken religiously; since that which is behind [i.e., the futurity of punishment] is long.
He said that it is much more holy to be injured than to kill a man; for judgment is pronounced in Hades, where the soul and its essence, and the first nature of things is correctly appraised.
He ordered that coffins should not be made of cypress, either because the scepter of Zeus was made of this wood, or for some other mystic reason.
Libations were to be performed before the altar of Zeus the Savior, of Hercules, and the Dioscuri, thus celebrating Zeus as the presiding cause and leader of the meal, Hercules as the power of Nature, and the Dioscuri, as the symphony of all things. Libations should not be offered with closed eyes, as nothing beautiful should be undertaken with bashfulness and shame.
When it thundered, he said one ought to touch the earth, in remembrance of the generation of things.
Temples should be entered from places on the right hand, and exited from the left hand; for the right hand is the principle of what is called the odd number, and is divine; while the left hand is a symbol of the even number, and of dissolution.
Such are many of the injunctions he is said to have adopted in the pursuance of piety. Other particulars which have been omitted may be inferred from what has been given. Hence the subject may be closed.
29. Sciences and Maxims
THE PYTHAGOREANS' COMMENTARIES best express his wisdom; being accurate, concise, savoring of the ancient elegance of style, and deducing the conclusions exquisitely. They contain the most condensed conceptions, and are diversified in form and matter. They are both accurate and eloquent, full of clear and indubitable arguments, accompanied by scientific demonstration, in syllogistic form; as indeed will be discovered by any careful reader.
In his writings, Pythagoras, from a supernal source, delivers the science of intelligible natures and the Gods. Afterwards, he teaches the whole of physics, completely unfolding ethics and logic. Then come various disciplines and other excellent sciences. There is nothing pertaining to human knowledge which is not discussed in these encyclopedic writings. If therefore it is acknowledged that of the [Pythagorean] writings which are now in circulation, some were written by Pythagoras himself, while others consist of what he was heard to say, and on this account are anonymous, though of Pythagoric origin -- if all this be so, it is evident that he was abundantly skilled in all wisdom.
It is said that while he was in Egypt he very much applied himself to geometry. For Egyptian life bristles with geometrical problems since, from remote periods, when the Gods were fabulously said to have reigned in Egypt, on account of the rising and falling of the Nile, the skillful have been compelled to measure all the Egyptian land which they cultivated, wherefrom indeed the science's name, geometry (i.e., "earth measure"), was derived. Besides, the Egyptians studied the theories of the celestial orbs, in which Pythagoras also was skilled. All theorems about lines also seem to have been derived from that country.
All that relates to numbers and computation is said to have been discovered in Phoenicia. The theorems about the heavenly bodies have by some been referred to the Egyptians and Chaldeans in common. Whatever Pythagoras received, however, he developed further, he arranged them for learners, and personally demonstrated them with perspicuity and elegance. He was the first to give a name to philosophy, describing it as a desire for and love of wisdom, which later he defined as the science of objectified truth. Beings he defined as immaterial and eternal natures, alone possessing a power that is efficacious, as are incorporeal essences. The rest of things are beings only figuratively, and considered such only through the participation of real beings; such are corporeal and material forms, which arise and decay without ever truly existing. Now wisdom is the science of things which are truly existing beings, but not of the mere figurative entities. Corporeal natures are neither the objects of science, nor admit of a stable knowledge, since they are indefinite, and by science incomprehensible, and when compared with universals resemble non-beings, and are in a genuine sense indeterminate. Indeed it is impossible to conceive that there should be a science of things not naturally the objects of science; nor could a science of non-existent things prove attractive to anyone. Far more desirable will be things which are genuine beings, existing in invariable permanency, and always answering to their description. For the perception of objects existing only figuratively, never truly being what they seem to be, follows the apprehension of real beings, just as the knowledge of particulars is posterior to the science of universals. For, as said Archytas, he who properly knows universals will also have a clear perception, of the nature of particulars. That is why beings are not alone, only-begotten, nor simple, but various and multiform. For those genuine beings are intelligible and incorporeal natures, while others are corporeal, falling under the perception of sense, communicating with that which is really existent only by participation. Concerning all these, Pythagoras formed the most appropriate sciences, leaving nothing uninvestigated. Besides, he developed the master-sciences of method, common to all of them, such as logic, definitions, and analysis, as may be gathered from the Pythagorean commentaries.
To his intimates he was wont to utter symbolically oracular sentences, wherein the smallest number of words were pregnant with the most multifarious significance, not unlike certain oracles of the Pythian Apollo, or like Nature herself in tiny seeds, the former exhibiting conceptions, and the latter effects innumerable in multitude, and difficult to understand. Such was Pythagoras' own maxim, "The beginning is the half of the whole." In this and similar utterances the most divine Pythagoras concealed the sparks of truth, as in a treasury, for those capable of being kindled thereby. In this brevity of diction he deposited an extension of theory most ample, and difficult to grasp, as in the maxim, "All things accord in number," which he frequently repeated to his disciples. Another one was, "Friendship is equality; equality is friendship." He even used single words, such as kosmos or, "adorned world," or, by Zeus, philosophia, or further, "Tetraktys!"
All these and many other similar inventions were by Pythagoras devised for the benefit and amendment of his associates; and by those that understood them they were considered to be so worthy of veneration, and so divinely inspired, that those who dwelt in the common auditorium adopted this oath:
I swear by the discoverer of the Tetraktys,
Which is the spring of all our wisdom,
The perennial root of Nature's fount.
This was the form of his so admirable wisdom.
Of the sciences honored by the Pythagoreans not the least were music, medicine and divination.
Of medicine, the most emphasized part was dietetics; and they were most scrupulous in its exercise. First, they sought to understand the physical symptoms of symmetry, labor, eating and repose. They were nearly the first to make a business of the preparation of food, and to describe its methods. More frequently than their predecessors the Pythagoreans used poultices, disapproving more of medicated ointments, which they chiefly limited to the cure of ulcerations. Most of all they disapproved of cuts and cauterizations. Some diseases they cured by incantations. Music, if used in a proper manner, was by Pythagoras supposed to contribute greatly to health. The Pythagoreans likewise employed select sentences of Homer and Hesiod for the amendment of souls.
The Pythagoreans were habitually silent and prompt to hear, and he won praise who listened [most effectively]. But that which they had learned and heard was supposed to be retained and preserved in memory. Indeed, this ability of learning and remembering determined the amount of disciplines and lectures, inasmuch as learning is the power by which knowledge is obtained, and remembering that by which it is preserved. Hence memory was greatly honored, abundantly exercised, and given much attention. In learning also it was understood that they were not to dismiss what they were taught, till its first rudiments had been entirely mastered. This was their method of recalling what they daily heard. No Pythagorean rose from his bed till he had first recollected the transactions of the day before; and he accomplished this by endeavoring to remember what he first said, or heard, or ordered done by his domestics before rising; or what was the second or third thing he had said, heard or commanded. The same method was employed for the remainder of the day. He would try to remember the identity of the first person he had met on leaving home, and who was the second; and with, whom he had discoursed first, second or third. So also he did with everything else, endeavoring to resume in his memory all the events of the whole day, and in the very same order in which each of them had occurred. If however, after rising there was enough leisure to do so, the Pythagorean reminisced about the day before yesterday. Thus they made it a point to exercise their memories systematically; considering that the ability of remembering was most important for experience, science and wisdom.
This Pythagorean school filled Italy with philosophers; and this place which before was unknown, was later, on account of Pythagoras called Greater Greece, which became famous for its philosophers, poets and legislators. Indeed the rhetorical arts, demonstrative reasonings and legislation was entirely transferred from Greece. As to physics, we might mention the principal natural philosophers, Empedocles and Parmenides of Elea. As to ethical maxims, there is Epicharmus, whose conceptions are used by almost all philosophers.
Thus much concerning the wisdom of Pythagoras, how in a certain respect he very much impelled all his hearers to its pursuit, so far as they were adapted to its participation, and how perfectly he delivered it.
30. Justice and Politics
HOW HE CULTIVATED and delivered justice to humanity we shall best understand if we trace it to its first principle, and ultimate cause. Also we must investigate the ultimate cause of injustice, which will show us how he avoided it, and what methods he adopted to make justice fructify in his soul.
The principle of justice is mutuality and equality, through which, in a way most nearly approximating union of body and soul, all men become cooperative, and distinguish the mine from the thine, as is also testified by Plato, who learned this from Pythagoras. Pythagoras effected this in the best possible manner by erasing from common life everything private, while increasing everything held in common, so far as ultimate possessions, which after all are the causes of tumult and sedition. For among his disciples everything was common, and the same to all, no one possessing anything private. He himself, indeed, who most approved of this communion, made use of common possessions in the most just manner; but disciples who changed their minds were given back their original contribution, with an addition, and left. Thus Pythagoras established justice in the best possible manner, beginning at its very first principle.
In the next place, justice is introduced by association with other people, while injustice is produced by unsociability and neglect of other people. Wishing therefore to spread this sociability as far as possible among men, he ordered his disciples to extend it to the most kindred animal races, considering these as their intimates and friends, and would forbid injuring, slaying, or eating any of them. He who recognizes the community of element and life between men and animals will in much greater degree establish fellowship with those who share a kindred and rational soul. This also shows that Pythagoras promoted justice beginning from its very root principle. Since lack of money often compels men sometimes to act contrary to justice, he tried to avoid this by practicing such economy that his necessary expenses might be liberal, and yet retain a just sufficiency. For as cities are only magnified households, so the arrangement of domestic concerns is the principle of all good order in cities. For instance, it was said that he himself was the heir to the property of Alcaeus, who died after completing an embassy to the Lacedaemonians; but that in spite of this Pythagoras was admired for his economy no less than for his philosophy. Also when he married, he so educated the daughter that was born to him, and who afterwards married the Crotonian Meno, that while unmarried she was a choir-leader, while as wife she held the first place among those who worshipped at altars. It is also said that the Metapontines preserved Pythagoras' memory by turning his house into a temple of Demeter, and the street on which he lived a place sacred to the Muses.
Because injustice also frequently results from insolence, luxury, and lawlessness, he daily exhorted his disciples to support the laws, and shun lawlessness. He considered luxury the first evil that usually glides into houses and cities; the second insolence, the third destruction. Luxury therefore should by all possible means be excluded and expelled, and men from birth should be accustomed to living temperately, and in a manly fashion. He also added the necessity of purification from bad language, whether it be piteous, or provocative, reviling, insolent or scurrilous.
Besides these household justices, he added another and most beautiful kind, the legislative, which both orders what to do and what not to do. Legislative justice is more beautiful than the judicial kind, resembling medicine which heals the diseased, but differs in that it is preventive, planning the health of the soul from afar.
That is why the best of all legislators graduated from the school of Pythagoras: first, Charondas the Catanean, and next Zaleucus and Timaratus, who legislated for the Locrians. Besides these were Theaetetus and Helicaon, Aristocrates and Phytius, who legislated for the Rhegini. All these aroused from the citizens honors comparable to those offered to divinities. For Pythagoras did not act like Heraclitus, who agreed to write laws for the Ephesians, but also petulantly added that in those laws he would order the citizens to hang themselves. What laws Pythagoras endeavored to establish were benevolent and scientific.
Nor need we specially admire those [above-mentioned professional] legislators. For Pythagoras had a slave by the name of Zalmoxis, hailing from Thrace. After hearing Pythagoras' discourses, and obtaining his freedom, he returned to the Getae, and there, as has already been mentioned at the beginning of this work, exhorted the citizens to fortitude, persuading them that the soul is immortal. So much is this true that even at present all the Galatians and Trallians, and many others of the Barbarians, persuade their children that the soul cannot be destroyed, but survives death, so that the latter is not to be feared, and that [ordinary] danger is to be met with a firm and manly mind. For instructing the Getae in these things, and for having written laws for them, Zalmoxis was by them considered as the greatest of the Gods. [11]
Further, Pythagoras conceived that the dominion of the divinities was most efficacious for establishing justice; and from this principle he deduced a whole polity, particular laws and a principle of justice. Thus his basic theology was that we should realize God's existence, and that his disposition towards the human race is such that he inspects and does not neglect it. This theology was very useful: for we require an inspection that we would not be disposed to resist, such as the inspective government of the divinity, for if divine nature is of this nature, it deserves the empire of the universe. For the Pythagoreans rightly taught that [the natural] man is an animal naturally insolent, and changeable in impulse, desire and passions. He therefore requires an extraordinary inspectionary government of this kind, which may produce some chastening and ordering. They therefore thought that any who recognizes the changeableness of their nature should never be forgetful of piety towards and worship of Divinity, ever keeping Him before the eye of the mind, as watching and inspecting the conduct of mankind. Everyone should pay heed, beneath the divine nature, and that of the genii, to his parents and the laws, and obey them unfeignedly and faithfully. In general, they thought it necessary to believe that there is no evil greater than anarchy, since the human race is not naturally adapted to salvation without some guidance.
The Pythagoreans also considered it advisable to adhere to the customs and laws of their ancestors, even though somewhat inferior to other regulations. For it is unprofitable and not salutary to evade existing laws, or to be studious of innovation. Pythagoras, therefore, to evince that his life was conformable to his doctrines gave many other specimens of piety to the Gods.
It may be quite suitable to mention one of these, as example of the rest. I will relate what Pythagoras said and did relative to the embassy from Sybaris to Croton, relative to the return of the exiles. By order of the ambassadors, some of his associates had been slain, a part of them, indeed, by one of the ambassadors himself, while another one of them was the son of one of those who had excited the sedition, and had died of disease. When the Crotonians therefore were deliberating how they should act in this affair, Pythagoras told his disciples he was displeased that the Crotonians should be so much at odds over the matter, and that in his opinion the ambassadors should not even be permitted to lead victims to the altar, let alone drag thence the suppliant exiles. When the Sybarites came to him with their complaints, and the man who had slain some of his disciples with his own hands was defending his conduct, Pythagoras declared he would make no answer [to a murderer]. Another [ambassador] accused him of asserting that he was Apollo, because when, in the past, some person had asked him about a certain subject, why the thing was so, and he had retorted, "Would he think it sensible, when Apollo was delivering oracles to him, to ask Apollo why he did so?" Another one of the ambassadors derided his school, wherein he taught the return of souls to this world saying that, as Pythagoras was about to descend into Hades, the ambassador would give Pythagoras an epistle to his father, and begged him to bring back an answer when he returned. Pythagoras responded that he was not about to descend into the abode of the impious, where he clearly knew that murderers were punished. As the rest of the ambassadors reviled him, Pythagoras, followed by many people, went to the sea-shore, and sprinkled himself with water. After reviling the rest of the ambassadors, one of the Crotonian counsellors observed that he understood they had defamed Pythagoras, whom not even a brute would dare to blaspheme, though all animals should again utter the same voice as men, as prehistoric fables relate.
Pythagoras discovered another method of restraining men from injustice, namely the fear of judgment. He knew that this method could be taught, but also that fear was often able to suppress justice. He asserted therefore that it is much better to be injured, than to kill a man, for judgment is dispensed in Hades, where the soul and its essence and the first nature of beings, are accurately appraised.
Desiring to exhibit among human unequal, indefinite and unsymmetrical affairs the equality, definiteness and symmetry of justice, and to show how it ought to be exercised, he likened justice to a diagram [of a right-angled triangle], the only one among geometrical forms, which, though, having an infinite diversity of adjustments of indeed unequal parts [the length of the sides], yet has equal powers [for the square on the hypotenuse is equal to the squares on the other two sides].
Since all associations [imply relations with some other person] and therefore entail justice, the Pythagoreans declared that there were two kinds of associations: the seasonable, and the unseasonable, according to age, merit, familiarity, philanthropy, and so forth. For instance, the association of a younger person with an elderly one is unseasonable, while that of two young persons is seasonable. No kind of anger, threatening or boldness is becoming in a younger towards an elderly man, all which unseasonable conduct should be cautiously avoided. So also with respect to merit for, towards a man who has arrived at the true dignity of consummate virtue, neither an unrestrained form of speech, nor any other of the above manners of conduct is seasonable.
Not unlike this was what he taught about the relations towards parents and benefactors. He said that the use of the opportune time was various. For of those who are angry or enraged, some are so seasonably, and some unseasonably. The same distinction obtains with desires, impulses and passions, actions, dispositions, associations and meetings. He further observed that to a certain extent, opportuneness is to be taught, and also that the unexpected might be analyzed artificially, while none of the above qualifications obtain when applied universally, and simply. Nevertheless its results are very similar to those of opportuneness, namely elegance, propriety, congruence, and the like.
Reminding us that unity is the principal of the universe, being its principle element, so also is it in science, experiment, and growth. However two-foldness is most honorable in houses, cities, camps, and suchlike organizations. For in sciences we learn and judge not by any single hasty glance, but by a thorough examination of every detail. There is therefore grave danger of entire misapprehension of things, when the principle has been mistaken; for while the true principle remains unknown, no consequent conclusions can be final. The same situation obtains in things of another kind. Neither a city nor a house can be well organized unless each has an effective ruler who governs voluntary servants. For voluntariness is as necessary for the ruler to govern as in the ruled to obey. So also must there be a concurrence of will between teacher and learner, for no satisfactory progress can be made while there obtains resistance on either side. Thus he demonstrated the beauty of being persuaded by rulers, and being obedient to preceptors.
This was the greatest objective illustration of this argument. Pherecydes the Syrian had been his teacher, but now was afflicted with the morbus pedicularis. Pythagoras therefore went from Italy to Delos, to nurse him, tending him until he died, and piously performing whatever funeral rites were due to his former teacher. That is how diligent was he in the discharge of his duties towards those from whom he had received instruction.
Pythagoras insisted strenuously with his disciples on the fulfillment of mutual agreements. Lysis had once completed his worship in the temple of Hera, and was leaving as he met in the vestibule with Euryphamus the Syracusan, one of his fellow disciples, who was then entering into the temple. Euryphamus asked Lysis to wait for him, till he had finished his worship also. So Lysis sat down on a stone seat there, and waited. Euryphamus went in, finished his worship, but, having become absorbed in some profound considerations, forgot his appointment, and passed out of the temple by another gate. Lysis however continued to wait, without leaving his seat, the remainder of that day, and the following night, and also the greater part of the next day. He might have stayed there still longer, perhaps unless, the following day, in the auditorium, Euryphamus had heard that. Lysis' associates were missing him. Recollecting his appointment, he hastened to Lysis, relieved him of the engagement, telling him the cause of his forgetfulness as follows: "Some God produced this oblivion in me, as a trial of your firmness in keeping your engagements."
Pythagoras also ordained abstinence from animal food, for many reasons, besides the chief one that it is conducive to peaceableness. Those who are trained to abominate the slaughter of animals as iniquitous and unnatural will think it much more unlawful to kill a man, or engage in war. For war promotes slaughter, and legalizes it, increasing it, and strengthening it.
Pythagoras' maxim "Touch not the balance above the beam" is in itself an exhortation to justice, demanding the cultivation of everything that is just, as will be shown when we study the Pythagorean symbols. In all these particulars, therefore, Pythagoras paid great attention to the practice of justice; and to its preachment to men, both in deeds and words.