Pythagoras: His Life and Teaching, a Compendium of Classical Sources (56 page)

The phrase
implies “The Master said it”; Latin
Ipse dixit.
It was associated with Pythagoras whose students in a debate would argue
ipse dixit
, (“He said it himself”), meaning Pythagoras, and considered it sufficent proof of an argument even without evidence. Cf. Cicero,
De Natura Deorum
(Liber I, Cap.V,10. Latin text is given in Mayor, M.
Tulli Ciceronis De Natura Deorum Libri Tres
, Vol. 1, p. 4) Cicero was in turn quoted to this effect by Valerius Maximus,
Memorable Doings And Sayings
, Book VIII. 15. Ext. 1. According to Joseph Mayor, Socrates was also called
by his disciples. Both the Latin and Greek pronouns were used colloquially by slaves of their masters. (M.
Tulli Ciceronis De Natura Deorum Libri Tres
, Vol. 1, p. 77) It is interesting to note that Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) would eventually utilize the Latin phrase to form the word
ipse-dixitism
, which is used to signify an unsupported or dogmatic argument.

p. 99
“squill” or “sea-onion,”
Urginea maritima.

The plant was used in the Mediterranean area medicinally and as rat poison. Pliny, in Liber XIX, Chapter 30 of his
Natural History
, wrote that, “the philosopher Pythagoras has written a whole volume on the merits of this plant, setting forth its various medicinal properties.,” and further, in Liber XX, Chapter 39, “Pythagoras says that a squill suspended at the threshold of a door, effectively shuts all access to evil spells and incantations..” (See Bostock & Riley,
The Natural History of Pliny
, Vol. IV, pp. 168-169 and 243. The Latin text is in Mayhoff,
C. Plini Secundi Naturalis Historiae
, Vol. 3, pp. 273-274 and 372.)

p. 100

An interrogative particle meaning in this case, “what?” i.e., “what clothes?”

The passage in full reads as follows:

“And she recommended a woman, who was going to her husband, to put off her modesty with her clothes, and when she left him, to resume it again with her clothes; and when she was asked, “What clothes?” she said, “Those which cause you to be called a woman.”

(Yonge,
Diogenes Laërtius, The Lives And Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
p. 356. Cf. Hicks,
Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers
, Vol. 2, pp. 357-359)

p. 118
“He said it.”

See above, note to
page 99
.

p. 122
a quinquennial silence.

From Iamblicus,
Life of Pythagoras
, Cap. 17 (Kiessling,
Iamblichi Chalcidensis Ex Coele-Suria De Vita Pythagorica
, Vol. 1, p. 154)

p. 122
[“keeping silent”],
from keeping our speech within ourselves. Read
[“keeping silent”],
The word
is a synonym of