Pythagoras: His Life and Teaching, a Compendium of Classical Sources (9 page)

CHAPTER 14

H
IS
O
RATION TO THE
B
OYS

H
e, being persuaded by them, discoursed to the boys in this manner:
¹⁵⁰

That they should neither begin abusive and insulting behavior, nor return such to the reproachers. And concerning
(proper training and moral instruction), which is the same name as the time of their youth, he commanded them diligently to pursue it; adding that to a well-disposed youth it is easy to preserve honesty throughout all his life. To him that is not well-disposed, it is hard at that time to continue it; but more difficult from an ill beginning to run to the end. Moreover he declared, that boys are most beloved of the gods. And for that reason, in times of dearth they are sent forth to pray to the gods for rain, as if the deity would soonest hear them. And they only, being always sanctified, had leave to live in the temple.

For the same reason, the gods that are most kind to men—Apollo and Cupid—are by all painters represented, as having that age (of boys). It is likewise acknowledged that the crowned games were instituted for the sake of boys. The Pythian, upon the conquest of Pytho by a boy that in name; for a boy likewise, and that in Isthmus, upon the death of Archemorus and Melicertus.

Besides all this, at the building of the city Crotona, Apollo told the leader of the colony that he would give him a progeny if he conducted his colony to Italy. Whence they ought to reflect that Apollo has a particular providence for the generation—and over youth—even of all the gods. Wherefore they ought to study to be worthy of their love, and employ themselves in hearing, that they may be able to speak. Moreover, if they would live to be old themselves, they should obey their elders and not contradict them; for by that means they will become esteemed worthy, and not to be injured by those that are younger then themselves.

CHAPTER 15

H
IS
O
RATION TO THE
W
OMEN

I
t is said, that he discoursed to the women concerning sacrifices.
¹⁵¹

First, that as when another man were to pray for them, they would have him to be honest and good, because the gods hearken to such men; in like manner ought they, above all things, so to behave themselves as that they may indeed have the gods attentive to their prayers.

Next, that they must present the gods with such things as they themselves make with their own hands. And without the help of servants, offer them at the altar; as cakes, wax and incense. But that they present not the deity with slaughter and death; nor that they offer so much at one time, as if they were never to come thither again.

As concerning their conversation towards their husbands, he commanded them to consider that fathers did yield to their daughters, that their husbands should be more beloved by them than their parents. Wherefore it is fit that either they contradict their husbands in nothing, or then think they have the victory when they are overruled by them.

Moreover he spared that well-known apothegm concerning coition: that for her who rises from her own husband, it is lawful to go to the temples the same day; but for her who rises from him that is not her husband, never.

He exhorted them likewise, throughout their whole lives to speak well of others, and to take care that others speak well of them; and that they destroy not that good report which is given. He cautioned them not to confute those mythographers, who (seeing the justice of women—that they lend their garments without witness when any has need of them, and that they made no bargains and engagements) feigned three women who made use of one eye amongst them because of their readiness to communicate. Which if applied to men, as if when one had received anything he should restore presently or communicate to his neighbor, everyone would say there is no such thing, it being contrary to their nature.

Further, he who is said to be the wisest of all persons, who disposed the language of men and invented all names—whether he were a god, or a daemon, or some divine man—upon consideration, because the female sex is most addicted to piety, made every degree of age synonymous with some god. He called the unmarried woman Core; she who is given to man Nympha; she who has children Mother; she who has children's children, in the Doric dialect, Maija; to which respect of their devotion it agrees that the oracles at Dodona and Delphi are delivered by women.
¹⁵²

Having thus commended their devotion, he converted his discourse to speak of decency of habit: that none should presume to wear any sumptuous cloths, but offer them all at Juno's temple (which amounted to) many millions of garments.

He is reported also to have said thus: that throughout the country of the Crotonians, the virtue of a man towards his wife was much celebrated. Ulysses refused Immortality at Calypso's hands rather than to forsake Penelope. Let it be the part of the wives to express their virtuous loyalty towards their husbands, that this praise may be reciprocal.
¹⁵³

CHAPTER 16

H
IS
I
NSTITUTION OF A
S
ECT IN
P
RIVATE AND
P
UBLIC

B
y this discourse, Pythagoras gained no small honor and esteem in Crotona, and by means of that city, throughout all Italy.
¹⁵⁴

At the first oration that he made in Crotona,
¹⁵⁵
he attracted many followers. Insomuch that it is said he gained 600 persons, who were by him not only won to the philosophy which he professed, but following his rules, became as we call it
Caenobii;
and these were they who studied philosophy.
¹⁵⁶
They did put their estates into one common stock, and kept silence five years, only hearing his discourses, but not seeing him until they were fully proved; and then they became of his family and were admitted to him. There were the same 600 persons, who Laertius says, came to his nocturnal
discourse
, perhaps meaning the lectures through a screen during their probation. For he adds that if any of them were thought worthy to see him, they wrote of it to their friends as having obtained a great matter. This society Laertius calls his “system,” which Cassiodorus interprets as “college,” and Aulius Gellius his “family.”

Besides these, there were many auditors called
Acousmatics,
¹⁵⁷
whereof he gained, as Nicomachus relates,
¹⁵⁸
two thousand by one oration which he made at his first coming into Italy. That they need not live at home, they erected a large
Homacoceion
,
¹⁵⁹
which Clement of Alexandria interprets to be the same as
Ecclesia
, “Church,” with us. Here were admitted also boys and women. They built cities, and inhabited all that part of Italy which is called Magna Graecia, and received laws and statutes from Pythagoras as divine precepts, without which they did not anything. They lived together unanimously, praised by all, and applauded as happy for such as lived round about them.

Thus Pythagoras distinguished those whom he admitted according to their several merits. For it was not fit that all should partake alike, being not of a like nature. Nor was it fit that some should receive all the learning, others none; for that would have been contrary to his community of all and to his equality. He therefore, of the discourses which he made, communicated to everyone that part
which was proper for him; and distributed his learning so that it might benefit everyone according to his capacity. He observed the rules of Justice in giving to everyone that share of the discourse which they deserved; calling upon this account, some
Pythogoreans
(those of the system), and some
Pythagorites
(those of the
Homacoceion)
, as we call some
Attics
, some
Atticists.

Dividing them thus aptly into two names, he appointed one part to be
(“Genuine”), the other he ordered to be Imitators of them. As to the Pythagoreans he decreed, that all their estates should be in common, and that they should lead their whole lives together in community; but the others he ordered to keep their estates to themselves, yet to meet together. Thus was this succession of both parties constituted by Pythagoras. The discipline which was observed by the more genuine—the Pythagoreans—we shall remit, together with his doctrine to the end of his life.

CHAPTER 17

H
IS
A
UTHORITY IN
C
IVIL
A
FFAIRS

W
hatsoever cities in his travels through Italy and Sicily he found subjected to one another (whereof some had been so of a long time, others of late), he infused into them a passion for liberty through his disciples—of whom he had some in every city—and he restored them to liberty.
¹⁶⁰
Thus he freed Crotona, Sybaris, Catana, Rhegium, Himera, Agrigentum, Tauromenium, and some others, to whom he sent laws by Charondas the Catanaean, and Zaleucus the Locrian, by means whereof they lasted a long time well governed, and were deservedly envied by their neighbors.

He wholly took away dissension, not only from among his disciples and their successors for many ages after, but also from all the cities of Italy and Sicily, both internal and external dissension. For he did frequently pronounce to all manner of persons everywhere, whether many or few, an apothegm which resembles an admonitory oracle of God, which was a kind of epitome or recapitulation of all that he taught. The apothegm was this:

That we ought to avoid with our utmost endeavor, and to amputate with fire and sword and all other means: from the body, sickness; from the soul, ignorance; from the belly, luxury; from a city, sedition; from a family, discord; from all things, excess.

By which he did indulgently put everyone in mind of his best doctrines.

Yet is he reported to have been the occasion of the war between the Sybarites and the Crotonians, which ended in the total Subversion of the Sybarites. The manner is thus related by Diodorus Siculus, and Iamblichus.

When the Grecians built Sybaris in Italy,
¹⁶¹
it soon came to pass that through the goodness of the soil (though Athaeneus deny it to be fertile
¹⁶²
), the city became in a short time very rich. For being seated between two rivers, Crathis and Sybaris
(from which it took its name), and the citizens possessing a large country, they soon gathered together great riches; and admitting many to be free of their country, they arrived to such height that they seemed far to excel all the rest of the inhabitants of Italy. Yet, they were so luxurious that they became infamous even to a proverb; and no less addicted to all other vices, insomuch that they, out of insolence, put to death thirty ambassadors of the Crotonians, and threw their bodies from the walls to be devoured by beasts.
¹⁶³

The city was so populous, that it contained no less then 300,000 persons. At that time Telys was chief magistrate, who, accusing the greatest men, procured of the Sybarites to banish 500 of the richest citizens, and to confiscate their goods. These banished men went to Crotona, and there, after the manner of suppliants, fled to the Altars erected in the Forum. Hereupon Telys sent ambassadors to the Crotonians to declare, that they should either deliver up the banished men or expect war. (These Sybarite ambassadors had been instrumental in the murder of some friends of Pythagoras, perhaps some of the thirty Crotonians whom they slew.
¹⁶⁴
) Amongst them, one there was who had killed some of the ambassadors with his own hands; another was son to one of the same murderers who had since died. Moreover, he was of those kinds of persons, who, being oppressed with want, stir up sedition that they may take occasion thereby to fall on the goods of others.

These Sybarites came to Pythagoras and blamed him; and one of them (which was he that had a hand in the death of his friends) demanding a reason of his reproof, he said that he did not give Laws. Whereupon they accused him as if he had made himself Apollo, and especially for that before, upon a question being asked, “Why these things were so,” he asked him that propounded the question, whether, when Apollo delivered his oracles, he would require him to render a reason? The other deriding, as he thought, those discourses in which Pythagoras declared the return of the soul, and telling him that when he went into the other world, he would give him a letter to carry to his father, and desired him to bring an answer of it when he came back. “I shall not,” replied Pythagoras, “go to the place of the wicked, where murderers are punished.”

The ambassadors having thus reviled him, and he going to the
seaside, and washing himself, many followed him. One of those who advised the Crotonians said—when he had sufficiently spoken against all the other things that they did—at last he accused them especially for offering to oppose and abuse Pythagoras, of whom when heretofore, as fables report, beasts could speak, no one of them durst ever speak an ill word.

Diodorus says that a council being called,
¹⁶⁵
and it being put to the question whether they should deliver up the Italiotes to the Sybarites, or undergo a war with an enemy more powerful than themselves,
¹⁶⁶
the Senate and people made some doubt. The people first inclined to the delivery of the suppliants rather than endure the war. But afterwards, Pythagoras the philosopher advising them to protect the suppliants, they changed their opinion and determined to fight in their defense.

The Sybarites came into the field, with an army of 300,000; the Crotonians had but 100,000. They were led by Milo, the wrestler, who at the first onset himself put to flight that wing of the army which was opposite to him; for he was of invincible strength. This man having courage answerable to his strength, had been six times victor at the Olympic Games. And when he began this fight, he was crowned with Olympic wreaths, wearing like Hercules a lion's skin and carrying a club; and obtaining the victory for his countrymen, was much admired by them.

The Crotonians likewise made use of a stratagem, whereby they got the day. The Sybarites were so much addicted to luxury, that they taught their horses to dance at feasts.
¹⁶⁷
This the Crotonians knowing, as Aristotle relates, in the midst of the fight they commanded some pipers, whom to that purpose they had brought along with them, to play dancing tunes. The horses, as soon as they heard the music, not only fell a dancing but carried their riders violently over to their enemies. Thus the Sybarites being put to flight, the Crotonians spared none that they took, but put all to the sword, whereby the greater part of the army was slain, and the city, after a dishonorable surrender, laid waste. This according to Diodorus, happened sixty-three years before the second of the eighty-third Olympiad [ca. 443
B.C.
], which falls upon the first year of the sixty-eighth Olympiad [ca. 504
B.C.
].

Agrigentum was also by the counsel of Pythagoras freed from the tyranny of Phalaris in this manner. Pythagoras was detained by Phalaris,
¹⁶⁸
a most cruel tyrant with whom he stayed six months.
¹⁶⁹
Abaris the Hyperborean, a wise person, came to converse with him and asked him questions—particularly concerning sacred rites, images, divine worship, providence of the gods, as well of those in heaven, as conversant about the earth, and such like demands. Pythagoras, as being highly inspired, answered him with much truth and persuasion, insomuch as he drew the standers by to his opinion. Whereupon Phalaris, seeing the people taken with him, was angry with Abaris for praising Pythagoras. He grew fierce against Pythagoras himself, and at last came to that height as to speak all blasphemies against the gods as were possible for such a kind of person. But Abaris acknowledged himself thankful to Pythagoras for the things he learned of him: that all things depend upon heaven and are disposed of from thence, which he collected as from many other things, so especially from the efficacy of sacrifices. Far therefore was he from thinking that Pythagoras, who taught him these things, was a deceiver; but he rather admired him, as a person supernaturally inspired. Phalaris, in answer hereunto, denied plainly and openly all things that were done in sacred rites.

Whereupon Abaris transferred his discourse from these things to such as appear manifestly to all men, and by the divine operations which are in all extremities—as in extraordinary wars, and in incurable diseases, destruction of fruit, transmission of pestilence from country to country. By these difficult irremediable causes, he endeavored to prove that there is a divine providence which overrules all human hope and power. But Phalaris impudently opposed it.

Hereupon Pythagoras, knowing that this day would be fatal to Phalaris, spoke very freely; and looking upon Abaris, said, that there is a passage from heaven to the aerial and terrestrial parts; and did likewise discourse scientifically, concerning the dependence of all things upon Heaven; and did irrefragably demonstrate the free power of the soul; and proceeded to show the perfect operation of the reason and of the mind. Then he spoke boldly concerning tyranny, and all excess of fortune, all injustice, all covetousness, strongly maintaining that they are all worth nothing. After this, he made a divine
exhortation concerning the best life, and made a resolute opposition against the worst, and did most plainly deliver the doctrine concerning the power and passions of the soul. And what was more then all these, he demonstrated that the gods are not the causes of ills; and that diseases and passions are seeds of the intemperance of the body. And he reprehended mythographers and poets for such things as they had falsely delivered; and sharply reproved Phalaris, and showed what the power of heaven is, and how great, by its operations.

As concerning infliction of punishment by law, he gave many instances thereof, and clearly showed the difference between man and other living creatures. He likewise scientifically discoursed concerning intrinsical and enunciative reason, and concerning the mind, and the knowledge proceeding from it, with many other moral documents dependent thereon. He treated of what things are useful in life, making an exhortation to the pursuit of the useful, and condemning the hurtful. And that which is most of all, he made a distinction between the things done according to fate, and according to the mind, and of those which are done according to necessity, and according to decree. Moreover he discoursed concerning daemons, and the immortality of the soul, much and wisely (whereof we shall have occasion to speak elsewhere). He showed that these things do confer most to fortitude, seeing that he himself in the midst of all dangers, did with a constant mind discourse philosophy and arm himself against Fortune; as also for that he slighted and condemned the person that attempted to hurt him, and despised the fear of death, and all human contingencies; nor was he at that instant at all concerned for them.

Indeed (continues Iamblichus) it is manifest, that he was nothing troubled with the fear of death, but had a far more noble design—the freeing of Sicily from the oppression of tyranny. That it was he who did it is manifest from the oracle of Apollo, which declared that Phalaris, when his subjects grew better and more unanimous, should lose his authority; which they did at the coming of Pythagoras through his exhortations and Instructions. But a clearer evidence hereof is from the time: for that very day that Phalaris went about to bring Pythagoras and Alaris into danger of death, he was himself slain. The manner is thus related by Tzeizes.
¹⁷⁰

It chanced, that a hawk pursued a great flight of pigeons; which Phalaris seeing, said to those that stood by him, “Behold friends, how much an ignoble fear can do; for if but one of all these pigeons would turn again, it would presently give a stop to the pursuer.” This speech an old man that was present no sooner heard, when taking up a stone he threw it at Phalaris; and the rest, following his example, did the like. Some say they stoned him to death; others, that they put him into chains, and wrapped him in a sheet of lead, wherein he died miserably.

To the Locrians, besides Charondas and Zeleucus already mentioned, he sent Timaratus also to make laws for them.
¹⁷¹
To the Rheginenses, he sent upon the same employment Theatetus, Helicaon, Aristrocrates and Phytius.
¹⁷²

Thus, as Porphyry says, Pythagoras and his friends were for a long time so much admired in Italy, that many cities committed themselves to be governed by them.
¹⁷³