A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

PYTHAGORAS. PYTHAGORAS. 617
Judaea, Babylon. and even India, for the purpose of Neither as to the kind and amount of knowledge
collecting all the scientific knowledge that was which Pythagoras acquired, nor as to his definite
attainable, and especially of deriving from the foun- philosophical views, have we much trustworthy
tain-heads instruction respecting the less public or direct evidence. Every thing of the kind menmystic cultus of the gods. (Diog. Lairt. viii. 2; tioned by Plato and Aristotle is attributed not to
Porph. 1. c. 11, 12; Iambl.. c. 14, &c.) The jour- Pythagoras, but to the Pythagoreans. We have,
ney to Babylon is possible, and not very unlikely. however, the testimony of Heracleitus (Diog. Laiirt.
That Pythagoras visited Egypt, may be regarded viii. 6, ix. 1, comp. Herod. i. 29, ii. 49, iv. 95),
as more than probable. Enough of Egypt was that he was a man of extensive acquirements; and
known to attract the curiosity of an inquiring that of Xenophanes, that he believed in the transGreek, and the intercourse of Samos as well as migration of souls. (Diog. La'irt. viii. 36, comp.
other parts of Greece with that country is men- Arist. de Anima, i. 3; Herod. ii. 123. Xenophanes
tioned. (Herod. ii. 134, 135, iii. 39.) The autho- mentions the story of his interceding on behalf of
rities also on the point are numerous (Antiphon. a dog that was being beaten, professing to recogap. Porph. 7; Isocr. Busir. p. 227; Cic. de Fin. nise in its cries the voice of a departed friend,
v. 27; Strabo, xiv. p. 638.) The passages in comp. Grote, 1.c. vol. iv. p. 528, note.) Pythagoras
Herodotus, ii. 81, 123, which have been thought is said to have pretended that he had been Euphorto assert or imply the visit of Pythagoras to Egypt, bus, the son of Panthus, in the Trojan war, as well
do not, on a more accurate examination, appear to as various other characters, a tradesman, a courteinvolve any such inference. (Krische, 1. c. p. 5; zan, &c. (Porph. 26; Pans. ii. 17; Diog. Laert. viii.
Ritter, Gesch. der Pythagorischen Philosophie, p. 27.) 5; Horace, Od. i. 28, 1. 10). He is said to have disAccording to one account, of no great authority, and covered the propositions that the triangle inscribed
mixed up with much that is absurd and incredible, in a semi-circle is right-angled (Diog. Lairt. i. 25),
Polycrates gave Pythagoras a letter of introduction that the square on the hypotenuse of a right-angled
to Amasis. (Diog. Lairt. viii. 3.) Still it is not easy triangle is equal to the sum of the squares on the
to determine how farPythagoras was indebted to the sides (Diog. Lai'rt. viii. 12; Plut. Non posse suav.
Egyptian priests, or, indeed,whether he learnt any vivi sec. Ep. p. 1094). There is a celebrated story
thing at all from them. That he was initiated into of his having discovered the arithmetical relations
their profoundest mysteries is in the highest degree of the musical scale by observing accidentally the
improbable. Geometry in Egypt seems to have various sounds produced by hammers of different
been chiefly of a practical kind, and the propositions weights striking upon an anvil, and suspending by
which Pythagoras is said to have discovered are strings weights equal to those of the different
such as to show that the science of geometry was hammers (Porph. in Ptol. Harm. p. 213; Diog.
still in its infancy. There was nothing in the Lairt. viii. 12; Nicom. Harm. i. 2, p. 10, Meib.).
symbolical mode of representation which the Py- The retailers of the story of course never took the
thagoreans adopted, which bore the distinct traces trouble to verify the experiment, or they would
of an Egyptian origin. The secret religious usages have discovered that different hammers do not
of the Pythagoreans exhibited nothing (so far as produce different sounds from the same anvil, any
can be traced with any degree of probability) but more than different clappers do from the same bell.
what might have been adopted, quite in the spirit Discoveries in astronomy are also attributed to
of the Greek religion, by those who knew nothing of Pythagoras (Diog. Laert. viii. 14; Plin. H. 1. ii.
Egyptian mysteries;and whatwaspeculiar toPytha- 8). There can be little doubt that he paid great
goras in this respect admits of being referred with attention to arithmetic, and its application to
greater likelihood to the cultus of the Tyrrhenian weights, measures, and the theory of music; mediPelasgians, with whom Pythagoras is said to have cine also is mentioned as included in the range of
been connected. (Ritter, GeschL. der Psilos. vol. i. his studies (Diog. Lairt. viii. 12, 14, 32). Apart
p. 363.) Even the doctrine of metempsychosis in- from all direct testimony, however, it might safely
volves nothing which compels us to look to Egypt have been affirmed, that the very remarkable influor the East for its origin. It is rather one of the ence exerted by Pythagoras, and even the fact
most obvious sensualistic modes in which the con- that he was made the hero of so many marvellous
tinned existence of the soul could be conceived. stories, prove him to have been a man both of
Pythagoras might have derived it quite as easily singular capabilities and of great acquirements.
from Pherecydes as from the Egyptians. Greater The general tendency of the speculations of the
stress might be laid upon some external observances, Pythagorean school is evidence that the statements
such as the refraining from eating beans and fish, with regard to his mathematical researches are well
were it not that doubt exists even with regard to founded. But whatever weight there may be in
these. (Aristoxenus denied the fact of the in- the conjecture of Ritter, that through his descent
terdiction of beans; see Gellius, N. A. iv. 11.) from the Tyrrhenian Pelasgians Pythagoras deNor, in any case, would initiation by the Egyptian rived by tradition a peculiar and secret cultus,
priests be necessary to account for it. In short, no which he needed not so much to alter, as to develop
foreign influence can be traced, which in any way so as to suit his peculiar aims, there can be little
illustrates or accounts for either the philosophy or doubt that the above-named author is correct in
tihe institutions of Pythagoras. These exhibit only viewing the religious element as the predominant
what might easily have been developed by a Greek one in his character, and a religious ascendancy in
mind exposed to the ordinary influences of the age. connection with a certain mystic religious system
Even the ancient authorities point to a similar as that which it was his immediate and chief obresult in connecting the religious and ascetic pecu- ject to secure. And it was this religious element
liarities of Pythagoras with the Orphic or Cretan which made the profoundest impression upon his
mysteries (Iambl. c. 25; Porph. c. 17; Diog. Lahirt. contemporaries. That they regarded him as standviii. 3), or the Delphic oracle (Ariston. ap. Diog. ing in a peculiarly close connection with the gods
Laert. viii. 8, 21; Porph. 41). is certain. The Ckotoniates even identified him