Pythagoras: His Life and Teaching, a Compendium of Classical Sources (55 page)

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Authors: James Wasserman,Thomas Stanley,Henry L. Drake,J Daniel Gunther

BOOK: Pythagoras: His Life and Teaching, a Compendium of Classical Sources
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984
Plotinus,
Ennead III
, 5-6.

985
Pythagoras,
Aurea Carmina,70-71
.

986
Reuchlin,
De Arte Cabalistica
, Liber II.

987
Timaeus of Locri,
De Natura Mundi Et Animae
, Chap. 5.

988
Scalich,
De Mysterius Pythagoricis
in
Theses Mysticae Philosophiae
, Canon 3.

989
Alcinous,
De Doctrina Platonis
, Chap. 13. [Translated by Thomas Stanley & included in the account of
Plato
in his
History of Philosophy.
—Ed.]

990
Timaeus of Locri,
De Natura Mundi Et Animae
, Chap. 2.

991
Reuchlin,
De Arte Cabalistica
, Liber II.

992
Pythagoras,
Aurea Carmina
, 63-64.

993
Herodotus
, Liber I, Chap. 32.

994
Reuchlin,
De Arte Cabalistica
, Liber II.

995
Pythagoras,
Aurea Carmina
,65-66.

996
Virgil,
Aeneid
, Liber VI.

997
Scalich,
De Mysterius Pythagoricis
in
Theses Mysticae Philosophiae
, Canon 6.

998
Scalich,
De Mysterius Pythagoricis
in
Theses Mysticae Philosophiae
, Canon 5.

999
Scalich,
De Mysterius Pythagoricis
in
Theses Mysticae Philosophiae
, Canon 8.

1000
Reuchlin,
De Arte Cabalistica
, Liber II.

1001
Aristotle,
De Generatione et Corruptione
, Liber I, Chap. 1.

1002
Philostratus,
Vita Apollonii
, Chap.19.

A
DDITIONAL
N
OTES
TO THE
T
EXT

B
Y
J. D
ANIEL
G
UNTHER

(marked with †)

p. 79
, “Genuine.”

From Iamblicus',
Life of Pythagoras
, Cap. 18 (Kiessling,
Iamblichi Chalcidensis Ex Coele-Suria De Vita Pythagorica
, Vol. 1, p.172)

p. 88
a Magician.

The word
is not the normal word for “magician.” It refers to one who examines animal entrails for the purpose of divination. Cf. Schmidt,
Hesychii Alexandrini Lexicon, Editionem Minorem
p.342, Liddell Scott, A
Greek-English Lexicon
p. 344b,
and p.1628b,
The accusation of Timon that Pythagoras was a
is contradicted by the account in Chapter 15, ‘Divination by Numbers' (see
page 169
) where we find an account of divination where Pythagoras rejects the use of animal entrails: “The student of Pythagoras, Abaris, performed those kinds of sacrifices to which he was accustomed, and diligently practiced divination after the ways of the Barbarians by victims (principally of cocks, whose entrals they conceived to be most exact for inspection). Pythagoras, not willing to take him away from his study of truth; yet, in order to direct him by a safer way, without blood and slaughter (moreover esteeming the cock sacred to the Sun), taught Abaris to find out all truth by the science of arithmetic.”

p. 96 And that he chiefly praised Homer, for saving,
, the shepherd of the people.

The phrase is used by Homer multiple times as an epithet of a ruler.

For one example, see
The Odyssey
, III, line 156 and IV, line 541 where the phrase is applied to Agamemnon. (Palmer,
The Odyssey of Homer, Books I-XII. The Text, And An English Version In Rhythmic Prose
, pp. 74 & 132.)

p. 99
[“One that practices bodily exercises”.]
(“Exercitator”…)

For
, “One that practices bodily exercises,” Cf. Liddell Scott, A
Greek-English Lexicon
p. 1749B, and Dindorf,
Clementis Alexandrini Opera
, p. 421 par. 266, 10. For
, read literally “one who annoints,” i.e. one who applied ointments in a gymnasium. Cf. Liddell
Scott,
A Greek-English Lexicon
p. 62a. The reference is to the
Natural History
of Pliny Secundi, Liber XXIII, Chap. 7 which extols the virtues of the fig:
Pythagoras exercitator primus ad carnes eos transtulit.
“Pythagoras, the gymnist (exercitator), being the first who introduced them to a flesh diet.” (Perhaps meaning that he used figs to assist in putting on weight. Cf. Mayhoff,
C. Plini Secundi Naturalis Historiae
, Vol. 4 p. 38, and Bostock & Riley,
The Natural History of Pliny
, Vol. 4 , p. 503)

p. 99
, [“He said it”]

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