1.1. Having now completed our account of the philosophy of Ionia starting with Thales, as well as of its chief representatives, let us proceed to examine the philosophy of Italy, which was started by Pythagoras, son of the gem-engraver Mnesarchus, and according to Hermippus, a Samian, or, according to Aristoxenus, a Tyrrhenian from one of those islands which the Athenians held after clearing them of their Tyrrhenian inhabitants. Some indeed say that he was descended through Euthyphro, Hippasus and Marmacus from Cleonymus, who was exiled from Phlius, and that, as Marmacus lived in Samos, so Pythagoras was called a Samian. From Samos he went, it is said, to Lesbos with an introduction to Pherecydes from his uncle Zoïlus. He had three silver flagons made and took them as presents to each of the priests of Egypt. He had brothers, of whom Eunomus was the elder and Tyrrhenus the second; he also had a slave, Zamolxis, who is worshipped, so says Herodotus, by the Getans, as Cronos. He was a pupil, as already stated, of Pherecydes of Syros, after whose death he went to Samos to be the pupil of Hermodamas, Creophylus’s descendant, a man already advanced in years. While still young, so eager was he for knowledge, he left his own country and had himself initiated into all the mysteries and rites not only of Greece but also of foreign countries.
1.1. ἔνιοι δʼ υἱὸν μὲν εἶναι Μαρμάκου τοῦ Ἱππάσου τοῦ Εὐθύφρονος τοῦ Κλεωνύμου φυγάδος ἐκ Φλιοῦντος, οἰκεῖν δʼ ἐν Σάμῳ τὸν Μάρμακον, ὅθεν Σάμιον τὸν Πυθαγόραν λέγεσθαι· συστῆναι δʼ εἰς Λέσβον ἐλθόντα Φερεκύδῃ ὑπὸ Ζωίλου τοῦ θείου. καὶ τρία ποτήρια κατασκευασάμενος ἀργυρᾶ δῶρον ἀπήνεγκεν ἑκάστῳ τῶν ἱερέων εἰς Αἴγυπτον. ἔσχε δʼ ἀδελφούς, πρεσβύτερον μὲν Εὔνομον, μέσον δὲ Τυρρηνόν· καὶ δοῦλον Ζάμολξιν, ᾧ Γέται θύουσι, Κρόνον νομίζοντες, ὥς φησιν Ἡρόδοτος. οὗτος ἤκουσε μέν, καθὰ προείρηται, Φερεκύδου τοῦ Συρίου· μετὰ δὲ τὴν ἐκείνου τελευτὴν ἧκεν εἰς Σάμον καὶ ἤκουσεν Ἑρμοδάμαντος τοῦ ἀπογόνου Κρεωφύλου, ἤδη πρεσβυτέρου. νέος δʼ ὢν καὶ φιλομαθὴς ἀπεδήμησε τῆς πατρίδος καὶ πάσας ἐμυήθη τάς θʼ Ἑλληνικὰς καὶ βαρβαρικὰς τελετάς.
1.3. Now he was in Egypt when Polycrates sent him a letter of introduction to Amasis; he learnt the Egyptian language, so we learn from Antiphon in his book On Men of Outstanding Merit, and he also journeyed among the Chaldaeans and Magi. Then while in Crete he went down into the cave of Ida with Epimenides; he also entered the Egyptian sanctuaries, and was told their secret lore concerning the gods. After that he returned to Samos to find his country under the tyranny of Polycrates; so he sailed away to Croton in Italy, and there he laid down a constitution for the Italian Greeks, and he and his followers were held in great estimation; for, being nearly three hundred in number, so well did they govern the state that its constitution was in effect a true aristocracy (government by the best).
1.3. ἐγένετʼ οὖν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ, ὁπηνίκα καὶ Πολυκράτης αὐτὸν Ἀμάσιδι συνέστησε διʼ ἐπιστολῆς· καὶ ἐξέμαθε τὴν φωνὴν αὐτῶν, καθά φησιν Ἀντιφῶν ἐν τῷ Περὶ τῶν ἐν ἀρετῇ πρωτευσάντων, καὶ παρὰ Χαλδαίοις ἐγένετο καὶ Μάγοις. εἶτʼ ἐν Κρήτῃ σὺν Ἐπιμενίδῃ κατῆλθεν εἰς τὸ Ἰδαῖον ἄντρον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ εἰς τὰ ἄδυτα· καὶ τὰ περὶ θεῶν ἐν ἀπορρήτοις ἔμαθεν. εἶτʼ ἐπανῆλθεν εἰς Σάμον, καὶ εὑρὼν τὴν πατρίδα τυραννουμένην ὑπὸ Πολυκράτους, ἀπῆρεν εἰς Κρότωνα τῆς Ἰταλίας· κἀκεῖ νόμους θεὶς τοῖς Ἰταλιώταις ἐδοξάσθη σὺν τοῖς μαθηταῖς, οἳ πρὸς τοὺς τριακοσίους ὄντες ᾠκονόμουν ἄριστα τὰ πολιτικά, ὥστε σχεδὸν ἀριστοκρατίαν εἶναι τὴν πολιτείαν.
1.4. This is what Heraclides of Pontus tells us he used to say about himself: that he had once been Aethalides and was accounted to be Hermes’ son, and Hermes told him he might choose any gift he liked except immortality; so he asked to retain through life and through death a memory of his experiences. Hence in life he could recall everything, and when he died he still kept the same memories. Afterwards in course of time his soul entered into Euphorbus and he was wounded by Menelaus. Now Euphorbus used to say that he had once been Aethalides and obtained this gift from Hermes, and then he told of the wanderings of his soul, how it migrated hither and thither, into how many plants and animals it had come, and all that it underwent in Hades, and all that the other souls there have to endure.
1.4. Τοῦτόν φησιν Ἡρακλείδης ὁ Ποντικὸς περὶ αὑτοῦ τάδε λέγειν, ὡς εἴη ποτὲ γεγονὼς Αἰθαλίδης καὶ Ἑρμοῦ υἱὸς νομισθείη· τὸν δὲ Ἑρμῆν εἰπεῖν αὐτῷ ἑλέσθαι ὅ τι ἂν βούληται πλὴν ἀθανασίας. αἰτήσασθαι οὖν ζῶντα καὶ τελευτῶντα μνήμην ἔχειν τῶν συμβαινόντων. ἐν μὲν οὖν τῇ ζωῇ πάντων διαμνημονεῦσαι· ἐπεὶ δὲ ἀποθάνοι, τηρῆσαι τὴν αὐτὴν μνήμην. χρόνῳ δʼ ὕστερον εἰς Εὔφορβον ἐλθεῖν καὶ ὑπὸ Μενέλεω τρωθῆναι. ὁ δʼ Εὔφορβος ἔλεγεν ὡς Αἰθαλίδης ποτὲ γεγόνοι καὶ ὅτι παρʼ Ἑρμοῦ τὸ δῶρον λάβοι καὶ τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς περιπόλησιν, ὡς περιεπολήθη καὶ εἰς ὅσα φυτὰ καὶ ζῷα παρεγένετο καὶ ὅσα ἡ ψυχὴ ἐν Ἅιδῃ ἔπαθε καὶ αἱ λοιπαὶ τίνα ὑπομένουσιν.
1.5. When Euphorbus died, his soul passed into Hermotimus, and he also, wishing to authenticate the story, went up to the temple of Apollo at Branchidae, where he identified the shield which Menelaus, on his voyage home from Troy, had dedicated to Apollo, so he said: the shield being now so rotten through and through that the ivory facing only was left. When Hermotimus died, he became Pyrrhus, a fisherman of Delos, and again he remembered everything, how he was first Aethalides, then Euphorbus, then Hermotimus, and then Pyrrhus. But when Pyrrhus died, he became Pythagoras, and still remembered all the facts mentioned.
1.5. ἐπειδὴ δὲ Εὔφορβος ἀποθάνοι, μεταβῆναι τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ εἰς Ἑρμότιμον, ὃς καὶ αὐτὸς πίστιν θέλων δοῦναι εἶτʼ ἀνῆλθεν εἰς Βραγχίδας καὶ εἰσελθὼν εἰς τὸ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος ἱερὸν ἐπέδειξεν ἣν Μενέλαος ἀνέθηκεν ἀσπίδα, (ἔφη γὰρ αὐτόν, ὅτʼ ἀπέπλει ἐκ Τροίας, ἀναθεῖναι τῷ Ἀπόλλωνι τὴν ἀσπίδα,) διασεσηπυῖαν ἤδη, μόνον δὲ διαμένον τὸ ἐλεφάντινον πρόσωπον. ἐπειδὴ δʼ Ἑρμότιμος ἀπέθανε, γενέσθαι Πύρρον τὸν Δήλιον ἁλιέα· καὶ πάντα πάλιν μνημονεύειν, πῶς πρόσθεν Αἰθαλίδης, εἶτʼ Εὔφορβος, εἶτα Ἑρμότιμος, εἶτα Πύρρος γένοιτο. ἐπειδὴ δὲ Πύρρος ἀπέθανε, γενέσθαι Πυθαγόραν καὶ πάντων τῶν εἰρημένων μεμνῆσθαι.
1.6. There are some who insist, absurdly enough, that Pythagoras left no writings whatever. At all events Heraclitus, the physicist, almost shouts in our ear, “Pythagoras, son of Mnesarchus, practised inquiry beyond all other men, and in this selection of his writings made himself a wisdom of his own, showing much learning but poor workmanship.” The occasion of this remark was the opening words of Pythagoras’s treatise On Nature, namely, “Nay, I swear by the air I breathe, I swear by the water I drink, I will never suffer censure on account of this work.” Pythagoras in fact wrote three books. On Education, On Statesmanship, and On Nature.
1.6. Ἔνιοι μὲν οὖν Πυθαγόραν μηδὲ ἓν καταλιπεῖν σύγγραμμά φασιν παίζοντες. Ἡράκλειτος γοῦν ὁ φυσικὸς μονονουχὶ κέκραγε καί φησι· Πυθαγόρης Μνησάρχου ἱστορίην ἤσκησεν ἀνθρώπων μάλιστα πάντων καὶ ἐκλεξάμενος ταύτας τὰς συγγραφὰς ἐποιήσατο ἑαυτοῦ σοφίην, πολυμαθείην, κακοτεχνίην. οὕτω δʼ εἶπεν, ἐπειδήπερ ἐναρχόμενος ὁ Πυθαγόρας τοῦ Φυσικοῦ συγγράμματος λέγει ὧδε· οὐ μὰ τὸν ἀέρα, τὸν ἀναπνέω, οὐ μὰ τὸ ὕδωρ, τὸ πίνω, οὔ κοτʼ οἴσω ψόγον περὶ τοῦ λόγου τοῦδε. γέγραπται δὲ τῷ Πυθαγόρᾳ συγγράμματα τρία, Παιδευτικόν, Πολιτικόν, Φυσικόν·
1.7. But the book which passes as the work of Pythagoras is by Lysis of Tarentum, a Pythagorean, who fled to Thebes and taught Epaminondas. Heraclides, the son of Serapion, in his Epitome of Sotion, says that he also wrote a poem On the Universe, and secondly the Sacred Poem which begins:Young men, come reverence in quietudeAll these my words;thirdly On the Soul, fourthly Of Piety, fifthly Helothales the Father of Epicharmus of Cos, sixthly Croton, and other works as well. The same authority says that the poem On the Mysteries was written by Hippasus to defame Pythagoras, and that many others written by Aston of Croton were ascribed to Pythagoras.
1.7. τὸ δὲ φερόμενον ὡς Πυθαγόρου Λύσιδός ἐστι τοῦ Ταραντίνου Πυθαγορικοῦ, φυγόντος εἰς Θήβας καὶ Ἐπαμεινώνδα καθηγησαμένου. φησὶ δʼ Ἡρακλείδης ὁ τοῦ Σαραπίωνος ἐν τῇ Σωτίωνος ἐπιτομῇ γεγραφέναι αὐτὸν καὶ Περὶ τοῦ ὅλου ἐν ἔπεσιν, δεύτερον τὸν Ἱερὸν λόγον, οὗ ἡ ἀρχή· ὦ νέοι, ἀλλὰ σέβεσθε μεθʼ ἡσυχίης τάδε πάντα· τρίτον Περὶ ψυχῆς, τέταρτον Περὶ εὐσεβείας, πέμπτον Ἡλοθαλῆ τὸν Ἐπιχάρμου τοῦ Κῴου πατέρα, ἕκτον Κρότωνα καὶ ἄλλους. τὸν δὲ Μυστικὸν λόγον Ἱππάσου φησὶν εἶναι, γεγραμμένον ἐπὶ διαβολῇ Πυθαγόρου, πολλοὺς δὲ καὶ ὑπὸ Ἄστωνος τοῦ Κροτωνιάτου γραφέντας ἀνατεθῆναι Πυθαγόρᾳ.
1.8. Aristoxenus says that Pythagoras got most of his moral doctrines from the Delphic priestess Themistoclea. According to Ion of Chios in his Triagmi he ascribed some poems of his own making to Orpheus. They further attribute to him the Scopiads which begins thus: “Be not shameless, before any man.” Sosicrates in his Successions of Philosophers says that, when Leon the tyrant of Phlius asked him who he was, he said, “A philosopher,” and that he compared life to the Great Games, where some went to compete for the prize and others went with wares to sell, but the best as spectators; for similarly, in life, some grow up with servile natures, greedy for fame and gain, but the philosopher seeks for truth. Thus much for this part of the subject.
1.8. φησὶ δὲ καὶ Ἀριστόξενος τὰ πλεῖστα τῶν ἠθικῶν δογμάτων λαβεῖν τὸν Πυθαγόραν παρὰ Θεμιστοκλείας τῆς ἐν Δελφοῖς. Ἴων δὲ ὁ Χῖος ἐν τοῖς Τριαγμοῖς φησιν αὐτὸν ἔνια ποιήσαντα ἀνενεγκεῖν εἰς Ὀρφέα. αὐτοῦ λέγουσι καὶ τοὺς Σκοπιάδας, οὗ ἡ ἀρχή, Μὴ * * ἀνααίδευ μηδενί. Σωσικράτης δʼ ἐν Διαδοχαῖς φησιν αὐτὸν ἐρωτηθέντα ὑπὸ Λέοντος τοῦ Φλιασίων τυράννου τίς εἴη, φιλόσοφος, εἰπεῖν. καὶ τὸν βίον ἐοικέναι πανηγύρει· ὡς οὖν εἰς ταύτην οἱ μὲν ἀγωνιούμενοι, οἱ δὲ κατʼ ἐμπορίαν, οἱ δέ γε βέλτιστοι ἔρχονται θεαταί, οὕτως ἐν τῷ βίῳ οἱ μὲν ἀνδραποδώδεις, ἔφη, φύονται δόξης καὶ πλεονεξίας θηραταί, οἱ δὲ φιλόσοφοι τῆς ἀληθείας. καὶ τάδε μὲν ὧδε.
1.9. The contents in general of the aforesaid three treatises of Pythagoras are as follows. He forbids us to pray for ourselves, because we do not know what will help us. Drinking he calls, in a word, a snare, and he discountenances all excess, saying that no one should go beyond due proportion either in drinking or in eating. Of sexual indulgence, too, he says, “Keep to the winter for sexual pleasures, in summer abstain; they are less harmful in autumn and spring, but they are always harmful and not conducive to health.” Asked once when a man should consort with a woman, he replied, “When you want to lose what strength you have.”
1.9. Ἐν δὲ τοῖς τρισὶ συγγράμμασι τοῖς προειρημένοις φέρεται Πυθαγόρου τάδε καθολικῶς. οὐκ ἐᾷ εὔχεσθαι ὑπὲρ ἑαυτῶν διὰ τὸ μὴ εἰδέναι τὸ συμφέρον. τὴν μέθην ἓν ἀνθʼ ἑνὸς βλάβην καλεῖ καὶ πλησμονὴν πᾶσαν ἀποδοκιμάζει, λέγων μὴ παραβαίνειν μήτε τῶν ποτῶν μήτε τῶν σιτίων μηδένα τὴν συμμετρίαν. καὶ περὶ ἀφροδισίων δέ φησιν οὕτως· Ἀφροδίσια χειμῶνος ποιέεσθαι, μὴ θέρεος· φθινοπώρου δὲ καὶ ἦρος κουφότερα, βαρέα δὲ πᾶσαν ὥρην καὶ ἐς ὑγιείην οὐκ ἀγαθά. ἀλλὰ καί ποτʼ ἐρωτηθέντα πότε δεῖ πλησιάζειν εἰπεῖν· ὅταν βούλῃ γενέσθαι σωυτοῦ ἀσθενέστερος.
1.10. He divides man’s life into four quarters thus: “Twenty years a boy, twenty years a youth, twenty years a young man, twenty years an old man; and these four periods correspond to the four seasons, the boy to spring, the youth to summer, the young man to autumn, and the old man to winter,” meaning by youth one not yet grown up and by a young man a man of mature age. According to Timaeus, he was the first to say, “Friends have all things in common” and “Friendship is equality”; indeed, his disciples did put all their possessions into one common stock. For five whole years they had to keep silence, merely listening to his discourses without seeing him, until they passed an examination, and thenceforward they were admitted to his house and allowed to see him. They would never use coffins of cypress, because the sceptre of Zeus was made from it, so we are informed by Hermippus in his second book On Pythagoras.
1.10. Διαιρεῖται δὲ καὶ τὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου βίον οὕτως· Παῖς εἴκοσι ἔτεα, νεηνίσκος εἴκοσι, νεηνίης εἴκοσι, γέρων εἴκοσι. αἱ δὲ ἡλικίαι πρὸς τὰς ὥρας ὧδε σύμμετροι· παῖς ἔαρ, νεηνίσκος θέρος, νεηνίης φθινόπωρον, γέρων χειμών. ἔστι δʼ αὐτῷ ὁ μὲν νεηνίσκος μειράκιον, ὁ δὲ νεηνίης ἀνήρ. εἶπέ τε πρῶτος, ὥς φησι Τίμαιος, κοινὰ τὰ φίλων εἶναι καὶ φιλίαν ἰσότητα. καὶ αὐτοῦ οἱ μαθηταὶ κατετίθεντο τὰς οὐσίας εἰς ἕν [ποιούμενοι]. πενταετίαν θʼ ἡσύχαζον, μόνον τῶν λόγων κατακούοντες καὶ οὐδέπω Πυθαγόραν ὁρῶντες εἰς ὃ δοκιμασθεῖεν· τοὐντεῦθεν δʼ ἐγίνοντο τῆς οἰκίας αὐτοῦ καὶ τῆς ὄψεως μετεῖχον. ἀπείχοντο δὲ καὶ σοροῦ κυπαρισσίνης διὰ τὸ τὸ τοῦ Διὸς σκῆπτρον ἐντεῦθεν πεποιῆσθαι, ὥς φησιν Ἕρμιππος ἐν δευτέρῳ Περὶ Πυθαγόρου.
1.11. Indeed, his bearing is said to have been most dignified, and his disciples held the opinion about him that he was Apollo come down from the far north. There is a story that once, when he was disrobed, his thigh was seen to be of gold; and when he crossed the river Nessus, quite a number of people said they heard it welcome him. According to Timaeus in the tenth book of his History, he remarked that the consorts of men bore divine names, being called first Virgins, then Brides, and then Mothers. He it was who brought geometry to perfection, while it was Moeris who first discovered the beginnings of the elements of geometry: Anticlides in his second book On Alexander affirms this, and further that Pythagoras spent most of his time upon the arithmetical aspect of geometry; he also discovered the musical intervals on the monochord.
1.11. Καὶ γὰρ καὶ σεμνοπρεπέστατος λέγεται γενέσθαι καὶ οἱ μαθηταὶ δόξαν εἶχον περὶ αὐτοῦ ὡς εἴη Ἀπόλλων ἐξ Ὑπερβορέων ἀφιγμένος. λόγος δέ ποτʼ αὐτοῦ παραγυμνωθέντος τὸν μηρὸν ὀφθῆναι χρυσοῦν· καὶ ὅτι Νέσσος ὁ ποταμὸς διαβαίνοντα αὐτὸν προσαγορεύσαι πολὺς ἦν ὁ φάσκων. Τίμαιός τέ φησιν ἐν δεκάτῃ Ἱστοριῶν λέγειν αὐτὸν τὰς συνοικούσας ἀνδράσι θεῶν ἔχειν ὀνόματα, Κόρας, Νύμφας, εἶτα Μητέρας καλουμένας. τοῦτον καὶ γεωμετρίαν ἐπὶ πέρας ἀγαγεῖν, Μοίριδος πρώτου εὑρόντος τὰς ἀρχὰς τῶν στοιχείων αὐτῆς, ὥς φησιν Ἀντικλείδης ἐν δευτέρῳ Περὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου.
1.12. Nor did he neglect even medicine. We are told by Apollodorus the calculator that he offered a sacrifice of oxen on finding that in a right-angled triangle the square on the hypotenuse is equal to the squares on the sides containing the right angle. And there is an epigram running as follows:What time Pythagoras that famed figure found,For which the noble offering he brought. He is also said to have been the first to diet athletes on meat, trying first with Eurymenes — so we learn from Favorinus in the third book of his Memorabilia—whereas in former times they had trained on dried figs, on butter, and even on wheatmeal, as we are told by the same Favorinus in the eighth book of his Miscellaneous History.
1.12. μάλιστα δὲ σχολάσαι τὸν Πυθαγόραν περὶ τὸ ἀριθμητικὸν εἶδος αὐτῆς· τόν τε κανόνα τὸν ἐκ μιᾶς χορδῆς εὑρεῖν. οὐκ ἠμέλησε δʼ οὐδʼ ἰατρικῆς. φησὶ δʼ Ἀπολλόδωρος ὁ λογιστικὸς ἑκατόμβην θῦσαι αὐτόν, εὑρόντα ὅτι τοῦ ὀρθογωνίου τριγώνου ἡ ὑποτείνουσα πλευρὰ ἴσον δύναται ταῖς περιεχούσαις. καὶ ἔστιν ἐπίγραμμα οὕτως ἔχον·ἡνίκα Πυθαγόρης τὸ περικλεὲς εὕρετο γράμμα,κεῖνʼ ἐφʼ ὅτῳ κλεινὴν ἤγαγε βουθυσίην. Λέγεται δὲ καὶ πρῶτος κρέασιν ἀσκῆσαι ἀθλητάς, καὶ πρῶτόν γʼ Εὐρυμένην, καθά φησι Φαβωρῖνος ἐν τρίτῳ τῶν Ἀπομνημονευμάτων, τῶν πρότερον ἰσχάσι ξηραῖς καὶ τυροῖς ὑγροῖς, ἀλλὰ καὶ πυροῖς σωμασκούντων αὐτούς, καθάπερ ὁ αὐτὸς Φαβωρῖνος ἐν ὀγδόῃ Παντοδαπῆς ἱστορίας φησίν.
1.13. Some say it was a certain trainer named Pythagoras who instituted this diet, and not our Pythagoras, who forbade even the killing, let alone the eating, of animals which share with us the privilege of having a soul. This was the excuse put forward; but his real reason for forbidding animal diet was to practise people and accustom them to simplicity of life, so that they could live on things easily procurable, spreading their tables with uncooked foods and drinking pure water only, for this was the way to a healthy body and a keen mind. Of course the only altar at which he worshipped was that of Apollo the Giver of Life, behind the Altar of Horns at Delos, for thereon were placed flour and meal and cakes, without the use of fire, and there was no animal victim, as we are told by Aristotle in his Constitution of Delos.
1.13. οἱ δὲ Πυθαγόραν ἀλείπτην τινὰ τοῦτον σιτίσαι τὸν τρόπον, μὴ τοῦτον. τοῦτον γὰρ καὶ τὸ φονεύειν ἀπαγορεύειν, μὴ ὅτι γεύεσθαι τῶν ζῴων κοινὸν δίκαιον ἡμῖν ἐχόντων ψυχῆς. καὶ τόδε μὲν ἦν τὸ πρόσχημα· τὸ δʼ ἀληθὲς τῶν ἐμψύχων ἀπηγόρευεν ἅπτεσθαι συνασκῶν καὶ συνεθίζων εἰς εὐκολίαν βίου τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, ὥστε εὐπορίστους αὐτοῖς εἶναι τὰς τροφάς, ἄπυρα προσφερομένοις καὶ λιτὸν ὕδωρ πίνουσιν· ἐντεῦθεν γὰρ καὶ σώματος ὑγίειαν καὶ ψυχῆς ὀξύτητα περιγίνεσθαι. ἀμέλει καὶ βωμὸν προσκυνῆσαι μόνον ἐν Δήλῳ τὸν Ἀπόλλωνος τοῦ γενέτορος, ὅς ἐστιν ὄπισθεν τοῦ Κερατίνου, διὰ τὸ πυροὺς καὶ κριθὰς καὶ πόπανα μόνα τίθεσθαι ἐπʼ αὐτοῦ ἄνευ πυρός, ἱερεῖον δὲ μηδέν, ὥς φησιν Ἀριστοτέλης ἐν Δηλίων πολιτείᾳ.
1.14. He was the first, they say, to declare that the soul, bound now in this creature, now in that, thus goes on a round ordained of necessity. He too, according to Aristoxenus the musician, was the first to introduce weights and measures into Greece. It was he who first declared that the Evening and Morning Stars are the same, as Parmenides maintains. So greatly was he admired that his disciples used to be called “prophets to declare the voice of God,” besides which he himself says in a written work that “after two hundred and seven years in Hades he has returned to the land of the living.” Thus it was that they remained his staunch adherents, and men came to hear his words from afar, among them Lucanians, Peucetians, Messapians and Romans.
1.14. Πρῶτόν τέ φασι τοῦτον ἀποφῆναι τὴν ψυχὴν κύκολον ἀνάγκης ἀμείβουσαν ἄλλοτʼ ἄλλοις ἐνδεῖσθαι ζῴοις· καὶ πρῶτον εἰς τοὺς Ἕλληνας μέτρα καὶ σταθμὰ εἰσηγήσασθαι, καθά φησιν Ἀριστόξενος ὁ μουσικός· πρῶτόν τε Ἕσπερον καὶ Φωσφόρον τὸν αὐτὸν εἰπεῖν, ὥς φησι Παρμενίδης. οὕτω δʼ ἐθαυμάσθη ὥστʼ ἔλεγον τοὺς γνωρίμους αὐτοῦ μάντιας θεῶ φωνᾶς, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὸς ἐν τῇ γραφῇ φησι διʼ ἑπτὰ καὶ διηκοσίων ἐτέων ἐξ ἀΐδεω παραγεγενῆσθαι ἐς ἀνθρώπους. τοιγὰρ καὶ προσεκαρτέρουν αὐτῷ καὶ τῶν λόγων ἕνεκα προσῄεσαν καὶ Λευκανοὶ καὶ Πευκέτιοι Μεσσάπιοί τε καὶ Ῥωμαῖοι.
1.15. Down to the time of Philolaus it was not possible to acquire knowledge of any Pythagorean doctrine, and Philolaus alone brought out those three celebrated books which Plato sent a hundred minas to purchase. Not less than six hundred persons went to his evening lectures; and those who were privileged to see him wrote to their friends congratulating themselves on a great piece of good fortune. Moreover, the Metapontines named his house the Temple of Demeter and his porch the Museum, so we learn from Favorinus in his Miscellaneous History. And the rest of the Pythagoreans used to say that not all his doctrines were for all men to hear, our authority for this being Aristoxenus in the tenth book of his Rules of Pedagogy, where we are also told that one of the school, Xenophilus by name, asked by some one how he could best educate his son, replied, “By making him the citizen of a well-governed state.”
1.15. Μέχρι δὲ Φιλολάου οὐκ ἦν τι γνῶναι Πυθαγόρειον δόγμα· οὗτος δὲ μόνος ἐξήνεγκε τὰ διαβόητα τρία βιβλία, ἃ Πλάτων ἐπέστειλεν ἑκατὸν μνῶν ὠνηθῆναι. τῶν θʼ ἑξακοσίων οὐκ ἐλάττους ἐπὶ τὴν νυκτερινὴν ἀκρόασιν ἀπήντων αὐτοῦ· καὶ εἴ τινες ἀξιωθεῖεν αὐτὸν θεάσασθαι, ἔγραφον πρὸς τοὺς οἰκείους ὡς μεγάλου τινὸς τετυχηκότες. Μεταποντῖνοί γε μὴν τὴν μὲν οἰκίαν αὐτοῦ Δήμητρος ἱερὸν ἐκάλουν, τὸν στενωπὸν δὲ μουσεῖον, ὥς φησι Φαβωρῖνος ἐν Παντοδαπαῖς ἱστορίαις· ἔλεγόν τε καὶ οἱ ἄλλοι Πυθαγόρειοι μὴ εἶναι πρὸς πάντας πάντα ῥητά, ὥς φησιν Ἀριστόξενος ἐν δεκάτῃ Παιδευτικῶν νόμων·
1.16. Throughout Italy Pythagoras made many into good men and true, men too of note like the lawgivers Zaleucus and Charondas; for he had a great gift for friendship, and especially, when he found his own watchwords adopted by anyone, he would immediately take to that man and make a friend of him.
1.16. ἔνθα καὶ Ξενόφιλον τὸν Πυθαγορικόν, ἐρωτηθέντα πῶς ἂν μάλιστα τὸν υἱὸν παιδεύσειεν, εἰπεῖν, εἰ πόλεως εὐνομουμένης γενηθείη. ἄλλους τε πολλοὺς κατὰ τὴν Ἰταλίαν ἀπεργάσασθαι καλούς τε κἀγαθοὺς ἄνδρας, ἀτὰρ καὶ Ζάλευκον καὶ Χαρώνδαν τοὺς νομοθέτας· ἱκανός τε γὰρ ἦν φιλίας ἐργάτης τά τʼ ἄλλα καὶ εἴ τινα πύθοιτο τῶν συμβόλων αὐτοῦ κεκοινωνηκότα, εὐθύς τε προσηταιρίζετο καὶ φίλον κατεσκεύαζεν.
1.17. The following were his watchwords or precepts: don’t stir the fire with a knife, don’t step over the beam of a balance, don’t sit down on your bushel, don’t eat your heart, don’t help a man off with a load but help him on, always roll your bed-clothes up, don’t put God’s image on the circle of a ring, don’t leave the pan’s imprint on the ashes, don’t wipe up a mess with a torch, don’t commit a nuisance towards the sun, don’t walk the highway, don’t shake hands too eagerly, don’t have swallows under your own roof, don’t keep birds with hooked claws, don’t make water on nor stand upon your nail-and hair-trimmings, turn the sharp blade away, when you go abroad don’t turn round at the frontier.
1.17. Ἦν δʼ αὐτῷ τὰ σύμβολα τάδε· πῦρ μαχαίρᾳ μὴ σκαλεύειν, ζυγὸν μὴ ὑπερβαίνειν, ἐπὶ χοίνικος μὴ καθίζειν, καρδίην μὴ ἐσθίειν, φορτίον μὴ συγκαθαιρεῖν, ουνεπιτιθέναι δέ, τὰ στρώματα ἀεὶ συνδεδεμένα ἔχειν, ἐν δακτυλίῳ εἰκόνα θεοῦ μὴ περιφέρειν, χύτρας ἴχνος συγχεῖν ἐν τῇ τέφρᾳ, δᾳδίῳ θᾶκον μὴ ὀμόργνυσθαι, πρὸς ἥλιον τετραμμένον μὴ ὀμίχειν, τὰς λεωφόρους μὴ βαδίζειν, μὴ ῥᾳδίως δεξιὰν ἐμβάλλειν, ὁμωροφίους χελιδόνας μὴ ἔχειν, γαμψώνυχα μὴ τρέφειν, ἀπονυχίσμασι καὶ κουραῖς μὴ ἐπουρεῖν μηδὲ ἐφίστασθαι, ὀξεῖαν μάχαιραν ἀποστρέφειν, ἀποδημοῦντα ἐπὶ τοῖς ὅροις ἀνεπιστρεπτεῖν.
1.18. This is what they meant. Don’t stir the fire with a knife: don’t stir the passions or the swelling pride of the great. Don’t step over the beam of a balance: don’t overstep the bounds of equity and justice. Don’t sit down on your bushel: have the same care of to-day and the future, a bushel being the day’s ration. By not eating your heart he meant not wasting your life in troubles and pains. By saying do not turn round when you go abroad, he meant to advise those who are departing this life not to set their hearts’ desire on living nor to be too much attracted by the pleasures of this life. The explanations of the rest are similar and would take too long to set out.
1.18. Ἤθελε δʼ αὐτῷ τὸ μὲν πῦρ μαχαίρᾳ μὴ σκαλεύειν δυναστῶν ὀργὴν καὶ οἰδοῦντα θυμὸν μὴ κινεῖν. τὸ δὲ ζυγὸν μὴ ὑπερβαίνειν, τουτέστι τὸ ἴσον καὶ δίκαιον μὴ ὑπερβαίνειν. ἐπί τε χοίνικος μὴ καθίζειν ἐν ἴσῳ τοῦ ἐνεστῶτος φροντίδα ποιεῖσθαι καὶ τοῦ μέλλοντος· ἡ γὰρ χοῖνιξ ἡμερησία τροφή. διὰ δὲ τοῦ καρδίαν μὴ ἐσθίειν ἐδήλου μὴ τὴν ψυχὴν ἀνίαις καὶ λύπαις κατατήκειν. διὰ δὲ τοῦ εἰς ἀποδημίαν βαδίζοντα μὴ ἐπιστρέφεσθαι παρῄνει τοῖς ἀπαλλαττομένοις τοῦ βίου μὴ ἐπιθυμητικῶς ἔχειν τοῦ ζῆν μηδʼ ὑπὸ τῶν ἐνταῦθα ἡδονῶν ἐπάγεσθαι. καὶ τὰ ἄλλα πρὸς ταῦτα λοιπόν ἐστιν ἐκλαμβάνειν, ἵνα μὴ παρέλκωμεν.
1.19. Above all, he forbade as food red mullet and blacktail, and he enjoined abstinence from the hearts of animals and from beans, and sometimes, according to Aristotle, even from paunch and gurnard. Some say that he contented himself with just some honey or a honeycomb or bread, never touching wine in the daytime, and with greens boiled or raw for dainties, and fish but rarely. His robe was white and spotless, his quilts of white wool, for linen had not yet reached those parts. He was never known to over-eat, to behave loosely, or to be drunk.
1.19. Παντὸς δὲ μᾶλλον ἀπηγόρευε μήτʼ ἐρυθῖνον ἐσθίειν μήτε μελάνουρον, καρδίας τʼ ἀπέχεσθαι καὶ κυάμων· Ἀριστοτέλης δέ φησι καὶ μήτρας καὶ τρίγλης ἐνίοτε. αὐτὸν δʼ ἀρκεῖσθαι μέλιτι μόνῳ φασί τινες ἢ κηρίῳ ἢ ἄρτῳ, οἴνου δὲ μεθʼ ἡμέραν μὴ γεύεσθαι· ὄψῳ τε τὰ πολλὰ λαχάνοις ἑφθοῖς τε καὶ ὠμοῖς, τοῖς δὲ θαλαττίοις σπανίως. στολὴ δʼ αὐτῷ λευκή, καθαρά, καὶ στρώματα λευκὰ ἐξ ἐρίων· τὰ γὰρ λινᾶ οὔπω εἰς ἐκείνους ἀφῖκτο τοὺς τόπους. οὐδέποτʼ ἐγνώσθη οὔτε διαχωρῶν οὔτε ἀφροδισιάζων οὔτε μεθυσθείς.
1.20. He would avoid laughter and all pandering to tastes such as insulting jests and vulgar tales. He would punish neither slave nor free man in anger. Admonition he used to call “setting right.” He used to practise divination by sounds or voices and by auguries, never by burnt-offerings, beyond frankincense. The offerings he made were always inanimate; though some say that he would offer cocks, sucking goats and porkers, as they are called, but lambs never. However, Aristoxenus has it that he consented to the eating of all other animals, and only abstained from ploughing oxen and rams.
1.20. ἀπείχετο καὶ γέλωτος καὶ πάσης ἀρεσκείας οἷον σκωμμάτων καὶ διηγημάτων φορτικῶν. ὀργιζόμενός τʼ οὔτε οἰκέτην ἐκόλαζεν οὔτʼ ἐλεύθερον οὐδένα. ἐκάλει δὲ τὸ νουθετεῖν πεδαρτᾶν. μαντικῇ τʼ ἐχρῆτο τῇ διὰ τῶν κλῃδόνων τε καὶ οἰωνῶν, ἥκιστα δὲ τῇ διὰ τῶν ἐμπύρων, ἔξω τῆς διὰ λιβάνου. θυσίαις τε ἐχρῆτο ἀψύχοις, οἱ δέ φασιν, ὅτι ἀλέκτορσι μόνον καὶ ἐρίφοις γαλαθηνοῖς καὶ τοῖς λεγομένοις ἁπαλίαις, ἥκιστα δὲ ἄρνασιν. ὅ γε μὴν Ἀριστόξενος πάντα μὲν τἄλλα συγχωρεῖν αὐτὸν ἐσθίειν ἔμψυχα, μόνον δʼ ἀπέχεσθαι βοὸς ἀροτῆρος καὶ κριοῦ.
1.21. The same authority, as we have seen, asserts that Pythagoras took his doctrines from the Delphic priestess Themistoclea. Hieronymus, however, says that, when he had descended into Hades, he saw the soul of Hesiod bound fast to a brazen pillar and gibbering, and the soul of Homer hung on a tree with serpents writhing about it, this being their punishment for what they had said about the gods; he also saw under torture those who would not remain faithful to their wives. This, says our authority, is why he was honoured by the people of Croton. Aristippus of Cyrene affirms in his work On the Physicists that he was named Pythagoras because he uttered the truth as infallibly as did the Pythian oracle.
1.21. Ὁ δʼ αὐτός φησιν, ὡς προείρηται, καὶ τὰ δόγματα λαβεῖν αὐτὸν παρὰ τῆς ἐν Δελφοῖς Θεμιστοκλείας. φησὶ δʼ Ἱερώνυμος κατελθόντα αὐτὸν εἰς ᾅδου τὴν μὲν Ἡσιόδου ψυχὴν ἰδεῖν πρὸς κίονι χαλκῷ δεδεμένην καὶ τρίζουσαν, τὴν δʼ Ὁμήρου κρεμαμένην ἀπὸ δένδρου καὶ ὄφεις περὶ αὐτὴν ἀνθʼ ὧν εἶπον περὶ θεῶν, κολαζομένους δὲ καὶ τοὺς μὴ θέλοντας συνεῖναι ταῖς ἑαυτῶν γυναιξί· καὶ δὴ καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τιμηθῆναι ὑπὸ τῶν ἐν Κρότωνι. φησὶ δʼ Ἀρίστιππος ὁ Κυρηναῖος ἐν τῷ Περὶ φυσιολόγων Πυθαγόραν αὐτὸν ὀνομασθῆναι ὅτι τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἠγόρευεν οὐχ ἧττον τοῦ Πυθίου.
1.22. He is said to have advised his disciples as follows: Always to say on entering their own doors:Where did I trespass? What did I achieve?And unfulfilled what duties did I leave?Not to let victims be brought for sacrifice to the gods, and to worship only at the altar unstained with blood. Not to call the gods to witness, man’s duty being rather to strive to make his own word carry conviction. To honour their elders, on the principle that precedence in time gives a greater title to respect; for as in the world sunrise comes before sunset, so in human life the beginning before the end, and in all organic life birth precedes death.
1.22. Λέγεται παρεγγυᾶν αὐτὸν ἑκάστοτε τοῖς μαθηταῖς τάδε λέγειν εἰς τὸν οἶκον εἰσιοῦσι, πῆ παρέβην; τί δʼ ἔρεξα; τί μοι δέον οὐκ ἐτελέσθη; σφάγιά τε θεοῖς προσφέρειν κωλύειν, μόνον δὲ τὸν ἀναίμακτον βωμὸν προσκυνεῖν. μηδʼ ὀμνύναι θεούς· ἀσκεῖν γὰρ αὑτὸν δεῖν ἀξιόπιστον παρέχειν. τούς τε πρεσβυτέρους τιμᾶν, τὸ προηγούμενον τῷ χρόνῳ τιμιώτερον ἡγουμένους· ὡς ἐν κόσμῳ μὲν ἀνατολὴν δύσεως, ἐν βίῳ δʼ ἀρχὴν τελευτῆς, ἐν ζωῇ δὲ γένεσιν φθορᾶς.
1.23. And he further bade them to honour gods before demi-gods, heroes before men, and first among men their parents; and so to behave one to another as not to make friends into enemies, but to turn enemies into friends. To deem nothing their own. To support the law, to wage war on lawlessness. Never to kill or injure trees that are not wild, nor even any animal that does not injure man. That it is seemly and advisable neither to give way to unbridled laughter nor to wear sullen looks. To avoid excess of flesh, on a journey to let exertion and slackening alternate, to train the memory, in wrath to restrain hand and tongue, to respect all divination, to sing to the lyre and by hymns to show due gratitude to gods and to good men.
1.23. καὶ θεοὺς μὲν δαιμόνων προτιμᾶν, ἥρωας δʼ ἀνθρώπων, ἀνθρώπων δὲ μάλιστα τοὺς γονέας. ἀλλήλοις θʼ ὁμιλεῖν, ὡς τοὺς μὲν φίλους ἐχθροὺς μὴ ποιῆσαι, τοὺς δʼ ἐχθροὺς φίλους ἐργάσασθαι. ἴδιόν τε μηδὲν ἡγεῖσθαι. νόμῳ βοηθεῖν, ἀνομίᾳ πολεμεῖν· φυτὸν ἥμερον μήτε φθίνειν μήτε σίνεσθαι, ἀλλὰ μηδὲ ζῷον ὃ μὴ βλάπτει ἀνθρώπους. αἰδῶ καὶ εὐλάβειαν εἶναι μήτε γέλωτι κατέχεσθαι μήτε σκυθρωπάζειν. φεύγειν σαρκῶν πλεονασμόν, ὁδοιπορίης ἄνεσιν καὶ ἐπίτασιν ποιεῖσθαι, μνήμην ἀσκεῖν, ἐν ὀργῇ μήτε τι λέγειν μήτε πράσσειν, μαντικὴν πᾶσαν τιμᾶν, ᾠδαῖς χρῆσθαι πρὸς λύραν ὕμνῳ τε θεῶν καὶ ἀνδρῶν ἀγαθῶν εὔλογον χάριν ἔχειν.
1.24. To abstain from beans because they are flatulent and partake most of the breath of life; and besides, it is better for the stomach if they are not taken, and this again will make our dreams in sleep smooth and untroubled. Alexander in his Successions of Philosophers says that he found in the Pythagorean memoirs the following tenets as well.
1.24. τῶν δὲ κυάμων ἀπέχεσθαι διὰ τὸ πνευματώδεις ὄντας μάλιστα μετέχειν τοῦ ψυχικοῦ· καὶ ἄλλως κοσμιωτέρας ἀπεργάζεσθαι τὰς γαστέρας, μὴ παραληφθέντας. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο καὶ τὰς καθʼ ὕπνους φαντασίας λείας καὶ ἀταράχους ἀποτελεῖν. Φησὶ δʼ ὁ Ἀλέξανδρος ἐν Ταῖς τῶν φιλοσόφων διαδοχαῖς καὶ ταῦτα εὑρηκέναι ἐν Πυθαγορικοῖς ὑπομνήμασιν.
1.25. The principle of all things is the monad or unit; arising from this monad the undefined dyad or two serves as material substratum to the monad, which is cause; from the monad and the undefined dyad spring numbers; from numbers, points; from points, lines; from lines, plane figures; from plane figures, solid figures; from solid figures, sensible bodies, the elements of which are four, fire, water, earth and air; these elements interchange and turn into one another completely, and combine to produce a universe animate, intelligent, spherical, with the earth at its centre, the earth itself too being spherical and inhabited round about.
1.25. ἀρχὴν μὲν ἁπάντων μονάδα· ἐκ δὲ τῆς μονάδος ἀόριστον δυάδα ὡς ἂν ὕλην τῇ μονάδι αἰτίῳ ὄντι ὑποστῆναι· ἐκ δὲ τῆς μονάδος καὶ τῆς ἀορίστου δυάδος τοὺς ἀριθμούς· ἐκ δὲ τῶν ἀριθμῶν τὰ σημεῖα· ἐκ δὲ τούτων τὰς γραμμάς, ἐξ ὧν τὰ ἐπίπεδα σχήματα· ἐκ δὲ τῶν ἐπιπέδων τὰ στερεὰ σχήματα· ἐκ δὲ τούτων τὰ αἰσθητὰ σώματα, ὧν καὶ τὰ στοιχεῖα εἶναι τέτταρα, πῦρ, ὕδωρ, γῆν, ἀέρα· μεταβάλλειν δὲ καὶ τρέπεσθαι διʼ ὅλων, καὶ γίνεσθαι ἐξ αὐτῶν κόσμον ἔμψυχον, νοερόν, σφαιροειδῆ, μέσην περιέχοντα τὴν γῆν καὶ αὐτὴν σφαιροειδῆ καὶ περιοικουμένην.
1.26. There are also antipodes, and our “down” is their “up.” Light and darkness have equal part in the universe, so have hot and cold, and dry and moist; and of these, if hot preponderates, we have summer; if cold, winter; if dry, spring; if moist, late autumn. If all are in equilibrium, we have the best periods of the year, of which the freshness of spring constitutes the healthy season, and the decay of late autumn the unhealthy. So too, in the day, freshness belongs to the morning, and decay to the evening, which is therefore more unhealthy. The air about the earth is stagnant and unwholesome, and all within it is mortal; but the uppermost air is ever-moved and pure and healthy, and all within it is immortal and consequently divine.
1.26. εἶναι δὲ καὶ ἀντίποδας καὶ τὰ ἡμῖν κάτω ἐκείνοις ἄνω. ἰσόμοιρά τʼ εἶναι ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ φῶς καὶ σκότος, καὶ θερμὸν καὶ ψυχρόν, καὶ ξηρὸν καὶ ὑγρόν· ὧν κατʼ ἐπικράτειαν θερμοῦ μὲν θέρος γίνεσθαι, ψυχροῦ δὲ χειμῶνα, ξηροῦ δʼ ἔαρ, καὶ ὑγροῦ φθινόπωρον. ἐὰν δὲ ἰσομοιρῇ, τὰ κάλλιστα εἶναι τοῦ ἔτους, οὗ τὸ μὲν θάλλον ἔαρ ὑγιεινόν, τὸ δὲ φθίνον φθινόπωρον νοσερόν. ἀλλὰ καὶ τῆς ἡμέρας θάλλειν μὲν τὴν ἕω, φθίνειν δὲ τὴν ἑσπέραν· ὅθεν καὶ νοσερωτέραν εἶναι. τόν τε περὶ τὴν γῆν ἀέρα ἄσειστον καὶ νοσερὸν καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ πάντα θνητά· τὸν δὲ ἀνωτάτω ἀεικίνητόν τʼ εἶναι καὶ καθαρὸν καὶ ὑγιᾶ καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ ἀθάνατα καὶ διὰ τοῦτο θεῖα.
1.27. The sun, the moon, and the other stars are gods; for, in them, there is a preponderance of heat, and heat is the cause of life. The moon is illumined by the sun. Gods and men are akin, inasmuch as man partakes of heat; therefore God takes thought for man. Fate is the cause of things being thus ordered both as a whole and separately. The sun’s ray penetrates through the aether, whether cold or dense—the air they call cold aether, and the sea and moisture dense aether —and this ray descends even to the depths and for this reason quickens all things.
1.27. ἥλιόν τε καὶ σελήνην καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ἀστέρας εἶναι θεούς· ἐπικρατεῖν γὰρ τὸ θερμὸν ἐν αὐτοῖς, ὅπερ ἐστὶ ζωῆς αἴτιον. τήν τε σελήνην λάμπεσθαι ὑφʼ ἡλίου. καὶ ἀνθρώποις εἶναι πρὸς θεοὺς συγγένειαν, κατὰ τὸ μετέχειν ἄνθρωπον θερμοῦ· διὸ καὶ προνοεῖσθαι τὸν θεὸν ἡμῶν. εἱμαρμένην τε τῶν ὅλων καὶ κατὰ μέρος αἰτίαν εἶναι τῆς διοικήσεως. διήκειν τʼ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἡλίου ἀκτῖνα διὰ τοῦ αἰθέρος τοῦ τε ψυχροῦ καὶ παχέος. καλοῦσι δὲ τὸν μὲν ἀέρα ψυχρὸν αἰθέρα, τὴν δὲ θάλασσαν καὶ τὸ ὑγρὸν παχὺν αἰθέρα. ταύτην δὲ τὴν ἀκτῖνα καὶ εἰς τὰ βένθη δύεσθαι καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ζωοποιεῖν πάντα.
1.28. All things live which partake of heat—this is why plants are living things —but all have not soul, which is a detached part of aether, partly the hot and partly the cold, for it partakes of cold aether too. Soul is distinct from life; it is immortal, since that from which it is detached is immortal. Living creatures are reproduced from one another by germination; there is no such thing as spontaneous generation from earth. The germ is a clot of brain containing hot vapour within it; and this, when brought to the womb, throws out, from the brain, ichor, fluid and blood, whence are formed flesh, sinews, bones, hairs, and the whole of the body, while soul and sense come from the vapour within.
1.28. καὶ ζῆν μὲν πάνθʼ ὅσα μετέχει τοῦ θερμοῦ· διὸ καὶ τὰ φυτὰ ζῷα εἶναι· ψυχὴν μέντοι μὴ ἔχειν πάντα. εἶναι δὲ τὴν ψυχὴν ἀπόσπασμα αἰθέρος καὶ τοῦ θερμοῦ καὶ τοῦ ψυχροῦ, τῷ συμμετέχειν ψυχροῦ αἰθέρος. διαφέρειν τε ψυχὴν ζωῆς· ἀθάνατόν τʼ εἶναι αὐτήν, ἐπειδήπερ καὶ τὸ ἀφʼ οὗ ἀπέσπασται ἀθάνατόν ἐστι. τὰ δὲ ζῷα γεννᾶσθαι ἐξ ἀλλήλων ἀπὸ σπερμάτων, τὴν δʼ ἐκ γῆς γένεσιν ἀδύνατον ὑφίστασθαι. τὸ δὲ σπέρμα εἶναι σταγόνα ἐγκεφάλου περιέχουσαν ἐν ἑαυτῇ θερμὸν ἀτμόν· ταύτην δὲ προσφερομένην τῇ μήτρᾳ ἀπὸ μὲν τοῦ ἐγκεφάλου ἰχῶρα καὶ ὑγρὸν καὶ αἷμα προΐεσθαι, ἐξ ὧν σάρκας τε καὶ νεῦρα καὶ ὀστᾶ καὶ τρίχας καὶ τὸ ὅλον συνίστασθαι σῶμα· ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ ἀτμοῦ ψυχὴν καὶ αἴσθησιν.
1.29. First congealing in about forty days, it receives form and, according to the ratios of “harmony,” in seven, nine, or at the most ten, months, the mature child is brought forth. It has in it all the relations constituting life, and these, forming a continuous series, keep it together according to the ratios of harmony, each appearing at regulated intervals. Sense generally, and sight in particular, is a certain unusually hot vapour. This is why it is said to see through air and water, because the hot aether is resisted by the cold; for, if the vapour in the eyes had been cold, it would have been dissipated on meeting the air, its like. As it is, in certain [lines] he calls the eyes the portals of the sun. His conclusion is the same with regard to hearing and the other senses.
1.29. μορφοῦσθαι δὲ τὸ μὲν πρῶτον παγὲν ἐν ἡμέραις τεσσαράκοντα, κατὰ δὲ τοὺς τῆς ἁρμονίας λόγους ἐν ἑπτὰ ἢ ἐννέα ἢ δέκα τὸ πλεῖστον μησὶ τελεωθὲν ἀποκυΐσκεσθαι τὸ βρέφος· ἔχειν δʼ ἐν αὑτῷ πάντας τοὺς λόγους τῆς ζωῆς, ὧν εἰρομένων συνέχεσθαι κατὰ τοὺς τῆς ἁρμονίας λόγους, ἑκάστων ἐν τεταγμένοις καιροῖς ἐπιγινομένων. τήν τʼ αἴσθησιν κοινῶς καὶ κατʼ εἶδος τὴν ὅρασιν ἀτμόν τινʼ εἶναι ἄγαν θερμόν. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο λέγεται διʼ ἀέρος ὁρᾶν καὶ διʼ ὕδατος· ἀντερείδεσθαι γὰρ τὸ θερμὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ ψυχροῦ. ἐπεί τοι εἰ ψυχρὸς ἦν ὁ ἐν τοῖς ὄμμασιν ἀτμός, διειστήκει ἂν πρὸς τὸν ὅμοιον ἀέρα· νῦν δὲ * * ἔστιν ἐν οἷς ἡλίου πύλας καλεῖ τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς. τὰ δʼ αὐτὰ καὶ περὶ τῆς ἀκοῆς καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν αἰσθήσεων δογματίζει.
1.30. The soul of man, he says, is divided into three parts, intelligence, reason, and passion. Intelligence and passion are possessed by other animals as well, but reason by man alone. The seat of the soul extends from the heart to the brain; the part of it which is in the heart is passion, while the parts located in the brain are reason and intelligence. The senses are distillations from these. Reason is immortal, all else mortal. The soul draws nourishment from the blood; the faculties of the soul are winds, for they as well as the soul are invisible, just as the aether is invisible.
1.30. Τὴν δʼ ἀνθρώπου ψυχὴν διαιρεῖσθαι τριχῆ, εἴς τε νοῦν καὶ φρένας καὶ θυμόν. νοῦν μὲν οὖν καὶ θυμὸν εἶναι καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἄλλοις ζῴοις, φρένας δὲ μόνον ἐν ἀνθρώπῳ. εἶναι δὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν τῆς ψυχῆς ἀπὸ καρδίας μέχρις ἐγκεφάλου· καὶ τὸ μὲν ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ μέρος αὐτῆς ὑπάρχειν θυμόν, φρένας δὲ καὶ νοῦν τὰ ἐν τῷ ἐγκεφάλῳ· σταγόνας δʼ εἶναι ἀπὸ τούτων τὰς αἰσθήσεις. καὶ τὸ μὲν φρόνιμον ἀθάνατον, τὰ δὲ λοιπὰ θνητά. τρέφεσθαί τε τὴν ψυχὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ αἵματος· τοὺς δὲ λόγους ψυχῆς ἀνέμους εἶναι. ἀόρατόν τʼ εἶναι αὐτὴν καὶ τοὺς λόγους, ἐπεὶ καὶ ὁ αἰθὴρ ἀόρατος.
1.31. The veins, arteries, and sinews are the bonds of the soul. But when it is strong and settled down into itself, reasonings and deeds become its bonds. When cast out upon the earth, it wanders in the air like the body. Hermes is the steward of souls, and for that reason is called Hermes the Escorter, Hermes the Keeper of the Gate, and Hermes of the Underworld, since it is he who brings in the souls from their bodies both by land and sea; and the pure are taken into the uppermost region, but the impure are not permitted to approach the pure or each other, but are bound by the Furies in bonds unbreakable.
1.31. δεσμά τʼ εἶναι τῆς ψυχῆς τὰς φλέβας καὶ τὰς ἀρτηρίας καὶ τὰ νεῦρα· ὅταν δʼ ἰσχύῃ καὶ καθʼ αὑτὴν γενομένη ἠρεμῇ, δεσμὰ γίνεσθαι αὐτῆς τοὺς λόγους καὶ τὰ ἔργα. ἐκριφθεῖσαν δʼ αὐτὴν ἐπὶ γῆς πλάζεσθαι ἐν τῷ ἀέρι ὁμοίαν τῷ σώματι. τὸν δʼ Ἑρμῆν ταμίαν εἶναι τῶν ψυχῶν καὶ διὰ τοῦτο πομπαῖον λέγεσθαι καὶ πυλαῖον καὶ χθόνιον, ἐπειδήπερ οὗτος εἰσπέμπει ἀπὸ τῶν σωμάτων τὰς ψυχὰς ἀπό τε γῆς καὶ ἐκ θαλάττης· καὶ ἄγεσθαι τὰς μὲν καθαρὰς ἐπὶ τὸν ὕψιστον, τὰς δʼ ἀκαθάρτους μήτʼ ἐκείναις πελάζειν μήτʼ ἀλλήλαις, δεῖσθαι δʼ ἐν ἀρρήκτοις δεσμοῖς ὑπʼ Ἐρινύων.