li.e. To spheres; Iamblichus indicating by this, that Pythagoras as well as Orpheus considered a spherical figure as the most appropriate image of divinity. For the universe is spherical ; and, as Iamblichus afterwards observes, the Gods have a nature and morpbhe similar to the universe ; morphe, as we learn from Simplicius, pertaining to the color, figure, and magnitude of superficies. Kiessling, having no con- ception of this meaning, and supposing the whole passage to be corrupt, has made nonsense of it by his alterations. For according to his version, Pythagoras, after the manner of Orpheus, worshipped the Gods not bound to a human form, but to divine numbers. For instead of iSpvpace he reads dpvOyos. But divine numbers both according to Orpheus and Pythagoras are the Gods themselves.
to Hercules on the eighth day of the month from the beginning, looking in so doing to his being born in the seventh month. He further asserted, that it was necessary that he who entered a temple should be clothed with a pure garment, and in which no one had slept; because sleep in the same manner as the black and the brown, is an indication of sluggishness; but purity is a sign of equality and justice in reasoning. He also ordered, that if blood should be found in- voluntarily spilt in a temple, a lustration should be made, either in a golden vessel, or with the water of the sea; the former of these [i.e. gold] being the most beautiful of things, and a measure by which the price of all things is regulated; but the latter as he conceived being the progeny of a moist nature, and the nutri- ment of the first and more common matter. He like- wise said, that it was not proper to bring forth children in a temple; because it is not holy that in a temple the divine part of the soul should be bound to the body. He further ordained, that on a festive day neither the hair should be cut, nor the nails pared; not thinking it fit that we should leave the service of the Gods for the purpose of increasing our good. He also said, that a louse ought not to be killed in a temple; conceiving that a divine power ought not to participate of any thing superfluous and corruptible. But that the Gods should be honored with cedar, laurel, cypress, oak, and myrtle; and that the body should not be purified with these, nor should any of them be divided by the teeth. He likewise ordained, that what is boiled should not be roasted; signifying by this that mildness is not in want of anger. But he would not suffer the bodies of the dead to be burned; following in this the Magi, being unwilling that any thing divine should communicate with a mortal nature. He like- wise thought it was holy for the dead to be carried out in white garments; obscurely signifying by this the simple and first nature, according to number and the
principle of all things. But above all things he
ordained, that an oath should be taken religiously;
since that which is behind is long.! And he said, that
it is much more holy to be injured than to kill a man:
for judgment is deposited in Hades, where the soul and
its essence, and the first nature of things are [properly]
estimated. Farther still, he ordered that sepulchral
chests {i.e. biers] should not be made of cypress,
because the sceptre of Jupiter was made of this wood,
or for some other mystic reason. He likewise ordained
that libations should be performed before the table of
Jupiter the Saviour, and of Hercules and the Dioscuri;
in so doing celebrating Jupiter as the presiding cause
and leader of this nutriment; Hercules, as the power
of nature; and the Dioscuri, as the symphony of all
things. But he said, that libations should not be
offered with closed eyes. For he did not think it fit,
that any thing beautiful should be undertaken with
shame and bashfulness. Moreover, when it thundered,
he ordained that the earth should be touched, in
remembrance of the generation of things. But he
ordered that temples should be entered from places
on the right hand, and that they should be departed
out of from the left hand. For he asserted that the
right hand is the principle of what is called the odd
number, and is divine; but that the left hand is a
symbol of the even number, and of that which is dis-
solved. And such is the mode which he is said to have
adopted in the cultivation of piety. But other partic-
ulars which we have omitted concerning it, may be
conjectured from what has been said. So that I shall
cease to speak further on this subject.
1j.e. Futurity is long; Pythagoras signifying by this, that those who do not take an oath religiously, will be punished in some future period, if they are not at present.
CHAP. XXIX.
Or his wisdom, however, the commentaries written
by the Pythagoreans afford, in short, the greatest
indication; for they adhere to truth in every thing,
and are more concise than all other compositions, so
that they savour of the ancient elegance of style, and
the conclusions are exquisitely deduced with divine
science. They are also replete with the most condensed
conceptions, and are in other respects various and
diversified both in the form and the matter. At one
and the same time likewise, they are transcendently
excellent, and without any deficiency in the diction,
and are in an eminent degree full of clear and indubit-
able arguments, accompanied with scientific demon-
stration, and as it is said, the most perfect syllogism;
as he will find to be the case, who, proceeding in such
paths as are fit, does not negligently peruse them.
This science, therefore, concerning intelligible natures
and the Gods, Pythagoras delivers in his writings from
a supernal origin. Afterwards, he teaches the whole
of physics, and unfolds completely ethical philosophy
and logic. He likewise delivers all-various disciplines,
and the most excellent sciences. And in short there
is nothing pertaining to human knowledge which is
not accurately discussed in these writings. If there-
fore it is acknowledged, that of the [Pythagoric]
writings which are now in circulation, some were
written by Pythagoras himself, but others consist of
what he was heard to say, and on this account are
anonymous, but are referred to Pythagoras as their
author ;—if this be the case, it is evident that he was
abundantly skilled in all wisdom. But it is said that
he very much applied himself to geometry among the
Egyptians. For with the Egyptians there are many
geometrical problems; since it is necessary that from
remote periods, and from the time of the Gods them- selves, on account of the increments and decrements of the Nile, those that were skilful should have measured all the Egyptian land which they cultivated. Hence also geometry derived its name. Neither did they negligently investigate the theory of the celestial orbs, in which likewise Pythagoras was skilled. Moreover, all the theorems about lines appear to have been derived from thence. For it is said that what pertains to computation and numbers, was discovered in Pheenicia. For some persons refer the theorems about the celestial bodies to the Egyptians and Chaldeans in common. It is said therefore, that Pythagoras having received and increased all these [theories,] imparted the sciences, and at the same time demonstrated them to his auditors with perspicuity and elegance. And he was the first indeed that denominated philosophy, and said that it was the desire, and as it were love of wisdom. But he defined wisdom to be the science of the truth which is in beings. And he said that beings are immaterial and eternal natures, and alone possess an efficacious power, such as incorporeal essences. But that the rest of things are only homonymously beings, and are so denominated through the participation of real beings, and such are corporeal and material forms, which are generated and corrupted, and never truly are. And that wisdom is the science of things which are properly beings, but not of such as are homonymously so. For corporeal natures are neither the objects of science nor admit of a stable knowledge, since they are infinite and incomprehensible by science, and are as it were non- beings, when compared with universals, and are in- capable of being properly circumscribed by definition. It is impossible however to conceive that there should be science of things which are not naturally the objects of science. Hence it is not probable that there will
1i.e. From the time in which the Gods are fabulously said to have teigned in Egypt.
be a desire of science which has no subsistence, but
rather that desire will be extended to things which are
properly beings, which exist with invariable perma-
nency, and are always consubsistent with a true appella-
tion. For it happens that the perception of things
which are homonymously beings, and which are never
truly what they seem to be, follows the apprehension of
real beings; just as the knowledge of particulars follows
the science of universals. For he who knows universals
properly, says Archytas, will also have a clear percep-
tion of the nature of particulars. Hence things which
have an existence are not alone, nor only-begotten, nor
simple, but they are seen to be various and multiform.
For some of them are intelligible and incorporeal
natures, and which are denominated beings; but
others are corporeal and fall under the perception of
sense, and by participation communicate with that
which has a real existence. Concerning all these there-
fore, he delivered the most appropriate sciences, and
left nothing [pertaining to them] uninvestigated. He
likewise unfolded to men those sciences which are common
[to all disctplines,| as for instance the demonstrative,
the definitive, and that which consists in dividing, as
may be known from the Pythagoric commentaries. He
was also accustomed to pour forth sentences resembling
oracles to his familiars in a symbolical manner, and
which in the greatest brevity of words contained the
most abundant and multifarious meaning, like the
Pythian Apollo through certain oracles, or like nature
herself through seeds small in bulk, the former exhibit-
ing conceptions, and the latter effects, innumerable in
multitude, and difficult to be understood. Of this
kind is the sentence, The beginning is the half of the
whole, which is an apothegm of Pythagoras himself.
But not only in the present hemistich, but in others
of a similar nature, the most divine Pythagoras has con-
cealed the sparks of truth; depositing as in a treasury
for those who are capable of being enkindled by them,
and with a certain brevity of diction, an extension of
theory most ample and difficult to be comprehended, as in the following hemistich:
All things accord in number:
which he very frequently uttered to all his disciples.
Or again, Friendship is equality ; equality is friendship.
Or in the word cosmos, 1.e. the world; or by Jupiter,
in the word philosophy, or in the so much celebrated
word tetractys. All these and many other inventions
of the like kind, were devised by Pythagoras for the
benefit and amendment of his associates; and they
were considered by those that understood them to be
so venerable, and so much the progeny of divine in-
spiration, that the following was adopted as an oath
by those that dwelt together in the common auditory:
I swear by him who the tetractys found,
And to our race reveal’d; the cause and root,
And fount of ever-flowing Nature.
This therefore was the form of his wisdom which is so admirable.
It is also said, that of the sciences which the Pytha-
goreans honored, music, medicine and divination, were
not among the least. But they were habitually silent
and prompt to hear, and he who was able to hear [in
a proper manner] was praised by them. Of medicine,
however, they especially embraced the dietetic species,
and in the exercise of this were most accurate. And in
the first place, indeed, they endeavoured to learn the
indications of symmetry, of labor, food, and repose. In
the next place, with respect to the preparation of food,
they were nearly the arse who attempted to employ
themselves in it, and to define the mode in which
it should be performed. The Pythagoreans likewise
employed cataplasms more frequently than their ae
decessors; but they in a less degree approved of
medicated ointments. ‘These however they principally