Pythagoras:

¹ The Ionian philosophy was derived from Thales.

The Italian School was founded by Pythagoras who was:

• the son of Mnesarchus, a seal engraver, as he is recorded to have been by Hermippus
• a native of Samos, or as Aristoxenus asserts, a Tyrrhenian, and a native of one of the islands which the Athenians occupied after they had driven out the Tyrrhenians.

But some authors say that he was the son of Marmacus, the son of Hippasus, the son of Euthyphron, the son of Cleonymus, who was an exile from Phlias; and that Marmacus settled in Samos, and that from this circumstance Pythagoras was called a Samian.

After that, he migrated to Lesbos, having come to Pherecydes with letters of recommendation from Zoilus, his uncle.

He made 3 silver goblets which he carried to Egypt as a present for each of the 3 priests.

He had brothers, the eldest of whom was named Eunomus, the middle one Tyrrhenus, and a slave named Zamolxis, to whom the Getæ sacrifice, believing him to be the same as Saturn, according to the account of Herodotus.

² He was a pupil of Pherecydes, the Syrian.

After his death, he came to Samos, and became a pupil of Hermodamas, the descendant of Creophylus, who was by this time an old man.

³ He got got initiated into all the Grecian and barbarian sacred mysteries.

He went to Egypt, on which occasion Polycrates gave him a letter of introduction to Amasis.

He learnt the Egyptian language, as Antipho tells us, in his treatise on those men who have been conspicuous for virtue, and he associated with the Chaldæans and with the Magi.

Afterwards he went to Crete, and in company with Epimenides, he descended into the Idæan cave, (and in Egypt too, he entered into the holiest parts of their temples,) and learned all the most secret mysteries that relate to their Gods.

Then he returned back again to Samos, and finding his country reduced under the absolute dominion of Polycrates, he set sail, and fled to Crotona in Italy.

There, having given laws to the Italians, he gained a very high reputation, together with 300 of his scholars and governed the republic in a most excellent manner; so that the constitution was very nearly an aristocracy.

The Past Lives of Pythagoras: Aethalides, Euphorbus, Hermotimus

⁴ Heraclides Ponticus says that Pythagoras:

• spoke of himself in this way
• had formerly been Æthalides and the son of Mercury

Mercury told Pythagoras to select any gift he pleased except immortality.

He requested to be able to preserve the memory of what had happened to him.

So while he was alive, he recollected everything. After he died, he retained the same memory.

Then he was reborn as Euphorbus and was wounded by Menelaus.

While he was Euphorbus, he said that he had formerly been Æthalides.

He had received as a gift from Mercury the perpetual transmigration of his soul, so that it was constantly transmigrating and passing into whatever plants or animals it pleased.

He had also received the gift of knowing and recollecting all that his soul had suffered in hell, and what sufferings too are endured by the rest of the souls.

But after Euphorbus died, he was reborn as Hermotimus.

When he wished to convince people of this, he went into the territory of the Branchidæ. He went into the temple of Apollo and showed his shield which Menelaus had dedicated there as an offering.

He said that he, when he sailed from Troy, had offered up his shield which was already getting worn out, to Apollo, and that nothing remained but the ivory face which was on it.

When Hermotimus died, he was reborn as Pyrrhus, a fisherman of Delos. He still remembered everything: how he had been formerly Æthalides, then Euphorbus, then Hermotimus, and then Pyrrhus.

When Pyrrhus died, he became Pythagoras.

⁵ Some people say that Pythagoras did not write a single book.

But Heraclitus, the natural philosopher, says:

“Pythagoras, the son of Mnesarchus, was the most learned of all men in history; and having selected from these writings, he thus formed his own wisdom and extensive learning, and mischievous art.”

Pythagoras, in the beginning of his treatise on Natural Philosophy, writes:

“By the air which I breathe, and by the water which I drink, I will not endure to be blamed on account of this discourse.”

There are 3 volumes written by Pythagoras.

1. 1 on Education and on Politics
2. 1 on Natural Philosophy

But the treatise now under the name of Pythagoras is the work of Lysis, of Tarentum.

• He was a philosopher of the Pythagorean School who fled to Thebes, and became the master of Epaminondas.

Heraclides, the son of Sarapion, in his Abridgment of Sotion, says that he wrote a poem in epic verse on the Universe; and besides that a sacred poem which starts as:

Dear youths, I warn you cherish peace divine, And in your hearts lay deep these words of mine.

3. on the Soul
4. on Piety
5. Helothales, the name of the father of Epicharmus of Cos
6. Crotona
7. other poems

But the mystic discourse under his name they say is really the work of Hippasus.

• It was written with a view to bring Pythagoras into disrepute.

There were also many other books composed by Aston, of Crotona, and attributed to Pythagoras.

Aristoxenus asserts that Pythagoras derived most of his ethical doctrines from Themistoclea, the priestess at Delphi.

Ion, of Chios, in his Victories, says that he wrote some poems and attributed them to Orpheus. They also say that the poem called the Scopiadæ is by him, which begins thus:

Behave not shamelessly to any one.