The Music of Pythagoras Read Online Free Page B

gods.” “It is said,” Porphyry hedged, that Pythagoras learned from all of them. 9
    Recounting the tales and traditions about Pythagoras’ associations with Thales, Anaximander, and possibly Anaximenes on the mainland coast near Samos, and the educational odyssey he was about to undertake, Porphyry and Iamblichus resorted often to those words “it is said,” without revealing who said it. The stories were part of a long-standing semi-historical tradition. Unfortunately, in the centuries preceding Iamblichus, Porphyry, and Diogenes Laertius, this tradition had been embellished to the point of pollution by a spate of “pseudo-Pythagorean” literature. The three historians tried to circumvent this problem by using earlier sources, but they could not, or at least did not, completely disregard some information that was probably spurious.
    The tradition that Pythagoras studied with Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes and even visited Egypt and Mesopotamia is not farfetched. Samos’ position in the world geographically and economically, and what seems probable about Pythagoras’ own economic circumstances and family, make these stories credible. He had reason to feel comfortable in the wider world because of his father’s trading ventures and connections, was wealthy enough to travel and have the leisure to pursue an adventurous, eclectic self-education, and was probably insatiably curious. If Pythagoras did not make journeys like these, what could have prevented him?
    Iamblichus wrote that Thales did not stop at telling Pythagoras he should go to Egypt. He warned him to be sparing of his time and careful about what he ate. Pythagoras confined himself to “such nutriment as was slender and easy of digestion” so that his sleep could be short, his “soul vigilant and pure,” and his body in a state of “perfect and invariable health.” Perhaps he did follow his old teacher’s advice and succeed in maintaining this enviable conditioning, but according to Iamblichus, he did not immediately hasten to Egypt. He went by way of Sidon, probably his birthplace.

CHAPTER 2

“Entirely different from the
institutions of the Greeks”
    Sixth Century B.C
.
    Y OUNG P YTHAGORAS’ JOURNEY , as Iamblichus recounted it, was the ancient equivalent of a high-risk modern junior year abroad. He bedded down in a temple on the Mediterranean coast, at the foot of Mount Carmel, a mountain associated with the prophet Elijah and his God as well as with local pagan deities. There is a much-disputed claim by the historian Josephus that Pythagoras was influenced by Jewish teaching. He could have encountered it here, although many of the Jewish population were in exile in Babylon. Iamblichus wrote that he “conversed with prophets” and was initiated into the mysteries of Byblos and Tyre, not for the sake of superstition, but “from an anxiety that nothing might escape his observation which deserved to be learnt in the arcane or mysteries of the gods.” For a man who himself lived in a superstitious age, Iamblichus was surprisingly eager to emphasize that Pythagoras was not influenced by the “superstition” of this area, though he made no such disclaimer about what Pythagoras might have picked up in Egypt or Mesopotamia. Iamblichus was writing at a time when many feared that Christianity, with roots in Jewish belief, would destroy Greek philosophy.
    After a while, Pythagoras continued his journey to Egypt, and Iamblichus went into greater narrative detail than usual to relate anadventurous, delightful story. Fortuitously, or so it seemed at first, an Egyptian ship landed on the Phoenician coast near the temple where Pythagoras was living. The sailors were pleased to welcome him aboard, thinking they could sell such a comely young man at a good price. During the voyage, they changed their minds. There was something different about this modest youth from what one normally expected of a human being. The sailors reminded one another how he