Pythagoras: His Life and Teaching, a Compendium of Classical Sources

by Wasserman, James

  Coriacesia: According to Pliny, Pythagoras ascribed to this plant the power of turning water into ice. (See Callicia.)

  Diapason: The interval of an octave; the consonance of the lowest and highest notes of the musical scale.

  Diapason Harmony or Concord: The complete agreement or correspondence between the range of sounds in the scale.

  Diapente: In ancient and medieval music, the consonance or interval of a fifth.

  Diasteme: In ancient Greek music, an interval especially an interval forming a single degree of the scale.

  Diatessaron: In Greek and medieval music the interval of a fourth.

  Diatonic: In Greek music, the name of that genus or scale in which the interval of a tone was used, the tetrachord being divided into two whole tones and a semitone (see also Chromatic and Enharmonic).

  Doric: (in Music) One of the ancient Greek modes of music, characterized by simplicity and serenity.

  Duple: In music, a rhythm having two beats in the bar.

  Echemythia: This word probably means using dissimulation, concealing truth by indulging in mythmaking.

  Enharmonic: In Greek music, the name of that genus or scale in which an interval of two and a half tones was divided into two quarter tones and a major third. (See also Chromatic and Diatonic.)

  Ens: Essence. That which has existence.

  Epitrites: A term in Greek music signifying the ratio of four to three.

  Epode: An incantation.

  Erythrine: A rose-red mineral, crystallized and earthy, a hydrous arseniate of cobalt, known also as cobalt bloom. Also, a colorless crystalline substance extracted from certain red lichens, as the various species of Rocella. So called because of certain red compounds derived from it. Stanley discusses it thus: “Receive not an Erythrine, seems to respect the Etymology of the word. Entertain not an impudent blushless person; nor on the other side one over-bashful, ready to fall back from the mind and firm intellection.” (p. 283)

  Esse: In actual existence. Opposed to Posse, in potentiality.

  Excedent: That which exceeds

  Furlong: A measure of distance equal to 220 yards.

  Hebdomad: The number seven viewed collectively as a group.

  Hecatomb: An ancient Greek and Roman sacrifice of one hundred oxen or cattle.

  Hemiolius: In medieval music, a perfect fifth, the ratio of one and a half to one.

  Hemitone: A half-tone or semitone.

  Heptachord: A seven-stringed instrument. A series of seven notes formed of two conjunct tetrachords. The interval of a seventh.

  Homocentric: Having the same center, concentric. In old Astronomy, a sphere or circle concentric with another or with the Earth.

  Homoeomery: The ancient Greek theory, propounded by Anaxagoras, that the ultimate particles of matter are homogenous or of the same kind. “Homoeomeries” refers to the homogenous particles themselves.

  Hypate: The name of the lowest tone in the lowest two tetrachords of ancient Greek music.

  Hypermese: In musical intervals, measured upwards above the mese.

  Lichanus: In ancient Greek music, the name of one of the sounds of a tetrachord. It was next to the neate (nete).

  Mazza (Meze): A term for Greek and Middle Eastern small food dishes, which can be hot or cold, and composed of various ingredients, comparable to a Scandinavian smorgasbord.

  Melanure: A small fish of the Mediterranean; a gilthead; so named from the blackness of its tail, thus symbolizing negativity.

  Mese: In ancient Greek music, the middle string of the seven-stringed lyre and its note; subsequently the key-note of any of the scales in use.

  Monochord: A medieval musical instrument of one string used to teach intervals in singing schools. Also, an instrument to measure the mathematics of musical intervals.

  Neate (Nete): A term in Greek music applied to the fourth, or most acute chord of each of the three tetrachords which followed the two first or deepest.

  Nepenthe: A drink or drug supposed to bring forgetfulness of trouble or grief. Possessing sedative properties.

  Obol, (obolus): (pl. obols, also oboli) A silver coin or unit of weight in ancient Greece equal to one sixth of a drachma, (approximately .5 gram). See Trioboli.

  Octochord: Having eight strings. Also, relating to a scale of eight notes.

  Olympiad: The Greek calendar was based on the four-year Olympiad, marking the Olympic Games instituted by Hercules in honor of his father Zeus. When Greek historians refer to dates, they most often refer to a year (i.e., first, second, third, fourth) of a four-year period or Olympiad. The first Olympiad began in 776 B.C.

  Onomantic: Pertaining to divination from names or the letters of a name.

  Oviparous: Producing eggs that hatch outside the body.

  Paramese: The second sound of the second octave. The string next the middle; in ancient Greek music, the tone next above the mese; the lowest tone of the disjunct tetrachord.

  Paraneate: In ancient Greek music, the note next below the nete (neate) in either the disjunct or the upper tetrachord.

  Parypate: The second note of a tetrachord. (Parypate hypaton equals second note of lowest tetrachord; parypate meson equals second sound of the second tetrachord).

  Pentachord: The interval of a fifth. Also, a musical instrument with five strings. A musical series of five notes.

  Phantasie (fantasy): As used here when capitalized, refers to the imagination, the creation of mental images, the formation and perception of visionary notions,.

  Phrygian: (in Music) One of the ancient Greek modes of music, characterized by a warlike nature.

  Phthiriasis: A morbid condition of the body in which lice multiply excessively, causing extreme irritation.

  Posse: In potentiality. Opposed to Esse, in actual existence.

  Sesquialtera: Of a proportion that is as one and a half is to one. In music, a triple measure of three notes to two such like notes of the common time.

  Sesquiduple: Involving a ratio of two and a half to one.

  Sesquioctava: Applied to harmonic intervals producible by sounding four fifths, five sixths, etc. of a given string; rhythmic combinations of four notes against five, five notes against six, etc.

  Sesquitertia: Denoting a ratio of one and one-third to one, that is four to three. An interval having this ratio, viz. the perfect fourth, a rhythm of three notes against four.

  Stade: The length of the footrace taught to mankind by Hercules.

  Stadia: An ancient measure of distance approximately 200 meters or one-eighth of a mile.

  Superficies: In Geometry, the outside or exterior surface of any body, consisting of two dimensions, length and breadth, without thickness.

  Tetrachord: An ancient Greek musical four-stringed instrument. Also, a scale-series of four notes being the half of an octave.

  Trioboli (plural of Triobolus): A half drachma coin; also, a trifle. See Obol.

  ENDNOTES

  1 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chap. 1.

  2 Plutarch, Symposiac, Liber VIII.

  3 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chap. 10.

  4 Clement of Alexander, Stromateis, Liber I, Chap. 14.

  5 Porphyry De Vita Pythagorae, Chap. 1.

  6 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chap. 5.

  7 Josephus, Contra Apionem, Liber II, 2.

  8 Justin, Historiarum Philippicarum, Liber XX, 4.

  9 Diogenes Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber VIII, Chap. 1.

  10 Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber VIII, Chap. 1; Suidas Lexicon [Cf. Apulleius, Florida, Chap. 15.

  11 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chap. 1.

  12 Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber VIII, Chap. 1.

  13 Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, Liber I, Chap. 14.

  14 Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap. 2.

  15 So read both here and afterwards, as appeareth by the Oracle, [“instead of Same”].†

  16 Strabo, Rerum Geographicarum, Liber XIV.

  17 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagor
ae, Chap. 2.

  18 Cited also by Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chap. 2.

  19 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chap. 2 .[But Cf. Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap. 2—Ed.]

  20 Adding,

  21 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chap. 2.

  22 Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap. 2.

  23 Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber VIII, Chap. 25.

  24 St. Augustine, Epistulae. 3. ad Volusianus. [Augustine, Letter CXXXVII to Volusianus, Chap. 12—Ed.]

  25 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chap. 2.†

  26 In Pythagoras. [i.e. Suidas Lexicon, the entry on

  27 Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap. 2.

  28 As once in Ritterhusius's Edition [of Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica] or perhaps tou

  29 Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap. 2.

  30 Strabo, Rerum Geographicarum, Liber XIV, Chap. 18.

  31 Apuleius, Florida, Chap. 15.

  32 Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap. 2 continues.

  33 Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber VIII, Chap. 3.

  34 Apuleius, Florida, Chap. 15.

  35 Thebes.

  36 Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber I, ‘Thaletis' [i.e Thales—Ed.].

  37 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chap. 55–56.

  38 Salmasius, Plinianae Excercitationes.

  39 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chap. 15. Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap. 30. Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber VIII, Chap. 21.

  40 Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber VIII, Chap. 12.

  41 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chap. 15.

  42 Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap. 5. Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber VIII, Chap. 12.

  43 Iamblicus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap. 3.

  44 Reading [“principal”].†

  45 Iamblicus, De Vita Pythagorica, continueth.

  46 For etc.†

  47 Iamblicus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap. 3.

  48 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chap. 7, cited also by Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber VIII, Chap. 3.

  49 Herodotus, Liber 3.

  50 Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, Liber V, Chap. 7.

  51 Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, Liber I, Chap. 15.

  52 Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber VIII, Chap. 3.

  53 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chap. 12.

  54 Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, Liber V, Chap. 4.

  55 Valerius Maximus, Factorum et Dictorum Memorabilium, Liber VIII, Chap. 7.

  56 Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap. 4. continuing.

  57 Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber VIII, Chap. 3.

  58 Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, Liber I, Chap. 15.

  59 Cf. Herodotus, Liber III, Chap. 10.

  60 Pliny, Naturalis Historiae, Liber XXXVI, Chap. 9.

  61 James Ussher, Annales Veteris Testamenti [Julian Year] 4167 [page 142.]

  62 Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica , Chap. 4.

  63 Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, Liber I, Chapter 15., Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber VIII, Chap. 4.

  64 Cicero, De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, Liber V, Chap. 29.

  65 Apuleius, Florida, Chap. 15.

  66 Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica, Liber X, Chap. 4.

  67 Valerius Maximus, Factorum et Dictorum Memorabilium, Liber VIII. Chap. 7.

  68 Lactantius, Divinarum Institutionum, Liber I, Chap. 2.

  69 Gerard Johann Vossius. De Philosophorum Sectis, Vol 1. Chap. 6.

  70 Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica , Chap. 4, continueth.

  71 Valerius Maximus, Factorum et Dictorum Memorabilium, Liber VIII, 7, 2.

  72 Apuleius, Florida, Chap. 15.

  73 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chap. 12.

  74 Apuleius, Florida, Chap. 15.

  75 [The reference is to Alexander Polyhistor's now lost “On The Pythagorean Symbols.” This quote is from Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, Liber I, Chapter 15—Ed.]

  76 Suidas, Lexicon, In voce Pythagoras [i.e. in the name —Ed.].

  77 John Selden, De Diis Syris Syntagmata II, pp. 210-213.

  78 Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, Liber I, Chap. 15.

  79 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chap. 10.

  80 Lactantius, Divinarum Institutionum, Liber IV, Chap. 2.

  81 Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica, Liber X, Chapter 4.

  82 James Ussher, Annales Veteris Testamenti, p. 151 [Julian Year 4189].

  83 Josephus, Contra Apionem, Liber I, Chap. 22.

  84 Origen, Contra Celsum, Liber I, Chap. 15.

  85 Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, 1, Chap. 22 & Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica, Liber XIII.

  86 Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, Liber I, Chap. 15.

  87 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chap. 12.

  88 Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, Liber I, Chap. 15.

  89 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chapter 6.

  90 Josephus, Contra Apionem, Liber I, Chap. 22.

  91 Gerard Johann Vossius. De Philosophorum Sectis, Vol 1. Chap. 6.

  92 Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chapters 2, 5 (for the Chapters are ill-distinguished).

  93 Pliny, Naturalis Historiae, Liber XXXIII, Chap. 63.

  94 Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap. 5 & 7.

  95 Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, Liber VII, Chap. 6.

  96 Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber VIII, Chap. 12.

  97 Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap. 5.

  98 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chapter 16, Reading, [Cf.] Hesychius' Lexicon,

  99 Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber VIII, Chap. 5.

  100 Justin, Historiarum Philippicarum Lib. XX, Chap. 4.

  101 Iamblicus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap 5.

  102 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chap. 17.

  103 Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber VIII, Chap. 3 [Cf. Apuleius, Florida, Chap. 15—Ed.]

  104 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chap. 17

  105 Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber VIII, Chap. 3

  106 Valerius Maximus, Factorum et Dictorum Memorabilium, Liber VIII, Chap. 7, 2.

  107 Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber I, Prooemium, Chap. 8.

  108 Ibid.

  109 Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum,, Liber VIII, Chap. 6.

  110 Cicero, Tuscularum Disputationum, Liber V, Chap. 3.

  111 Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber I, Prooemium, Chap. 8, and Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap. 8.

  112 Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap. 5.

  113 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chap. 9.

  114 Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap. 5 & 6 (for these also are ill-distinguished).

  115 Livy, Historiarum Ab Urbe Condita, Decad. 4, Liber XL, Chap. 29.

  116 Pliny, Naturalis Historiae, Liber XIII, Chap. 13.

  117 Diodorus, Excerpta Valesiana, p. 241.

  118 Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, Liber I, Chap. 14.

  119 Ptolemy, Almagestum, Liber V, Chap. 14.

  120 Diodorus, Excerpta Valesiana, p. 241.

  121 Strabo, Rerum Geographicarum, Liber XIV, Chap. 17.

  122 Cicero, Tuscularum Disputationum, Liber I, Chap. 4.†

  123 Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, Liber XVII, Chap. 21.

  124 Pliny, Naturalis Historiae, Liber II, chap. 8.

  125 Cicero, Tuscularum Disputationum, Liber I, Chap. 4.

  126 Solinus, De Mirabilibus Mundi, Liber II, Chap. 4.

  127 Eusebius, Chronicon.†

  128 Eusebius, Chronicon.

  129 Strabo, Rerum Geographicarum, Liber VI, Chap. 3.

  130 Eusebius, Chronicon.

  131 Ibid.

  132 Solinus, De Mirabilibus Mundi, Liber II, Chap. 4.

  133 Eusebius, Chronicon.

  134 Strabo, Rerum Geographicarum, Liber VI, Chap. 2.

  135 Thucydides, De bello Peloponnesiaco, Liber VI, Chap. 4

  136 Eusebius, Chronicon.

  137 Iamblicus
, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap. 29.

  138 Justin, Historiarum Philippicarum, Liber XX, Chap. 2–4.

  139 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chap. 18.

  140 Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap. 8.

  141 Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap. 8 continueth. The beginning of this Oration is in Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber VIII, Chap. 19 also.

  142 This is also in Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber VIII, Chap. 19.

  143 Strabo, Rerum Geographicarum, Liber VI, Chap. 12.

  144 Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap.9

  145 Valerius Maximus, Factorum et Dictorum Memorabilium, Liber VIII, Chap. 15,1.

  146 Synessius in Dion, Chap. 5 & Cassiodorus, Variarum, Liber II, 40.†

  147 Aristotle, Analytica Priora et Posteriora, Posterior Analytics Chap. 11. Cicero, Oratio Pro Licinio Archia, Oratio IX, “Quasi cognatione quadam” etc.†

  148 To the same effect Laertius De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber VIII, Chap. 19.

  149 Mentioned by Cicero and others.

  150 Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap 10.

  151 Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap 11.

  152 So supply the text from Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber VIII, Chap. 11, who cites something to the same purpose out of Timaeus.† [Core], is a Name of Proserpina; Bride, relates to the Nymphs; [mother], to Cybele mother of the Gods to Maja, mother of Mercury.

  153 Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap. 12.

  154 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chap 18.

  155 Iamblicus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap. 5.

  156 Laertius, De Vitis Philosophorum, Liber VIII, Chap. 15.

  157 Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap 6.†

  158 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chap. 20.

  159 Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, Liber I, Chap. 15.†

  160 Porphyry, De Vita Pythagorae, Chap. 21. And from him, Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap. 7.

  161 Diodorus, Bibliotheca Historica, Liber XII, Chap. 3.

  162 Athenaeus, Deipnosophistarum, Liber XII, Chap. 15.

  163 Ibid, Liber XII, Chap. 21.

  164 Iamblicus, De Vita Pythagorica, Chap. 30.

  165 Diodorus, Bibliotheca Historica, Liber XII, Chap. 3. Olympiad 83. 2.

  166 So were the Greeks that inhabited Italy called, not the Natives. The same difference between Siciliaotes and Sicilians.