PYTHAGORAS
 

PYTHEAS.
 

spooling  the  fate of Pythagoras mmself,  the I

accounts- varied.  Some say that he perished

in the temple with his disciples, others that j

he fled first to Tarentum, and that, being driven

thence, he  escaped to Metapontum, and there

starved himself to death   His tomb was shown

at Metapontum in the ti ne of Cicero.  Accord¬

ing to some accounts, Pythagoras married The-

ano,  a lady of  Crotona,  and had a  daughter

Damo, and a son Telauges, or, according to

others, two (laughters, Damo and Myia ;  while

other notices seem to  imply  that  he had  a

wife  and a daughter grown up when h'j came

to Crotona.   When we come to inquire what

were the philosophical  or religious opinions

held  by  Pythagoras  himself, we are met at

the outset  by the difficulty that even the  au¬

thors from whom we  have to draw possessed

no authentic  records bearing upon the  age of

Pythagoras himself.  If Pythagoras ever wrote

any  thing,  his writings perished with him, or

not long after.   The probability is that he wrote

nothing.  Every thing current under his name

in antiquity was spurious.  It is all but certain

that  Philolaus was the first  who published the

Pythagorean doctrines, at any rate in a written

form. (Vid Philolaus ) Still there was so mark¬

ed a peculiarity  running through the Pythago¬

rean philosophy, that there can be little question

as to the germs of the system, at any rate, hav¬

ing been derived from Pythagoras himself.  Py¬

thagoras resembled the philosophers ofthe Ionic

school, who undertook to  solve, by means  of a

single primordial principle, the vague problem

of the origin and constitution ofthe universe as

a  whole.   His  predilection  for  mathematical

studies led hinj to trace the origin of all  things

to number, his theory being suggested, or at all

events confirmed, by the observation of various

numerical relations, or analogies to them, in the

phenomena of the universe.  Musical principles

likewise played almost as important a  part in

tho  Pythagorean system  as mathematical or

numerical ideas.  We find running through the

entire system the idea that  order, or harmony

of relation, is the regulating principle  of the

whole universe.   The  intervals between the

heavenly bodies were supposed to be determ¬

ined  according  to the laws and relations of

musical harmony. Hence arose the celebrated

doctrine of the  harmony  of the spheres ; for

the heavenly bodies, in their motion, could not

but occasion a certain sound or note, depending

on their distances and velocities; and as these

were determined by the laws of harmonical in¬

tervals, the notes altogether formed a  regular

musical scale or harmony. Tbis harmony, how¬

ever, we do  not hear, either because we have

been accustomed to it from  the first, and have

never had an opportunity of contrasting it  with

stillness, or because the sound is so powerful as

to exceed our capacities for hearing.  The ethics

of the Pythagoreans consisted more in ascetic

practice, and maxims for the restraint of the

passions, especially of anger, and the  cultiva¬

tion of the power of endurance, than in scien¬

tific theory.  What of the latter they had  was,

as might be expected, intimately connected with

their number-theory.   Happiness consisted  in

the  science of  the perfection of the virtues of

*he  soul, or in tl e perfect science  of numbers.
 

Likeness to the Deity was to be the objuc 3?

all our endeavors, man becoming better as  he

approaches the gods, who are the guardians and

guides of men.  Great importance was attached

to the influence of music in controlling the force

of the passions  Self examination was strongly

insisted on   The transmigration of souls waa

viewed apparently in the light of a process of

purification.  Souls under the dominion  of sen.

suality either passed into the bodies of animals,

or, if incurable, were thrust down into Tartarus;

to meet with expiation or condign punishment.

The pure were exalted to higher modes of life,

and at last attained  to incorporeal  existence

As regards the fruits of this system of training

or belief, it is interesting to remark, that wher¬

ever we  have notices of distinguished Pyth¬

agoreans,  we usually hear of them as men of

great  uprightness, conscientiousness, and self-

restraint, and as capable of devoted and endur¬

ing friendship.  Vid. Archytas, Damon,  and

Phintias.—2. Of Rhegium, one ofthe most cel¬

ebrated statuaries of Greece, probably flourished

B.C. 480-430   His most important  works ap¬

pear to have been his statues of athletes.

  Pytheas  (HvBeag).   1. An Athenian  orator,

distinguished by his unceasing animosity against

Demosthenes.  He had no political principles,

made no pretensions  to honesty, and changed

sides as often as suited his convenience or his

interest.   Of the part that he took in political

affairs only two or  three facts are recorded.

He opposed the honors  which the Athenians

proposed to confer upon Alexander, but he aft¬

erward espoused the interests ofthe Macedonian

party. He accused Demosthenes of having re¬

ceived bribes from  Harpalus.   In the Lamian

war, B C. 322, he joined Antipater, and had thus

the satisfaction  of surviving his great enemy

Demosthenes.  He is said to have been the au¬

thor of the well-known saying, that the orations

of Demosthenes smelt ofthe lamp.—2 Of Mas¬

silia  in Gaul, a  celebrated  Greek navigator,

who  sailed to the  western and northern parts

of Europe, and wrote a work containing the re¬

sults of his discoveries.   He probably lived in

the time of Alexander the Great, or shortly aft¬

erward.   He appears to  have undertaken voy¬

ages, one in which he visited Britain and Thule,

and of which he probably gave an account in his

work On the Ocean;  and  a second, undeitaken

after his return from his first voyage, in which

he coasted along the whole of Europe from Ga-

dira (now Cadiz) to the Tanais, and the descrip¬

tion of which probably formed the subject of his

Periplus.   Pytheas made Thule a six days' sail

from Britain, and said that the day and  the

night were each six months long  in  Thule;

hence some modern  writers have supposed that

he  must  have reached Iceland,  while  others

have maintained that he advanced as far as the

Shetland Islands.  But either supposition is very

improbable, and neither is  necessary;  for re¬

ports of the great length of the day and night

in the northern parts of Europe had  already

reached the Greeks, before the time of Pytheas.

There has been  likewise much dispute as to

what river we are to understand by the Tanais.

The most probable conjecture is that, upon reach¬

ing the Elbe, Pytheas concluded that he had ar¬

rived at  the Tanais. separating Europe from

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