The Pythagoreans

Pythagoras, born in Crotona about 580 B. C., is one of the great "Beacon Lights" of Ancient History; a man raised up to illumine the onward march of that great Mythus, "world-progress." His name is surrounded with the nimbus of a prophet, or wonder-worker; and, according to Zeller, "it grows brighter and brighter the farther it is removed by time from the beholder." Tradition and history agree that "of all men, Pythagoras, the son of Mnesarchus, was the most assiduous inquirer." At Crotona, Pythagoras became the center of a widespread and influential organization, or brotherhood, for the moral reform of society. Many of the tenets, or symbols, of this Pythagorean brotherhood were only applicable to the age. But some of them, "like truth eternal," may still be applied as rules for right living, though nearly two thousand five hundred years have passed into history since they were formulated by the great Greek philosopher.

From fifty-two, a few will suffice for example:

1. When going to the Temple to adore Divinity, neither say nor do anything in the interim pertaining to the common affairs of life.

2. Govern your tongue before all other things. ("He that ruleth his tongue is greater than he who taketh a city.")

3. Step not beyond the beam of the balance. (Avoid extremes.)

4. Having departed from your house for a purpose, turn not back or the Furies will be your attendants. (A superstition 2500 years old.)

5. Offer not your right hand easily to every one. (Be guarded in your friendships.)

6. Remember that the paths of virtue and vice resemble the letter Y. (They separate beyond a given point.)

7. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. (Quoted by St. Paul.)

In Alexandria and elsewhere, schools of men arose calling themselves Pythagoreans, but modern critics distinguish them rather as Neo-Pythagoreans, since their philosophical doctrines more closely followed Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics. The entanglement of the Pythagoreans with politics was in the end fatal to the organization. The league continued powerful in Magna Graecia until the middle of the fifth century, when it was violently stamped out by successful democrats. The meeting-houses of the Pythagoreans were everywhere sacked and burned; particular mention is made of "the house of Milo" in Crotona, where fifty or sixty of the leading Pythagoreans were surprised and slain. As a school of philosophy, Pythagoreanism became extinct in Greece about the middle of the fourth century, B. C.