Sixth-, fifth- and fourth-century Pythagoreans

Aristoxenus of Tarentum. Ed. by C. Huffman. New Brunswick 2012.

Medium -- The Apeiron Blog, 2021

Did Pythagoras start a philosophical school, a political movement, or both? At first blush, philosophy and politics appear strikingly different, like night and day, apples and oranges. The former entails deep thought and the search for truth, while the latter involves partisan action and the quest for power. However, in antiquity, the two were often difficult to disentangle.

2007

In: On Pythagoreanism. Ed. by Cornelli, G., McKirahan, R., Macris, C.. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013. P. 323-344.

This is the third in series of brief, analytic biographies of the 'Top-Nine' thinkers, whose thoughts have powerfully influenced large numbers of people across extended time scales. They are all reviewed here in the order of their birth. Negative thinkers (e.g. Hitler, Stalin) are ignored, while 'Mythic' talkers (like Jesus) are also ignored as little direct written information is available. Pythagoras has the enviable reputation as the founder of Greek Philosophy (the attempt to produce a communicable description of reality using an agreed set of words and fixed-symbols or shapes;). He was the first to define philosophy as the pursuit of wisdom (intrinsic knowledge) for its own sake, not for it sits utilitarian uses, like today [or 'lover of wisdom']. He is acknowledged as influencing Plato and several major mathematicians and scientists, such as Copernicus, Kepler and Newton. He established a community of followers in Southern Italy based on sharing all their possessions in common ("All things shared between friends"); his reputation exploded so that many of his discoveries may have proposed by his followers or from earlier sources, like his eponymous theorem of right triangles that were long known in Egypt and his theory of musical harmony: ambiguity is the result of long times.

Pythagorean Knowledge from the Ancient to the Modern World: Askesis, Religion, Science. Edited by Almut-Barbara Renger, Alessandro Stavru

In the Cohortatio ad Graecos, a work included in Justin Martyr's corpus and recently attributed to the Monarchian Bishop Marcellus of Ancyra (cf. C. Riedweg, B. Pouderon), there is a passage dedicated to Pythagoras (cf. 19). Such a reference is part of a string of quotations from pagan authors on the subject of the so-called monotheism. Having already proved the antiquity and excellence of Moses, the first prophet (9-12), and presented the story of the Septuagint translation (13), Ps.-Justin meks further remarks about Greeks having become acquainted with the writings of Moses in Egypt and therefore expressing 'monotheistic' views (14). Other authorities quoted are Orpheus (15), Sibyl (16), Homer (17), Sophocles (18), and Plato (20), after which the work progresses as a more detailed attempt to show the dependance of Plato and Homer on the Hebrew Scriptures. In this paper, I aim to explore the Cohortatio account on Pythagoras in its connection with the other authorities quoted in the text, in order to stress the cultural work carried out by Ps.-Justin/Marcellus about the Greek Philosopher and the ideological elements ascribed to him in the treatise. In keeping with his general intention of bringing forward Greek expressions of monotheism, the subject Ps.-Justin announces for Pythagoras is 'monas' (19,1,5), drawing a sort of parallel with the religion of Orpheus (Orpheus is explicitly said to have visited Egypt). The conclusion one can reach is that the monotheism attributed to Pythagoras is a cultural construct, strictly connected with Orpheus, and that the author of Cohortatio aims to defend the so-called Monarchianism, around the period of Arian crisis. My main objective is to emphasize how the (re-)invention of a Pythagorean monotheism and/or religion constitutes a Christian apologetic discourse strictly linked with the invention of an Orphic monotheism, two cultural constructs carried out in the period of the Nicaea Council (325 CE), a seminal phase in the formation of Christian monotheism.