THE HELLENIC PERIOD 33 



Iamblichus, Porphyry, and even by Diogenes Laertius, 

 are doubtful, but they contain much more ancient 

 material which is worthy of belief. 1 From an authorita- 

 tive source we know that Pythagoras passed the first 

 years of his life at Samos, and that he was the son of 

 Mnesarchus. He left Samos to escape from the 

 tyranny of Polycrates and settled in the south of Italy 

 at Crotona, a town already famous for its school of 

 medicine. The travels in the East attributed to him, 

 with the exception perhaps of the journey to Egypt, 

 appear to have been invented later to justify his 

 teachings. 



At Crotona, Pythagoras founded a philosophical- 

 religious school, probably after the type of the Orphic 

 communities. Its adherents were submitted to a severe 

 discipline ; they were obliged to abstain from eating 

 beans 2 and meat, except when they were sacrificing to 

 the gods, for in that case, an act, which in ordinary 

 circumstances was impiety, became an obligatory rite. 3 

 The Pythagoreans had, moreover, to observe not only 

 moral rules but veritable taboos, such as " not to touch 

 a white cock ; not to sit on a quart measure ; not to 

 walk on the high roads ; not to leave the mark of the 

 pot on the ashes, when it is lifted off, but smooth the 

 ashes." 



Did the school of Pythagoras really comprise various 

 degrees of initiation, acousmatical, mathematical and 

 physical, with an exoteric and an esoteric teaching, 

 jealously guarded ? Or were these designations in- 

 vented to explain the diversity of tendencies which 



*8 Burnet, Aurore, p. 94. — 22 a Robin, Pensde Grecque, 

 p. 58. On the life of Pythagoras by Iamblichus, see G. Meau- 

 tis, Recherches sur le pythagorisme, Attinger, Neuchatel, 192 1, 



P- 87. 



2 For the signification of this abstinence see J. Larguier des 



Bancels, Archives de psychologie, xvii, pp. 58-68. 



8 8 Burnet, Aurore, p. 106. 



