[harvby] PYTHAGORAS AND HIS PHILOSOPHY 2S3 



" follows, the fire of youth toned down, mature and mild, in temperament 

 " between youth and grey-haired age. And last comes winter, which we all 

 " shudder to behold, with palsied gait and bald, or, if any locks remain, 



" quite white Thus is the vigour of the prior term undermined, 



" and Milo, in years, laments to see those muscles flaccid and unwrung which, 

 " once firm and knotted, were like those of Hercules himself! Tyndaris, too, 

 " grown old, weeps when in her glass she sees a wrinkled face, and marvels 

 " why she was twice abducted by impetuous lovers ! . . . . Even what 



"we call elements do not perish Nothing keeps its special form. 



" Nature, the Restorer, is always giving new shapes to every figure 



" To begin to be a different something from what there was before is called 

 " birth, and to have done with that is death. Matter which at one time 

 " happens to be here is carried over there, but the general sum is the 



" same I have seen solid earth transformed to sea and the ocean 



" in its turn become solid land. Plains become valleys and mountains are 

 " levelled to a plain Nor will even ^tna always vomit flame.' " 



In the above, there are necessarily many omissions, but the main 

 points which refer to distinctively Pythagorean tenets are clearly and 

 fully stated. But, it may be said, Ovid who wrote this at about the 

 time of Christ, embellished tradition with poetry. We will therefore 

 see what sober history relates. 



Aulus Grellius (Noctes Atticœ, Book 1, cap. 9) tells us sam-ething 

 about the organization Pythagoras established at Crotona. Those who 

 were there received by the Master as disciples put all their family rights 

 and possessions into a common stock, so that an inseparable society was 

 formed of the nature of the consortium. A family in the earliest 

 Eoman times was by law and custom consors, that is, everything belonged 

 to the family and could not be left away from it by will. The Greek 

 word is more expressive, Koivoftiov. But, later, a family might declare 

 itself dissors, which in a way is like cutting off an entail, and a law 

 was inserted on the Twelve tables under which persons might go even 

 further and divide possessions among those not belonging to the family. 

 The Pythagorean sodality was, therefore, merely an extension of a 

 recognized usage, for it is probable that similar customs prevailed in 

 most Italian cities, even those in Greecia magna. The Greek words 

 are ffvvK^tjpol and ôiaK\r]podévTe». Pythagoras was applying to a sect 

 of his adherents the principles which prevailed among consanguineous 

 families. His way of matriculating his students was as follows: — 

 First he made a personal survey of the applicants, especially of their 

 features — e'qjvfftoyycojuôvêi — and was thus the firnt recorded physiogno- 

 mist. He inquired into their inherited constitution (totius corporis 

 filo atquc hahiiu) and, if he thought the candidate suitable for admis- 

 sion, he ordered him placed under discipline for a certain time, as 

 he might judge it requisite in each case. It was never less than two 



