Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras, or Pythagoric Life: Accompanied by Fragments of the Ethical Writings of certain Pythagoreans in the Doric dialect; and a collection of Pythagoric Sentences from Stobaeus and others, which are omitted by Gale in his Opuscula Mythologica, and have not been noticed by any editorIamblichus
Philosophy
Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras, or Pythagoric Life: Accompanied by Fragments of the Ethical Writings of certain Pythagoreans in the Doric dialect; and a collection of Pythagoric Sentences from Stobaeus and others, which are omitted by Gale in his Opuscula Mythologica, and have not been noticed by any editor
Iamblichus
Ethics, Ancient; Philosophers -- Greece -- Biography; Philosophy, Ancient; Pythagoras; Pythagoras and Pythagorean school
That which follows after this, we shall no longer discuss generally, but
direct our attention particularly to the works resulting from the
virtues of Pythagoras. And we shall begin in the first place from the
Gods, as it is usual to do, and endeavour to exhibit his piety, and the
admirable works which he performed. Let this, therefore, be one specimen
of his piety, which also we have before mentioned, that he knew what his
soul was, and whence it came into the body, and also its former lives,
and that of these things he gave most evident indications. After this
also, let the following be another specimen; that once passing over the
river Nessus with many of his associates, he spoke to it, and the river
in a distinct and clear voice, in the hearing of all his followers,
answered, _Hail Pythagoras!_ Farther still, nearly all historians of his
life confidently assert, that in one and the same day he was present at
Metapontum in Italy, and Tauromenium in Sicily, and discoursed in common
with his disciples in both places, though these cities are separated
from each other by many stadia both by land and sea, and cannot be
passed through in a great number of days. The report, also, is very much
disseminated, that he showed his golden thigh to the Hyperborean Abaris,
who said that he resembled the Apollo among the Hyperboreans, and of
whom Abaris was the priest; and that he did this in order that Abaris
might apprehend this to be true, and that he was not deceived in his
opinion. Ten thousand other more divine and more admirable particulars
likewise are uniformly and unanimously related of _the man_: such as
infallible predictions of earthquakes, rapid expulsions of pestilence
and violent winds, instantaneous cessations of the effusion of hail, and
a tranquillization of the waves of rivers and seas, in order that his
disciples might easily pass over them. Of which things also, Empedocles
the Agrigentine, Epimenides the Cretan, and Abaris the Hyperborean,
receiving the power of effecting, performed certain miracles of this
kind in many places. Their deeds, however, are manifest. To which we may
add, that Empedocles was surnamed _an expeller of winds_; Epimenides,
_an expiator_; and Abaris, _a walker on air_; because being carried on
the dart which was given to him by the Hyperborean Apollo, he passed
over rivers and seas and inaccessible places, like one walking on the
air. Certain persons likewise are of opinion, that Pythagoras did the
same thing, when in the same day he discoursed with his disciples at
Metapontum and Tauromenium. It is also said, that he predicted there
would be an earthquake from the water of a well which he had tasted; and
that a ship which was sailing with a prosperous wind, would be merged in
the sea. And let these, indeed, be the indications of his piety.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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