A History of Pythagoreanism PDF
Preview A History of Pythagoreanism
A HISTORY OF PYTHAGOREANISM This is a comprehensive, authoritative and innovative account of PythagorasandPythagoreanism,oneofthemostenigmaticandinflu- ential philosophies in the West. In twenty-one chapters covering a timespan from the sixth century bc to the seventeenth century ad, leadingscholarsconstructanumberofdifferentimagesofPythago- ras and his community, assessing current scholarship and offering new answers to central problems. Chapters are devoted to the early Pythagoreans,andthefullbreadthofPythagoreanthoughtisexplored including politics, religion, music theory, science, mathematics and magic. Separate chapters consider Pythagoreanism in Plato, Aristo- tle, the Peripatetics and the later Academic tradition, while others describePythagoreanisminthehistoricaltradition,inRomeandin thepseudo-Pythagoreanwritings.ThethreegreatlivesofPythagoras byDiogenesLaertius,PorphyryandIamblichusarealsodiscussedin detail, as is the significance of Pythagoras for the Middle Ages and Renaissance. carl a. huffman isResearchProfessorandEmeritusProfessorof Classical Studies at DePauw University. He is author of Archytas of Tarentum:Pythagorean,Philosopher,andMathematicianKing() andPhilolausofCroton:PythagoreanandPresocratic(). A HISTORY OF PYTHAGOREANISM edited by CARL A. HUFFMAN UniversityPrintingHouse,Cambridgecbbs,UnitedKingdom CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learningandresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/ (cid:2)C CambridgeUniversityPress Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyClays,StIvesplc AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata AhistoryofPythagoreanism/editedbyCarlA.Huffman. pages cm Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. isbn----(hardback) .PythagorasandPythagoreanschool. I.Huffman,CarlA.,editorofcompilation. b.h ′.–dc isbn----Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof urlsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication, anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. Contents Contributors pagevii Abbreviations ix Introduction CarlA.Huffman Pythagoras GeoffreyLloyd Philolaus DanielW.Graham Archytas MalcolmSchofield Sixth-,fifth-andfourth-centuryPythagoreans LeonidZhmud ThePythagoreansocietyandpolitics CatherineRowett ThePythagoreanwayoflifeandPythagoreanethics M.LauraGemelliMarciano Pythagoreans,OrphismandGreekreligion Ga´borBetegh TheproblemofPythagoreanmathematics RevielNetz Pythagoreanharmonics AndrewBarker ThePythagoreansandPlato JohnPalmer v vi Contents Aristotleonthe“so-calledPythagoreans”:fromloreto principles OliverPrimavesi PythagoreanismintheAcademictradition:theEarly AcademytoNumenius JohnDillon ThePeripateticsonthePythagoreans CarlA.Huffman Pythagorasinthehistoricaltradition:fromHerodotusto DiodorusSiculus StefanSchorn Thepseudo-Pythagoreanwritings BrunoCentrone PythagoreansinRomeandAsiaMinoraroundtheturnofthe commonera Jaap-JanFlinterman DiogenesLaertius’LifeofPythagoras Andr´eLaks Porphyry’sLifeofPythagoras ConstantinosMacris Iamblichus’OnthePythagoreanLifeincontext DominicJ.O’Meara PythagorasandPythagoreanisminlateantiquityandthe MiddleAges AndrewHicks PythagorasintheEarlyRenaissance MichaelJ.B.Allen Bibliography Generalindex Indexlocorum Greekindex Abbreviations ANRW Temporini,H.andHaase,W.(eds.)–.Aufstiegund Niedergangderro¨mischenWelt.Berlin:DeGruyter. BnF Bibliothe`quenationaledeFrance. CAG –.CommentariainAristotelemGraeca.Berlin: Reimer. CCCM –.CorpusChristianorum,ContinuatioMediaevalis. Turnhout:Brepols. DG Diels,H..DoxographiGraeci.Berlin:DeGruyter. DK Diels,H..DieFragmentederVorsokratiker.thedn. W.Kranz.Berlin:Weidmann. DNP Cancik,H.,Schneider,H.andLandfester,M.(eds.) –.DerNeuePauly.Stuttgart:Metzler.Translated intoEnglishinSalazar,C.F.andGentry,F.G.(eds.) –.Brill’sNewPauly.Leiden:Brill. FGrHist Jacoby,F.–.DieFragmentedergriechischenHistoriker. Berlin:Weidmann;Leiden:Brill. FHG Mu¨ller,C.andTh.–.Fragmentahistoricorum graecorum.Paris:Didot. FHS&G Fortenbaugh,W.,Huby,P.,Sharples,R.andGutas,D. (eds.),repr.withcorrections.Theophrastusof Eresus:SourcesforHisLife,Writings,ThoughtandInfluence. Leiden:Brill. IG –.InscriptionesGraecae. K-A Kassel,R.andAustin,C.(eds.)–.PoetaeComici Graeci.Berlin:DeGruyter. KRS Kirk,G.S.,Raven,J.E.andSchofield,M..The PresocraticPhilosophers.ndedn.CambridgeUniversity Press. ix x Abbreviations LSAM Sokolowski,F.(ed.).Loissacr´eesdel’AsieMineure. Paris:DeBoccard. LSCG Sokolowski,F.(ed.).Loissacr´eesdescit´esgrecques.Paris: DeBoccard. LSJ Liddell,H.G.andScott,R..AGreek-EnglishLexicon, revisedbyH.S.JonesandR.McKenzie.Oxford: Clarendon. MSG Jan,C.(ed.).MusiciScriptoresGraeci.Leipzig:Teubner. OCD Hornblower,S.,Spawforth,A.andEidinow,E.(eds.). TheOxfordClassicalDictionary.thedn.OxfordUniversity Press. PEG Bernabe´,A.(ed.)–.PoetaeEpiciGraeci.ParsII: OrphicorumetOrphicisSimiliumTestimoniaetFragmenta. vols.MunichandLeipzig:K.G.Saur. PGM Preisendanz,K.andothers(eds.)–.PapyriGraecae Magicae:DiegriechischenZauberpapyri.vols.ndedn. Stuttgart:Teubner. PL Migne,J.-P.(ed.)–.PatrologiaeCursusCompletus, seriesLatina.Paris. RE Pauly,A.,Wissowa,G.andKroll,W.–.Real- Encyclopa¨diederclassischenAltertumswissenschaft.Stuttgart: Metzler. SEG –.SupplementumepigraphicumGraecum. SSR Giannantoni,G..SocratisetSocraticorumreliquiae. Naples:Bibliopolis. SVF vonArnim,H.–.StoicorumVeterumFragmenta. Leipzig:Teubner. Thesleff Thesleff,H..ThePythagoreanTextsoftheHellenistic ˚ ˚ Period.Abo:AboAkademi. Introduction CarlA.Huffman In recent years, ancient Pythagoreanism has tended to be a field pursued by a narrow group of specialists and ignored by most scholars of ancient philosophyandancientcivilization.Thefieldcanlooklikeamorassthatis betternotenteredatallorbridgedbytime-wornplatitudesaboutPythago- ras.ManydiscussionsofPythagorasandPythagoreanismingeneralworks aboutancientcivilizationorWesternculturearethuswoefullyuninformed. For there has been a great deal of important scholarship on Pythagore- anism in the last fifty years, so that the Pythagoras of current scholarship isnotyourmother’sletaloneyourgrandmother’sPythagoras.Thecrucial moment in modern scholarship on Pythagoreanism was the publication fifty years ago of Walter Burkert’s epoch-making study, which appeared tenyearslaterinarevisedversiontranslatedintoEnglishbyEdwinMinar withthetitleLoreandScienceinAncientPythagoreanism().References toBurkert’sbookinthefootnotesofthisvolumearesurelymorefrequent thanthosetoanyotherpieceofscholarshiponPythagoreanism.Burkert’s Pythagoraswasareligiousleaderandfounderofawayoflifeandnotthe great mathematician to which many general accounts tenaciously cling. Yet even Burkert’s view has not won universal acceptance; Pythagoras the mathematiciansurvivesamongsomescholarseveninthisbook,andthere has been significant scholarship that both builds on and reacts against Burkert. The purpose of this book, then, is two-fold. The first goal is to pro- videareliable,comprehensiveandaccessiblesnapshotofthecurrentstate of scholarship on Pythagoras and Pythagoreanism. It is an invitation to the academic community and the educated public to enter the morass and discover that the issues, while complex, are not hopelessly obscure; a considerable amount of clarity, if not consensus, has been achieved. The second goal is to generate interest in Pythagoras and Pythagoreanism by highlighting problems and suggesting new answers to them. The hope is that those who have been tempted to engage some of the complexity of CarlA.Huffman the field would become intrigued enough to contribute to it. So this is not a history whose goal is to suggest that scholarship has arrived at a consensus on a series of issues and to present a static picture; rather it is a history that treats the field as an evolving discussion and presents the currentstateofthatdiscussionincludingallitscontroversiesanddebates. It attempts to provide the reader with some solid ground in approaching Pythagoreanism,whileatthesametimeshowingthatthereismuchthatis contestedandthatmanyproblemsneedfurtheranalysis. It is crucial to recognize that there are many Pythagorases and many Pythagoreanisms in this book. No one Pythagoras or Pythagoreanism emerges because there is not one Pythagoras in the ancient sources and different modern interpreters derive a different picture even from the same sources. This book can then be seen as a celebration of this diver- sity of interpretations of Pythagoras and Pythagoreanism and its chapters make engaging reading just because of the sheer variety of uses to which Pythagoreanismhasbeenput.Pythagorashimselfisatthesametimeone ofthemostintriguingfiguresinthehistoryofGreekphilosophyandalso the most enigmatic and frustrating. There can be no doubt that a great legend arose about him and that images of him and his philosophy pro- liferated. Is there something behind that legend, as most have supposed, orisearlyPythagoreanismalmosttotallythecreationofthelatertradition withlittlehistoricalrealitytosupportit?Inthefirstchapterofthisvolume Geoffrey Lloyd confronts the possibility that the historical Pythagoras is almost totally unrecoverable. He provides important arguments for this analysis.ThepaintingonthecoverofthisbookbySalvatorRosa,Pythago- rasEmergingfromtheUnderworld(),nowintheKimbellArtMuseum inFortWorth,thusnicelyencapsulatesoneofitsmainlessons.Pythagoras himselfisanobscurefigure,difficulttomakeoutinthelowerright-hand corner of the painting, although a ray of light plays across his crouched figure. What is at the center of the painting and takes up the bulk of the spaceisthereactiontoPythagorasbytheotherfigures.Thus,thehistorical Pythagorasmaynotbeasimportantasthereactionstohim. However,evenwiththedifficultiesidentifiedbyLloyd,itisfollytodeny our desire as scholars to arrive at a picture of the historical Pythagoras, for we, like the figures in the painting, are drawn to look back to him. If Pythagoreanismhaswieldedtheveryconsiderableinfluencethatthisvol- umedocuments,itisnaturaltowonderabouttheoriginoftheinfluence. So, although Lloyd’s skepticism is closer to the modern consensus about Pythagoras, even in this volume there are alternatives to it; e.g., Zhmud’s accountoffifth-centuryPythagoreansassumesapictureofPythagoraswho
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