Page:Early Greek philosophy by John Burnet, 3rd edition, 1920.djvu/101

Rh When we come to the Lives of Pythagoras, by Porphyry, Iamblichos, and Diogenes Laertios, we find ourselves once more in the region of the miraculous. They are based on authorities of a very suspicious character, and the result is a mass of incredible fiction. It would be quite wrong, however, to ignore the miraculous elements in the legend of Pythagoras; for some of the most striking miracles are quoted from Aristotle's work on the Pythagoreans and from the Tripod of Andron of Ephesos, both of which belong to the fourth century B.C., and cannot have been influenced by Neopythagorean fancies. The fact is that the oldest and the latest accounts agree in representing Pythagoras as a wonder-worker; but, for some reason, an attempt was made in the fourth century to save his memory from that imputation. This helps to account for the cautious references of Plato and Aristotle, but its full significance will only appear later.

38. We may be said to know for certain that Pythagoras passed his early manhood at Samos, and was the son of Mnesarchos; and he "flourished," we are told, in the reign