Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/412

 894 mSTORY OF GREECE. ta the exclusive prerogative of the brotheihood, approached only by probation and initiatory ceremonies which were adapted to select enthusiasts rather than to an indiscriminate crowd, and exacting entire mental devotion to the master. 1 In these lofty pretensions the Agrigentine Empedokles seems to have greatly copied him, though with some varieties, about half a cen- tury afterwards. 2 While Aristotle tells us that the Krotoniates identified Pythagoras with the Hyperborean Apollo, the satirical Timon pronounced him to have been " a juggler of solemn speech, engaged in fishing for men." 3 This is the same charac- ter, looked at from the different points of view of the believer and the unbeliever. There is, however, no reason for regarding Pythagoras as an impostor, because experience seems to show, that while in certain ages it is not difficult for a man to persuade others that he is inspired, it is still less difficult for him to con- tract the same belief himself. Looking at the general type of Pythagoras, as conceived by witnesses in and nearest to his own age, Xenophanes, Hen- kleitus, Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, Isokrates, 4 we find in him 1 Plato's conception of Pythagoras (Republ. x, p. 600) depicts him as something not unlike St. Benedict, or St. Francis, (or St. Elias, as some Carmelites have tried to make out : see Kuster ad Jamblich. c. 3) 'A/.Au 6%, el HTJ drjfioaia, idia TLOLV ffye/iuv Tratdeiaf avrof cl>v Aeyerai '0/j.qpof yeveodai, oi EKEIVOV rjyuiruv iirl awowrif Kal rolf raripoif ofiov nva fiiov rapeSoaav 'OfirjptK^v uontp Hvdayopac airo? re diatyepov-u? cTt TOVTCJ ijyaTrf/'&jj, KOI oi iiarepov in Kal vvv Rv&ayopeiov rpoirbv ii>ovo/j.u~ovTEe roit Biov 6ia<pavei{ itt) SOKOVOIV civai iv rolf dAAotf . The description of Melampus, given in Herodot. ii, 49, very much filla up the idea of Pythagoras, as derived from ii, 81-123, and iv, 95. Pythag- oras, as well as Melampus, was said to have pretended to divination and prophecy (Cicero, Divinat. i, 3, 46; Porphyr. Vit. Pyth. c. 29: compare Krische, De Societate a PythagorfL in nrbe Crotoniatarum condita Com- nentatio, ch. v, p. 72, Gcittingen, J831). 8 Brandis, Handbuch der Gesch/ elite der Griechisch. Rom. Philosophic, part i, sect, xlvii. p. 191. 8 JElian. V. H. ii, 20 ; Jamblichus, Vit. Pyth. c. 31, 140 ; Porphyry, Vit Pyth. c. 20; Diodorus, Fragm. lib. x, vol. iv, p. 56, Wess. : Timan ap. [Ho<ren. Latrt. viii, 38 ; and Plutarch, Numa, c. 8. Tlvdayopriv re yo^rof UXOKALVCLVT' em 66^<tv
 * Isokratea, Busiris, p. 402, ed. Auger. Ilvdayopaf 6 Su/ziof, u