Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

​For him, "Do not poke the fire with a knife" meant not to stir up the anger and swelling passion of rulers. "Do not step over a balance" meant not to transgress equality and justice. "Do not sit upon a choenix" meant to take equal thought for the present and the future; for a choenix is a day's ration. By "Do not eat heart" he indicated that one should not consume the soul with griefs and sorrows. By "When travelling abroad do not turn back" he advised those departing from life not to cling desirefully to living, nor to be carried away by pleasures here. And the remaining symbols are to be interpreted according to these, so that we may not prolong our account.

​Above all, he forbade eating either the red mullet or the blacktail, and commanded abstinence from heart and beans; Aristotle says that he also occasionally forbade the womb and the red surmullet. Some say he himself was content with honey alone, or a honeycomb, or bread, and that he did not taste wine during the day; and for relish he mostly took boiled and raw vegetables, and rarely seafood. His robe was white and pure, and his bed-coverings were white wool; for linen had not yet reached those regions. He was never seen either relieving himself, or engaging in sexual intercourse, or intoxicated.

​He also abstained from laughter and all obsequiousness such as scoffs and vulgar tales. Even when angry, he punished neither a slave nor any free person. He used to call admonishing "pedartan". He employed divination by omens and birds, but least of all by burnt offerings, except that by frankincense. He also practiced sacrifices without animal life, though some say he sacrificed only cocks and suckling kids and what are called apaliai, but least of all lambs. Aristoxenus, however, says that he permitted eating all other living creatures, and only abstained from the ploughing ox and the ram.

​The same author says, as mentioned before, that he also received his doctrines from Themistoclea at Delphi. Hieronymus says that when he descended into Hades, he saw the soul of Hesiod bound to a bronze pillar and shrieking, and that of Homer suspended from a tree with snakes around it in return for what they had said about the gods, and those who refused to associate with their own wives also being punished; and indeed on this account he was honored by the people in Croton. Aristippus of Cyrene in his work On Physicists says that he was named Pythagoras because he spoke (agoreuein) the truth no less than the Pythian god.

​He is said to have enjoined his disciples to say the following each time they entered the house: "Where did I transgress? What did I do? What that I ought to do was not accomplished?" He also forbade offering slaughtered victims to the gods, enjoining them to venerate only the bloodless altar; and not to swear by the gods, for one must train oneself to be trustworthy. They were also to honor their elders, considering that which precedes in time to be more honorable; as in the cosmos sunrise is prior to sunset, in life the beginning to the end, and in existence generation to destruction.

​And they should honor gods before daemons, heroes before men, and among men especially parents; and they should associate with one another in such a way as not to make friends into enemies, but to make enemies into friends. They should consider nothing as private property; support the law and make war on lawlessness; neither destroy nor harm a cultivated plant, nor any animal that does not harm men. Modesty and caution consist in neither being overwhelmed by laughter nor sullen. They should avoid excess of flesh, vary the pace of walking between slackening and intensity, practice memory, say or do nothing in anger, and honor all divination.