Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

​However, the work in circulation under Pythagoras' name belongs to Lysis of Tarentum, a Pythagorean who fled to Thebes and became the teacher of Epaminondas. Heraclides, the son of Sarapion, says in his Epitome of Sotion that Pythagoras wrote also On the Universe in verse, and secondly the Sacred Discourse, of which the beginning is: "O youths, revere with silence all these things;" thirdly, On the Soul; fourthly, On Piety; fifthly, Helothales, Father of Epicharmus of Cos; sixthly, Croton, and others. But he says that the Mystical Discourse belongs to Hippasus, written to slander Pythagoras, and that many works written by Aston of Croton were also attributed to Pythagoras.

​Aristoxenus also says that Pythagoras derived most of his ethical doctrines from Themistoclea at Delphi. And Ion of Chios in his Triagmoi says that he, having composed some verses, attributed them to Orpheus. The Scopiadae is also said to be his, of which the beginning is: "Show no lack of reverence to anyone." Sosicrates, in his Successions, says that when he was asked by Leon, the tyrant of Phlius, who he was, he replied, "A philosopher"; and that life resembles a festive assembly. For just as some come to this to compete, others for trade, and the best as spectators, so in life, he said, the slavish are born hunters of fame and gain, but philosophers are seekers of truth. And so much for these matters.

​In the three treatises mentioned above, the following doctrines of Pythagoras are handed down in general. He does not allow people to pray for themselves, because they do not know what is beneficial. He calls drunkenness a damage once and for all, and disapproves of all surfeit, saying that no one should exceed moderation either in drinks or in food. And concerning sexual indulgence he speaks thus: "Let sexual indulgence take place in winter, not in summer; in autumn and spring it is less harmful, but in every season it is burdensome and not good for health." Moreover, when he was once asked when one ought to engage in sexual intercourse, he said: "Whenever you wish to become weaker than yourself."

​He also divides the life of man thus: "A boy twenty years, a youth twenty, a mature man twenty, an old man twenty. And the ages correspond to the seasons thus: boy is spring, youth is summer, mature man is autumn, old man is winter." With him the "youth" is a lad, and the "mature man" is an adult man. And he was the first to say, as Timaeus says, that friends have all things in common, and that friendship is equality. And his disciples would deposit their property together into a single fund. They kept silence for five years, merely listening to the lectures and not yet seeing Pythagoras until they were approved; thenceforth they became members of his household and shared in the sight of him. They also refrained from cypress coffins because the sceptre of Zeus is made from cypress wood, as Hermippus says in the second book of his work On Pythagoras.

​For indeed, he is said to have been most dignified, and his disciples held the belief concerning him that he was Apollo arrived from the Hyperboreans. There is a story that, once when he bared his thigh, it was seen to be of gold; and there were many who asserted that the river Nessus addressed him as he was crossing it. Timaeus says in the tenth book of his Histories that he said that women who live with men have the names of deities, being called Maidens, Nymphs, and then Mothers. It was he too who brought geometry to completion, after Moeris first discovered the beginnings of its elements, as Anticleides says in the second book of his work On Alexander.