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About this man Philostratus says:[1] "the [writers] who praise the Samian Pythagoras say the following of him: he had not yet been Ion[ian], but he had once lived at Troy as Euphorbus and after death he had risen again to life,[2] as Homer's songs [record];[3] and he refused to wear clothing derived from animals' corpses[4] and purified himself by abstaining from any food and any sacrificial offering made from living beings, [saying] that the altars should not be stained with blood;[5] instead, products of the beehive,[6] frankincense and hymns were the offerings this man used to bring to the gods, and [as he used to say], he knew that the gods welcome such offerings more gladly than they do hecatombs and the knife on the basket.[7] He indeed [maintained] that he kept in contact with the gods and was learning from them how they are pleased by humans and how are they displeased. It was from that very source that he used to say about nature that while the others try to fathom the divine on the ground of conjectures and elaborate opinions quite dissimilar to each other, to him Apollo came in person, admitting his identity;[8] moreover, accompanying him -- but not admitting [their identities] -- were Athena and the Muses and other deities, whose aspect and names were still unknown to mankind. And whatever statement Pythagoras uttered was considered as a law by his disciples, and they used to honor him as [a messenger] coming from Zeus, and they endeavoured to keep silence about religious matters,[9] for they heard many divine secrets, which are difficult to keep without previously learning that even silence [is a] language.[10] Furthermore, it is said that even Empedokles of Akragas adhered to this philosophy; and indeed his verse 'hail! I am for you an immortal god, no longer a mortal';[11] and the other, 'For before this I was born a boy and a maiden';[12] and the ox in Olympia, which he is said to have sacrificed after making it from pastry -- [all such things] are typical of someone approving the [teachings] of Pythagoras. And other things about the customs of Pythagoras[13] *** [are said, but it is not the right time to mention them] since I am eager to come to the point...".

*puqago/ras: peri\ tou/tou fhsi\ *filo/stratos: oi( to\n *sa/mion *puqago/ran e)painou=ntes ta/de e)p' au)tw=| fasin, w(s *)/iwn me\n ou)/pw ei)/h, ge/noito de\ e)n *troi/a| pote\ *eu)/forbos a)nabiw/|h te a)poqanw/n, a)poqa/noi d', w(s w)|dai\ *(omh/rou: e)sqh=ta/ te th\n a)po\ qnhseidi/wn paraitoi=to kai\ kaqareu/oi brw/sews, o(po/sh e)myu/xwn, kai\ tou= qu=sai: mh\ ga\r ai(ma/ttein tou\s bwmou/s: a)ll' h( melittou=ta kai\ o( libanwto\s kai\ to\ e)fumnh=sai, foita=n tau=ta toi=s qeoi=s para\ tou= a)ndro\s tou/tou: ginw/skein te, w(s a)spa/zointo ta\ toiau=ta oi( qeoi\ ma=llon h)\ ta\s e(kato/mbas kai\ th\n ma/xairan e)pi\ tou= kanou=: cunei=nai ga\r dh\ toi=s qeoi=s kai\ manqa/nein par' au)tw=n, o(/ph toi=s a)nqrw/pois xai/rousi kai\ o(/ph suna/xqontai. peri/ te fu/sews e)kei=qen le/gein: tou\s me\n ga\r a)/llous tekmai/resqai tou= qei/ou kai\ do/cas a)nomoi/as a)llh/lais peri\ au)tou= doca/zein, e(autw=| de\ to/n te *)apo/llw h(/kein, o(mologou=nta w(s au)to\s ei)/h: cunei=nai d' au)= kai\ mh\ o(mologou=ntas th\n *)aqhna=n kai\ ta\s *mou/sas kai\ qeou\s e(te/rous, w(=n ta\ ei)/dh kai\ ta\ o)no/mata ou)/pw tou\s a)nqrw/pous ginw/skein. kai\ o(/ ti a)pofh/naito o( *puqago/ras, no/mon tou=to oi( o(milhtai\ h(gou=nto kai\ e)ti/mwn au)to\n w(s e)k *dio\s h(/konta, kai\ h( siwph\ de\ u(pe\r tou= qei/ou sfi/sin e)ph/skhto: polla\ ga\r qei=a/ te kai\ a)po/rrhta h)/kouon, w(=n kratei=n xalepo\n h)=n, mh\ prw=ton maqou=sin, o(/ti kai\ to\ siwpa=n lo/gos. kai\ mh\n to\n *)akraganti=non *)empedokle/a badi/sai fasi\ th\n sofi/an tau/thn. to\ ga/r, xai/ret', e)gw\ o(\ d' u)/mmin qeo\s a)/mbrotos, ou)k e)/ti qnhto/s: kai/, h)/dh ga/r pot' e)gw\ geno/mhn kou/rh te ko/ros te: kai\ o( e)n *)olumpi/a| bou=s, o(\n le/getai pe/mma poihsa/menos qu=sai, ta\ *puqago/rou e)painou=ntos ei)/h a)/n. kai\ plei/w e(/tera peri\ tw=n *puqago/rou tro/pwn, speu/donta e)pi\ to\n lo/gon.

For Pythagoras see already pi 3120; and for the final part of the present entry's material see already epsilon 1003.
[1] Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 1.1.
[2] On the claimed incarnations of Pythagoras as Aithalides, Euphorbus, Hermotimus and Pyrrhus, see Heraclides Ponticus fr. 89 Wehrli (= Diogenes Laertius 8.4.); eta 88. On the transmigration of souls in Pythagoras' thought, cf. among others Porphyry, Life of Pythagoras 19.
[3] cf. Homer, Iliad 17.51-60.
[4] No other sources support this detail.
[5] On this and other features of Pythagoras' way of life, cf. pi 3124. There is no complete agreement about the vegetarianism of the philosopher. A fragment from Eudoxus (in Porphyry, Life of Pythagoras 7) accounts for his repulsion from blood, butchers and hunters, considered impure.
[6] The bee is frequently associated with pureness and chastity in Orphic and Pythagorean doctrines, because this insect was believed to reproduce by a sort of parthenogenesis (as also appears in the story of Aristeus in Vergil, Georgics IV). For the mystic role played by bees also cf. Porphyry's De antro nympharum.
[7] The basket containing the head of the sacrificial victim also contained the knife used for slaughtering it.
[8] The Hyperborean Apollo (according to a fragment of Aristotle in Aelian, Varia historia 2.26). The idea of Pythagoras being an incarnation of the Hyperborean Apollo is expressed in Diogenes Laertius 8.21 as an interpretation offered by Aristippus the Younger; a saying stating that the philosopher would himself have been Apollo is also attested by Iamblichus, Life of Pythagoras 140. Some sources seem to explain the very name of the philosopher as related to the god, as "the voice speaking (a)goreu/w) for the sake of Apollo Pythios".
[9] The practice of keeping silence on the school's doctrines, which seems to have gradually weakened after the Pythagoreans left their communities in Magna Graecia, is generally recorded as one of the main features of this school and related to its mystical character. This also influenced the peculiar style of the teachings attributed to the Master, whose style is obscure and enigmatic (the so-called a)kou/smata or su/mbola; cf. pi 3124 and Iamblichus, Life of Pythagoras 23.103ff.).
[10] cf. Claudian, Panegyric, 90-91 quidquid Democritus risit dixitque tacendo Pythagoras. Different interpretation in Gaisford's commentary (ipsi silentio rationem inesse).
[11] Empedocles fr. 112 Diels, from the Purifications; cf. Diogenes Laertius 8.62; Porphyry, Life of Pythagoras 19.
[12] Empedocles fr. 117 Diels, also from the Purifications; cf. Diogenes Laertius 8.77.
[13] A lacuna in the text of the Suda's source is evident. The original text of the Life of Apollonius reads peri\ tw=n to\n *puqago/rou tro/pon filosofhsa/ntwn "about those who elaborated doctrines in the same way as Pythagoras"; the word filosofhsa/ntwn being lost, tro/pon has been referred to tw=n and changed into the genitive, with the consequent -- conscious or unconscious -- suppression of to/n. The lost part read i(storou=sin, w(=n ou) prosh/kei me nu=n a(/ptesqai "much more information about those who elaborated doctrines in the same way as Pythagoras is recorded, which it is not the right time to treat".

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