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Transcript
χαίρετε.
Hi!
ἆρα γιγνώσκετε τὸν Πῡθαγόρᾱν; οὗτος γὰρ ἔνδοξός ἐστι φιλόσοφος οὗ γε τὸ ὄνομα πάντες γιγνώσκομεν. τί δὲ ἐδίδαξεν οὗτος ὁ φιλόσοφος; ποῦ ἐβίωσεν καὶ πότε; ἀκριβῶς περὶ τούτου σήμερον διαλεξόμεθα. ἀρξώμεθα οὖν.
Do you know Pythagoras? For he is a famous philosopher whose name at least we all know. But what did this philosopher teach? Where did he live and when? Exactly about this we will talk today. So let’s start!
ἐγεννήθη ὁ Πῡθαγόρᾱς ἐν νήσῳ τινὶ ἣ καλεῖται Σάμος. ἡ μὲν Σάμος Ἑλληνική ἐστι νῆσος, ὁ δὲ Πῡθαγόρᾱς, νεᾱνίᾱς ὤν, διέτριβε πολὺν χρόνον καὶ ἐν τῇ Αἰγύπτῳ ὅπου ἔμαθεν οὐ μόνον τὴν γλῶσσαν τῶν Αἰγυπτίων ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν σοφίᾱν.
Pythagoras was born on an island which is called Samos. Samos is a Greek island but as a young man Pythagoras also spend a lot of time in Egypt where he learned not only the language of the Egyptians but also their wisdom.
ὅτε δὲ οἴκαδε ἐπανῆλθεν, τύραννός τις, ὀνόματι Πολυκράτης, ἐκράτησε τῆς Σάμου· ὁ δὲ Πῡθαγόρᾱς οὐκ ἐφίλησε τὴν τυραννίδα· διὰ τοῦτο ἔφυγε ἐκ τῆς πατρίδος καὶ ἦλθεν εἰς τὴν Μεγάλην καλουμένην Ἑλλάδα· ἡ Μεγάλη Ἑλλάς ἐστιν ἡ πρὸς Νότον Ῑ̓ταλίᾱ, ἡ νῦν Καλαβρίᾱ· καλεῖται δὲ οὕτως ὅτι πολλαὶ ἦσαν ἐκεῖ ἀποικίαι τῶν Ἑλλήνων. ἦλθεν οὖν ὁ Πῡθᾰγόρᾱς εἰς πόλιν τινὰ ἣ καλεῖται Κρότων· καὶ ἔθηκε νόμους τοῖς Ῑ̓ταλιώταις καὶ μέγα ἐτῑμήθη ὑπ’ αὐτῶν, ὥστε καὶ οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ πολλοὶ ἐγένοντο.
But when he came back home a tyrant, Polycrates by name, had taken over Samos. Pythagoras did not like the tyranny: Because of that he fled from his homeland and came to “Great Greece” (Magna Graecia). “Great Greece” is (equal to) Southern Italy, today’s Calabria: It is called like this because there were many colonies of the Greeks there. So Pythagoras came to a city which is called Croton, and he layed down laws for the Italian Greeks (Ἰταλιῶται) and was much honoured by them, so that also his disciples became numerous.
τί δὲ ἐδίδασκε τούτους τοὺς μαθητᾱ́ς; πολλά, ἐξ ὧν ἔνια παραδείγματα ὑμῖν ἐρῶ·
But what did he teach these disciples? A lot, out of which I will give you some examples:
τὰ μὲν πρῶτα πέντε ἔτη ἡσύχαζον οἱ μαθηταί, τουτέστιν· οὐδὲν ἔλεγον, μόνον ἀκούοντες τῶν λόγων καὶ οὐδέπω ὁρῶντες τὸν Πῡθαγόρᾱν· μετὰ δὲ τὰ πέντε ἔτη ἐδοκιμάσθησαν οἱ μαθηταί, καὶ ὡς φίλοι ἐδέχθησαν εἰς τὴν οἰκίᾱν. ἔδει δὲ αὐτοὺς καὶ τὴν οὐσίᾱν εἰς τὸ κοινὸν καταθέσθαι· εἶπεν γὰρ ὁ Πῡθαγόρᾱς ὅτι κοινὰ τὰ τῶν φίλων καὶ ὅτι φιλότης ἰσότης.
The first five years the disciples were silent, i.e. they said nothing, only listening to (his) words and never seeing Pythagoras. After these five years the disciples were put to the test and they were received as friends into the house. But they had also to lay down their belongings as common good: For Pythagoras said that friends share all in common and that friendship is equality.
ἄτοπον δὲ τοῖς παλαιοῖς ἦν ὅτι ὁ Πῡθαγόρᾱς ἐδίδασκεν οὐ μόνον ἄνδρας ἀλλὰ καὶ γυναῖκας, ἐξ ὧν ἡ ἐνδοξοτάτη ἐγένετο ἡ Θεᾱνώ· οἱ μὲν λέγουσιν ὅτι ἡ Θεᾱνὼ μαθήτρια μόνον ἦν τοῦ Πῡθαγόρου, οἱ δὲ ὅτι καὶ γυνὴ ἦν αὐτοῦ· πάνυ δὴ σοφὴ ἦν φιλόσοφος ἣ μάλιστα τὰ ταῖς γυναιξὶ πρέποντα ἐδίδασκεν.
For the ancients it was strange, though, that Pythagoras was teaching not only men but also women, out of which Theano became the most famous: Some (people) say that Theano was only a student of Pythagoras, others say that she was also his wife. At any rate, she was a very wise philosopher who especially taught what is befitting for women.
ἀλλὰ ἐπὶ τὸν Πῡθαγόρᾱν ἐπανέλθωμεν.
But let’s return to Pythagoras!
ἐσπούδασε ὁ Πῡθαγόρᾱς καὶ περὶ τῆς ἀριθμετρικῆς καὶ γεωμετρικῆς τέχνης· λέγουσιν ὅτι ἑκατόμβην ἔθῡσε (τουτέστιν· ἕκατον βοῦς ἔθῡσε) ἐπειδὴ εὗρε τὸ θεώρημα ὃ ἡμεῖς νῦν καλοῦμεν τὸ τοῦ Πῡθαγόρου θεώρημα, τουτέστιν· “τοῦ τριγώνου τοῦ ὀρθογωνίου ἡ ὑποτείνουσα πλευρὰ̅ ἴσον δύναται ταῖς περιεχούσαις (sc. πλευραῖς).”
Pythagoras also studied arithmetic as well as geometry. They say that he sacrificed a hecatomb (i.e.: he sacrificed one hundred cattle) after he had found the theorem which we nowadays call the “Pythagorean theorem”, i.e.: “Of a right triangle the square of the hypotenuse is equal to (the sum of the squares of) the other sides.”
πᾶσι δὲ γνωστόν ἐστι καὶ ὅτι ὁ Πῡθαγόρᾱς ἀπείχετο ἐμψύ̅χων, τουτέστιν· οὐκ ἔφαγε κρέας. ἐδίδασκε γὰρ ὅτι αἱ ψῡχαὶ ἀεὶ μεταλλάσσουσιν τὰ σώματα, τότε μὲν εἰς ζῷον ἐρχόμεναι, τότε δὲ εἰς ἄνθρωπον· τοῦτον δὲ τὸν κύκλον τῶν ψῡχῶν καλοῦμεν μετεμψύ̅χωσιν.
Everybody also knows that Pythagoras abstained from living (“soulful”) beings, i.e.: He did not eat meat. For he was teaching that the souls are always changing their bodies, at times going into an animal, at other times into a human: We call this cycle of the souls metempsychosis.
πολλοὶ δὲ ἦσαν οἳ ἔσκωπτον τοῦτο τὸ δόγμα τῆς Πῡθαγορικῆς φιλοσοφία̅ς, οἷον ὁ Διογένης Λαέρτιος, ὃς ἔγραψε τόδε τὸ ἐπίγραμμα·
But there were many who made fun of this doctrine of the Pythagorean philosophy, like Diogenes Laertius, who wrote the following epigram:
οὐ μόνος ἐμψύχων ἄπεχες χέρας, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡμεῖς.
τίς γὰρ ὃς ἐμψύχων ἥψατο, Πυθαγόρα;
ἀλλ’ ὅταν ἑψηθῇ τι καὶ ὀπτηθῇ καὶ ἁλισθῇ,
δὴ τότε καὶ ψυχὴν οὐκ ἔχον ἐσθίομεν.
You are not the only one who keeps his hand off from living beings, but so do we.
For who does ever lay his hand on living beings, Pythagoras?
Rather, when something is cooked and grilled and salted,
Well, then we eat it – having no soul in it.
οὕτως οὖν ὁ Διογένης. ἀλλὰ καθ’ὅλου πρα̅εῖά μοι δοκεῖ εἶναι ἡ Πῡθαγορικὴ φιλοσοφία̅· ἐβούλετο γὰρ ὁ Πῡθαγόρα̅ς τοὺς μαθητὰ̅ς μήτε ζῷον μήτε φυτὸν βλάπτειν ὃ μὴ βλάπτει ἀνθρώπους· τοῖς δὲ ἀνθρώποις ἐβούλετο ἡμᾶς οὕτως ὁμιλεῖν, ὥστε τοὺς μὲν φίλους ἐχθροὺς μὴ ποιῆσαι, τοὺς δ’ ἐχθροὺς φίλους γενέσθαι.
Thus Diogenes. But all in all the Pythagorean philosophy seems very gentle to me: Pythagoras wanted his disciples to hurt neither animal nor plant which does not hurt humans. And with (other) humans he wanted us to interact in such a way that we would not make our friends to enemies but instead our enemies to friends.
πάντα ταῦτα ἔμοιγε πάνυ ἀρέσκει, ἄτοπον δὲ δόγμα ἐστὶ τόδε· ἀπείχοντο οἱ Πῡθαγορεῖοι οὐ μόνον τοῦ κρέατος ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν κυάμων· τὴν αἰτίαν ταύτης τῆς ἐντολῆς ἀγνοοῦμεν, εἰσὶ μὲν οἱ λέγοντες ὅτι οἱ κύαμοι ὅμοιοί εἰσιν τοῖς ἀνδρείοις μορίοις καὶ διὰ τοῦτο οὐκ ἐβούλετο ὁ Πῡθαγόρα̅ς ἡμᾶς ἐσθίειν τοιαῦτα… ἀλλὰ ἐμοὶ αὕτη ἡ αἰτία̅ γελοία̅ δοκεῖ οὐδὲ ἀληθείᾳ̅ ἐοικυῖα. οὕτως γὰρ ἐτίμησεν ἢ ἐφοβήθη ὁ Πῡθαγόρα̅ς τοὺς κυάμους ὥστε καὶ ἀπέθανεν ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν·
I at least like all of this a lot but a strange doctrin is the following: The Pyhtagoreans were abstaining not only from meat but also from beans. We don’t know the reason for this precept, some say that beans are similar to the male parts and that for this reason Pythagoras did not want us to eat something like that… but to me this reason seems silly and not likely, since Pythagoras honoured, or feared, beans so much that he even died for them:
ἐβούλοντο γάρ τινες τὸν φιλόσφον ἀποκτεῖναι, διὰ φθόνον τινά· ὁ δὲ Πῡθαγόρα̅ς ἐκ τῆς οἰκία̅ς ἐδύνατο φυγεῖν, γενόμενος δὲ πρὸς ἀγρόν τινα ἐν ᾧ ἦσαν πολλοὶ κύαμοι ἔστησε ἵνα μὴ διέρχοιτο, λέγων ὅτι μᾶλλον βούλεται ἁλῶναι ἢ πατῆσαι· οὕτως οὖν ληφθεὶς ὑπὸ τῶν διωκόντων ἀπεσφάγη ὁ Πῡθαγόρα̅ς, βιώσα̅ς, καθ’ ὅλου, ἐνενήκοντα ἔτη.
For some people wanted to kill the philosopher because of some kind of jealousy. Pythagoras was able to flee out of his house but having arrived at some field in which were many beans he stopped lest he walk through it, saying that he would rather be killed than tread on (the beans). Thus seized by his pursuers, Pythagoras was murdered, having lived ninety years in total.
ἀλλὰ ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ ὅτι ἔτι ζῇ που ὁ Πῡθαγόρα̅ς · ἡ γὰρ ψυ̅χὴ αὐτοῦ ἀπέβη εἰς ἄλλο σῶμα καὶ νῦν, ἴσως, οἰκεῖ ἐν ἑνὶ ὑ̅μῶν ἢ ἐν τῷ Ἄργῳ. τί λέγεις, ὦ Πῡθαγόρα̅; ἔρρωσθε.
But it seems to me that somehow Pythagoras is still alive: For his soul went off into another body and lives now, maybe, in one of you or… in Argos. What do you say, Pythagoras? Bye!