Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Golden Verses of Pythagoras, Translated With Commentary by Mário Ferreira dos Santos

The unpublished manuscripts of Mário Ferreira dos Santos include commentaries on the Golden Verses of Pythagoras. His intention was to publish them, as he stated:

...“Regarding the commented Golden Verses of Pythagoras, it consists of the following: I have decided to make an edition with the complete translation of the commentaries by Hierocles, because undoubtedly, not only because they are the first commentaries that have reached us, but also because of their immense value. They provide an opportunity for us to awaken awareness in many areas that the conception brought to the world by Pythagoras derived from a much more distant thought, certainly one that also had roots in Melchizedek and in the deepest thought of the Egyptians, and this thought surpasses the characteristics of time and remains eternally current, presenting its complete validity today. I make use of the comments made by other authors, such as Fabre D’Olivet, Paul Carton, etc., and create a kind of synthesis, adding my own contributions alongside Hierocles’s commentaries.”

In his book, “Pythagoras and the Theme of Number,” he expresses his intention to develop a more detailed biography of the Master of Samos, having compiled a large portion of the material to be used. Unfortunately, he did not have time to elaborate on the final text. For this reason, we have included “Pythagorean Thought” published in the Dictionary of Philosophy and Cultural Sciences.

The present edition of the “Commentary on the Golden Verses of Pythagoras” has not been fully corrected by the author, especially in the part corresponding to the “Comments on Hierocles’s Comments,” and it is up to us to complete it as much as possible.

Yolanda Lhullier Santos
Nadiejda Santos Nunes Galvão

Pythagorean Thought1

Pythagoras (of Samos – 569?-470? B.C.). According to some, he was a disciple of Pherecydes of Syros and Anaxagoras, but the information offered by historians is contradictory. However, it is clear that he acquired his education in the East, in Egypt, Babylon, and Crete, where he traveled. Upon returning to Samos, he attempted to establish a school there but had to leave his homeland and reside in southern Italy, in aristocratic Crotona, around 530 B.C., where he founded a religious-moral community or order that spread to other cities. He was sometimes called upon as a legislator, influencing their political and social customs. It is difficult to separate the personal work of Pythagoras from that of his disciples and his school, as well as to distinguish between legend and reality. Therefore, we prefer to examine him within the framework of Pythagoreanism.

It is known that Aristotle wrote a three-volume work on Pythagoreanism, which is irretrievably lost. From scattered passages found in his books regarding Pythagoreanism, it can be inferred that he seriously devoted himself to the examination of this doctrine. However, it is noteworthy that he only mentioned Pythagoras' name three times, while constantly referring to the “Pythagoreans” and those “called Pythagoreans” when discussing this doctrine. Aristotle’s analysis of Pythagoreanism refers specifically to the doctrine as conceived by later disciples, not the thoughts of the wise man from Samos. Since constructing the true thought of Pythagoras is a work of exegesis that requires measures beyond the scope of a Synopsis of the History of Philosophy, we prefer to address “Pythagoreanism” itself and not specifically Pythagoras, leaving our critique for later.

The Pythagorean Movement – A movement that was not only intellectual but also religious-moral and political. It was organized as a community, with initiations, symbolic language, surrounded by mysteries and secrets, where sacred respect for the watchword and blind obedience prevailed. It represented a movement that was severely combated by the organizations and democratic governments of the time. The Pythagoreans were dissolved by a popular movement. Pythagoras managed to escape to Metapontum, where he died. The mission of the school of Crotona was to teach purification methods reserved for the initiated. Pythagoreanism is attributed to the promise of a future life after death, where men would be rewarded if they fulfilled the organization’s orders and established moral principles. The school was open to both men and women, regardless of nationality. It is presented as a doctrine filled with taboos and prohibitions, whose meanings have served for various interpretations. The belief in the transmigration of souls through the bodies of humans and animals was one of the beliefs of this doctrine, not of Pythagoras himself but of some of his disciples.

Pythagoras accepted Anaximenes' conception that the world was immersed in the infinite.

According to him, everything is numbers. He considered the relationship between numbers and geometric forms. He attributed ontological value to numbers. It is said that when he was in Persia, he met Zoroaster or Zaratustra. The Pythagoreans cultivated mathematics and music, especially geometry, like Philolaus of Thebes and Archytas of Tarentum. They considered music as a means to stimulate and calm emotions, and they applied themselves to it both in practice and theory. For some Pythagoreans, numbers were not thought of as abstract entities but as something real. The “point” was equivalent to 1; the “line” to 2; the “surface” to 3; and “bodies” to 4. (In truth, this was not the higher degree of Pythagorean thought).

The number ten, the famous tetractys, is the principal number; it is the sum of the first four numbers (1+2+3+4=10).

Philolaus says that the number 10 “has great power, fills everything, acts in everything, and is the beginning and guide of divine, celestial, and human life” (everything has a point, line, surface, volume). With the Pythagoreans, the theme of liberation of man by self-sufficiency emerges. The concern for the soul led later Pythagoreans to the doctrine of transmigration or metempsychosis, related to the problem of immortality. Pythagoras was initiated into the speculations of Eastern astronomy. Discovering the fundamental relationship between the height of sounds and the length of vibrating strings, he subjected the phenomenon of sound to the invariability of a numerical law.

The astonishing aspect of these intelligible, movable, and immaterial proportions, accessible to mathematicians, which express the regularity of sensible appearances and the flow of phenomena, had to impress Pythagoras. Thus, it was easy for the Pythagoreans, as observed by several modern critics, to attribute a principle of reality to the “symbol” and causality to the “sign.”

Numbers order the constitution of the universe. This arithmology of Neopythagoreanism, of Pythagoreanized Platonism, was pursued by many Pythagoreans together with mathematical and cosmological investigations.

Among the most famous disciples, both close and later followers who followed his teachings, are: Philolaus, Archytas of Tarentum, Alcmaeon of Croton, Epicarmus of Cos, Hippodamus of Miletus, Theophrastus, Aristoxenus of Tarentum, Heraclides of Pontus, Eudemus, Dicaearchus of Messenia, Duris of Samos, Andronius, Diodorus of Eretria, Moderatus of Gades, Apollonius of Tyana, Nicomachus of Gerasa, etc.

Pythagorean Themes: a) The doctrines of the Pythagoreans are a blend of science and religious beliefs; b) Reexistence, immortality, transmigration of souls (metempsychosis), kinship of the living, the cycle of things (the eternal return of past events); c) The soul as the principle of motion; d) The living universe, the concept of “Cosmos,” universal order, and the harmony between opposites, which is a characteristic doctrine of the Pythagoreans; e) Numbers are the essence of things because without numbers, they could not be known; mutability of numbers and immutability of the One. (Pythagoreanism has influenced modern science, whose atomic theories ultimately have a purely mathematical notion of subatomic energy. Only what is spatialized, and therefore numerable, is comprehensible to reason).

Pythagoras is also attributed with the first use of the word “philosopher,” a term that has become universal, referring to those who investigate the absolute and interpret the world, “students of wisdom.”

PYTHAGOREANISM

The common assertion that numbers are sensible in Pythagoreanism can only be attributed to some Pythagoreans, not to Pythagoras himself or to the great disciples who received direct teachings from the master or from disciples who were close to him. Pythagoreanism is one of the most caricatured and falsified conceptions in the history of philosophy, primarily due to the initiatory nature of this doctrine, which required a special “mystagogy” for the disciple to attain knowledge of the school’s secrets.

That is why in this work, we must refrain from a more accurate study of the subject and limit ourselves to what is commonly disseminated, emphasizing, however, the relative and improbable validity of most statements that originate from Diogenes Laërtius, Pedro, and Stobaeus, who used apocryphal texts. Furthermore, the intention to belittle the Pythagoreans, primarily for political reasons, led many to attribute statements to them that they never made.

The difficulties in establishing with certainty what the true Pythagorean thought is have led Zeller to establish the following fundamental assertions as certain: 1) The Pythagorean system, as we know it, is the work of different men in different times;

  1. It is difficult to discern in it the elements that properly belong to Pythagoras. Consequently, it is necessary to recognize in Pythagoreanism a process of development, elaborated in different stages and with contributions from the most diverse origins.

It is worth noting that the divisions of pairs of opposites listed below are now known not to belong to Pythagoras. They were later attributed to Alcmaeon. However, it is now known that they were derived from lesser Pythagoreans at a later time.

The polarities are:

  1. Limited – unlimited

  2. Even and odd (2 is the first even number, and 3 is the first odd number)

  3. Unity – plurality

  4. Left – right

  5. Male – female

  6. Rest – motion

  7. Straight – curved

  8. Light – dark

  9. Evil – good

  10. Quadrilateral – oblong

Other classifications, such as 1 symbolizing Reason; 2, Opinion; 3, Sanctity; 4, Justice; 5, Marriage; 6, the principle of Life; 7, Health; 8, Love, Friendship; 9, Superior Justice, and 10, the sacred and perfect number, etc., belong to the same kind as the previous ones.

Don’t consider only legend what has been written about the life of Pythagoras, because in these descriptions there is undoubtedly much that is historical and true. The difficulty, however, lies in being able to separate what is historical from what is the product of imagination and fiction.

The fact of categorically denying the historicity of Pythagoras (as some do), due to a lack of sufficient documentation, does not prevent Pythagoreanism from being an exciting reality in the history of philosophy, whose influence has spanned centuries up to our present day.

What happened with Pythagoras is similar to what happened with Shakespeare, whose existence has been denied many times. If Pythagoras of Samos did not exist, there was certainly someone who constructed that doctrine and happened to be named Pythagoras. We can paraphrase what was said about Shakespeare in this regard. But setting aside these naive scruples of certain authors who prefer to declare him non-existent, as if the denial of his historicity had more validity than its affirmation, let us provide some synthetic elements that will help us better understand a figure that has been relentlessly falsified for twenty-five centuries.

In 1919, near Porta Maggiori, beneath the railway tracks that connect Rome to Naples, a crypt was discovered, initially thought to be the entrance to an underground Christian chapel. It was later confirmed that it was a construction from the time of Claudius (41 to 54 AD) and that it was nothing more than a temple where members of a sect gathered, which was eventually determined to be Pythagorean. It is now known, based on historical evidence, that even before the time of Caesar, Pythagorean temples were proliferating. If this sect was so combated, it was more due to its secrecy than to its ideas. There is a comprehensive account of this temple in a work by Carcopino2. Undoubtedly, this discovery was so important that it spurred new studies on the doctrine of Pythagoras, which tend to show the significant role this order played in history for twenty-five centuries. It still exists today and has its followers, although, as in the past, it is inevitably infected with strange ideas that, in our view, distort the genuine thought of Pythagoras of Samos.

It is widely accepted, with almost no divergence among those who have studied him, that Pythagoras was born in Samos between 592 and 570 BC, in the same century when great leaders of people and creators of religions emerged, such as Gautama Buddha, Zoroaster, Confucius, and Laozi. These are the five major figures that played an eminent role in the history of human thought, both religious and philosophical.

There are numerous disagreements about his nationality; some claim he was of Egyptian origin, others Syrian, or perhaps from Tyre.

According to legend, Pythagoras, whose name means “the Pythian herald” (Pythios), was the son of Menesarco and Partemis or Pythais. Once, his mother took him to the Pythia of Delphi, and this priestess prophesied a great destiny for him, which led his mother to devote herself with great affection to his education. It is known that Pythagoras displayed prodigious abilities from childhood, and his first teachers were Hermodamas of Samos, then Pherecydes of Syros. Later, he became a student of Thales of Miletus and attended the lectures of Anaximander. He was a disciple of Sonchis, an Egyptian priest, and met Zoroaster in Babylon during his stay in that great ancient metropolis.

Legend has it that the hierophant Adonai advised him to go to Egypt, where he was initiated into the mysteries in the sanctuaries of Memphis, Diospolis, and Heliopolis. He retreated to Mount Carmel and Chaldea while being a prisoner of Cambyses, and from there, he was taken to Babylon. In that metropolis, he became acquainted with the ancient religions of the East and attended classes taught by famous masters.

For many, we are in the realm of pure legend, as there is not enough historical evidence to confirm the truth of these facts. However, if we were to rely solely on such thinking, very little would remain to be considered truly historical about great figures from the past. In our own time, for example, the historical value of Christ has been denied simply because his contemporaries did not recognize his worth. He was seen by the Pharisees and the learned men of the time as a mere wonder-worker who preached unacceptable ideas.

It is not surprising, therefore, especially among the Greeks, whose historical knowledge is incomplete, that the historicity of Pythagoras, as well as that of many other philosophers, has not been transmitted with utmost certainty. Furthermore, there were several Pythagorases in different areas, often confused with the one who founded the school of Croton. Thus, it is not surprising that many people feel perplexed and skeptical about the accounts of his life. But the truth is that Pythagoreanism did exist and still exists, and it left behind a monumental work that scholars can delve into.

However, it is evident in all sources that recount his life that he undertook numerous travels and pilgrimages in his youth and returned to Samos at the age of 56. His teachings attracted many disciples but also provoked the enmity of Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos, leading him to exile in Magna Graecia (Italy), where he founded his famous Institute. According to Nicomachus and Iamblichus, Pythagoras once delivered a speech that decisively influenced the foundation of his society, where members committed themselves to the practice of communal living dedicated to meditation, through which they would attain the path of knowledge, the “Supreme Mathematics (Megisthe),” the supreme “sophia,” the highest wisdom. To achieve this, they had to love it, and those who were “lovers of wisdom” would be called philosophers (from “philo,” I love, and “sophia,” knowledge), thus coining the name that later became universal: “philosophia.” Knowledge, “gnosis,” would allow humans to penetrate, following human paths, the “via” that would lead to the “Supreme Mathematics,” the ultimate instruction. Only knowledge would bring us happiness, for Pythagoras claimed that supreme happiness consists in the true “eudaimonia” of the soul, in contemplating the harmony of the rhythms of the Universe, or rather, in his own words, “tes teleiótetos tón arithmôn,” the perfection of Numbers, number as rhythm, as proportion, as recounted by Clement of Alexandria.

Before arriving in Magna Graecia, Pythagoras had contact with the declining Orphic tradition in the Peloponnese and met the famous priestess Theoclea of Delphi.

However, it is in Italy that he will play an extraordinary role. He founded the famous Institute, which, despite being opposed by the democrats of the time, was ultimately destroyed. According to legend, he perished in the fire along with his most beloved disciples, according to some accounts, while others claim he managed to escape and took an unknown path.

According to the most reliable sources, Pythagoras must have died between 510 and 480 BC. The Pythagorean society continued after his death but disappeared after the famous massacre of Metapontum following the defeat of the Crotonian League. The Pythagorean brotherhood had a significant historical role in the Crotonian League due to its almost absolute political influence.

At that time, there were three types of initiates: the “contemplative philosophers,” who were the “mathematicians”; the “nomothetes,” responsible for political leadership and social activities; and the “politicians,” who had not yet achieved the higher degrees of initiation and served as instruments for executing the plans devised by the leaders. For the chosen ones, there was a degree of novitiate and an initiation as “apprentices,” which lasted five years (the degree of “paraskeiê,” preparation), followed by “catharsis,” purification, which corresponds to the Masonic companion, and finally, the “teleiôtes” (from “telos,” end), which was the “master” degree, revealing the first and final causes of things.

After the catastrophe, only Lysis and Philolaus survived, who possibly (and there is sufficient evidence in favor of this possibility) never personally met Pythagoras. Along with them, some novices were also saved, including Hippocrates of Chios, who later lived in Athens, as well as Hiparchus and Hippias, who were subsequently considered traitors for revealing certain secrets of the order and were “excommunicated.” Among the close followers of that time, Archytas of Tarentum stands out as one of the ten greatest Pythagoreans.

The very Philolaus was also considered a traitor by many Pythagoreans because he published works in which he revealed aspects of Pythagoras' philosophy and because he sold three secret books to Dion, the brother of Dionysius the Elder.

Pythagoreanism in Greek culture – The Greeks are often accused of having imposed a model on the world, of having rationalized the phenomenal world to such an extent that the model they constructed imposed itself as reality. In this capacity to surpass the boundaries of appearance lies, in short, the entire reason for the so-called “Greek miracle.” It is also added that this model was only an act of faith.

This dual way of viewing the world did not originate with Greek philosophy. It only gave it new contours and justifications. It belongs to the religious and psychological way in which the Greeks considered the world, always fashioned in the image of the gods, where the world of phenomena mirrors or participates in the higher reality of the world of forms. Thus, it can be established that the most typical aspect of Greek thought is the visualization of two planes: the plane of pure and unchanging ideas, eternal and ungenerated, and the plane of the world of appearance, of phenomena, the world of becoming, the constant mutation of things.

It is precisely in Pythagoras that this way of seeing takes a philosophical form and becomes the foundation of his entire doctrine. For many, this is the great Greek myth, and when they deviate from it, Greece sinks into the vicious forms of sophistry. One could say, in imitation of Spengler, that the essence of Greek culture lies in accepting this myth, sufficient to explain its art, its religion, its philosophy, its politics, its ideals, and also its melancholic outcome.

All the efforts of its great philosophers like Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato were focused on justifying this thesis. Aristotle, with his rationalist empiricism, was only a barbarian in the noblest sense of the term. He indeed came from the borders of Greece, and that would explain why he moved away from the great myth, seeking another way to visualize the world. That is also the reason why he had such a great influence later in the West through Scholasticism. His model was not Hellenic.

If we look at Greek cults, from the most primitive to Pythagoreanism, understood here in its religious sense, the two planes are evident. In its decline, the borrowed religions, the cults that came from the East, were no longer Greek; they were pseudomorphoses of a culture, as they only assumed some external forms of Greece but no longer had roots in the soul of the people because it had already lost them.

There is some truth in all of this. But it would be simplistic to think that we could include all Greek philosophizing in this explanation alone.

A brief examination of Pythagoreanism would suffice to distance ourselves from this theory. The Dionysian cults originated from Thrace, and it is impossible to hide the influences that Eastern mysticism and also Egyptian origins exerted on Greek religious thought in its early days. It is undeniable that Orphism, coming from Phrygia, was influenced by Phoenician elements, and the fusion of these two cults undoubtedly occurred through contact with the Egyptians and the East. In fact, Pythagoreanism is not devoid of Orphism, since after Pythagoras, it is difficult to distinguish between the Orphic authors and the Pythagorean authors. Many of their rituals and ceremonies were copies of others of Orphic origin. It is facts like these that allow us to consider Pythagoras as a true reformer of Orphism. But it would be a mistake not to consider, however, the extraordinary innovations he brought to such a cult, to the point that his doctrine ultimately takes on its own character. The entire 5th century and part of the 4th century were influenced by him. Great Pythagoreans of this period included Timaeus, Archytas of Tarentum, Philolaus, and Theodorus. Undoubtedly, one of their greatest figures was Socrates, whose completion took place in his great disciple Plato, the most brilliant expression of Pythagoreanism, as well as of human thought. In Plato, Pythagoreanism reaches its grand phase.

Just as the Platonic Academy distanced itself from the master after his death, the neo-Pythagorean movements can also be accused of having moved away from the master of Crotona. Plato never publicly declared himself a Pythagorean, just as Socrates did not. And it was natural because Pythagoreanism was outside the law. Platonic doctrine remains within the scope of the two planes.

This world, the phenomenal world, is made in imitation of an eternal and immutable model, the true world, the world of pure forms. Among the critics of Plato and Socrates, there are some who doubt the Pythagorean affiliation of these authors. Aristotle’s statements are considered insufficient. However, Xenophon, in his portrait of Socrates, presents him as a Pythagorean when he says, “He was one of those Pythagoreans in search of redemption.”

The entire Platonic terminology of ideas and forms is Pythagorean: eidos, idea, schema, morphê.

The doctrine of forms undoubtedly has that origin, and when Plato, in his dialogues, speaks of the “friends of ideas,” he is referring to them. And today, based on what we know, Speusippus, who succeeded Plato, his uncle in the Academy, before Xenocrates, wrote a treatise “On Pythagorean Numbers,” which indicates that the teachings given in the Academy were Pythagorean.

Pythagoras not only sowed his ideas throughout Greek philosophical development but also his most fundamental doctrines have reached our days, as modern science is more Pythagorean than ever before.

By considering number as the foundation of things, he introduced calculation into physics and combined mathematics with science, which allowed for the great progress it has known. Pythagoreans included Timaeus, who created Algebra, Theodorus of Cyrene, the teacher of Theaetetus, Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, the teacher of Pericles, who studied the concept of infinity, Archytas, Oenopides, and Eudoxus, an astronomer, and finally, Plato, whose mathematical teachings with rational methods prepared the advent of the great Pythagorean Euclid. We must also mention Asclepius, whose role was very important in medicine, Alcmaeon, the first to practice dissection, and the greatest of all, Hippocrates of Cos, the precursor of modern medicine, not forgetting the poet Pindar.

The teachings of the sophists were undoubtedly a movement against Pythagorean doctrine.

It is necessary to distinguish between the exoteric doctrine of Pythagoreanism and its esoteric doctrine, which was intended for the profane and reserved only for the initiated.

When the Pythagoreans were asked, “What is the essence of anything?” they invariably answered with a twofold assertion: “Things consist of numbers” and “Things are formed in imitation of numbers.”

It is a primitive way of thinking to consider numbers as particles that the common man conceives as forming reality.

The true doctrine can only be interpreted as follows: things consist of numbers on the eidetic planeand are formed, in the natural plane, according to mathematical laws that govern them, in imitation of numbers. Materially, things imitate numbers and are therefore also numbers. There is only apparent contradiction, as we will see later.

In the Sophist (238b), Plato says, “According to our way of thinking, number as a whole is Being.” We will see later to which being he refers.

Undoubtedly, mathematics experienced a great epistemic impulse with the Greeks.

It is with them that demonstration truly developed. We should not think that it was with them that demonstration, proof, originated, as the Egyptians already employed it. There is a fragment of Democritus' work that is telling. Describing his travels to Egypt, he says, “I traveled through many countries… and conversed with many wise men, but regarding the combination of lines with demonstration, no one surpassed me, not even those we call harpedonapts in Egypt”…

No one surpassed him in demonstration (apodeixis, from which apodictic, demonstration, proof); passage from the Stromateis of Clement of Alexandria. Democritus attributed to the harpedonapts a demonstrative science that did not surpass his own, which proves that the Egyptians also used demonstration in mathematics, which is consistent with the very nature of mathematics.

Long before Democritus, the Pythagoreans dedicated themselves to demonstration. According to the available documents, Pythagoras always emphasized to his disciples the distinction that should be made between doxa and episteme. The Pythagorean ideal of Mathesis Megiste, Supreme, of supreme instruction, could only be attained by man through episteme, cultured knowledge, demonstrated sophia, which is the path of the knowledge-seeking individual, the one who loves knowledge, the philosopher (philon, I love, sophia, knowledge). We must consider the deep philosophical roots that Pythagoreanism planted in Greece and Magna Graecia, giving Greek thought a new direction. The lover of knowledge who is satisfied not only with knowing what is and how it occurs but also with understanding why it is.

But even at this point, the contribution of Pythagorean thought is not yet characterized. We know that there was a strong dose of skepticism among the Greeks, and Pythagoras brought to them the great contributions of mathematics, physics, and the arts. Faced with these, it is natural that he demonstrated his knowledge and sought to prove his theses. It is not unfounded to attribute to Pythagoras the foundation of geometry based on demonstrated theorems. He not only presented his theses to the initiates in mathematics but also in philosophy, demonstrating the reasons behind them.

Let us consider these words of Nicomachus of Gerasa: “The ancients, who, under the spiritual guidance of Pythagoras, first gave science a systematic form, defined philosophy as the love of Knowledge. Incorporeal things – such as qualities, configurations, equality, relations, arrangements, places, times… – are, by their essence, imitable and immutable, but they can, accidentally, participate in the vicissitudes of the bodies to which they are linked.” And he continues, “This, accidentally, Knowledge also deals with bodies, the material substrates of incorporeal things; however, it is to these incorporeal things that it is especially attached. For these immaterial, eternal things constitute true reality. But what is subject to formation and destruction… (matter, bodies) is not currently real by essence.”

The speculative nature of Greek philosophy, the search for apodictic judgments universally valid, in contrast to merely assertoric judgments that we see emerging in the works of Western philosophy, undoubtedly arises thanks to the great contributions of Pythagoreanism. The Mathesis, the supreme instruction, is something active that man must strive to conquer. This striving for knowledge is an appetite, a love for the knowledge of Mathesis, it is philosophy. The content of this knowledge is a mathema, whose art in achieving it is mathematika, the art of obtaining the contents of supreme knowledge. In this sense, mathematics is the supreme knowledge of the Pythagoreans, and not in the commonly taken sense of a discipline that studies second-degree abstractions.

Let us call it Metamathematics, which is the true philosophy for Pythagoras. And it was he who said that the true lover of knowledge is the one who expresses clearly what he knows and seeks to demonstrate what he knows, following the rules of mathematics, that is, based on apodictic judgments universally valid. When he called himself a lover of knowledge, a philosopher, he did not say everything that he demanded of the true disciple, but only what could be said to the uninitiated.

The true philosophy, for Pythagoras, is Metamathematics, the art that consists in reaching the contents of supreme knowledge and demonstrates its assertions (theses) through apodictic judgments (universally valid), the true science in short.

For a discipline to become epistemic, it must distance itself from doxa, from opinions, from the subject matter on which everyone has opinions and diametrically opposed points of view, to the point where what is confidently affirmed as certainty and truth by one is considered false by another, as happens in the field of the so-called cultural sciences. The evaluation of knowledge can only be obtained epistemically if the criterion used for evaluation is truly based on objective foundations. And how can such foundations be obtained if not through apodictic demonstrations, such as those offered by mathematics?

Doxa is based on subjective criteria, episteme on objective criteria. For this reason, modern aesthetics, which is still within the realm of doxa, allows its scholars to engage in opposing and even contradictory fields; this is possible because the apodictic foundation of aesthetic postulates has not yet been established, at least among modern aesthetes who are unaware of the works of the Pythagoreans. Thus, it can be established that in the natural sciences, where objective criteria predominate, it is easier to achieve mathematization in the true sense, while in the cultural sciences, due to the predominance of deeply rooted prejudices, mathematization, also using the term in a Pythagorean sense, becomes more difficult but not impossible, as some desire in their natural eagerness to indulge in unfounded and easy assertions.

“No research deserves the name of science if it does not go through mathematical demonstration.” This maxim by Leonardo da Vinci, genuinely Pythagorean and genuinely Greek, embodies the spirit of Greek science. Demonstration is a characteristic of the Greek logical spirit and its rhetoric. We can observe this in Plato’s dialogues, where the demonstrations seek to be as convincing as possible. We could already notice it in the speeches of Demosthenes, where he seeks to destroy the arguments of his opponent and reveal the absurdity contained within them. Undoubtedly, it is with Pythagoras that the demonstrative method developed to reach its highest points in Hippocrates of Cos, in Aristotle’s Analytics, and in the astonishing accomplishment of Euclid’s Elements, where it is applied in an extraordinary and definitive way.

Paul-Henri Michel states:

“But the Pythagoreans were not primitive! If, according to them, all things are numbers, it is not only because every sensible object can be considered as a ‘collection,’ as the sum of its indivisible parts. The number that exists in itself, outside the plurality of material objects, as well as greatness, leads us to another aspect of the theory, to transcendence and the notion of the ‘model’ number of things. The ‘arithmos’ (which should not be confused, as Aristotle often seems to do, with ‘plethos’) is translated into being through harmony. Firmly grounded in this conviction through the examination of vibrating strings, the Pythagoreans could state, in the catechism of the acousmatics: 'What is wiser? Number.’”

And he further states that the Pythagoreans initially had only a quantitative view of number and later tended to qualify it. “This dual providence was perhaps never conscious; undoubtedly, it was never explicitly expressed by the Pythagoreans, but it underlay their conception of number. Only it can justify the kind of fascination that numbers, taken individually, exerted on their thought, a fascination that was not confined to their school.”

This statement is partly true because, in the study of the first and second degree (degrees of paraskeie and catartysis), the studied number is the quantitative aspect as an abstraction of quantity. But the number, in its qualitative, vectorial, modal, etc., sense is examined later, as the initiate delves into higher knowledge. It would be naive to think that all mathematical thought of Euclid was exposed in his Elements, which is a work of geometric initiation.

This is the reason why the dithyramb was placed at the entrance of the Pythagorean Institute, which Plato later copied: “Let no one ignorant of geometry enter here.” In other words, initiation is impossible for those who have not acquired the demonstrative habits of geometry.

And this was indeed the case (that quantitative number was only a lower degree of mathematical knowledge), as evidenced by the contempt shown by the Pythagoreans towards Logistike, the art of calculation and the calculative number, demonstrating that they did not confuse the Pythagorean arithmos with the sensible number, the number used for counting, calculating, and measuring alone.

The number (arithmos) is not merely a second-degree abstraction of quantity, as one might judge based solely on the works of the Pythagoreans at the level of paraskeie.

There is no doubt that the constant in Pythagorean exegesis, known throughout time, always confused the concept of number in its generic aspect with quantitative number, which is only a kind of number, namely, a “scheme of the participation of quantity.” This quantitative aspect is the specific difference of the genus arithmos, but it is not everything and only that. This is a view that we insistently emphasize, although we recognize that there are Pythagoreans who never reached any other vision than the merely quantitative, as observed in the works of some Pythagoreans and Neo-Pythagoreans.

That numbers are not the ultimate nature of things is evident in light of the school’s assertions that number originates from the harmonic combination of the unlimited and the limited (infinite and finite, even and odd). Furthermore, the One is not a number.

On the other hand, it cannot be affirmed that Pitagoras' conception of the world was atomistic because, in this case, there would be discontinuity as the ultimate nature of things. This claim is not valid because he stated that the ultimate hypokeimenon, the ultimate support of things, is the aether, and it is pure continuity and immutability in its essence.

For the Pythagoreans, there was undoubtedly a transcendent mathematics, in contrast to immanent mathematics. The latter corresponds to abstractions of quantity, while the former refers to forms or ideas, following the order we presented in Ontological Mathematization, as we did in Concrete Philosophy. There are several allusions to this transcendent mathematics in Plato’s dialogue, Laws, which was only known and used by those initiated at higher levels, including within the Platonic school.

Among the illustrious Pythagoreans, we can mention Cercops, Petronius of Hiera, Brotinus of Metapontum, Hippasus of Metapontum, Caliphon of Knidos, Democedes of Crotona, Parmeniscus of Metapontum, Epicarnus of Syracuse, Iccus, Paronius, Ameinias (Parmenides' teacher), Xuthus, Boidas, Trasylus, Theodorus of Cyrene, Eurytus of Crotona, Lysis (to whom the Golden Verses are attributed), Archytas of Tarentum, Opsimus of Rhegium, Phaleas of Chalcedon, Enopides of Chios, Hippocrates of Chios, Ocellus of Lucania, Nicrates of Syracuse, Ecphantus of Syracuse, Xenophilus of Chalcis, Diocles, Echecrates, Polynastus, Phanto, Arius, Proso of Cyrene, Amiclas of Tarentum, Cleinias of Tarentum, Damon, Phintias of Syracuse, Simus, Minomides, Eufranor, Eicon of Tarentum, and the famous Pythagorean women Tycha, Phyllis, Cratetichnea, Theano, Lasthenia, Abrotelia, Execratea, Eliasia, Tyrsenis, Peisiroda, Nisteadousa, Boio, Babelyka, Cleaechnea, Ekelo, Keilonis, and Muia.

Golden Verses

[Note: The Golden Verses are here being translated from Mário Ferreira dos Santos’s Portuguese translation, which may be inferior to getting a translation made directly to English.]

Preparation

To the immortal gods, above all, honor them, render them due worship, and maintain your faith. Revere in your memory all the beneficent heroes and demigods.

Purification

Be a good son, a just brother, a tender spouse,
A good father, choose a virtuous friend.
Listen to their good advice, and by their life
Model your own, never depart from it
If you can; a stern law
Relates Will to Necessity.

It is up to you, however, to fight and conquer
Your wild passions; learn to control them.
Be sober, be active and chaste, without anger.
Before others—and alone—allow no evil, and respect yourself above all.

Do not speak or act without reflection. Be just.
Always remember that a fatal power ordains everything to death; the goods and honors that you easily acquire, you easily lose,
And as for the evils that destiny brings, judge them as they are; endure them, and strive,
As much as you can, to reduce their effects: The wise are spared by the gods even in the cruelest circumstances.

Like truth, error has its lovers;
The philosopher defends it; he confronts error
With prudence; if error triumphs, he withdraws;
And waits. Engrave my words well in yourself: close your eyes, shut your ears to all prejudices, fear the example of others, think for yourself: consult, deliberate, choose freely.

Let the fools act without end and without cause.
You, in the present, must look to the future.
Do not attempt what you do not know.
Educate yourself; you will obtain everything in due time.

Take care of your health, spend moderately,
Give nourishment to the body, rest to the mind.
Neither too much nor too little; for excess joins with the other just as quickly.

Luxury and avarice are very similar.
In everything, choose the just and the good.

Perfection

May your eyelids never close in sleep
Without questioning yourself: What have I forgotten? What have I done? If it is evil, abstain; if it is good, persevere. Meditate on my advice; love it; follow it: it will lead you to divine virtues.

I swear by the one who engraved in our hearts
The sacred tetrad, immense and pure symbol,
Source of nature and model of the gods.

And when you awaken, calmly examine
What you must do, what you must complete.
But before, loyal to duty, let your soul
Invoke with fervor the help of the gods
So that the initiated works may be realized.

Instructed by them, you will not be deceived: You will probe the essence of different beings;
You will know the beginning and end of all things.

You will know, if heaven wills, that nature,
Equal in all things, is the same everywhere.

Enlightened about your ancient rights,
Your heart will be free from vain desires.
Then you will see that the ills suffered by men
Are the fruits of their choices; and that, unhappy,
They seek far from themselves the goods of which they are the source.

Few know how to be happy: driven by passions,
Buffeted by contradictory waves,
They roll blindly on a sea without shores, unable to resist or yield to the whirlpool.

Gods! You will save them by opening their eyes…
It is up to humans, whose race is divine,
To discern error and see the truth.
Nature serves them. You, who have penetrated it,
Wise and happy being, breathe in this harbor,
But observe my laws and abstain
From what your soul should fear and distinguish,
Let intelligence reign over the body
And, rising up to the radiant ether,
Be a god among the immortals.

Introduction to the commentaries

In this work, we gather comments that can be made about Hierocles’s commentaries, seeking to remain distant from Pythagorean interpreters so that this contribution is as personal as possible and is not influenced by the exegesis of others, as it will apply the rules of our concrete dialectic.

Many doubt the historical truth of Pythagoras. We will not discuss this topic. What interests us is to start from the reality of Pythagoreanism, accepted by its contemporaries, of the one called Pythagoras, in the century to which he is attributed to having lived, and Pythagoreanism as his creation. Some disciples refer to him as a person with whom they lived, and these affirmations seem sufficient for his historicity and not for his denial.

In addition to a psychological archetype, there is a tendency to mythologize or create myths about the creators of great ideas, an anti-archetype that denies the reality of myths and, consequently, denies the historical reality of certain figures like Orpheus, Homer, Thoth, Christ, Shakespeare, and others.

Many works have been attributed to Pythagoras. According to various authors, there may be about fifteen, among which two, at least, are considered the most important: “Peri tou hólou” “Around the Universe,” of the organized, cosmic universe, and the famous “Hiéros Logos” “The Divine Word,” written in symbolic characters – known only to the initiated – and thus its content would not reach just anyone’s hands. Therefore, what is known about Pythagoras comes from the disciples, or rather, from those who “called themselves his disciples,” the propagators of his ideas who used to claim that some of the quotations were from the great Master.

In “Pitágoras e o Tema do Número” (“Pythagoras and the Theme of Number”),3 we show that in the exegesis of the author, we take into account the coherence of the work from two aspects: the intrinsic and the extrinsic.

If we want to base ourselves on coherence, under the extrinsic aspect, we have to search for texts that are connected to each other to find out if an author, regarding a certain theme, took a specific approach. This is the secondary work for the exegete – the prerogative of the lesser exegetes – who are, however, the most numerous. The exegetical work that becomes the most difficult and complex is the one that seeks the internal coherence of an author’s work, proceeding in Philosophy in the same way Cuvier did in Paleontology: with a simple joint, he constructed the entire anatomy of the being and from there proceeded to its physical constitution, even elaborating on the flora that should exist for the maintenance of this being. Through the study of the intrinsic proportions and coherences that were imposed, he constructed an intrinsic paleontological exegesis in Paleontology. Similar to what some scholars did, starting from the few existing fragments, for example, about Heraclitus, and from there constructing their philosophy. They started only from the acceptance of a postulate – the starting point – that there must be an intrinsic coherence in an author’s work. If we consider that Pythagoras, in all times and for all his disciples, was consecrated as a divine figure (to the point that they wanted to transform him into a true deity, which he did not accept), he could not, evidently, fail to be a man of coherent thought, and the Pythagoreans always affirmed this coherence. There is no moment of hesitation in this regard. We start, then, from this principle: that there is coherence in the Pythagorean work, and this is proven by the fact that no incoherent idea is found, allowing us to construct his conception.

Someone may say that a certain thought is not genuinely Pythagorean; this statement is as valid as any other about the Master’s ideas. What interests us is to know whether the postulate attributed to Pythagoras was or was not accepted by the Pythagoreans throughout the ages as a postulate of his authorship. If it was, it constitutes the fundamental points, on which there can be no doubt, applying the rules of Concrete Dialectics, which proceeds in the field of speculative thought, in the same way as it works with analogical proportions (used by Cuvier, as we have seen), we arrive at reconstructing Pythagoras' coherent thought and we can know that he, in this or that point, could not have any other way of feeling and seeing, for otherwise he would enter into contradictory opposition with what is accepted as fundamental and true in his doctrine.

What we cannot do, and this is very important, because many people do it, is to base ourselves on postulates given by adversaries of Pythagoreanism, where it is attributed to Pythagoras something that we are not certain about because there is no important Pythagorean to defend it. This is how it is done because Pythagoreanism, for many reasons that cannot yet be explained, continues to be a dangerous doctrine to the interests of those who like to exercise power over others, since it does not favor the rise of mediocrity, which is extremely dangerous for mediocre people, who are usually in charge of the destiny of humanity.

The poem – The Golden Verses – is composed of 71 or 73 verses4.

They are attributed to Lysis. Lysis of Tarentum was one of Pythagoras' immediate disciples, and it is said that he was one of those who escaped the destruction of the Pythagorean Institute in Crotona. Taking refuge in Thebes, he was the teacher of Epaminondas, the Theban general. Little remains of his works, except for a letter to Hiparchus where he reproaches him for disobeying the Master’s orders regarding the dissemination of certain secrets of his philosophy.

They became better known to the world when Hierocles5 transmitted and commented on them. These are the comments we translate in this work.6 We do not have the Greek text for comparison, but we have other works that have assisted us in the corrections. There are several translations of these comments, and also several works by modern Pythagoreans, but unfortunately we have not been able to refer to them more specifically because the information we have is limited.

In fact, one cannot assert, as many do, that these verses are authored by Hierocles because, until then, they had not been published. In our view, this is unfounded because the existence of these verses is a settled matter within Pythagoreanism. Authors such as Cicero, Pliny, Flavius Josephus, and others mentioned them centuries before the existence of Hierocles.

When examining them, a certain division is established, while many authors say that they do not present a specific order, not following a plan, being more of a collection of verses or sentences that were later put together. It is possible that there is a collection of sentences that should have been expressed by Pythagoras or his followers, which later constituted the set of fundamental ideas, and later Lysis gave them a poetic coordination. There is no doubt about this, as it is almost certain that they must be later than Pythagoras, who did not know them, or at least, if he did know them, there is no indication that suggests, with certainty, this possibility or that it was real. However, when carefully examining their structure (as those who studied them did), it can be observed that there is a plan that unfolds through a progression of perfections, according to the dialectical conception of Pythagoreanism, that is, the ascending perfective march towards supreme perfection. Hence, they are divided into three parts, according to the three fundamental initiatory degrees of the Pythagorean order: 1st – the preparation phase (paraskeiê), in which the cult of God and higher spirits is established; 2nd – the cathartysis or purification, the cult of humanity, of the family, of the fellow human being, of ourselves, and of our social duties; and finally, the 3rd – the phase of teleiôtes, of perfection, which teaches us the path of meditation, the faith that impels us towards virtuous life, and indicates how to unveil the problems of the universe, reach the highest degrees of initiation, attain wisdom, sapiential intuition, and finally, understand more deeply our reason for being and existing, and the goals we strive for.

These divisions will become clear as we begin the commentaries on Hierocles’s comments. We will then follow the division that we consider to be very well done by Paul Carton7, where he describes the Golden Verses.

PREPARATION

Worship of God. – Having a religion. – First of all, render the prescribed worship to the immortal Gods according to the law. Also, respect the sworn faith. Then, as appropriate, revere the sublime Heroes and the semigod Spirits.

PURIFICATION

Worship of the Family. – Love your parents and all relatives. – Profess the worship of the family; fulfill your duties completely towards your Father, your Mother, and all your relatives.

Worship of Friendship. – Love your fellow beings. – Choose the best and most virtuous man as your friend. Obey his sweet advice and follow his salutary example. Strive as much as you can not to deviate from him due to any minor fault, because Will marches alongside Destiny as the guiding power of our evolution.

Personal Culture. – A) Mental culture. To be master of oneself. Do not forget that you must learn to control passions, to be sober, active, and chaste. Never allow yourself to be carried away by anger.

To be honest, frank, and just. – Be irreproachable before others and before yourself. And above all, respect yourself. Let your whole life, let all your words, be inspired by the purest justice.

To be reflective. – Do not get used to living mechanically, but reflect well that death is our common destiny and that material wealth can be acquired or lost with the same ease.

Work with full confidence. – Against the fate that has been marked for you by divine laws, no matter how harsh it may be, do not revolt against it; endure it with serenity, striving to improve it as much as you can. The Gods, in fact, protect the virtuous from the greatest evils.

To be tolerant and patient. – Truth and Error are mixed in human opinions. Therefore, refrain from fully approving or rejecting them in order to maintain your harmony. If error triumphs momentarily, distance yourself and wait with patience.

Develop a sound and firm reasoning within yourself. – Always observe with great care what I am about to tell you: Do not let yourself be carried away thoughtlessly by the words and actions of others. Speak and act only when your reason has indicated to you the most just path. The obligatory deliberation before action will thus prevent you from acting thoughtlessly. What truly makes a man unhappy is speaking and acting without rule or measure.

To be foresighted. – Foresee well the consequences, even the most distant ones, of each of your decisions, so that you do not have anything to regret later.

To be modest. – Do not claim to do what you truly do not know; on the contrary, take every opportunity to educate yourself. Thus, you will lead a highly enjoyable life.

B) Physical Culture. Follow a pure and physiological regimen. Exercise. – It is also necessary to take care of the health of the body. Use food, drinks, and exercises moderately as necessary. The right measure will be the one that prevents you from weakening. Therefore, you should get used to a pure and strict regimen.

To be reserved. – Follow your ideal without ostentation so as not to attract the hostile incomprehension of the ignorant.

To be prudent. – Do not behave like senseless people who spend more than necessary or who indulge in avarice, but learn to maintain moderation in everything. Therefore, do nothing that could harm you, and reflect before acting.

WORSHIP OF GOD

Means of Improvement. Self-examination. – As soon as you wake up, take advantage of the clarity that sleep provides to elevate your spirit and reflect on the good deeds you must perform.

Every night, before falling asleep, examine your conscience, go through the acts of the day repeatedly in your mind, and ask yourself: What did I do today? Did I fulfill my duty well in all things? Examine each action successively in this way. If you understand that you have acted wrongly, reprimand yourself severely; if you have been blameless, be satisfied with yourself.

Meditation. – Faith. – Virtuous life. Understanding of the Universe. – Meditate on these counsels. Love them from the depths of your soul and strive to put them into practice. They will lead you to divine virtues. I swear by the One who has traced in our spirit the sacred Tetrad, the source and emblem of eternal Nature.

Prayer. – But, getting to work, pray ceaselessly to the Gods for their help in completing it.

Initiation. – When you are well imbued with these precepts, you will come to conceive the intimate constitution of the Gods, of humans, and of all things, and to understand rigorously the unity that permeates the entire natural work. You will then know this universal law: everywhere in the world, matter and spirit are identical in nature.

Clarivoyance. – Having become clairvoyant in this way, you will no longer be tormented by illegitimate desires. You will then recognize that men are the creators of their own misfortunes. Unfortunate! They do not know that their true goods are within their own reach. How rare are those who know how to free themselves from torments! The blindness of men is such that it disturbs their intelligence! Like cylinders rolling at random, they ceaselessly suffer infinite evils. Because they do not suspect the fatal incomprehension that is within them and accompanies them everywhere, they do not know how to distinguish what is just from what must be completely avoided.

Hidden truth. – God, our Father! Deign to deliver them from suffering and show them the supernatural power they can wield! But no: let us be calm; men belong to the race of the Gods, and it is up to them to discover the sacred truths that nature offers for investigation.

Reward: Wisdom. Blessed immortality. – If you manage to penetrate them, you will easily fulfill all my prescriptions and will have deserved to see yourself free from your trials. But abstain from the forbidden foods in purifications and continue the work of freeing the soul, making judicious and thoughtful choices in all things so that you establish the triumph of the best within you – the Spirit. Then, when you leave behind the mortal body, you will rise to the ether and, ceasing to be mortal, you will yourself assume the form of an immortal God.

Commentary on the Golden Verses by Hierocles

It is through philosophy that human nature develops and perfects itself8. It is through philosophy that it liberates itself from the recklessness and madness that arise from matter, and becomes independent of the mortal body. It perfects itself through philosophy, reclaiming its higher life and returning to divine resemblance. Only virtue and truth can achieve these two things: virtue by repelling the excesses of passions, and truth by dispelling error and bestowing a divine form upon those who are willing to receive it.

It is good that this science, which should make us pure and perfect, possesses concise and precise rules, resembling aphorisms of the Work, providing us with the means to achieve happiness in a systematic and orderly manner, which is our ultimate goal.

Among the rules of this genre, which aim at universal philosophy, the verses of Pythagoras, called “Golden Verses,” hold the first place, and rightly so. They contain the general principles of all Philosophy, both in relation to active life and contemplative life. Through them, each individual can acquire truth and virtue, become pure, and with happiness, become similar to the divine, as stated in Plato’s Timaeus (which should be considered a well-informed master of Pythagorean doctrines), after restoring their health and regaining their perfect integrity, they can look back at their original state of innocence and light.

Pythagoras begins with the precepts of active virtue: before all else, one must free oneself from folly and inertia within us; then, one must apply oneself to the knowledge of divine things. Just as an ailing eye, still afflicted with inflammation, cannot behold a bright and vivid light, so too, an soul devoid of virtue cannot perceive the beauty and splendor of truth; nor is the impure allowed to touch the pure.

Practical philosophy is the mother of virtue; theoretical philosophy is the mother of truth. This can be understood from Pythagoras' verses, in which practical philosophy is called human virtue, and theoretical philosophy is called divine virtue. After finishing the precepts of civic virtue with these words: “Act well in all things, reflect upon them, and love them with all your heart,” he continues: “It is these that will guide you on the path of divine virtue and make you walk in the footsteps of God.”

Therefore, it is necessary, first and foremost, to be human, and then to be divine. It is civic virtues and God that make the person; it is the sciences that lead to divine virtue. Now, in perfect order, the small things must precede the great. That is why, in Pythagoras' verses, the precepts of virtues are first, to teach us that it is through the practice of virtues, so necessary in life, that we must advance and ascend to divine resemblance.

The purpose and order proposed in these verses are to give those who read them the true character of the philosopher before initiating them into other sciences.

Moreover, they are called “Golden Verses” because they assimilate what is most perfect and divine in this genre. Just as we call the ages that witnessed the greatest men the “golden age,” we characterize customs by the analogous properties of metals. Gold is a pure metal, free from the earthly impurities found in lower metals such as silver, iron, and copper. It is superior because it does not deteriorate, while others oxidize in proportion to the earthly mixtures present in them.

Deterioration being the figure and emblem of vices, it is rightly called the “golden age,” the period in which Holiness and Purity reigned and was free from all corruption of customs. Similarly, these verses, being supremely beautiful in all their parts, were called Golden and divine verses. Unlike other poets, there is no verse that is beautiful while another is not. They are all perfectly beautiful, equally representing the purity of customs, leading to the likeness of God, and revealing the perfect aim of Pythagorean Philosophy, as will be clearly seen through the explanation proposed for each of them in particular.

Comments on Hierocles’s Comments

In Hiérocles’s introduction, we find the following comment: “It is through philosophy that human nature develops and perfects itself.” Note that already in these words, we find the true Pythagorean sense: human perfection attains its development and perfectibility, the degrees of its development and perfectibility, through philosophy, namely the desire for knowledge, in the constant march towards Mathesis Megiste, which turns to supreme knowledge. It is there that human nature reaches its highest degrees. (Note one): It is through philosophy that it liberates itself from recklessness and madness arising from matter and becomes independent of the mortal body. (Note two): Human nature frees itself from recklessness, spontaneous impulses, and madness, lack of firmness, lack of reason, and consequently, from things that naturally arise from matter, from our lower part. Through philosophy, it becomes independent of the mortal body, meaning that this human nature attains a degree of independence from the mortal body, from what dies because it then attains what is eternal, what cannot die, what surpasses life.

Let us continue: it perfects itself through philosophy, reclaiming its higher life and returning to divine resemblance. Philosophy, in its eagerness for knowledge, following the line of Concrete Dialectic of the Pythagoreans (which consists of accumulating and capturing perfections increasingly), human nature recovers its higher life, the promised path, the higher path it can follow, and returns to divine resemblance. It is also the path of religions. Pythagoras could not be the founder of a religion because he considered philosophy, following its paths, as a true act of piety, an act of return to God. This is the third note.

Note four: Only virtue and truth can achieve this development and perfection; virtue by repelling the excesses of passions, and truth by dispelling error and bestowing a divine form upon those who are willing to receive it. By assuming a divine form, we become increasingly similar to divinity through wisdom, one of the paths through which we approach God.

The author continues: it is good that this science, which should make us pure and perfect (note five), namely philosophy as a path of purification and human perfection, of virtue, culture, and knowledge, possesses concise and precise rules, sentences that resemble aphorisms of the divine work and provide us with the means to achieve happiness systematically and orderly, our sole good (note six). This science must be presented in concise and precise sentences, aphorisms that correspond to the divine work, reproducing the Supreme Mathesis and providing us with the means to achieve happiness methodically and in an orderly manner, which is our ultimate goal.

Among the rules of this genre, which aim at universal philosophy, the Golden Verses of Pythagoras hold the first place, and rightly so. According to Hierocles (note seven), they are truly in first place. There is no work that, following the path of philosophy, can unite virtue with truth. They contain the general principles of all philosophy, both in relation to active life and contemplative life (note eight). Regarding practical life as well as speculative life, or rather, Practical Philosophy as well as Speculative Philosophy. Through them, each individual can acquire truth and virtue, become pure, and with happiness, become similar to the divine. As Plato’s Timaeus states: after restoring their health or regaining their perfect integrity, they can look back at their original state of innocence and light.

Note nine: Pythagoras begins with the precepts of active virtue. Before all else, one must free oneself from folly and inertia (within us); then, one must apply oneself to the knowledge of divine things. It is likened to an ailing eye, still afflicted with inflammation, unable to gaze upon a bright and vivid light. Similarly, a soul devoid of virtue cannot perceive the beauty and splendor of truth; nor is the impure allowed to touch the pure. The meaning of the inner initiation of Pythagoreanism is clear: one cannot reach divine things without purifying oneself internally, without attaining the increasingly higher steps of an initiation into virtue and, likewise, truth. Philosophy cannot separate itself from virtue, and virtue from philosophy.

Note ten: Practical philosophy is the mother of virtue because, by dedicating itself to the study of practical life and what is beneficial or not to it, it establishes the norms of conduct and good habits that one must acquire. Theoretical philosophy, by studying and seeking to approach truth and distance itself from falsehood, is consequently the mother of truth. This can be understood from Pythagoras' verses, where practical philosophy is called human virtue and theoretical philosophy is called divine virtue. After finishing the precepts of civic virtue, he affirms: “Act well in all things, reflect upon them, and love them with all your heart. It is these that will guide you on the path of divine virtue and make you walk in the footsteps of God.” (Note eleven): First, virtue, the practice of goodness, the acquisition of good habits, and by following this path, seek the paths of divine virtue, which is granted through philosophy. Therefore, it is necessary, first and foremost, to be human, and then to be divine; it is civic virtues and God that make the person. It is the sciences that lead to divine virtue. Now, in perfect order, the small things must precede the great; that is why, in Pythagoras' verses, the precepts of virtues are the first, to teach us that it is through the practice of virtues, so necessary in life, that we must advance and ascend to divine resemblance. (Note twelve): It is through the practice of virtue that we will finally be prepared, increasingly, to delve into philosophy. The purpose and order proposed in these verses are to give those who read them the true character of the philosopher before initiating them into another science. (Note thirteen): The true character of the philosopher and his true mark is precisely life, practical virtue, human virtue, the austere fulfillment of one’s duty, and then seeking the truth.

Furthermore, they are called Golden Verses because they embody the most perfect and divine qualities in this genre. Just as we call the ages that witnessed the greatest men the “Golden Age” and characterize customs through the analogous properties of metals, gold, as the purest metal without any earthly impurities, stands as the only superior metal, as it does not engender any deterioration, while others oxidize in proportion to the earthly mixtures present in them. In this fourteenth note, we have a clear explanation of why they are called “Golden Verses,” “Carmina Aurea.” Gold is always a symbol of that which does not suffer from environmental influences, of that which attains perfection and overcomes negative influences.

Continuing: since deterioration is the figure and emblem of vices, it is rightly called the period in which holiness and purity reigned, free from any corruption, the Golden Age. Similarly, these verses have been called Golden and divine verses since, unlike others, there are no variations among them. They are all beautiful, leading to the likeness of God, and reveal the perfect aim of Pythagorean philosophy.

Verse I

First and foremost, honor the immortal gods as they are established and ordered by law.

Piety towards the divine cause, being the foremost of all virtues, it is rightly placed ahead of all the laws prescribed by this verse.

It is necessary to honor the Gods of this universe according to the order in which they are established, and the eternal law, which produced them, has assigned to them with their essence, placing some in the first celestial sphere, others in the second, others in the third, and so on, until all the celestial globes have been filled.

To recognize them and honor them according to the order and hierarchy in which they are placed by their creator and father is to obey divine law, to truly render them all the honor they are due. It is neither to elevate nor to lower their dignity excessively in our sentiments towards them, but to take them for what they are, to give them the place they received, and to refer all the honor we pay them to the one God who created them, who can rightly be called the God of Gods, the Supreme and Most Good God.

The only means we have to encounter and understand the majesty of this excellent being who created the world is to be convinced that he is the creative cause of the Gods and the rational and immutable substances. These substances and these gods, referred to here as immortal Gods, retain the feelings and thoughts of the God who created them, they are attentive and connected to this remembrance, and they have received from him, unchanging and indivisibly, Being and Goodness, as the unalterable and incorruptible images of the cause that created them. For it is fitting for God to have produced from himself such images that cannot be altered or corrupted by their tendency to evil, just as the souls of men, who are the lowest of rational substances, those that are called immortal Gods are the first.

To distinguish them from the souls of men, they are called immortal gods here because they never die in the divine life, never forgetting for a moment neither their essence nor the goodness of the father who created them, while the human soul is subject to passions and changes: sometimes it remembers its God and the higher stage in which it was created, sometimes it forgets completely. Hence the souls of men could rightly be called mortal gods, as they occasionally die to the divine life, due to their distance from God, and sometimes regain it through their return to it. In this latter sense, living a divine life, and in the other sense (distancing), falling into death, as far as it is possible for an immortal essence to participate in death.

It is necessary to understand here not the cessation of being, but the deprivation of well-being, for the death of the rational essence is ignorance and impiety that bring about disorder and the unleashing of passions. Indeed, ignorance of what is good plunges us into the slavery of what is evil, a slavery from which we cannot free ourselves except through the return to Intelligence and to God, to whom we return through reminiscence.

Now, between these immortal gods and these mortal gods, as I have just called them, there must be an essence that is like a bond, a mediator, that links the two extremes, so that the whole of the rational essence is perfectly fused and united.

This intermediate being does not remain absolutely ignorant of God, nor does it have an always immutable and permanent knowledge, for it can be greater or lesser. This state of knowledge, which never ceases absolutely, gives it priority over man, but because its knowledge varies and can diminish, it remains below the divine nature. It is not by the progress of its knowledge that it has risen above the nature of man, nor is it by its diminution that it has become inferior to the gods and has assumed the middle position; but by its nature it is a middle being, a middle being. Indeed, God, who created all things, established these three beings: the first, the second, and the third, different in nature, in such a way that they can never move or be confused with one another, neither by vice nor by virtue.

Eternal by essence, they differ by the category assigned to them. They are placed in this order according to the causes that produced them. Here, order encompasses the three degrees of perfect Wisdom; for wisdom is such only because it produces its works in order and perfection, so that wisdom, order, and perfection are always found together. Thus, in this universe, the beings produced by God’s first thought must be the first in the world; those produced by the second must be the second or middle ones; those corresponding to the last thoughts must be the last among rational beings. It is this rational arrangement with an incorruptible body that is the complete and perfect image of the God who created it. The beings that have the first place in this world are the pure image of what is most eminent in God.

Those in the middle position are the average image of what is average, and the last ones are the ultimate image of what is last in divinity. These three orders are given the following names: Immortal Gods – Heroes endowed with goodness and light – Terrestrial Demons. We will examine this classification further.

Let us turn to the first ones. What is the Law? What is the order that corresponds to it? What, finally, is the honor rendered in relation to this order and this Law? The Law is the intelligence that created all things; it is the divine intelligence that produced everything from all eternity and preserves it eternally.

The order in accordance with the Law is the position that God the father and creator of all things assigned to the Immortal Gods when he created them, which makes some of them the first and others the second; indeed, as the first, they received what is most excellent, they differ from one another, and some are more divine than others. The mark of their superiority or inferiority is the position and order of the celestial spheres, which are assigned to them according to their essence, their power, or virtue, so that the Law looks only at their essence, and the order is merely the place given to them according to their dignity.

Indeed, they were not created at random, nor were they placed and separated by chance, but they were created and placed with order like the different parts and members of one whole, which is the heavens: they are considered, while remaining separate, as remaining connected and included in the unity of their kind; so that no change in their situation, no displacement can be imagined without imagining the downfall of the world. Now, this catastrophe cannot happen as long as the first cause, which produced them, remains immutable and firm in its decrees, for it will have a power equal to its essence, it will possess a goodness not acquired but immanent and essential, and out of love for itself, it will lead all things to their good and happiness. No other rational cause for the creation of things can be found except the essential goodness of God. God is perfectly good by his nature, and what is good is not susceptible to any longing. All the other causes that have been attributed to the creation of this universe, except this goodness, have more the needs and requirements of men than the independence of God.

God being perfectly good by his nature, he produced the first beings, those most similar to himself, the second ones, those who have an average resemblance with him, and the third ones, those who, of all the beings similar to him, participate least in this divine resemblance.

The order was regulated according to the essence of all these created beings, so that what is more perfect is preferred to what is less perfect, not only in all genera, but also in different species; for it is neither by chance that all things have received their place and position, nor by a change of choice and will. Created differently by the Law, they have their place according to the dignity of their nature: that is why this precept, “Honor them as they are placed and ordered by the law,” must be understood not only of the immortal gods but also of the heroes and the souls of men; for in each of these genera, there are infinitely many species, placed and arranged according to whether they have more or less dignity. This is the nature and order or position of rational essences. What, then, is the Law and the honor that follows from it? Let us repeat again: the Law is the immutable virtue of God, according to which he created the divine beings and placed and classified them from all eternity, without them ever being able to change. And the honor in accordance with this Law is the knowledge of the essence of those beings that are honored, and the resemblance that one strives to have with them, as much as possible, for that which one loves is imitated as much as possible. The honor given to the one who has no need of anything consists in receiving the goods that he offers us, for one does not honor God by giving him something, but by becoming worthy to receive it, as the Pythagoreans say:

You will honor God perfectly if you act in such a way that your soul is like his image.

Any man who honors God for his gifts as if he needed them, without thinking, falls into the error of believing that he is greater and more powerful than God. The mere magnificence of gifts and offerings is not an honor to God, unless they are offered by a truly inspired spirit, for the gifts and victims of fools are nothing but fuel for the flames, and their offerings nothing but fodder for sacrilege, but the truly inspired and sufficiently fortified and strengthened spirit unites with God. It is necessary that the similar turn towards the similar, and that is why it is said that the wise man is the only sacrificer, that he is the only friend of God, and that only he knows how to pray, for only he knows how to honor and never confuses the dignity of those he honors, who offers himself first as a pure victim, who makes his soul an image of God, and who prepares his spirit like a temple to receive divine light within it. What will you offer to God from all the earthly and material things here, which can be his true image? What gift will you give him that can be intimately united with him, as necessarily happens to the purged and purified rational essence! Indeed, as the philosophers say, God has no more proper place to dwell on earth than in the pure soul. What perfectly agrees with this oracle of Apollo Pythian: “I dwell with less pleasure in shining Olympus than in the souls of pious men.”

The pious man is the one who, having knowledge of God, offers his own perfection as the greatest honor he can give to the cause of all good things, who, by ardently seeking to acquire them, constantly turns to those who can possess these goods, and who, by always becoming worthy of receiving them, fully honors those who have given them without hesitation. Any man who seeks to honor God in any other way, not for himself and the sentiments of his heart, but by giving only a profusion of external goods, performs a useless and vain act. The one who seeks to fulfill his duty by offering not holiness and virtue, but temporary and perishable goods, is mistaken.

Moreover, these are gifts that an honorable man would not consider pleasant to receive, unless they are offered in a suitable manner. On this point, here is another answer from Apollo Pythian, which deserves to be noted: Having a man offered a magnificent hecatomb without any feeling of piety, he wanted to know from the God how he had received his sacrifice. The God answered him: “The simple barley from Hermione was pleasing to my eyes,” thereby making known that he preferred the most miserable offering accompanied by true feelings of piety to that magnificence. With piety, everything is pleasing to God, while without it, nothing can please him. This is enough for now on holiness. Since an exact and unchanging observance maintains the Law of the arrangement of this universe, and it was customary for the ancients to appoint the guardian of the mysterious and ineffable name of oath, it is rightly placed here, after the precepts of the gods, as a consequence.

Comments on Verse 1

The comments made by Hierocles on the first verse are undoubtedly accurate and appropriate. Throughout the centuries, all those who have studied Pythagoreanism have recognized the value of this work. However, there are some aspects that we can add to further complement Pythagorean thought.

What does this first verse ask of us? It asks us to pay homage, honoring first and foremost the gods consecrated and ordained by worship or by law. At first glance, the simplest interpretation is that the religious conception of Pythagoreanism is a syncretic conception, adaptable to all beliefs. But it is not quite so! It is evident from the outset that Pythagoras did not intend to develop a religion. We know that the Orphics approached him, wanting to drag him into Orphism (which was already in decline in Greece at that time), but the Master revealed to them that he possessed a thought that subordinated the Orphic thought, without being Orphic, and they respected him (The Pythoness of Delphi consecrated him as the most complete of the Orphics).

The accusation that has been made, and was addressed to the Pythagoreans at the time, that they intended to create a religion, was unfounded, and we will explain why: first and foremost, for Pythagoras, man was an ascending being who, surpassing animality, reached the highest perfection through the practice of virtue and knowledge. In the initial comments by Hierocles, the free will, free from everything that vitiates it, and the understanding enlightened by wisdom and insight, would elevate man to ever higher degrees of perfection. But they constituted not only the divine virtues but also had to be solidified with the so-called political or civic virtues, the virtues of practical life, which Hierocles addressed at the beginning of his work. Man is a being who can and should dedicate himself to perfection so that he may know the path, the way of return to divinity, to the principle of all things and from which he originates. Thus, the Pythagorean maxims contain the essence that cannot be overlooked by anyone who wants to study the Golden Verses, such as the one offered to us by Hierocles: “God has no place on earth more suitable to dwell in than the pure soul,” which perfectly aligns with the oracle of Apollo Pythius: “I take no greater pleasure in the shining Olympus than in the souls of pious men.” The pious man is the one who, having knowledge of God, offers his own perfection as the greatest honor he can give to the cause of all goods, who, in the ardor of acquiring them, constantly turns towards those who can be those goods and, by always becoming worthy of receiving them, fully honors those who gave them without stopping. Any man who wants to honor God in any other way, not for himself and by the understandings of his heart, by merely giving an abundance of external goods, performs a futile act. The one who seeks to fulfill his duty, not by attaining holiness and virtue, but by offering temporal and perishable goods, is in error. This is the Pythagorean meaning of piety. True fear of God and true piety consist, in man, in constantly offering his most worthy and noble acts, the fulfillment of his duties that dignify him and elevate him.

If we consider from the outset this way in which the Pythagorean positions himself before divinity, dispensing with the sacrifices of things but offering the acts that ennoble the human being, we then understand what the creature’s religious connection with the creator consists of. It is a connection with awareness of what one does, knowing what one does, which is properly the religious path. The entire attitude of the Pythagorean in his manner of proceeding, whether towards himself, towards others, towards the knowledge he can acquire, or towards divinity, is included in any worship that may be established, as none of them can surpass it.

Taking into account these words of Iamblichus in his Vita Pythagorae9: “The divine Pythagoras concealed the sparks of truth, preserving them in concise formulas for those who could make light gush forth from them, the infinite and inaccessible limits of speculation,” we understand that Pythagorean thought requires a special method to uncover what is hidden in its teachings. However, we will confine ourselves to commenting on the Golden Verses, which refer more to the practical life of man, man in his relations with Divinity, disregarding the more philosophical part, which will be developed in our mathematical studies10.

Pythagorean thought was not revealed to just anyone, as it required not only great effort but also great penetration. Similarly, the Golden Verses require careful commentary.

Therefore, interpreting this first verse merely as a kind of position of tolerance towards various religious beliefs, or as an attitude of someone seeking to conceal their true faith and only conform to the ways in which men approach the Creator, is a false interpretation of Pythagorean teaching. The elevation of man can only occur through the path of purifying the will, understanding, and love. There is a constant need for catharsis in this regard. In the second stage, one must continue to free oneself from everything that vitiates the highest within man: the will, understanding, and love.

As we saw in Hierocles’s comments, this is the essence of his interpretation, as well as that of all the great Pythagoreans. Namely, we are beings capable of attaining eminent degrees, hierarchically superior in will, understanding, and love. Therefore, Pythagoreanism is not limited to the pursuit of freedom alone, for freedom without a sound and liberated understanding and a purified love will be imperfect. It is not merely cultivating understanding through knowledge because knowledge without a free will, already liberated and free from passions, and without a purified love, will serve more for evil than for good. Likewise, love cannot be merely an intense longing for a desired good or something, if it is not accompanied by a free will and a purified understanding because, otherwise, all of this would separate us from Divinity instead of drawing us closer. Satanism can also attain a free will, an elevated understanding, and can have intense love at the highest degrees, but it will be a will diverted towards goods that do not dignify man, that do not elevate him. It will be a knowledge that does not tend towards higher accomplishments, it will be love directed not towards what elevates, but rather towards what depresses. The grave error was to believe that a free will, great knowledge, and intense love were enough for man to attain his perfection. No! It is necessary for that will to be free from passions and directed towards the good chosen by the understanding or intelligence, and love must stimulate and unite all of this. They must together strive upwards, towards the superior; otherwise, that man, instead of ascending the ladder of perfection and approaching the divine virtues, remains with human virtues that would make him powerful in the realm of evil, not in the realm of good. This distinction, in our view, is very important.

Pythagoras and his disciples observed in all beliefs (especially he, who had traveled and seen the most diverse peoples) that men paid homage to the strangest gods, but always noticed that they had a greater or lesser longing for perfection. If they followed erroneous paths, it was because the truth was not properly assisted by understanding. If hatred sometimes dominated, it was because love had deviated and turned into hatred towards anything that hindered the attainment of the good they deemed superior. Thus, he understood that not all human beings are capable of following this path, which is initiation, of entering this path and passing the stages to ultimately achieve constant perfectibility of the will, understanding, and love. It was therefore preferable that these individuals at least render homage to the gods according to the established cult and carefully guard their faith. The work of the Pythagoreans had to be slow and hidden, in the greatest silence. And why? Because how could they go to the masses and say, “Your belief is mere fear, terror; you do not refrain from doing evil because you fear the punishments that religion threatens you with, you do good in the hope of obtaining advantages. You are mistaken; you have to follow another path.” Such an attitude of the Pythagoreans would not be constructive at all, it would be pernicious! It would favor atheism (the ravages of which have been and continue to be terrible in history…). Hence, first and foremost: preparing men to become tomorrow’s masters of youth, who, in turn, when they become adults, would be capable of multiplying true knowledge; and who could resist the invasion of false ideas that plagued schools and threatened to subvert thought. In this way, providing deep knowledge, enabling man to achieve higher perfective accomplishments, becoming similar to God.

This was the only solution, and even today it still is! Everything else has failed because we cannot overlook this truth: the majority of human beings do not have sufficient knowledge, they do not possess the necessary means to comprehend the greatness of a Pythagorean life. We cannot rely on spontaneous goodness of the human heart because it is rare, or at least it is in such a minute degree that it does not overcome passions and interests sharpened by those who know how to exploit them for their own sole benefit. That is why Pythagoreanism could not act like a political party or a simple cult that addresses the masses, seeking to convey some ideas. Their work was much greater, and it remains so today. The construction of a good and just man is a work of millennia! If it had started and been carried forward as Pythagoras intended, it would have borne greater fruits than it has. This work is misunderstood by those who have a narrow, utopian, and unrealistic view of society, who believe that merely changing some human relationships, altering some situations, can profoundly and essentially transform man. They demonstrate little understanding of the reality of the human soul, they know little about man’s innermost self, and they fail to perceive the grave dangers to which every human being is exposed.

Throughout time, the Pythagoreans set an example of a virtuous and pure life. On all occasions, they conducted themselves in a manner worthy of what they preached and, humanly speaking, they achieved the highest and most noble things that man can accomplish in all areas, not only in practical life but also in theoretical life, aesthetic life, and artistic life. They fulfilled what they promised and gave testimony with their own lives, through the evidence and value of their ideas.

By saying this, we do not mean to imply that Hierocles’s comments were inadequate. They offer what is fundamental in this thought, but not everything. They show that we honor God perfectly when we act in a way that our soul is made in His image, or as he says: “You will honor God perfectly if you act in a way that your soul is His image.” This thought is a maxim of the Pythagoreans. Likewise, when he says that the honor rendered to the One who needs nothing consists of receiving the goods He offers, for one does not honor God by giving Him things, but by becoming worthy of receiving them. Thus, the Pythagoreans say: “You will honor God perfectly if you act in a way that your soul is His image.” Our soul must be the image of God, therefore it is not by giving things, not by performing sacrifices, not by torturing our bodies, but through the realization of our actions. Every time we perform a superior action that represents a higher degree of perfection, we offer it to God because it is a path to Him. This is Pythagorean religion, this is Pythagorean worship that does not oppose any other religion or any other established cult, for both can coexist. Thus, a Muslim can be a Pythagorean, as well as a Buddhist, a Taoist, a Christian, or anyone from any other religion.

Hierocles draws attention to the fact that the value of our offerings lies primarily in the intentionality they contain. With piety, everything is pleasing to God, whereas without it, nothing can please Him. As an accurate and unchanging observation, the law preserves the logos of the order of this universe, as it was customary for the ancients to illuminate the guardian of the mysterious and ineffable name of the oath, which he will discuss in the next verse.

To conclude, we will highlight one more aspect: the tri-division of God, the immortal gods, and those which some translate as terrestrial demons, others as underground gods, and still others as beneficent spirits – which we will discuss further. We will show that this division becomes clear, more or less corresponding to the Christian division: man as the lowest intelligence, God as the Supreme Being, and the intermediary beings formed by angels and beneficent heroes, who would become the saints who, after death, would ascend and attain immortality, thus constituting, alongside the angels, an intermediate order to achieve perfect balance. Hierocles points out this division of intelligence, from the most extreme to the lowest. We are participants in this world and can conquer it, depending solely on our effort and action in life.

The recommendation of Pythagoras to his disciples is that they should recognize the obligation to submit to the manifestations of cults as established by religious traditions. The Pythagorean could not remain in an “ivory tower,” detached from external worship because it is understandable and, to a certain extent, necessary. While many can live with exclusively internal worship, external worship is necessary for reasons that we will not explain now. Pythagoras knew and understood these reasons, and he believed that Pythagoreans should not remain separate; he accepted that they should practice the worship consecrated in the region where they lived because the main point was not to consider this worship as the only valid one. For the Pythagorean, it was their duty to resemble God, striving to reach higher levels of perfection and even attempting to achieve them! This is the reason, as Fabre d’Olivet observes, and it is not hypocrisy, as some have interpreted, saying that later Pythagoreans followed various religious cults (Buddhists, Taoists, Catholics, Protestants, etc.). They are Catholics to the extent that Catholicism is an approximation of God, and they will be Taoists to the extent that Taoism is also an imitation of God. Similarly, Christ will be an imitation of God, and we, an imitation of Christ. Hypocrisy lies in those who perform external worship without having it internally, comments Fabre d’Olivet, and he also draws attention to certain religious sects. He says: “it is known, with Plutarch, that places and different names lead to different gods, that the Greeks and barbarians, the nations of the north and those of the center, worship the same divinity and can easily be brought to the unity of essence, this infinity of attributes, just as the respectable ancient Samanians do, the priests of the Burmese who worship God, regardless of the altar and the temple, as well as the place where they are.”

And he makes a note: “the priests of the Burmese are called Rahans, but their generic name is Samana (hence the name Samanians) given to them by the ancients, and they have a great spirit of tolerance. Thus, they visit pagodas, mosques, and churches with the same devotion. They are neither seen persecuting others nor being persecuted because of religion. Brahmins, Muslims, and Christians hold important positions among them, without scandalizing anyone. They regard all men as their brothers. The Brahmins have the same thought. These remarkable words are found in the Bhagavad-Gita: 'A great diversity of similar cults, varied in form but united in content, are manifested by the will of the Supreme Being. Some follow one cult, while others adhere to another. All of them are purified of their offenses by their particular worship. God is the gift of charity; God is the offering; God is the fire of the altar; it is God Himself who makes the sacrifice, and He will be obtained by the one who makes Him the sole object of his deeds.’”

This is what the disciples of Pythagoras did, according to the orders of their master. They saw in the gods of nations the attributes of the Ineffable Being, which was not named (since Pythagoreans do not name the name of God), but they spoke of the Supreme Being in order to respect His various names.

The number of these attributes or their accuracy may vary in the cults, but in all of them, there is undeniably a clear understanding of some or even all of them; therefore, they must show reverence for the worship consecrated by law. And all these cults are secretly and inwardly gathered by the Pythagoreans as various paths that lead to the same royal path that leads to God.

Verse II

The Oath

Respect the oath alongside all kinds of religion.

We have just seen that Law is the virtue of God, through which He operates all things immutably and for all eternity. As a consequence of this law, we will say that the oath is the cause that preserves all things in the same state, giving them stability guaranteed by the faith of the oath and thus maintaining the order established by law, so that the unchanging arrangement of all created beings is nothing more than the effect of the creative law and the conservative oath.

For all beings to remain arranged and disposed is the primary work and the first effect of the divine oath, so that it is always preserved by those who think of God, but it is often violated by those who do not always think of Him and sometimes forget Him. In fact, as they distance themselves from God, they violate the oath, and they keep it to the extent that they draw near to Him.

The oath is nothing more than the observance of divine laws; it is the bond by which all created beings are linked to the Creator God to know Him. Those who are always united to Him always respect the oath, while those who sometimes stray from Him become impious towards this oath, not only transgressing the order of the divine Law but also violating the faith of the divine oath. Such is the oath that can be said to be inherent and essential to rational beings, to always remain solely connected to their Father and Creator and never to transgress in any way the laws He established.

The oath that we resort to in civil life is a shadow and a copy of the first oath; when used properly, it leads straight to the truth for those who employ it as necessary. By dispelling the ambiguity and uncertainty of human intentions, it makes them clear and certain, fixing them and compelling them to remain as they were declared, both in words and actions, revealing the truth of what has already been done and demanding a pledge for what is yet to be done. This is why it is more just that the oath be respected above all else. The first oath, first by its essence as the guardian of eternity, is venerable. The human oath, which is a reliable recourse in the practices of life, must be respected as an image of the first oath and as the one that, after the divine oath, encompasses the highest degree of certainty and truth, purifying those who have learned to respect it. Now, the due respect for the oath consists solely in the faithful and inviolable observation of what one has sworn. This observance constitutes the virtue that unites those who cultivate it with the stability and truth of the divine state through voluntary necessity.

The ineffable sanctity of the first oath can be regained through conversion to God when, through purifying virtues, we heal from the transgression of this divine oath. The holiness and fidelity of the human oath are preserved through political virtues. Those who possess these virtues are the only ones who can be faithful in the oaths of civil life. Vice, the father of unhappiness and perjury, tramples on the oath through the instability and inconsistency of its customs. Indeed, how can the greedy be faithful when it comes to receiving or returning money? Can the intemperate or the coward be faithful to their oath? Both of them, wherever they believe they find their advantage, will strip the oath of respect and renounce all divine goods for temporal and perishable goods.

But those in whom the possession of virtues is firm and secure know how to maintain the respect required by the majesty of the oath. Now, the safest way to preserve this respect inviolably is to use it neither frequently, nor rashly, nor randomly, nor for trivial matters, nor to give an appearance of security to what is being said.

It must be reserved for necessary and honorable things, and for the only occasions where it seems that there is no other means of salvation than through the truth under oath. The only way for all present to be persuaded of the truth of what we say is to ensure that our conduct aligns with our oaths and to leave no reason for our neighbors to suspect that we are capable of prioritizing any kind of fortune over truth, whether we have sworn or not. This precept: respect the oath, not only commands us to be truthful and faithful in our oath but also to abstain from using it excessively. For not using it excessively is the best way to always be faithful and truthful. The habit of swearing easily leads to perjury, whereas the rarity of the oath ensures its observance. It is preferable not to swear, but if one does swear, one must be truthful and faithful.

By not advancing too hastily and not letting language outrun reflection due to the unfortunate habit of swearing, the mind does not become corrupted by the sway of passions. The mind is guided and governed by upright customs, and the tongue is restrained by refraining from swearing. Now, faithfulness to the oath perfectly aligns with the honor that the first verse orders us to give to the Gods, as it is the inseparable companion of piety. Moreover, the oath is the guardian of divine Law for the order and arrangement of this universe.

Therefore, honor this Law by obeying what it commands: respect the oath, refraining from using it on every occasion, so that not being accustomed to swearing, your oath may be sacred, for the sanctity of the oath is nothing more than a small part of piety.

And now that I have addressed the primary beings, the divine law that brought about order and arrangement, and the oath, which is the sequence and dependence of this Law, the author proceeds to explain why it is necessary to honor the being we call Angelic, after the immortal Gods.

Verse III

Honor after heroes full of kindness and light,

Here we now find ourselves in the presence of the middle beings among rational essences, who occupy the second place after the immortal gods, precede human nature, and connect the last beings with the first. Holding the second place, they are entitled to secondary honors, as implied in these words of the first precept: Honor them as they are placed and arranged by Law. It is known that all the strength and virtue of this honor consist in truly knowing the essence of those we honor. This knowledge, allowing us to easily and effortlessly discern everything we should say and do to honor them as is required. For how can we speak properly to those we do not know, and how can we offer gifts to those whose dignity we are ignorant of? The first and true honor, in relation to these heroes full of kindness and light, is the knowledge of their essence, their order, and the precise understanding of their function, as well as the perfection they bring to this universe, according to the position they occupy. For in all things, we must proportionately give them the honor they deserve, and this measure can only come from the knowledge we have of them. It is only to the extent that we know the nature and place of each being that we can render them the honor they deserve, and that the law requires us to render. We shall not honor any nature inferior to human nature; we shall primarily honor beings who are superior to us in their essence, and those who, being our equals, have distinguished themselves and risen above us by the eminence of their virtue.

Of all beings superior to us in their essence, the first and most excellent is God, who created all things and is also to be honored above all, without comparison. Those who come after Him and are foremost in the world through Him always think of Him, expressing and faithfully representing in themselves all the goods that the cause that created them made them participants of. They are the ones the first verse called the immortal gods, for they do not die and always maintain the difference that never changes, which they have towards God.

After God, they are entitled to the highest honors. The second honors and the middle honors are for the middle beings; that is, those who occupy the second place and are the heroes full of kindness and light, who always think of their creator and are radiant with the light that emanates from the happiness they enjoy within themselves, albeit not always in the same way, nor without any change.

Indeed, they are united with God as a medium and have received the grace of always being turned towards Him without being able to move away from Him; they always move around that first being, but their efforts are not always equal. Through their full self-knowledge, they separate and at the same time open up the unchanging intimacy that the first beings have with God, making the end of intimacy the beginning of their initiation. This is why they are called excellent heroes.

The epithet “excellent” indicates by its root that they are full of kindness and light, never falling into vice or forgetfulness. As for the term “heroes,” it comes from a word that means “Love,” and here it indicates that, filled with love for God, they seek only to help transition from earthly life to divine life and become citizens of heaven. They are thus called “good demons,” as they are instructed and wise in divine laws, and at times they are called angels, as they declare and announce to us the rules for a righteous life and happiness. Sometimes, according to these three senses, these three middle beings are divided into three classes: those who are closest to celestial and divine beings, whom we call angels; those who are attached to earthly things, whom we call heroes; and finally, demons, who maintain the middle ground, equally distant from the two extremes, as Plato has often treated. Others give them only one of the three names, calling them Angels, Heroes, or Demons, according to the distinctions we established above. This is how the author of these verses used them.

He calls them “heroes full of kindness and light” because they are, in relation to the first type, like radiance to fire, like a son to a father. That is why they are celebrated as children of God, and rightly so, for they were not born of mortal race but are produced by their uniform and simple cause, just as light comes from the essence of luminous bodies—I mean clear and pure light, after which one can easily imagine a light mixed with darkness. This obscure light corresponds analogically to the third type of beings, namely, the human race, due to its tendency towards vice and forgetfulness, which makes it incapable of always thinking of God. It is inferior to beings that always think of Him because they sometimes cease to think of Him: these are its darkness. However, it is superior to irrational beings because at times it renews its thoughts about God and is occasionally drawn to celestial knowledge when it joins the heavenly choirs, stripped of carnal affections and liberated from all corruption of the body; such is its light. The one who honored them with this divine grace becomes worthy of our homage and respect, as having served and honored in himself the equality of our nature by participating in what is best. Therefore, anyone who loves God must also love such a being, whether they possess this likeness to God from all eternity or have acquired it after some time, like the men who distinguished themselves by the eminence of their virtue, which the next verse will address.

Verse IV

Also, respect the earthly demons, rendering them the worship that is rightfully due to them.

The souls of men adorned with truth and virtue, considered as full of knowledge and light, are called Demons; but to distinguish them from the demons that are such by nature and that hold an intermediate position, the epithet “earthly” is added to make it clear that they can converse with men, animate mortal bodies, and dwell on earth. The name “demons” sets them apart from wicked and impious men, who are most ignorant and thus distant from the essence of demons. Furthermore, by adding the epithet “earthly,” they are distinguished from those who are always full of light and knowledge and are not by nature meant to live on earth or animate mortal bodies. The name “earthly demons” is only appropriate for someone who, being human by nature, has become a demon by habit and association and is wise in matters of God. The third type is called simple and properly earthly, as it is the last in the order of rational substances and wholly devoted to earthly life, while the first type is called celestial, and the second is called ethereal. Thus, since all men are earthly, that is, they occupy the third and final place among rational substances, and not all men are demons, that is, endowed with knowledge and light, it is reasonable that the author of the verses combined these two names, “earthly demons,” to signify wise and virtuous men, for not all men are wise, nor are all the wise men human, for heroes and immortal gods, who by their nature are far superior to men, are also endowed with wisdom and virtue.

This verse commands us to respect and venerate men who have found a place in divine orders and can be regarded as equals to demons, angels, and heroes. It is not necessary to believe that we are here advised to respect and honor any kind of vile and despicable demon, as the common usage of the term “earthly demon” might suggest. In an absolute general rule, all beings inferior to human nature must not be honored in any way by those who are touched by the love of God and who perceive their own dignity and nobility.

We shall not honor any man above superior beings unless he becomes similar to them and is included in the divine chorus. So, what honor and respect are due to them? The verse says, to render them the worship that is rightfully due to them. This worship consists of obeying the precepts they have left us and considering them as inviolable laws, following the same paths they followed in life, ensuring that no envy prevents them from teaching us and that they have transmitted to their successors with great difficulty and effort, like an immortal inheritance, recording in their writings for the common good of humanity the elements of virtue and the rules of truth.

To obey their teachings and shape our lives according to them is to honor them more truly than performing the most elaborate libations on their tombs or offering them the most sumptuous sacrifices.

This is the honor that is due to superior beings, an honor that begins with the Creator, passes through the middle beings, celestial and ethereal, and ends with men who were virtuous and righteous.

It is necessary to honor the parents that life has given us. Though they may not have achieved perfection, they still deserve our respect due to the use and dignity of familial bonds. That is what has been stated here.

Comments on Verses II-III-IV

In Hiérocles’s comments on the oath, there is little to add. The oath can also be considered innate and essential; it belongs to rational beings and consists of being solely connected to their Father and Creator, and never transgressing the laws He established. Respecting the oath alongside any kind of religion is a consequence of what we have already discussed in Verse I. In Verse III: Honor after heroes full of goodness and light. There are annotations and certain themes made by the Pythagoreans regarding this verse that we would like to dwell upon, especially regarding the translation of these two terms: heroes full of goodness and light, which some translate as benevolent heroes and semi-gods, to then find, in Verse IV: also respect the earthly demons, rendering them the worship that is legitimately due to them.

Fabre D’Olivet begins the comments on this verse by saying that Pythagoras considered the universe as a living whole, whose divine intelligences, classified according to their perfections in their own sphere, were members of that sphere. Thus, he was the first to give this whole the Greek name Cosmos, which means that which has been ordered, arranged according to a fixed and regular principle, a Law. The Romans translated it as Mundus (which does not express the Greek concept well). This unity, considered as the principle of the world, is where the name we give to the universe derives from. Pythagoras placed the universe as the principle of all things, and from this unity, an infinite dyad emerged. The essence of this unity and the way in which the dyad emanated from it and would return to it were the deepest mysteries of his doctrine, the sacred objects of faith for his disciples—the fundamental points that he prohibited from being revealed.

It can be said that Pythagorean thought would consider the universe as a organized whole, arranged according to the logos (an expression used by them). We find this in Philolaus and other Pythagoreans (there is no doubt about it), but as something created, made by the Father, the Creator, and from which, from this unity – “the hen-proter” – a dyad – “hen dyas” – one-two – “hen dyas aóristos” – one-two indeterminate from which all things would then originate and the formation of all things would occur, a combination of this indeterminate dyad and the return of all this, this creaturely being to divinity, would constitute some of the secrets of Pythagorean doctrine. These teachings were secret because there is no clear explanation of them.11

Thus, it is observed that this universe would be composed of various spheres in which these heroes, full of goodness and light, and the earthly demons would be located. The word “demon” should be understood in a positive sense and not in the pejorative sense it was given later, under the influence of Christianity. Finally, there are humans and earthly things. This is clearly stated in Verse III, in the comments made by Hiérocles. We can only add some important comments regarding the heroes, such as those made by Fabre D’Olivet, that the gods, the heroes, and the demons – theos, heroas, and daimon – from them derive the principal beings that have attained perfection, the dominating principal beings in earthly existences. The word “theos” is formed from the Hebrew word “aôs,” a principal being, preceded by the emphatic letter “th” which is the sign of perfection. “Heroas” is composed of the same Hebrew word “aôs,” preceded by the word “he” which expresses everything that dominates, so heroes would be a dominating principle. “Theos” would be the principle of perfection, and the word “daimon” (which comes from “demo,” meaning earth, hence Demeter, mother earth, and from “on,” existence, on, ontos, ontological being).

Regarding the term “eon, aion, eion,” the Greeks used it, and the Pythagoreans constantly mentioned it. According to Fabre D’Olivet, this word “aion,” in Greek, derives from the Egyptian and Phoenician “a i,” a principle of will, a central point of development, and also from “ion,” which is the generative faculty.12

In Verse IV, the epithet of earthly demon is already explained: it is the translation of the word demon, and there is a distinction between the contemptible sense of the word and the superior sense given by Hiérocles, who says that the worship that should be rendered to these earthly demons, to the human beings who have excelled, who have become heroes, those who have higher functions in humanity and can exert dominion over us in certain aspects, to whom we must render worship and respect them when this worship is legitimately due and in accordance with the law. Not the worship imposed by a tyrant, but what is just according to religious conceptions.

With Verse IV, we conclude the first part that belongs to the phase of paraskeiê – the phase of the initiate’s preparation – in which the human being frees oneself from prejudices, sectarianism, and gains a broader vision of the various beliefs and our connection to the Supreme Being, paying the homage that is due. In this way, we prepare for the higher civic virtues that are self-purification, which will make us a companion within society, a person who can accompany others, who can participate. Companion is the second degree, that of cathartysis, when purification takes place.

Verse V

Also honor your father, your mother, and your closest relatives.

The author has just commanded us to respect and venerate good people as divine men who enjoy happiness. Here he exhorts us to honor our father and mother, and those who are connected to us by blood ties, regardless of who they are, simply because of the necessity of kinship.

For those who are superior beings to us, like the celestial beings who play the role of parents, due to the connection that has existed between them and us for all eternity, and for the Heroes, as relatives, our father and mother do so in this mortal life, as well as for our closest relatives who are more closely related by blood, and for this reason, they deserve the first honors from us, after our father and mother. How will we honor them? It will be by regulating our lives according to their wishes, so that we only do what is pleasing to them. But in this way, our striving for virtue will turn into a striving for vice if they happen to be vicious. On the other hand, will we despise them because we know of their vices? How then can we obey the law prescribed here? Can we be impious towards those with whom we should be akin?

And this virtue that we believe to practice by disobeying our parents, will it not bring about a great evil, which is impiety? On the contrary, if we obey them in everything, how can we deviate from piety and the practice of virtues if it happens that, through the corruption of their customs, they do not teach us truth and virtue? If everything our father and mother command us is good and true, the honor we render to them will perfectly correspond to the honor and obedience we owe to the Gods. But if the will of our parents is not always in accordance with the laws of God, what should those who find themselves in this kind of contradiction and antinomy do? They should do nothing other than what is practiced daily in other duties that are incompatible in certain circumstances, where it is necessary to necessarily violate one to observe the other.

When two good actions are proposed to us, one being good and the other better, we should prefer the better one when we cannot accomplish both. It is a good action to obey God, and it is also a good action to obey our parents. If what God and our parents require of us is in accordance with and tends to the same end, it is a great fortune for us, and this double duty is indispensable. But if God commands one thing and our parents another, and they are contradictory and inadequate, we must obey God by disobeying our parents only to the extent that they do not obey divine laws, for it is not possible for the one who wants to observe the rules of virtue to always comply with those who violate them.

In all other matters, we will honor our father and mother to the best of our ability, without restriction, serving them ourselves, providing them abundantly, wholeheartedly, with the goods they need, for it is just that those who have begotten and nourished us should be served by us. But what we have not received from them, the law declares it to be free and liberated from all power; it orders us to seek the true father and adhere to him, and to work to become like his image. It is through this means that we can preserve divine and human goods. Similarly, we will not neglect our relatives under the vain pretext of virtue, nor will we fall into the greatest of all evils, which is impiety, through blind and foolish obedience.

If they threaten us with death due to our disobedience or to disinherit us, we must not fear the threats; we must think beforehand about what those threats entail. They only threaten what they have created, but what is safe from their power, what cannot suffer from their injustice, what does not come from them, must be kept free and subject to God. The true honor that virtue commands us to render to our parents is to spare no effort in serving them with our bodies and to be completely submissive to them in these two ministries. It is proper and just never to refuse them the service of our hands; on the contrary, the more menial and slave-like the work, the more content and honored we should feel in doing it. Likewise, we should not withhold from them the goods they need and diminish what they require due to a spirit of stinginess. We should abundantly provide them with everything they need and be happy to serve them with our goods and ourselves. To practice these things joyfully is to fulfill the law of virtue and fulfill the obligations of nature. This is the honor we owe to our parents. The honor we owe to our relatives, which is only secondary, is measured by the degree of kinship, so that after our father and mother, we will honor our relatives more or less according to the degree of natural affinity that unites us to them.

Comments on Verse V

Let’s analyze the comments of Hierocles: also honor your father and mother and your closest relatives. The Pythagorean purification begins with the worship of the family, loving parents and all relatives, or as some have translated: being a good son, a just brother, a tender spouse, and a good father. Profess the worship of the family, establish the fulfillment of duties towards the father, mother, and all relatives.

Hierocles’s comments are sufficient, we will only add some annotations based on Paul Carton. According to him, it is rightly so that in the Pythagorean Institute, the worship of the family preceded friendship because the continuity of affection and, above all, the spirit of sacrifice of a father and mother towards their children cannot be imposed on the best friend. Experience shows that one can replace a friend, but one can never find a mother’s heart again. The worship of the family, which includes love for ancestors, the foundation of a home, and the procreation of children, presents itself as one of the fundamental factors of human progress because individuality is fully realized only when it is a family work.

For Pythagoreanism, the archetypal, original, or cosmic man was an androgynous unity, composed of two halves, separated or transformed in carnal involution. Genesis says: “He created them in the image of God, male and female he created them; then God took the woman out of the man by taking one of his ribs, one of his sides.” According to Pythagoreanism, women are neither superior nor inferior to men, nor can they be considered equal or unequal because they are complementary both in terms of their physical makeup and their instinct, their actions, their way of acting, and their functions in human life.

The third element of the family is the child. They complete the trinity of forces that come together to form a new unity, according to the Pythagorean quaternary or tetradic mode, which this author proceeds to analyze. In order for the family to form a harmonious whole capable of progress, the father must set an example of complete order. Then, he can impart proper guidance to the home, protect and watch over the child, and regulate their instincts by suppressing base impulses and the violence of animality. For man, in his natural state, is not good, but he must strive to approach God and have an ideal of perfection.

Regarding the worship of the family, which is fundamental to the purification of man, we have nothing more to add except to mention a comment made by Fabre D’Olivet, in which he draws attention to the tendency we are experiencing today (already so pronounced in his time in France), which is to fight against the family and transform it in order to concentrate man’s love on a rational being called “homeland” or “nation”. This is a true violation of reality because this love for the homeland can only exist when the homeland is that of our father, for without a father, without a family, the homeland has no meaning, no foundation. And to justify the Pythagorean position, he chooses passages from the Exodus of Moses, where this sense of connection to father and mother is also observed as the foundation of all human society.

Verse VI

Choose as your friend among all men the one who distinguishes himself by his virtue.

After the precept that prescribes the primordial honor we owe to our closest relatives and the one that regulates our duties towards our father, mother, and their close relatives, a precept that follows from the first, now comes the Law that is given to us for forming friendships. Apart from those within our family, we should choose the most virtuous man as our friend, join him, and share virtue with him, so that it is for a noble purpose that we make the virtuous man our friend, not for any other self-interest. This precept is similar to the one given to us regarding virtuous people who are deceased; there we are told that we should honor and venerate only those who possess knowledge and enlightenment to the fullest. Similarly, we should only make friends with those who are upright and virtuous. The choice of friends is given to us, while nature determines our relatives and their close connections. A father and a brother naturally attract respect, but for others, our friends, it is only virtue that is their worth, just as it is virtue that gives merit to those who have passed away.

It is nature itself that makes the beings that precede these friends respectable and commands us to honor them. In the heavens, there are Gods and Heroes (the angels), and here on earth, it is our parents who constantly represent to us the image of the immortal kinship that binds us to those Gods and Heroes. This is how we should seek and acquire a friend. As for how to maintain the friendship, as long as it contributes to our true good, or to abandon it if it tends to corrupt, and to never hate your friend for a small fault, this is what it will teach us.

Verses VII – VIII – IX

Always follow their gentle advice and their honest and useful actions.

And never hate your friend for a minor offense, as much as you can.

Now, power dwells alongside necessity.

This concerns how to behave towards friends. First and foremost, it is necessary to yield to them and obey them when they give us honest advice and do something for our benefit. It is for the sake of this common good that the law of friendship binds us, as they help us grow in virtue, and we, in turn, help them in the same manner.

They are like fellow travelers who journey together on the path of the best life. If one sees something better than the other, they should communicate it for the common interest, and both, being part of everything that is honest and useful, should yield to each other’s advice. We should never argue with our friends over matters of wealth, glory, or anything else that is perishable and mortal. We should not hate those who are our friends for a minor fault.

Therefore, we must bear with our friends in all things, for we are bound to them by the greatest of all needs, the ties of friendship.

There is only one case in which we will not bear with them: we will not yield to them when they become corrupt. We will not follow them in any way when they stray from the paths of wisdom and enter into another kind of life, for we would be led away from the path of virtue along with them. However, we will make every effort to bring our friend back onto the right path.

If we cannot persuade them, we will not remain indifferent to them, neither treating them as our enemy due to our former friendship, nor as our friend due to their corruption. For this reason alone, we will leave them and renounce them as incapable of helping us preserve virtue, the only thing for which we sought their friendship. But we must be careful that this separation does not degenerate into enmity. Although they were the first to break our bond, we are obliged to take great care in reminding them of their duty, without rejoicing in the downfall of a friend, without insulting their mistake and fault. Instead, we should sympathize with their unhappiness, mourn for them, and plead for them, not forgetting anything that could lead them to salvation through repentance.

Now, what can bring them back is not arguing with them about good or glory, not depriving them of our company with arrogance and affectation, not triumphing over their misfortunes by exalting our ambition and vanity. And as what contributes most to preserving our friends, or gives us the right to leave them, or reminds them of the fulfillment of their duty through repentance, is bearing with their mistakes, not engaging in excessively heated discussions about our interests, showing indulgence, not taking everything strictly in every word, being patient to the best of our abilities.

That’s why the author of the verses adds: as much as you can. Furthermore, so that we don’t measure power at will but by the forces of nature, as much as the intervening necessity can reveal, he warns us that power dwells alongside necessity. Indeed, each one of us can convince ourselves that necessity can lead us to discover more strength every day than we thought we possessed. Therefore, we must accept that we should bear with our friends as far as necessity allows us to, and the necessity of friendship makes bearable what we believed to be unbearable. We must not imagine that courage and valor can only be employed to resist the blows and shocks of violence and force. Anything that can preserve our friends or bring us closer to them is part of the orders of divine necessity and, therefore, requires even greater patience. For the wise, the necessity of the spirit is stronger and more powerful than any external force. Whether we consider the necessity that arises from circumstances and situations or the necessity of the will, a free and independent necessity contained within the limits of knowledge, stemming from divine laws, we will find the measure of the inherent power that this verse wants us to employ with regard to our friends, not easily severing ties with them and not hating them for a minor fault. This verse considers all things that do not belong to the soul to be of little value; it forbids us from transforming our friendship into hatred due to selfish interests. It commands us, through complete indifference to external matters, to bring our friend back and to be able to bear witness to the fact that our friends have preserved us as much as it depended on us. We have observed and set those who have been overcome by vice back on the right path, and we have not given them any reason to break with us, nor have we acted in the same way when they were the first to renounce our friendship. This is what the sacred law of friendship demands, a superlative virtue that surpasses all other virtues, for the end of virtues is friendship, and piety is its principle.

The rules of piety are for us the seeds of true goods, and the habit of friendship is the most perfect fruit of virtues. Therefore, we must always maintain justice, not only with those who treat us well but also with those who seek to harm us, lest we fall into the same vice by returning evil for evil, just as we must always maintain friendship, meaning humanity, towards those who belong to our species. We will give the proper measure to friendship, placing each person in the appropriate order and position if we love good people for the sake of nature and for the sake of their inclinations, preserving in them the perfection of human nature. And if we love the wicked, whose inclinations and feelings have nothing that would make us seek their friendship, we only love them for the sake of nature, which we share in common with them. It was rightly said: the wise person hates no one, they only love good people. For by loving humanity in general, one cannot hate the wicked, and by seeking the virtuous to associate with, one always chooses the most perfect as the object of their affection. In the measure and rules of their friendship, they imitate God, who hates no man but prefers the good man, and who, extending His love to all mankind, takes care to assign each individual their deserved portion, calling and uniting with Himself the good people and reminding the deserters of virtue of their duty through the laws of His justice. Thus, each person reclaims their portion according to their merit and the benefit they can derive from it. This is how we should maintain friendship for all, by sharing with each person according to their merit and dignity. We will practice temperance and justice towards all people, not just the righteous and temperate. We will not be good with the good and evil with the evil, for if we were to act in this way, every accident would have the power to change us, and we would not have any good that we could extend and distribute to other people. If we acquire the habit of virtue, it does not depend on the first person who comes to us to make us lose it. Firm on their unshakable foundations, we will not change our dispositions and feelings towards those we encounter. We should act with friendship, as we do with all virtues, for it is the greatest of them all. Friendship is nothing but humanity that develops in general towards all men and, in particular, towards good people. That is why the name of humanity signifies that it particularly befits the love of mankind.

Having examined this article, let us move on to the others.

Comments on Verses VI to IX

In verses VI, VII, VIII, and IX, the second mission of the Pythagorean appears: the worship of friendship. Among all men, choose as your friend the one who stands out for his virtue, always follow his gentle advice and his honest and useful actions, and never hate your friend for a minor fault, as much as you can. Now, power dwells next to necessity.

In Hiérocles’s comments, the following points stand out: the worship of family is based on something natural, but the worship of a friend is a construction of human will. That is why in the Golden Verses, he orders to honor father, mother, and relatives, but when it comes to friends, he says: choose, because it is an act of will, of choice. Therefore, we should choose as our closest friends those who are honest in their conduct, who can guide and advise us. We should always yield to their honest and useful advice and actions, but prevent them from corrupting us if they deviate from the paths of wisdom and virtue. We should never hate them for a minor fault, as much as we can, because we cannot fully control our emotions, and we should always remember that alongside the power of this will, this desire, lies necessity – sympathetic and antipathetic. What we must prevent is our separation from turning into enmity, as Hiérocles says, for although he may have been the first to break our union, we are obliged to be very careful to draw his attention to his duty without rejoicing in his downfall, without insulting his mistake and his fault. We must sympathize with his unhappiness, with sorrow, crying and praying for him, and helping him to salvation through repentance.

Furthermore, there is a sacred law of friendship, which is a highly eminent virtue and, as the most perfect one, surpasses all others, for the end of virtues is friendship, and its principle is piety. Pitágoras said that the wise man does not hate anyone. He loves good people but does not hate. He loves mankind in general. He cannot hate evil. He seeks the virtuous to communicate with them; he chooses them as the object of his most perfect affection. Friendship’s rule is to imitate the love of God, who does not hate any man and loves the virtuous above all.

We shall practice temperance and justice towards all men, not only towards the just and temperate ones. We shall not be good to the good and bad to the bad, for if we acted thus, all accidents would have the power to change us, and we would not have any good to extend and distribute to other men. In conclusion, friendship is nothing other than humanity that develops, in general, towards all men and, in particular, towards good people. That is why the name humanity means that the love of men is particularly fitting for it.

Let us see Fabre D’Olivet’s comments. After studying the duties that arise directly from human nature, Pythagoras recommends the duties that result from the social state. Friendship follows immediately after filial piety, fraternal love, but he makes a distinction of meaning since he commands to honor relatives and says: choose your friend. And why? Because the love that binds us to father and mother, brothers, sisters, and relatives is something that arises from nature, that is connected to fortune or necessity, but this fortune, this necessity, the free nature of man has the will, and this regulates human life in social life. Man never separates from necessity, but he also never separates from will. These are the two opposing motives in which man lives. They have their strength in a higher cause that the ancients called Nemesis, the fundamental decree, and which we call Providence.13

The feeling of Nemesis, in Greek ethics, was to feel the presence of the necessity of our nature and the freedom of our will. They often opposed each other, but we had a field of action in which our necessity could not prevent the achievements of our will, and among these, in the actions of the will, is precisely friendship.

By recognizing this, Pythagoras placed himself within the conception of the ancient Egyptians who established: man is mortal in relation to the body but immortal in relation to the soul; this constitutes the essential man. As an immortal, he has authority over all things, but with regard to the material and mortal part of himself, he is subject to destiny, to will – anankê.

The Stoics were the ones who did not understand well how human freedom works. They deviated from Pythagoras' conception and therefore fell into important ethical errors. The same happened with Plato’s disciples, who ended up asserting that matter was the principle of evil, which was never clearly stated by Pythagoras or Plato; they always made a point of saying just the opposite. And this thought cannot be attributed to Zoroaster either because he did not establish evil as a principle as powerful as good or as a principle of all things.

Calcídio (cited by Fabre D’Olivet) says that Pythagoras demonstrated that evils necessarily exist because matter is evil in itself. He never said that matter was an absolute being, that evil composed its essence. Hiérocles, who studied Pythagoras and Plato, denied that either of them had ever stated that matter was an existing being in itself; on the contrary, he proved that Plato had taught, following in the footsteps of Pythagoras, that the world had been produced out of nothing and that his followers were mistaken when they thought that he had admitted an uncreated matter. Plotinus, Iamblichus, Proclus, Simplicius follow Hiérocles’s same line of thought and, when commenting on this part, deny these interpretations that were attributed to Pythagoras and Plato.

Fabre D’Olivet continues, saying that the power, the will, the necessity placed in these verses are not absolute sources of good and evil. Necessity is not inherently evil, nor is will inherently good by nature; it is the use that man makes of them, the application he makes through wisdom, through ignorance, the presence of virtue or vice, that can then result in a good or evil act. This is the true interpretation.

Paul Carton comments that in the worship of friendship, in the love for our fellow men, the choice that falls to man for a friend is the one who is more virtuous and wiser. The title of friend cannot be given to just anyone. It would be a profanation to use it in such a way. It should be attributed to the one who is worthy of receiving it. It is in virtue of the universal hierarchy that we should choose friends among the best men. The one who is worth less must indeed be subjected to the one who is worth more. It is in the order of things that we only recognize authority in virtue; that is, in social life, the only authority we can admit is virtue, just as in Philosophy it is demonstration, and in Science it is proof.

Following the calm and salutary advice of a friend is everyone’s duty. The friend, said Pythagoras, is another self. We must honor him as if he were a god. Friendship is the equality of harmony, in the words of Diogenes Laërtius14. To make and have friends, the path is not to lavish material goods or favors, money, pleasures, as many do, and with this, they only manage to surround themselves with flatterers and parasites who disappear in times of misfortune. A man like Aristotle, who praised friendship so much, said in times of misfortune, “friends, there are no friends”…

Our friend also makes mistakes, commits faults, and we must understand him; showing ourselves indulgent and lenient towards his mistakes and faults, cooperating to lift him from the situation of downfall in which he happens to find himself. Pythagoras said (cited by Diogenes Laërtius): in social relationships, avoid turning friends into enemies! Strive, on the contrary, to turn enemies into friends. Esteem honorable individuals without hating the wicked. This is a Pythagorean precept; to love a friend does not mean that we hate the wicked because we must regard the wicked as human beings who require our support. We must indeed offer friendship to good people and be sincerely benevolent towards them, but also be benevolent towards the wicked, although never allowing this benevolence to lead them to expand their harmful capacity.

In one passage, Paul Carton comments on these verses, saying that the Pythagoreans simply applied to all men the spirit of kindness that they exercised towards all creation. Furthermore, they were inclined towards unchanging benevolence because they knew that humanity is a great collective being, so each individual component has an interest in the improvement of others, considering that individual progress cannot be achieved separately; rather, on the contrary, it is linked to the progress of humanity as a whole. It is based on the principle of the law of collective participation, in the same life and happiness that unites all men.

The individual effort must therefore strive to create in order to transmit, to produce in order to give, to work in order to love, and it is only in the worship of the family, in the love of the homeland, and in the religion of divine order that aspirations for progress and happiness can find full development. Pythagorean love for others and the Christian spirit of charity must be taken to the point of sacrificing possessions and even life itself, because man must behave in the likeness of God. The act of creation is a sacrifice of the divine spirit that consented to enter matter and descend to infinitesimal life, just as the daily maintenance of earthly nature and human life is an emanation, a personal gift of the substance of the Word, because nothing that has been made was made without Him, as St. John says.

Human beings must offer all acts of their lives, acts superior to Divinity, and in the face of these two powers that regulate and direct human evolution, the anankê of the Greeks and the factum of the Latins, and will, if the first is determined in advance, the second is free. But necessity is composed of two elements: there is a fatal law of evolution that wants everything that comes from God to return to Him after a cycle of evolution; an invincible attraction that is the power of divine love for all creatures, translated in each being by the inner force that impels it, despite itself, to be born, grow, live, multiply, and die. This is what constitutes the stream of life! It is this stream that, despite its rebellions and errors, incites each individual to struggle to live, to overcome ignorance, to discover truth to improve their fate, and to resign themselves to dying in order to be transformed. This law proclaims universal and human progress and the ascent of all beings to knowledge and divine happiness as an irrevocable necessity. And indeed, all of nature rises and progresses infinitely in the long vital scale of plants, animals, humans, and superhuman beings. Evil has only ephemeral existence. There is no place for it in the Absolute. It serves only to educate and enlighten and always ends up destroying itself. The triumph of good, more or less rapid, is assured. This law of fatal evolution was symbolically represented by the ancients: the serpent that, coiled in a circle, bites its own tail. Since it represented the truth, which was dangerous to reveal to unprepared souls, it was reserved for esoteric teaching. It appeared in a symbol, allegory, or riddle, as in the phrases of the Golden Verses: “Power dwells close to necessity.”

Paul Carton continues: necessity, that which man suffers involuntarily on a given occasion, also entails, according to Pythagorean doctrine, a second element which is individual baggage – the karma of the Hindus – what one has accumulated within oneself as good or evil during previous life experiences, which must then be either expiated or from which one must benefit. In this regard, we disagree with the commentator because there is nothing in Pythagoreanism that affirms the experience of past lives.

We must conclude by saying that human will proceeds freely. It is what in him strives for progress to be accomplished: it is the personal agent of conscious return deserving of God, the creative force par excellence. It is everything in man because it encompasses the power to resist evil and to strive for the good. If man were to evolve, for example, towards God solely through the attraction of destiny, without personal effort, without choosing the path through discernment and freedom of decision, he would have no merit in his actions and could not aspire to supreme happiness. Freedom is the guarantee of supreme happiness. Thanks to intelligence and will, man can evolve in the direction of reason and wisdom; therefore, he is guided within by powers that surpass animality, which he received from God and which he has the potential to increase in freedom and creative power.

Paul Carton affirms that we do not need to rebel against necessity because our imperfections and natural obstacles are surmountable; we must instead be humble and pray for providential assistance to live in harmony with God and nature. We possess a power analogous to divine power; we are guided by a current of inspiration and higher forces that foster our personal growth.

Verses X – XI

You must know that all these things are so, but you must also strive to overcome and conquer these passions. First, gluttony, laziness, lust, and anger.

These are the passions that must be restrained and reduced so that they do not disturb or paralyze reason. Therefore, be courageous and armed with good instructions, let us fully restrain the madness whose different parts serve reciprocally as weapons to commit sin, as a consequence. Excessive eating causes prolonged sleep, and together they produce a strength and health that immoderately lead to love, and by exciting the concupiscent part of the soul, impel it towards intemperance.

The irascible part, joining the concupiscent part, makes man fear no danger; no struggle frightens him; he confronts everything to satisfy his desires, both for his portion of drink and other pleasures. Get accustomed, then, to keep these passions in check, starting with gluttony, so that the irrational parts of the soul become accustomed to obeying reason, and so that you may observe piety toward the gods, respect for parents, and other aforementioned prescriptions without fail.

The observance of the first precepts depends on these; we will inevitably violate them if the passions are not subdued and do not obey reason. Otherwise, it will be anger that incites us against our parents, or concupiscence that arms us against their orders, or anger that drives us to blasphemy or the desire for wealth or perjury. In short, all evils are caused by passions when reason lacks the strength to bring them into order.

These are the sources of all impieties, all the wars that divide families, the betrayals of friends, and all the crimes committed against the law. Therefore, the wicked are forced to exclaim like Medea in the theater.

Some will say: "I see all the fainting in which I am about to be clouded. But my weak reason, yielding to my anger…

Others: "I know all the evils that my hand will commit.

But my reason, yielding to my greed…

Or else: "Your advice is very good; I see their utility.

But the shameful bonds that captivate my soul prevent me from obeying.

For everything capable of reason, being disposed to everything that is beautiful and virtuous, is always awakened, always ready to obey the precepts of reason, while the tendency of its passions, like masses of lead, drags it into the abyss of vice.

Therefore, we must know and understand our duties and become accustomed, as far as our brutish faculties permit, to obey the reason within us. In fact, once the passions are subdued, reason will be able to observe the first precepts without fail, as it is said: “You must know that these things are always so.” Regarding the following precepts, it is said: “You must strive to conquer.” This teaches us that the rational part is guided by instruction and knowledge, while the brutal part is governed by habit and formation, if we can thus speak of them as something corporeal. This is how men tame and domesticate animals, through habit alone. An appetite accustomed to content itself in a just and sufficient measure makes the other passions of the body more moderate, anger less violent and less impulsive, so that not being violently stirred by passions, we can meditate calmly on what we have to do. Therefore, let us learn to know ourselves, to know what we truly are, and to respect ourselves when we know ourselves. And from this knowledge, this respect, there inevitably arises the avoidance of shameful actions, that is, all the evils that are called shameful because they are indecent and unworthy of being produced by a rational substance. This is what we are going to discuss.

Comments on Verses X – XI

You must know that all these things are like this, but you must get used to overcoming and conquering the passions, which are: gluttony, laziness, lust, and anger.

Hiérocles’s comments clearly show us the Pythagorean thought, distinct from Stoic thought. It is not about destroying the passions, but about conquering them. Human beings need to preserve their passions because they are also a force for them, but what is necessary is to surpass and conquer them, and this can be done through willpower, understanding, and love – the true Pythagorean path – which is also the Christian path. It is from these passions that the victory over those that are easier to conquer begins, such as gluttony, laziness, lust, and anger.

This part of the Golden Verses deals with personal culture, specifically mental culture, which gives man self-control. Hiérocles further states that one must get used to keeping passions in check, and this consists, starting with gluttony, in making the irrational parts – which constitute our unfounded soul in our body – accustomed to obey reason, and that you may observe piety towards the gods, respect towards parents, and other preceding prescriptions.

The author notes that in commenting on the words “get used to conquering,” he intends to teach us that the rational part is guided by instruction and knowledge, while the brutal part is governed by habits and formations, so to speak, which are somewhat corporeal. It is in this way that men dominate and tame animals, through habit. The appetite accustomed to contentment in a just and sufficient measure makes the other bodily passions more moderate, anger less violent, and gradually, man can gain mastery over his passions.

Verses XII – XIII

Never commit any shameful action, neither with others nor in private, and above all, respect yourself.

It often happens that we commit shameful actions in private because we believe them to be inconsequential, and yet we would not have done them in the presence of others out of respect for them. On the other hand, we do things with others that we would not be capable of doing alone. That is why the poet here closes off both paths that can lead us to what is shameful and evil, for if everything that is shameful must truly be avoided, there is no circumstance that can ever make it worthy of being sought. Therefore, he combines both, neither with others nor with yourself in private. So that solitude never leads you to indecency, nor does the company and number of accomplices absolve you of your crime. After that, he adds the sole cause that protects against evil: above all, respect yourself. Because if you get used to respecting yourself, you will always have a faithful guardian with you, whom you will respect and who will never leave you, and who will keep watch over you.

For it often happens that many people have done things with friends, with household members as participants, which they would not have done in their presence. Did they have no witness?

I am not speaking of God, for God is far from the thoughts of the wicked. Did they not have their soul as a witness; that is to say, themselves? Did they not have the judgment of their conscience? Undoubtedly, they did, but subjugated and absorbed by their passion, they saw nothing else. Those in this state disregard their reason and treat it worse than the lowliest slave.

Therefore, establish yourself as your own master and guardian, with the eyes of understanding fixed on this faithful guardian, and begin to distance yourself from vice. The respect you have for yourself will necessarily lead you away from everything that is shameful and unworthy of a rational being, and he who deems all vices unworthy of himself becomes gradually familiar with virtue. That is why the poet adds:

Verses XIV – XV – XVI – XVII

Next, observe justice in your actions and in your words.

Do not get used to behaving in the best way without rule and reason.

But always keep in mind that it is destined for all men to die.

And that the goods of fortune are uncertain, and just as they can be acquired, they can also be lost.

One who respects oneself becomes their own guardian, to prevent falling into any vice. Now, there are numerous types of vices: the vice of the rational part, which is madness; the vice of the irascible part, which is cowardice; the vice of the concupiscible part, which is intemperance and avarice. The vice that extends itself is injustice. To avoid all these vices, we need four virtues: prudence for the rational part, courage for the irascible part, temperance for the concupiscible part, and for all these parts together, we need justice, the most perfect of all virtues, which reigns in each of them and encompasses them all as its own parts.

That is why this verse names justice first, followed by prudence, and after prudence, the most excellent effects that can arise from this virtue and contribute to the perfection, integrity, or totality of justice. For every man who reasons well and exercises prudence acquires courage against difficulties and pleasures, temperance in both cases, and justice. Thus, prudence is at the beginning of the virtues, justice at its end, and courage and temperance are in the middle. The faculty that examines everything through reasoning, always seeking the good of each action, so that all things are done with reason and in order, can thus be defined as prudence.

In other words, it is the superior disposition of our rational essence, thanks to which all our other qualities are in good condition, so that anger is valiant, and cupidity is temperate. Finally, correcting all our vices and fostering all our virtues, Justice abundantly draws from the virtue of the immortal man to adorn mortal man. For it is originally from the divine spirit that virtues cast their rays into the rational soul; they are what constitute its form, its perfection, and all its happiness. And from the soul, the virtues reflect through secret communication onto this senseless being, namely the mortal body, so that everything united to the rational essence is full of beauty, decency, and order. The first, as the guide to all divine goods, is prudence, being well-founded and fortified in the rational soul, it leads to making the right decision in all circumstances, facing death courageously, enduring the loss of goods and fortune with patience and gentleness. Because only prudence can wisely and boldly endure the changes of our nature and the fortune that follows. Indeed, prudence knows the nature of things through reason. It knows that it is necessary for what is composed of earth and water to resolve into the elements that compose it. It does not become angry at this necessity or the mortality of the body; it does not conclude that there is no providence, for it knows that all men must die, and the duration of the body is predetermined.

It knows that when the final moment comes, we should not be cowardly, but rather accept it and willingly submit, as to divine law; the very meaning of the word destiny is that God, through His decrees, has destined and predetermined necessary limits for our mortal life, beyond which we cannot go. It is the prerogative of prudence to follow the decrees of the gods, seeking not so much not to die, but to die well. Similarly, it is not ignorant of the nature of fortune’s goods; it knows that they come today and will leave tomorrow, according to certain causes that are destined, predetermined, and against which it is shameful to resist. For we are not masters to retain and preserve what does not belong to our power. Certainly, neither the body, nor possessions, nor anything separated from our rational essence is in our power, and since it is not within our control to acquire them, it is not within our control to keep them as long as we desire. What we must do is to receive them when they come, return them when they leave, and always with great virtue. This is how our rational essence should act if it does not get used to behaving without rule and reason in all the events of life.

Therefore, it should get accustomed to following divine rules, which have defined and determined everything that may correspond to us, for what depends on us and is within our power has great strength. Indeed, we can judge well the things that do not depend on us and not allow the virtue of our freedom to be taken away by attachment to perishable things.

So, what does the prudent and wise judgment say? It says that we must make good use of the body and wealth while we have them and make them serve virtue. When we are about to lose them, we must recognize the necessity and add tranquility and indifference to all our virtues. The only way to preserve piety towards the gods and the balance of justice is to accustom reason to make good use of all events and to apply the rules of prudence to everything that seems to happen without order and by chance. For we can only maintain virtue on the condition of thinking rightly. One who acts without rule and reason in everything they do will never follow beings who are better than us because they are better, but will regard them as tyrants who force and oppress him. They will never look towards those with whom they live, nor will they make good use of their body or their wealth.

Look at those who flee from death or who are possessed by the desire to preserve their wealth; see the injustices and blasphemies that necessarily arise from this, as they revolt against God, denying His providence when they find themselves precisely in the situation they were trying to avoid, committing all sorts of injustices against their fellow men, and arranging everything for their own benefit at the expense of others.

Thus, the harm that these false opinions inflict on these unfortunate individuals becomes evident, and one can see that it leads to the greatest evils: injustice towards men and impiety towards the gods. The one who, obeying a precept mentioned here, courageously awaits death with a judgment purified by reason does not suffer in this way and does not believe that the loss of goods is unbearable. From there arise all the movements and motives that lead one to virtue because they learn that they must refrain from taking what belongs to others, from harming anyone, and from never seeking their own gain at the expense and detriment of their neighbor.

However, this is something that one who persuades themselves that they are accustomed to behaving in everything without rule and reason can never observe. They fail to discern the mortal aspect within themselves that needs wealth and the part that is capable of virtues and that virtue supports and strengthens. Only this discernment can lead us to practice virtue and prompt us to acquire what is beautiful and honorable, driven by completely divine motives that arise from these precepts: “Know yourself” and “Respect yourself.”

It is for our own dignity that we must measure all our duties, both in our actions and in our words. The observance of our duties is nothing but the exalted observance of justice. That is why justice is placed here at the head of all other virtues, for it becomes the measure and rule of all our duties. Observe justice, he says, both in your actions and in your words.

Never utter blasphemy, neither in the loss of your possessions nor in the most acute pains, in order not to harm justice in your words. Never take the good of your neighbor, never scheme for the loss or unhappiness of any man, in order not to harm justice in your actions.

As long as justice occupies our soul, guarding and defending it, we will always fulfill all our duties towards the Gods, towards men, and towards ourselves. Now, prudence is the best rule and the best measure of justice.

That is why, after the precept “Observe justice,” he adds, “and do not accustom yourself to behave in anything without reason”; justice also cannot exist without prudence. In fact, there is truly no one just except the one that perfect prudence has limited. It does not behave in anything without reason, it carefully examines and weighs what this mortal body needs. Prudence finds everything vile and despicable compared to virtue and considers its usefulness to consist in the best disposition of the soul, a disposition that gives all other things the adornment and value they can receive. Such is the purpose of these verses: to instill in the souls of those who read them these four practical virtues, with their exact and vigilant observance, both in actions and in words. One of these verses, in fact, inspires prudence, another courage, another temperance, and the one that precedes them all exhorts to cultivate justice, which extends commonly over all these virtues, and that verse “that the goods of fortune are uncertain, and just as we can acquire them, we can also lose them” is added here to make it understood that temperance is always accompanied by liberality, a virtue that regulates the income and expenditure of fortune’s goods; for receiving them and spending them when reason wants and orders, such a decision cuts off stinginess and prodigality at the root. All these virtues come from a primary source, the precept “Respect yourself,” which is included in “Know yourself,” which must precede all our good actions and all our feelings. In fact, from where would we know that we must moderate our passions and know the nature of things? For at first, it is asked if this is possible for man, and then it is asked if this is useful. It seems even more so that virtuous people are much happier in their lives when they do not take what they should not take and pay what they should pay. As for the body, it is more exposed to ill-treatment when they do not seek to dominate or court those who dominate, so if there is not a substance within us that takes all the value of truth and virtue from it, it is in vain that we despise wealth and dignity. That is why those who, convinced that the soul is mortal, teach that virtue should be cultivated are more vain orators than true philosophers. For if after our death, there remained nothing of us to derive all its value from truth and virtue as we say the rational soul is, we would never have pure desires for beautiful and honorable things because the mere suspicion that the soul is mortal dampens and suffocates all inclination for virtue and impels us to enjoy bodily pleasures, whatever they may be and wherever they come from.

Indeed, how could these people claim that a prudent man who uses his reason should not fully accommodate his body, by which the soul only subsists, since it does not exist by itself but is an accident of such or such a bodily conformation?

Being like this, how could we abandon the body for the sake of virtue when we are convinced that we will lose the soul with the body, so that this virtue, for which we will suffer death, will not be found anywhere and will not exist.

But this matter has been extensively addressed by divine men who have demonstrated invincibly that the soul is immortal and that virtue is its entire ornament.

Therefore, after having marked with the seal of truth this opinion of the immortality of the soul, let us move on to what follows, adding to what we had already established that since the ignorance of our essence necessarily entails all vices, the knowledge of ourselves, the contempt for everything unworthy of a rational nature, produce everywhere and in all things the secure and reasoned observance of our duties, and this is the just measure of all virtues in particular, for as we look at and consider our essence as our only rule, we find in all things what duty is and we fulfill it according to right reason, in accordance with our essence. Everything that makes the soul better and leads it to the happiness that suits its nature is truly virtue and the law of Philosophy, and everything that only pertains to a certain human well-being is nothing more than the shadow of virtue, seeking the praises of men, mere artifices of a slave who disguises himself and employs all his efforts to appear virtuous rather than actually being virtuous.

From the use we make of our right reason, it necessarily follows that we behave lightly towards all the accidents of this life that seem to happen without any order, but we diligently seek to discern their causes and justify them, enduring them with courage without complaining about the beings who have taken care of us and who, by distributing to each according to their merit, have not given the same dignity and the same status to those who did not show the same virtue in their first life. How could it be, then, if there is providence and our soul is incorruptible by its essence, that it can still choose between vice and virtue? How could it be, I say, that the very guardians of the law who want each person to be treated according to their merit, equally treat those who are not equal and do not give each one their share of fortune that belongs to them, and it is said that each person coming into the world chose for themselves according to the fate that befell them? If there is, therefore, no providence that distributes to each what is due to them and our soul is immortal, it is evident that instead of accusing the one who governs us of our misfortunes, we should only look at ourselves, and from there we will draw the virtue and strength to heal and correct all these misfortunes, as the following verses will teach us.

Indeed, by finding in ourselves the cause of such great inequality, we would first diminish, through the rectitude of our judgments, the bitterness of all the accidents of life; then, through the study of sacred things, we will raise our soul to what is best, we will completely free ourselves from all that we have suffered that is most unpleasant and most painful. For to suffer without knowing the cause of one’s suffering, without having an idea of what its probable origin might be, is characteristic of a man accustomed to behaving without reason and reflection. This is expressly prohibited by this precept, for it is impossible for someone who does not seek the true cause of these evils to accuse the Gods of them, claiming that they do not exist or that they do not do what they should do. These impious sentiments not only increase the evils that befall us in this first life, but also incite the soul to crime, depriving it of its free will by keeping it ignorant of the causes for which it suffers down here. But to philosophize on these matters, let us listen to the following verses.

Comments on verses XII to XVII

Never commit any shameful action, whether in public or in private, and above all, respect yourself. Hiérocles’s comments are valuable and there is nothing to add. Next, observe justice in your actions and words. Do not become accustomed to behaving in the best way without rule or reason, but always consider that it is ordained by fate for all men to die, and that the goods of fortune are uncertain – just as they can be acquired, they can also be lost.

We see that we must avoid any and all shameful actions, whether in private without witnesses, only with God (atheists do not accept this), or with the testimony of others, because we must start from a principle, which is to respect ourselves. Justice is the great Pythagorean virtue, and Hiérocles draws our attention to this topic. We always need justice, which is the most perfect of all virtues, encompassing others as its own parts. That is why this verse names justice first, then prudence, and then the effects of justice, which contribute to its perfection, integrity, and wholeness. Every man who reasons well, who exercises prudence, acquires courage against difficulties, pleasures, temperance, and, in one way or another, justice. Undoubtedly, justice is the fundamental virtue because through its practice, the habit of all other virtues is established.

To be just, we necessarily have to be prudent, because justice requires full knowledge of the parts that are weighed and judged, and this requires the development of the habit of prudence, and consequently, knowledge and science. Therefore, justice, from the moment it becomes desired by the human heart, impels man to a better understanding of things, leading him to circumspection, to the ability to see all things around him from an equidistant point. It compels him to understand not only his own rights but also his duties and to see his fellow human beings in an appropriate measure, corresponding to their rights and duties.

It leads him to not harm anyone, to recognize the rights of others and to fight for his own. It also addresses courage because all of this implies and demands a strong heart and feeling, as one desires what should be done and fulfilled. It carries a more complete sense of duty. The Pythagoreans were right to affirm that justice was the noblest, the highest of human virtues, and that it strengthens all others: prudence, moderation, courage, and consequently, the four cardinal virtues, the four fundamental virtues of man, the four civil or political virtues (in the Greek sense), the four virtues that a man must possess for social and human coexistence. Thus, by educating virtue, observing it in actions and words, we become accustomed to the just mean and then behave in a way that does not act without rule or reason.

Hiérocles comments on always behaving with rule and reason, reflecting on the destiny to which we are all ordained: that of death. Understanding that this is a divine law that leads us to a limit of our existence, which we cannot exceed because we do not possess normal means for such a feat. We may prolong or improve our life, perhaps, but we can never become absolutely immortal because as long as we have a body, which is corruptible in itself, and also considering that the development of our vital unity occurs obedient to a law of evolution – the law of seven – we must also consider and understand that we are not just that, but a will that can govern everything and overcome this necessity within certain limits, that is, within what can happen, what can occur in relation to the future. This is something given to man, not the past or the present, because we live within the law of necessity. God has given us the future so that we can master it. What is Science and knowledge in man if not his intention, through these means, to achieve mastery over the future? In truth, man’s science is a means of control over things. They do not happen randomly and without rules, as some may think. There is an iron law that governs all things – a law that comes from the One – the law of Unity. The dignity of man, our own dignity, must be the measure of all our duties; the dimension of our actions and words; the observance of our duties is nothing more than the precise observance of justice. Hiérocles says: that is why justice is placed here, it is the head of all other virtues, because it becomes the measure and rule of all our duties. Observe justice, he says, in both your actions and words.

Now, prudence is the best rule and measure of justice; and following the precept “observe justice,” he added: “and do not become accustomed to behaving in anything without reason.” Justice cannot exist without prudence, which requires knowledge. There is truly no just person except the one limited by perfect prudence. They do not behave in anything without reason, for they carefully examine and weigh what is necessary for this mortal body.

Cultivating justice is therefore the true path of the Pythagorean, because let us not forget that the goods of fortune are uncertain, and just as we can acquire them, we can lose them. We should not cling to them, for that is a way of being dominated by things rather than dominating them. Respecting oneself is included in the “Know thyself,” because by knowing what we are and what we can be, our perfectibility, our great possibilities, out of love for ourselves, we should be great if we can be. These are the principles that Pythagoreanism teaches us.

Furthermore, it shows that we must strive for virtue, for our elevation, since we possess a soul that survives the life of the body and deserves, demands, that we take care of it because it is immortal and its well-being or misfortune will be in our hands.

Let us consider the comments of Fabre D’Olivet: the starting point of Pythagoreanism is always the freedom of the human person and their ability to subjugate, to a greater or lesser degree, their passions. Among those who assert that we are not beings driven by our passions, and like the Stoics, that to overcome them, to repress their excesses, we have to destroy them, the Pythagorean position is quite clear: we are a mixture of necessity and freedom. Passions constitute our necessity. There is something irresistible in them in their natural sense, but we have a mind so powerful that it is capable of gradually overcoming these passions, mastering them, conquering them without destroying them, for Pythagoreanism does not preach that our victory is achieved through death, but rather through resurrection, exaltation, and sublimation of ourselves!

The author understands this aspect very well and shows that Plato had sensed this truth and indicated it in various passages of his works, especially in the second dialogue of Hippias, where he shows through design that a good or evil man, virtuous or criminal, truthful or lying, is so only by the power of his will, and that the passion that leads him to virtue or vice, truth or falsehood, is null for him. Therefore, no man is evil except by the faculty he has of being good, nor is anyone good except by the faculty he has of being evil. But if man has the faculty to be good or evil at his own will, is he not irresistibly inclined towards vice or virtue?

Fabre D’Olivet says that this question has always impressed thinkers and has given rise to numerous conceptions, and hence he interprets the concept of original sin in Christianity as a way of addressing this problem, in which he, however, errs because he does not have a clear notion of this topic.

Study Moschus,15 a Phoenician philosopher, practically the founder of physics and creator of the first atomic theory, supported by Leucippus, Democritus, Epicurus, and those who embraced the concept of necessity, passing through the Eleatics and Stoics and reaching the conclusion that the Pythagorean position is the most just, the most reasonable, the most real, the best founded because it does not need to resort to any hypothesis since it is based on the reality of man. Man is a being driven by necessity but who, through his understanding and will, controls, overcomes, and surpasses his passions without needing to destroy them. This thought is found in all the great religions: Krishna, Zoroaster, Laozi, Orpheus, and can be found in all religious books. Therefore, it is a universal doctrine, always present in all major religions.

The problem here is the problem of evil. Fabre d’Olivet suggests that the issue was not resolved by Plato (clearly, he declared not to have given a solution), and the Pythagoreans remained silent about the origin of evil, saying that there was a secret they could not reveal except to those who were initiated.

From the little that is recorded, it can be deduced that they said, like the scholastics, that evil was an accident, not existing per se, it is not something that exists per se, but per accidens. Thus, it is not something substantial, something primary, a principle of things, but it arises from the relations between things and from the observation of the thing itself, seen according to its perfective degrees. It can be affirmed that the evil aspect of a thing is in proportion to the perfections it lacks, and the good aspect is in the degree of perfections it possesses. Evil is therefore something that happens and, like any occurrence, it is defeatable, conquerable, reducible more and more, and capable of being modified. Hence, man can reduce it more and more, both in his individual life and in society. Instead of accusing Divinity as the creator of evil, one must understand that evil arises from the deficiency of the creature itself. If there is creation, there must necessarily be evil due to the very deficiency of the created being.

Returning to Fabre d’Olivet, he states that Pythagoras regarded man under three main modifications, like the universe, and gave man the name of microcosm or small world, composed similarly to the universe which, compared to a great animated whole, composed of intelligence, soul, and body, received the name Pan or Phanes.16

The man or microcosm was composed of body, soul, and intelligence, and Pythagoras drew attention to this triad. The vice of the soul was intemperance; that of the irascible faculty was cowardice, and that of the rational faculty was madness. Vice, extending to the three faculties, would be injustice, and they would be the faculties of the rational, irascible, and appetitive soul, according to the Pythagorean division. To avoid these vices, the philosopher recommended four principal virtues to his disciples: temperance for the appetitive faculty, courage for the irascible faculty, prudence for the rational faculty, and for all three together: justice, which he considered the most perfect virtue of the soul.

Let us move on to the comments of Paul Carton, adding our own as necessary to clarify certain points.

Pythagoras established a fundamental obligation through his maxims: never ignore that you must learn to control your passions. This is one of the first duties of man to himself and, according to the Master, it was essential for self-education and human progress. After constantly mastering the passions, man can reach the highest points of his perfection by establishing a series of fundamental rules as a starting point.

One of the Pythagorean maxims was to affirm that the worst scourge of man was irreligion, followed by lack of sobriety. Sobriety was the first virtue to be achieved. The struggle against gluttony and intemperance was the first individual duty because nothing can harm one’s character as much as excesses in food and drink. Sobriety leads to appeasement of bodily desires, calming of impulses, which can be achieved through the body’s own activity, physical exercise. In other words, one can use the body to achieve victory over its weaknesses through a good, frugal, and sober diet, avoiding overly stimulating, artificial, or toxic foods and anything that can shake and excite the nerves.

Activity is another means of developing and putting inactive dispositions into action, not allowing laziness, idleness, and inertia to take hold and stimulate vices. Those who do not work, who do not dedicate themselves to something, quickly have a tired, disturbed spirit. The will weakens, and consequently, character deteriorates, leading to moral deterioration, idleness, boredom, and eventually, discontentment with everything. As Paul Carton says, the lazy man is someone who prepares for himself a gloomy life, a painful fate that hinders the forces of his own evolution. Work is nourishment for the spirit because it obliges us to give our higher vital forces, revitalizes and elevates us, stimulating the development of our muscles and our intelligence as well. Every naturally ordered activity is good and should be used and employed. In the Greek world, there must have been an impressive number of idlers, as there were among the Romans. Men surrounded by slaves for every function, even intellectual ones – slaves who think as if they were cybernetic machines – which was ultimately a march toward destruction. Pythagoreanism fought against this because man must toil, must work, but not disorderly; rather, within a discipline so that his forces may fully blossom!

However, this development of man takes place within the body, with its bodily possibilities. Another point to consider is chastity. Lust is an insurmountable obstacle, says Paul Carton, to the elevation of the spirit because it establishes the dominion of purely animal passions, in addition to causing a prodigious expenditure of vital forces, leading to intellectual and physical exhaustion. Carnal pleasures should be avoided as much as possible, admitting only those that are legitimate, enveloped in the thought of spiritual unity, which makes them human; otherwise, they would be merely animalistic. For Pythagoreanism, chastity is the practice of carnal pleasures but enveloped in the thought of spiritual unity, that is, as human acts and not as animal acts.

Therefore, it is stated that we must be chaste not only in our actions but also in our thoughts and words. Sexuality is only great when united with love, as having this spiritual unity makes it superior; otherwise, it is an animal act, and we are not animals, say the Pythagoreans. We must elevate our humanity and not fall into animality! This does not mean that we abandon the needs of the body, the physiological needs. To be chaste is to be sober and dignified in the practice of these acts. They must be elevated by a feeling of sublimated love, of spiritualized love, of something that elevates us. This is the true meaning of chastity for Pythagoreanism.

They also advised against being carried away by anger, as it is a normal weakness in human beings but one that can be overcome. Anger, due to its violence, tends to cloud reason, annihilate willpower, and leads us to commit reprehensible acts for which we later bitterly regret. Paul Carton observes that those who are prone to anger are more susceptible to illness, while those who remain calm fight and achieve improvement. Generally, hot-tempered individuals live in discord, in perpetual anguish with their peers, and provoke a lack of respect and trust. They lack friends because they lack affability and are prone to hasty judgments. Their conclusions are thoughtless and impulsive, leading to injustices and creating an unpleasant environment. Pythagoras said: “Do not strike a harmless animal”; “Do not break a branch of a tree,” in other words, “never engage in an act where anger is present.”

There should be a striving for as much affability, calmness, and gentleness in words as possible, mastery over fury, which is the path of insubordination and hatred.

The Golden Verses, thus, come to enter the action of will: impeccable conduct towards others and oneself. Above all, respect oneself. Everything we do in our life, our words and actions should be inspired by pure justice. As Pitagoras said in a maxim: there is certainty in attaining the highest degree of virtue if one is truthful and benevolent. It is necessary to avoid everything that implies dishonesty: lying, stealing, injustice, hypocrisy. Always speak the truth. Dedicate oneself to the pursuit of truth in all things, and as the Master said: the greatest charity is proclaiming the truth, for this is the path of the one who assists, who guides towards a good outcome. It is the action of the good teacher, the good guide, who teaches and provides others with the intellectual means to overcome deficiencies and difficulties. Proclaiming the truth is proclaiming precise knowledge, indicating the paths of knowledge as a means to master things, overcome them, and transform them into more useful, more convenient goods. To be charitable is not only to give material possessions we possess, but to give spiritual goods, as they strengthen man and can elevate him, lifting him out of a state of misery. Thoughts should always be directed towards the good, just as our conversations should be about constructive subjects. Avoid letting our words be injurious. The Pythagoreans took this seriously. According to Cicero, they refrained from even uttering harmful words or impure terms, fearing they would attract disastrous influences upon themselves. This is the way to elevate ourselves, to respect ourselves in such a way that we do not even commit an offense in our own thoughts. Let us not lie to ourselves; let us not try to deceive ourselves as we deceive ourselves through pride, vanity. Be inwardly as we are outwardly, for what is true must be expressed, no matter the cost! Life is a science, it is the science of duty, teaching us to do good for the sake of good, to speak the truth for the sake of truth, without concern for the advantages or disadvantages that may result from it.

On the path of humanity, it is necessary to avoid living mechanically. Not to be mere men who eat, drink, sleep. Beings who go through life like things propelled by the gales of existence, leaves scattered by the wind, driven by their passions in the conflict of interests and victims of our vanities. Here is a Pythagorean maxim: do not live like machines or things, live like humans!

Hence, it is important to reflect on our common destiny, on our roles in society, on our actions; in short, on everything that concerns our life.

Live with dignity and work, but without acquiring habits of luxury and ostentation; acquire modest, simple habits, without worrying about anything other than the rules of an honest and sound life. Ensure that the essentials do not fail us, and above all, courage and justice. Never think that wealth and an excess of sumptuous goods bring happiness.

Verses XXVIII – XXIX – XXX

Consult and deliberate before acting, so as not to engage in foolish actions.

For it is of a poor spirit to speak and act without reason and reflection.

But do everything in such a way that it does not afflict you and does not compel you to repent.

Wise and prudent consultation does not produce virtues, but it perfects and preserves them. So it is the mother, the nourisher, the guardian of virtues, for when we consult calmly within ourselves about the path we must follow, virtue is chosen for its own beauty. After this choice, the soul, well affirmed by this consultation, sustains all kinds of work and struggles for virtue; and accustomed to the possession of beautiful and honest things, it maintains its judgment sound and intact even in the turmoil of the most unpleasant calamities, so that everything that comes from outside to frighten it cannot make it deny itself or compel it to change its opinion, just as it cannot persuade itself that there is another happy life than the one it has chosen.

Thus, there are three tangible effects of wise consultation: the first is the choice of the best life; the second is the practice of that chosen life; and the third is the secure and exact preservation of all that has been wisely deliberated.

Of these three effects: the first is reason, which precedes the execution of what we want to do and which places, so to speak, the first principles of actions. The second is reason, which accompanies the execution and anticipates and adjusts each action with the principles that precede it. And the third is the reason that follows the execution and, examining each action that has just been performed, judges whether it was done appropriately and as it should be done: thus, in all things, the beauties of wise and prudent consultation shine. Now, it generates virtues, nourishes and perfects them, and finally, it watches over their preservation, so that it is the beginning, the middle, and the end of all goods, and it is in it that liberation from all evils is found, and it is only through it that we can perfect our virtues. For our nature is rational and consequently capable of deliberating and consulting, and driven by its will and choice to take a good or bad course, if it chooses well, then the good life it embraces preserves its essence, while a choice made without reason corrupts everything in it. Now, the corruption of what is immortal is vice, whose mother is recklessness, which this verse orders us to flee so that we do not perform foolish actions, and foolish actions are unhappy and evil actions; for speaking or acting without reason and reflection is characteristic of the wretched, that is, it is characteristic of the unhappy. If you consult before acting, you will never commit senseless actions that can only afflict those who acted recklessly without consulting, for remorse clearly shows the vice of choice, which experience has made its harm felt.

On the contrary, what follows good advice, the goodness and security of the choice, demonstrate through the actions themselves the usefulness that results from it. I speak of usefulness not of the body or external things, but of ourselves; usefulness cares only for ourselves, as it instructs us here to consult before acting and to only perform actions that will not afflict our souls from the outset, that is, actions that will not distress our soul. For what use is it for a man to accumulate great wealth through perjury, murder, and other kinds of wicked deeds? What good does it do him to be rich on the outside when he leaves his soul in poverty and deprived of the only goods that are truly useful to him? There is more unhappiness in being insensitive, and if sometimes conscience leads him to a sense of his actions, he can only suffer the remorse they provoke, and mortally terrified by the torments of hell, he sees no other remedy for his woes than nothingness itself. Such is the fatal state to which he finds himself reduced. He seeks to cure one evil with another evil, seeking in the death of the soul the consolation for his crimes; he condemns himself to no longer be anything after death, in order to be liberated from punishments, except for the idea that the last judgment makes him envision. The wicked do not want the soul to be immortal, fearing to live another life in which they will suffer. And in this thought, they forestall the sentence of their judge and condemn themselves to death, considering it just that the criminal soul should exist no more. Thus, this unhappy person, precipitated into vice by his recklessness and madness, turns against himself a sentence in accordance with his excesses and crimes.

But the same does not happen with the judges of the underworld; since they base their judgments on the rules of truth, they do not pronounce that the soul should no longer exist, but that it should no longer be vicious; and they work to correct it and purify it by imposing penalties for the salvation of its own nature, just as physicians cure the most malignant ulcers through incisions and cauterizations. These judges punish the crime to expel vice through repentance, and they do not annihilate the essence of the soul or reduce it to nothingness; on the contrary, they lead it back to truly being itself by purging all the passions that corrupt it. For the soul is in danger of being lost, of annihilating its essence, when it deviates from its good and rushes into what is against its nature, and when it returns to what is in accordance with its nature, it finds its entire essence and recovers that pure being that it had altered and corrupted through the mixture of passions. Therefore, above all else, we must take care not to sin, and if we have sinned, we must run ahead of the punishment as the only remedy for our sins, correcting our recklessness and madness through the beneficial assistance of prudence and reason. For after we have fallen from our innocence through sin, we will regain it through repentance and through the proper use we make of God’s punishment to lift ourselves up.

Regret is the beginning of Philosophy, the abstention from foolish words and actions, is the first measure of a life that will no longer be subject to regret; for the one who wisely consults before acting does not fall into unforeseen and involuntary misfortunes, and does not commit, without thinking about it, those actions whose consequences and results they fear, but is prepared for the present and prepared for whatever may happen contrary to their expectations. This is why neither the hope of goods will make them renounce their true good, nor the fear of evils lead them to commit evil, but having their spirit always guided by the rules prescribed by God, they regulate their life according to them.

But in order for you to know how miserable it is to speak and act without reason, see Medea proclaim her rages in the theaters. The violence of senseless love drove her to betray her parents, to follow a stranger, and then, rejected by this stranger, she finds her unbearable misfortunes, and in this thought, she exclaims:

Let the rays of heaven break my head!

Afterward, she engages in the most atrocious actions. First, it is foolishly and unreasonably that she asks that what is done not be done; then, in true senselessness, she foolishly seeks to cure her misfortunes with more misfortunes, for she believes that by the senseless murder of her children, she will undo the beginning of her unhappiness caused by a thoughtless marriage.

If you still want to look, see Agamemnon from Homer. This prince, punished and condemned for not knowing how to control his anger, exclaims, weeping:

Ah, I am lost, my strength has abandoned me!

And in the wretched state of these cases, he extinguishes the fire in his eyes, which anger had kindled in his prosperity, with a stream of tears.

Such is the life of every fool. They are impelled and driven by conflicting passions; unbearable in their joys, miserable in their sorrows, fiery and proud when they hope, cowardly and petty when they fear. In a word, since there is no generous security that wise counsel provides, their feelings change with fortune. Therefore, in order not to present to the public these kinds of scenes, let us take right reason as our guide in all our actions, imitating Socrates, who says in a certain part: “You know that it is not today that I have taken the habit of obeying none of my inclinations except reason, which seems to me the most upright and the most just, after having carefully examined it.”

By these words, “none of my inclinations,” he means all his senses.

Indeed, all these things that are given to us to serve reason, such as anger, desire, feeling, and the body itself, which exists to serve all these faculties, all these things are ours, but they are not us. It is necessary to obey only reason, as Socrates says: that is, the rational part that is disposed according to nature, for it is the only one that can see and know what it should say and do.

Now, to obey right reason and to obey God is the same thing, for the enlightened rational part of our nature wants nothing but what the divine will wants. The soul, well disposed according to God, is always in agreement with God, and everything it does, it does while always looking at divinity and the bright light that surrounds it. Whereas the soul that is disposed in a contrary manner and looks at what is without God and dark, is tossed here and there by chance, wandering without maintaining the right path, devoid of understanding, fallen away from Divinity, from everything that constitutes the true rule, from everything that is beautiful and honorable. These are the great goods, the infinite goods that wise and prudent counsel offers, and the great evils that necessarily arise from recklessness and lack of reflection. But advising before acting, in addition to these great goods we have just mentioned, also produces a rather considerable one; it restrains all movements of opinion and leads us to true knowledge and enables us to maintain a life that can be delightful, for it is good and highly just.

Comments on Verses XXVIII to XXX

Consult and deliberate before acting, so as not to indulge in foolish actions, for it is a mark of a poor mind to speak and act without reason and reflection. Do everything that does not distress you or lead you to regret.

Virtue is always the fundamental rule, the use of reason, of reasoning, or wise choice is the path to all our actions. We must become accustomed to using reason and distinguishing what we intend to do in order to know if we are acting rightly. The comments of Hierocles are important, showing us that the corruption of the immortal is vice whose mother is recklessness. The vice of the mind is false reasoning. We must avoid all of this, and how? By consulting before acting, examining the reasons behind our actions, and carefully choosing the way to proceed. We must avoid these states of unhappiness that many, like Agamemnon described by Homer, fall into due to their committed errors and ask for punishment since they were not able to restrain their anger and avoid them.

Socrates used to say: “You know that it is not today that I have taken the habit of obeying none of my senses except reason, which seems to me the most upright and the most just after having carefully examined it.”

These words spoken in his defense are quite expressive and show how a true Pythagorean should behave.

The soul, well disposed according to the gods, is always in agreement with God, and everything it does and performs, it does while looking at divinity and the bright light that surrounds it. For example, advising before acting. But how?

Verses XXXI – XXXII

Never do anything that you do not know.

Learn everything that must be known, and by this means, you will lead a delightful life.

Understanding things we do not know only prevents us from making mistakes; but learning what leads to the good life not only prevents us from making mistakes, but also directs us and enables us to succeed in everything we undertake.

Knowledge of our own ignorance stirs opinion, and the acquisition of knowledge ensures the success of our endeavors. These two things are very beautiful: to know what we do not know and to learn what we are ignorant of. They are followed by a truly beautiful and delightful life, and this delightful life exists only for those who are free from opinion and full of knowledge, who do not boast about anything they know and who desire to learn everything that deserves to be learned.

Now, only what leads to divine likeness deserves to be learned, that which can give us the means to act as we should, so that we do not commit foolish actions that would render us susceptible to being seduced and deceived by anything, whether by words or actions.

Furthermore, what is worth learning is what makes us capable of distinguishing between reasoned arguments, what enables us to endure divine fortune and gives us a means to correct it, what teaches us not to fear poverty or death, and to practice justice, what makes us temperate, especially in what is called pleasures, what instructs us on the laws of friendship and the respect we should have for those who have given us life, what shows us the honor and worship we should give to superior beings.

These are the things that these verses tell us we must learn, and they are followed by a delightful life.

For the one who distinguishes themselves by their virtue enjoys pleasures that are not followed by regret and that imitate the constancy and stability that virtue offers; for every pleasure is the natural consequence of an action, whatever it may be. Pleasure does not exist by itself but occurs when we perform a certain action. That is why pleasure always follows the nature of the action. The worst actions produce the worst pleasures, and the best actions produce the best pleasures. Thus, the virtuous person surpasses the vicious not only in the beauty of the action but also in the enjoyment of pleasure, which seems to belong only to the vicious. And indeed, one disposition is better than another disposition. Also, one pleasure is preferable to another pleasure. Therefore, in a virtuous life, in which the likeness to God shines, it is truly divine, while the vicious life is brutal and godless. It is evident that the pleasure of the virtuous person imitates divine pleasure according to understanding and God Himself, while the pleasure of the vicious person (I would like to use the same term for them as well) only imitates impulsive and brutal movements, for pleasures and sorrows change us and take us out of our state. Thus, the one who reaps where they should while doing so is happy, and the one who ignores these rightful limits is unhappy. Therefore, a life devoid of opinion is the only one free from faults, while a life full of knowledge is always happy and perfect, and therefore, delightful and extremely good.

Let us never do what we do not know how to do, and let us do what we know when necessary. Ignorance leads to faults, while knowledge provides opportunities, for various good things in themselves become bad when they are not done at the right time. Let us religiously heed this precept, in which we are commanded to restrain our impulses and control our actions, and to learn not everything but what deserves to be known. For in this way, we are incited to honorable and virtuous actions, for living well does not consist of being free from faults but in doing everything that is necessary. For some, it is enough to rid themselves of preconceived notions, while for others, it can only be the fruit of knowledge.

Now, for both of these, that is, being free from faults and living well, this is the advantage that will befall you; you will lead a delightful life. What is this delightful life? It is none other than a life that enjoys all the pleasures that come from virtue, in which both the good and the pleasant are found. If we desire what is beautiful and at the same time what is pleasant, what will be the context that the verse calls a delightful life? For the one who chooses what is pleasant or shameful, although they may be temporarily satisfied by what gives them pleasure, they are very quickly subjected to the bitterness of regret because of the shameful aspects of their actions.

The one who chooses what is beautiful in the midst of hardship may initially be burdened by labor, but soon the beauty alleviates the pain. Ultimately, with virtue, they enjoy all the fruits of pure pleasure. Indeed, if one derives pleasure from doing something shameful, pleasure passes, and the shameful aspect remains. When one does something beautiful, despite a thousand sorrows and hardships, the sorrows pass and only the beauty remains. It necessarily follows that a wicked life is most sorrowful and bitter, while a good life, on the contrary, is delightful.

This is sufficient for the understanding of these verses. But since the care of the body is not indifferent to the perfection of the soul, let us see what the Poet adds.

Comments on Verses XXXI – XXXII

In these verses, we find the precept: “never do anything that you don’t know. Learn everything that is necessary to know, and by doing so, you will lead a delightful life.”

If we take action based on what we know well, what we have already studied, we will hardly make mistakes. Analyzing our experiences, both beneficial and harmful aspects, helps us avoid repeating errors that could be repeated. These are practical but important rules because madness lies in acting without paying attention to what we are doing.

We know that every act, every action, is a natural sequence of actions leading to pleasure, but not only bad actions are associated with pleasure, as many believe. There are also good actions in moments of pleasure. Those who have saved a life, helped someone, offered comforting words, guided someone away from the wrong path by giving good advice, deeply feel the pleasure of their actions. Those who think that pleasure should not be desired are mistaken. No, pleasure is an inevitable consequence of the execution of the act itself: if the act is good, pleasure will be based on good; if it is bad, pleasure may be based on evil. This means that we can experience moments of pleasure by practicing good. Happiness, therefore, comes from the practice of virtuous acts, and this happiness feeds itself, resulting in greater strength. We should never attempt to do something we don’t know because ignorance is the cause of many faults, while knowledge helps us perform our actions better. Hence, we should repress any action that is based on ignorance of its own consequences. We should be capable of assessing what can happen and knowing how to proceed.

One who chooses the pleasant along with the shameful, even though momentarily satisfied with pleasure, will soon succumb to the bitterness of regret. If one chooses the beautiful alongside the painful, even though initially burdened by work, the beauty will soon alleviate the pain, and with virtue, one enjoys all the fruits of pure pleasure. If one combines pleasure with something shameful, pleasure passes, but the shameful remains. If one combines something with the beautiful along with much effort, the pains pass but the beauty remains. Hence, a wicked life is sad and bitter, while a good life is delightful.

Fabre D’Olivet analyzes these verses and proceeds to analyze bodily culture because, in addition to spiritual and mental culture, humans must take care of their bodies to achieve perfection. He begins with the first verses that have already been analyzed and discusses the role of Pythagoras in constructing the term Philosophy and the symbolic words uttered by him, such as “one should not stir the fire with a sword,” “one should not put good food in an inappropriate vessel,” “not all materials are suitable for making a statue of mercury” – enigmatic maxims that indicate one should avoid all excesses – which is the foundation of Pythagoreanism – and one should not deviate from the mean. Thus, he says, “one should not wield the sword in the cause of God and truth; one should not entrust science to a corrupt soul,” or as Christ said, “cast not pearls before swine, nor give holy things to dogs,” because not all people are equally suited to receive knowledge and become models of wisdom, reflecting the image of God.

This is one of the most serious problems of our time since it is characterized by a tendency to give knowledge to anyone, regardless of moral conditions, without verifying whether they would be capable of using knowledge and wisdom for the good. It is not enough to possess free will, an understanding that encompasses a great amount of knowledge, and intense love, for even the satanic can possess these qualities. There is a need for everything to be based on virtue, on the virtuous individual who is guided by right reason and desires the practice of good. One who respects the rights of others and of human beings, who loves the good of all, for one can have intense love but only for their own good or the good of their group, thereby becoming a pernicious element.

The Pythagoreans always believed that knowledge should not be given to those who do not have sufficient virtuous foundations to guarantee that they will not exploit knowledge and freedom to commit evil and harm others. This is an extremely current and serious issue. We can continue to open schools for everyone, creating monsters of knowledge filled with errors and malevolence that may contribute to corrupting humanity. Pythagoras opposed the pseudo-democratic movement of his time, the false democracy founded on demagogic politicians who only desired to rise to high positions, which the Pythagoreans did not accept.

Fabre D’Olivet draws attention to this point and observes that we must be extremely careful to close our eyes and ears to prejudices and fear the examples set by others, always thinking for ourselves. These prejudices that we receive from false and misguided science, from the misconceptions that certain words produce, from those whom we consider superior but who transmit harmful and destructive knowledge, all of this threatens human beings. We must distance ourselves from what is incorrect. We must have the ability to consult, deliberate, and freely choose without being swept away by foolish actions, acting without knowing where we are heading and why we are doing it; this need to look at the present, contemplate the future, see the consequences of what may happen, have the ability to grasp not only the possible but the probable. All of this is what humans need to acquire, becoming part of their freedom because within necessity itself, within the context of the laws that govern the events of the world, they can acquire knowledge that will enable them to avoid harm, reduce obstacles, and achieve freedom.

One should not attempt to do something for which they are not sufficiently prepared. This is the essence of Pythagoras' doctrine, to know how to distinguish what one does not know, what one is ignorant of, from what one knows. This was also the guidance that later Socrates and Plato gave so that humans would be careful in choosing the paths to follow, taking the right directions that can lead them to the most beneficial outcomes.

When humans realize that truth and error are mixed in opinions, they should refrain from completely rejecting or accepting a doctrine. They should not reject it because they disagree on one point or accept it because they find one point of similarity. It is necessary to carefully avoid not only the intransigence that leads to undeserved enthusiasm but also ruthless defamation; the spirit of premature judgment that causes them to reject the value of a scientific or philosophical system because one of its premises is inaccurate; the intolerance that prompts us to deny any value to a religion because one of its dogmas is unacceptable; the sectarianism that claims the privilege of possessing the complete truth and the right to impose it on everyone; individual pretension that hinders personal progress. Only what is undoubtedly contrary to moral and natural law should be formally reproved and suppressed.

Paul Carton comments: one should speak in a language that each person understands and offer them a part of truth that they can perceive. Moreover, we should not be impatient if the results of our teachings take time. Life is an evolution, the development of which depends on each person’s ability, that is, on what they have acquired previously. If they are flawed, they need to be gradually improved. This is why a new expression of truth, more complete and perfect, cannot be accepted suddenly. The path must be prepared. It is understood, therefore, why by preaching only the highest virtues and condemning the worst vices, Pythagoras also condemned any appeal to violence, any attempt to rebel against existing laws, and any thought of recrimination as contrary to the plan of evolution and the spirit of wisdom. We should enlighten the ignorant with patience, teach the misguided with humility, and repel the wicked without hatred. It is a Pythagorean maxim: “if error triumphs momentarily, the sage withdraws and waits patiently.” The role of sages is to predict the impending calamity, indicate the remedies that can divert or prevent it, but if their voice is not heard, they withdraw without hatred or remorse. They wait patiently. Destruction will come, but ultimately, good will triumph because the sacrifice and suffering endured by those who erred will point to a better path.

Think carefully about what you are about to say and do. Those who wish to act rightly should seek the company of those who act rightly because it will be easier to learn what is just and worthy. One should not engage in discussions with individuals of ill intentions because it only fuels the fire of evil, and “there is no point in stirring the fire with a sword,” as Pythagoras said. We should only speak and act when our reason has approved, indicating that what we are about to do is just. Avoid thoughtless actions because what brings unhappiness to a person is speaking and acting without rule or measure. Anticipate the consequences so that we will not have cause for regret tomorrow.

Modesty should be accompanied by deep humility, leading us to be as Christ preached: unless you become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. It is necessary to attain that purity possessed by children. We should seize every opportunity in our lives to educate ourselves because there are no pleasures greater than the pleasures of an enlightened mind. However, all of this is not enough if it is not also accompanied by physical care. Let us now transition from personal and mental cultivation to the rules of bodily culture.

Verses XXXIII – XXXIV – XXXV

It is necessary not to neglect the health of the body in any way.

One must provide it with moderate food and drink and the exercises it needs.

Now, I call just measure that which will not trouble you.

This mortal body, given to us as an instrument for the life we must lead here below, we should neither make it fat through excessive indulgence nor make it lean through strict diet, for both excesses create the same obstacles and prevent us from using it. That is why the poet exhorts us here to treat it with moderation, and not to neglect it, neither when it is carried away by excessive health nor when it is weakened by illness, so that, preserved in a state in which it should naturally be, it is ready to do everything that the soul, which guides it, orders it to do, to go wherever it wants it to go, for the soul is the one that uses the body, and the body is the one that serves the soul.

Therefore, the artisan is obliged to take care of the tool he uses, for he should not only want to use it, but he must also take all natural and necessary care to keep it always in a state of carrying out our orders. Because, by its nature, it is constantly in generation and corruption, and assimilation and evacuation maintain and nourish it, whether through food, replacing what perishes in it, or through exercises that aid in the evacuation of excess. It is necessary, therefore, to establish a just measure, with food that restrains and exercises that promote evacuation. This dual measure is determined by reason, which aligns the bodily condition with the intellectual operations of the soul. Thus, reason takes care of the state of health that befits the Philosopher.

Therefore, reason will choose exercises and foods that do not excessively fatten the body and do not hinder the pursuit of intellectual activities. For it is not only the body that it concerns itself with, but a body that serves the thoughts of the soul.

That is why it rejects the athletic regimen, for it is concerned only with the body, and it also avoids excessive care of the body, as entirely opposed to the intelligent light of the soul. But the regimen that, through good habits it offers to the body, can best contribute to the necessary dispositions for learning sciences and for engaging in all beautiful and virtuous actions, that is the one the person who wants to embrace the life of reason will choose. For it is to this end that it is said: Now, what I call just measure is what will not trouble you.

Let the measure of care you have for your body not trouble you, you who have a rational soul. You, who are the guardian of all the precepts that have been given to you, are obliged to choose the food and drink and exercises that make the body obedient to the commands of virtue and do not allow the brute part to jump and kick against the reason that guides it. But this measure and care that must be taken of the body must be regulated with sufficient attention and prudence, as it is the primary cause of all its disordered movements, for the horse only becomes vicious and unruly when it is overfed and misdirected by the rider.

Speaking of the measure that must be followed for the body, the poet puts drinking before eating because it is more difficult to restrain oneself and easier to abuse, and drinking excessively disturbs the body’s good habits. Without realizing it, a person will more easily exceed the just measure in drinking than in eating. He places exercises in third place because they correct the fullness caused by food and prepare the body to nourish itself more healthily. These two things form a natural cycle: food and exercise; exercise and food. Good food gives rise to good exercise, and good exercise leads to good food. Now, the just measure for one is not the same for another. Each person takes care of their body according to their specific needs and the use they want to make of it. Every person takes care to adapt their body to the profession they embrace. The wrestler prepares it for all the movements of combat, the farmer for the work of the field, another person shapes it for a different kind of service. What, then, will the philosopher do? For what purpose will he take care of his body, and by what means can he make it an instrument? It is clear that it is for the sake of Philosophy and all its works. He will not feed it or exercise it excessively, but only in the just measure in which the body must become an instrument of prudence and wisdom. And having care primarily and preeminently for the soul and for the love of the soul alone, he will care for the body in the proper order and manner, as an instrument that he refers to the health, state, and perfection of the virtue for which he uses it. That is why he will not feed it with all kinds of food, but only with what is necessary to nourish it, for there are those that should not be presented to it because they make the body heavy and drag the soul into all sorts of earthly and carnal affections. It is these foods that the poet speaks of when he says: “But abstain from all foods that we named when discussing the expiations and liberation of the soul, and rely on your judgment.” He will, therefore, entirely reject all these foods and choose instead those by which he can nourish himself, and he will regulate the quantity and timing, as Hippocrates says: he will consider the season, the place, the age, and other similar factors, which will prevent him from indulging without examination and reflection in everything that can nourish him. Furthermore, the same regimen will not be suitable for the young and the old, the healthy and the sick, the one who has just embarked on the study of Philosophy or the one who has already made great progress and attained perfection.

The Pythagorean measure encompasses all these things in these words: “what will not trouble you,” for with these few words he refers to the care of the body, everything that tends to and contributes to philosophical happiness, and after speaking of the health of the soul, he adds that in no way should the health of the body be neglected, thus teaching us what the virtue of the soul that uses the body entails, and here, what the health that ensures the preservation of the body, which serves as an instrument, entails. Therefore, he combines these two things, and you will find, whoever you may be, to whom the precept is directed, the just measure of care to be taken of the body: what will not trouble you, that is, what will not hinder the philosophical intention and can help the soul to walk on the path of virtue.

By speaking of the measure of drinking and eating, he banishes from the mind both deficiency and excess, and he only accepts and embraces that which maintains the middle ground, which is moderation. It is through this moderation that one can achieve mastery over gluttony, laziness, lust, and anger. The measure spoken of here restrains all excesses in this matter and excludes everything that troubles, debases, and burdens the soul that is directed towards intelligence, that is, towards God. For it is necessary that the soul that ascends to intelligence enjoys complete tranquility, that it is not disturbed by the violence of passions. All external things must be subjected so that it can meditate undisturbed on higher matters. This is the measure that will not trouble you.

It is this measure that will make you master of your passions, preserve your body, reveal to you the virtue of the soul, and not destroy or alter the state of the instrument it uses. For it is part of virtue to know how to preserve one’s body and make it suitable for all the purposes that Philosophy must derive from it.

However, as the care of the body does not consist only of drinking and eating, and as the body needs many things, such as clothing, footwear, furniture, and housing, and in all these things the just measure must be observed, excluding luxury and filth, the poet rightly adds the verses:

Comments on verses XXXIII, XXXIV, XXXV

Hiérocles comments that one must not neglect the health of the body in any way and provide it with moderate food and drink, not forgetting the necessary exercises.

Let us add some considerations: avoiding the superfluous, as it can lead to a breach of sobriety, which is essential for the care of the body. The just measure will not trouble us, for it is proportionate to each person. The body should not be cared for solely for athletic purposes but also to become an instrument of knowledge, of higher understanding. That is how the philosopher should proceed.

The Pythagorean just measure says, “what will not trouble you,” referring to the care of the body, and each person must achieve it, that is, what does not weaken us or make us unhealthy to the point of hindering the soul from walking the path of virtue.

Verses XXXVI – XXXVII – XXXVIII – XXXIX

Get accustomed to a clean and modest way of living.

Avoid doing things that attract envy.

Do not spend recklessly like someone who doesn’t understand beauty and honesty, but don’t be greedy or stingy either. The right measure is excellent in all things.

According to the author of these verses, the right measure is not only good in drinking and eating, but also in other things when they are equally distant from excess and deficiency. We can exceed this right measure in everything, either on the side of magnificence or on the side of meanness.

Both excesses are condemnable and unworthy of the philosopher’s way of life, and they deviate greatly from the moderation that must be observed in relation to the body. For cleanliness, taken to a certain point, becomes luxury and softness, while excessive simplicity degenerates into meanness and filthiness.

To avoid falling into the first fault due to cleanliness, or the latter due to simplicity, let us maintain the middle ground, avoiding the vices that are adjacent to these two virtues, considering them as correctives for each other. Let us embrace a simple life that is not lacking in cleanliness, and a clean life that is not overly luxurious. Therefore, let us maintain the right measure in everything concerning the body. Let us have clean clothes, but not magnificent; a clean house, but not luxurious; the same with furniture and everything else. For the rational soul, which governs the body, it is just and proper that matters concerning the body be regulated by reason. Persuaded that everything should correspond to its dignity, it does not tolerate either filthiness or luxury.

To distance oneself from magnificence, it resorts to simplicity, and it embraces cleanliness to avoid what is sordid and deformed. For example, it desires clothing that is not of a very fine fabric, but clean; tableware that is not made of gold or silver, but of common and appropriate material; a house that is not adorned with marble or other expensive stones, neither too large nor too beautiful, suitable for its use. In short, cleanliness in every way of life excludes luxury, as it is of no use, and it embraces sufficient simplicity for all needs.

Indeed, clothes, houses, and furniture serve us best when they are clean and suitable for us. For what use is a large dish for a small portion, or a dirty dish that spoils the food we dislike? What need does a person who occupies only a small corner have for a large house, and what purpose does a dirty house serve that cannot be inhabited? The same applies to all things; you will always find on both sides that everything is useless and of no use, except when simplicity is combined with cleanliness. For once you exceed the measure of necessity, you will fall into boundless desire.

Therefore, measure well all things necessary for life, which you can include in their right measure, equally distant from the two opposite excesses. So, as the poet says, get accustomed to a clean way of living; but then, realizing that this cleanliness could lead us to luxury, he adds: and without luxury. He could have simply said: get accustomed to a way of living that is without luxury. But he saw that this simplicity could fall into squalor. That is why he added clean and without luxury, preventing the fall on either side by its own counterbalance, so that a strong and worthy way of life may result from both, befitting a rational being.

By regulating our lives in this way, we will derive another great benefit from it, which is avoiding envy that always follows excess. Whether we lean towards one extreme or the other, we incite our fellow citizens against us. They either resent our luxury or lament our filthiness. They accuse us of prodigality or stinginess, and of being sordid and base. This is what the word envy properly means, for when it tells us to avoid doing what attracts envy, it means to avoid what incites rational reproach from people. Now, reason and the general sentiment of people lament the way of living characterized by luxury and filthiness, prodigality and meanness. That is why honesty and moderation in all external things indicate the good disposition of our soul and show that the right measure is the best approach. It is essential that those who seek tranquility abstain from anything that may provoke envy, like a ferocious beast, so that they may advance undisturbed in the pursuit of virtue.

We live free from envy when we embrace a simple and clean way of life and avoid the ostentation of those who do not understand what beauty and sound living consist of. Their ignorance leads to two great evils: wastefulness and untimely frugality, one of which is condemned as pride and the other as meanness. These two extremes are avoided by liberality, a virtue that consists of giving and receiving, which always finds in income and expenditure what is honest and sound, and which aligns all external things with right reason.

These are the profound reflections that this philosopher gives us in his verses regarding the use we should make of our bodies and all external things, so that the beauty of virtue may shine in our conduct through their employment. The following precept is nothing more than a summary of all that he has just said.

Comments on verses XXXVI to XXXIX

Get accustomed to a clean and modest way of living. Avoid doing things that attract envy and do not spend recklessly like someone who doesn’t understand beauty and honesty. Do not be greedy or stingy. The right measure is excellent in all things. Cleanliness without luxury was a fundamental rule of the Pythagoreans. To live in simplicity and have enough for one’s needs.

Verse XL

Do not do things that may harm you, and reason before doing them.

Here is a precept that is often given to us to say: But do what, as a result, will not distress you, or I call just measure what will not bother you; elsewhere: let no one by their words or actions ever seduce you, or do not say or do anything that is not useful to you.

And here, he presents us with all these precepts with this summary recapitulation, advising us to refrain from everything that can harm us and to do everything that can serve us.

Now, it is easy to distinguish between these two types of actions when we reason before acting and consider what is feasible and what is not. And it is time to reason and consult when it is not yet understood and not yet put into action; as for these words the things that cannot harm you, we will explain them, as we explained above the precept he gave when he said: what will not distress you, explaining this “you,” which is truly the human being, the rational essence; that is, the man who has embraced wisdom and who makes every effort to become like God, for this inner man is wounded by everything that goes against right reason, by everything that goes against divine law, by everything that hinders similarity with God and destroys His image in us. All these things usually come from the association with those with whom we live and from the care we have for the body to which we are bound, from the use we make of wealth, which was invented only as a resource for the body and which we call, for this reason, with a word that indicates that they should serve the needs of the body.

Therefore, says the Poet, the one who is inflamed with love for divine goods must be careful not to be persuaded to do what is not useful to him and must never grant his body anything that will harm him, not receive or accept anything that may draw him away from the study of Wisdom, from which he will soon repent. We must prevent all these things through reasoning that precedes action, so that the examination we will make of all our actions, after their fulfillment, can offer us a pleasant memory. This is what he dedicates himself to in the following verses:

Comments on Verse XL

Do not do things that may harm you, therefore reason before doing them. The one who embraces the path of wisdom must strive to become like God.

Our reasoning should be: Is it a path to God? Yes, then we can follow it because it does not harm. Is it a path that leads away from God? Yes, then we should not follow it because it may harm us. We must, says Hierocles, take care of the body so that its condition is not harmful and does not lead us away from the study of wisdom, causing us to repent. The highest point, for the Pythagoreans, was the knowledge of eternal laws and first principles: Mathesis.17

With these comments, we conclude the part that corresponds to human purification – catharsis – and enter the degree of perfection – teleiotes.

Fabre D’Olivet makes some considerations regarding health, which is one of the most important points. The Pythagoreans dedicated themselves to the care of health and often grew old with full mastery of the mind. Men like Xenophilus, Apollonius of Tyana, even Hippocrates of Kos (the father of Medicine in Greece), and many others are said to have reached advanced ages.

The fundamental rule of bodily care is moderation, which consists of considering food as a measure for the body and rest for the mind. One of the important points is to know what dietary regimen was advised by the Pythagoreans. We know that many modern naturalists affirm that Pythagoras strictly prohibited the use of wine and meat. This is not true! He did not prohibit them when used in moderation, just as the use of toxins when administered under certain rules and beneficial to the body, as a healing measure. However, he said that by predominating plant-based foods in the diet, gradually, humans would abstain from excessive meat and drinks (especially fermented ones), and over time, they would no longer have a taste for them; thus, achieving balance.

Paul Carton also comments on some passages regarding bodily culture. Mental culture must be simultaneous, he says, with bodily culture. Taking care of the health of the body is important because the health of the spirit is acquired through obedience to spiritual laws, which regulate the elevation of thought, the formation of intelligence, the education of the will, and the purification of understanding. An education that neglects the care of the body or the care of the spirit is flawed. Athletics, in its excesses, can be a flawed form if the athlete does not accompany the development of their spirit. Thus, the true sage must be both a priest of the spirit and a physician of the body. The medical science taught at the Pythagorean Institute led the Pythagoreans to gain renown not only as educators but also as physicians. Medical science is indebted to Pythagoras for two very important advances: removing medicine from the confinement of temples to the public square and recognizing and teaching the influence of numbers in the progress of diseases, paving the way for Hippocrates, who was a Pythagorean.

Moderate use of food and drinks is very important because both overeating and undernourishment are scourges for humanity. The excess of fasting and abstinence in certain religions was combated by Pythagoreanism. It was enough, they said, to be temperate, and that would be the path to follow. Do not think that it meant that one should use and do everything, only in moderation. No, because that would not be the Pythagorean thought, but to do everything that is good within the mean because, otherwise, excesses are harmful.

The main exercise, which they considered the most perfect, was walking.

In it lies the perfect harmonization of the body.

Pitágoras said: “It is necessary to do great things without announcing them and without promising them.” “It is better to throw a stone at random than a frivolous and useless word: do not say little in many words, but rather much in few words.” One must avoid giving prestige to flatterers, demagogues, and liars. The truth should not be spread through resounding, violent processes and agitated propaganda. Good seeds should not be sown on stony ground but require soil preparation. The superiority of the spirit requires that man be prepared to understand great ideas; hence, the wise person must proceed calmly to avoid demagogic propagators – the “counterfeiters” – who take advantage of them for their own benefit.

Avoid spending more than necessary or indulging in greed: avoid gluttony, excessive spending, luxury; live modestly and prepare the body to help us penetrate the true laws of life and attain knowledge of the supreme wisdom, Mathesis Megiste.

We should not do anything that may harm us, and it is easy to know when something harms us. If we march towards God, we are on the right path, in what is beneficial. If we move away, it will be harmful. We must avoid false reasoning and hasty conclusions. Pythagoras advised making two columns and writing on one side the arguments in favor and on the other side the arguments against before deciding anything. It is like a mental gymnastics, so that we know how to proceed, and this is truly the most important dialectical process for the development of intelligence: knowing how to weigh the pros and cons. The philosopher is the one who, when faced with a seemingly insoluble problem, waits, ponders, and ends up finding the true solution. With these pieces of advice, we conclude the purification part.

Verses XLI – XLII – XLIII – XLIV – XLV

Never let your eyelids close in sleep as soon as you lie down without subjecting all your actions of the day to the examination of reason. In what did I fail? What did I do? What did I omit that I should have done?

Start with the first of your actions, and continue in order.

If, in this examination, you find that you have made mistakes, be strict with yourself; if you have acted well, rejoice in what you have done.

When you reach this point, gather in your memory all the precepts I have just given you, so that in the inner tribunal of your soul, when you contemplate the divine Laws, you can confidently examine what you have done, whether good or bad. For how could the examination of our past actions put us in a state of self-reproach or self-praise if the reasoning that precedes them had not placed certain laws and rules before our eyes, according to which we should conduct our lives, and which should be for us a divine end to which we direct the deepest secrets of our conscience?

Pythagoras instructs us to perform this examination every day without fail, so that the regularity of remembrance makes it more secure and infallible. He wants us to do it at night, before sleep, so that every night, after all the actions of the day, we may give an accurate account before the tribunal of conscience, and that this severe examination of our dispositions may be like a hymn we sing to God before going to bed.

In what did I fail? What did I do? What did I omit? What should I have done?

By this means, we regulate our entire life according to the rules that have been prescribed, and we conform our reason, which judges according to the divine understanding that gives the Law. For what does the legislator say? That we should honor superior beings according to the order and hierarchy, that we must have great consideration and respect for our father and mother, and for all our relatives; seek and love virtuous people, control our passions and earthly affections, respect ourselves in everything and everywhere, practice justice, acknowledge the brevity of this life and the instability of wealth, accept with submission the fate sent by divine judgment, delight only in thoughts worthy of God, and constantly direct our spirit to what is best; love and embrace only reasonings that truly deserve this name; never put ourselves in a position to be surprised and subjugated, in order to preserve the precious deposit of virtue; consult before acting, so that we do not regret our decisions; purify ourselves from all opinions, seek the path of knowledge, and adapt our body and all external things to the functions of virtue. These are the laws that divine understanding has imposed on souls. Once reason has received them, it becomes a vigilant guardian for them: In what did I fail? What did I do? it says every day, recalling our good and bad actions in order. And at the end of this examination, if it finds that it has passed the day without violating any of the laws, it becomes a crown of the fruits of divine joy. And if it discovers a fault, it punishes itself with severe corrections, as with astringent remedies. That is why the poet says it is necessary to delay sleep in order to devote that time to reason for this examination. The body will easily bear these vigils, as it is not driven by the need to sleep due to its temperate and wise regimen, which brings the most necessary passions under the dominion of reason.

Never let your eyelids close in sleep after lying down without first subjecting all the actions of the day to the examination of reason. And what is this examination? In what did I fail? What did I do? What did I omit that I should have done? For we sin in two ways, either by doing what we should not do or by not doing what we should do. This is expressed, word for word, in this verse. What did I omit that I should have done? For one is an omission and the other is committing evil. One is a fault of omission, the other a fault of action. For example, it is necessary to pray always and never blaspheme. It is necessary to support your father and mother and never mistreat them. The person who fails to fulfill the first points of these two precepts has not done what they should have done; the person who commits the latter two has done what they should not have done, although it can be said that these two sins are in a sense equal in leading to the transgression of the same law.

The Poet exhorts you to examine all the actions of the day, from the first to the last in order, not forgetting the middle one, as expressed by these words: continue in order. It often happens that a transposition deceives judgment and renders something excusable due to a memory error, which would be without excuse if it were in its proper place. Moreover, this recapitulation of the life we lead during the day refreshes our memory of all our past actions and revives within us the sense of our own immortality.

What is admirable is that the Poet, while ordering us to examine each action, adds nothing to this examination. In what did I act well? What did I do that I should have done? But it suddenly and completely brings to our memory that which can most humiliate our pride, as it itself examines our faults. In what did I fail? What did I do? etc… And it gives us a fair and natural judge, which is our conscience and right reason. By establishing ourselves as the judges of our own actions, we learn to respect them particularly; for who can reprimand someone as someone can reprimand themselves? When someone who is free, using their freedom, repels the warnings and corrections of others when they do not wish to obey, but the conscience that acts within us is compelled to listen to itself. This is the governor that God has given us, this is our teacher, our guide, and this is the one whom reason appoints as the judge of our daily actions. It is only from this judge that it receives information and judgment, so that when it pronounces on itself, it condemns or absolves itself by its own verdict, according to what deserves condemnation or absolution. For when in its memory, like in a written record, it reads everything it has done, then, looking to the Law as the example to follow, it pronounces and declares itself through its judgment, worthy of praise or censure. And from this daily and constant practice, it becomes the true image of God for those who observe it, adding and removing something every day until it is brought to perfection, and the beauty of virtue shines forth completely.

It is through this practice that the virtuous person is perfected to the fullest extent possible.

This concludes the first part of this small treatise. The Poet quickly moves on to the precepts that aim to make a person godlike.

Comments on Verses XLI to XLV

This marks the beginning of the stage of perfection – teleiôtes.

They say: never let your eyelids close in sleep as soon as you lie down without subjecting all your actions of the day to the examination of reason: In what did I fail? What did I do? What did I omit that I should have done? Start with the first of your actions and continue in order. If, in this examination, you find a fault, be strict with yourself. If you have acted well, rejoice.

The Pythagorean rules in this regard are that, as soon as we lie down, we should re-examine everything we have done during the day. In what did we fail, what did we omit, and so on.

If we have committed a mistake, we should promise not to repeat it, and if we have acted well, we should rejoice.

Hiérocles, in his commentary, was extraordinary. We will draw attention to his words: we must regulate our lives by the laws that we can attain through our understanding because, undoubtedly, human wisdom is capable of a wise intuition that enables us to know the true laws of God. By analyzing everything we have done in a day, and sometimes even our entire life, we not only develop our memory, but we also reveal in ourselves the feeling of our own immortality because we increasingly become aware of our role and significance.

Verses XLVI – XLVII – XLVIII – XLIX

Practice well all these things, meditate deeply upon them.

It is necessary to love them with all your heart.

They are what will lead you on the path of divine virtue.

I swear by the One who transmitted the sacred quaternary into our soul.

the source of nature, whose course is eternal.

This is what I have already said in the preface: contemplative philosophy makes man similar to God through the radiation of understanding and truth, and, at least in what concerns us, the small things must necessarily precede the great; for it is easier to conform human life to the rules of reason, which do not consist in leading it to what is most divine and sublime, which can only be achieved by referring it entirely to contemplation.

Furthermore, it is impossible for us to possess truth without disturbance if our animal faculties are not fully subjected to moral virtues according to the law of understanding; for the rational soul, maintaining the mean between understanding and what is devoid of reason, cannot be invincibly bound to this understanding that is above it when, pure and stripped of all affection for things below it, it serves with purity, it will be pure if it does not allow itself to be seized by what is unreasonable and by the mortal body, if it despises this body as much as things foreign to it, if it only attaches itself as much as the Law of God allows it, which prohibits attempting to detach it and commands waiting for God Himself to come and release us from this captivity.

Such a soul, therefore, needs two kinds of virtue: political or practical virtue, which regulates and moderates the passions, directing them towards earthly things; and contemplative virtue, which elevates and unites it with superior beings. Between these two virtues, the Poet placed two verses that are like two boundaries separating them:

  1. Practice well all these things, meditate deeply upon them; it is necessary to love them with all your heart, it is like the end and the most appropriate conclusion of political virtue, and the last: they are what will lead you on the path of divine virtue, it is like the beginning and a beautiful opening to contemplative knowledge, for this beginning promises to the one who has freed himself from brutal life and is already purged, as much as possible, from the excess of passions, and who, through it, has become a man from being a beast. It promises to make him a god, to make him participate in the divine essence, as much as a human being can.

Now, that this deifies us, and that it is the end of contemplative truth, is what became evident through these verses that he placed at the end of this treatise as an admirable conclusion that leaves nothing more to be desired: And when, after having stripped yourself of your body, you are received into the pure and free air, you will be an immortal and incorruptible God, whom death will no longer dominate; for it is necessary that we obtain this happy restoration, that is, this glorious apotheosis, through the constant practice of virtues and the knowledge of truth; and this is what this sacred book clearly shows us, as we shall see.

For now, let us return to the verses we must explain and examine whether these words—practice, meditate, and love—when speaking of the precepts already enunciated, mean anything other than fully applying one’s soul to the practice of virtues, for since our soul is a rational substance, it necessarily has three faculties: the first by which we learn, and that is the one that orders us to meditate; the second by which we become masters of what we have learned and put it into practice, and that is the one that orders us to exercise and practice; and the third, the one by which we love what we have learned and practiced, and that is the one that urges us to love all things.

Therefore, in order to have all the faculties of our rational soul applied to these precepts of virtue, the faculty of intelligence, meditation is required; the faculty of action, practice and exercise; and the faculty of embracing and loving requires love so that, through it, we acquire true goods, preserve them, and love them always. And this disposition is not lacking to be followed by divine hope, which makes the light of truth shine in our souls, as it promises us by saying: And they will lead you on the path of divine virtue; that is, they will make you similar to God through the certain knowledge of beings: for the knowledge of the causes of beings, which are primarily in the intelligence of God, their creator, as eternal exemplars, even in the highest degree of knowledge of God, which is followed by perfect resemblance to Him. And this resemblance is called here divine virtue, as being far superior to the human virtue that precedes it and has its foundation in it.

The first part of these verses, therefore, ends with love for philosophy, and for all that is beautiful and noble. This love, taking the lead, is followed by knowledge of truth, and this knowledge leads us to perfect resemblance to divine virtue, as will be shown later. The necessity of the union or alliance of all these things is confirmed here by oaths.

For the Poet fervently swears that human virtue, once perfected, leads us to the likeness of God. And as for the precept he gave us from the beginning: Respect the oath, he therefore orders us to abstain from swearing on casual matters, whose arrival is uncertain: these kinds of things, in fact, are small and subject to change. That is why it is neither just nor safe to swear on them, for it is not within our power to make them real. But concerning the things of which we speak, and which are necessarily linked and of great consequence, one can swear with certainty, and with all kinds of circumspection and justice, for neither their instability will deceive us, for being bound by the law of necessity, they cannot fail to happen, nor will their obscurity and lowliness make them unworthy of being marked by the testimony and intervention of divinity. And if virtue and truth are found in men, they are found even more so in the Gods.

Furthermore, this oath becomes here a precept; it is necessary to honor the one who teaches us the truth, to the point of swearing by him, if necessary, to confirm his doctrines, and not just to say: He said, but to confidently assert: things are so, I swear by him himself. And by swearing on the necessary union of these quite perfect habits, he delves into the depths of Theology and clearly shows that the quaternary, which is the source of the eternal arrangement of the world, is none other than God Himself, who created everything. But how is God the quaternary? This you will learn from the sacred book attributed to Pythagoras, in which God is celebrated as the number of numbers. If all things indeed exist thanks to His eternal decrees, it is evident that in each species of beings the number depends on the cause that produced them. That is why the first number is found there and comes from there to us. Now, the finite interval of number is ten, for the one who wants to count forward after ten returns to one, two, three, and counts thus the second decade, up to twenty, the third decade in the same way up to thirty, and so on for all decades up to one hundred. After one hundred, he again returns in the same way to one, two, three, and thus the interval of ten, always repeated, goes to infinity. Now the power of ten is four, for before one reaches the complete and perfect ten, one discovers all the virtue and perfection of ten in four.

Indeed, by bringing together the numbers after one up to four, one obtains ten, 1, 2, 3, 4 make ten, and four is the arithmetic mean between one and seven, for it surpasses the one of the number by which it is surpassed by the seven, that is, the three.

Now, the virtues and properties of one and seven are exceedingly good and excellent, for unity, as the principle of all numbers, encompasses the power of various numbers, and seven, as a virgin without a mother, has, in the second place, the virtue and perfection of unity, for it is not generated by any number within the interval of ten, while four is produced by 2x2, six by 2x3, eight by 2x4, nine by 3x3, ten by 2x5, as it also does not generate any number within that interval, while two produces four, three produces nine, and five produces ten.

Four, maintaining the mean between the uncreated unity and the motherless seven, is the only one that has received the virtues and powers of the generating numbers, through the generated numbers that are contained within ten, being produced by one number and also a producer in another, and producing yet another, for the repeated two produces four, the repeated four produces eight.

It should be added that the first solid figure is found in four, for the point corresponds to unity, and the line to two, for from one point to another point it becomes a line, and the surface corresponds to three, for the triangle is the simplest of rectilinear figures, but solidity is proper to four, for it is in four that one sees the first pyramid, in which three forms the triangular base, and unity is the tip or pinnacle.

Furthermore, there are four faculties for judging things: understanding, knowledge, opinion, and sensation; indeed, all things are judged by one of these four faculties. In a word, four encompasses and connects all beings—the elements, the numbers, the seasons, the ages, the societies or brotherhoods—and one cannot name a single thing that does not depend on the quaternary as its root, for as we have said, four is the creator and cause of all things. The intelligent God is the cause of the celestial God. The knowledge of this God was transmitted to the Pythagoreans by Pythagoras himself, for which the author of these verses swears here that the perfection of virtue will lead us to the light of truth, so it can be very well said that the precept “Respect the oath” is particularly observed in relation to the eternal Gods, and that here one swears by the one who taught us the quaternary, and who, in truth, was not of the number of those Gods, nor of the heroes by his nature, but solely a man adorned with the likeness of God and preserving in the minds of his disciples all the majesty of that divine image. Thus, this Poet swears by him on such great matters, implicitly marking the extreme reverence his disciples had for him and the great distinction that this Philosopher had acquired thanks to the sciences he had taught.

The greatest of these sciences is the knowledge of the quaternary that created everything. But because the first part of these verses was briefly explained, and the second consists of a firm and stable promise, and because the sacred number of the quaternary is known by a hope that cannot deceive, and because this divine quaternary has been explained as much as the limits to which we are bound allow, let us therefore move on to the other things to which these verses refer. However, let us first make it clear, with the ardor and preparation that we must maintain here, and how necessary it is for us to have the assistance of superior beings.

Comments on verses XLVI to XLIX

Continuing: practice all things well, meditate on them thoroughly. You must love them with all your heart, for they will lead you on the path of divine virtue, I swear by the One who transmitted the sacred quaternary into our soul, the source of nature whose course is eternal.

This part of the poem is very important and draws attention to the soul’s need for both virtues: the political or practical virtue and the contemplative virtue, which is the divine virtue. It is necessary to practice both well, to know how to combine them because they will place us on the true path to God, and so that after passing through life, when we have shed our bodies, we will be received in the pure and free air, becoming an immortal, incorruptible god whom death will no longer dominate, as promised to us in the Golden Verses.

It is the rule of meditation, the need to learn to meditate and practice it constantly because only then do we exercise and develop our ability to understand things and guide ourselves toward the path of divine virtue. And nothing is higher than the love for Philosophy, the love for this “sophia,” supreme understanding, supreme knowledge, supreme instruction – the Matese Megiste.

Verses L – LI

Do not begin to execute any work.

Before you have prayed to the gods to finish what you are about to begin.

The author of these verses prescribes in a few words two things that are absolutely necessary to obtain true goods. These two things are the voluntary movement of our soul and the assistance of heaven. Although the choice of good is free and depends on us, we continually need God, from whom we have this freedom and power, to help us, cooperate with us, and bring to completion what we ask of Him. In fact, what comes from our part is like an open hand extended to receive goods, and what comes from God is like the source of gifts that He bestows upon us. One seeks the goods, the other shows those who seek them how it is necessary to do so, and prayer is a means between our search and God’s gift; it is addressed to the cause that produced us, and just as He gave us being, He also gives us the good way of being. Now, how will someone receive this good way of being if God does not give it? And how will God, who alone can give it, give it to the one who, being master of their movements, does not dare to ask for it? Therefore, in order that, on the one hand, we do not make our prayer only in words but support it with action, and on the other hand, we do not entirely rely on our action but also ask for the assistance of heaven, and thus combine prayer with action, as form with matter, this Poet, to lead us to ask for what we do and to do what we intend, says to do only one of the two: do not begin to execute before you have prayed to the gods to finish what you are about to begin.

Indeed, it is not enough to undertake noble things as if it depended solely on us to achieve success without the help of God, nor should we be satisfied with mere words of prayer without making the least effort to obtain what we ask for. For by doing this, we will either embrace a life that is impious and without God, if it is permitted to speak in such terms, or we will prefer a prayer devoid of action. Now, what is impious in the first way will entirely ruin the essence of virtue, and the inaction of the latter will absolutely destroy the effectiveness of prayer. And how can there be anything beautiful in all that is not done according to the rule of God?

And how can what is done according to this rule not need the assistance of that same God to be realized and to exist? For virtue is the image of God in the rational soul. Now, every image needs the original to exist. But it is in vain that we possess this image if we do not continually turn our eyes to this original, whose likeness alone brings about the good and the beautiful.

Therefore, if we want to acquire active virtue, we must pray; and by praying, we must act. This is what makes us always look to divinity and the light that surrounds it, and it incites us to Philosophy because we always act, uniting our prayers to the first cause of all goods. For the source of nature, whose course is eternal, the sacred quaternary, is the first cause not only of the existence of all things but also of their well-being, having distributed and scattered in this universe the good that is proper to it, like an incorruptible and intelligent light. The soul that clings to this cause and is purified by it, like the eye to direct its vision clearer and more subtle, is incited to prayer by its dedication to good works. And thanks to the fullness of the goods that are the products of prayer, it increases its dedication by combining good actions with words and by securing and strengthening these good actions through this divine conversation.

Part of it finding and managing itself, part illuminated from above and as if enlightened, it does what it asks through its prayers, and it asks through its prayers what it does.

This is the action that is so necessary of prayer and action. But what are the advantages that come to us through these two means? Let us see them next.

Comments on verses L – LI

Do not begin to execute any work before you have prayed to the gods to finish what you are about to begin.

In Hiérocles’s comments, we only need to emphasize that God should serve as an example for us to practice our actions, which should always have some resemblance to Him.

A quote taken from the Vedantas by Fabre D’Olivet deserves to be mentioned here: “Matter exists, but it is not an existence as commonly imagined. It exists but does not have an essence independent of intellectual perceptions, for existence and perceptibility are, in this case, interchangeable terms. The sage knows that the appearances of his external sensations are illusory and would vanish into nothingness if the divine energy that sustains them – which is the only one – were suspended for a single moment.” This thought, as seen, is Christian, close to Scholasticism, to Plato, and was understood by Saint Justin, by Saint Cyril, and by Pythagoras, who postulated that matter is not an entity, a reality to be considered as a separate substance.

The verses of Pythagoras, preserved by Proclus18 (who attributed them to the Master), are very important for understanding Pythagorean theological thought: "the Monad is the sacred source of number. It is from it that number emanates and from it that it obtains the virtues by which the Tetraktys, the universal mother, shines, producing everything and containing within itself the immortal decade, honored and revered everywhere."19

From these verses of Pythagoras, it is seen that the Monad, the hen proter, is not a number, as some have claimed, deducing that God was the number of numbers. Monad is hen, it is one, it is unique – the sacred source of number. From it emanates the number that possesses its virtues because it is the sacred source of unity, from which shines the Tetraktys, the universal mother, which will produce all things and contain within itself the immortal decade venerated by all. These verses were transmitted by Proclus and are accepted as Pythagorean.

Two verses given by Porphyry20, which are not found in Hierocles’s translation, are worth mentioning: “from the moment you calmly examine what remains for you to do and what needs to be accomplished.” They outline our daily actions, establishing what is very important: schematization, discipline to become masters of ourselves.

The virtuous life of man is costly, time-consuming, sacrificial, and requires great effort because we are not yet gods, we have to conquer… Pythagoras invokes the symbol of the Tetraktys to confirm the truth of his precepts and promises. The Tetraktys – the pyramid – is composed of four faces, three lateral and one at the base, and it was, by excellence, the Pythagorean symbol because it represented the constitution in four elements of everything that exists and thus gave the key to the universal enigma, demonstrating its origin, evolution, and end of all things and beings.

Paul Carton also highlights this part concerning prayers. Pythagoras started from the principle that God knows what we lack and what we need, and he said: “do not ask for anything in your prayers because you yourself do not know, and only the gods know what is useful.” Prayers should therefore be limited to being an act of aspiration to God: an expression of a desire for improvement, soliciting guidance, invoking divine support25.

By trusting in God, we will receive everything that is convenient for us, and as a Pythagorean philosopher said: “pray to God that He does not grant requests that contain something unjust, inconvenient, or evil, because sometimes we do not know what is convenient for us.”

Just as some may ask for themselves or desire perfection, thinking that with it they can build happiness and, after achieving it, be led to the worst and make a mistake. Instead, we should seek strength to judge well, reason wisely, and choose justly; this is the Pythagorean prayer that should always be addressed in this sense. Never request fleeting things that do not conform to these rules and great laws.

Verses LII – LIII – LIV

When you have made this habit familiar, You will know the constitution of the immortal gods and that of men. How far the different beings extend, and what includes and binds them.

The first thing that the author promises to those who practice the precept he gives is knowledge of the gods, theological science, and a just understanding of all beings that result from that sacred quaternary, with their differences according to their genders, and their union through the constitution of this universe; for their order and category are expressed here by the word “constitution.” How far they extend represents their special difference, and what includes and binds them signifies what unites them according to their gender.

For the genus of rational substances, although separated by nature, come together through the same interval that separates them. And because some are first, others middle or last, they are both separated and united at the same time; for by this means, the first will not become middle or last, nor the middle first or last, nor the last middle or first. But they will remain eternally distinct and separate according to their gender, bounded by the limits assigned to them by the Creator. And in this way, we understand this expression “how far the different beings extend”; and to understand, in the same way, the one that follows, “what includes and binds them,” let us examine it in this manner.

This universe would not be perfect if it did not contain the first, the middle, and the last parts, like the beginning, the middle, and the end of this whole ensemble and composition. Nor would the first parts be first if they were not followed by the middle and the last, nor would the middle be middle if it did not have the two extremes on both sides, nor would the last, in the end, be what they are if they were not preceded by the middle and the first.

All these different beings together serve the perfection of everything, and this is what is meant by saying “what they include and bind.” Although different in their species, they are separate; but as members of one and the same whole, they come together and resemble each other; and through this separation and union, they fulfill and complete the arrangement and constitution of this divine work, which you will know if you become familiar with the goods I have mentioned.

Without mentioning the two extremes, the means cannot be immediately grasped by the mind: it is enough to say “the constitution of the immortal gods and that of men,” for the first beings are connected to the last through the intermediary beings, and the last ascend to the first through the mediation of heroes full of goodness and light. Indeed, the number and category of rational beings are as we said at the beginning when we pointed out that the first beings in this universe are the immortal gods, followed by the beneficent heroes, and the last are the earthly demons, called mortal men here. Now, since it is necessary to know each of these genders, that is what has been said from the beginning: it is necessary to know the science of all these beings that tradition has taught us to honor, and this knowledge is only formed in those who have adorned practical virtue with contemplative virtue or whose goodness of nature has led them from human virtues to divine virtues. For to know beings established and constituted by God Himself is to elevate oneself to the divine likeness. But because after the arrangement of these incorporeal or immaterial beings, the corporeal nature that fills this visible world and is subject to the guidance of these rational substances follows, this Poet shows next that the good of natural or physical science will be the fruit of these orderly acquired knowledge.

Comments on Verses LII – LIII – LIV

When you have made this habit familiar, you will know the constitution of the immortal gods and that of men, how far the different beings extend, and what includes and binds them.

We will reach the essence of these gods and of men, understanding the scope of action of these spiritual forces and what binds them to the laws that govern their relationships.

Verses LV – LVI

You will also know, according to justice, that the nature of this universe is similar in everything, So you will not expect what you should not expect, and nothing will be hidden from you in this world.

By forming this universe with divine measure and proportion, nature has become similar to itself everywhere, proportionally in different ways. It has made, in all the different species it has distributed, an image of divine beauty by communicating the copy of the perfections of the original in diverse ways. It has given perpetual motion to the heavens and stability to the earth. Now, these two qualities are also traits of divine resemblance. It has given the celestial body the task of enveloping the universe and the terrestrial body to serve as its center. Now, in a sphere, the center and the circumference can be seen from different perspectives as its beginning and its end. Hence, the circumference is varied by countless arcs and intelligent beings, and the earth is adorned with plants and animals, which share only sensation. Among these two species of beings, so far apart from each other, man stands in the middle, like an amphibious animal, being the last of the superior beings and the first of the inferior ones. That is why he sometimes unites with the immortals, and through his return to understanding and virtue, he regains his rightful fate; sometimes, he falls into mortal species, and through the transgression of divine Laws, he finds himself degraded from his dignity.

Indeed, as the last of rational substances, he cannot always think or know in the same way (for then he would not be a man but God, by nature) nor always know although he knows differently at times (for then he would be placed in the category of angels, in the place where a man who, through resemblance, can ascend to what is best and, by nature, is inferior to the immortal gods and heroes full of goodness and light, meaning the two genders that occupy the first and second category). In the same way that he is inferior to these beings because he does not always know and because he is sometimes in ignorance and forgetfulness of his essence and the light that descends from God upon him, in the same way that he is not always in this forgetfulness and ignorance, he surpasses animals without reason and plants, and by his essence, he surpasses all earthly and mortal nature, being able, by his nature, to return to his God, dispel his forgetfulness through reminiscence, recover through instruction what he has lost, and heal his escape and distance from heaven through an opposing flight and distance.

Therefore, it is essential to understand the constitution of the immortal gods and that of mortal men, meaning the order and category of rational beings, to understand that the nature of this universe is similar, meaning that the corporeal substance from top to bottom is honored by an analogous resemblance to God, and finally, to know all these things according to justice, meaning how they are established by the Law with which God created them, and how He regulated and hierarchized them through His Laws, both corporeal and incorporeal. For it is from both of these works of God that we must understand this precept that commands us to know them according to justice.

Indeed, it is not necessary that, with blind and foolish zeal, we strive to transfer the dignity of beings from one to another as we please; but, by following the limits of truth, we must know all things according to justice and how their creation established and distinguished them.

And from these two knowledge, I want to say, of that incorporeal soul of God and of that divine corporeal soul, a quite valuable advantage comes to us: that we do not expect what we should not expect, and nothing will be hidden from us in this world; for the essence of beings, being hidden from us, we hope for what should not be hoped for and have only vain thoughts that cannot be accomplished. For example, a man who hopes to become one of the immortal gods or one of the heroes full of goodness and light does not truly understand the limits of nature and does not distinguish the first, second, and last beings. On the other hand, if, due to shameful ignorance of the immortality inherent in our soul, he persuades himself that his soul will die with his body, he hopes for what he should not hope for and what cannot happen. Likewise, the one who clings to the idea of clothing himself after death with the body of an animal and becoming an animal without reason due to his vices, or a plant due to his heaviness and dullness, that person, taking a path contrary to those who transform the essence of man into one of the superior beings and plunging it into some of the inferior substances, is infinitely mistaken and completely ignorant of the essential form of our soul, which can never change, for it always remains and continues to be a man. It is said that it becomes God or an animal through vice or virtue, although it can be neither by nature but only by its resemblance to one or the other. In short, the one who does not know the dignity of each being but adds to or diminishes it falls into the ignorance of empty opinions and hopes or frivolous fears. Whereas every person who distinguishes beings according to the limits established by the Creator and understands how they were created and measures God, if it is allowed to speak thus, through self-knowledge, observes the precept that commands to follow God, knows the most excellent virtue, and puts oneself in a state where one can never be deceived or surprised.

Comments on Verses LV – LVI

According to justice, you will still come to know that the nature of this universe is similar in everything, so that you will not expect what you should not expect, and nothing will be hidden from you in this world. We have nothing to add to Hierocles’s comments.

Verses LVII – LVIII – LIX – LX – LXI – LXII

You will also come to know that men voluntarily attract their own misfortunes through their own choices.

Miserable are they! They do not see or understand that goods are near them.

There are few who know how to rid themselves of their evils.

Such is the fate that blinds men and robs them of reason. They are like rolling cylinders.

They roll back and forth, constantly overwhelmed by countless evils.

For the fatal attachment born with them and following them everywhere, agitating them without their awareness.

Instead of provoking and avoiding it, they should flee from it, yielding.

The order of corporeal and incorporeal beings, being well known, the essence of man is also precisely known; what it is, and to which passions it is subject, and it is known that he maintains a middle ground between beings that never fall into vice and those who can never rise to virtue. That is why it has the two tendencies that these two connections inspire, sometimes living there with an intelligent life, sometimes here assuming completely carnal affections. This is why Heraclitus rightly said that our life is death and our death is life, for man falls and plunges from the religion of the blessed, as Empedocles, the Pythagorean, said:

Banished from the celestial mansion,

A wandering vagabond, agitated by the furies

Of discord in flames.

But there he ascends again and recovers his former habit if he follows the things here, and this terrible place where he remains, as the same poet says:

Murder, anger, and a thousand swarms of evils, in which those who fall there wander abandoned in the dark fields of injury and mourning.

He who follows these sad campaigns of injury is led by this good desire in the meadows of truth, and if he abandons it, the fall of his wings precipitates him into an earthly body.

Where he drinks in deep draughts the oblivion of his happiness.

And this is what Plato’s sentiment corresponds to when he speaks of the fall of the soul, saying: But when it no longer has the strength to follow God, it does not see that field of truth; that, through some unfortunate circumstance filled with vice and forgetfulness, it becomes heavy; and being heavy, it loses its wings and falls to this earth, then the Law sends it to animate a mortal animal. And about the return of the soul to the place from which it descended, Plato said: The man who, through reason, has overcome disorder and disturbance caused by the mixture of earth, water, air, and fire, resumes his original form and regains his original habit, because he returns sound and whole to the star assigned to him. He returns sound because he is liberated from passions, which are also diseases; and this cure comes to him only through practical virtue, and he returns whole because he recovers understanding and knowledge, as his essential parts, which only happens to him through contemplative virtue.

On the other hand, Plato positively teaches that it is through fleeing from the things of this world that we can heal and correct apostasy, which separates us from God. And he establishes that this escape from the evils down here is nothing more than Philosophy, marking thereby that these kinds of passions are found only in men and that it is not possible for evils to be banished from this earth, nor can they approach divinity, but they are always around the Earth we inhabit, and they are linked to mortal nature as a result of the sole necessity. For beings that are in generation and corruption can be affected against nature, and this is the principle of all evils. And to teach how to flee from them, Plato adds: That is why it is necessary to flee from here as quickly as possible; now, to flee is to strive to become like God as much as possible for man, and to become like God is to become just and holy with prudence. For the one who must avoid these evils must first rid himself of this mortal nature, for it is not possible for those who are involved and dominated by it to be free from all the evils that necessity makes germinate there.

Therefore, just as our separation from God is the loss of the wings that elevate us to heavenly things, and precipitates us into this region of death where all evils dwell, in the same way, the stripping of all earthly affection and the renewal of virtues, as a rebirth of our wings to guide us to the abode of life where true goods are found without any mixture of evils, will lead us to divine happiness. For the essence of man, having a middle ground between beings that constantly contemplate God and those who are incapable of contemplation, can rise to some and lower to others, being the cause of this amphibious nature, equally compelled to take on divine likeness or brutal likeness, depending on whether it accepts or rejects understanding and good spirit.

Therefore, whoever knows this freedom and dual power in human nature also knows how men voluntarily attract all evils to themselves and how they are unhappy and miserable by their own choice; for at times, being able to remain in their true homeland, they allow themselves to be born through the unruliness of their desires, and at other times, being able to momentarily depart from this wretched body, they voluntarily immerse themselves in all the entanglements and disorders of passions. This is what the Poet wants to convey when he says: They do not see or understand that goods are near them.

The goods here are virtue and truth. Not seeing that they are near him means not being driven to seek them, and not understanding that they are near them means not listening to warnings and not obeying the precepts given to them; for there are two ways to regain knowledge: one through instruction, such as through hearing, and the other through investigation, such as through sight. Therefore, it is said that men attract their own evils by their own choice when they neither want to learn from others nor find within themselves, as they are completely devoid of feeling, the true goods, and thus, they are completely useless, for any man who does not see for himself and does not understand what is advised to him is entirely useless and desperate. But those who strive to find themselves or learn from others the true goods are those of whom the Poet says that they know how to free themselves from their evils and, by fleeing from the toils and sorrows they encounter down here, they transport themselves to a pure and free air. Their number is small, for most are wicked, subjected to their passions as they are driven by their tendency towards the Earth, and they attract these evils to themselves because they have chosen to distance themselves from God and deprive themselves of His presence, and if one may say so, of His familiarity, of which they had the fortune to enjoy while dwelling in pure light. This distancing from God is indicated by the fate that blinds men and robs them of reason.

Indeed, it is equally impossible for one who is empty of God not to be foolish, and for the wise not to be empty of God; for it is a necessity that the fool be without God, and the one who is without God be a fool; and both, not being driven by the love of true goods, are overwhelmed by countless miseries, impelled from one unhappiness to another by the weight of their impious affections, not knowing what to do or how to govern themselves without reason and reflection in all states of fortune, insolent in wealth, mad and treacherous in poverty, quarrelsome if they have physical strength, blasphemers if they are sickly and ill, they weep if they do not have children, and if they do, they take that as a pretext for war and protests and unjust and dishonest gains. In short, there is nothing in life that does not lead to evil for the foolish when they are pressed from all sides and reduced to anguish by the vice they willingly embraced and by their refusal to see the divine light and hear what is said to them about true goods. Immersed in carnal afflictions, they allow themselves to be carried away on this path, like in a violent storm.

The only liberation from all these evils is the return to God. And this return can only happen for those who have the eyes and ears of the soul always open and attentive and who, through their faculty of rising up, heal the malady.

Now, this malady, attached to our nature, which is at the same time acquired evil, is the abuse we make of our freedom, for in using this freedom, we always take care to dispute against God and to recklessly go against His laws, without considering the great evils we do to ourselves by resisting God, only seeing with a disturbed and confused vision that we can shake off the yoke of divine laws. It is said, in fact, to use complete and unlimited freedom or to dare to distance oneself from God or to engage in a fatal conflict with Him, stubbornly disputing against Him and refusing to yield. If He says to us, “You shall not do this,” it is what we want to do; and if He says, “Do this,” it is what we do not want to do, thus exceeding the measure of our iniquities and plunging ourselves into the two sides of infinite misery through this double transgression of God’s Law, by not doing what He commands and doing what He forbids.

What remedy will we find, then, for this fatal conflict, which is said here to be “our companion and born with us,” which is stirred up by this unfortunate seed that is in us, always opposed to nature, and which for this reason, like a domestic evil, wounds and kills us without our perceiving it? What must be done to oppose it?

How can the fury be stopped?

Certainly, there is no other dam to oppose this faculty that precipitates us downward than to meditate on, practice, and love all the precepts that we set on the paths of divine virtue.

Indeed, this is the liberation from our evils, which is known to so few. This is what makes us see and understand the goods that are near us; this is what frees us from the unhappiness we willingly attract; this is what cuts off this multitude of disturbances and passions that overwhelm us; and consequently, this is the only way to avoid this impious contention, this is the salvation of the soul, the purification of this unbridled discord, and the return to God. For the only way to correct the faculty that withdraws us from the tendency that debases us is not to further increase this tendency, and not to accumulate evils upon evils, but to become obedient and submissive to right reason, to flee from this wicked contention and throw ourselves into a completely good contention, which means not fighting to disobey God, but fighting to obey Him with all our strength. And this fight should not be called a “contention,” but rather an acquiescence to the will of God, a return to His divine law, and a voluntary and perfect submission that eliminates all pretext for disobedience and unbelief, for I believe that all these things are signified by these verses.

Indeed, to indicate that men embrace vice by their own choice, the Poet says, “You will come to know that men voluntarily attract their own misfortunes.” They must be called “unhappy and miserable” because they plunge into vice by the choice of their will. To make it understood that they stubbornly refuse to listen to the good precepts given to them, he says that “they do not see or understand that goods are near them.”

And to indicate that it is possible to free oneself from the evils into which one is voluntarily cast, he inserts this reflection: “and there are very few who know how to free themselves from their evils,” thus showing that since this liberation is the result of our will, the slavery of sin is also. After this, he adds the cause of the blindness and deafness of those souls that voluntarily plunge into vice. Such is the “fate,” he says, “that blinds men and takes away their reason”; for distancing from God necessarily plunges us into madness and into rash and thoughtless choice. And it is this distancing that he designates here by the word “fate,” which separates us from the chorus of divine spirits due to the unfortunate tendency towards this particular and mortal animal. It also shows us the disastrous consequences of this rash and inconsiderate choice, and he teaches us how our sins are both voluntary and involuntary, comparing the life of the fool to that of a rolling cylinder, which moves both by rolling and in a straight line, rolling on its own and going straight due to its fall. For just as the cylinder is incapable of circular motion around its axis once it deviates from a straight line, in the same way, the soul no longer retains true goods once it has fallen from right reason and union with God; it wanders around apparent goods and is led away from the straight path, moved by carnal affections, which he explains through these verses: “They roll back and forth, constantly overwhelmed by countless evils.” And because the cause of this fate that takes away men’s reason and separates them from God is the “abuse” they make of their freedom, he teaches us in the following two verses how to correct this abuse and use that same freedom to return to God. To imply that we attract the misfortunes we desire, he says, “the fatal contention born with those who follow it everywhere agitates them without their awareness.” And immediately, without any transition, to show that the remedy is within our power, he adds, “instead of provoking and irritating it, they should flee from it, yielding.” But realizing at the same time that we previously need the assistance of God to avoid evils and acquire goods, he adds in one stroke a kind of prayer, making a return and connection with God, the only means to attract His assistance.

Comments on Verses LVII to LXII

You will also realize that men willingly and by their own choice attract their own misfortunes. Few know how to free themselves from their troubles, such is the fate that accompanies them and steals their peace of mind.

Like cylinders, they roll here and there, always overwhelmed by countless afflictions, for the fatal constraint born with them and that follows them everywhere, agitates them without their realizing it. Instead of summoning it and avoiding it, they should flee from it, yielding.

These verses are commented upon by Hierocles with great precision and require no further commentary.

We draw attention to a phrase by Plato: “That is why it is necessary to flee from here as quickly as possible. Now, fleeing is to work to resemble God as much as possible, insofar as man is concerned, and to resemble God is to become just and holy with prudence.”

Fabre D’Olivet has little to add, but we find a passage, also from Plato (in Alcibiades), where Socrates recalls an ancient poem that also addresses this theme. He says: “Grant me, great gods, what is necessary for me, whether it is what I think or not; when I ask of you, and if the object of my desires is contrary to me, take care, great gods, not to grant it to me!” This means that we can err in what we consider convenient, hence in our prayers we should request what is good and useful, for there is a danger of erring in our misguided desires. Because if we vehemently desire something, we will achieve it; what we need is to direct our desires towards the right path, towards what is just and appropriate. Care is necessary because when we desire something, we set in motion internal forces that can work towards acquiring what is desired, and that may not be the best. It is preferable in these prayers to observe what the Pythagoreans say: “Instructed by the gods who will not deceive us, we can know everything, its beginning and end, and know, if heaven wills it, that nature is equal in all things and the same everywhere.”

Hierocles commented with great wisdom on these maxims, which also represent the thoughts of the Egyptians. They are present in the thoughts of Hermes Trismegistus when he says: “In truth without fiction, in truth, in truth I tell you, the lower things are like the higher ones, and both join their invincible forces to produce one thing, the most marvelous of all. And since all things emanate from the will of the one God, all things, whatever they may be, must be generated from this one thing, by a disposition of universal nature” (Emerald Tablet, attributed to Hermes Trismegistus21).

According to Paul Carton, this part of the Golden Verses corresponds to the initiatory work because, after being perfectly imbued with these precepts, the Pythagorean begins to acquire knowledge of the secrets until he conceives the inner constitution of the gods, men, and all things, which is the science of universality – Philosophy – the deepest knowledge that the human mind can attain in its evolution.

The author does not add anything to what Hierocles has already commented. He merely reinforces the point that we are the creators of our own misfortunes and, to a large extent, responsible for everything that happens to us; for true goods are within our reach, within ourselves. We can thus free ourselves from what torments us, but few know how to do it because they are not properly guided. Blindness disturbs us, obscuring intelligence and preventing us from knowing well everything that acts to disturb us.

Verses LXIII – LXIV – LXV – LXVI – LXVII – LXVIII

Great Jupiter, father of men, you will free them from all the troubles that overwhelm them.

If you show them which demon they serve.

But take courage, the race of men is divine.

Sacred nature reveals to them the most hidden mysteries. If she has revealed to you part of her secrets, you will easily come to grasp all the things that I have commanded you.

And by healing your soul, you will free it from all these sufferings and labors.

The Pythagoreans have the custom of designating God, the father and creator of this universe, by the name Jupiter, which in the original language is derived from a word that means life. For the one who has given being and life to all things must be called by a name derived from these faculties. The name of God, which is truly proper to Him, is the one that best suits His operations and most clearly marks His works. Today, among us, the names that seem most appropriate, due to human conventions and prejudices, are so inadequate that they care little if they call a bad man a good man or an impious man a pious man. But such names do not possess the suitability that human beings should have, as they do not signify the essence or virtues of the things to which they are attached. However, this suitability and this property of names must be sought, above all, in eternal things; among eternal things, in divine things; and among divine things, in the most excellent ones.

That is why the name Jupiter, in its very sound, is a symbol and an image of the essence that created it; for those who were the first to impose names, through their sublime wisdom, acted as excellent sculptors; through the names themselves, they expressed, as if through animated images, the virtues of those to whom they gave the names in their very sound, symbol of their thoughts, and in their thoughts, the most similar and instructive images of the subjects on which they pondered.

Indeed, these great souls, through their continuous application to intelligible things, as if absorbed in contemplation and, so to speak, filled with that intercourse, when pain came to them to engender their thoughts, they presented them in terms that gave the things names which, by their very sound and the letters used to form them, perfectly expressed the species of the things named, and led those who understood them well to a knowledge of their nature, so that the end of their conference was, for us, a beginning of understanding. This is how the creator of all things was called by these great men, either by the name of the quaternary or by the name Jupiter, for the reasons we have indicated.

Now, what is asked here in this prayer is that it be distributed to all men due to His infinite goodness, but it depends on us to receive what He continually gives. It is further stated: do not begin to act before having prayed to the gods, to make it understood that the Gods are always ready to bestow blessings, but we only receive them when we ask for them and reach out our hand for this divine distribution. For what is free does not receive true goods unless it desires to; and these true goods are truth and virtue, which, always emanating from the essence of the creator, shine equally before the eyes of all men. And here, these verses for the liberation from our troubles demand as a necessary thing that we know our own essence: indeed, this is what the verse means, which demon he serves; that is to say, what is his soul, for from this return to ourselves and from self-knowledge necessarily depend the liberation from our troubles and the manifestation of the goods that God offers us to make us happy. Therefore, this verse assumes that if all men knew what they are and which demon they serve, they would all be liberated from their troubles. However, this is impossible because it is possible for all to devote themselves to philosophy and properly receive all the goods that God incessantly offers them in order to attain the perfection of happiness.

What remains, then, is that those who take courage, apply themselves to knowledge, which alone reveals our true goods and the goods that are proper to us, for these are the only ones who will be freed from the troubles attached to this mortal nature because they are the only ones dedicated to the contemplation of these goods. That is why they deserve to be counted among divine beings, being instructed by sacred nature, that is, by Philosophy, and by putting into practice all the rules of duty.

For if we have any intercourse with these divine men, we will make it known in ourselves by applying ourselves unremittingly to good works and intellectual knowledge, through which alone the soul is healed of its passions and liberated from all the labors of this world, transported in a completely divine order and state.

In short, this is the meaning of these verses: those who know themselves are liberated from every mortal affection. But because not all men are liberated, even though they all have the innate power to know their essence, we see that most, as we have said, willingly attract their misfortunes by refusing to see and understand that the goods are close to them. The minority consists of those who know how to free themselves from their troubles by knowing which demon they serve, and they are precisely those who, through philosophy, have purged all madness from their passions and have withdrawn from these earthly places as if from a narrow prison where they languished. Therefore, when the Poet says to Jupiter, father of men, “you will free them from all the troubles that afflict them if you show them which demon they serve,” it is to make it understood that it is up to Him to lead all men to the truth, even against their will and their refusal to do so out of negligence or design, so that they may remain eternally in slavery? But is this not something that cannot be understood without impiety? The Poet wants, above all, to teach by this that whoever wants to attain happiness must turn to God as his father, for God is the creator of all beings and the father of men. Therefore, the one who knows what liberation from troubles consists of, who frees himself from the misfortunes that men willingly attract, and who avoids the fatal contention through voluntary flight, imploring God’s help, cries out: “Jupiter, father of men.” Having made the prayer of a son, calling God his father, he makes this reflection that all men, if they did what he does, would be liberated like him from all their troubles. But finding that this does not happen, not because of God’s fault, if it is allowed to speak thus, but because of the fault of men, who willingly attract their troubles, he says to himself, “But take courage, you who have found the true path to free yourself from your troubles,” and this path is the return that sacred Philosophy makes us take to the goods that God continually presents to us, and that the majority of men do not see because they misapply the common notions that God, as it were, planted in every rational being so that it may know itself.

Now, to show something to someone, it is necessary that the actions of two persons necessarily concur, for how would we show something to a blind person, even if we presented to him a thousand times what we want to show? Or how would we show those who have eyes if we do not present what we want them to see?

These two things, therefore, are necessary. On the part of the one who shows, it is necessary to present well to the one being shown; it is necessary to have eyes capable of seeing, so that on the one hand, the object and, on the other hand, the vision concur together, and that nothing is lacking for a good showing. Therefore, we make this hypothesis that all men would be freed from their troubles if God, who created them, showed them and taught them to know themselves and to know which demon they serve. However, we see that not all men are liberated from their troubles, therefore God does not equally show Himself to all men, but only to those who cooperate on their part for this liberation and who desire to open their eyes wide to see and contemplate what He shows them and to receive it.

Consequently, God is not the cause of what He does not show to all men, but they themselves do not see or understand that the goods are near to them, within themselves, according to the notions that nature has communicated to them in creating them. And the only cause of this blindness and deafness is the wretched contention, which we willingly embrace. But instead of increasing it and allowing it to grow, we should flee from it, yielding. We should learn to free ourselves from our troubles and find the path to return to God, for through this means, the light of God and our vision, concurring together, bring about that perfect way of showing that brings about the freedom of the soul, its liberation from all earthly labors, and the vivid perception of heavenly goods and the calling to its true homeland.

Thus, this poet, having thus treated of truth and virtue, and having concluded the precepts of virtue with the examination that he wants to be done at night, and having carried the hopes of truth to the freedom of the soul and the liberation from all its troubles, then speaks of the purity that gives wings to the luminous body, and thus adds a third kind of philosophy to the previous two.

Comments on verses LXIII to LXVIII

“Great Jupiter, father of men, you will free them from all the evils that oppress them if you show them which demon they serve. But take courage, the race of men is divine. Sacred nature reveals to them the most hidden mysteries. If it has revealed part of its secrets, you will easily attain all the things I have commanded you, and by healing your soul, you will free it from all these sufferings and labors.”

Hiérocles comments on them with great precision, but it is necessary to take into account the word Jupiter. In its origin, it signifies life. Jupiter is the young pater, the father who is life, the principle of all things.

Verses LXIX to LXXI

“But abstain from the foods we prohibit in the purifications and in the liberation of the soul. Exercise righteous discernment and examine all things well. Let yourself be constantly guided and led by the understanding that comes from above and that must hold the reins!”

Hiérocles’s comments are very enlightening on this part, and we have nothing more to add.

Verses LXIX – LXX – LXXI

But abstain from the foods we prohibit in the purifications.

And in the liberation of the soul, exercise righteous discernment, and examine all things well.

By constantly allowing yourself to be guided and led by the understanding that comes from above and must hold the reins.

The rational essence, having received from God, its creator, a body in accordance with its nature, descended here below, so that it is neither corporeal nor without a body. Although incorporeal, it has its form determined and infinite by the body. The upper part is an incorporeal essence, and the lower part a corporeal essence; the Sun itself is a whole composed of corporeal and incorporeal things, not as two parts that have been separated and then reunited. For in that case, they would separate again, but as two parts created together and born together with subordination, so that one guides and the other follows. Likewise, all other rational beings, both heroes and men, for the hero is a rational soul with a luminous body, and the man is equally a rational soul with a mortal body, created with it. This is the doctrine of Pythagoras that Plato explained at length after him when comparing the divine soul and the human soul to a winged chariot, which has two horses and a charioteer driving it.

For the perfection of the soul, we need truth and virtue; for the purging of our luminous body, we need to cleanse ourselves of all the impurities of matter, resort to holy purifications, and make use of the strength that God has given us to incite us to flee from these places.

This is what the preceding verses have taught us; they have marked the filth of matter with this precept: “Abstain from all the foods that have been prohibited to you.” It orders us to combine with this abstinence sacred purification and the divinely inspired strength, which is somewhat obscurely understood by these terms “in the purifications and in the liberation of the soul,” etc. In short, they work to make the form of human essence whole and perfect, adding, by constantly allowing yourself to be guided and led by the understanding that comes from above and must hold the reins. For this reason, the poet presents before our eyes the entire human essence and distinguishes the order and category of the parts that compose it. The one who leads is like the charioteer; the one who follows and obeys is like the chariot. These verses thus teach those who want to understand the symbols of Pythagoras and obey them, which consists of practicing virtue and embracing truth and purity. It is necessary to take care of our soul and our luminous body, which the oracles call the subtle chariot of the soul.

Now, the purity spoken of here extends to our foods, drinks, and the entire regimen of our mortal body, in which the luminous body breathes life into the lifeless body and contains and encompasses all its harmony. For the immaterial part is life, it is the one that produces the life of the material body, through which our mortal and complete body, being composed of immaterial life and material body, is the image of man, who is properly the composite of rational essence and immaterial body.

Since we are man, and man is composed of these two parts, it is evident that we must purify and perfect ourselves in both parts. And for this purpose, we must follow the appropriate paths for each of our two natures, for each requires a different purgation. For example, for the rational soul, with regard to its faculty of reasoning and judging, the purgation is truth, which produces knowledge, and with regard to its faculty of deliberating and opining, it is consultation and good counsel. For we are born to contemplate the things above and regulate those here below. For the former, we need truth, and for the latter, civil virtue, in order to fully apply ourselves to the contemplation of eternal things and the practice of all our duties. And in both, we will avoid the storms that incite madness if we strictly obey the divine laws that have been given to us. For it is precisely this madness that we must purge from our rational essence, and it is because of this madness that it has had a tendency toward earthly things. But because our luminous body has become attached to a mortal body, we must also take care of this corruptible body and free it from the sympathies it has contracted with it. Therefore, for the purgation of the spiritual body, it is necessary to do it following the sacred oracles and the holy method taught by art.

But this purgation, being somewhat more corporeal, employs all kinds of materials to heal this vivifying body in every way and to compel it, through this process, to separate from matter and fly to the blessed places where its primary happiness already has its place. And everything done for the purgation of this body, if done in a worthy manner of God, must be in accordance with the rules of truth and virtue. For the purgations of the rational soul and the luminous chariot are performed so that this chariot, made winged by its means, no longer delays its flight to the celestial realms. Now, what contributes most to growing these wings is meditation, through which one gradually learns to flee from earthly things; it is the habit of immaterial and intelligible things; it is the shedding of all the filth it has acquired through its union with this earthly and mortal body. In fact, through these three things, it sees in a certain way, gathers, is filled with divine strength, and unites with the intelligent perfection of the soul.

But one may ask, how does abstaining from certain foods contribute to such great things? Certainly, for those who are accustomed to separate themselves from all mortal things, if they abstain absolutely from certain foods, especially those that dull the mind and produce generation in the mortal body, it makes us doubt that it is a great step, a great advance in its purgation. That is why this abstinence is prescribed in symbolic precepts, and in the mystical sense, which, in its depth and mystical sense, truly has a broader primary sense than what the literal sense presents, it prohibits positively what is named in the precept. Like when it says, “You shall not eat the womb” – taken literally, it prohibits us from eating a certain small part, but if we penetrate the great hidden sense in this Pythagorean profundity, through this tangible and sensible image, we learn to renounce completely everything that pertains to birth and generation. And just as we abstain truly and literally from eating this part, we will practice with the same care everything that this precept encompasses, which is more hidden for the purgation of the luminous body. Similarly, in this precept, “You shall not eat the heart,” the primary sense is that we avoid anger, but the literal and subordinate sense is that we prevent ourselves from eating this forbidden part.

We will explain in the same way the precept that orders us to abstain from eating the flesh of dead animals. We understand that this precept truly wants to keep us away from all mortal nature and prevent us from partaking in all profane meats that are not suitable for sacrifices. For in symbolic precepts, it is right to obey the literal sense as well as the hidden sense. It is only through the practice in the literal sense that we attain the mystical sense, which is more important.

Likewise, we should understand here that this verse gives us, in its two words, the seeds and principles of the best works: “Abstain,” it says, “from the foods,” as if it were saying, “Abstain from mortal and corruptible bodies.”

But because it is not possible to abstain from all, it adds, “that we prohibit,” and in the places where it spoke, it means, “in the purifications and in the liberation of the soul,” so that, for the abstinence from the prohibited foods, we add the splendor of the corporeal chariot and take care of a purified soul liberated from all the filth of matter.

It leaves the discernment of all these things to understanding, and being the only faculty that judges, it is the only one capable of having a luminous body, a care that corresponds to the purity of the soul.

That is why this understanding is called the charioteer, the driver who holds the reins, as created to drive the chariot. It is called understanding because it is the intelligent faculty; it is called driver or charioteer because it governs the body and guides it. Now, the gaze of love is what guides the charioteer, for it is only through this gaze of love that an intelligent soul sees the field of truth. Through the faculty it has on hand, it retains the body attached to it, and by guiding it wisely, it becomes its master and turns it toward itself, so that it may fully contemplate divinity and conform entirely to its image.

That is the general idea of this abstinence spoken of here and all the great goods to which it seeks to lead us. All these things are detailed in sacred precepts that were given through shadows and veils, although each of these precepts is directed to a particular abstinence, such as abstaining from beans for vegetables, and abstaining from dead meats for animals. The species is specified, as with a certain animal for terrestrial creatures, and such a bird for winged creatures, and finally, it goes down to particularizing certain parts, “You shall not eat the head, you shall not eat the heart.”

In some of these precepts, however, the author encompassed the entire perfection of purification, for he ordered the good to this or that thing; a) for corporeal abstinence due to certain physical properties and virtues. But in every precept, he implies the purging of all carnal affections that always accustom man to turn towards himself, to draw from that place of generation and corruption, and to fly to the Elysian fields and purer air. And because the Pythagoreans wanted the progress of this abstinence to be orderly, their writings contain symbols that, at first, seem contradictory. For example, this precept, “Abstain from eating the heart,” seems to contradict the other precept, “Abstain from eating animals,” unless one says that the first is meant only for those who are beginners and the last, “Abstain from eating animals,” is for the perfected ones. For the abstinence from a part of the animal is superfluous and useless when the entire animal is prohibited.

Therefore, it is necessary to carefully observe the order of progression that the author has given. “Abstain from the foods,” he says, then as if asked, “But from which foods?” he answers, “Those that I have prohibited.” After that, he further answers as if in a second question, “In what places did the Pythagoreans speak of these foods? In what treatises did they prescribe abstinence?” In the purifications and in the liberation of the soul, thereby insinuating directly that purgations precede and the liberation of the soul comes afterward.

Now, the purgations of the rational soul are the mathematical sciences, and its liberation is received through Dialectic, which is the intimate inspection of beings.

The author said in the singular in relation to the liberation of the soul, because this liberation refers to a single science; and said in the plural: in purifications, because mathematics encompass many sciences. Therefore, in all things said specifically about the soul, for its purification and liberation, it is necessary to add to the luminous body, which is similar to all and corresponds analogously and proportionally. Thus, it is necessary, necessarily, that the purifications, which are done through science, be accompanied by mystical purifications of initiations, and that the liberation, which is done through Dialectic, be followed by the introduction, which is the most sublime and highest. These are the things that purify and perfect the spiritual part of the rational soul, freeing it from the filth and disorder of matter, and making it clean to converse with pure spirits.

Indeed, the impure cannot touch the pure. Therefore, it is necessary, necessarily, to adorn the soul with knowledge and virtue so that it can be like the spirits, always endowed with these qualities. Likewise, it is necessary to make the luminous body pure and separate it from matter so that it can sustain communication with the luminous bodies, for it is resemblance that unites all things, while dissimilarity separates and divides those that are more closely connected by their situation.

This is the most perfect measure that the Pythagoreans gave to philosophy, through the perfection of the integral human being; this measure is proportionate because one who is only concerned with the soul and neglects the body does not purify the integral human being, and, on the other hand, one who believes that caring only for the body, without considering the soul, or that caring for the body will also serve the soul without it being separately purified by itself, commits the same mistake.

But one who takes care of both, perfects the integral being, and in this way, philosophy joins mystical art, as it works to purify the luminous body. And if this art is stripped of philosophical spirit, it no longer has the same virtue; for among all things that complete our perfection, some are invented by the philosophical spirit, others are introduced by the mystical operation that conforms to this spirit. By mystical operation, I mean the purgative faculty of the luminous body, so that in all philosophy, theory precedes as the spirit, and practice follows as an act or faculty. Now, practice is of two kinds, political or civil, and mystical. The former purges us of madness through virtues; the latter cuts off all earthly thoughts through sacred ceremony.

Public laws are a good indication of civil philosophy, and the sacrifices of cities are an indication of mystical philosophy. Now, the most sublime thing in all philosophy is the contemplative spirit; the political spirit holds the middle ground, and the last is the mystical spirit. The first, in relation to the other two, occupies the place of sight, and the other two, in relation to the first, occupy the place of foot and hand. But all three are so closely connected that each one is imperfect and almost useless without the operation of the other two. Therefore, it is always necessary to combine the science that has found the truth, the faculty that has produced virtue, and the one that seeks purity, so that political actions become consistent with the guiding intelligence, and holy actions correspond to both.

The aim of Pythagorean philosophy is that we all should become winged to reach divine goods so that when the moment of death comes, leaving behind this mortal body on this earth, and shedding its corruptible nature, we may be ready for the celestial journey, like athletes of the sacred battles of Philosophy. For then we will return to our ancient homeland and be deified, to the extent that it is possible for humans to become gods. This is what the following two verses promise us.

Comments on verses LXIX to LXXI

“But abstain from the foods we prohibit in purifications and the liberation of the soul, make the right discernment and thoroughly examine all things. Always let yourself be guided and directed by the understanding that comes from above, which must hold the reins!”

Hierocles’s comments are very enlightening on this part, and we have nothing more to add.

Verses LXXII – LXXIII

And when, after you have shed your mortal body, you will then reach the pure air.

You will be an immortal, incorruptible God, and death will no longer dominate you.

This is the glorious end of all our labors; this is how Plato speaks of the great struggle and great hope that is proposed to us. This is the most perfect fruit of Philosophy, the greatest and most excellent work of art and love, this mystical art of elevating and establishing oneself in the possession of true goods, of freeing oneself from the toils down here, like from a dark prison of earthly life, of attracting celestial light and placing on the blessed islands those who have walked the paths we have just taught them. To those is reserved the inestimable reward of deification, for only the one who has acquired truth and virtue through the soul and purity through their spiritual vehicle, the body, is permitted to reach the rank of gods. Indeed, to render it sound and complete is to restore it to its original state. Afterward, it rediscovers itself through its union with the right reason, which it recognizes as the divine ornament of this universe and as the author and creator of all things, as far as it is possible for a human being to find it. Finally, after purification, it reaches this high degree, in which beings always dwell, whose nature does not descend into generation. Through knowledge, it unites with that whole and elevates itself to God Himself. However, since it has a body created with it, it needs a place to be situated, like the order of the stars, a place more suitable for a body of that nature. That place is immediately below the Moon, being above the incorruptible celestial bodies and below the celestial bodies. The Pythagoreans called it pure ether. Ether is immaterial, eternal, and pure, free from earthly passions.

Who will be the one to attain it? It will be the one promised by these verses, an immortal god, becoming similar to the immortal gods mentioned earlier. However, not a god by nature, for how could one who has only progressed in virtue for a certain time, whose deification has just begun, become equal to the gods who have been so for all eternity? That is impossible. Therefore, to make an exception and highlight the difference, after saying “you will be an immortal god,” it adds “incorruptible” and “death will no longer dominate,” so that one may understand a deification that occurs solely through the stripping away of what is mortal. This deification is not yet a privilege tied to our nature and essence, but it happens gradually and in degrees, so it is a third kind of God. They are immortal when elevated to the heavens and mortal when they descend to the Earth, always inferior to the heroes adorned with goodness and light. The former always remember God, while the latter sometimes forget. In fact, it is impossible for the third kind, even though it is made perfect, to be forever above the second or equal to the first. However, by remaining always the third, it becomes similar to the first while being subordinate to the second. The similarity that humans have through their connection or habit with the celestial gods is already more perfect and natural in beings of the second category, that is, in heroes.

Thus, there is only one and the same perfection that encompasses all rational beings: the resemblance to God who created them. But here is the difference: this perfection is always found in the celestial beings in the same way, but not always in the ethereal beings, who are fixed and permanent in their state. And it is not always found in the ethereal beings subject to descending and dwelling on Earth. If someone were to say that the first and most perfect resemblance to God is the model and original of the other two, or that the second is of the third, they would speak very well. Our goal is not only to resemble God but to resemble as closely as possible that completely perfect original or to attain the second resemblance. If we cannot attain this most perfect resemblance, let us acquire the one that is within our reach. We will have, according to our nature, everything that the most perfect beings have, and in this, we will enjoy the perfect fruits of virtue, understanding the measure of our essence and enduring it without complaint. For the pinnacle of virtue is to feel within the limits of creation, where all things are distinct and hierarchically ordered according to their species, and to submit to the laws of providence, which have allocated to each thing the good that is proper to it according to its faculties and virtues. These are the comments we deemed appropriate to make on these Golden Verses.

It is a summary of the dogmas of Pythagoras, which is neither too extensive nor too concise. It was not suitable for our explanation to be limited to the brevity of the text, as that would have left many obscurities unaddressed and would not have allowed us to convey the reason and beauty of all the precepts. Nor was it appropriate for our explanation to encompass the entire philosophy, as it would have been too vast and extensive for a commentary. Instead, we aimed to provide a commentary that relates to the meaning contained in these verses and their connection to the general dogmas of Pythagoras. These golden verses are, in fact, nothing more than the perfect character of Philosophy, the compendium of its main dogmas, and the elements of perfection that the men who walked the path of God and whose virtues ascended to the heights of happiness left for their descendants to instruct them. These elements can be considered the most noble and beautiful mark of human nobility, not just the feelings of an individual, but the doctrine of the sacred body of the Pythagoreans, proclaimed in all their assemblies. That is why there was a law requiring everyone to read these verses as the oracles of Pythagorean doctrine every morning upon rising and every night before bed. Through continuous meditation on these precepts, they would let the living and animated spirit within them shine forth. And what was necessary and important for them to do, we must also do in order to finally experience and fully appreciate all the usefulness they contain.

We have just completed the translation of Hierocles’s commentaries on the Golden Verses of Pythagoras.

Comments on Verses LXXII to LXXIII

“And when, after having stripped off your mortal body, you will then reach the pure air, the ether; you will become an immortal god, incorruptible, and death shall not dominate you.”

This ether is something immaterial and eternal, pure, completely devoid of earthly passions.

In Fabre D’Olivet’s translation, these final verses are presented as follows: “happy few know how to be, manipulated by passions, rolling blind over the sea without shores amidst such contradictory waves, unable to resist or yield to the engulfment. God, you will save them by opening their eyes. It is up to humans, whose race is divine, to discern error and see the truth; nature serves them, you who have penetrated it, wise and happy man, breathe in this point, but observe my laws and refrain from what your soul should fear and distinguish. Let intelligence reign over the body and so that, leading you to the radiant ether, you shall then be a god among immortals.”

This is the translation commonly made of the Golden Verses, and Fabre D’Olivet, commenting on these verses, explains that Lysis shows here that the greatest obstacles to human happiness are passions. Not passions themselves, but the harmful effects they produce due to the disorderly movement allowed by the understanding. It is on this point that one must pay close attention in order to avoid falling into errors as the Stoics did. As we have already mentioned, Pythagoras did not command his disciples to destroy their passions, but rather to moderate their impetus or direct them well. Passions are given to assist reason: they are servants, not masters!

For Pythagoras, they are like instruments that understanding uses to build the intellectual framework. A man completely devoid of them would resemble an inert mass; it is true that he might not become corrupt, but he would also not enjoy their noblest advantages, which is perfectibility. Reason is established in the understanding to dominate passions. It must direct them as an absolute sovereign and make them tend towards the end it indicates: wisdom. If it is ignorant of the laws given by intelligence and, presumptuously wanting to act differently from the given principles, it falls into excess and makes men superstitious, skeptical, fanatical, or atheistic. If, on the contrary, it accepts the laws that it should govern passions by and allows itself to be subjugated by them, it falls into the fault that makes man foolish or furious, brutish in vice, audacious in crime. There is no true reasoning except that which wisdom brings. False reasonings must be considered as the cries of an insensible soul, given over to disorderly, blind, and confused reason caused by passions! Pythagoras considered man as being the middle term between intellectual and sensible things—he is the lowest of superior beings and the highest of inferior ones—sometimes uniting with the immortals and, through this return, advancing towards virtue, sometimes falling into mortal species and, through the transgression of divine laws, losing his dignity.

This opinion, which was held by all the sages who preceded Pythagoras, was also shared by those who came after him, even among Christian theosophists, as noted by Fabre D’Olivet. He used the term theosophist to refer to those who dedicate themselves to the sapiential study of God.

The constant attribution by many commentators regarding transmigration, reincarnation, etc., in Pythagoreanism is highly controversial because while some among them accepted it, others did not. There is no passage from Pythagoras that can safely affirm that this was his doctrine. Following the position of many modern Pythagoreans, we conclude that he never defended this thesis nor exposed it, but his disciples accepted it due to certain theoretical difficulties, believing that they could thus explain and resolve certain problems. However, let us respect the position of Fabre D’Olivet, as well as that of Paul Carton, because both adhere to this doctrine; however, the latter makes some reservations, admitting the possibility that it may not be a genuinely Pythagorean doctrine.

All scholars agree that Pythagoras' precepts are symbolic, meaning that they contain something figurative in a different sense than what initially appeared. According to Porphyry and Iamblichus, the Egyptian priests, among whom the Master would have been, concealed their teachings in the form of parables and allegories. The world was seen as a great enigma, whose mysteries, veiled in an equally enigmatic style, should never be openly disclosed. These priests used three kinds of characters and three ways of expressing and presenting their thoughts. The first way of exposition and speech was clear and simple. The second was figurative, and the third was symbolic.

The first one used characters used by everyone, taking words in their proper sense; the second employed hieroglyphic characters, taking words in a metaphorical sense; and the third used phrases with a double meaning, fables, stories, allegories, etc. The masterpiece of priestly art was to combine these three ways and enclose them in the appearance of a simple and clear style: the common sense, the figurative, and the symbolic22. Pythagoras sought to use this kind of perfection in his teachings and often achieved it.

Hierocles commenting on the last verses says, “and so that, rising to the radiant ether, you may then be a god among the immortals,” is when man achieves the fortunate end of all efforts. This is, according to Plato, the hope that inflames and sustains the ardor of the one who fights in the race of virtue. It was the great object of the mysteries and, so to speak, the masterpiece of initiation. According to Sophocles, the initiate is not only happy during his life, but even after his death; he can promise himself eternal happiness. His soul, purified by virtue, according to Pindar, flies in the fortunate regions or reigns in eternal spring. According to Socrates, it goes to be attracted by the celestial element that has a great affinity with its nature, to join the immortal gods, sharing their glory and immortality. This “deification” was, according to Pythagoras, the work of divine love; reserved only for those who had acquired truth through their intellectual faculties, virtue through their soul faculties, and purity through their instinctive faculties. This purity, after the fall of its material desires, changed and made itself recognized in the form of the luminous body that the soul had given, during its seclusion, in the dark body. The soul has a body, he said, which is given according to its good or evil nature, by the inner work of its faculties – the subtle chariot of the soul – and the mortal body is nothing more than a coarse envelope. Thus, by practicing virtue, embracing truth, abstaining from all impure things, one must take care of the soul and its luminous body; this is the true purpose of the symbolic abstinences that were prescribed. Finally, Pythagoras believed that there are celestial goods provided for each great virtue and that they belong to souls of different degrees, according to the luminous body with which they are invested. The supreme happiness belongs, he affirms, only to the one who has known how to regain, to recover himself through his intimate union with intelligence and whose essence, changing in nature, has become entirely spiritual. It is necessary for it to rise to the knowledge of universal truths and to have found, as far as possible, the principle and the end of all things – the Matese Megiste. Having reached this degree of perfection, attracted to this immutable region whose ethereal element is no longer subject to the descending movement of generation, it can join, through its knowledge, the universal whole and reflect, in its entire being, the ineffable light with which the Being of beings, God himself, incessantly fills immensity, as Fabre D’Olivet comments.

Let us turn to the comments of Paul Carton on the aforementioned verses: “God our father, deign to deliver them from suffering and show them what natural strength they can have.” This is a translation of the verse that says: “God, you will save them by opening their eyes.” And we prefer this translation: Zeus, Jupiter our father, certain of so many evils, will free all men.

What he requests here is clairvoyance to prevent us from getting lost on the paths of the world. Many waste their energy by resorting to false remedies and, consequently, go astray! But men belong to the race of gods and can discern the error from the truth. We must have courage because we are of a divine race. Nature presents a revelation of all things, and we can study and know them in order to avoid evils. Therefore, knowledge and study are always advised by the Pythagoreans and naturally lead man to avoid the evils that can result from the errors he may commit, reaching natural solutions rather than artificial ones.

Thus, Paul Carton observes, everything is regulated with equity, and we ourselves create our own purgatory or our own paradise. The good receive the reward, the ascension, and the joy they deserved, and the wicked are afflicted by the just return of things, by all the torments they created in themselves and around them, which is a very important point within the Pythagorean conception.

Coming to the last verses of Pythagoras: the final reward, the promised wisdom, the Matese Megiste promised as the highest for man, let us reproduce the words of Paul Carton: "If you manage to penetrate it, you will easily fulfill all my prescriptions and will have deserved to see yourself free from trials. When efforts allow you to discover God in yourself and in nature, and perceive the play of His laws in everything that exists and happens, the struggle for personal progress is considerable and will be facilitated. The prescriptions for higher perfection are fulfilled and lead to the possession of wisdom, then time and external events no longer have power over the wise person who, full of unshakable faith and ardor, maintains serenity even in the face of the threat of death because they feel increasingly liberated from material restraints and are drawn, in mystical union, to God, to the Word, the Logos.

Abstain, he continues, from the prohibited foods in purifications and continue the work of liberating your soul, making a judicious and thoughtful choice of all things, so that you establish the triumph of the best within you: the spirit. However, do not forget perseverance, which is the guarantee of preserving the elevated advantages conferred by the possession of sacred truths. In order to avoid stopping, or what would be worse, being caught again by the “current of things,” it is therefore necessary to work tirelessly, reread the precepts of the higher life, penetrate them more deeply every day, establish dominion over all thoughts and actions. The continuous observance of a pure and strict dietary regimen, regular self-examination, deliberate reflection before any spoken word or any decision, and finally, that goal obstinately placed before us of making good and truth triumph not only within us but also around us in all circumstances. From this, we can develop the full power of the spirit and free it from the passing earthly trial to which we are subjected. Blessed immortality: "Then when you abandon the mortal body, you will rise to the ether and, ceasing to be mortal, you will assume the form of an immortal god. On earth, the reward reserved for the persevering adept consists of the happiness of wisdom. After death, it is represented by the immortal and blissful life. At the moment of death, what was of earthly origin in man returns, and what came from heaven rises again to the ether. Everything that during existence was extracted from the earth, the body and material possessions, is abandoned and relinquished because these possessions never truly belonged to us. Only what we have acquired in thought as good or evil, merits or demerits, is part of our own being. If you still have experiences to undergo and expiations to suffer, rebirth will occur again on the material plane. If not, the spirit has reached the full conception of the divine order, the complete union of will and unwavering virtuous practice, as it has already lived a blessed and paradisiacal existence, without material obstacles or burdens, in the rapture of the spiritualized fluidic body, in a state of splendor, in a consciousness of imperishable glory and ineffable joy, it will thus participate in divine life, assuming, as Pythagoras said, the glorious form of an immortal god! This promise is not contradicted by Christianity. “What God intends,” writes Saint John of the Cross, “is to transform us into gods and to give us in advance what He is, Himself by nature. He resembles fire that turns everything into fire.”

Bibliography

Carcopino, Jerome – De Pythagore aux Apôtres – Paris, Flammarion Editeur, 1956.

Carcopino, Jerome – Le Basilique Pythagoricienne de la Porte Majeure – Paris, L”Artisan du Livre, 1943.

Carton, Paul – Vida Perfeita – Rio de Janeiro, Edição da Organização Simões, 1954.

Delatte – Études sur la Litterature Pythagoricienne – Ed. Champion, 1919.

D’Olivet, Fabre – Les Vers Dorées de Pythagore – Paris, Editions Niclaus, 1813.

Hiérocles – Commentaire sur les Vers d’Or des Pythagoriciens. Trad. Nouvelle avec prolégomènes et notes par Mario Meunier – Paris, L’Artisan du Livre, 1925.

Huson, Hobart – Pythagoron – Edited by Hobert Huson, 1947

Kucharski, Paul – Étude sur la Doctrine Pythagoricienne de la Tétrade – Paris, Societé d’ edition “Les Belles Lettres”, 1952.

Lery, Isidore – La Legende de Pythagore de Grèce au Palestine – Paris, Ed. Champion, 1927.

Lery, Isidore – Recherches sur les Sources de la Legende dy Pythagore – Emart Leroux, Ed.

Paris, 1926.

Mallinger, Jean – Les Secrets Ésoteriques des Pythagoriciens – Paris, Editions Niclaus, 1946.

Méautis, G. – Recherches sur le Pythagorisme – Neuchatel, 1922.

Michel, Paulo Henri – De Pythagore a Euclide – Paris, Societé d’éditions Les belles Lettres, 1950.

Millepierres, François – Pythagore – Paris, Gallimard, 1953.

Quillard, Pierre – Le Livre de Jamblique – Paris, Dervy, 1948.

Saint Michel, Léonard – Les Vers d’Or – Bourges, Typographie Marcel Boin, 1948.

  1. Chapter excerpted from Synopsis of the History of Philosophy, from the Dictionary of Philosophy and Cultural Sciences. Mário Ferreira dos Santos, São Paulo, Ed. Matese, 1966.↩

  2. Carcopino, Jerome. “La Basilique pythagoricienne de la Porte Majeure”. Paris, L’Artisan du Livre, 1943.↩

  3. Ferreira dos Santos, Mário – “Pitágoras and the Theme of Numbers”. São Paulo, Ed. Logos, 1960, 2nd ed. 1965.↩

  4. The Greek text of the “Golden Verses” contains 71 verses, while the French translation by Paul Carton presents 73 verses.↩

  5. Hierocles, a philosopher from the 5th century, probably born in Egypt but lived in Alexandria. Hence, he is called Hierocles of Alexandria. He taught the doctrines of Pythagoreanism and Neopythagoreanism. He was brought to trial in Byzantium, accused of idolatry and exiled. After his exile, he returned to Alexandria, where he reopened his school. Among his works that have come down to us are “Commentaries on the Golden Verses of Pythagoras,” fragments of his “Treatise on Providence and Destiny,” and one on the maxims of philosophers. He stands out for his erudition, firm and concise style, without superfluous ornaments.↩

  6. We used the French text by André Dacier (1651-1722) for the translation. We did not have the opportunity to compare it with the Greek text.↩

  7. Carton, Paul – “Perfect Life” – Rio de Janeiro, Edition of “Organização Simões,” 1954.↩

  8. These notes are commented on in the chapter “Comments on Hierocles’s Comments.”↩

  9. Iamblichus (fl. 330). Born in Calcis (Syria), disciple of the Peripatetic Anatolius and Porphyry. Works: “Life of Pythagoras,” “Exhortation to Philosophy,” etc.↩

  10. The author’s works on mathematical themes: “The Wisdom of Principles,” “The Wisdom of Unity,” and “The Wisdom of Being and Non-Being.”↩

  11. In “Pitágoras e o Tema do Número” (Pitagoras and the Theme of Number), we provided a philosophical explanation based on existing texts, using the dialectical-concrete method.↩

  12. “Ion” means, in a restricted sense, a dove, which was the symbol of Venus. It is “Yoni” in Hinduism and the same as “Yn” in Chinese, meaning the plastic nature of the universe.↩

  13. Nemesis derives from the Phoenician words “nam” and “nem,” which express every sentence, every order, everything that is enumerated orally, and eshish, everything that serves as a principle, a foundation.↩

  14. Diogenes Laërtius – Historian of the 3rd century AD. Author of a collection of lives and opinions of the most celebrated philosophers. An important source for the history of Greek philosophy.↩

  15. Moschus, a Phoenician philosopher who lived in the 12th or 13th century BC.↩

  16. “Pan” in Greek means “Everything,” and “Phanes” derives from the Phoenician word “ânesh,” meaning “Man,” preceded by the article ph. These two words come from the same root ân, which figuratively expresses the sphere of activity, and in its proper sense, the circumscription of being, its body, its capacity.↩

  17. “Mathesis Megiste” is an expression of the Pythagoreans, which translates to “supreme instruction.” It was the tenth science of the ancients, investigated by medieval and scholastic authors, who considered it as a product of sapiential intuition or sapiential contemplation, described in the sapiential books of the Bible. Mathesis Megiste constructs a discourse universe valid for all spheres of human knowledge, while the various disciplines have their discourse universe limited to their field. It seeks, therefore, a universal language.↩

  18. Proclus – Neoplatonic Greek philosopher (412-485). Author of an immense work, mainly composed of commentaries.↩

  19. The study of the Tetraktys and related comments were examined in “Pythagoras and the Theme of Number.”↩

  20. Porphyry of Tyre (232/33-304). Works: “Isagoge,” “Life of Plotinus,” etc.↩

  21. The historicity of the Emerald Tablet is indubitable, but the authenticity in relation to Hermes Trismegistus is a doubtful subject. This work is very ancient, although we do not know if it predates Christianity or not; in any case, it originates from the early centuries of Christianity.↩

  22. Among all those instructed in the sanctuary of Thebes or Memphis, the one who took this marvelous art furthest was undoubtedly Moses. The first part of Genesis is one of the most admirable works that demands a new translation, which was done by Fabre D’Olivet. In this book, she seeks to combine these three languages and completely modifies the common and vulgar sense given by the Bible, giving it a deeper and better understanding.↩

at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)