Academic study
Testimonies of his contemporaries (Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Ion of Chios, Herodotus)
Xenophanes (DK 21 B 7) ridicules transmigration with the anecdote of the beaten dog; Heraclitus (DK 22 B 40 and B 129) accuses him of polymathy and of having fashioned a wisdom out of others' writings; Empedocles (DK 31 B 129) praises a man of superhuman knowledge whom antiquity identified with him; Ion of Chios (DK 36 B 4) alludes to his doctrine on the fate of the soul; Herodotus (II 81, II 123, IV 95) calls him "not the weakest of the Greek sages" and links his doctrine to Egypt and to the Thracian Zalmoxis.
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Authorship note
Fragments and passages by other authors, written in Pythagoras' lifetime or in the two following generations. They are the only testimonies independent of the later Pythagorean tradition and, brief and sometimes hostile as they are, the most reliable.
Editions and translations
Editions in your language first, without hiding the others. Each with its cover and its store.
English
The Presocratic Philosophers, 2.ª ed.
Cambridge University Press, 1983
Translation: G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven y M. Schofield
ISBN 9780521274555
Pythagoras
The First Philosophers of Greece
The Conscious LibraryThe First Philosophers of Greece
Project Gutenberg (Kegan Paul, 1898), 1898
Translation: Arthur Fairbanks
Texto griego y traducción de los fragmentos presocráticos. Dominio público.
Español
Pythagoras
Los filósofos presocráticos I
The Conscious LibraryLos filósofos presocráticos I
Gredos (Biblioteca Clásica Gredos, 12), 1978
Translation: Conrado Eggers Lan y Victoria E. Juliá
ISBN 9788424935115
Los filósofos presocráticos
Gredos, 1997
Translation: Jesús García Fernández
ISBN 9788424912499
Traducción de la obra de Kirk, Raven y Schofield.
Other works by Pythagoras
- Golden Verses · 300
- Akousmata and symbola · 500
- On the Pythagorean Life (Iamblichus) · 300
- Life of Pythagoras (Porphyry) · 280
- Life of Pythagoras (Diogenes Laertius, Lives VIII 1–50) · 230
- Aristotle's testimonies on the Pythagoreans · 340
- Sacred Discourse (Hieros logos) · 300
- Books on Education, Politics and Nature · 300
- Letters of Pythagoras · 100
- Pseudo-Pythagorean writings · 200
- Fragments of Philolaus of Croton · 420
Sources
- Diels, Hermann y Kranz, Walther. Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 6.ª ed., Weidmann, Berlín, 1951–1952: cap. 14 (Pitágoras), 21 B 7 (Jenófanes), 22 B 40 y B 129 (Heráclito), 31 B 129 (Empédocles), 36 B 4 (Ion de Quíos).
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