The Complete Pythagoras: A Compilation of Pythagorean Texts

of history.

After his father's death, though he was still but a youth, his appearance was so venerable, and his habits so temperate, that he was honored and even revered by elderly men. He attracted the attention of all who saw and heard him speak, creating the most profound impression. That is the reason many plausibly asserted that he was a child of the divinity. Enjoying the privilege of such renown, an education so thorough from infancy, and an impressive natural appearance, he showed that he deserved all these advantages by adorning them with piety and discipline, exquisite habits, firmness of soul, and a body duly subjected to the mandates of reason. An inimitable quiet and serenity marked all his words and actions, soaring above all laughter, emulation, contention, or any other irregularity or eccentricity; his influence at Samos was that of some beneficent divinity. His great renown, while yet a youth, reached not only men as illustrious for their wisdom as Thales at Miletus and Bias at Priene, but also extended to the neighboring cities. He was celebrated everywhere as the "long-haired Samian," and by the multitude was given credit for being under divine inspiration.

When he had attained his eighteenth year, the tyranny of Polycrates arose; Pythagoras foresaw that under such a government his studies might be impeded, as they engrossed the whole of his attention. So, by night, he privately departed with one Hermodamas—who was nicknamed Creophilus and was the grandson of the host, friend, and general preceptor of the poet Homer—going to Pherecydes, to Anaximander the natural philosopher, and to Thales at Miletus. He successively associated with each of those philosophers in such a manner that they all loved him, admired his natural endowments, and admitted him to their best doctrines. Thales, especially, upon gladly admitting him to the intimacy of his confidence, admired the great difference between him and other young men, whom Pythagoras surpassed in every accomplishment. After increasing the reputation Pythagoras had already acquired by communicating all he could impart, Thales, laying stress on his advanced age and physical infirmities, advised him to go to Egypt to get in touch with the priests of Memphis and Heliopolis The original text says "Jupiter," likely referring to the Egyptian god Amun, often equated with Zeus/Jupiter by the Greeks.. Thales confessed that the instruction of these priests was the source of his own reputation for wisdom, while neither his own endowments nor achievements equaled those which were so evident in Pythagoras. Thales insisted that, in view of all this, if Pythagoras should study with those priests, he was certain of becoming the wisest and most divine of men.