Although appearing in the full light of historical times, Pythagoras has
come down to us as almost a legendary character. The main reason for
this is the terrible persecution of which he was the victim in Sicily,
and which cost so many of his followers their lives. Some were crushed
to death beneath the ruins of their burning schools, others died of
hunger in temples. The Master's memory and teaching were only
perpetuated by such survivors as were able to escape into Greece.
Plato, at great trouble and cost, obtained through Archytas a manuscript
of the Master, who, it must be mentioned, never transferred to writing
his esoteric teachings except under symbols and secret characters. His
real work, like that of all reformers, was effected by oral instruction.
The essence of the system, however, comes down to us in the Golden
Verses of Lysis, the commentary of Hierocles, fragments of Philolaus and
in the Timaeus of Plato, which contains the cosmogony of Pythagoras. To
sum up, the writers of antiquity are full of the spirit of the Croton
philosopher.
They never tire of relating anecdotes depicting his
wisdom and beauty, his marvellous power over men. The Neoplatonists of
Alexandria, the Gnostics, and even the early Fathers of the Church quote
him as an authority. These are precious witnesses through whom may be
felt continually vibrating that mighty wave of enthusiasm the great
personality of Pythagoras succeeded in communicating to Greece, the
final eddies of which were still to be felt eight hundred years after
his death.
His teaching, regarded from above, and unlocked with the keys of
comparative esoterism, affords a magnificent whole, the different parts
of which are bound together by one fundamental conception. In it we
find a rational reproduction of the esoteric teaching of India and
Egypt, which he illumined with Hellenic simplicity and clearness, giving
it a stronger sentiment and a clearer idea of human liberty.
At the same time and at different parts of the globe, mighty reformers
were popularizing similar doctrines.
Lao-Tse in China was
emerging from the esoterism of Fo-Hi; the last Buddha Sakya-Mouni was
preaching on the banks of the Ganges; in Italy, the Etrurian priesthood
sent to Rome an initiate possessed of the Sibylline books. This was King
Numa, who, by wise institutions, attempted to check the threatening
ambition of the Roman Senate. It was not by chance that these reformers
appeared simultaneously among such different peoples. Their diverse
missions had one common end in view. They prove that, at certain
periods, one identical spiritual current passes mysteriously through the
whole of humanity. Whence comes it? It has its source in that divine
world, far away from human vision, but of which prophets and seers are
the envoys and witnesses.
Pythagoras crossed the whole of the ancient world before giving his
message to Greece. He saw Africa and Asia, Memphis and Babylon, along
with their methods of initiation and political life. His own troubled
life resembles a ship driving through a storm, pursuing its course, with
sails unfurled, a symbol of strength and calmness in the midst of the
furious elements. His teachings convey the impression of a cool fragrant
night after the bitter fire and passion of an angry, blood-stained day.
They call to mind the beauty of the firmament unrolling, by degrees,
its sparkling archipelagoes and ethereal harmonies over the head of the
seer.