Pyrnacoras, son of Mnesarchos, a native of Samos,
left his fatherland to escape the tyranny of Polykrates
(538 [2 or 529/8B.c.). He made his home for many years
in Kroton in southern Italy, where his political views
gained control in the city. At length he and his followers
were banished by an opposing party, and he died at
Metapontum. Many stories are told of his travels into
Egypt and moré widely, but there is no evidence on
which the stories can be accepted. He was a mystic
thinker and religious reformer quite as much as a
philosopher, but there is no reason for denying that the
doctrines of the school originated with him. Of his
disciples, Archytas, in southern Italy, and Philolaos and
Lysis, at Thebes, are the best known. It is the doctrine
of the school, not the teaching of Pythagoras himself,
which is known to us through the writings of Aristotle.
Literature :—On Pythagoras: Krische, De societatis a
Pythagora conditae scopo politico, 1880 ; E. Rohde,
Rheum. Mus. xxvi. 565 sqq.; xxvii. 28 sqq.; Diels,
Rhewn. Mus. xxx. 25 sq.; Zeller, Sitz. ἃ. kgl. preus.
Akad. 1889, 45, p. 985 sqq.; Chaignet, Pythagore,
1878, and the excellent account in Burnett.
Philolaos : Boeckh, Philolaos Lehren, nebst den
Bruchstiicken seines Werkes, 1819; V. Rose,
Comment. de Arist. libr. ord. et auct. Berlin 1854 ;
Schaarschmidt, Die angebliche Schriftstellerer de:
Piul. Bonn 1864; Zeller, Gesch. d. griech. Phil.
4 Auf. 261, 841, 886 ; Hermes x. 178; Bywater,
Journal-of Philol. i. 21 sqq.
PYTHAGORAS AND THE PYTHAGOREANS 133


Archytas : Hartenstein, de Archyt. Tar. fragm. Lips.
1888 ; Gruppe, Die Fragm.d. Archyt. Berlin 1840 ;
Petersen, Zettschr. f. Altertumsk. 1886 ; Chaignet,
Pythagore, 1878, pp. 191, 255.
PassaGES IN PLATO REFERRING TO THE PyYTHAGOREANS.
