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Eurytus: Testimonia

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These are ancient testimonia about Eurytus, a Pythagorean philosopher of southern Italy active around 400 BC and a pupil of Philolaus. No writings by him survive. The testimonia come from Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras, which tells a story about Philolaus' voice heard from his tomb, from Theophrastus, citing Archytas, and from Aristotle, who describe how Eurytus used pebbles to fix the number of a man or a horse.

These brief reports are the main evidence for one of the most literal forms of the Pythagorean doctrine that things are numbers. Aristotle and Theophrastus used Eurytus as an example of how far the theory could be pushed, and the passages remain central to the study of early Pythagorean thought.

About this edition. The Greek text comes from the Eulogikon open corpus of public-domain editions (standard reference: DK 45 A 1–3). Every word has been analyzed with odyCy, a neural language model for Ancient Greek — click or tap any word for its dictionary form, part of speech, and complete morphology, together with the full entry from the Liddell–Scott–Jones Greek–English Lexicon (LSJ).

Ancient Greek · Philosophy
Testimonia
Eurytus · every word parsed
1
IAMBL. V. P. 148 Εὔρυτος μὲν ὁ Κροτωνιάτης, Φιλολάου ἀκουστής, ποιμένος τινὸς ἀπαγγείλαντος αὐτῶι ὅτι μεσημβρίας ἀκούσειε Φιλολάου φωνῆς ἐκ τοῦ τάφου καὶ ταῦτα πρὸ πολλῶν ἐτῶν τεθνηκότος ὡσανεὶ ἄιδοντος, ʼκαὶ τίνα πρὸς θεῶνʼ εἶπεν ʼἁρμονίαν;ʼ
THEOPHR. Metaphys. 11 p. via 19 Usener (Ross—Fobes) τοῦτο γὰρ [μὴ μέχρι του προελθόντα παύεσθαι] τελέου καὶ φρονοῦντος, ὅπερ Ἀρχύτας [47 A 13] ποτʼ ἔφη ποιεῖν Εὔρυτον διατιθέντα τινὰς ψήφους· λέγειν γὰρ ὡς ὅδε μὲν ἀνθρώπου ὁ ἀριθμός, ὅδε δὲ ἵππου, ὅδε δʼ ἄλλου τινὸς τυγχάνει. νῦν δʼ οἵ γε πολλοὶ μέχρι τινὸς ἐλθόντες καταπαύονται, καθάπερ καὶ οἱ τὸ ἓν καὶ τὴν ἀόριστον δυάδα ποιοῦντες· τοὺς γὰρ ἀριθμοὺς γεννήσαντες καὶ τὰ ἐπίπεδα καὶ τὰ σώματα σχεδὸν τὰ ἄλλα παραλείπουσιν πλὴν ὅσον ἐφαπτόμενοι καὶ τοσοῦτο μόνον δηλοῦντες, ὅτι τὰ μὲν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀορίστου δυάδος οἷον τόπος καὶ κενὸν ἄπειρον, τὰ δʼ ἀπὸ τῶν ἀριθμῶν καὶ τοῦ ἑνὸς οἷον ψυχὴ καὶ ἄλλʼ ἄττα· [χρόνον δʼ ἅμα καὶ οὐρανὸν καὶ ἕτερα δὴ πλείω,] τοῦ δʼ οὐρανοῦ πέρι καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν οὐδεμίαν ἔτι ποιοῦνται μνείαν.
ARISTOT. Metaphys. N 5. 1092b 8 οὐθὲν δὲ διώρισται οὐδὲ ὁποτέρως οἱ ἀριθμοὶ αἴτιοι τῶν οὐσιῶν καὶ τοῦ εἶναι, πότερον ὡς ὅροι οἷον αἱ στιγμαὶ τῶν μεγεθῶν, καὶ ὡς Εὔρυτος ἔταττε, τίς ἀριθμὸς τίνος, οἷον ὁδὶ μὲν ἀνθρώπου ὁδὶ δὲ ἵππου, ὥσπερ οἱ τοὺς ἀριθμοὺς ἄγοντες εἰς τὰ σχήματα τρίγωνον καὶ τετράγωνον, οὕτως ἀφομοιῶν ταῖς ψήφοις τὰς μορφὰς τῶν 〈ζώιων καὶ〉 φυτῶν. [ALEX.] z. d. St. p. 827, 9 κείσθω λόγου χάριν ὅρος τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ὁ σν ἀριθμός, ὁ δὲ τξ τοῦ φυτοῦ· τοῦτο θεὶς ἐλάμβανε ψηφῖδας διακοσίας πεντήκοντα τὰς μὲν πρασίνας τὰς δὲ μελαίνας, ἄλλας 〈δὲ〉 ἐρυθρὰς καὶ ὅλως παντοδαποῖς χρώμασι κεχρωσμένας· εἶτα περιχρίων τὸν τοῖχον ἀσβέστωι καὶ σκιαγραφῶν ἄνθρωπον καὶ φυτὸν οὕτως ἐπήγνυ τάσδε μὲν τὰς ψηφῖδας ἐν τῆι τοῦ προσώπου σκιαγραφίαι, τὰς δὲ ἐν τῆι τῶν χειρῶν, ἄλλας δὲ ἐν ἄλλοις, καὶ ἀπετέλει τὴν τοῦ μιμουμένου ἀνθρώπου διὰ ψηφίδων ἰσαρίθμων ταῖς μονάσιν, ἃς ὁρίζειν ἔφασκε τὸν ἄνθρωπον.
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Text: Perseus Digital Library, licensed CC BY-SA. Dictionary: Liddell, Scott & Jones (Perseus, CC BY-SA). Morphology: odyCy — machine parsing, corrected against the AGDT & PROIEL treebanks and Morpheus.
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