Comp. by: Bendict Richard Stage : Proof ChapterID: 0004760404 Date:24/2/20 Time:15:38:14 Filepath:D:/BgPr/OUP_CAP/IN/Process1/0004760404.3d Dictionary : NOAD_USDictionary 3 1 The Pythagorean Acusmata Johan C. Thom 1. Introduction Reliable evidence for early Pythagoreanism is notoriously scarce and the value of existing sources is often disputed. There is a general consensus, however, that the collection of sayings known as acusmata (ἀκούσματα) or symbola (σύμβολα) represents some of the earliest evidence for Pythagorean teaching. A significant number of the sayings may indeed go back to Pythagoras himself, who in turn probably based his collection on material collected from even earlier sources. The acusmata are therefore potentially of extreme importance in determining the ethics and way of life of the early Pythagorean community.¹ The evidence of the acusmata is, however, ambivalent because of disagreement about the nature and extent of the collection, as well as the interpretation and function of the sayings. Although the acusmata have not been transmitted as a collection—they are only quoted individually or in small clusters by various ancient authors who use a number of different terms when referring to the sayings²—scholars generally accept Armand Delatte’s sugges- tion that they functioned as such.³ The principal terms used for the sayings in antiquity are acusmata (“things heard,” that is, oral sayings) and symbola (tokens, “secret codes” or allegories), but the same sayings are also cited using the terms αἰνίγματα (“dark sayings,” ¹ Important studies on the acusmata include C. Hölk, “De acusmatis sive symbolis Pythagoricis” (Diss. Kiel, 1894); F. Boehm, “De symbolis Pythagoreis” [“Symbolis”] (Diss. Berlin, 1905); A. Delatte, Études sur la littérature pythagoricienne [Études] (Paris, 1915), 271–312; W. K. C. Guthrie, The Earlier Presocratics and the Pythagoreans, vol. 1 of A History of Greek Philosophy (Cambridge, 1962), 183–95; W. Burkert, Lore and Science in Ancient Pythagoreanism [Lore] (Cambridge, MA, 1972), 271–312; J. A. Philip, Pythagoras and Early Pythagoreanism [Pythagoras] (Toronto, 1966), 134–50; B. Centrone, Introduzione a i pitagorici [Introduzione] (Rome, 1996), 78–83, 90–2; C. Riedweg, Pythagoras: Leben, Lehre, Nachwirkung (Munich, 2002), 89–105; English translation: Pythagoras: His Life, Teaching, and Influence [Pythagoras] (Ithaca, 2005) (I will refer to the English translation in what follows); T. Vítek, “The Origins of the Pythagorean ‘Symbola’” [“Origins”], La parola del passato 64 (2009), 241–70; L. Zhmud, Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans [Pythagoras] (Oxford, 2012), 169–205 (translation and revised version of Wissenschaft, Philosophie und Religion im frühen Pythagoreismus [Wissenschaft] [Berlin, 1997], 93–104); J. C. Thom, “The Pythagorean Akousmata and Early Pythagoreanism” [“Pythagorean”], in On Pythagoreanism, ed. G. Cornelli, R. McKirahan, and C. Macris (Berlin, 2013), 77–101; M. L. Gemelli Marciano, “The Pythagorean Way of Life and Pythagorean Ethics” [“Pythagorean”], in A History of Pythagoreanism, ed. C. A. Huffman (Cambridge, 2014), 131–48; C. Huffman, “Pythagoras,” in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2014 Edition), ed. E. N. Zalta (2014), sect. 4.3, http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2014/entries/ pythagoras. ² Collections of the acusmata may be found in H. Diels, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 6th ed. (Berlin, 1951–52), 1. 462–6 (= DK 58 C); M. Timpanaro Cardini, ed., Pitagorici (Florence, 1958–64), 3. 240–7; J. Mansfeld, trans. and ed., Die Vorsokratiker [Vorsokratiker] (Stuttgart, 1987), 190–7; J.-P. Dumont, ed., Les Présocratiques (Paris, 1988), 584–93, 1406–11; M. Giangiulio, ed. and trans., Pitagora (Milan, 2000), 132–49; M. L. Gemelli Marciano, trans., Die Vorsokratiker, vol. 1 [Vorsokratiker] (Düsseldorf, 2007), 120–31 (although it is not clear which texts should be included among the acusmata); A. Laks and G. W. Most, eds. and trans., Early Greek Philosophy, vol. 4 (Cambridge, MA, 2016), 112–27. None of these collections is complete, however. ³ See Delatte, Études, 271–312; Thom, “Pythagorean,” 78. OUP UNCORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FIRST PROOF, 24/2/2020, SPi Johan C. Thom, The Pythagorean Acusmata In: Early Greek Ethics. Edited by: David Conan Wolfsdorf, Oxford University Press (2020). © the several contributors. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198758679.003.0001