[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review]
This is the second volume of papers associated with the 10-year international project “Pseudopythagorica. Stratégies du faire croire dans la philosophie antique” (2015-2024). It is a welcome conclusion to this project after the timely volume published earlier in the project by the same editors.[1]
The main focus of the two volumes is on the so-called Pseudopythagorica of the Hellenistic period, the texts attributed to Pythagoras and the ancient Pythagoreans which were edited by Holger Thesleff in 1965.[2] Since the time of publication, but especially from the 1990s, when most work on these texts has been carried out, a growing consensus has emerged on the common philosophical ground between these texts and the Platonic (and to some degree the Aristotelian) tradition. This is especially the case for the largest and most homogeneous subgroup of these texts, the Pseudopythagorica written in the Dorian dialect of Magna Graecia, where Pythagoras established his school. While the place of the texts’ origins is still matter for debate, with Alexandria and Rome being the main candidates, it has been established –and accepted in the present contributions, following Constantinos Macris in the former volume, pp. 35–36–, that they were composed between the first century BC and the first century AD.
The present collection of articles, including its title, was already announced in the preface to the first volume, with the stated aim of focusing “on the specific role played by the so-called Pseudopythagorica to the Neopythagorean revival observed both in Rome and Alexandria, but also in other places” (p. 12). (As it happens, only some of the essays are devoted to such geographically localized study: sections II.1 on Roman Pythagoreanism and II.2 on Apollonius of Tyana and Apuleius; see the Table of Contents below.)
The book is structured in a similar way as the first one, helpfully grouping the contributions under explanatory headings. As a novelty, this volume features two main parts, the first on properly Pythagorean texts and the second on reception. The book’s front matter contains biographies of the contributors and a preface outlining the genesis of the book and acknowledging the role of the participants (in most cases different from the contributors of the volume) in the many workshops and conferences organized by the research team. The editors also look forward to the publication of the proceedings of an international conference on ancient philosophical pseudepigrapha as well as new projects on Byzantine, Syriac and Arabic Pythagorica led by scholars related to this project. As in the first volume, contributions are in French (11), English (6), and Italian (3), though with no overlap in authorship except Luc Brisson and Matteo Varoli. Most of the studies focus on specific texts and authors, broadly subsumable under the categories outlined by Macris in the introduction to volume 1 (pp. 38–41): (A) texts from the Pythagorean tradition or its sphere of influence (Orphica, ps.-Democritus, Letters, collections of sentences, Pythagorica syriaca & arabica), (B) texts related to the Pythagorica in a looser way (e.g. Epicharmus), (C) later ascriptions to the Pythagorica (e.g., books of sortes). A few chapters take up linguistic issues (section I.2) or topics of longue durée in the Pythagorean tradition (section II.3). This volume does not contain an introduction and, as in the case of the first volume, there are no final indexes. However, at the end of the preface the editors include a bibliographic list on the Pseudopythagorica (pp. 32–52) that complements the list in the first volume, both with newer and older references which were not previously included.
The volume opens with Omar D. Álvarez Salas’ chapter on Epicharmus and the epicharmea. He explores the genesis of the pseudoepicharmean texts before the time of Aristoxenus—influenced, he argues, by the ethical passages of his genuine comedies and their discussion by Plato—, and then their possible influence in the creation of the Pseudopythagorica Dorica. He discusses what can be inferred from their contents by considering Diogenes Laertius’ account.
The contributions by Jelle G.-J. Abbenes and Albio Cesare Cassio nicely complement each other in analyzing the characteristics of the Dorian and Ionian dialects in the Pseudopythagorica. Abbenes rejects the notion that the Doric was superficial and imitative of Theocritus or Alcman, instead defending its genuineness as a literary Doric that emerged from the dialect of Tarentum. Cassio on the other hand focuses on the exceptionally poeticizing and archaizing character of the Ionic of two treatises, those of Androcydes and Perictyone (not Plato’s mother Perictione),.
The four papers of section I.3 explore texts found largely in Thesleff’s corpus. Luc Brisson argues that the “Preambles” to the laws of Charondas and Zaleucus are inspired by Plato’s Laws 4.722d–e (on the fact that laws must have preambles) and 715–734 (the Athenian stranger’s preamble to the laws of the colony on Crete); he provides an annotated translation of the two Pythagorean preambles in the second part of the paper. Giovanni Trobato treats Ocellus of Lucania’ On the nature of the universe and shows that it implicitly endorses a metaphorical reading of Plato’s Timaeus cosmogony; the chapter goes on to explore the relation with Aristotle’s De generatione et corruptione. Irini-Fotini Viltanioti deals with the concept of justice and its link with harmony (including the musical idea of systema) in the fragments of Theages, Diotogenes, and Eccelus. In them she finds a consistent doctrine that accentuates the Pythagorean roots of Platonism, perhaps in opposition to that of Antiochus of Ascalon. The final part of her chapter includes all the relevant passages in the Pseudopythagorica, both in the original language and in translation. Matteo Varoli discusses the intricacies of three passages in texts by Butherus of Cyzicus, Callicratidas, and Philolaus (B 11 DK; the ‘pseudo’-character of which is argued for, developing Huffman’s argument) that mention the gnomon, that is, the carpenter’s square taken as a geometrical, mathematical figure. He links its important role in the ancient Pythagorean concepts of the odd and the even to the present passages, which in turn are interpreted to provide answers to exegetical questions in the Platonic dialogues.
The next section offers papers aiming at “expanding Thesleff’s corpus.” The first two deal with the doxographical tradition. Jaap Mansfeld explores the treatment of the category (“name-label” in Mansfeld’s terminology) of “the Pythagoreans” and the inclusion of different authors (or name-labels) in Stobaeus’s chapter, I.3, on principles. Michele Curnis, also focusing on the Pythagoreans, takes up the question of the inclusion of excerpts in the manuscripts of Stobaeus III 1.199. The other two chapters deal with collections of sentences, the gnômai attributed to Pythagoras and alphabetically ordered in Stobaeus III 1.29–44 (Katarzyna Prochenko) and the Advice from Theano preserved only in a Syriac version (Izabela Jurasz). Prochenko offers an overview and a detailed analysis of the different attestations and attributions, and Jurasz provides a new translation and commentary, taking into account new manuscript discoveries that help correct the text and add thirteen new sentences.
The last section of the part dedicated to properly (pseudo-)Pythagorean texts is formed by two chapters dealing with texts and passages related to monism. Brandon Zimmerman aims at tracing the path from the Old Academy to Plotinus in the matter of the doctrine of the One by taking full consideration of the Pseudopythagorica, whereas Georges Skaltsas focuses on the dictum “man also must become one”—transmitted as Pythagorean but without context by Clement of Alexandria (Stromata IV 23.152)—, exploring its roots mainly in Plato but also in the Pseudopythagorica.
In the second part of the volume, the first section focuses on Rome. Dorota Dutsch discusses forgery and fiction, practices worth comparing with Pythagorean pseudepigraphy, focusing on Ovid’s Metamorphoses XV (To Numa) and its coincidences with the contents of the Pythagorean hypomnemata and Ocellus of Lucania. Michel Humm develops the issue of the possible contents of Numa’s scrolls, assuming the veracity of their public burning from the various historical witnesses and proposing as the reason the euhemerism professed by Varro and Ennius. In the third chapter of this section, Pierre Vesperini reviews the witnesses related to the Pythagoreanism of Nigidius Figulus, departing from the famous passage in Cicero’s Timaeus (1.1–2), and arguing that what is frequently interpreted as a mysterious foundational figure of a new Pythagorean sect in Rome was nothing more than a philosopher organizing meetings at his house, reenacting philosophical debates through the use of philosophical texts ([pseudo-] Pythagorean texts in his case; cf. Varro with the Old Academy in Cicero Acad. I 14).
The two papers in section II.2 aim at reaching a vue d’ensemble of the works (and the image they project) attributed to two prominent figures associated with Pythagoreanism in similar ways in the early Roman imperial period, Apollonius of Tyana and Apuleius. While Elsa Giovanna Simonetti looks at the (probably spurious) letters transmitted by different sources, analyzing their contents and pretended aim (to correct the views from those coming to Apollonius for advice), Cyril Rouanet explores the rhetorical and theological aspects of Apuleius’ self-presentation as a magus-sacerdos in the Apologia and the texts related to the Pythagoreanism attributed to him.
In the last section, on themes of the longue durée in the Pythagorean tradition, Pierre Vesperini presents his second essay in this volume, an engaging (and self-admittedly non-exhaustive) parcours illustrating the sense of the formula natura naturam vincit through a varied set of sources, beginning with pseudo-Democritus’ Physika kai mystika, its oldest witness; Vesperini relates the originally alchemical formula on material sympathy and antipathy with the larger theme of mirabilia in the Greek philosophical and scientific tradition. The last paper, by Grégoire Lacaze, discusses the related theme of the alleged obscurity of the books of the ancients and the obscure doctrines introduced by the envious as they appear in the Turba philosophorum, an Arabic dialogue originally from the ninth century staging a Pythagorean congress.
All in all, the wealth of information, connections and arguments provided by the twenty papers of this volume in the form of running discussion, or attached as footnotes and appendixes, plus the quantity of different topics covered by the numerous chapters, will no doubt make this book an obligatory reference in future discussions on the Pseudopythagorica, forming a sort of small encyclopedia together with the first volume by the same editors.
Authors and titles
I. Plunging into the universe of the Pseudopythagorica
Genesis of a pseudepigraphic literary tradition
- Omar D. Álvarez Salas. Au commencement était Épicharme ? Les pseudepicharmea et leur rôle dans la genèse des pseudopythagorica.
Dialects for philosophy
- Jelle G.-J. Abbenes. (Pseudo-)Pythagorean Doric and the Development of the Doric Future
- Albio Cesare Cassio. Pythagorica ionica recentiora: notes linguistiques sur ‘Androcydès’ et ‘Périctionè’
Authors, texts and themes: a selection
- Luc Brisson. Les Préambules aux lois de Charondas et de Zaleucos
- Giovanni Trovato. Ocellus of Lucania’s On the Nature of the Universe: A Pythagorean Solution to Some Platonic Problems?
- Irini-Fotini Viltanioti. La doctrine de la justice-harmonie dans les Pythagorica dorica
- Matteo Varoli. Pari e dispari. La teoria degli gnomoni nel corpus pseudopitagorico
Expanding Holger Thesleff ’s corpus: doxography and gnomológia
- Jaap Mansfeld. Philolaus and Other Pythagoreans in the Aëtian Placita, both Named and Anonymous: Some Observations
- Michele Curnis. Materiali pitagorici e riuso antologico: il caso di Stob. III 1, 199
- Katarzyna Prochenko. Pitagora o Sesto? Forme, contenuti e attribuzioni di una raccolta di sentenze
- Izabela Jurasz. Les Conseils de Théano dans la tradition syriaque
- Toward ‘Neopythagoreanism’: authors in search of oneness
- Brandon Zimmerman. “Matter Is Not a Principle”. Neopythagorean Attempts at Monism
- Georges Skaltsas. “Et l’homme doit devenir un” : recherche sur les sources philosophiques et théologiques d’un dictum néopythagoricien
II. Facets of the Pythagorean revival: literature, politics, religion, and the occult
Pythagoreanism in Rome / Roman Pythagoreanism?
- Dorota Dutsch. Forgeries and Fictions in Rome: From Pseudo-Numa to Ovid’s Pythagoras
- Michel Humm. Le contenu néo-pythagoricien des (faux) livres de Numa
- Pierre Vesperini. Entre disciplina, sodalicium et magia : Nigidius Figulus et le mythe du « néopythagorisme romain »
Two Pythagorean(ising) magoi-philosophers of the 1st and 2nd centuries AD (and the works attributed to them)
- Elsa Giovanna Simonetti. The Enigma of Apollonius of Tyana and Ritual Innovations in the First Centuries AD
- Cyril Rouanet. Pythagorissat in plurimis : éléments pour une histoire des liens entre Apulée et Pythagore
Pythagorean themes in the longue durée of the alchemic tradition
- Pierre Vesperini. Natura naturam vincit. Itinéraires antiques d’un philosophème
- Grégoire Lacaze. Pythagore, figure de l’envie ? L’ambiguïté du secret dans la Turba philosophorum
Notes
[1] Constantinos Macris, Tiziano Dorandi, Luc Brisson (eds.), Pythagoras redivivus: studies on the texts attributed to Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans. Baden-Baden: Academia Verlag, 2021. Cf. my own review for BMCR.
[2] Holger Thesleff (ed.), The Pythagorean Texts of the Hellenistic Period. Åbo: Åbo Akademi.