Knowra Pythagoreanism Pythagoreanism Pythagoreanism is an ancient Greek philosophical and religious tradition associated with Pythagoras. It linked numerical relations to cosmic order and prescribed disciplined communal life.
Number : A number is an abstract quantity used to count, measure, and express mathematical relationships. Pythagorean accounts treated numerical relations as keys to understanding reality.
Croton : Croton was an ancient Greek city in southern Italy, now the site of Crotone. Pythagoras is traditionally said to have established his community there.
Tetractys : The tetractys is a triangular arrangement of ten points, formed by the first four counting numbers. It condensed numerical, musical, and religious significance into a single emblem.
Orphism : Orphism was a set of ancient Greek religious practices and beliefs centered on the figure of Orpheus and the fate of the soul. Its purification rites and afterlife doctrines resemble themes associated with Pythagorean communities.
Musical harmony : Musical harmony is the combination of tones whose frequencies form perceptible relationships, often expressible as ratios. Simple ratios between string lengths and pitches exemplified order through number.
Magna Graecia : Magna Graecia was the group of Greek settlements in southern Italy and Sicily. Pythagorean communities arose within this Greek-speaking region.
Music of the spheres : The music of the spheres is the idea that celestial motions correspond to harmonious musical ratios. It extends the tradition’s account of musical proportion from strings to the cosmos.
Platonism : Platonism is the philosophical tradition derived from Plato’s writings, emphasizing forms, knowledge, and the soul. Plato adopted mathematical and soul-related themes that are also linked to Pythagorean thought.
Metempsychosis : Metempsychosis is the doctrine that a soul passes after death into another body. Belief in the soul’s migration shaped Pythagorean rules of conduct and abstention.
Pythagorean golden verses : The Golden Verses are a collection of ethical maxims later attributed to Pythagoras and his followers. They preserve a later ideal of daily discipline associated with the tradition.
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