Book 8
1.8
Aristoxenus says that Pythagoras got most of his moral doctrines from the Delphic priestess Themistoclea. According to Ion of Chios in his Triagmi he ascribed some poems of his own making to Orpheus.F.H.G. Fr. 12, ii. p. 49. The same fragment is found in Clem. Alex. Strom. i. 131 Ἴων δὲ ὁ Χῖος ἐν τοῖς Τριαγμοῖς καὶ Πυθαγόραν εἰς Ὀρφέα ἀνενεγκεῖν τινα ἱστορεῖ. The verbal agreement, except for τινα ἱστορεῖ, is exact. They further attribute to him the Scopiads which begins thus: Be not shameless, before any man. Sosicrates in his Successions of Philosophers says that, when Leon the tyrant of Phlius asked him who he was, he said, A philosopher,Cf. i. 12, whence it would seem that Sosicrates used Heraclides of Pontus as his authority for this anecdote. and that he compared life to the Great Games, where some went to compete for the prize and others went with wares to sell, but the best as spectators; for similarly, in life, some grow up with servile natures, greedy for fame and gain, but the philosopher seeks for truth. Thus much for this part of the subject.
1.9
The contents in general of the aforesaid three treatises of Pythagoras are as follows. He forbids us to pray for ourselves, because we do not know what will help us. Drinking he calls, in a word, a snare, and he discountenances all excess, saying that no one should go beyond due proportion either in drinking or in eating. Of sexual indulgence, too, he says, Keep to the winter for sexual pleasures, in summer abstain; they are less harmful in autumn and spring, but they are always harmful and not conducive to health. Asked once when a man should consort with a woman, he replied, When you want to lose what strength you have.
