DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0287
226 Pythagoras as Apollon reborn
On this showing it would appear that the Pythagorean Apollon,
living again in the person of Pythagoras, was near akin to the
Thraco-Phrygian or Cretan form of the reborn Zeus. Further con-
firmation of the fact is to be found in Pythagorean legends both
early and late. Herodotos was told by Greeks inhabiting the
Hellespont and Pontos that Salmoxis was a slave of Pythagoras
in Samos, that when freed he made his fortune and introduced
Fig- 157-
Ionic culture into his native land of Thrace : here he built a hall,
feasted the foremost of the citizens, and taught them that he together
with his fellow-feasters and their descendants instead of dying would
come to a land of perpetual life and felicity ; meantime he made
an underground chamber and vanished from their sight, being
mourned by them as dead, but after living for three years in his
retreat reappeared in the fourth year and induced them to believe
his words1. This tale, which was accepted without demur by later
authors2, Herodotos hesitates to believe, adding that in his opinion
tripod (cp. fig. 156 with fig. 155). It remains, however, likely enough that the Pythagoreans
read their own meaning into the Crotoniate types, types which were fixed on other and
more mundane grounds.
1 Hdt. 4. 95.
2 Strab. 297 f., 762, Porph. v. Pyth. 14 f. (quoted by Kyrill. Al. c. Iulian. 6. 208 (Ixxvi.
On this showing it would appear that the Pythagorean Apollon,
living again in the person of Pythagoras, was near akin to the
Thraco-Phrygian or Cretan form of the reborn Zeus. Further con-
firmation of the fact is to be found in Pythagorean legends both
early and late. Herodotos was told by Greeks inhabiting the
Hellespont and Pontos that Salmoxis was a slave of Pythagoras
in Samos, that when freed he made his fortune and introduced
Fig- 157-
Ionic culture into his native land of Thrace : here he built a hall,
feasted the foremost of the citizens, and taught them that he together
with his fellow-feasters and their descendants instead of dying would
come to a land of perpetual life and felicity ; meantime he made
an underground chamber and vanished from their sight, being
mourned by them as dead, but after living for three years in his
retreat reappeared in the fourth year and induced them to believe
his words1. This tale, which was accepted without demur by later
authors2, Herodotos hesitates to believe, adding that in his opinion
tripod (cp. fig. 156 with fig. 155). It remains, however, likely enough that the Pythagoreans
read their own meaning into the Crotoniate types, types which were fixed on other and
more mundane grounds.
1 Hdt. 4. 95.
2 Strab. 297 f., 762, Porph. v. Pyth. 14 f. (quoted by Kyrill. Al. c. Iulian. 6. 208 (Ixxvi.