Pythagorean School Formation and Structure

the geometric discoveries of his student". Mount Carmel and the school of prophets From Miletus Pythagoras departs and first goes to Syria (to Sidon where he meets the descendants of the prophet and philosopher Moscus, an atomist Trojan philosopher) and then to Mount Carmel in Palestine where he arrives after a boat journey during which he remains motionless in reflection for 3 days and 3 nights without taking food or sleep. Here Pythagoras remains on Mount Carmel for some time. This reference to Mount Carmel is extremely important because on Mount Carmel (which is practically more of a hill than a mountain) there was a school of prophets established several centuries earlier by the Hebrew prophet Samuel, the one who consecrated David. These prophets were the holders of the Hebrew tradition or Qabbalah which contained a set of ascetic techniques and particular psycho-physical and spiritual exercises that were meant to produce direct contacts with divinity. The first references to the technique of the descent of the chariot or merkavah date back precisely to this period and to the movement of the Prophets of Israel. Highlighting this stay as a formative stay of Pythagoras means alluding to Pythagoras's contact with the secret tradition of Israel and evidently to the reception of its ascetic techniques. Egypt at Thebes At this point Pythagoras goes to Egypt Memphis and Heliopolis but managed to be admitted only to the temple of Thebes thanks to the pressure of the Pharaoh where he remained 22 years before being admitted to the Initiation of the mysteries of Isis, Osiris and Ptah. The reference to the Egyptians is for Iamblichus one of the fundamental elements. Pythagoras from the Egyptians would have learned many theurgical doctrines and practices. Babylon, Zoroastrianism and oriental doctrines Subsequently he is captured by the soldiers of Cambyses and transported to Babylon where he is instructed on the rites and celebrations of the Magi. Here, says Iamblichus, "he was instructed in their solemn rites, learned the perfect divine worship, reached the summit of arithmetical, musical and scientific knowledge in general". Apuleius and Porphyry report that Pythagoras was initiated into the mysteries of Zarathustra by Zoroaster himself receiving initiation near the waters of the Euphrates. Apuleius also maintains that he would have had important contacts with Brahmins who would have taught him the art of "instructing spirits, of exercising bodies, the different parts of which the soul is composed, the modifications of existence, the torments or rewards that the Gods reserve for each according to their merits". The doctrines to which Apuleius refers are those of Yoga, of the occult constitution of man and woman according to oriental doctrines, the law of karma and samsara. Whether Apuleius's reference is faithful or an exaggeration, it is nonetheless important to highlight the attention to oriental doctrines from which Pythagoras takes many aspects of his ascetic doctrines. Eleusinian Mysteries and Themistoclea According to Aristoxenus, it would have been precisely Themistoclea, priestess of Delphi, who transmitted certain traditional teachings to Pythagoras. From her Pythagoras "learned a great part of moral doctrines and the secrets of ascesis and theurgy. It was she who made him understand the Woman in Initiation." To her Pythagoras revealed the mysteries he had known, instructing her and consecrating her as Pythia of Delphi, prophetess of God. So with Themistoclea his formative journey concludes and he decides to undertake a final journey toward Magna Graecia to found his school in Calabria at Croton. Therefore it is nonetheless important to highlight Pythagoras's formation to understand the ensemble of cultures and traditions that unite and that this character gathers. We have all the Greek tradition and speculation, the typical practices of the Hebrew tradition and of the schools of prophets, we then have the Egyptian mysteries as well as the oriental doctrines coming from Zoroaster. Finally Themistoclea seems to confer a secret tradition that allows Pythagoras to reach that maturity such as to make him stop seeking and to found an ascetic school at Croton. THE PYTHAGOREAN SCHOOL After this long formation Pythagoras established his own school whose purpose was the total purification of the individual and their spiritual culture. Pythagoras had structured his school with a series of successive degrees in each of which some different scientific and doctrinal aspects were taught, together with some ascetic techniques proper to each degree. Let us try to understand the structure and teachings of each degree of the school. Obviously it must be clarified that unfortunately what we know of the school's teachings are only partial news derived from later Pythagoreans and from fragments, also because within the school there was a most severe discipline of the Arcane. Those initiated into the Pythagorean mysteries were bound by a secret so stringent that even when the school was later persecuted and destroyed, the persecutors found it difficult to make the prisoners speak. In particular Iamblichus reports how the persecutors, not succeeding in extracting anything from the husband, had decided to torture the pregnant wife who, knowing she could yield and break the vow due to the effect of torture, ate her tongue to thus remove any risk of speaking. Therefore what we know is nonetheless an incomplete vision of the true Pythagorean mysteries and concerns almost exclusively the first two degrees of Initiation. Structure of the Order The structure of the School was conceived as a five-pointed star that had Pythagoras as head and as other points the other degrees of the Order. Outside this structure were the Exoterics. EXOTERICS: These were those external to the school to whom Pythagoras held public lectures in which he dealt with topics related to virtues and moral truths. The Exoterics were not part of the school and to enter the school they had to satisfy many requirements including social ones. Pythagoras in fact personally informed himself about the background of the personal and public life of those who asked to participate in his school and if he found them upright and desirous of learning then he admitted them. It is narrated that Pythagoras admitted only $216$ students to his school (although the number is a symbolic number being the cube of the triangular of