The Golden Verses and Other Pythagorean Fragments · 1 of 11
Preface
Preface
IN this small volume an attempt has been made to gather together the best and most reliable of the sets of Ethical Verses attributed to the Pythagoreans.
Both Hall’s translation from the Greek (1657), and Rowe’s translation from the French of André Dacier (1707), have been used in reproducing the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, but Dacier’s version has been almost exclusively followed, being clearer and more intelligible.
The Golden Sentences of Democrates, the Similitudes of Demophilus, and Pythagorean Symbols are from Bridgman’s translation, and are to be found in his little book, Translations from the Greek, published in 1804. The Pythagorean Sentences of Demophilus, translated by Taylor, are contained in that volume also.
The remaining sets of verses, translated by Taylor, are appended by him to his Iamblichus’ Life of Pythagoras, published in 1818.
F. M. F.
BRADFORD,
November, 1904.
Gnosis edition note. This volume is an anthology selected by Florence M. Firth, whose preface is dated November 1904, with an introduction by Annie Besant. Its translations draw on the older works named above. It includes the Golden Verses, selected notes from Hierocles, and several distinct collections attributed to the Pythagorean tradition. These writings and interpretations come from different periods; attribution to Pythagoras does not mean that he wrote the surviving texts. Besant’s introduction reflects her Theosophical interpretation.
The wording of this reading edition follows Firth’s selection, with identified transcription errors corrected against Bridgman’s 1804 translations and Taylor’s 1818 appendix where applicable. The fifteen omitted Symbols notes have been restored and relabeled. The anthology’s selections and abridgments are retained; this is not a complete edition of every ancient work named in it.