HISTORY   OF   WISDOM

BOOK  ONE

Ancient Greek Philosophy 

 By  Franz J. T. Lee

          PANDEMONIUM  BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS.

     Merida, Venezuela, 2002.
© 2002   Franz J. T. Lee All Rights Reserved.

CHAPTER   V 

PYTHAGORAS OF SAMOS (born around 569 B. C.) : 
The wandering Arithmós

The Pythagoréioi (around 582 - 493 B. C.)

Hylozoistic Dialectics Within the One: Unity and Contradiction 
of the Arithmós: It's Acme and Aftermath
 
 

CONSTRUCTING THE INTELLECTUAL SUPERSTRUCTURE 
OF THE "GOLDEN AGE" OF PERICLES

Philolaos of Croton (end of the 5th Century B. C.)

The Pythagoreans, especially Philolaos and Pythagoras, again
reintroduced motion into the One and converted the arché into
number itself, having a basic contradiction: the odd-regular. With
Philolaos of Croton (end of the 5th Century B. C.) we enter the
philosophic realm of Pythagoreanism. Against Parmenides, he
argued that it would be impossible to acquire knowledge, if
everything is infinite and eternal. Thus, Heracleitus' contradiction
had to be reintroduced into the arché which, for him, now
became a unity and contradiction of the limitless and the limited:
„Nature is created within the cosmic order through the coming
together of limitless and limited elements; this also applies to
the Cosmos at large, as well as to all things contained within it“.
(Diels, op. cit., Frag. 1, p. 76). 

Furthermore, all existing things necessarily have to be either 
unlimited or limited, or both together. Philolaos concluded 
„both together“ (Frag 2) - thus, they exist in harmonía. Thus, 
originated philosophically the number harmony, arithmós 
harmonía doctrine of Pythagoreanism. Of course, "both together" 
is a contradiction, is dialectics. 

Philolaos concluded that Parmenides’ One was harmonious,
because it contained the Odd and the Regular in it; that only by the
separation of regular and odd numbers, and by placing them in
relation to each other, in motion to each other, it was possible to
achieve harmony and order, for example, in music, the octave (1:2), the
quintet (2:3), the quartet (3:4), etc. (Frag. 6). Thus: he stated, that 
monas was the arché, „Oneness (unity) is the origin of all things“ (Frag. 8).
Therewith, we are again right back to Square One! This time, the 
one, single principle is even called by its very name: The One. 
Moreover, now we also know what "unity", oneness, is all about; why 
a United Kingdom, the United States, the United Nations. 

However, Philolaos still remained in the hylozoist tradition 
of Parmenides’ One, of the World Sphere, but, strangely, it was now 
made up of four original elements „fire, water, earth and air“ (Frag. 12); 
he even mentioned a fifth external element, on which the Sphere rests,
but it is difficult to decipher its meaning or essence. For us, this is 
certainly something to note, to reflect about. Somebody, Philolaus, 
has even considered another "element", or should we say an unknown 
principle, outside, exto, of the arché, of the One, of "A", on which the One rests -- well, this mysterious postulate, ex cosmos, we have named Einai ("B"). In other words, Nature rests on -- is related to -- Society in motion; Praxis rests on -- is related to-- Theory in motion. But, wait, his fellow-philosopher Ion of Chios will teach us the ABC of Trialogics. 

Ion of Chios (490 - 421 B. C.)

Ion of Chios (490 - 421 B. C.), an ancient Greek dramatist and
philosopher, was influenced by the Pythagoric number-harmony
philosophic speculation. In his „tri-combat“ preserved fragment,
we learn that „Everything is Three, not less than Three ... the
Trinity: mind, powers and happiness“ (Diels, Frag. 1, p. 73). We are 
really lucky that this fragment survived, and that it did not fall under 
the censorship hammer of the patrian Inquisition. 

Thus, Ion, transhistorically already anticipated the „magical“ trialogical trinity; that it was blemished later with the "Holy Trinity", that is another 
story. Of course, we could also interpret this "tri-combat" in intra-systemic,  universal, dialectical terms: affirmation, negation and "negation of the negation" -- thesis, antithesis, synthesis. However, imperative is that Ion  contradicted the mythological Number Seven magic. What he understood precisely by the concepts, mind, power and happiness, we do not know. Perhaps he meant that a powerful, thinking mind excels as mindful, powerful happiness, as historic emancipation. 

Nevertheless, with his „tri-combat“, his social triás, he introduced the 
scientific category „power“ into Western philosophy and politics; and 
he meant this very concretely, very praxically. In Chios, with Sophocles, 
he participated in the Samian War (442 - 440 B. C.); in 428 B. C.,
against Euripides and lophon, he lost the battle in the tragic agon
of that year. That's what one calls real social dialectics in the spirit of Heracleitus' "strife". Never mind this unfortunate loss, philosophically he successfully introduced the imperialist principle „right is might“ into Hellenic politics.

Melissos of Samos (acme around 440 B. C.)

Melissos of Samos (acme around 440 B. C.) also had participated
in the Samian War against Athens. In fact, as admiral of the
Samian fleet, he defeated Pericles’ armada. (See: Plutarch,
Pericles, 26ff.) As philosopher, Melissos defended the Eleatic
school, especially Parmenides’ doctrines of the One and of
Eternal Rest. In the same way, as Zeno had attempted to disprove
dialectically the possibility of manifoldness in Being, Melissos,
by means of paradoxes and aporias, tried to expound the true
constituent being of Being. We studied the official "history of philosophy" 
very carefully, and when we state that a single principle, the One, is 
eternally at rest, we are not sucking such considerations out of our 
fingers, we highlight, "take with us" all the inconvenient philosophic 
truths that the patria deliberately has left on the wayside, and 
formulate a new science  a n d  philosophy. It was Melissos that 
postulated that the One is Eternal Rest; we state that any one, single 
postulate, the One, is Cosmos (A), and as such, it is non-related, hence, 
it is Cosmos-At-Rest, Eternal Being-At-Rest. Only when a second 
postulate exists, in our case, Einai (B), then Relation or Bezug has any 
logical intensive-extensive relevance. The Non-Relation, Internal Motion (Heracleitus), is Self-Relation, the very "A" non-related to itself, to "Non-A", 
as "A" (Parmenides). In this case, Absolute Rest (A) and Absolute Motion 
(Non-A) are identical, are the two internal, intensive dialectical (not 
dialogical) sides of "A" itself. 
 

Melissos argued that, if Being, if the One, if the Universe,  has 
a Beginning and an End, then it is the proof, that Being cannot
have a perfect „being-ness“; on the contrary, it will have a 
Coming-Into-Being and a Being-Passing-Away. In Melissos’ words: 
„No thing, which has a beginning and an end, is eternal or limitless“ 
(Diels, Frag. 4, p. 53), and, „if Being is divisible, then it also moves 
itself; however, when it moves, it ends being Being“. (Frag. 10) Well, 
he explained exactly what we stated above; knowing this, our wise, eminent  philosophers have placed a "B" ex "A", others simply preferred "God"; others were happy with neither the One nor God, with "Nihil" (C). All these are 
fundamental to know, for knowledge, to understand what is currently happening on a galactic scale. 
 

The pythagoréioi (around 582 - 493 B. C.)

Owing to the fact, that we do not possess a single fragment of
Pythagoras’ works, scientifically, we are dependent on the
polemic writings of his successors, and also on the fragments of
his disciples, who belonged to the Pythagorean School. But, most
of them had lived in a later period. According to the fragmentary
data in our possession, as stated above, Pythagoras was born around 
569 B. C. in Samos. As we have seen, Philolaos and lon, Pythagoreans
of the 5th Century B. C., had attempted to introduce dialectical
motion, Becoming-Being, into Parmenides’ One; Melissos, who
really was an Eleatic, in spite of being a native of Pythagoras’
place of birth, Samos, certainly, had contradicted both of them. 

At the beginning of the 5th Century B. C., the spermata of
Pythagoric number-harmony had been sown and they were
germinating in a social setting, which historically became known
as the Periclean Age of Hellas. In this way, philosophically 
Pythagoreanism reflected and anticipated the seeming social
harmony of Athenian democracy of the 5th Century B. C. In the
following, we will summarize some of Pythagoras’ philosophic
achievements and place them in the historico-social
environment, which had cultivated and nourished their
Becoming-Being, and finally, in the next chapter, we will elaborate the
professor-philosophy, Sophism, which forms an essential
concomitant part of the historical development of that epoch.
 

Pythagoras, the philosopher 
and mathematician 

The politico-social environment 

We know very little about Pythagoras' real life. Pythagoras' father 
was Mnesarchus, a merchant from Tyre and, his mother was Pythais, 
a native of Samos. His youth, Pythagoras spent in Samos but 
accompanied his father in many journeys; probably the youngster, 
who also visited Italy, was taught by the Chaldaeans and the learned 
men of Syria. Hence, he was well educated, he played the lyre, studied 
poetry and by heart could recite Homer; however, his real philosophic teachers were Pherekydes, Thales and Anaximander. 

Especially towards the beginning of the 5th Century B. C., Samos
was a commercial rival of Miletus; as base-superstructure reflex, 
similarly, philosophically Pythagoreanism contradicted Milesian 
hylozoism. Already in 535 B. C., Polycrates had gained political 
power as Tyrant of Samos and reigned there for two decades; the 
mysterious ancient figure, Pythagoras, disapproved of his tyrannis, 
especially of his egoistic avarice, as reflected in his specific Oriental despotism; not even his extravagant expenditure to further science and arts could convince Pythagoras to remain in Samos; thus, he left for Magna Graecia. 

He visited Egypt and certainly Alexandria, the seat of Hellenic natural sciences; he became entangled in ancient belligerent world affairs, and eventually ended up as a prisoner of war. As we know from Ancient History, 
in 525 BC Cambyses II, the King of Persia, had invaded Egypt and won the Battle of Pelesium, thus capturing Heliopolis and Memphis in the Nile Delta. All Egyptian resistance collapsed, and Pythagoras ended up as a POW, and was taken to Babylon. 

Concerning his scientific education there, from Iamblichus, who wrote in the third century A. D., we learn that he: 

     " ... was transported by the followers of Cambyses as a prisoner of
     war. Whilst he was there he gladly associated with the Magoi ... and
     was instructed in their sacred rites and learnt about a very mystical
     worship of the gods. He also reached the acme of perfection in
     arithmetic and music and the other mathematical sciences taught by
     the Babylonians..."
 

Eventually, about 520 B. C., he returned and settled down at Croton (now
Crotone, on the east of the heel of southern Italy), where he founded his philosophic school, called the semicircle. Again, centuries later, concerning his academy or lyceum, Iamblichus informs us as follows: 

     " ... he formed a school in the city [of Samos], the 'semicircle' of
     Pythagoras, which is known by that name even today, in which the
     Samians hold political meetings. They do this because they think one
     should discuss questions about goodness, justice and expediency in
     this place which was founded by the man who made all these
     subjects his business. Outside the city he made a cave, the private
     site of his own philosophical teaching, spending most of the night
     and daytime there and doing research into the uses of
     mathematics..."

In the Semicircle, like later in Epicurus' "Garden", the following were 
taught: 

     (1) that book of nature is written in mathematics, in number; 
     (2) that thinking and thought can be used for spiritual clarification;
     (3) that a unio mistica is possible with the divine;
     (4) that certain numbers or symbols have mystical meanings; and
     (5) that all "brothers" of the order should observe strict loyalty and
     secrecy.

Never mind this early "brotherhood", this future French revolutionary fraternity, in his order, both men and women were permitted to become members of the Society.  De facto, like in Epicurus' "Garden", many 
women Pythagoreans became famous ancient philosophers, but their works were destroyed by the burning axe of the Dark Ages and Inquisition. 
 

In 513 B. C., Pythagoras went to Delos to nurse his dying teacher, Pherekydes; soon thereafter, war broke out between Croton and Sybaris; 
and in 508 B. C., his School was attacked by a local noble tyrant, Cylon; 
however, Pythagoras succeeded to flee to Metapontion. 

Iamblichus gave us his version of the turn of events: 

     "Cylon, a Crotoniate and leading citizen by birth, fame and riches, but
     otherwise a difficult, violent, disturbing and tyrannically disposed
     man, eagerly desired to participate in the Pythagorean way of life. He
     approached Pythagoras, then an old man, but was rejected because
     of the character defects just described. When this happened Cylon
     and his friends vowed to make a strong attack on Pythagoras and his
     followers. Thus a powerfully aggressive zeal activated Cylon and his
     followers to persecute the Pythagoreans to the very last man.
     Because of this Pythagoras left for Metapontium and there is said to
     have ended his days." 

However, no matter what really happened, it was clear that in Croton -- 
in that flourishing commercial centre, invigorated by Ionian trade --  the 
influence of his school gradually faded away. Inspired by Orphism, he 
moved to Metapontion, where he established a mathematical school, but
also a religious cult, whose main tenet was the transmigration of
souls. Around 500 B. C., in Metapontion, his soul also transmigrated 
into the realm of number-harmony.

However, what immediately concerns us, is Pythagoras, the philosopher and mathematician. Probably, having been taught geometry in Ancient Africa, in Egypt, he (or his school) "discovered" the proposition or theorem concerning right-angled triangles: 

32 + 42 = 52 (3 squared + 4 squared = 5 squared). 

However, like in the case of Christopher Columbus "discovering" America, 
as we all should know, this "Pythagoras' theorem" was already known to 
the Babylonians 1000 years earlier. Notwithstanding, to give him his mathematical due, it was he who has discovered the theory of irrational
and the construction of the cosmic figures. 

According to Thomas Little Heath, the following should be attributed to the Pythagorean School: 

" (i) The sum of the angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles. Also the
Pythagoreans knew the generalization which states that a polygon with n sides has sum of interior angles 2n - 4 right angles and sum of exterior angles equal to four right angles. 

(ii) The theorem of Pythagoras - for a right angled triangle the square on the
hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides. We
should note here that to Pythagoras the square on the hypotenuse would
certainly not be thought of as a number multiplied by itself, but rather as a
geometrical square constructed on the side. To say that the sum of two
squares is equal to a third square meant that the two squares could be cut up
and reassembled to form a square identical to the third square. 

(iii) Constructing figures of a given area and geometrical algebra. For example
they solved equations such as a (a - x) = x2 by geometrical means. 

(iv) The discovery of irrationals. This is certainly attributed to the Pythagoreans but it does seem unlikely to have been due to Pythagoras himself. This went against Pythagoras' philosophy that all things are numbers, since by a number he meant the ratio of two whole numbers. However, because of his belief that all things are numbers it would be a natural task to try to prove that the hypotenuse of an isosceles right-angled triangle had a length corresponding to a number. 

(v) The five regular solids. It is thought that Pythagoras himself knew how to
construct the first three but it is unlikely that he would have known how to
construct the other two. 

(vi) In astronomy Pythagoras taught that the Earth was a sphere at the centre of the Universe. He also recognized that the orbit of the Moon was inclined to the equator of the Earth and he was one of the first to realize that Venus as an
evening star was the same planet as Venus as a morning star. " 

(See: Article by: J. J. O'Connor and E F Robertson, at: 
http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Pythagoras.html ; 
also: http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Heath.html .)
 

Unfortunately, this Pythagoras' geometry theorem, already in Greek 
antiquity, had led to the discovery of incommensurables; probably 
already by Plato, but certainly by Euclid of Alexandria (Book X); 
and it fundamentally challenged the basis of his number-harmony 
doctrine. Significant, however, is that Pythagoras bad intermingled 
religion, mathematics and philosophy. Under Bacchic-Orphic influence, 
the Pythagoreans believed in metempsychosis - the idea that the soul, psyché or nous is imprisoned in the body, and that it could be purified 
and emancipated by study, and by following a strict discipline of
meditation and self-examination; after death, in the process of
self-purification, the soul transcends, transmigrates to another body, 
until it reaches Total Purity. Later, we will find the „pre-existence“ ideas 
of this soul in Plato’s doctrine of anámnesis. Of course, both Pythagoras 
and Plato were concerned about the systemic closedness of the One, 
which they formal logically had to affirm, but the Beyond, the Hereafter, 
was haunting them. They could not dream that Neo-Platonism, Plotinism 
and Roman Catholicism would make such an absolutist, feudalist, 
theological mess about their philosophic metempsychosis or soma sema, causing them to emanate brutal, oppressive, delirious fumes of ruling class religious ideology, mind and thought control. Nonetheless, as social products of their epoch, in anticipation, as fore-runners of philosophic alienation, precisely this was their social order.

As proof in the eating of the modern globalized pudding, of this mythological hocus-pocus, transcendental hokum bunkum, these "4th of July", "September 11th", "Twelfth Night", "Friday 13th", "February 14th", "December 25th" or "666" social number syndromes, this spiritistic clairvoyance-clairaudience, -- all these are still very much alive in our "Information Age", in the "Third Millennium"; in spite of their camouflage in modern religious, horoscopic, pseudo-scientific, idealist and ideological veils; essentially, in the "enlightened" patria, they do deserve the common hoity-toity exclamation of disapprobation, but, existentially, in the archaic sense of the parádox of truth, they certainly do not further any social praxis-theory of a science of parápsychology. 

In the field of music, Pythagoras, as a result of his mathematical knowledge, gained from Egyptian sources, discovered the numerical ratios of intervals in the musical scale - octave, quartet, quintet, etc. Furthermore, he applied religion, mathematics and music to philosophy. In a sense, he was responsible that later the assumed perfection of „theoretical“ circles and triangles was applied to religion and theology, especially to the Holy Triangle, the Holy Trinity: God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. All these are contained in Pythagoras’ philosophic gnome: „all things are numbers“.

Notwithstanding, Pythagoras’ arithmós is concretus qua material; for example, as real as numbers on playing-cards or on dice. Parmenides’ 
One is the principium of Being, but, for Pythagoras, it is not the hen kai pan, 
the one and all. Unomnia is not the highest and most perfect form of Being, 
also not of the psyché, of the transmigrating soul, with its transcending Platonic ideas. Number Two, Number Three - or Soul Life No. 2, Soul Life 
No. 3 - could be more perfect forms of Being. Here we notice the levelling or graduation of Being. Again, the different ontological stages of development are just "elements" of the very same principle, of the arché, of arithmós. However, within the ancient clash of "matriarchal" and "patriarchal" visions, Number Seven, the divine psyché of aphrodisiac Artemis, Venus, Athena or Diana --  conveniently transformed into the Nike, into the effeminate motherless virgin (later brutally converted by Macho-Roman Catholicism into the effeminate Virgin Mary of The Immaculate Conception) --  did already reach the highest form of Being, the coming Platonic topos ouranios, the Idea-Heaven. 

Let's look more closely at this Pythagorean number magic. According to Philolaos, the Nike is Number Seven, but she becomes the effeminated "eternal, immovable God“, equal to himself, and different to anything else. (Diels, Frag. 7, p. 77)  Hence, Pythagoreanism began with Parmenides’ static concrete, in the continuum of the One-At-Rest, then it progressed to the abstract Odd-Regular contradiction, thus, it inaugurated a pure idealist, intellectual extra-material adventure, and it ended up with Philolaos' Number Seven, in the bliss of the sterile, "eternal, immovable God“. In the last analysis, this is what occurred in vulgar-Christian theology, especially of
the Dark Age Catholic type: Being is explained not as contradiction or as dialectics, both inherent in the closed, universal system, but as an abstract Parmenidean, Pythagorean diállelos trópos, as a coincidentia oppositorum. 
 

Pythagoras’ number-harmony doctrine

Evidently, Pythagoreanism had tried unsuccessfully to synthesize
Parmenides’ hen kai pan and Heracleitus’ pýr into arithmós. And
this unsuccessful metamorphosis produced a central, centralized contradiction, which partly and partially generated Socratism, Platonism 
and Aristotelianism, including their respective theological, idealist
aporias and paradoxes. Besides, the multiplex expressions of
hylozoistic matter in ancient Hellenic philosophic consciousness and
conscience were direct dialectical reflections of the complex
class struggles, social conflicts and destructive wars of the 6th/5th 
centuries B. C. Hence, apart from the idealist "Right" that went to Socrates and Plato, particularly, there also was a Pythagorean materialist „Left“, 
leading to Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Leucippus, Democritus and Lucretius.

Within the realm of the Irregular of arithmós, in the patrian 
"praxical-theoretical" becoming-being of the Hellenic modus vivendi, 
especially in the field of physical and bodily purification, that is, in 
human health, the Pythagoreans and their colleagues had made 
remarkable scientific achievements, especially in Physiology and 
Medicine. In Ionia, part of contemporary Asia Minor, Sicily and 
Southern Italy, but also later on the Greek mainland, progressively 
medical art replaced the magical and religious healing methods of
witchcraft and deisidaimonia (superstition). In fact, most of the ancient 
Greek physicians were either materialist philosophers or were
associated with hylozoists, and certainly with Pythagoreans. 
The high priests and guardians of the oracles, with their bi-cameral 
minds, were concerned with the spiritual welfare and the divine 
inner voices of Socratic eudaimonia. 

Before Thales, the ill-will of Hesiod’s „some 30,000 gods“, the
„subjects of Zeus“, due to their own divine, lustful, voluptuous 
sacred modus vivendi, had caused human diseases; and, through
their divine good-will, they had powers to dispense benevolent
cures. One of the earliest physicians, blessed by the Olympus, 
was Alkmaion (or Alcmaeon) of Croton, whom we met before. 
According to historical records, he discovered the optic nerve and 
carried out the first eye-operation. It was Alkmaion who had destroyed 
the belief that thought originates from the human heart: he ascribed
thought functions to the human brain. No hurt or heart feelings, but 
he already indicated the superstitious roots of those so-called "emotions" 
and "feelings', that ideologically well-nurtured supposedly are coming 
internally from the innermost depths or bottom of the human hearts. 

In other words, he already disproved the deisidaimonia that the turkey’s wishbone, protecting the heart, has prophetic virtues. The ruling slave-owning aristocrats and democrats, in that millennium already, elevated the seat of sophía, epistéme and gnosis from the hips, to the thorax, to the brain. As the result of marvellous socialization and religious education, till today billions still have their human faculties in their pants, instead of their cranium or 
their whole body, or the whole of society. 

Furthermore, the Pythagorean, Philolaos, also had developed a medical doctrine, but relevant to our philosophic endeavours, like Empedocles, he also had taught about four primordial elements. Nevertheless, in those „pre-Socratic“ days, medicine, "life sciences", and materialism still went hand-in-hand. After all, though unintentionally, Pythagoreanism
had produced, as mentioned earlier, an irregular creative synthesis, a materialist Pythagorean „Left”, which developed across Alkmaion and Philolaos, to Empedocles and Anaxagoras.
(See: Novack, Origins ..., pp. 156 - 158)

Social Harmony to all Hellenes of Good Will

To understand the above in its historic setting, within patrian reality, 
we will now take a Phoenix look at the Hellenic, sphingid, social
panorama, as having been witnessed by the 5th Century B.C., and
which epitomized in the Periclean „Golden Age“. Prior to the
Persian invasions, headed by Darius and Xerxes, Hellas, including
Megale Hellas and the Greek colonies, was afflicted by internal,
soothing social conflicts and class struggles, as expressed by the
various aristocratic, democratic and tyrannical "governments", 
"constitutions" and other despotic (or oligarchic) forms of rule. 

Already in the age of Pythagoras, Hellenic orthodoxy began to crumble, 
and movements reflecting scepticism, Sophism, cynicism and
agnosticism were rife in pagan Ancient Greece. Pericles (495 -
429 B.C.), however, by introducing a moderate Athenian slave-owning 
democracy (460 - 429 B.C.), succeeded to establish a temporary
social harmony of polity-citizens and an „imperialist“ order, which 
combated all the centrifugal, „odd“, divulgating-disintegrating forces. 
In this „Periclean Age“, Hellas was enjoying a period of extraordinary
productivity, a type, of Epicurean, social ataraxía, her own specific 
Victorian epoch. Of course, this does not refer to the oppressed slaves 
rowing the commercial ships or boats, or the infra-human toiling of the 
drones and dregs outside Athens in the silver mines. 

Under Pericles’ guardianship, primitive accumulation of capital flourished, Athens grew into a wealthy, powerful commercial metropolis. Saved from sweat and toil, intellectual productivity, learning and the arts virulently developed, and "great men" practically sprung up almost overnight like fresh mushrooms across the length and breadth of Hellas; and, Athens retained her artistic gravitational social force. Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Pindar, Phidias, Aristophanes, Herodotus, Hippocrates, Heracleitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Leucippus, Democritus, Protagoras, Socrates, and even Plato, all belong to the Hellenic 5th Century B.C. 

Never ever, in any century, had „Western Civilization“, or even any other civilization, produced such a variety of "great thinkers", and "great" practical craftsmen. In fact, Pericles’ Age also had produced a number of gifted, wise, "great"  beauties - about this female productivity, more later. They are not recorded in Man’s history, and, in any case, in Hellas, in spite of all the
female divinities, mutatis mutandis, women and slaves had no human or divine souls, and this male „blessing“ would last for many centuries to
come. In fact, even in Christian-Jewish theology, due to the absence of souls, women could not appear at the „Last Judgement" and no place would be reserved for them in the „New Jerusalem“.
 

The "Great Women" of the Periclean Age

However, let us return, from the apocalyptic future of these
homofinal and heterofinal things, which discriminated the
Hellenic gyne, to the Renaissance past of Pericles’ Age, to an
ancient modus operandi of productive, creative, patrian, ruling class excellence. Pericles was noted for his swooping, artistic oratory, 
and even more, for his successful "democratic" policies. Lavishly, he
patronized the arts, especially drama, poetry and music;
pompously, he decorated the Acropolis. At his majestic Court,
dolce vita, including dolce far niente - thanks to the warm and
loving care, the private and public entertainment, of the
cultured, educated concubines, the hetairaí --, was on the order of 
the day. 

The hetaerae, the courtesans of the "great men", headed by Aspasia,
Miss Hellas Cosmopolitan, were, in reality, well-educated, highly-cultured, ancient Greek women. They were endowed with great natural beauty and
intelligence, and, nearly all of them, were well-versed in the arts,
poetics and philosophy. At the extravagant Athenian festivals,
they surely made full use of their savoir pour prevoir. 
 

On the other hand, the official „prostitutes“, the insouciant house-wives
of the Athenian gallantry, including their entourage of gentlewomen, generally, were suffering under an insipid insipience. They were of low cultural and intellectual pedigree, and were endowed with no, or very few, artistic or scientific virtues. Realiter, they were not gifted in prevoir pour prevenir,
they had no cultural ability to challenge their wise female competitors. 
In fact, the "great men" had no special interests in cultivating such emancipatory aspirations. In the pleasant, productive company of these beloved concubines, men of historic eminence, honour and demeanour, like Pericles, Menander and Praxiteles, found ataraxic solace and creative stimulation - all these, in the patrian, fiery-erotic philosophic tradition of Heracleitus-Artemis.

Famous ancient Greek hetairaí of extraordinary intelligence,
wisdom and beauty were: Glykera, Phryne, Aspasia, Lais and
Leontion. Glykera (or Glykerion), as her name signifies, was the
„sweetheart“ or „darling“, who had inspired and contributed to
the fame of her literary lover, the Greek comic dramatist,
Menander (342 - 291 B.C.). Lais of Corinth was the gifted
concubine of Diogenes; Phryne was the mistress of Praxiteles
(370 - 330 B.C.), the famous Greek sculptor. She was so
successful, that in reverence of her beauté du diable, Praxiteles
had eternalized her in statue form. Out of pure jealousy of her
social influence, the Athenian democrats elevated her to
Socratic-Aristotelian philosophic-political levels, by accusing her
in public of asebeia. As we will note later, Epicureanism of the 4th 
Century B.C., had its own special courtesans. The most distinguished 
hetaira of that epoch was Leontion; she had published a philosophic work, which was a polemical attack against Theophrastus, Aristotle’s successor 
of the Lyceum. He had no alternative, but to acknowledge her
intellectual wisdom, philosophic and philological scientific
merits. Aspasia, a native of the hometown of Thales and
Leucippus, of Miletus, in artistic charm and intellectual genius,
was so successful, that she transcended from mistress to First
Lady of the Athenian Empire, as wife of Pericles. Consequently,
in this social revolutionary Hellenic gyne element, in the
hetaeran alter ego of Periclean glory, productivity and creativity,
we can find the progenitrices of ancient dialectical materialism,
the Rosa Luxemburgs, Krupskayas, Natalias and Karola Blochs of
yesteryear.

The "Great Men" of the Periclean Age

However, let us now briefly introduce the "great men" of the
Periclean Age. At Pericles’ Court, Pindar (518 - 438 B.C.), the
national lyric poet, was most welcome. At the various
Panhellenic festivals and Olympic Games, he entertained the
honoured guests with his choral odes. The head of the Sophist
movement, Protagoras, -“man is the measure of all things“ -
profoundly had influenced another Periclean poetic dramatist,
Euripides (480 - 406 B.C.).

As author of 92 plays, he demonstrated that human passions
have more dramatic Promethean-Heracleitean Fire than all the
Olympic divine directives and decrees, even more than the
passionate goddess, Ate herself. In the 18 tragedies which are
extant - among them famous ones like „Trojan Women“,
„Iphigenia at Aulis“, „Iphigenia in Tauris“, „Medea“, ‘‘Alcestis’’,
and the satyr play, „Cyclops“ - Euripides drew his characters
with earthly features; they expressed the general vividness of
the Periclean Age, and, in general, illustrated great intellectual
and philosophic insight.

Another Athenian comic playwright of grandeur was
Aristophanes (450 - 385 B.C.) - eleven of his comedies are extant.
These works were written boldly, and were deliberately filled
with sarcasm, caustic wit and critical jokes. In this way, he
objurgated many of his contemporaries: inter alia, Socrates in
„The Clouds“, Cleon in „The Knights“ and Euripides in „The
Frogs“: In „The Peace“, „Acharnians“ and „Lysistrata“, he
peremptorily asked that peace should be established with
aristocratic Sparta. At the same time, he demonstrated that
comedy can be inspired by the mythological forces of tyché,
anánke and némesis. However, the favourite artist at Pericles’
Court was Aeschylus (525 - 456 B.C.) - the author of some 90
plays, of which 7 complete tragedies are extant --; among the
most famous ones are: „Agamemnon“, ‘‘Seven Against
Thebes’’, „Persians“ and ‘‘Prometheus Bound“. His direct follower
became Sophocles (496 - 406 B.C.), who was appointed as
Pericles’ main strategist in state matters. Of his 123 plays, only
7 complete tragedies survived - some famous ones are:
„Antigone”, „Electra”, „Oedipus Rex’’ and ‘‘Ajax“.

Both Aeschylus and Sophocles had demonstrated that the
destinies of men depended less on the will or wrath of Zeus,
Anánke or Adrásteia, but more on the socio-practical intelligence
or religious-idealist equivocations of man themselves.

In the fields of architecture and sculpture, the most prominent
figure was Phidias (500 - 431 B.C.). He had his workshop directly
in Olympia, from where he directed the artistic decoration of the
Acropolis and the Parthenon. His favourite artistic motif was
Sophía - impersonated as Athens or Artemis. Of course, he was
also the creator of one of the ancient „Seven Wonders“ - the
gorgeous statue of Zeus. Another famous work of art is his
monumental statue of Pallas Athens (or Artemis). In the sciences
of philosophy and history, Periclean Athens was less successful.
Herodotus (485 - 425 B.C.), the „Father of History“, author of
Histories, was a native of Halicarnassus, although he had spent
a considerable part of his active life in Athens. Besides, Athens
only had two outstanding idealist philosophers: Socrates and
Plato; and, we are not even sure who is the Socratic Plato, the
Platonic Socrates or the Platonic Plato. 

The famous natural scientists and mathematicians of ancient Greece 
came from Magna Graecia or the colonies. As we have noted before,
Pericles even had to search for a mistress in Miletus -- later,
Alexander the Great will even marry two Persian princesses.
However, in warfare, even after the Second Persian Invasion (480
- 479 B.C.), Athens remained the mistress of the Mediterranean
Sea - and, of course, Sparta was the master on land. Hence,
Athens and Sparta - slave-owning Greek democracy and aristocracy -- 
guarded and safeguarded social harmony and order, externally and
internally, Above and Below. But, gradually, the
Macedonian-Alexandrian kosmopolite - the „citizen of the world“ - 
was being born: the Greek poleis changed into Hellas, and
further into Pan-Hellas, the Not-Yet of Greco-Roman Civilization.

Fundamentally, the Periclean cultural achievements reflected the
slave-owning democratic desire to establish social order and
harmony, echoed the cry for social „peace“ on earth to all
virtuous Greeks. Order-harmony had to be the synthesis for the
Pythagorean social odd and regular. As mentioned before, the
irregular, qua revolutionary theory-praxis, was degraded to
things „under the moon“ to a „lower order“, to an infralunar,
infrahuman level. Viva Athenai! was the bel esprit of Periclean
Hellas, but this social harmony reflected very little of Athens or
Minerva, of sophía. E contrario, by the second half of the 5th
Century, a Sophist movement spread across Ancient Greece, at a
time, when the internal social contradictions exploded in the
Peloponnesian War (431 B. C.). This marked the beginning of the
end of Pericles’ Golden Age; in 407 B. C., Spartan oligarchy finally
triumphed over Athenian democracy. But, it was also the genesis
of foreign invasions and the epígénesis of the imperialist
conquests of Alexander the Great in the following century. 

CHAPTER VI: SOPHISM
Theoretiké-Praktiké, Theoría-Práxis. 
 
 

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