II.

Basic Doctrines

The Pythagoreans adhered to certain mysteries, similar in many respects to the Orphic mysteries (see Mysteries; Orphism). Obedience and silence, abstinence from food, simplicity in dress and possessions, and the habit of frequent self-examination were prescribed. The Pythagoreans believed in immortality and in the transmigration of souls. Pythagoras himself was said to have claimed that he had been Euphorbus, a warrior in the Trojan War, and that he had been permitted to bring into his earthly life the memory of all his previous existences.