{"id":18008,"date":"2024-02-29T17:39:31","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T22:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/?p=18008"},"modified":"2024-03-25T09:14:31","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T13:14:31","slug":"celtic-indian-and-assyrian-wisdom-polyhistor-on-pythagoras-education-by-wise-barbarians-first-century-bce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2024\/02\/celtic-indian-and-assyrian-wisdom-polyhistor-on-pythagoras-education-by-wise-barbarians-first-century-bce\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtic, Indian, and Assyrian wisdom: Polyhistor on Pythagoras’ education by wise barbarians (first century BCE)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ancient authors:<\/em><\/strong> Alexander Polyhistor (early-mid first century BCE), FGrHist <\/em>273 F94, as cited by Clement of Alexandria, Tapestries<\/em> 1.68-72, and Cyril of Alexandria, Against Julian<\/em> 4.27-28 (not included in FGrHist<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Comments:<\/em><\/strong> These passages further suggest that Alexander Polyhistor had considerable interest in the idea of wise “barbarians.”\u00a0 Both Clement and Cyril suggest that Polyhistor’s work on Pythagorean Symbols <\/em>suggested that Pythagoras himself was educated, in part by a variety of foreigners (to Greeks), including Celtic, Indian, and Assyrian figures. Cyril’s long list of foreign wise men may or may not accurately reflect Polyhistor’s own story.<\/p>\n

\u2017\u2017\u2017\u2017\u2017\u2017\u2017<\/p>\n

Polyhistor, FGrHist<\/em> 273 F94,<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Alexand<\/b>er<\/b> [Polyhistor], in his book On Pythagorean Symbols<\/i>, reports that Pythagoras was a student of Zaratos the Assyrian (some think that he is Ezekiel; but he is not, as I will show), and claims that, in addition to these, Pythagoras consulted with Galatians and Brahmans.<\/p>\n

Polyhistor in Cyril of Alexandria<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Actually, not all barbarians are absolutely savage (agrious<\/em>). Rather, sometimes they reach towards goodness and fairness with the result that they have obtained a name worthy of emulation. In his work On Pythagorean Symbols<\/em>, Alexander who is also called Polyhistor<\/strong> reports that Pythagoras regularly turned to an Assyrian by descent, namely Zoroaster [Zarathustra]. They also pursued wisdom alongside Egyptians who are called prophets and, in fact, alongside Chaldeans among Assyrians, Druids among Celts, Persian Baktrians among Samanaians, more than a few among Celts, Magians among Persians, naked sages among Indians, Anacharsis among Scythians, and Zamolxis in Thrace. . . .<\/p>\n

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\u2017\u2017\u2017\u2017\u2017\u2017\u2017<\/p>\n

Source of translations: <\/em><\/strong> Translations by Harland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ancient authors: Alexander Polyhistor (early-mid first century BCE), FGrHist 273 F94, as cited by Clement of Alexandria, Tapestries 1.68-72, and Cyril of Alexandria, Against Julian 4.27-28 (not included in FGrHist). Comments: These passages further suggest that Alexander Polyhistor had considerable interest in the idea of wise “barbarians.”\u00a0 Both Clement and Cyril suggest that Polyhistor’s work […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77,221,224,95,135,76,296,101,94,116,104,115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-04-greeks-on-wise-barbarians-noble-savages","category-a-northern-peoples","category-d-eastern-peoples","category-babylonians-chaldeans","category-baktrians-bactrians","category-celts-gauls","category-ethnicity-ancient-world","category-indians-brahmans","category-persians-iranians-magians","category-scythians-pontic-peoples","category-syrians-assyrians-aramaians","category-thracians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18008"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19307,"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18008\/revisions\/19307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}