Everyone has heard of Pythagoras and his theorem, but not everyone knows that it was a great sage who influenced ancient Greek and Roman culture, leaving an indelible mark on world history. Pythagoras was considered the first philosopher, he also made many discoveries in music, geometry and astronomy; also, he was invincible in fisticuffs.
The philosopher first studied with his countrymen and was initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries. Then he traveled a lot and collected truth by bit from different teachers, for example, he visited Egypt, Syria, Phenicia, learned from the Chaldeans, passed through the Babylonian mysteries, and there is even evidence that Pythagoras learned from Brahmins in India.
Having collected puzzles of different teachings, the philosopher derived the teachings about Harmony, to which everything is subordinated. Then Pythagoras created his own society, which was a kind of aristocracy of the spirit, where people studied the arts and sciences, trained their body with various exercises and raised their spirit with the help of various practices and regulations.
The doctrine of Pythagoras showed the unity of all in many, and the main goal of man was expressed in the fact that through self-development man reached connection with the Cosmos, avoiding further rebirth.
Legends related to Pythagoras and Music
Musical harmony in the teachings of Pythagoras is a model of universal harmony, which consists of notes - various aspects of the Universe. It was believed that Pythagoras heard the music of the spheres, which was certain sound vibrations that emanated from the stars and planets and intertwined together in divine harmony - Mnemosyn. Also, Pythagoras and his students used certain chants and lyre sounds to calm their mind or to heal from certain diseases.
According to legend, it was Pythagoras who discovered the laws of musical harmony and the properties of harmonic relations between sounds. Legend has it that the teacher once walked and heard the sounds of hammers from the forge that forged iron; having listened to them, he understood that their knock creates harmony.
Later, empirically Pythagoras found that the difference in sounds depends only on the mass of the hammer, and not on other characteristics. Then the philosopher made a device with strings with different number of weights; the strings were fastened to a nail that was hammered into the wall of his house. Striking the strings, he derived the notion of an octave, and the fact that its ratio is 2: 1, opened the fifth and fourth.
Then Pythagoras made a device with parallel strings, which were strung with tension. Using this instrument, he found that there are certain consonances and laws in many instruments: flutes, cymbals, lyres and other devices with which you can produce rhythm and melody.
There is a legend that tells that once walking, Pythagoras saw a violent drunken crowd that behaved inappropriately, and a flutist was walking in front of the crowd. The philosopher ordered this musician, who accompanied the crowd, to play in a spondic size - he began to play, and in a moment everyone sobered up and calmed down. So with the help of music you can control people.
Modern scientific theories and practical confirmation of the Pythagorean views on music
Sounds can both heal and kill. Music treatment, such as harp therapy, has been recognized and studied in some countries (for example, at the British Institute, harp melodies are used to facilitate the course of chemotherapy). The Pythagorean doctrine of the music of the spheres is confirmed by the modern theory of superstrings: the vibrations that permeate the entire space.
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