Condensed and inadequate as i- this summary of the alleged career and teachings of Pythagoras, it reveals the powerful influence exercised by him on the com- munities with which he was associated, and on the later generations which professed the adoption of his alleged philosophy-. Admit ling the Utmost confusion and un- certainty in the chronology of both his biography and bis doctrines, and the fabulous nature of much that was a.-ciibed lo him, he must yet be denied worthy of the
reputation he lefi behind him, and is still "clarum et venerabile nomen."
111. Literature.— AN the historians of ancient philos- ophy, and all the extended histories of Grei ce, ni cessa- rily treat of Pythagoras with more or less fulness and with more or less discernment. Brucker, as usual, pro- vides an ample accumulation of materials; l'< Ix rweg is brief but perspicacious; while Ritter is very copious and discreet, Grote's observations are valuable. Of more special >ou ices of information may be (numeral, d: Mul- lach, Fragmenta Philosophorum Grcecorum (Paris, ls7,". . 77); Ilieroclis Commentarius in Carmen Annum tap. Mullach, Fragm. Phil. Grate); iristotelis Metaphysi- al, lib. i, ix, xii, xiii; Diogenes Laertius (ed. Hnbner, Lips. 1828 31, 2 vols.); Porphyrii Pythagora Vita; [amblichi Pythagora Vita (ed. Kiessling, Lips. 1813); l-'aliri.-ii Bibliotkeca Graca, i, 750 804; Mason, ap. Smith. Diet. Greek and R and Myth.s. v.;
Schiller. Diss. <f< Discipl. Pythagora .- Terpstra, Di So- dalitiiPythagor. Origin* (Utrecht, 1824) ; \Vendt(JDi Re- bus Princ. sec. Pyihagoram (Lips. 1s-'7 i; Ritti r, Gesch. der pythag. Philosophit (Hamburg, 1826); Kris.be. De Societatis a Pythag. condita Scq • ttingen,
1830); Beckmann, / >■ Pythagoreor. Peliquiii 1844); also Qucestiones Pythagorica I Braunsbi rg, 1852 1858); Langel, Pythagore, sa Doctrim et son Histoire, in the /.'"•». des Deux Mondes I Pari-. 1864 ; Z. Her. /'//- thagoras und dii Pythagorassagi (Leips. 1865 ; Bal er, Pythagoras dei' Weisi von Samos (Nordhausen, 1865); Rathgeber, Grossgriechenland und Pythagoras (Gotha, 1866); thai-net. Pythagon (Paris, 1873); Mem,,. Quelques Mots sur l< PhUosoph Pythagon (Douai, 1876). (G. I. II.
Python occurs in the margin of Acts \\i. 16, u spirit of Python, where the text of the A. V. reads «
PYTHONISM
831
QUADRIVIUM
spirit of (Urination. The word Python (JlvSraJv in Greek mythology) is the name of a serpent or dragon slain by Apollo, "then transferred to Apollo himself; in later times used for diviners, soothsayers, held to be inspired of the Pythian Apollo (Plutarch, Be Defect. ; Orac. c. q.). The Pythones, like the oboth, " familiar spirits," among the idolatrous Hebrews (Lev. xix, 31 ; 1 Sam. xxviii, 3, 7, 8, 9), were called cvntritoquists because the god or spirit was supposed to be in them, and to speak from their bellies without any motion of the lips. See Necromancy.
Pythonism (from Pytlionissa, a prophetess in- spired by the Pythian god in Delphi. Apollo, who killed the serpent Python in the country called Pytho, near Mount Parnassus) is the ecstatic striving after super- natural enlightenment, in order to be able to foresee the future: it is oracular mania. This degeneracy of the natural instinct of curiosity is well described by an anonymous author in the writing Une Pythonissi ( 'mit: mporaine (Paris, 1835, 8vo). This book relates the adventures of a young lady of noble extraction, who is inveigled by the arts of a modern Pythoness, and, by her superstitious regard for the insane oracles of her teacher, gets from aberration to aberration, and falls at last into all kinds of turpitudes — into crime, vice, and misery. Pythonism is also called Sibyllinism.
Pyx (ttv^oc, the box-tree; hence a box, properly 6oa:wood), the sacred vessel used in the Roman Catholic Church to contain the consecrated eucharistic elements, which are preserved after consecration, whether for the communion of the sick or for the adoration of the faith-
ful in the churches. Already in the 4th century the host was kept in a special vessel, but this vessel was not called by its present name until the Councils of Tours and York in 1179. lis use was enjoined by pope Inno- cent HI, in 1215, and by Odo of Rouen, in 1206. to be over or near an altar. The form of the Pyx lias varied very much at differ- ent times. Anciently it was sometimes of the form of a dove, which was hung suspended over the altar. More commonly, however, it was, as its name implies, a simple box. Up to the 13th century the material was ivory, but subsequently, when it became rare, it was generally made of the precious metals, or at least of metal plated with gold or silver. At present, the pyx is commonly cup-shaped, with a close-fitting cover of the same material. The interior is ordered to be of gold, or at least plated with gold. Like all other sacred utensils connected with the administration of the Eucha- rist, it must be blessed by a bishop, or priest delegated by a bishop. See Walcott, Sacred A rchceol. s. v. ; Siegel, Christliche Alterthumer (see Index in vol. iv); Barnum, Romanism, p. 476; Elliott, Romanism ; Chambers's En- cyclop, s. v. See also CiBoiuujr.
Pyx, Ashmoleau Museum, Oxford.
Q.
Quadragesima (fortieth day) is a name some- times applied to the Lenten season, or more properly to the first Sunday of Lent (q. v.). It is so called by anal- ogy with the three Sundays which precede Lent, and which are called respectively Sept uagesima, seventieth ; Sexagesima, sixtieth ; and Quinquagesima, fiftieth. The whole period of Quadragesima is in the Roman Catholic Church accounted as tenvpux clausum.