KEEPING UP WITH THE TIMES. COSMOGONY AND SEMPITERNALISM IN THE PYTHAGOREAN TRADITION

This contribution aims to investigate the dynamics behind the fluidity of the doxog-raphical accounts concerning Pythagorean cosmogony, and their engagement with the Pythagorean pseudepigrapha. The analysis will proceed through a close reading of the δόξαι about the generation of the universe attributed by the Placita to Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans, which oscillate between the description of a cosmogonic process and an endorsement of sempiternal-ism. Rather than outright fabrications, these accounts appear to conceal an effort to respond to philosophical questions that were not operative in the original setting. This material therefore differs from post-Hellenistic apocrypha, and its analysis allows us to isolate a third strand of tradition, situated alongside the more reliable testimonies drawing on Philolaus and those attributing Platonic doctrines to Pythagoras.