Περὶ τοῦ Ε τοῦ ἐν Δελφοῖς

Sections

intro – intro intro – intro intro – intro intro – intro 1 – 1 1 – 1 1 – 1 2 – 2 3 – 3 4 – 4 5 – 5 6 – 6 6 – 6 6 – 6 7 – 7 8 – 8 8 – 8 9 – 9 9 – 9 10 – 10 11 – 11 12 – 13 13 – 13 13 – 14 15 – 15 15 – 16 17 – 17 18 – 18 18 – 18 18 – 18 19 – 19 20 – 20 20 – 20 20 – 20 21 – 21 21 – 21

İngilizce İngilizce Yunanca

7 When Theon ceased, Eustrophus the Athenian, I think it was, said to us in answer, Do you see how zealously Theon defends logic, all but arraying himself in the lion’s skin? Under such conditions, we who repose in the Theory of Numbers all affairs together, natures and principles of things divine and human alike, and make this theory far above all else our guide and authority in all that is beautiful and valuable, should not be likely to hold our peace, but to offer to the god the first-fruits of our beloved mathematics, believing, as we do, that, taken by itself, E is not unlike the other letters either in power or in form or as a spoken word, but that it has come to be held in honour as the symbol of a great and sovereign number, the pempad, from which the wise gave the name pempazein to counting which is done by fives. That is, by counting on the fingers: Cf. 374 a, supra, and 429 d, infra.

7 These words Eustrophus addressed to us not in jest, but for the reason that at this time I was devoting myself to mathematics with the greatest enthusiasm, although I was destined soon to pay all honour to the maxim Avoid extremes, when I had once become a member of the Academy. Cf. 431 a, infra.