Ancient Greek Philosophy Series Continued : Musical Theory of Pythagoras

Pythagoras while playing the Lyre one day , Formulated his musical theory as Historians say ! Just as distinct notes were produced by the varying lengths of the Lyre strings , So did the planets , revolving in there divinely fixed frequency ratios ; And combined to form God’s philharmonic orchestra , - His grand cosmic show ! Thus in his Theory of Music the mystic Pythagoras , Related it all to mathematical ratio of numbers ! He tried to resolve through numbers the relation of all things , - As the underlying principle of all living beings ! Our modern day popular science of Numerology , Owes much to Pythagoras and his mystical number philosophy ! Since Numbers never lied and always told the truth , They were considered Humanity’s ultimate good ! The Problem Of Transformation And Change ! So far in the opening verses we have seen , The Ionian philosophers all delved in , - The substantial nature of all things ! While the Pythagoreans dealt with quantitative relations , - Of order , harmony , and number unifications , Blending their thoughts with mystical traditions ! The next philosophical issue with which the Greek’s dealt , - Was the problem of becoming , transformation , and change ! Heraclitus of Ephesus (540-480 BC) : Born in the Greek island of Ephesus in the Agean Sea , In an aristocrat family , he displayed contempt for democracy ! For Thales , if my readers recall , everything was made of ‘water’ ! Anaximenes thought ‘air’ was the primitive element ; While Pythagoras had reduced everything to his ‘exotic numbers’ ! For Heraclitus the primary world-stuff was ‘fire’ ! Fire with its heat , light and combustion , was an animate thing , - The very soul of all creation and living being ! The ever living fire was never at rest , And Pythagoras at times called it vapor or breath ! The soul was a mixture of fire and water , Where fire was noble and water ignoble ! A soul that had most fire was deemed to be the best , Since a dry soul was always the wisest ! All things were in a state of flux he had said ; For you cannot step into the same water twice , As water keeps flowing past your feet all the while ! All things change to merging with time’s flow , A process so gradual , one hardly perceives or come to know ! “Nothing ever is - everything is becoming” , Thus rose the philosophy of ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ ; That distinguished Heraclitus from Parmenides !