[4]
Callimachus once said about Pythagoras that of the problems of geometry some he
discovered and certain others he was the first to introduce from Egypt to the Greeks, in the passage where he writes:“
This Phrygian Euphorbus1 first for men
Found out, who taught about triangle shapes
And scalenes, aye and a circle in seven lengths,2
And taught full abstinence from tasting flesh
Of living things; but all would not to this
Give heed.
”Call. Iambi 124ff.
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1 A name given to Pythagoras because he claimed to be reincarnation of Euphorbus (cp. the preceding paragraph).
2 T. Heath (A History of Greek Mathematics, 1, p. 142) thinks these words "unintelligible . . . unless the 'seven-lengthed circle' can be taken as meaning the 'lengths of seven circles' (in the sense of the seven independent orbits of the sun, moon and planets) or the circle (the zodiac) comprehending them all." Mair discusses the meaning of the passage at considerable length; see also further in Heath and Hunt.
Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.
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