[839]. Tim. 39 a 5-b 2, especially the words τὰ τάχιστα περιιόντα ὑπὸ τῶν βραδυτέρων ἐφαίνετο καταλαμβάνοντα καταλαμβάνεσθαι (“they appear to be overtaken, though they overtake”).
[840]. Plato, Laws, 822 a 4 sqq. The Athenian says of the theory that he had not heard of it in his youth nor long before (821 e 3). If so, it can hardly have been taught by Philolaos, though it may have been by Archytas.
[841]. Cf. especially Met. Α, 6. 787 b 10 (R. P. 65 d). It is not quite the same thing when he says, as in Α, 5. 985 b 23 sqq. (R. P. ib.), that they perceived many likenesses in things to numbers. That refers to the numerical analogies of Justice, Opportunity, etc.
[842]. Aristoxenos ap. Stob. i. pr. 6 (p. 20), Πυθαγόρας ... πάντα τὰ πράγματα ἀπεικάζων τοῖς ἀριθμοῖς.
[843]. Stob. Ecl. i. p. 125, 19 (R. P. 65 d).
[844]. Iambl. in Nicom. p. 10, 20 (R. P. 56 c).
[845]. Plato, Phd. 73 a sqq.
[846]. Ibid. 74 a sqq.
[847]. Cf. especially the words ὃ θρυλοῦμεν ἀεί (76 d 8). The phrases αὐτὸ ὃ ἔστιν, αὐτὸ καθ’ αὑτό, and the like are assumed to be familiar. “We” define reality by means of question and answer, in the course of which “we” give an account of its being (ἧς λόγον δίδομεν τοῦ εἶναι, 78 d 1, where λόγον ... τοῦ εἶναι is equivalent to λόγον τῆς οὐσίας). When we have done this, “we” set the seal or stamp of αὐτὸ ὃ ἔστιν upon it (75 d 2). Technical terminology implies a school. As Diels puts it (Elementum, p. 20), it is in a school that “the simile concentrates into a metaphor, and the metaphor condenses into a term.”
[848]. Xen. Mem. i. 2, 48.