Iamblichus' Protrepticus was the second volume of his comprehensive
work On Pythagoreanism, in which Iamblichus lays out the basic elements
of his Pythagoreanizing philosophical program. According to Dominic O'Meara, the
Protrepticus contains a progressive protreptic "accomplished ... in three
stages: a protreptic to philosophy in general, not restricted to a specific
system (chapters 2-3); an intermediate protreptic mixing in the general with the
Pythagorean (chapters 4-20); a final protreptic to the technical demonstrations
of the Pythagoreans (chapter 21)." Two very different types of sayings are used
in the first and third stages to illustrate this protreptic: in chapter 3
Iamblichus discusses the Pythagorean Golden Verses and in chapter 21 the
Pythagorean akousmata. My paper will examine the paraenetic and
protreptic uses of theses sayings in the Protrepticus and elsewhere.
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