A Summary of Pythagorean Theology

Principal Sources

© 2002, John Opsopaus

This list of sources is complete to date, and will be extended as the Summary is revised.

All translations are my own unless stated otherwise. Naturally, they have been checked against previous translations.


  1. Athanassiadi, Polymnia. "A Contribution to Mithraic Theology: The Emperor Julian's Hymn to King Helios," Journal of Theological Studies, N.S., XXVIII, Pt. 2, October 1977, 360-71. Helios-Mithras as a Mediating God.
  2. Burkert, Walter. Lore and Science in Ancient Pythagoreanism, tr. Edwin L. Minar, Jr. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972.
  3. Butterworth, E. A. S. Some Traces of the Pre-Olympian World. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1966. Helen, the Tree, etc.
  4. Butterworth, E. A. S. The Tree at the Navel of the Earth. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1970. The Tree, Helen, etc.
  5. Dillon, John, The Middle Platonists: 80 B.C. to A.D. 220, rev. ed. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996.
  6. Gwyn Griffiths, J. Triads and Trinity. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1996. A wide-ranging study of triads and triunities in the ancient world.
  7. Johnston, Sarah Iles. Hekate Soteira: A Study of Hekate’s Role in the Chaldean Oracles and Related Literature. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990.
  8. Kerényi, Carl. The Gods of the Greeks. London: Thames & Hudson, 1979. General mythological reference.
  9. Kerényi, Carl. The Heroes of the Greeks. London: Thames & Hudson, 1959. General mythological reference.
  10. Kingsley, Peter. Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic: Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. A comprehensive, profound study of the roots of the Pythagorean Tradition.
  11. Kingsley, Peter. In the Dark Places of Wisdom. Inverness: Golden Sufi Center, 1999. Especially concerned with the role of Parmenides in the Pythagorean Tradition
  12. Lamberton, Robert. Homer the Theologian: Neoplatonist Allegorical Reading and the Growth of the Epic Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.
  13. Lewy, Hans. Chaldean Oracles and Theurgy: Mysticism, Magic and Platonism in the Late Roman Empire, new ed. by Michel Tardieu. Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1978.
  14. Majercik, Ruth. The Chaldean Oracles: Text, Translation, and Commentary. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1989.
  15. Mallory, J. P. In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology and Myth. London: Thames & Hudson, 1989.
  16. Opsopaus, John. "The Ancient Greek Esoteric Doctrine of the Elements." Circle Magazine, issues 68-71 (1998-9). Expanded version available at omphalos.org/BA.
  17. Opsopaus, John. Guide to the Pythagorean Tarot: An Interpretation Based on Pythagorean and Alchemical Principles. St. Paul: Llewellyn, 2001.
  18. Opsopaus, John. "Liber de Octo Mutationibus: The Book of Eight Changes: Universal Cycles and the Trigrams." 1995. Available at omphalos.org/BA.
  19. Opsopaus, John. "Orphica Holodemiurgia." 1998. Available at omphalos.org/BA. The annotations contain additional information on Aiôn, Time, the Celestial Spheres, etc.
  20. Opsopaus, John. "The Ritual of the Labyrinth: Ta Hiera Laburinthou." 1997. Available at omphalos.org/BA.
  21. Plato. Plato’s Cosmology: The Timaeus of Plato, translated with a running commentary, by F. M. Cornford. New York: Humanities Press, n.d., c.1937.
  22. Plutarch. "Isis and Osiris," in Moralia, vol. V, transl. F. C. Babbitt. Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1936.
  23. Proclus. The Elements of Theology, 2nd ed., rev. text, transl., & comm., E. R. Dodds. Oxford: Oxford University Press,1963.
  24. Proclus. The Theology of Plato, tr. Thomas Taylor. Vol. VIII of Thomas Taylor Series. Somerset: Prometheus Trust, 1995.
  25. Sallustius. Concerning the Gods and the Universe, ed. with proleg. & transl., A. D. Nock. Chicago: Ares Publishers, 1996; reprint of Cambridge, 1926, ed.
  26. Schibli, Hermann S. Pherekydes of Syros. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.
  27. Shaw, Gregory. Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995.
  28. Siorvanes, Lucas. Proclus: Neo-Platonic Philosophy and Science. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996.
  29. Watkins, Calvert (ed.). The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000. Modern etymology.
  30. West, M. L. Early Greek Philosophy and the Orient. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971. Zurvân, Zoroastrianism, etc.
  31. Woodhouse, C. M. Gemistos Plethon: The Last of the Hellenes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.

 



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