acousmata

This way of life involved moral and religious teachings that were embodied in a series of brief sayings known as acousmata, which included ritual taboos and dietary restrictions such as the famous prohibition on eating beans (Burkert 1972a, 166-92).

Philolaus Huffman, Carl 2008

Thus one of the acousmata asserts that number is the wisest thing

Philolaus Huffman, Carl 2008

It is also true that number plays a significant symbolic role in the acousmata that go back to the time of Pythagoras.

Philolaus Huffman, Carl 2008

Our evidence for the oath is late, but the acousmata refer to the tetraktys as “the harmony in which the Sirens sang” (Iamblichus, On the Pythagorean Life 82), which may indicate an awareness of the role of the first four numbers in the whole-number ratios which determine the musical concords.

Philolaus Huffman, Carl 2008

Riedweg notes that three of the seats of the psychic faculties (brain, heart and genitals) in animals are forbidden to be eaten in the acousmata, so that it may be that a connection can be seen here between scientific and religious strands in Pythagoreanism (2005,

Philolaus Huffman, Carl 2008