Pentad (Greek philosophy)
- Pentad (Greek philosophy)
The pentad was a Pythagorean term for the number five. A pentagram, symbol of the pentad, was used by the as a secret sign to recognize each other.[cite book |author=Ghyka, Matila C. |title=The geometry of art and life |publisher=Dover Publications |location=New York |year=1977 |pages=p.113 |isbn=0-486-23542-4 |oclc= |doi=]
In a passage from Lucian, he refers to the pentagram as the secret sign of brotherhood between the Pythagoreans.] It represents the number five, life, power and invulnerability. [Hemenway, p. 56.] Nicomachus explored the mathematical characteristics of the pentad as related to the Pythagorean saying "Justice is five". [O'Meara, p. 21. "Thus the Pythagorean saying that 'Justice is five' entailed for Nicomachus a long exploration of the mathematical characteristics of the pentad in which the basis of the identification would emerge."] The Nicomachean extracts reads:
"The pentad is change of quality, because it changes that which is triply extended or which has length, breadth and depth into the sameness of a sphere"[cite book |author=Taylor, Thomas Mayne Cunninghame |title=Theoretic Arithmetic of the Pythagoreans |publisher=Kessinger Publishing |location= |year= |pages=p.188 |isbn=0-7661-2832-6 |oclc= |doi=] ]
ee also
Pythagoreans symbols
*Monad (Greek philosophy)
*Dyad (Greek philosophy)
*Triad (Greek philosophy)
*Tetrad (Greek philosophy)
*Decad (Greek philosophy)
Related
*Iamblichus of Chalcis
*Pentagram
*Vesica pisces
References
ources
*Hemenway, Priya. "Divine Proportion: Phi In Art, Nature, and Science". Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2005. ISBN 1-4027-3522-7
*O'Meara, Dominic J. "Pythagoras Revived: Mathematics and Philosophy in Late Antiquity". Clarendon Press, 1990. ISBN 0-198-23913-0
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