Editing Pythagoras (section)

=== On vegetarianism ===
[[File:Pythagoras advocating vegetarianism (1618-20); Peter Paul Rubens.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|alt=Painting showing Pythagoras on the far left quizzically stroking his beard as he gazes upon a massive pile of fruits and vegetables. Two followers stand behind him, fully clothed. A man with a greying beard sits at the base of a tree gesturing to the pile of produce. Next to him, a fleshy, nude woman with blonde hair plucks fruits from it. Slightly behind her, two other women, one partially clothed and the other nude but obscured by the tree branch, are also plucking fruits. At the far right end of the painting, two nude, faun-like men with beards and pointed ears hurl more fruits upon the pile.|''Pythagoras Advocating Vegetarianism'' (1618–1630) by [[Peter Paul Rubens]] was inspired by Pythagoras's speech in Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''.{{sfnp|Borlik|2011|page=192}} The painting portrays the Pythagoreans with corpulent bodies, indicating a belief that vegetarianism was healthful and nutritious.{{sfnp|Borlik|2011|page=192}}]]

A fictionalized portrayal of Pythagoras appears in Book XV of [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Metamorphoses]]'',{{sfnp|Borlik|2011|page=189}} in which he delivers a speech imploring his followers to adhere to a strictly vegetarian diet.{{sfnp|Borlik|2011|pages=189–190}} It was through [[Arthur Golding]]'s 1567 English translation of Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'' that Pythagoras was best known to English-speakers throughout the early modern period.{{sfnp|Borlik|2011|pages=189–190}} [[John Donne]]'s ''Progress of the Soul'' discusses the implications of the doctrines expounded in the speech,{{sfnp|Borlik|2011|page=190}} and [[Michel de Montaigne]] quoted the speech no less than three times in his treatise "Of Cruelty" to voice his moral objections against the mistreatment of animals.{{sfnp|Borlik|2011|page=190}} [[John Dryden]] included a translation of the scene with Pythagoras in his 1700 work ''[[Fables, Ancient and Modern]]'',{{sfnp|Borlik|2011|page=190}} and [[John Gay]]'s 1726 fable "Pythagoras and the Countryman" reiterates its major themes, linking carnivorism with tyranny.{{sfnp|Borlik|2011|page=190}} [[Lord Chesterfield]] records that his conversion to vegetarianism had been motivated by reading Pythagoras's speech in Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''.{{sfnp|Borlik|2011|page=190}} Until the word ''vegetarianism'' was coined in the 1840s, vegetarians were referred to in English as "Pythagoreans".{{sfnp|Borlik|2011|page=190}}