Taylor - Theoretic Arithmetic.pdf - Platonic Philosophy

ooddess, and this, as Proclus informs us On the Timaeus, be-
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cause the all-connecting chain of Fate is moved by this goddess,
from whom also its plastic energies proceed. Lastly, the heptad
was called, as we are informed by the anonymous writer,
Telesphoros and judgement, the former because the seventh
month is prolific, and the latter because a judgment is formed
of diseases on the seventh day.
CHAPTER X
On the ogdoad.
"The number eight," says the anonymous writer, "is the
first cube in energy, and is the only evenly-even number within
the decad." The power of this number also is so great, that,
according to the Grecian proverb, "All things are eight;"
which proverb according to the above mentioned author originated
from all things being comprehended in the eighth celestial
sphere.
According to the extracts from Nicomachus, the names given
to this number by the Pythagoreans are as follows: "Universal
harmony and Cadmeia, mother and Rhea, the producing cause
of females and Cybele, Cybebe and Dindymene, and the tutelar
goddess, love and friendship, Metis, conception, and Oreia,
Themis, law, immature, and of the Muses Euterpe."
With respect to the first of these epithets universal harmony,
Camerarius* informs us, (from the anonymous author above
quoted I have no doubt) that the Pythagoreans distinguished
musical ratios by this number, and explained the mundane system
according to those ratios as follows: The ratio of 9 to 8 is
sesquioctave. This forms a tone, and is attributed to the moon.
+ In Nicomach. Arithmet.