r all the divine bodies likewise are in continuous and unceasing motion-the moon, sun, stars and the whole heaven” (Guthrie 313). According to Pythagoreans plants as well as animals have life, but not all have soul. “Soul is a torn-off fragment of aither and the hot and the cold: it is not coterminous with life, and it is immortal because that from which it has been detached is immortal” (Guthrie 202). This gave Pythagoreans an aim in life which was to cultivate the soul and keep it pure in hope that one day they might be released from the cycle of transmigration into the great divine soul from which they had come. They believed that the soul was impure and weighted down with sins of the human body. In order to keep the soul healthy, Pythagoras and his followers stressed the symbolic character of the religious formulations. During rituals, Pythagoreans often practiced purification and revelation. Pythagoreans also tried to avoid contaminating the soul by avoiding bodily influences and practicing strict codes of conduct among the school.Many mystery cults such as Orphic and Eleusinian mysteries believed in transmigration and reincarnation of the soul. “To those who share in the Eleusinian worship a privileged fate is promised” (Rohde 218). According to Orphic doctrine: “The death of the body only frees it for a short while; for the soul must once more suffer imprisonment in a body. After leaving its old body, it flutters free in the wind, but a breath of air sends it into a new body again” (Rohde 342). Throughout this “Circle of Necessity”, the soul may endure the lives of many human and animal life forms alike. This is the reason that many mysteries practiced strict vegetarianism except when sacrificing a beast to the gods during purification rituals. “Thus, Nature, ever reverting to its own beginnings, draws men with it in its senseless revolution around itself...
