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Pythagoras - Iamblichus's Life - Counting fishes
Identifier
014691
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Iamblichus – Life of Pythagoras [translated by Thomas Taylor]
At that time, when he was journeying from Sybaris to Crotona, he met near the shore with some fishermen, who were then drawing their nets heavily laden with fishes from the deep, and told them he knew the exact number of the fish they had caught.
But the fishermen promising they would perform whatever he should order them to do, if the event corresponded with his prediction, he ordered them, after they had accurately numbered the fish, to return them alive to the sea: and what is yet more wonderful, not one of the fish died while he stood on the shore, though they had been detained from the water a considerable time.
Having therefore paid the fishermen the price of their fish, he departed for Crotona.