akousma

Ancient Greek [Term?]

akousma (plural akousmata)

1. (philosophy) A rule or precept, especially one of the list of rules laid down by Pythagoras.
   • 1999, AA Long (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy, Cambridge 1999, p. 74:

     One of the akousmata says that number is the wisest thing, and Pythagoreans may have sworn by Pythagoras as “the one who gave the tetraktys” […] , the first four numbers whose total is ten, which was the perfect number for early Pythagoreans.

   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 261:

     It seemed that each British mystical order claiming Pythagorean descent had its own ideas about those taboos and bits of free advice known as akousmata, and Madame Eskimoff's favorite happened to be number twenty-four as listed by Iamblichus—never look into a mirror when there's a lamp next to you.

• mousaka