The History of the Pythagorean Silence

Pythagoreans are thought of in a way which we might recognize as pretty much having all the key elements of later secret initiatory societies. They have secret doctrines hidden within riddling myths and teachings, practice a strict code of silence about their teachings. It seems to have had something to do with cosmology, and with ideas about reincarnation, and perhaps an immortal soul. The hermetic order of the Golden Dawn was constructed in the 19th century based on ancient ideas about the Pythagoreans.