Editing Eternal return (section)

===Pythagoreanism===
There are hints in ancient writings that the theory of eternal return may have originated with [[Pythagoras]] ({{Circa|570|495 BC}}). According to [[Porphyry (philosopher)|Porphyry]], it was one of the teachings of Pythagoras that "after certain specified periods, the same events occur again" and that "nothing was entirely new".<ref>{{cite web |translator=Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie |date=1920 |url=https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/porphyry_life_of_pythagoras_02_text.htm |title=Porphyry, Life of Pythagoras (§19)}} Hosted at the Tertullian Project.</ref> [[Eudemus of Rhodes]] also references this Pythagorean doctrine in his commentary on [[Aristotle]]'s ''[[Physics (Aristotle)|Physics]]''. In a fragment preserved by [[Simplicius of Cilicia|Simplicius]], Eudemus writes:<ref>{{cite book |translator=J. O. Urmson |date=1992 |title=Simplicius: On Aristotle's Physics 4.1–5, 10–14|url=https://archive.org/details/onaristotlesphys0000simp/page/142/mode/2up?view=theater |page=142 |url-access=registration |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=0-8014-2817-3}}</ref>

{{blockquote|One might raise the problem whether the same time recurs, as some say, or not. "The same" has many senses: the same in form seems to occur as do spring and winter and the other seasons and periods; similarly the same changes occur in form, for the sun performs its solstices and equinoxes and its other journeys. But if someone were to believe the Pythagoreans that [[wikt:numerical|numerically]] the same things recur, then I also will romance, holding my staff, while you sit there, and everything else will be the same, and it is plausible to say that the time will be the same.}}