other python ideas

[Alex Martelli]

"Steve Holden" <sholden at holdenweb.com> wrote in message
news:QIlA6.122455$5H6.4781223 at e420r-atl2.usenetserver.com...
> "Alex Martelli" <aleaxit at yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:9asj350g42 at news1.newsguy.com...
> > Us pythmen sure seem to come to simplicity by tortuous ways...
> >
> Erm, shouldn't that be "pythpeople" or "pythpersons", or in your case
> "pythbots"?

Yeah, but that would take away the key pun -- "pythmen" (roughly
"fundament", "essence", "basis" -- with far-away Hindo-European
common roots with Latin "fundus" and English "bottom") being a
Greek word, of course, and one deeply loved by mystics enamoured
of numerology (hypotheses connecting this word to the root
"pyth-", "snake", are, I believe, mere folk etymology [I _would_
appreciate any non-loony reference to the contrary!]; and the
name of Pythagoras, well-known early numerologist, likely just
one of those beautiful but meaningless coincidences which keep
haunting the seeker for simplicity... I don't _think_ it's connected
in any way to 'pythmen', nor to "town-square/meeting-and-
discussion-place for Snakes" as the pyth-/agora juxtaposition
might lead naive seekers to believe...!-).

Oh well, it _was_ a strained pun, as 'pythmen' is singular, of
course -- could there be possibly more than one 'essence'? not
in the (pantheistic, holistic) conception of 'fundament' that
shows in the words that Apuleius claimed Orpheus sang...:

        Zeus pythmen gaies te kai ouranou asteroentos.


Alex