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Pythagoras of Samos Pythagoras | |
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| Born | 570 BCE Samos, Greece |
| Died | 495 BCE Metapontum, Italy |
Pythagoras was born into a wealthy noble family around 500 BC in Samos, Greece. He was known as a slave-owning aristocrat, mystic, mathematician, and philosopher. Pythagoras's mysticism is exemplified in his founding of his school, which was a religious cult with unusual beliefs such as a ban on eating beans. After his death in Metapontum, his cult split into two camps: one adhering to the religious and mystical theories of Pythagoras, and the other concentrating on his mathematical and scientific theories.[1]
Although everyone learns Pythagoras's theorem at school, the theorem was known to the Babylonians and Egyptians a thousand years before he was born, which is not surprising since Pythagoras spent much of his youth in Babylon. Pythagoras did not write anything himself but recommended that his students document his teachings.[1]
Thales of Miletus was a mentor to the young Pythagoras and recommended that he visit Egypt to expand his knowledge.[1]
Pythagoras was known for traveling around the world. Porphyry and Iamblichus wrote about how Pythagoras spent years upon years among Egyptian priests, where he learned practical geometry and was inspired by their religious secrets, rituals, and the concept of a group of elite priests. Pythagoras also traveled to Babylon, where he studied with the "Magi," a group of Chaldean priests, astronomers, and mathematicians. There, he likely learned advanced arithmetic, astronomy, and the mathematical properties of a right-angled triangle.[1]
Philosophy[edit | edit source]
Pythagoras was an idealistic philosopher who preached reincarnation and the transmigration of souls. Pythagoras's mysticism, which emphasised numbers and mathematics, is responsible for the modern numerological cult popularised by Nostradamus.[1]
According to Pythagoras, reality is based on mathematical numbers, an idea developed from his observations in music. Musical intervals such as the octave, fifth, and fourth could be explained by simple numerical ratios. Since Pythagoras saw reality as consisting of numerical ratios, he began to see numerical patterns such as the decad tetraktys.[1]
Both the triangle and the number ten became objects of worship in his cult, as 10 was the perfect number and integers were believed to represent fundamental ideas about the world. Furthermore, the cult began to believe that there were five heavenly bodies: five planets, the sun, and the moon.[1]
Pythagoras believed that the soul was immortal and went through a continuous cycle of reincarnation; when a person died, their soul took on a new body, which could be that of a human or an animal. Because of this, the Pythagoreans were vegetarians and believed that all living organisms were connected through a universal soul.[1]
Pythagoras and his followers lived a communal and ascetic life, in which they lived together, shared their possessions, and took a vow of silence, following maxims such as 'do not stir the fire with a sword' and 'abstain from eating beans' in order to keep the soul pure for the afterlife.[1]