Pythagoras

Little of what is known about Pythagoras comes from contemporary accounts, and the first fragmentary accounts of his life came in the fourth century bce, about 150 years after his death. Pythagoras was born in Samos and likely went to bce, apparently to escape bce for Metapontum (now Metaponto, Italy) where he died.

Born: c. 570 BC in on the island of Samos Died: c. 495 BC (at about age 75) in Metapontum Nationality: Greek Famous For: Pythagorean Theorem Pythagoras was a Greek The Pythagorean Theorem Pythagoras believed the earth was round and that the sun, moon, and other planets had their own movements. His beliefs eventually led to the Copernican theory of the universe. The principles of the Pythagorean Theorem had already been known before they were formulated by Pythagoras. The Egyptians used a form of the Pythagorean Theorem to lay out their fields and the Greeks borrowed it from the Egyptians. The theorem says that in a right triangle, the square of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares of the other two sides. A right triangle is a triangle where one angle equals 90 degrees and the hypotenuse is the side opposite the right angle. If you know the values of two sides of a right triangle, you can easily calculate the missing side. The Pythagorean Theorem has many proofs. One of the most famous was that of Pythagoras’ Life Not too much is known about Pythagoras’ early life. Some scholars believe he was born on the island of Samos and that his father was either a merchant of some kind or a lapidist. His mother’s name might have been Pythais. An oracle told her she would give birth to a well-favored son. It is possible that Pythagoras had a variety of teachers as a boy and a young man. Some of these teachers were Greek and some might have been Egyptian or from the East. It is ...

Pythagoreanism, bce. General features of Pythagoreanism The character of the original Pythagoreanism is controversial, and the conglomeration of By laying stress on certain inner experiences and In contrast with such Ionian Major concerns and teachings The problem of describing Pythagoreanism is complicated by the fact that the surviving picture is far from complete, being based chiefly on a small number of fragments from the time before c. 428– c. 348 bce) and on various discussions in authors who wrote much later—most of whom were either see below akousmata (Greek: literally, “something heard”) or symbola (“symbols”). His pupils handed these on, formed them partly into Hieroi Logoi (“Sacred Discourses”), of which different versions were current from the 4th century on, and interpreted them according to their Religion and The belief in the

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica Facts Born c.570 BCE • Died c.490 BCE • Subjects Of Study Did You Know? • Almost all of the sources on Pythagoras' life and teachings date from long after his death, making the truth about him hard to discover. • Pythagoras was a philosopher before Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato. • Pythagoras's teachings may have discussed reincarnation - the transition of a soul from one body to another - long before Plato wrote about it. Photos

Quick Info Born about 570 BC Died about 490 BC Summary Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher who made important developments in mathematics, astronomy, and the theory of music. The theorem now known as Pythagoras's theorem was known to the Babylonians 1000 years earlier but he may have been the first to prove it. Biography Pythagoras of Samos is often described as the first pure mathematician. He is an extremely important figure in the development of mathematics yet we know relatively little about his mathematical achievements. Unlike many later Greek mathematicians, where at least we have some of the books which they wrote, we have nothing of Pythagoras's writings. The society which he led, half religious and half scientific, followed a code of secrecy which certainly means that today Pythagoras is a mysterious figure. We do have details of Pythagoras's life from early biographies which use important original sources yet are written by authors who attribute divine powers to him, and whose aim was to present him as a god-like figure. What we present below is an attempt to collect together the most reliable sources to reconstruct an account of Pythagoras's life. There is fairly good agreement on the main events of his life but most of the dates are disputed with different scholars giving dates which differ by 20 years. Some historians treat all this information as merely legends but, even if the reader treats it in this way, being such an early record it is of historical impor...

The earliest known systematic cult based on the rule of numbers was that of the bce. Little is known of his life, and in fact he may be a composite figure to whom the discoveries of many different people have been attributed by his followers. It is not even known whether the The Pythagoreans invested specific numbers with mystical properties. The Pythagoreans recognized the existence of nine heavenly bodies: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the so-called Central Fire. So important was the number 10 in their view of cosmology that they believed there was a tenth body, Counter-Earth, perpetually hidden from us by the Sun. Some Pythagorean see figure). This terminology remains in use to the present day. The Pythagoreans were especially fascinated by the presence of numbers in the natural world. Perhaps their most spectacular discovery was that musical Cultural associations of some numbers The enormous range of symbolic roles that numbers have played in various Not surprisingly, the number 1 is generally treated as a 2 The number 2 symbolizes many of the basic dualities: me/you, male/female, yes/no, alive/dead, left/right, De occulta philosophia (1533; “On the Philosophy of the Occult”), 2 is the symbol for man, sex, and evil. One reason that some have associated 2 with evil is that the biblical book of Some religions are dualistic, with two gods in place of the one God of monotheism. Examples include duplicity and two-faced. 3 The number 3 is a ver...

A scene from Raphael’s School of Athens shows Pythagoras as a bearded man, thinning on top, and writing with a quill. He is wearing a sleeved tunic spread out over his legs as he bows his head to write, balancing a book on his left thigh. Before him, a child with long hair presents him with a writing slate. There is another figure of a woman with long hair behind the child, wearing a white shroud. The Middle Eastern philosopher Averroes peers over his left shoulder while another bearded figure, presumably Anaxagoras, peers over his right shoulder and writes notes on a small pad. The pre-Socratic Greek logician Pythagoras is one of the most famous people in the world, yet he didn’t write any of his theories down, and what we know of him today is from other contemporary or later sources such as the painting described above. Initially from Samos, Pythagoras established a school at Kroton, in southern Italy, which taught both religion and logical thinking. Here is a list of the top 11 contributions of Pythagoras: Conclusion 1. Metempsychosis Even though the details of Pythagoras’ lessons remain unknown, it is possible to get a general idea from other sources such as One of Pythagoras’ fundamental principles seems to have been metempsychosis, which is the belief that all spirits are godlike and that after death a spirit moves into another body. He is believed to have been reincarnated into the scholar Hermotimus, who beheld the shield of Euphorbus in the sanctuary of Apollo. Hi...

Quick Info Born about 570 BC Died about 490 BC Summary Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher who made important developments in mathematics, astronomy, and the theory of music. The theorem now known as Pythagoras's theorem was known to the Babylonians 1000 years earlier but he may have been the first to prove it. Biography Pythagoras of Samos is often described as the first pure mathematician. He is an extremely important figure in the development of mathematics yet we know relatively little about his mathematical achievements. Unlike many later Greek mathematicians, where at least we have some of the books which they wrote, we have nothing of Pythagoras's writings. The society which he led, half religious and half scientific, followed a code of secrecy which certainly means that today Pythagoras is a mysterious figure. We do have details of Pythagoras's life from early biographies which use important original sources yet are written by authors who attribute divine powers to him, and whose aim was to present him as a god-like figure. What we present below is an attempt to collect together the most reliable sources to reconstruct an account of Pythagoras's life. There is fairly good agreement on the main events of his life but most of the dates are disputed with different scholars giving dates which differ by 20 years. Some historians treat all this information as merely legends but, even if the reader treats it in this way, being such an early record it is of historical impor...

Pythagoreanism, bce. General features of Pythagoreanism The character of the original Pythagoreanism is controversial, and the conglomeration of By laying stress on certain inner experiences and In contrast with such Ionian Major concerns and teachings The problem of describing Pythagoreanism is complicated by the fact that the surviving picture is far from complete, being based chiefly on a small number of fragments from the time before c. 428– c. 348 bce) and on various discussions in authors who wrote much later—most of whom were either see below akousmata (Greek: literally, “something heard”) or symbola (“symbols”). His pupils handed these on, formed them partly into Hieroi Logoi (“Sacred Discourses”), of which different versions were current from the 4th century on, and interpreted them according to their Religion and The belief in the

A scene from Raphael’s School of Athens shows Pythagoras as a bearded man, thinning on top, and writing with a quill. He is wearing a sleeved tunic spread out over his legs as he bows his head to write, balancing a book on his left thigh. Before him, a child with long hair presents him with a writing slate. There is another figure of a woman with long hair behind the child, wearing a white shroud. The Middle Eastern philosopher Averroes peers over his left shoulder while another bearded figure, presumably Anaxagoras, peers over his right shoulder and writes notes on a small pad. The pre-Socratic Greek logician Pythagoras is one of the most famous people in the world, yet he didn’t write any of his theories down, and what we know of him today is from other contemporary or later sources such as the painting described above. Initially from Samos, Pythagoras established a school at Kroton, in southern Italy, which taught both religion and logical thinking. Here is a list of the top 11 contributions of Pythagoras: Conclusion 1. Metempsychosis Even though the details of Pythagoras’ lessons remain unknown, it is possible to get a general idea from other sources such as One of Pythagoras’ fundamental principles seems to have been metempsychosis, which is the belief that all spirits are godlike and that after death a spirit moves into another body. He is believed to have been reincarnated into the scholar Hermotimus, who beheld the shield of Euphorbus in the sanctuary of Apollo. Hi...