Greek philosopher (c. 570 \u2013 c. 495 BC)<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Pythagoras of Samos<\/b>[<\/span>a]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/sup> (Ancient Greek<\/a>: <\/span>\u03a0\u03c5\u03b8\u03b1\u03b3\u03cc\u03c1\u03b1\u03c2<\/span>; c.<\/a>\u2009<\/span>570<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u2013 c.<\/span>\u2009<\/span>495<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>BC)[<\/span>b]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/sup> was an ancient Ionian<\/a> Greek philosopher<\/a>, polymath<\/a>, and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism<\/a>. His political and religious teachings were well known in Magna Graecia<\/a> and influenced the philosophies of Plato<\/a>, Aristotle<\/a>, and, through them, Western philosophy<\/a>. Modern scholars disagree regarding Pythagoras’s education and influences, but most agree that he travelled to Croton<\/a> in southern Italy around 530 BC, where he founded a school in which initiates were allegedly sworn to secrecy and lived a communal, ascetic<\/a> lifestyle.<\/p>\n In antiquity, Pythagoras was credited with mathematical<\/a> and scientific discoveries, such as the Pythagorean theorem<\/a>, Pythagorean tuning<\/a>, the five regular solids<\/a>, the theory of proportions<\/a>, the sphericity of the Earth<\/a>, the identity of the morning<\/a> and evening stars<\/a> as the planet Venus<\/a>, and the division of the globe into five climatic zones<\/a>. He was reputedly the first man to call himself a philosopher (“lover of wisdom”).[<\/span>c]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/sup> Historians debate whether Pythagoras made these discoveries and pronouncements, as some of the accomplishments credited to him likely originated earlier or were made by his colleagues or successors, such as Hippasus<\/a> and Philolaus<\/a>.<\/p>\n The teaching most securely identified with Pythagoras is the “transmigration of souls” or metempsychosis<\/a><\/i>, which holds that every soul<\/a> is immortal<\/a> and, upon death, enters into a new body<\/a>. He may have also devised the doctrine of musica universalis<\/a><\/i>, which holds that the planets<\/a> move according to mathematical<\/a> ratios and thus resonate to produce an inaudible symphony of music. Following Croton’s decisive victory over Sybaris<\/a> in around 510 BC, Pythagoras’s followers came into conflict with supporters of democracy<\/a>, and their meeting houses were burned. Pythagoras may have been killed during this persecution, or he may have escaped to Metapontum<\/a> and died there.<\/p>\n Pythagoras influenced Plato whose dialogues<\/a> (especially Timaeus<\/a><\/i>) exhibit Pythagorean ideas. A major revival of his teachings occurred in the first century BC among Middle Platonists<\/a>, coinciding with the rise of Neopythagoreanism<\/a>. Pythagoras continued to be regarded as a great philosopher throughout the Middle Ages<\/a> and Pythagoreanism had an influence on scientists such as Nicolaus Copernicus<\/a>, Johannes Kepler<\/a>, and Isaac Newton<\/a>. Pythagorean symbolism was also used throughout early modern European esotericism<\/a>, and his teachings as portrayed in Ovid<\/a>‘s Metamorphoses<\/a><\/i> would later influence the modern vegetarian movement.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n No authentic writings of Pythagoras have survived, and almost nothing is known for certain about his life. The earliest sources on Pythagoras’s life, from Xenophanes<\/a>, Heraclitus<\/a>, Empedocles<\/a>, Ion of Chios<\/a>, and Herodotus<\/a> are brief, ambiguous, and often satirical<\/a>. The major sources on Pythagoras’s life are three biographies from late antiquity written by Diogenes La\u00ebrtius<\/a>, Porphyry<\/a>, and Iamblichus<\/a>, all of which are filled primarily with myths and legends and which become longer and more fantastic in their descriptions of Pythagoras’s achievements the more removed they are from Pythagoras’s times. However, Porphyry and Iamblichus also used some material taken from earlier writings in the 4th century BC by Aristotle<\/a>‘s students Dicaearchus<\/a>, Aristoxenus<\/a>, and Heraclides Ponticus<\/a>, which, when it can be identified, is generally considered to be the most reliable.<\/p>\n There is not a single detail in the life of Pythagoras that stands uncontradicted. But it is possible, from a more or less critical selection of the data, to construct a plausible account.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Herodotus<\/a> and Isocrates<\/a> agree that Pythagoras was the son of Mnesarchus and that he was born on the Greek island of Samos<\/a> in the eastern Aegean<\/a>. Mnesarchus is said to have been a gem-engraver or a wealthy merchant,[<\/span>20]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/sup> but his ancestry is disputed and unclear.[<\/span>d]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/sup> Apollonius of Tyana<\/a> writes that Pythagoras’s mother was Pytha\u00efs, a woman who was said to be a descendant of Ancaeus<\/a>, the mythical founder of Samos.[<\/span>25]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/sup> Iamblichus<\/a> tells the story that the Pythia prophesied to her while she was pregnant with him that she would give birth to a man supremely beautiful, wise, and beneficial to humankind, and Iamblichus also held to the belief that his mother descended from Ancaeus. As to the date of his birth, Aristoxenus<\/a> stated that Pythagoras left Samos in the reign of Polycrates<\/a>, at the age of 40, which would give a date of birth around 570 BC. Pythagoras’s name led him to be associated with Pythian<\/a> Apollo<\/a> (P\u016bth\u00ed\u0101<\/i><\/span>); Aristippus of Cyrene<\/a> in the 4th century BC explained his name by saying, “He spoke [\u1f00\u03b3\u03bf\u03c1\u03b5\u03cd\u03c9<\/a><\/span><\/span>, agore\u00fa\u014d<\/i><\/span>] the truth no less than did the Pythian [\u03c0\u03c5\u03b8\u03b9\u03ba\u03cc\u03c2<\/a><\/span><\/span>, puthik\u00f3s<\/i><\/span>]”.<\/p>\n During Pythagoras’s formative years, Samos was a thriving cultural hub known for its feats of advanced architectural engineering, including the building of the Tunnel of Eupalinos<\/a>, and for its riotous festival culture. It was a major center of trade in the Aegean where traders brought goods from the Near East<\/a>. According to Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier, these traders almost certainly brought with them Near Eastern ideas and traditions. Pythagoras’s early life also coincided with the flowering of early Ionian natural philosophy<\/a>. He was a contemporary of the philosophers Anaximander<\/a> and Anaximenes<\/a> and of the historian Hecataeus<\/a>, all of whom lived in Miletus<\/a>, across the sea from Samos.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n Ancient sources also record Pythagoras having studied under a variety of native Greek thinkers. Diogenes La\u00ebrtius asserts that Pythagoras later visited Crete<\/a>, where he went to the Cave of Ida<\/a> with Epimenides<\/a>. Some identify Hermodamas of Samos as a possible tutor.[<\/span>35]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/sup> Hermodamas represented the indigenous Samian rhapsodic<\/a> tradition and his father Creophylos was said to have been the host of his rival poet Homer<\/a>. Others credit Bias of Priene<\/a>, Thales, or Anaximander<\/a> (a pupil of Thales). Other traditions claim the mythic bard Orpheus<\/a> as Pythagoras’s teacher, thus representing the Orphic Mysteries<\/a>. The Neoplatonists wrote of a “sacred discourse” Pythagoras had written on the gods in the Doric Greek<\/a> dialect, which they believed had been dictated to Pythagoras by the Orphic priest Aglaophamus upon his initiation to the orphic Mysteries at Leibethra<\/a>. Iamblichus credited Orpheus with having been the model for Pythagoras’s manner of speech, his spiritual attitude, and his manner of worship. Iamblichus describes Pythagoreanism as a synthesis of everything Pythagoras had learned from Orpheus, from the Egyptian priests, from the Eleusinian Mysteries<\/a>, and from other religious and philosophical traditions. Contradicting all these reports, the novelist Antonius Diogenes<\/a>, writing in the second century BC, reports that Pythagoras discovered all his doctrines himself by interpreting dreams<\/a>. Riedweg states that, although these stories are fanciful, Pythagoras’s teachings were definitely influenced by Orphism to a noteworthy extent.<\/p>\n Of the various Greek sages claimed to have taught Pythagoras, Pherecydes of Syros<\/a> is mentioned most often.[<\/span>40]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/sup> Similar miracle stories were told about both Pythagoras and Pherecydes, including one in which the hero predicts a shipwreck, one in which he predicts the conquest of Messina<\/a>, and one in which he drinks from a well and predicts an earthquake. Apollonius Paradoxographus<\/a>, a paradoxographer<\/a> who may have lived in the second century BC, identified Pythagoras’s thaumaturgic<\/a> ideas as a result of Pherecydes’s influence. Another story, which may be traced to the Neopythagorean philosopher Nicomachus<\/a>, tells that, when Pherecydes was old and dying on the island of Delos<\/a>, Pythagoras returned to care for him and pay his respects. Duris<\/a>, the historian and tyrant<\/a> of Samos, is reported to have patriotically boasted of an epitaph supposedly penned by Pherecydes which declared that Pythagoras’s wisdom exceeded his own. On the grounds of all these references connecting Pythagoras with Pherecydes, Riedweg concludes that there may well be some historical foundation to the tradition that Pherecydes was Pythagoras’s teacher. Pythagoras and Pherecydes also appear to have shared similar views on the soul and the teaching of metempsychosis.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n <\/p>\n Porphyry repeats an account from Antiphon<\/a>, who reported that, while he was still on Samos, Pythagoras founded a school known as the “semicircle”. Here, Samians debated matters of public concern. Supposedly, the school became so renowned that the brightest minds in all of Greece came to Samos to hear Pythagoras teach. Pythagoras himself dwelled in a secret cave, where he studied in private and occasionally held discourses with a few of his close friends. Christoph Riedweg, a German scholar of early Pythagoreanism, states that it is entirely possible Pythagoras may have taught on Samos, but cautions that Antiphon’s account, which makes reference to a specific building that was still in use during his own time, appears to be motivated by Samian patriotic interest.<\/p>\n Around 530 BC, when Pythagoras was about forty years old, he left Samos. His later admirers claimed that he left because he disagreed with the tyranny<\/a> of Polycrates<\/a> in Samos; Riedweg notes that this explanation closely aligns with Nicomachus’s emphasis on Pythagoras’s purported love of freedom, but that Pythagoras’s enemies portrayed him as having a proclivity towards tyranny. Other accounts claim that Pythagoras left Samos because he was so overburdened with public duties in Samos, because of the high estimation in which he was held by his fellow-citizens.[<\/span>45]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/sup> He arrived in the Greek colony of Croton (today’s Crotone<\/a>, in Calabria<\/a>) in what was then Magna Graecia<\/a>.[<\/span>47]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/sup> All sources agree that Pythagoras was charismatic and quickly acquired great political influence in his new environment. He served as an advisor to the elites in Croton and gave them frequent advice. Later biographers tell fantastical stories of the effects of his eloquent speeches in leading the people of Croton to abandon their luxurious and corrupt way of life and devote themselves to the purer system which he came to introduce.[<\/span>52]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/section>\n Suda<\/a> writes that Pythagoras had four children (Telauges, Mnesarchus, Myia and Arignote), and Diogenes Laertius records him as having had two brothers, Eunomus the elder and Tyrrhenus the second.[<\/span>54]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/sup>[<\/span>55]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/sup> The wrestler Milo of Croton<\/a> was said to have been a close associate of Pythagoras and was credited with having saved the philosopher’s life when a roof was about to collapse. This association may have been the result of confusion with a different man named Pythagoras, who was an athletics trainer.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n Pythagoras’s emphasis on dedication and asceticism are credited with aiding in Croton’s decisive victory over the neighboring colony of Sybaris<\/a> in 510 BC. After the victory, some prominent citizens of Croton proposed a democratic constitution<\/a>, which the Pythagoreans rejected. The supporters of democracy, headed by Cylon<\/a> and Ninon, the former of whom is said to have been irritated by his exclusion from Pythagoras’s brotherhood, roused the populace against them. Followers of Cylon and Ninon attacked the Pythagoreans during one of their meetings, either in the house of Milo or in some other meeting-place. Accounts of the attack are often contradictory and many probably confused it with the later anti-Pythagorean rebellions, such as the one in Metapontum in 454 BC. The building was apparently set on fire, and many of the assembled members perished; only the younger and more active members managed to escape.[<\/span>62]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n Sources disagree regarding whether Pythagoras was present when the attack occurred and, if he was, whether or not he managed to escape. In some accounts, Pythagoras was not at the meeting when the Pythagoreans were attacked because he was on Delos tending to the dying Pherecydes. According to another account from Dicaearchus, Pythagoras was at the meeting and managed to escape, leading a small group of followers to the nearby city of Locris<\/a>, where they pleaded for sanctuary, but were denied. They reached the city of Metapontum<\/a>, where they took shelter in the temple of the Muses<\/a> and died there of starvation after forty days without food. Another tale recorded by Porphyry claims that, as Pythagoras’s enemies were burning the house, his devoted students laid down on the ground to make a path for him to escape by walking over their bodies across the flames like a bridge. Pythagoras managed to escape, but was so despondent at the deaths of his beloved students that he committed suicide. A different legend reported by both Diogenes La\u00ebrtius and Iamblichus states that Pythagoras almost managed to escape, but that he came to a fava bean field and refused to run through it, since doing so would violate his teachings, so he stopped instead and was killed. This story seems to have originated from the writer Neanthes, who told it about later Pythagoreans, not about Pythagoras himself.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n Although the exact details of Pythagoras’s teachings are uncertain, it is possible to reconstruct a general outline of his main ideas. Aristotle writes at length about the teachings of the Pythagoreans, but without mentioning Pythagoras directly. One of Pythagoras’s main doctrines appears to have been metempsychosis<\/a><\/i>, the belief that all souls<\/a> are immortal and that, after death, a soul is transferred into a new body. This teaching is referenced by Xenophanes, Ion of Chios, and Herodotus.[<\/span>75]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/sup> The earliest source on Pythagoras’s metempsychosis is a satirical poem probably written after his death by the Greek philosopher Xenophanes of Colophon<\/a> (c.<\/span>\u2009<\/span>570<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u2013 c.<\/span>\u2009<\/span>478<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>BC), who had been one of his contemporaries, in which Xenophanes describes Pythagoras interceding on behalf of a dog<\/a> that is being beaten, professing to recognize in its cries the voice of a departed friend.[<\/span>e]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/sup> Nothing whatsoever, however, is known about the nature or mechanism by which Pythagoras believed metempsychosis to occur.<\/p>\n Empedocles<\/a> alludes in one of his poems that Pythagoras may have claimed to possess the ability to recall his former incarnations. Diogenes La\u00ebrtius reports an account from Heraclides Ponticus<\/a> that Pythagoras told people that he had lived four previous lives that he could remember in detail.[<\/span>82]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/sup> The first of these lives was as Aethalides<\/a> the son of Hermes<\/a>, who granted him the ability to remember all his past incarnations. Next, he was incarnated as Euphorbus<\/a>, a minor hero from the Trojan War<\/a> briefly mentioned in the Iliad<\/a><\/i>. He then became the philosopher Hermotimus<\/a>, who recognized the shield of Euphorbus in the temple of Apollo. His final incarnation was as Pyrrhus, a fisherman from Delos<\/a>. One of his past lives, as reported by Dicaearchus<\/a>, was as a beautiful courtesan.[<\/span>86]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/section>\n Another belief attributed to Pythagoras was that of the “harmony of the spheres<\/a>“, which maintained that the planets and stars move according to mathematical equations, which correspond to musical notes and thus produce an inaudible symphony. According to Porphyry, Pythagoras taught that the seven Muses<\/a> were actually the seven planets<\/a> singing together.<\/p>\n\n The so-called Pythagoreans applied themselves to mathematics, and were the first to develop this science; and through studying it they came to believe that its principles are the principles of everything.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Modern scholars typically ascribe these discoveries to the later Pythagorean philosopher Philolaus of Croton<\/a> (c.<\/span>\u2009<\/span>470<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u2013 c.<\/span>\u2009<\/span>385<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>BC), whose extant fragments are the earliest texts to describe the numerological and musical theories that were later ascribed to Pythagoras. In his landmark study Lore and Science in Ancient Pythagoreanism<\/i>, Walter Burkert argues that Pythagoras was a charismatic political and religious teacher, but that the number philosophy attributed to him was really an innovation by Philolaus. According to Burkert, Pythagoras never dealt with numbers at all, let alone made any noteworthy contribution to mathematics. Burkert argues that the only mathematics the Pythagoreans ever actually engaged in was simple, proofless<\/a> arithmetic<\/a>, but that these arithmetic discoveries did contribute significantly to the beginnings of mathematics. For the later Pythagoreans, Pythagoras was credited with devising the tetractys<\/a>, the triangular figure of four rows which add up to the “perfect” number, ten. The Pythagoreans regarded the tetractys as a symbol of utmost mystical importance. Iamblichus, in his Life of Pythagoras<\/i>, states that the tetractys was “so admirable, and so divinised by those who understood [it],” that Pythagoras’s students would swear oaths by it.<\/p>\n This shouldn’t be confused with a simplified version known today as “Pythagorean numerology<\/a>“, involving a variant of an isopsephic technique known \u2013 among other names \u2013 as pythmenes<\/i><\/span> ‘<\/span>roots<\/span>‘<\/span>[<\/span>100]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/sup> or ‘<\/span>base numbers<\/span>‘<\/span>,[<\/span>101]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/sup> by means of which the base values of letters in a word were mathematically reduced by addition or division, in order to obtain a single value from one to nine for the whole name or word.[<\/span>100]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\nLife<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
Early life<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Reputed travels<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
\nModern scholarship has shown that the culture of Archaic Greece<\/a> was heavily influenced by those of Levantine<\/a> and Mesopotamian<\/a> cultures, which appears to have been recognized by authors later in the Classical and Hellenistic periods, who attributed many of Pythagoras’s unusual and unconventional beliefs to travels to far off lands, where he learned from those people himself. The doctrine of metempsychosis<\/a>, or reincarnation of the soul after death, which Herodotus and Diogenes Laertius had attributed to the Egyptians, led to an elaborate tale where Pythagoras learned the Egyptian language<\/a> from the Pharaoh<\/a> Amasis II<\/a> himself, and then traveled to study with the Egyptian priests at Diospolis<\/a> (Thebes), where he was the only foreigner ever to be granted the privilege of taking part in their worship. Other ancient writers, however, claimed that Pythagoras had learned these teachings from the Magi<\/a> in Persia<\/a> or even from Zoroaster<\/a> himself. The Phoenicians<\/a> are also reputed to have taught Pythagoras arithmetic<\/a> and the Chaldeans<\/a> to have taught him astronomy. By the third century BC, Pythagoras was also reported to have studied under the Jews<\/a> as well. By the third century AD, Pythagoras was also reported by Philostratus<\/a> to have studied under sages or gymnosophists<\/a> in India<\/a> and, according to Iamblichus<\/a>, also with the Celts<\/a> and Iberians<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/section>\nAlleged Greek teachers<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
In Croton<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Family and friends<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Death<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Teachings<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
Metempsychosis<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Numerology<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
![\"Diagram](\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Tetractys.svg\")
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Pythagoreanism<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
Communal lifestyle<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
![\"Painting](\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Bronnikov_gimnpifagoreizev.jpg\")
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