Among his teachers were Pherecydes of Syros and Zaratas (Zoroaster), by whom he is said to have been purified and instructed in cosmology. He journeyed in Egypt, where he was told the secret lore of the priests he also had contacts with the Phoenicians, the Chaldeans, and the Magi in Babylonia, and was initiated into their mysteries. The ancient sources connect him with the Orient and its wisdom. His followers, who avoided pronouncing his name, considered him a god, or at least a semidivine person ("among rational beings one is god, another one man, the third like Pythagoras"), while some of his detractors depicted him as "chief of swindlers" and a charlatan. Pythagoras's image as wonderworker is variously attested. Other sources have him dying, probably at about the age of eighty, in Metapontum, where he had retired having predicted the events. There followed a period of internal struggle anti-Pythagorean movements culminated in a burning of the houses of some Pythagoreans, where Pythagoras himself perished. During this period Croton extended its power over many cities of southern Italy, defeating the rival Sibaris in 510. In Croton he founded an association, some of whose members came to exercise a leading role in the government of the city. By his teaching, which Pythagoras gave to citizens through public speeches, he is said to have converted the city from luxury to temperance. He lived there until 532 or 531, when he migrated, perhaps to escape the tyranny of Policrates, to the Achaean city of Croton in Magna Graecia (southern Italy), soon after the defeat of the city by its neighbors, the Locrians. He was born to Pythais and Mnemarchos (or Mnesarchos), a gem-engraver or merchant, on the Ionian island of Samos in 571 or 570 bce. Pythagorean material is mainly constituted by reports whose reliability is uncertain and by apocryphal writings, which were composed beginning in the Hellenistic age and gradually increased until a remarkable amount existed.įew details of Pythagoras's life are definitively known. In addition, there are no extant writings from ancient Pythagoreans. Original works by him, if there were any, were soon lost. Whether Pythagoras left any writing was in ancient times already controversial and is still debatable. The main sources on Pythagoras, while plentiful, are late and rarely impartial for the most part they are cast in the distorting light of hostile polemic or religious veneration. The very nature of the association he founded is consequently controversial: it is mainly described as a philosophical school where scientific inquiries were practiced, as a political party, or as a religious confra-ternity. Soon he became a legend, whose historical nucleus is difficult to ascertain. Surely he was an extraordinary personality and a charismatic chief, venerated by his followers and desecrated by his opponents. 500 bce) that hardly square with one another: philosopher and initiator of rational inquiry, scientist and mathematician, politician and lawgiver, and religious wonderworker and leader of a sect of initiates. The ancient tradition presents different images of Pythagoras (c. They believed that these souls were in both animal and plant life.PYTHAGORAS. They also believed the soul is immortal and goes through a cycle of rebirths until it can become pure. They swore their oaths by "1+2+3+4" (which equals 10). Religion was important to the Pythagoreans.
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Since he worked very closely with his group, the Pythagoreans, it is sometimes hard to tell his works from those of his followers. Some say he was the first person to use the term philosophy. Pythagoras taught them all, and they had to obey strict rules. His followers did not have any personal possessions, and they were all vegetarians.
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He did not agree with the government and their schooling, so he moved to Crotone and set up his own cult (little society) of followers under his rule. Growing up with two or three brothers, he was well educated.
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There is not much information about his life. Pythagoras was born in Samos, a little island off the western coast of Asia Minor.
![gygan pythagoras gygan pythagoras](https://i1.wp.com/tramvision.ru/words/pics/giutar/barre.jpg)
He was one of the greatest thinkers of his time. His theories are still used in mathematics today. He had a great impact on mathematics, theory of music and astronomy. He started a group of mathematicians, called the Pythagoreans, who worshiped numbers and lived like monks. He is known best for the proof of the important Pythagorean theorem, which is about right angle triangles. Pythagoras of Samos was a famous Greek mathematician and philosopher ( c. Graphical demonstration of the Pythagorean theorem