What are facts about Pythagoras?

Answer 1

1. Some think that Pythagoras actually stole his famous formula from the Babylonians (who had stolen it from the Indians).

2. He discovered square roots by comparing square piles of rocks and figured out the proportional interval of numbers between musical notes by listening to blacksmiths pounding on different sized anvils.

3. Pythagoras also started a weird religious commune with secretive doctrines involving geometric formulations. One of his inner circle of mathematikoi, Hippasos, came up with the concept of Irrational Numbers but it didn't fit well with Pythagoras' unique theology and it is said that he was executed on the master's orders.

4. Like some modern day vegans, Pythagoras believed that eating animal products was cannibalism because they might contain the trans-migrated souls of human ancestors.

5. The cult also refused to eat beans. Some historians think it is because they believed that a man only had so much "breath" in him and that any extra-curricular passing of gases shortened the lifespan. Others think it was because the beans were considered sacred in some way, perhaps because they were thought of as reincarnated people (human beans, in other words). One of the order was slaughtered by an angry mob who caught him when he refused to escape by crossing through a bean field for fear of trampling the delicate vegetables.

6. Pythagoras traveled far from his hometown of Samos and on one journey to Egypt was captured by the Persian army. He was taken as a prisoner to Babylon where he became the guest of Darius the Great. Interestingly, he spent much of his time visiting with the resident scholars, the Magi, around the time that Daniel (of the bible) was said to have been there. We'll never know if the two exchanged ideas and how much influence one had on the other.

7. His commune near Croton, Italy was eventually wiped out by a violent mob from the neighboring town after a political dispute. Pythagoras, however, was not present at the time and lived out his life in safety and peace. He died at the ripe old age of 75.

8. He believed that one's soul was going to be reincarnated. That is also what the Hindu religion tells as the truth. Pythagoras himself said that he had once before lived as a warrior in the Trojan war.

9. According to Pythagoras, a perfect number was 10.