Pythagoras of Samos
ca. 569 B.C.E.–ca. 475 B.C.E.
Greek Number Theory, Geometry
Pythagoras of Samos was one of the earliest Greek
mathematicians, and is certainly one of the most
famous of all time due to the well-known
Pythagorean theorem. However, very little is
known of his life, and what details exist are reconstructed
from several secondary sources. He
left no writings of his own behind him.
Pythagoras of Samos was born around 569
B.C.E. on the island of Samos, Greece. His father,
Mnesarchus, was a Phoenician merchant who
earned citizenship at Samos by delivering a
shipment of grain during a time of famine.
His mother was Pythais, a native of Samos.
[Pythagoras was a philosopher who believed numbers
had personalities. His cult formulated and proved the
Pythagorean theorem.]
Pythagoras received the best education, being
trained in poetry and music, and later in philosophy.
He had two brothers, and the family
traveled extensively during Pythagoras’s youth,
visiting Italy and Tyre.
Pythagoras was later taught by THALES OF
MILETUS and his pupil Anaximander; from
Thales he gained an appreciation for geometry,
and he traveled to Egypt in 535 B.C.E. to further
his studies. Before he left, the tyrant Polycrates
took over Samos, and Pythagoras’s friendship
with him facilitated his introduction into
Egyptian society, since Polycrates had an alliance
with Egypt. Pythagoras visited with the
priests there, but was admitted only to the temple
of Diospolis, where he was inducted into the
religious mysteries. It seems that many of
Pythagoras’s later beliefs, as well as the rites of
the cult he would later found, were drawn from
his time among the Egyptian clerics for instance,
his vegetarianism and stress on ethical
purity can be traced to his time in Egypt. In
terms of mathematics, it is not likely that he
learned much more there than Thales would
have taught him.
2.What number should replace the question mark?
