Pythagoras is an ancient Greek idealist philosopher, mathematician, founder of Pythagoreanism, political and religious figure. His homeland was the island of Samos (hence the nickname - Samos), where he was born around 570 BC. e. His father was a gem cutter. According to ancient sources, Pythagoras was distinguished by amazing beauty from birth; when he became an adult, he wore a long beard and a diadem of gold. His talent also showed itself at an early age.
Pythagoras's education was very good; the young man was taught by many mentors, among whom were Pherecydes of Syros and Hermodamant. The next place where Pythagoras improved his knowledge was Miletus, where he met Thales, a scientist who advised him to go to Egypt. Pythagoras had with him a letter of recommendation from the pharaoh himself, but the priests shared their secrets with him only after successfully passing difficult tests. Among the sciences that he mastered well in Egypt was mathematics. For the next 12 years he lived in Babylon, where the priests also shared their knowledge with him. According to legends, Pythagoras also visited India.
The return to their homeland took place around 530 BC. e. The status of half-court and half-slave under the tyrant Polycrates did not seem attractive to him, and he lived in caves for some time, after which he moved to Proton. Perhaps the reason for his departure lay in his philosophical views. Pythagoras was an idealist, a supporter of the slave-owning aristocracy, and in his native Ionia democratic views were very popular, their adherents had considerable influence.
In Croton, Pythagoras organized his own school, which was both a political structure and a religious monastic order with its own charter and very strict rules. In particular, all members of the Pythagorean Union were not supposed to eat meat, reveal the teachings of their mentor to others, and refused to have personal property.
The wave of democratic uprisings that swept through Greece and the colonies at that time also reached Croton. After the victory of democracy, Pythagoras and his students moved to Tarentum, and later to Metapontum. When they arrived in Metapontum, a popular uprising was raging there, and Pythagoras died in one of the night battles. Then he was a very old man, he was about 80 years old. Along with him, his school ceased to exist, and the students dispersed throughout the country.
Since Pythagoras considered his teaching a secret and practiced only oral transmission to his students, no collected works remained after him. Some information did become clear, but it is incredibly difficult to distinguish between truth and fiction. A number of historians doubt that the famous Pythagorean theorem was proven by him, arguing that it was known to other ancient peoples.
The name of Pythagoras has always been surrounded by a large number of legends, even during his lifetime. It was believed that he could control spirits, knew how to prophesy, knew the language of animals, communicated with them, birds, under the influence of his speeches, could change their flight vector. Legends also attributed to Pythagoras the ability to heal people, including with the help of an excellent knowledge of medicinal plants. His influence on those around him was difficult to overestimate. They tell the following episode from the biography of Pythagoras: when one day he became angry with a student, he committed suicide out of grief. Since then, the philosopher has made it a rule never to take out his irritation on people again.
In addition to proving the Pythagorean theorem, this mathematician is credited with a detailed study of integers, proportions and their properties. The Pythagoreans owe significant credit for giving geometry the character of a science. Pythagoras was one of the first who was convinced that the Earth is a ball and the center of the Universe, that the planets, the Moon, the Sun move in a special way, not like stars. To a certain extent, the ideas of the Pythagoreans about the movement of the Earth became the forerunner of the heliocentric teachings of N. Copernicus.
ABSTRACT
"The Life and Work of Pythagoras"
Performed:
student of 8 "A" class.
Nikolaeva Tatyana
Checked:
Kozlova E.A.
Kanash, 2009
Biography of Pythagoras
This strong young man with a stubborn neck and short nose, a real fighter, was not allowed by the judges of one of the first Olympics in history to compete and was reproached for his short stature. He fought his way through and defeated all opponents. If this had happened some 2530 years later, newspapers around the world would have sold out: “Unknown Pythagoras (Greece) won a gold medal in fist fights.” However, there is no fist fighting in the current Olympic programs. And then there were no newspapers and medals. And even if there were, they would not have survived to this day. Newspapers and medals do not last for millennia. Only legends survive...
His whole life is a legend. Not even a legend, but layers of many legends. Probably, among the most amazing and contradictory speculations there are nuggets of truth, but the enormous weight of the past time has crushed them, dissolved them in this fantastic environment, and made them invisible to us. We know very little about the life of Pythagoras. He was born around 570 BC in Sidon, Phenicia on the island of Samos. Less than five kilometers of blue water from the Gulf of Kushada separated the island from the shores of Asia Minor.
Pythagoras's mother's name was Pyphasis. She received this name from her own husband in honor of Pythia, a priestess of Apollo. Pythia predicted to Mnesarchus and his wife the birth of a son who would surpass everyone in intelligence and beauty. The son was also named after
Pythia. According to many ancient testimonies, the born boy was fabulously handsome, and soon showed his extraordinary abilities. He received his first knowledge from his father Mnesarchus, a jeweler and precious stone carver: in those days, this profession required multifaceted education. He was rich enough to give his son a good upbringing. As a child, Pythagoras traveled a lot with his father, visiting Syria and Italy.
From an early age, Pythagoras strives to learn as much as possible. Like any father, Mnesarchus dreamed that his son would continue his work - the craft of a goldsmith. Life decided otherwise. The future great mathematician and philosopher already in childhood showed great abilities for science. Among the teachers of young Pythagoras were Pherecydes of Syros and the elder Hermodamant. The first one instilled in the boy a love of science,
the second - to the music, painting and poetry of Homer. To exercise his memory, Hermodamas forced him to learn songs from the Odyssey and the Iliad, and also instilled in young Pythagoras a love of nature and its secrets.
Pythagoras saw in the warm haze of clear days yellow roads running across the mainland to the big world. They called him. The imagination of young Pythagoras very soon became cramped in little Samos, and he went to Miletus, where he met another scientist, Thales. On the advice of Thales, Pythagoras goes to Egypt for knowledge. Pythagoras's father was a fairly influential citizen of the island of Samos, and was quite closely acquainted with the ruler of the island, the tyrant Polycrates. Polycrates provided Pythagoras with a letter of recommendation to Pharaoh Amasis, thanks to which he was allowed to study and initiated into the sacraments forbidden to other foreigners. That is, Pythagoras arrived in Egypt in fact as an ambassador or consul of the island of Samos (according to modern ideas). This role of Pythagoras gave him the opportunity to visit many of the temples of Egypt and participate in discussions with the priests on a variety of issues. He walked along the roads of Egypt and lived in Babylon for 12 years, then in Phenicia, Syria, visited the Euphrates Valley and lived with the Chaldeans for several years. After this, through Media and Persia he moves to Hindustan, where he also spends several years. In Egypt, Pythagoras became familiar with mathematics and created the center of his philosophical system from it. In Babylon he studies Eastern religions. Pythagoras coined the word "philosopher". Before him, scientists called themselves sages—those who “know.” Pythagoras calls himself a philosopher—one who “strives to find out.” According to Porphyry, the main source of information about Pythagoras, in the temple of Diospolis he was accepted into the clergy after performing all the necessary rituals for admission to the temple.
Having learned everything that the priests gave him, he moved to his homeland in Hellas. Returning to Samos, Pythagoras found his homeland in the hands of the dictator Polycrates, who consolidated his power based on an alliance with the Persians. At first it seemed that the island had blossomed after difficult years of political upheaval. Polycrates, who himself came from a trading environment, encouraged crafts and arts. Vast buildings were built everywhere, striking in their splendor. Outstanding poets and artists found shelter at the ruler's court. But Pythagoras quickly realized the value of this golden cage. The guardianship of the authorities turned out to be a heavy burden for freedom of thought. According to Porfiry, the philosopher “saw that tyranny was too strong for a free person to valiantly endure supervision and despotism.” Pythagoras was disgusted with the Samian regime and planned to leave the Fatherland forever. “Hating tyranny with his soul, he himself chose exile,” said Ovid, who read one of the ancient biographies of the philosopher. Nothing is known about the details of this relocation (or expulsion?). We only know that in 540 Pythagoras boarded a ship sailing to Italy, and after some time arrived in the city of Croton. Many travelers, merchants and craftsmen sought here, to the rich trading port off the coast of the Gulf of Tarentum, to the so-called “Great Greece”. In this kingdom of colonists the general atmosphere was much freer than on Samos.
In Croton, Pythagoras plans to create his own philosophical school. She played an important role in the scientific and political life of ancient Greece. One of the features of the school was the almost sacred veneration of the teacher. Pythagoras calls only those who have gone through many stages of knowledge his closest students and allows them into the courtyard of his house, where he talks with them. Pythagoreans study geometry, mathematics, harmony, and astronomy.
It is difficult to say which scientific ideas belonged to Pythagoras and which belonged to his students. And it is still unknown whether he drew with a twig in the sand a drawing of the Pythagorean theorem, known to every schoolchild today. They often walked and did science while walking, so it is very likely that the theorem was born in the sand. As well as the proof that the sum of the interior angles of any triangle is equal to two right angles. Just like geometric solutions to quadratic equations. And perhaps, in joyful surprise, they once bent over their shaky drawing, fearing that the wind would carry away the first proof in history of the incommensurability of the diagonal of a square and its side.
It is Pythagoras who is credited with proving the famous geometric theorem. Based on legends spread by famous mathematicians (Proclus, Plutarch, etc.), for a long time it was believed that this theorem was not known before Pythagoras, hence the name - the Pythagorean theorem. It is now known that this theorem was known before him, but it was Pythagoras who first proved it.
Let us recall once again that even before Pythagoras, the ancient Egyptians knew that a triangle with sides 3, 4 and 5 is rectangular, and used this property (i.e., the theorem inverse to the Pythagorean theorem) to construct right angles when planning land plots and building structures. Even today, rural builders and carpenters, when laying the foundation of a hut and making its parts, draw this triangle to obtain a right angle. The same thing was done thousands of years ago in the construction of magnificent temples in Egypt, Babylon, China, and probably in Mexico. Thus, Pythagoras did not discover this property of a right triangle; he was probably the first to generalize and prove it, thereby transferring it from the field of practice to the field of science. We don't know how he did it.
Since ancient times, mathematicians have been finding more and more new proofs of the Pythagorean theorem, more and more new ideas for its proof. More than five hundred such proofs - more or less strict, more or less visual - are known, but the desire to increase their number has remained.
They say - this is again just a legend - that when Pythagoras proved his famous theorem, he thanked the gods by sacrificing 100 bulls to them. The German poet Chamisso wrote poems about this many centuries later. He said in them that since the time of the Pythagorean sacrifice, all cattle on earth tremble with fear when they discover something new. Pythagoras did not write down his teachings. It is known only in the retellings of Aristotle and Plato. Heraclitus argued that Pythagoras was more learned than all his contemporaries, although he believed that in his genius there was “bad art - magic”, contrary to the gods. “They recognized mathematical principles as the beginnings of everything that exists,” Aristotle explained. Even numbers, for example, allowing for bifurcation, seemed more reasonable to the Pythagoreans and personified some positive phenomenon. This is how the number acquired character and lost its eternal abstract beginning, just as the numbers 2 or 5 lose their abstraction for a schoolchild who chalks out “Pythagorean pants.” The number 4, for example, personified health, harmony, and rationality among the Pythagoreans. The mysticism of numbers turned out to be very tenacious and has survived to this day. Many centuries after the death of Pythagoras, churchmen “invented” the “devil’s dozen,” declared 12 a sign of happiness and called 666 “the number of the beast.” But in admiration for the harmony of numbers, before the inviolability of mathematical logic, there was also a great revelation, which Hegel called courage, about which Engels wrote: “Just as number is subject to certain laws, so is the universe subject to them; this is the first time the idea of the laws of the universe is expressed.” .
Pythagoras studied acoustics. He found that all musical intervals are subject to the simplest rational numerical relations. He studied astronomy, considered the Earth to be a sphere, was the first to deduce the inclination of the ecliptic and planetary orbits, and built his own system of the world, again reflecting, in his opinion, the great harmony of numbers. He even mathematized the soul, claiming that “the soul is specks of solar dust.”
Pythagoras was one of the first to declare that the Earth is the center of the Universe and has the shape of a ball, and the Sun, Moon and other planets have their own trajectory
movements.
In general, we can say with confidence that the study of space and, thanks to this, comprehension of the structure of the universe, was one of the most important areas of Pythagoras’ activity. The following testimony of Aristotle is noteworthy:
“Why exactly, of all existing things, did nature and God give birth to us? Pythagoras, when asked about this, answered: “To observe the firmament.”
Minor planet (asteroid) number 6143 and the lunar crater Pythagoras are named in honor of Pythagoras.
Here are some commandments of Pythagoras and his disciples:
- Do only what will not upset you later and will not force you to repent.
- Never do something you don’t know. But learn everything you need to know...
- Don't neglect the health of your body...
- Learn to live simply and without luxury.
- Don’t close your eyes when you want to sleep without sorting out all your actions of the past day.
At the age of approximately 60, Pythagoras married Theano, one of his students. U
3 children are born to them (two sons and a daughter), and they all become followers
my father. Pythagoras takes a large part in the political life of Croton. On his initiative, an aristocratic ruling body is created - the “Council of Three Hundred”.
Pythagoras himself heads it for about 25 years. Gradually, the “Council of Three Hundred” spreads its influence to neighboring cities. Around 500 BC, a rebellion breaks out in Sybaris against the rule of the aristocratic party. It is possible that the reason was Pythagoras’s refusal to accept a certain rich but unworthy citizen into his school, and he provoked a riot out of revenge. After the uprising, persecution of the Pythagoreans began.
Little is known about the death of Pythagoras; there are at least three versions of his death
great scientist. One thing is certain - it happened due to persecution
Pythagoreans. According to surviving data, Pythagoras lived for about 100 years.
Memories of Pythagoras have reached us thanks to those few of his students,
who managed to escape from southern Italy to Greece.
According to one version, at the age of eighty, Pythagoras was killed in a street fight during a popular uprising.
Another version: one day Cylon, a rich but evil man, came to Pythagoras, wanting to join the brotherhood while drunk. Having received a refusal, Cylon begins to fight Pythagoras. During the fire, the Pythagoreans saved the life of their teacher at the cost of their own, after which Pythagoras became sad and soon committed suicide.
Another version: a conspiracy arose against Pythagoras. It was led by a rich and noble resident of Croton, Kilon, who was power-hungry and had a difficult disposition. Fleeing from his pursuers, Pythagoras settled in Metapon. But even here he was overtaken by the hand of a killer.
So, despite all the expenses, the famous philosopher from Croton - by the way, the first philosopher who called himself a philosopher - has many great guesses and fantasies. That's why people remember him for two and a half thousand years. That is why among the famous Olympic champions he will remain the most famous for a long time, because he was lucky not only to defeat his opponent, but also to beat time.
Bibliography:
1. http://new-numerology.ru/pifagor.htm
2. http://forum.edunet.uz/lofiversion/index.php/t83.html
3. http://mgudt.com/articles/690.html
4. http://peoplez.ru/res113317.html
5. http://cityclubs.ru/p78.htm
6. http://pifagor.edunet.uz/biografy.htm
7. http://www.wisdoms.ru/avt/b184.html
8. http://schools.keldysh.ru/sch119/Project/2005-2006/9/Mesropian/0101.htm
9. http://biographer.ru/biographies/68.html
10.Encyclopedic dictionary of a young mathematician. – 3rd ed., revised. and additional – M.: Pedagogy-Press, 1997. – 360 pp.: ill.
The life story of Pythagoras is difficult to separate from the legends that present him as a perfect sage and a great initiate into all the mysteries of the Greeks and barbarians. Herodotus also called him “the greatest Hellenic sage.”
The main sources on the life and teachings of Pythagoras are the works of the Neoplatonist philosopher Iamblichus (242-306) " About Pythagorean life"; Porphyria (234-305) " Life of Pythagoras"; Diogenes Laertius (200-250) book. 8, " Pythagoras" These authors relied on the writings of earlier authors, of which it should be noted that Aristotle's student Aristoxenus (370-300 BC) was from Tarentum, where the Pythagoreans had a strong position.
Thus, the earliest known sources wrote about Pythagoras 200 years after his death. Pythagoras himself did not leave any writings, and all information about him and his teachings is based on the works of his followers, who are not always impartial.
Biography
Pythagoras' parents were Mnesarchus and Parthenides of Samos. Mnesarchus was a stone cutter (Diogenes Laertius); according to Porphyry, he was a rich merchant from Tyre, who received Samian citizenship for distributing grain in a lean year. The first version is preferable, since Pausanias gives the genealogy of Pythagoras in the male line from Hippasus from the Peloponnesian Phlius, who fled to Samos and became the great-grandfather of Pythagoras.
Parthenides, later renamed Pyphaida by her husband, came from the noble family of Ankeus, the founder of the Greek colony on Samos. The birth of a child was allegedly predicted by Pythia in Delphi, which is why Pythagoras got his name, which means “ the one announced by the Pythia" In particular, Pythia told Mnesarchus that Pythagoras would bring as much benefit and goodness to people as no one else had brought and would not bring in the future. Therefore, to celebrate, Mnesarchus gave his wife a new name, Pyphaidas, and named the child Pythagoras. Pyphaida accompanied her husband on his travels, and Pythagoras was born in Sidon Phoenician (according to Iamblichus) around 570 BC. e.
According to ancient authors, Pythagoras met with almost all the famous sages of that era, Greeks, Persians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, and absorbed all the knowledge accumulated by humanity. In popular literature, Pythagoras is sometimes credited with the Olympic victory in boxing, confusing Pythagoras the philosopher with his namesake (Pythagoras, son of Crates of Samos), who won his victory at the 48th Games 18 years before the famous philosopher was born.
At a young age, Pythagoras went to Egypt to gain wisdom and secret knowledge from the Egyptian priests. Diogenes and Porphyry write that the Samian tyrant Polycrates provided Pythagoras with a letter of recommendation to Pharaoh Amasis, thanks to which he was allowed to study and initiated into the sacraments forbidden to other foreigners.
Iamblichus writes that Pythagoras at the age of 18 left his native island and, having traveled around the sages in different parts of the world, reached Egypt, where he stayed for 22 years, until he was taken to Babylon as a captive by the Persian king Cambyses, who conquered Egypt in 525 BC . e. Pythagoras stayed in Babylon for another 12 years, communicating with magicians, until he was finally able to return to Samos at the age of 56, where his compatriots recognized him as a wise man.
According to Porphyry, Pythagoras left Samos due to disagreement with the tyrannical power of Polycrates at the age of 40. Since this information is based on the words of Aristoxenus, a source of the 4th century. BC e., are considered relatively reliable. Polycrates came to power in 535 BC. e. , hence the date of birth of Pythagoras is estimated at 570 BC. e. , assuming that he left for Italy in 530 BC. e. Iamblichus reports that Pythagoras moved to Italy in the 62nd Olympiad, that is, in 532-529. BC e. This information is in good agreement with Porphyry, but completely contradicts the legend of Iamblichus himself (or rather, one of his sources) about the Babylonian captivity of Pythagoras. It is not known for sure whether Pythagoras visited Egypt, Babylon or Phenicia, where, according to the legends, he gained eastern wisdom. Diogenes Laertius quotes Aristoxenus, who said that Pythagoras received his teaching, at least as regards instructions on the way of life, from the priestess Themistocleia of Delphi, that is, in places not so remote for the Greeks.
Disagreements with the tyrant Polycrates could hardly have been the reason for Pythagoras’s departure; rather, he needed the opportunity to preach his ideas and, moreover, to put his teaching into practice, which was difficult to do in Ionia and mainland Hellas, where many people experienced in matters of philosophy and politics lived. Iamblichus reports:
« His philosophy spread, all of Hellas began to admire him, and the best and wisest men came to him on Samos, wanting to listen to his teaching. His fellow citizens, however, forced him to participate in all embassies and public affairs. Pythagoras felt how difficult it was, obeying the laws of the fatherland, to simultaneously engage in philosophy, and saw that all the previous philosophers had lived their lives in foreign lands. Having thought all this over, withdrawing from public affairs and, as some say, considering the low appreciation of his teachings by the Samians insufficient, he left for Italy, considering his fatherland a country where there were more people capable of learning.»
Pythagoras settled in the Greek colony of Crotone in southern Italy, where he found many followers. They were attracted not only by the occult philosophy, which he convincingly expounded, but also by the way of life he prescribed with elements of healthy asceticism and strict morality. Pythagoras preached the moral ennoblement of the ignorant people, which can be achieved where power belongs to a caste of wise and knowledgeable people, and to whom the people obey in some ways unconditionally, like children to their parents, and in other respects consciously, submitting to moral authority. The disciples of Pythagoras formed a kind of religious order, or brotherhood of initiates, consisting of a caste of selected like-minded people who literally deified their teacher and founder. This order actually came to power in Crotone, but due to anti-Pythagorean sentiments at the end of the 6th century. BC e. Pythagoras had to retire to another Greek colony, Metapontus, where he died. Almost 450 years later, during the time of Cicero (1st century BC), the crypt of Pythagoras was shown in Metaponto as one of the attractions.
Pythagoras had a wife named Theano, a son Telaugus and a daughter.
According to Porphyry, Pythagoras himself died as a result of the anti-Pythagorean rebellion in Metapontus, but other authors do not confirm this version, although they readily convey the story that the dejected philosopher starved himself to death in the sacred temple.
Philosophical teaching
The teachings of Pythagoras should be divided into two components: the scientific approach to understanding the world and the religious-occult way of life preached by Pythagoras. The merits of Pythagoras in the first part are not known for certain, since everything created by followers within the school of Pythagoreanism was later attributed to him. The second part prevails in the teachings of Pythagoras, and it is this part that remained in the minds of most ancient authors.
The merit of the Pythagoreans was the promotion of ideas about the quantitative laws of the development of the world, which contributed to the development of mathematical, physical, astronomical and geographical knowledge. Numbers are the basis of things, Pythagoras taught, to know the world means to know the numbers that control it. By studying numbers, they developed numerical relationships and found them in all areas of human activity. Numbers and proportions were studied in order to know and describe the human soul, and, having learned it, to manage the process of transmigration of souls with the ultimate goal of sending the soul to some higher divine state.
Scientific achievements
Coin with the image of Pythagoras
In the modern world, Pythagoras is considered the great mathematician and cosmologist of antiquity, but early evidence before the 3rd century. BC e. they do not mention such merits of his. As Iamblichus writes about the Pythagoreans: “ They also had the remarkable custom of attributing everything to Pythagoras and not at all arrogating to themselves the glory of discoverers, except perhaps in a few cases.»
Literature
- Zhmud L.Ya. Pythagoras and his school. M.: Nauka, 1990. ISBN 5-02-027292-2
- Fragments of early Greek philosophers. Part 1: From epic cosmogonies to the emergence of atomism, Ed. A. V. Lebedev. M.: Nauka, 1989, p. 138–149.
- Leontyev A.V. The tradition of Pythagoras among Aristoxenus and Dicaearchus // Man. Nature. Society. Actual problems. Proceedings of the 11th international conference of young scientists December 27-30, 2000. St. Petersburg University Publishing House. 2000 Page 298-301
- Leontyev A.V. On the question of the image of Pythagoras in the ancient tradition of the 6th-5th centuries BC. // Mnemon. Research and publications on the history of the ancient world. Edited by Professor E.D. Frolova. Issue 3. St. Petersburg, 2004.
The biography of Pythagoras was already obscured early on, and over time it became more and more obscured by so many unhistorical legends and guesses, so many later elements were introduced into his teaching - especially since the emergence of neo-Pythagorean school and her widely used method of composing forged Pythagorean writings - that the most careful criticism is needed in order to isolate the true parts from the information that has reached us. With a significant degree of reliability, only a few main points can be established in the history of the Pythagorean school and its founder, and in relation to its teaching - only elements that are attested by authentic passages of Philolaus, messages of Aristotle and the instructions of later doxographers, the source of which we have the right to see in Theophrastus.
Pythagoras, son of Mnesarchus, was born on the island of Samos, where his Tyrrhenian ancestors Pelasgians, moved from Phliunt. Of the inaccurate, significantly diverging indications about the time of his life, apparently the closest to reality is information that probably has its source in Apollodorus. According to them, Pythagoras was born in 571-570 BC, arrived in Italy in 532-531 and died in 497-496 at the age of 75. Heraclitus already calls him the most learned man of his time (with a reservation: he “created for himself wisdom - much knowledge, evil arts”). But how and where Pythagoras obtained his knowledge is unknown to us. The indications of later authors that he undertook trips to the eastern and southern countries for educational purposes came from unreliable witnesses, arose late and amid suspicious circumstances - and therefore should not be considered information based on historical memory, but only guesses, the reason for which was the teaching about the transmigration of souls and some Orthic-Pythagorean customs.
Pythagoras. Bust in the Capitoline Museum, Rome
The more ancient legend, by all indications, knew nothing even about Pythagoras’ stay in Egypt, which in itself does not contain anything impossible. The first mention of him is found in the magnificent speech of Isocrates, which itself does not claim historical veracity. Nothing is said here about the philosopher’s stay in Egypt. In relation to Plato and especially Aristotle, it is unlikely that they brought such an influential system as Pythagoreanism out of Egypt. The doctrine of the transmigration of souls, which Pythagoras allegedly learned in Egypt, was known to the Greeks before him, while it was alien to the Egyptian religion. Attempts to extract the Pythagorean doctrine of the transmigration of souls from the Hindu teaching, which is similar to it, should also be considered unsuccessful.
It is more likely, although still not entirely certain, that Pythagoras’ teacher was Pherecydes. If the other news is that Pythagoras was a student of Anaximander (from Porphyria) - apparently based not on historical tradition, but on a simple guess, then nevertheless the relationship of Pythagorean mathematics and astronomy to the corresponding teachings of Anaximander testifies to Pythagoras’s acquaintance with the Milesian philosopher.
After Pythagoras began his activities in the Apennines, he found his main field in Lower Italy. He settled in the city of Crotone and founded a union here, which found many adherents among the Italic and Sicilian Greeks. A later tale depicts the matter as such that he acted in these places as a prophet and sorcerer, and that his school was a league of ascetics who lived on communist principles, submitting to the strict discipline of the order, abstaining from eating meat, beans and woolen clothing, and sacredly keeping secrets of the school. For historical analysis, the Pythagorean union is primarily one of the forms of the then organizations of religious mysteries: its focus was the “Orgies” mentioned by Herodotus; its main dogma was the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, which Xenophanes already spoke about. Purity of life (Πυθαγόρειος τρόπος του βίου, “Pythagorean way of life”) was required of the initiates, which, however, according to the most reliable evidence, amounted to only a few and easily achievable abstinences. The Pythagorean union differed from all other similar phenomena in the ethical and reformist direction that Pythagoras gave to mystical dogmas and cult, the desire to instill in its members, following the example of Dorian “mores and views, physical and spiritual health, morality and self-control. In connection with this desire is not only the cultivation of many arts and knowledge, for example, gymnastics, music, medicine, but also the scientific activity in which the members of the union practiced, following the example of its founder; Even outsiders who did not belong to the union could sometimes participate in these activities.
Pythagorean hymn to the sun. Artist F. Bronnikov, 1869
The mathematical sciences of the Greeks until the beginning of the 4th century had the Pythagorean school as their main focus, and adjacent to them was that physical teaching, which among the Pythagoreans forms the essential content of their philosophical system. That the ethical reform that Pythagoras sought should immediately become a political reform was self-evident for the Greeks of that era. In politics, the Pythagoreans, according to the whole spirit of their teaching, were defenders of Dorian-aristocratic institutions aimed at the strict subordination of the individual to the interests of the whole. However, this political position of the Pythagorean alliance early on gave rise to attacks against it, which prompted Pythagoras himself to move from Croton to Metapontum, where he ended his life. Later, after many years of tension, probably around 440–430 BC, the burning of the house in which the Pythagoreans met served as the signal for persecution that spread throughout Lower Italy. During them, many Pythagoreans died, and the rest fled in different directions. These fugitives, through whom Central Greece first became acquainted with Pythagoreanism, included Philolaus and Lysis, teacher of Epaminondas, who both lived in Boeotian Thebes. Was a student of the first Eurytus, whose students Aristoxenus calls the last Pythagoreans. At the beginning of the 4th century we meet Clinias in Tarentum, and soon after that the famous Archita, thanks to which Pythagoreanism again acquired power over a powerful state. But, apparently, soon after him Pythagoreanism, which merged into Ancient Academy with Platonism, it completely fell in Italy, although the Pythagorean mysteries survived and even became more widespread.
Pythagoras of Samos is an ancient Greek mathematician, philosopher and mystic, the founder of the Pythagorean school. The years of his life are 570-490. BC e. Our article will present to your attention the biography of Pythagoras, his main achievements, as well as interesting facts about this great man.
Where is truth and where is fiction?
It is difficult to separate the life story of this thinker from the legends that represented him as a perfect sage, as well as initiated into the mysteries of the barbarians and Greeks. Herodotus called this man "the greatest Hellenic sage." Below you will be presented with the biography of Pythagoras and his works, which should be treated with a certain degree of doubt.
The earliest known sources about the teachings of this thinker appeared only 200 years after his death. However, it is on them that the biography of Pythagoras is based. He himself did not leave any works to his descendants, therefore all information about his teaching and personality is based only on the works of his followers, who were not always impartial.
Origin of Pythagoras
Pythagoras' parents are Parthenides and Mnesarchus from the island of Samos. Pythagoras' father was, according to one version, a stone cutter, according to another, a rich merchant who received citizenship of Samos for distributing bread during a famine. The first version is preferable, since Pausanias, who testified to this, gives the genealogy of this thinker. Parthenis, his mother, was later renamed Pyphaida by her husband (more on this below). She came from the family of Ankeus, a noble man who founded a Greek colony on Samos.
Pythia's prediction
The great biography of Pythagoras was supposedly predetermined even before his birth, which seemed to have been predicted at Delphi by the Pythia, which is why he was called that way. Pythagoras means "he who was announced by the Pythia." This fortuneteller allegedly told Mnesarch that the future great man would bring as much good and benefit to people as anyone else would later. To celebrate this, the child’s father even gave a new name to his wife, Pyphaidas, and named his son Pythagoras. Pyphaida accompanied her husband on trips. Pythagoras was born in Sidon Phoenician around 570 BC. e.
This thinker, according to ancient authors, met with many famous sages of that time: Egyptians, Chaldeans, Persians, Greeks, absorbing the knowledge accumulated by humanity. Sometimes in popular literature Pythagoras is also credited with the Olympic victory in boxing competitions, confusing the philosopher with his namesake, the son of Crates, also from the island of Samos, who won the 48 games a little earlier, 18 years before the philosopher appeared on light.
Pythagoras goes to Egypt
Pythagoras at a young age went to the country of Egypt to gain secret knowledge and wisdom from the priests here. Porphyry and Diogenes write that Polycrates, the Samian tyrant, provided this philosopher with a letter of recommendation to Amasis (Pharaoh), because of which he began to be taught and initiated not only into the achievements of mathematics and medicine in Egypt, but also into the sacraments that were for other foreigners were forbidden.
At the age of 18, as Iamblichus writes, the biography of Pythagoras is supplemented by the fact that he left the island and got to Egypt, traveling around all kinds of sages from various parts of the world. He stayed in this country for 22 years, until Cambyses, the Persian king, took him among the captives to Babylon, who in 525 BC. e. conquered Egypt. Pythagoras stayed in Babylon for another 12 years, communicating here with magicians, until he was finally able to return to Samos at the age of 56, where his compatriots recognized him as the wisest of people.
This thinker, according to Porphyry, left his native island due to disagreements with the local tyrannical power exercised by Polycrates, at the age of 40. Since this information is based on the testimony of Aristoxenus, who lived in the 4th century BC. e., they were considered relatively reliable. In 535 BC. e. Polycrates came to power. Therefore, the date of birth of Pythagoras is considered to be 570 BC. e., if we assume that he left for Italy in 530 BC. e. According to Iamblichus, Pythagoras moved to this country during the 62nd Olympiad, that is, in the period from 532 to 529. BC e. This information correlates well with Porphyry, but completely contradicts the legend of Iamblichus about the captivity of Pythagoras in Babylon. Therefore, it is not known for sure whether this thinker visited Phenicia, Babylon or Egypt, where, according to legend, he gained eastern wisdom. The short biography of Pythagoras, provided to us by various authors, is very contradictory and does not allow us to draw an unambiguous conclusion.
Life of Pythagoras in Italy
It is unlikely that the reason for the departure of this philosopher could have been disagreements with Polycrates; rather, he needed the opportunity to preach and put his teaching into practice, which was difficult to achieve in Ionia, as well as mainland Hellas. He went to Italy because he believed that there were more people here who were capable of learning.
The short biography of Pythagoras, compiled by us, continues. This thinker settled in Southern Italy, in Crotona, a Greek colony, where he found numerous followers. They were attracted not only by the convincingly presented mystical philosophy, but also by a way of life that included strict morality and healthy asceticism.
Pythagoras preached the moral ennoblement of the people. It could be achieved where power is in the hands of knowledgeable and wise people, to whom the people obey unconditionally in one thing and consciously in another, as a moral authority. It is Pythagoras who is traditionally credited with introducing such words as “philosopher” and “philosophy”.
Brotherhood of the Pythagoreans
The disciples of this thinker formed a religious order, a kind of brotherhood of initiates, which consisted of a caste of like-minded people who deified the teacher. This order actually came to power in Croton, but at the end of the 6th century BC. e. Due to anti-Pythagorean sentiments, the philosopher had to go to Metapontum, another Greek colony, where he died. Here, 450 years later, during the reign of Cicero (1st century BC), the crypt of this thinker was shown as a local landmark.
Pythagoras had a wife named Theano, as well as a daughter Mia and a son Telaugus (according to another version, the children's names were Arignota and Arimnest).
When did this thinker and philosopher die?
Pythagoras, according to Iamblichus, led the secret society for 39 years. Based on this, the date of his death is 491 BC. e., when the period of the Greco-Persian wars began. Referring to Heraclides, Diogenes said that this philosopher died at the age of 80, or even 90, according to other unnamed sources. That is, the date of death from here is 490 BC. e. (or, less likely, 480). In his chronology, Eusebius of Caesarea indicated 497 BC as the year of death of this thinker. e.
Scientific achievements of Pythagoras in the field of mathematics
Pythagoras is today considered the great cosmologist and mathematician of antiquity, but early evidence does not mention such merits. Iamblichus writes about the Pythagoreans that they had a custom of attributing all achievements to their teacher. This thinker is considered by ancient authors to be the creator of the famous theorem that in a right triangle the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of its legs (Pythagorean theorem). The biography of this philosopher, as well as his achievements, is in many ways dubious. The opinion about the theorem, in particular, is based on the testimony of Apollodorus the calculator, whose identity has not been established, as well as on poetic lines, the authorship of which also remains a mystery.
Modern historians suggest that this thinker did not prove the theorem, but could convey this knowledge to the Greeks, which was known 1000 years ago in Babylon before the time when the biography of the mathematician Pythagoras dates back to. Although there is doubt that this particular thinker was able to make this discovery, no compelling arguments can be found to challenge this point of view.
In addition to proving the above theorem, this mathematician is also credited with the study of integers, their properties and proportions.
Aristotle's discoveries in the field of cosmology
Aristotle in his work “Metaphysics” touches on the development of cosmology, but the contribution of Pythagoras is not voiced in any way in it. The thinker we are interested in is also credited with the discovery that the Earth is round. However, Theophrastus, the most authoritative author on this issue, gives it to Parmenides.
Despite controversial issues, the merits of the Pythagorean school in cosmology and mathematics are indisputable. According to Aristotle, the real ones were the acousmatists, who followed the doctrine of the transmigration of souls. They viewed mathematics as a science that came not so much from their teacher as from one of the Pythagoreans, Hippasus.
Works created by Pythagoras
This thinker did not write any treatises. It was impossible to compile a work from oral instructions addressed to the common people. And the secret occult teaching, intended for the elite, could not be entrusted to the book either.
Diogenes lists some of the titles of books that allegedly belonged to Pythagoras: “On Nature,” “On the State,” “On Education.” But for the first 200 years after his death, not a single author, including Aristotle, Plato, and their successors at the Lyceum and Academy, quotes from the works of Pythagoras or even indicates their existence. The written works of Pythagoras were unknown to ancient writers from the beginning of the new era. This is reported by Josephus, Plutarch, and Galen.
A compilation of the sayings of this thinker appeared in the 3rd century BC. e. It's called "The Sacred Word". Later, the “Golden Poems” arose from it (which are sometimes attributed, without good reason, to the 4th century BC, when the biography of Pythagoras is considered by various authors).
The name of Pythagoras was always surrounded by many legends even during his lifetime. For example, it was believed that he was able to control spirits, knew the language of animals, knew how to prophesy, and birds could change the direction of their flight under the influence of his speeches. Legends also attributed to Pythagoras the ability to heal people, using, among other things, excellent knowledge of various medicinal plants. The influence of this personality on those around him is difficult to overestimate. A curious episode from the life that the biography of Pythagoras tells us about (interesting facts about him are by no means exhausted by it) is this: one day he became angry with one of his students, who committed suicide out of grief. From then on, the philosopher decided never to take out his irritation on people again.
You were presented with a biography of Pythagoras, a brief summary of the life and work of this great man. We have tried to describe events based on different opinions, since it is incorrect to judge this thinker based on only one source. The information available about him is very contradictory. Biography of Pythagoras for children usually does not take these contradictions into account. It represents in an extremely simplified and one-sided way the fate and legacy of this person. A short biography of Pythagoras for children is studied at school. We tried to reveal it in more detail in order to deepen readers’ understanding of this person.
