PYTHAWORAS (Lat.. from Gk. ltu0a76par). A traditionally famous Greek philosopher and geometer, born at Samos, probably in the 49th Olympiad (n.c. 584-5l). He was the son of Mnosarplins, and is said to have been the pupil of Pherecydes. Ile had become knotut ill Ionia as a man of great learning when, perhaps driven from home by disgust at the tyranny of Poly crates about B.c. 530, he migrated to Magna Gralda and settled at Crotona. Here lie founded an exclusive brotherhood among the aristocracy of the place. The fame of it spread abroad and attracted into its circle men and women not only from other neighboring colonies, hut front all parts of South Italy. The original pur pose of this brotherhood was probably not politi cal, and yet the society became involved in the tierce struggles between the aristocracy and the democracy that were at this time raging in lower Italy; and when the popular party gained the upper hand, in its wild fury it. turned upon the Pythagorean brothers and burned them in their meeting places. t Mly a few escaped. It is not certain whether Pythagoras himself perished in . this outbreak, or whether he had previously died peacefully in Metapontuni, whither lie is said to have retired when the storm was gathering. Neither do we know the date of this event. Every thing else pertaining to the biography of Pythag oras, found in the so-called Lires of Pythagoras composed by lamblichus, Porphyry. and Diogenes Laertius, is probably mythical. He is said to nave traveled from Persia to Gaul in search of wisdom. to have become initiated in Egypt into the Vener able mysteries of that country-, and there to have aeqnirtbd mathematical lore and a belief in the transmigration of souls. Mueli of this may he true. but the accounts are conflicting and found in late and unrelialde sources. He is even re ported to have been the son of Hermes in a previous inetempsyeliosis, and to have been per mitted to bring with him into his earthly life the memory of all his past experiences. is credit ed with all sorts of miraculous performances, sue]] as appearing at two places at the same One, exhibiting to the assembled spectators at Olympia his thigh of gold. and taming wild
beasts at a word of command. All this testifies to the wonder excited among his disciples by his sulwrior knowledge and to the religious Venera tion in which lie was held by them.
The exact character of Ids own personal teach ings is a matter dispute. His name is men tioned only three times in the whole Aristotelian corpus, and two of the three passages are of doubtful authenticity; in the third we are en lightened by the remark that Alcithron flourished in the old age of Pythagoras. Both Plato and Aris totle speak fromently of Pythagoreans; they evi dently knew nothing definite of the views actually promulgated by Pythagoras himself. The main reason for this ignorance is to be found in the fact that Pythagoras committed nothing to writ ing. and every disciple strove to gain eredit for Lis own phase of Pytltagoreanistit by attributing it to the venerated master. whose ipse di.rit car ried so much weight. it is quite probable that the brotherhood founded by Pythagoras was not a philosophical coterie to Willa lie gave learned discourse on abstract mathematics and recondite philosophy. It was perhaps rather a religious cult in which primitive ideas of totemism and taboo were revived. We know that throughout Greece in his day there was a strong reaction against the newer national theology. The old clan and tribal deities had been long displaced by the Homeric gods. and yet these greater gods were not showing themselves able to save their devoted worshipers from the impending Persian peril. lu the deep depression and gloom that settled over the Hellenic world in prospect of an Oriental invasion, it was small wonder that the older cults should be revived and eagerly cultivated in the hope that the local deities might be of service in preserving Greek civilization. This motive no doubt accounted for the rapid spread of the many Greek mysteries in the sixth century B.C.