Biography of Pythagoras

1
Hi, Im Pythagoras I was born about 569bc
on the Greek island of Samos, just off the coast
of what is now western Turkey. I died some 90
years later nearly 2,500 years ago. I travelled
far and wide visiting Egypt and old Babylon and,
some say, even India The Buddha was preaching
and Confucius was alive and well in China. In the
ancient world, this meant arduous and difficult
journeys to strange lands.
India?
Samos
Babylon
Samos
Egypt
2
Of course no one knows whether I looked like
this. But everyone thinks I had a beard Raphael
Sanzio painted me and my mates for Pope Julius II
in the early 1500s on a wall in the Vatican in
Rome. You can still see me down there on the
left with a beard and no hair! I did have a
birthmark on my thigh.
Xenophon
Socrates
Plato
Ptolemy
Diogenes
Heraclitus
Aristotle
Me
Euclid
3
I was a philosopher, a diplomat, a musician,
a prisoner and, some say, even a murderer. But
above all I was a mathematikoi in the secret
society I founded at Croton in what is now south
Italy.
was a philosopher, a diplomat,
4

• In Croton
• We ate no beans or meat
• We refused to wear clothes made from animal skin
  or hair
• We gave up all personal possessions
• We believed in reincarnation and we could recall
  the memories from our previous lives
• We believed women and men were equal
• We believed the Earth was the centre of the
  Universe
• We swore an oath of secrecy and loyalty
• We studied music, astronomy, geometry and
  numbers
• For us numbers and maths were reality, numbers
  and mathematics represented all nature.
• We discovered many things but I did not discover
  the theorem for which I am most famous that had
  been discovered by others before me...

was a philosopher, a diplomat,
5
The ancient Babylonians the Chinese the
Egyptians and the mathematicians of India all
knew that the square on the hypotenuse is equal
to the sum of the squares on the opposite two
sides. I wasnt even born when they were using
Pythagoras theorem.
was a philosopher, a diplomat,
From the Chou Pei and a Babylonian cuneiform
tablet
6
But we did discover that Ö2 is
irrational it cannot be represented by any
fraction. It just goes on for ever and ever! Ö2
1.414213562 For years we mathematakoi argued
such numbers were not possible. We had a big, big
row about it. One of us, Hippasus, ended up
floating upside down in the bay. Some said I
threw him off the cliffs in a fit of jealousy
others said he had broken our vow of secrecy. You
dont see his name in many history books. We also
said numbers have personalities. Odd numbers were
masculine. Even numbers were feminine. And
numbers like 6, which equals the sum of its
factors, 123, is perfect. For us
mathematakoi, maths was perfect.
was a philosopher, a diplomat,
7
But in the end our neighbours in Croton did
not like our secretive ways. Our commune was
attacked. Lots and lots of my friends died in the
attack. I fled to a place called Metaponteum. And
I died when a mob set fire to the commune where I
was living and doing maths.
was a philosopher, a diplomat,