If I ask anybody: Do you know who Pythagoras was?, the most likely answer will be yes. And, no doubt, that person will be thinking that was the guy who discovered the Pythagorean theorem, that’s why it has his name. Ok, all this, apparently, is totally false.
Don't feel disappointed, there are so many legends around the Pythagora’s life, and, from my point of view, much more interesting.The first biography of Pythagoras was written by Iamblichus, 800 years after Pythagoras death. At the beginning of the book, Iamblichus presents Pythagoras as a superior, divine-like soul, a companion of Apollo, which has been sent down to us in this world. He described him as a stable ‘balance’ of soul and body, a freedom from perturbation. Yes, yes, yes… seemingly, Pythagoras was considered something like a demigod.
Pythagoras travelled to Egypt and he ended up in Italy. There, as a teacher, Pythagoras taught the tranquillity of soul and body to his followers, were you thinking that they just worked with maths?
If you had wanted to belong to his group, didn’t matter if you were a man or a woman as long as you have followed strict instructions as having a balanced diet, without feeding on animals; must dispossess of your possessions; have to forget about the disagreements and conflicts in domestic and social relations; and, if you had been catalogued as an ‘Acusmatici’, you were not allowed to talk or voice your ideas.
Yes, too much information about the Pythagoras’ dark side, but sorry not sorry, there is something darker in his story, related with Hippasus, the man who perished in the sea as an impious person.
Hippasus belonged to the Pythagorean Brotherhood, he started as an 'acusmatici', so he was not allowed to talk or think about any maths problem, he just could listen. After some years, he was promoted to 'Mathcmatici', from that moment he was able to conjecture and try to prove them. That was what he had done. In Iamblicous’ book it is explained that Hippasus has divulged and described the method of forming a sphere from twelve pentagons. And I didn’t mention it before, but they had a vow of silence. For that reason, the Pythagorean Brotherhood punished Hippasus by throwing him to the sea. Apparently, that one wasn't the first time: The same thing is said by the Pythagoreans to have befallen the person who first divulged the theory of incommensurable quantities (IAMBLICHUS' LIFE OF PYTHAGORAS, p.47).
I'm definitely sure that from now on, when someone says Pythagoras name, you will never think about the theorem in the first place.
Maybe, at this moment you are thinking ‘WTF Pythagoras?’, and yes, it’s the commonest reaction. But, keep in mind that hadn't been found any writing by him. Besides, a portion of a 4000 year old Babylonian tablet (c. 1900 B.C.E.), now known as Plimpton 322 lists columns of numbers (triples) that satisfy the pythagoras equation, about 1500 years before Pythagoras birth. And, what’s more, the first Pythagoras biography had been written eight hundred years after his death, based on word of mouth, and they said that he was something like a god. Also, while he was alive, when the Pythagorist wished to denote him, they called him “divine”. If you are asking how they denominated him after his death, the answer is “that man”.
Thanks to this information we know that he passed away, so we can conclude that he wasn’t a god, couldn't we? Added to this, his death has an unexpected part and another not so much.
In his book, Iamblicous mentioned someone called Cylon the Crotonian, who held the first place among the citizens for birth, renown, and wealth. Apparently, he had the greatest desire of being made a partaker of the Pythagoric life. But, otherwise, he was a severe, violent and turbulent man, and of tyrannical manners; so the elderly Pythagoras said no, and it wasn’t very wise. Cylon got very angry, and what do you think a severe, violent and turbulent man does when he is really angry? Yes, violently harass. I think that this was the expected part, someone who thinks he is “divine” and superior to the others, meeting someone violent who believes himself powerful and the owner of everything. Doubtless, a broken for a ripped.
The unexpected part of the legend is that Pythagoras was escaping from Cylon and his angry friends. He was so close to getting it, until he found himself in front of a field of beans, he stood frozen. And, what's the problem with that? Keep running Pythagoras!
No, he would not keep running, he was unwilling to trample upon even a single bean. No, I’m not kidding you. He likewise exhorted them to abstain from beans. Don’t ask me why, I’m not sure if I can answer it.
Aristotle appears to have assigned the true mystical reason why the Pvthagoreans abstained from bean; For he says, “that Pythagoras considered beans as a symbol of generation [i.e. of the whole of a visible and corporeal nature,] which subsists
according to a right line, and is without inflection; because a bean alone of almost all spermatic plants, is perforated through the whole of it, and is not obstructed by any intervening joints."
If you are pretending to explain a little bit more what's the meaning of that, as an argentinian model says: "I leave to your judgment".
コメント