Pythagoras and His Cult
By Park Jun San (Y9)
Pythagoras’ theorem, x 2 +y 2 =z 2 , in a right-angled triangle, where z is the hypotenuse; basic knowledge, a simple formula devised by an un-simple mathematician. Pythagoras himself was a rather mysterious man, and even had followers; a cult of Pythagoras.
The Pythagoreans have both been referred to by famous philosophers Aristotle and Plato throughout their
philosophical writings, and have come down to us through antiquity. Yet still the Pythagoreans are a mystery. In the modern world, we might consider a group of individuals who worship mathematical harmony as a little crazy. But this kind of behaviour was not uncommon in Ancient Greece, where philosophers were known to attribute extreme importance to certain philosophical foundations. Thales of Miletus, for example, claimed that water was the foundation of the whole universe. Socrates, through his philosophical studies, eventually came to the conclusion that there was a daimon (a heavenly voice) inside his head, compelling him to pursue true knowledge no matter what the cost. However, the lengths that the Pythagoreans went set them apart from these great philosophers. They outright worshipped their philosophical beliefs and mathematical principles; they even sacrificed an ox after discovering the 47 th Proposition of Euclid.
One of the central beliefs of the Pythagoreans was that they believed in the ‘transmigration of the soul’, including human souls into animal bodies. Perhaps this is why Pythagoras strongly forbade the consumption of meat, making him and his followers one of the earliest known vegetarians. Pythagoras also forbade the consumption of beans. The reason is not entirely known, although some suspect that Pythagoras believed that part of a human soul was lost whenever passing gas. He and his followers also wore a specific garb; abstinence of
flesh was insisted upon, although this seemed to be a later addition.
The Pythagoreans were extremely superstitious and mythical. Much like the Hindu understanding of reincarnation, they believed that the human soul was trapped in an endless cycle of death and reincarnation, and were taught that
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