| SOME VIEWS AND QUOTATIONS
Many Renaissance humanists regarded Pythagoras as the father of
exact sciences. The earth moved around the sun. Copernicus calls
this a Pythagorean idea. Leibnitz, a well-known German mathematician
admired Pythagoras and regarded himself as part of Pythagorean traditions.
An ancient commentator, Aulus Gellius gave an ingenious explanation
of Pythagoras’ view to abstain from beans. It did not mean
what it seemed to mean literally. In earlier times, it was believed
that consuming beans had heightened effect on libido, hence Pythagoras’
sought ban on beans as it was in fact related to sexual activity.
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ABOUT BIRTH OF PYTHAGORAS :
He was the son of a wealthy engraver and merchant Mnesarchos, but some insists that he was the son of Apollo, the ancient Greek God of music, poetry and dance. The great philosopher and thinker of the 20th century Bertrand Russell had to say this about his birth: I leave the reader to take his choice between these alternatives.
ARISTOTLE WROTE :
‘Pythagorean having been brought up in the study of mathematics, thought that things could be represented by numbers …and that the whole cosmos consists of a scale and a number’. |
Miracles and legends about Pythagoras were heard all over Magna-Graecia "He was seen at two places at the same time". "When
he crossed a stream, the stream rose out of the dead and greeted
Pythagoras Hail Pythagoras. The Crotonians did not like this, they
ridiculed Pythagoreans, and called them superstitious, filthy vegetarians.
Xenophanes, the poet and singer said about the doctrine of transmigration
of souls, "A small dog was being thrashed by some one, seeing
this Pythagoras rushed there and said, ‘stop beating, for the
dog lives in the soul of my friend, I know him by his voice.’
From Croton, Pythagoras escaped to Metaponteum. Most of the authors
said he died there. Some said he committed suicide. But Iamblichus,
an authority on Pythagoras said, "Pythagoras escaped to Metaponteum
but after some time, he returned to Croton and lived there for a
longer period even after 480 B.C." |
