The Peculiar Truth about Pythagoras’ Weird Life

• Even those of us with no proficiency at mathematics have probably heard of the Pythagorean theorum. It’s a fundamental geometry formula involving right triangles, and the man who conceived it was an Ancient Greek polymath named Pythagoras. He lived from 570 to 495 BC.

• He was an early adopter of the belief that earth is round, and he identified Venus as the evening star. He also conceived of the music of the spheres, the theory that the planets produce music that humans cannot hear, and believed in metempsychosis, an ancient belief that equates to reincarnation.

• Despite his advanced intelligence, Pythagoras’ personal life was quite bizarre.

• He was born on the Aegean island of Samos. At age 35 (maybe earlier), he traveled to Egypt and Babylon where he studied with priests who tutored him in numbers and astronomy.

• By age 40, he established a teaching commune at Croton, a city in Italy. Pythagoras became what we would today consider a cult leader. He called his brotherhood the Semicircle.

• Joining Pythagoras’ cult meant engaging in strange behaviors. They included: Abandoning all personal possessions. Leaving behind all family. Studying and memorizing Pythagoras’ philosophies. New members had to vow to never utter a word for five full years. Only after that were they even permitted to meet Pythagoras.

• The Semicircle had two types of followers. Mathematikoi were students of science and philosophy. Akousmatikoi engaged in rituals and spiritual purification.

• Pythagoras taught math and called all numbers sacred. Everything in nature, he claimed, had a basis in mathematics. Numbers ruled the universe.

• Pythagoras maintained odd rules for his cult. They included the wearing of only white linen clothing - purity symbolism - and strict vegetarianism. Eating meat was also impure. Pythagoras so opposed killing that he not only refused meat but also avoided butchers and hunters.

• He also outlawed the consumption of beans. Fava beans, kidney beans, any kind of beans. He considered them evil, that they somehow trapped men’s souls.

• Pythagoras preached metempsychosis to his brotherhood and claimed to have remembered four (or five) of his past lives. They included being the son of the Greek god Hermes, a warrior during the Trojan War, a philosopher, and a fisherman. In some accounts, he also recalled being a female courtesan.

• Near the end of his life, one of his students upended everything.

• A member of the brotherhood named Hippasus made a staggering mathematical discovery. Pythagoras had preached that everything in the universe could be condensed and defined by numbers. However, Hippasus showed that a line drawn diagonally inside a square was not the same measurement as the sides. He had discovered what is now known as irrational numbers.

• Pythagoras’ mathematical belief in universal constants - the basis for his cult - was shattered.

• So he banned Hippasus from the brotherhood and, although it could never be confirmed, many believed Pythagoras had the man killed by drowning.

• Residents of Croton were not pleased with Pythagoras’ cult. They hated the Semicircle and their odd lifestyle. So they set fire to the brotherhood’s headquarters and even murdered some followers.

• Pythagoras ran away. He lived a few more years until age 75.

• He influenced philosophers like Aristotle and Thoreau as well as many architects throughout the ages. His mathematical principles shaped science. His vegetarian lifestyle would seem common today.

• But his hatred of beans was pretty weird.