Birth
Place: Samos
Time: 1st year of the 50th Olympiad (580 BC)

Parents
Father: Mnesarchus
Mother: Pythais

Siblings
Eunomus, Tyrrhenus (both older than Pythagoras)

Occupation of Parents
His father was a signet engraver (goldsmith).

Economic Status
Prosperous

Family Status
Wife: Theano (daughter of Brontinus of Croton)
Children: He had a daughter, Damó, and a son, Télauges.

Pythagoras' Teachers
Pherecydes, Hermodamas

Travels
As a young and scholarly individual, he traveled to all places that had religious and scientific centers. The tyrant of Samos, Polycrates, recommended Pythagoras through a letter to Pharaoh Amasis. He also came into contact with Chaldean religious leaders in Babylon and Magi (Magi were individuals with some scientific knowledge, mass psychology, and propaganda skills).

Initiation
During his travels outside Greece, he was initiated into all the Mysteries and Rituals, including those of Egypt. When he returned to Greece, he was initiated into all the Secret Doctrines (Greek Mysteries) and served as Hierophant in all the sacred temples. At the end of his initiation cycle, and before he moved to the Greek colony of Croton in Magna Graecia (Southern Italy) to establish his school ("Omakoeion"), he went to Crete, where he, along with the priest Epimenides, underwent the highest Minoan Mysteries at the Idaean Cave.

Appearance
He had Apollonian features (blond hair with blue eyes). He was exceptionally handsome, serious, and dignified.

Pythagoras’ Beliefs
Metempsychosis: Pythagoras believed that at one point he had lived as Aethalides, the son of Hermes, and that Hermes gave him the permission to ask for anything he wanted, except for immortality. As Aethalides, he requested to retain the memory of his past lives, regardless of whether he existed in a living or non-living state. Later, during the Trojan War, he lived as Euphorbus, who was killed by Menelaus (Iliad, Book 15, 59). Afterward, he was born as Ermōtimos, who, wishing to prove his words, went to the sanctuary of Apollo at Branchidae and showed a shield that belonged to Menelaus, which Menelaus had left as an offering. Then he was reborn as Pyrrhus, a fisherman from Delos, and finally as Pythagoras.

Reincarnation: He also mentioned his wanderings as animals and plants, as well as his suffering in the Underworld.

Diet: Most philosophers who wrote about Pythagoras argued that he did not eat anything that had a soul (animals, fish).

Writings
"Paeideutikon," "Politikon," "Physikon," and the "Mystical Discourse." The "Mystical Discourse" was a book containing his secret teachings, meant for the inner circle of his students within his school.

His Teachings
He engaged with the numerical perspective of geometry and medicine (he said that health is the preservation of being, and illness is decay). He defined musical intervals as they are known throughout the world today. When he discovered that the square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other sides, he celebrated it with a hundred sacrifices (he sacrificed one hundred oxen).

He divided human life into four periods, each lasting twenty years. These four periods corresponded to the four seasons of the year, starting with spring.

The principle of all things is the unit, from which the indefinite pair (duality) emerges. From the unit and the pair, numbers emerge. From numbers, points, and consequently lines. From lines, planar shapes, and from these, solids. Based on solids, perceptible bodies are formed, which consist of four elements: Fire (tetrahedron), Earth (hexahedron), Air (octahedron), Water (icosahedron). The transformation and transmutation of these elements create the spherical world, with the Earth in the center, which is also spherical and enclosed. Balance in this world is maintained by light and darkness, hot and cold, dry and wet. Depending on the shift of these forces, we experience the four seasons. When heat prevails, it is summer; when cold prevails, it is winter. When there is equilibrium, we have spring and autumn. The same applies to the day (in six-hour periods, starting at dawn, which is analogous to spring) and to the two equinoxes and two solstices. He argued that the most beautiful of all shapes is the sphere among solids and the circle among planes.

Pythagorean Oath: "...by our soul, I swear, I will offer the sacred Tetractys, the eternal nature of the cosmos."

Sacred Tetractys: This is the sacred symbol of the Pythagoreans. It is the mathematical model with which the All-Creator Mind created the universe.

Levels of the Sacred Tetractys:

1, 2, 3, 4

Point, Line, Surface, Solid

Number, Shape, Solid, Motion of Solids

First Dimension, Second Dimension, Third Dimension, Fourth Dimension

Fire, Earth, Air, Water

Tetrahedron, Hexahedron, Octahedron, Icosahedron

Vernal Equinox, Summer Solstice, Autumnal Equinox, Winter Solstice

Man, Daimon, God, All-Creator Mind

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter

Dawn, Noon, Evening, Midnight

Body, Spirit, Intellect, Mind

Sensation, Belief, Science, Ideas

Child, Adolescent, Man, Elder

Man, Family, Village, City (State)

The Sun and other stars are gods (because they move swiftly), as they represent the warm element, the source of life. The Moon is non-luminous and receives light from the Sun. There is a connection between gods and humans, as humans partake in the warmth. The (life-giving) rays of the Sun pass through everything via the ether, and thus life exists everywhere. Anything that participates in warmth is considered alive, thus plants are also alive. However, life is different from the soul; not everything alive has a soul. The soul is a part of the ether (both warm and cold), and thus it remains immortal.

The animals that are born and reproduce come from each other through sperm. The sperm is a drop from the brain, which contains warm vapor. When the drop enters the womb, the serum, the fluid, and the blood will come from the brain (from which the flesh, bones, hair, and all the body are created), and from the vapor inside, the soul emerges. The first formative (oocyte) takes shape in forty days. The process (generation) is completed according to the ratios of harmony.

He divided the soul into three parts: the Mind (Nous), the Spirit (Phrén), and the Passion (Thymos). All living beings have Mind and Passion, but only humans have Spirit. The origin of the soul resides from the heart to the brain. The Spirit is located in the heart, the Mind in the brain, and the Passion in the will. The Mind is immortal, while the other parts are mortal. The soul is invisible, just like the reasons behind it, since the ether is also invisible. Hermes is the guardian and companion of souls. He leads the souls that leave the bodies, taking the pure ones to the highest place, while preventing the impure ones from approaching the pure ones and keeping them from drawing near each other, binding them with unbreakable bonds from the Furies.

The power of the oath embodies justice, hence the epithet of Zeus as "Oath-keeper." He urged his students to be so reliable that they would not need to swear oaths. He believed that, above all, one should honor their parents. Reverence and respect are found when one does not laugh excessively nor remain morose. They should practice memory and never do or say anything in anger. Through hymns and odes, they should honor the gods and virtuous people. The famous phrase "measure is best" belongs to him [Golden Verses, 38].

There was the expression "autós épha" (he said it), meaning that since he said it, there is no doubt; it is certainly true.

The definition of Number according to Pythagoras:

X*X > X+X

A number is when the product with itself is greater than the sum with itself. Numbers begin from 3.

1 is not a number but is considered the generator of numbers (1*1 < 1+1).

2 is the mean between the complete and the Number (2*2 = 2+2).

Aristotle also mentions this in "On the Heavens" (Bekker 268a 10-13).

The School
The name of his school was "Omakoeion." Prospective students had to take certain exams. Those who passed became students and deposited their wealth in a communal fund. The duration of the apprenticeship was five years. They had no right to ask questions, nor any other rights except to listen to the voice of Pythagoras. After the five years, they took special exams, and those who succeeded were promoted to the class of the "regulars" and were admitted into his house, where they could meet him face to face and hear him teach.

The etymology of "Omakoeion" is twofold. For the students, it meant "together + hearing" (they all learn through hearing), while for the regulars, it meant "eye + hearing" (the apprenticeship reaches the level where they can both see and hear the teacher). This distinction is also justified by the phrase he used: "what is common among friends is equality in friendship," meaning that the common things among friends create equality. If friends are at the level of apprenticeship, they are (roughly) equal. Similarly, those who are at the level of regulars are (roughly) equal. If we approach this from the opposite direction, we see that the common things create friendships (phileō = coming into contact with something familiar, touching the familiar).

He instructed his students to perform self-reflection every night before sleep by asking three questions:

a) Which natural law did I break?

b) What good did I do?

c) What should I have done and did not?

His school lasted for ten generations after Pythagoras.

The Death of Pythagoras
There are various versions of the end of Pythagoras. Some say that someone who had been rejected from the Omakoeion set fire to the house where Pythagoras and the regulars were gathered. Others say that he died in Metapontum, where he sought refuge in the sanctuary of the Muses, having remained without food or water for forty days. Another version says that he withdrew to Metapontum and ended his life through starvation because he no longer wanted to live after Cylo and others exterminated the Pythagoreans. Another account says he died in a war with the Syracusans, etc. In any case, the end of Pythagoras was in the 1st year of the 71st Olympiad (496 BC).