HEROES OF SCIENCE
PYTHAGORAS OF SAMOS
This ancient Greek polymath’s life is shrouded in mystery
WORDS JOELPHICK
DID YOU KNOW?
The name ‘Pythagoras’ means ‘he who was announced by the Oracle’ and relates to the god Apollo
Born in Samos, Greece, around 570 BCE, Pythagoras is said to be the first pure mathematician who claimed everything is a number.
Although he’s most famous for his mathematical theorem, he also made extraordinary developments in astronomy, geometry and the theory of music. He founded a philosophical and religious school in Crotone, Italy, where he taught that the whole cosmos is a scale and a number.
While playing his lyre, an ancient Greek stringed instrument, he discovered that the vibrating strings created a beautiful sound when the ratios of the lengths of the wires were whole numbers, and that this was also true of other instruments. He combined numbers with his understanding of the planets, and this resulted in him believing that when the planets were in harmony, it created beautiful music humans were incapable of hearing. He concluded that mathematics and music were interconnected and that knowledge of one area led to an understanding of the other. He also believed that music had healing properties, and would often play his lyre for the sick and dying.