2. Born: 570 BC in the island of
Samos.
Died: 495 BC in Metapontum
Nationality: Greek
3. Pythagoras’ Life
• He was born on 570 BC in the island of Samos.
• He traveled widely in his youth with his father, Mnesarchus,
who was a gem merchant.
• They settled in the homeland of his mother, Pythais, on the
island of Samos, where he studied with the philosopher
Pherekydes.
4. • He was introduced to mathematical ideas and astronomy
by Thales, and his pupil Anaximander in Miletus when he
was between 18 to 20 years old.
• He spent the next 22 years perfecting himself in
mathematics, astronomy, music, and was initiated into the
Egyptian Mysteries.
• He was 56 years old when he returned to his homeland.
• He died on 495 BC at the age of 75 in Metapontum.
5. The beliefs that Pythagoras held were:
1. That at its deepest level, reality is mathematical nature
2. That philosophy can be used for spiritual purification
3. That the soul can rise the union with divine
4. That certain symbols have a mystical significance
7. • In Astronomy Pythagoras taught that the Earth was a
sphere at the center of the universe.
• He recognized that the orbit of the moon was inclined to
the equator of the Earth, and he was one of the first to
realize that Venus as an evening star, was the same planet
as the morning star.
• He taught that the movement of the planets traveling
through the universe created sounds.
• He contributed to the knowledge of the Greek
philosophers by postulating that the Earth was spherical, a
huge departure from Anaximander’s model.
8. • Famously, he proposed this idea because he noticed that
ships disappear below the horizon when they sail away,
implying that the surface of the earth is curved.
• He also proposed that, if the moon and other celestial
bodies were spherical, then it made sense that the Earth
would be spherical too. He saw spheres as the perfect shape.
• He was the first ancient astronomer to suggest that there
was a harmony of the spheres, and that the movement of
the planets, sun, moon, and stars could be described by
whole numbers and mathematical precision.
• His beliefs eventually led to the Copernican theory of the
universe.
