PART7:  Pythagoras: The Man who gave the World Philosophy, Maths and Music, Secret Sects and Concentration Headaches to Kids!

This installment we’re going to look at the worlds most enigmatic founding father of our modern thought, Pythagoras.

I say enigmatic because even though there are many facts that scholars agree, he’s also surrounded by many myths.

The trouble arises not only from just how long ago he lived (6^th Century BC), but also because it seems most of his teachings were done as verbal lectures.

In fact the first written accounts of Pythagoras don’t appear until approx 200 years later. So many scholars argue that what is attributed to Pythagoras can actually be attributed to his followers as a school and later as a secret sect!

What the scholars do agree is that he was a learned man who was probably taught from many different cultures.

Myth states that he traveled the known world for 22 – 38years, seeking knowledge and gathering the secret esoteric secrets of the great cultures at the time.
There are stories of his trials for admittance into Egypt’s Mysteries Schools. They also speak of his capture by the King of Persia as a prisoner of war where he was sent to Babylon and used his time to study the hidden knowledge of the Magi.
It is said that he then traveled to India just after the passing of Gautama the Buddha, where he became known as Pitar Guru and Yavanacharya, the Ionain Teacher.

Whether he traveled or not, it is known that he settled in Crotana in Southern Italy, and created an institute that was part, religious brother and sisterhood, part philosophical school, part monastery and part political association.  This we know for certain, it is through this institute, that he left behind a way of life that urged temperance for all things.

Without getting into the more kookier stories, Pythagoras believed in a spiritual life lived in devotion to a philosophy, and has been attributed as the first to coin Philosophy as a term.  Pythagoras taught that the world had a harmony that could be rationalized through numbers and in turn so could music.

He is famous for being the person to introduce the Pythagoras theorem (derr) which states;

In a right-angled triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. Or:

a² + b² = c²

But it is now known that the Babylonians and Indians utilized this theory up to 800 years before!

What is said is that he, or his students, constructed the first proof.

He was also the first to call the heavens a Universe and believed that the earth and all the Planets were round.

Historians argue that the Pythagorean Society was the worlds earliest unpriestly co-operative of scientific studies.

It’s members raised scientific problems that were not answered for 1500 years, which if you ask me was quite irresponsible of them and they should apologise.

The Pythagorean’s are also so responsible for inventing the multiplication table, and I think if you ask any school child they would agree they should also apologise for that too!

His idea’s of a free and organized society, and that of expressing the world rationally are said to have been a direct influence on Plato and therefore on Greek Classic Philosophy.

But of course it doesn’t end there, the Pythagorean Brotherhood was quite a tough society to crack and those that belonged stuck to each other rather closely, almost as closely as they guarded it’s secrets.

After a small war between Crotana and one of it’s neighboring provinces, the locals that were not allowed entry into the society, had had enough.

Historians are not entirely sure what sparked it off (although I have a theory that they got wind about multiplication tables and 1500 year problems).

What they do know, is that a rather angry mob attacked the Pythagoreans and set some of them and the school alight. People died, further attacks happened to other Pythagoreans in other areas and the school was forced to close..

..and become a secret society!

The sect survived and flourished, often it seems with  members in positions of power that were also voted most likely to star in a book to be written by Dan Brown in 2400 years time.

Not much is known of when and how Pythagoras died, but his legend grew, until he became a religious figure in some areas in Greece and Italy.

His esoteric teachings, especially around numbers continued and are believed to be the basis of the Rosicrucian and Freemason Secret Societies today.

Enigmatic enough for you?

Thought so.

But the story doesn’t end there – As you will probably like to know why we have featured him today (apart from the fact that he’s a good read).

Pythagoras was the first person to see music in relation to mathematics, and the notes expressed in ratio to each other.

The story is that one-day Pythagoras, while watching Blacksmiths at work noticed that the striking of the hammers gave out clear concise notes and that different hammers striking together at the same time were of a pleasant harmonious sound.

Upon investigation he discovered a direct correlation with the ratios between the size of the hammers and the note produced when struck.

He discovered if you took 2 strings with the same degree of tension and divided one of them exactly in half, when plucked, the pitch of the shorter string would be exactly and octave higher than the longer string.

This allowed him to define the “consonant” acoustic relationships and it’s proportionate ratio between each note.

He went on to discover that certain ratios of length create the first four common intervals which we still use today as the building blocks of musical harmony.

• An octave
• A Perfect 5^th
• A Perfect 4^th
• A Major 3^rd

Side note: Greek music at the time was played on a scale of Five notes  Click Here to hear the Greek scale

Pythagoras also believed in the soothing power of music and sound to heal and stimulate. There is even a story told of him calming an aggressive drunk by playing him music to sooth his troubled soul.

For this contribution to music and making  this post our most enigmatic so far, Pythagoras, we tip our metaphorical hat in your direction (where ever your body lies secretly protected by your followers).

Don’t forget to check out part 8 where we look at the world fist automatic instrument. CLICK HERE

CLICK HERE for the previous chapter

CLICK HERE for the INDEX of History Of Electronic Music