Pythagoras: Quick Facts

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Facts

Born	c.570 BCE • Sámos • ancient Greece
Died	c.490 BCE • Metapontum • Italy
Subjects Of Study	interval • number

Did You Know?

Almost all of the sources on Pythagoras' life and teachings date from long after his death, making the truth about him hard to discover.
Pythagoras was a philosopher before Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato.
Pythagoras's teachings may have discussed reincarnation - the transition of a soul from one body to another - long before Plato wrote about it.

Photos

Engraving of Pythagoras drawing a right triangle in the sand with a stick, surrounded by students and geometric objects, illustrating his mathematical theorem.

Marble bust of Pythagoras, the ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher, showing a bearded man with a head covering and calm expression.

Map of the Greco-Roman world highlighting the birthplaces of notable ancient mathematicians, marked with the pi symbol and labeled with their names. Cities such as Athens, Alexandria, Syracuse, and Miletus are shown around the Mediterranean, with modern country boundaries outlined. An inset provides detail for the region of Greece and western Anatolia.

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