When we talk about Pythagoras, out of many people with this name we usually mean a mathematician, after whom a theorem known to us from school is named. Now it is impossible to say which of the things associated with the name of Pythagoras he invented, and what his followers have already thought out. The information about the content of the teachings and biography of Pythagoras was rather contradictory even among the ancient authors. It is reliably known, however, that he founded an esoteric society and was venerated in it for many centuries.
Founding of the initiate union
Pythagoras (VI century BC) was from the island of Samos. He spent most of his life in Egypt and Babylon, learning wisdom from the priests. Upon his return to Hellas, he began to pass on the knowledge he had acquired to his students.
Pythagoras carefully selected them and created a system of initiation for them. The doctrine of the Pythagoreans was divided into two parts: what they taught the rest of the people, and what they should never disclose to the laymen.
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The open doctrine was the doctrine of the ideal structure of society. Pythagoras taught that a caste of sages should be at the head of the state, to which the people must unconditionally obey. Only they know what is needed for the common good of people.
To implement his ideas, Pythagoras went to great Greece, as the south of Italy colonized by the Greeks was called. There, Milo, the tyrant of the city of Croton, in the past a famous athlete, a multiple winner of all four common Greek games (except the Olympic, there were three more, became his devoted student. Milo allowed Pythagoras to put his teachings into practice.
Faith of the Pythagoreans
The closed doctrine of the Pythagoreans was based on the belief in the harmony of numbers, reflected in the laws of mathematics and music. In the form of the stated philosophical system, it has not reached us. Their model of the universe is amazing: the earth is not stationary, but revolves, together with the sun and other luminaries, around a fire located in the center of the universe. The Pythagoreans were the first to teach about the sphericity of the earth.
The Pythagoreans believed in the transmigration of souls. This suggests that Pythagoras communicated with Indian brahmanas. Joining the Pythagorean brotherhood implied acquaintance with the secret teaching on how to restore and preserve knowledge about your personal reincarnations. Abstaining from meat and beans was also considered an important condition.
Property in the brotherhood of the Pythagoreans was considered common. At the same time, native people who were not initiated into the brotherhood became strangers to the Pythagoreans.
Scattering of pupils
After Milo died (an unusual death is attributed to him, as the hero of the myth), the people of Croton rebelled against Pythagoras and his supporters, who had taken great power for themselves. The Master moved to the city of Metapontus and died there around 500 or 490 BC. e. his disciples were partly killed, partly scattered throughout the Greek world.
But now there were already many Pythagorean brotherhoods. Everywhere they carefully preserved, passed on and replenished their innermost knowledge, but were reluctant to share it with the uninitiated. But they invariably attributed all their discoveries to their great teacher. For example, the famous theorem was named after him several centuries after the death of Pythagoras. The names of the outstanding Pythagoreans (except for Philolaus), unlike other ancient philosophical schools, we hardly know.
The mystery of the Pythagoreans surrounded. The Pythagorean brotherhoods were of an aristocratic nature and tried to influence the politics of the ancient states. The last known brotherhood was founded in the Roman Empire in the 1st century. n. e. Apollonius of Thean.
