Golden Thigh

Dear Classical Wisdom Reader,

I am the black sheep of the family. In a genus filled with mathematicians, scientists, and engineers, I was the drama kid, who liked ancient plays and art museums.

While my brothers were reciting Star Trek and building computers, I was prone to producing elaborate marionette shows, complete with delicate props and nonsensical storylines.

They absolutely loved spending long car rides doing fractions...

I did not.

Sure, some of my identity was formed in contrast, like so many kids no doubt, but more than that I think I was also a victim of a still surprisingly common idea: that you were either a right-brained or a left-brained sort of person. If you enjoyed the rational, you would not like the creative.

Of course, modern neuroscience has shown that the picture is far more complicated... but the ancients would probably have told us that already.

This was particularly true for the First Philosophers, the natural philosophers and thinkers who came before Socrates and who, in a flurry of philosophical ferment, tried to understand their world with what they had at their disposal.

What is amazing to us is how much their ideas on mathematics bordered on the mythic... especially when it came to Pythagoras. He was as much a myth as a man, his school as much a religious brotherhood as a place of learning.

Regular readers may recall that I discussed the daily life of his disciples on Monday’s mailing... Indeed, my brief foray into Pythagoras’ daily life prompted me to dedicated today’s issue to the legendary philosopher… Also, has anyone taken their solitary morning walk yet?

The Pythagorean conviction that mathematics underlies the order of the universe forever changed the way people thought. Plato became his great philosophical heir, and his influence can be traced through Neoplatonism to the Scientific Revolution itself, shaping the enduring conviction that mathematics is not merely a human invention, but a language in which the universe is written...

So, who was Pythagoras?

Read on below to discover our Mathematical Universe.

Classical Wisdom Members, you can enjoy the entire article, as well as our special Classical Wisdom Litterae Magazine, dedicated to mathematics, below. From the birth of Western philosophy with Thales and the paradoxes of Zeno to Archimedes the supervillain and the tragic death of Hypatia, we delve into the fantastic ancient world of mathematics.

Now...

Who was the man with the Golden Thigh?

Read on to discover the bizarre world of Pythagoras...

All the best,

Anya Leonard

Founder and Director
Classical Wisdom

P.S. Enjoy both our Member’s in-depth article as well as our Classical Wisdom Litterae magazine, dedicated to the ancient world of Mathematics… below!

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By Van Bryan

While Pythagoras has become known as one of the first revolutionaries in the field of philosophy and mathematics, surprisingly little is known about him, as he kept no writings of his own. All that we have learned about Pythagoras and his teachings has come to us indirectly through the writings of others.

What they say about Pythagoras is