CHAPTER V

TRAVELS IN GREECE; SETTLEMENT AT CROTONA

On his return to Samos he was recognized by some of the older inhabitants, who found that he had gained in beauty and wisdom, and achieved a divine graciousness; wherefore they admired him all the more. He was officially invited to benefit all men by imparting his knowledge publicly. To this he was not averse; but the method of teaching he wished to introduce was the symbolical one, in a manner similar to that in which he had been instructed in Egypt. This mode of teaching, however, did not please the Samians The source text had "Simians," which is a typo for "Samians," the inhabitants of Samos., whose attention lacked perseverance. Not one proved genuinely desirous of those mathematical disciplines which he was so anxious to introduce among the Greeks; and soon he was left entirely alone. This, however, did not embitter him to the point of neglecting or despising Samos. Because it was his home town, he desired to give his fellow-citizens a taste of the sweetness of the mathematical disciplines, in spite of their refusal to learn. To overcome them he devised and executed the following stratagem. In the gymnasium, he happened to observe the unusually skillful and masterful ball-playing of a youth who was greatly devoted to physical culture, but impecunious and in difficult circumstances. Pythagoras wondered whether this youth, if supplied with the necessaries of life and freed from the anxiety of supplying them, could be induced to study with him. Pythagoras therefore called the youth, as he was leaving the bath, and made him the proposition to furnish him the means to continue his physical training, on the condition that he would study with him easily and gradually, but continuously—so as to avoid confusion and distraction—certain disciplines which he claimed to have learned from the Barbarians In ancient Greek context, "Barbarians" refers to non-Greeks, likely here referring to the Egyptians and Babylonians. in his youth, but which were now beginning to desert him in consequence of the inroads of the forgetfulness of old age. Moved by hopes of financial support, the youth took up the proposition without delay. Pythagoras then introduced him to the rudiments of arithmetic and geometry, illustrating them objectively on an abacus, paying him three oboli (a small unit of Greek currency) as a fee for the learning of every figure. This was continued for a long time, the youth being incited to the study of geometry by the desire for honor, with diligence, and in the best order. But when the sage observed that the youth had become so captivated by the logic, ingeniousness, and style of those demonstrations to which he had been led in an orderly way, that he would no longer neglect their pursuit merely because of the sufferings of poverty, Pythagoras pretended poverty and consequent inability to continue the payment of the three-oboli fee. On hearing this, the youth replied that even without the fee he could go on learning and receiving this instruction. Then Pythagoras said, "But even I myself am lacking the means to procure food!" As he would have to work to earn his living, he ought not to be distracted by the abacus and other trifling occupations. The youth, however, loath to discontinue his studies, replied, "In the future, it is I who will provide for you, and repay your kindness in a way resembling that of the stork A reference to the fable of the stork, symbolizing filial piety and gratitude.; for in my turn, I will give you three oboli for every figure." From this time on, he was so captivated by these disciplines that, of all the Samians, he alone elected to leave home to follow Pythagoras, being a namesake of his, though differing in patronymic, being the son of Eratocles. It is probably to him that should be ascribed three books on Athletics, in which he recommends a diet of flesh, instead of dry figs, which of course would hardly have been written by the Mnesarchian Meaning "son of Mnesarchus," referring to Pythagoras himself. Pythagoras.

About this time, Pythagoras went to Delos, where he was much admired as he approached the so-called bloodless altar of Father Apollo and worshipped it. Then Pythagoras visited all the oracles. He dwelt for some time in Crete and Sparta, to learn their laws; and on acquiring proficiency therein he returned home to complete his former omissions. On his arrival in Samos, he first established a school, which is even now called the Semicircle of Pythagoras, in which the Samians now consult