Pythagoras (569-475 AC) was a Greek mathematician, philosopher and astronomer.
Born on the Island of Samos, he began as an athlete and competed successfully at age 17 in the Olympic Games.
History has recounted he underwent several different initiations with different traditions. These include the sage Pherecydes of Syros and various Mystery religions: the Hierophants of Phoenicia, the Hierogrammats of Egypt, the Mages of Chaldea, The Initiates of Mount Ida, the Thracian devotees of Orpheus and the High Priestesses of Delphi.
He went on to found an initiation school himself, at Crotone, in the south of Italy which also taught philosophy, religion and science. It was eventually destroyed by a popular uprising in the area but he went on to found other schools elsewhere in Italy and Greece.
According authors, he is seen as the originator of the Pythagorean Tradition - an oral tradition - and according to Diogène Laërce et Jamblique, the actual author of: “On Education”, “On Politics”, “On Nature” and “On the Gods or the Sacred Discourse”.
