Pythagoras the Mathemagician

by Karim El Koussa

  [8] It is traditionally known that Pythagoras was born on the isle of Samos. Neanthes, from his side, claimed that Pythagoras was in fact born in Tyre (Sur), a coastal city of Phoenicia. Iamblichus, in his book Life of Pythagoras (p.3), stated that Pythagoras was born in Sidon (Saydoun), also a coastal city of Phoenicia.

  [9] Theatres developed colossally later during the Hellenistic period.

  [10] There are many different explanations for the derivation of the name. It is suggested that the name ‘Pythagoras’ came from ‘Beth-agor’ which means in Phoenician, the ‘house of the mountain god’ or ‘house of the red soil’ (clay). It could be true since Pythagoras was considered as the son of the God Al-Apollo. Some have strangely suggested that the name is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘Pita-guru’ which means the ‘house of the spiritual Master’ or ‘the spiritual Master of the assembly’ (school). To others, as it is known traditionally, Pythagoras is a derivation from ‘Pythia-goras’ which means the ‘Speaker of (like) Pythia’ or the ‘Pythian Announcer’.

  [11] The ritual of Wine and Bread was first mentioned in recorded and biblical history with Melkisedek (Melchisedeck) who was the Phoenician priest of Al, the God the Most High. It was considered as the most sacred Phoenician religious and spiritual rite of all times. Melkisedek was recognized as the outstanding teacher of righteousness and the King-priest of the city of Ur-Shalim, later known as Jerusalem.

  [12] It is widely believed that Pythagoras had two brothers by the names of Eunostus or Eunomus, and Tyrrhenus or Tyrenus. No sisters of Pythagoras were ever mentioned by historians.

  [13] Eshmun was the Phoenician god of medicine. His Greek counterpart was Askelepius.

  [14] In the myths of many ancient civilizations, water was considered as the primeval substance of creation.

  [15] Kabirim is a Phoenician word that means the Elder Ones, thus the Wisest. The Seven Kabirim often mentioned in the Phoenician history were: Enoch, Melki-Sedek, Melkart, Sanchoniaton, Kadmus, Mochus, and Eshmun.

  [16] The Tom, as called by Mochus, was later copied by the Greek scientist Democritus who called it Atom, referring to the particle of matter that cannot be decomposed. With the advance of science, Mochus was proved right that the Atom is in fact decomposable.

  [17] Some historians claim that Pythagoras received knowledge directly from Mochus. We, however, strongly doubt that.

  [18] Was it Abra-om the Aramean wanderer, or Abraham, mentioned in the Old Testament, a minor Initiate from Ur, a Chaldean village near Babylon? Are they the same and one person? Only time will tell!

  [19] The Hebrews narrated a strange story in their Old Testament about the existence of a Temple built by Solomon the son of David. They alleged that Solomon had received assistance from King Ahiram of Sur, and his expert Mason, Hiram Abiff. What might be true though is that the Hebrew people were only nomads and used to worship their national god YHWH inside a movable tent. Long before that time, the Phoenicians and their brothers, the Egyptians, were both great nations of Sacred Builders.

  [20] Herodotus, one of the great Historians who lived between 485 – 425 BCE, asserted seeing the whole Temple of Baal-Melkart at Sur, and that was surely after Pythagoras’ time.

  [21] Some early biographers and historians claimed that Pythagoras received a letter of recommendation from Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos, to Amasis the Egyptian Pharoah, who then introduced him to the Egyptian priests. This letter, they maintained, was not effective, for Pythagoras was not accepted at Memphis or Heliopolis, but at Diospolis (Thebes)! We however do not believe in this historic analysis. First of all, Pythagoras left Samos to Phoenicia and then to Egypt before Polycrates came to power in Samos. Secondly, he was surely admitted at Memphis.

  [22] Esoteric Physiology is an old system that shows the centers of force in the body of the human being. It is a system similar to the Hindu Yoga. These centers are called Chakras, and they are seven, distributed along the spinal cord. Two currents of energy, a positive and a negative, surround them.

  [23] Canopic Jars were four and used by ancient Egyptians during the rituals of mummification of usually a priest or a pharaoh. These funerary vases of elongated form were made from various materials, including calcite (Egyptian alabaster), limestone, pottery, wood, and bronze. Each extracted organ would be placed in its own specified jar and never all organs in one. The covers of the jars would sometimes be modeled, or painted, to look like the head of Anubis, the divine embalmer, and, some other times, like the face of the deceased.

  [24] The Ten Commandments of Moses recorded in the Hebrew Old Testament do actually exist in the Negative Confessions mentioned in the Egyptian Book of the Dead and found in the Papyrus of Ani, 19th Dynasty sometimes around 1250 BCE. In addition, the Ten Commandments could be traced way back to Hammourabi and his Code, sometimes around the 18th century BCE.

  [25] The Persians proclaimed the founding of Babylon to Semiramis, the legendary beautiful Queen warrior. Some historians accredited it to the Akkadians (2350-2150 BCE). Others claimed it to the Kushites. However, many believe that Hammourabi (Ammour-abi), the Father of the Amorites, founded Babylon or Babel around the 18th century BCE. The Amorites were Canaanite nomads from the northern-western mountainous regions of the Land of Canaan. Some claimed them to be of European origin. Yet, there is no truth in that. Ancient Egyptians had described them as people of great stature like the Enochians (the sons of Anak the Canaanite) with fair skins, light hair, blue eyes, curved or hooked noses, and pointed beards. It is most likely that the Amorites, of Canaanite origin, had interlinked socially and physically, with the neighboring Indo-European or Caucasian tribes.

  [26] With the Chaldeans, there occurred a strong deviation of the Kabbalah from its original Phoenician source. Later on, a cast of Chaldean priests from Babylon might have carried the tradition to the Land of Canaan when they occupied it with the help of the Persians and their propaganda. They became later known as the Hebrews, the Ebraniyine, or the Abarou el-naher, meaning those who crossed the river. They changed it once again and deformed it even more to fit their new culture in a new land. It then became the esoteric and symbolic interpretation of their Old Testament having the Zohar, a classical form of it, at its core.

  [27] The term Magi is the plural form of magus. Magi were priests of ancient Persia.

  [28] Historians believe that Pythagoras left Samos to Egypt and later to southern Italy because he refused the tyranny of Polycrates and his government. This is not historically correct. First of all, when Pythagoras left Samos the first time to go to Phoenicia and Egypt, Polycrates was not yet in power in Samos. Second, when he returned in 520 BCE, after almost thirty years, Polycrates had been killed two years earlier.

  [29] The abacus is an ancient instrument, most probably Chinese. It has a frame with wires along which beads are slid for calculation.

  [30] It was probably Mount Kerkis.

  [31] Pythagoras was the first man in Greece, and around the Mediterranean basin, to use the term Philo-Sophia which means Philosopher, the lover of wisdom, or intimate friend of wisdom. Thus, he was the first true Philosopher.

  [32] Demigods were very important in Greek mythology. The term Demigod is used to identify people for whom one parent was a god and the other was human. They were half mortals and half gods. Some were heroes, but not all of them. Among the most famous demigods were Achilles, Hercules (Heracles), Orpheus, Phaeton, Alexander the Great, Harmonia, and Niobe.

  [33] It is most likely that the number of fish that Pythagoras predicted was exactly 153. Pythagoras was known for his knowledge of mathematics and regarded 153 as a sacred number. It is used in a mathematical ratio called the measure of the fish. It produces a mystical symbol of the Sign of the Fish — the junction of two circles which generates a fish-like shape. This was an ancient Pythagorean symbol and used by early Christians to represent their faith. Could that miracle be true, or just a representation of a sacred geometrical formula? No one really knows!

  [34] Dorians wer
e an Indo-European population of the North. They migrated to Greece in the 13th Century BCE. They founded Dorid and colonized Rhodes and some of the Isles of the Aegean Sea. For instance, Crete and Sparta were Dorian centers. In Crotona, Italy, their artistic and civil influence took up an important role.

  [35] In Greek Mythology, the Muses are nine sister-goddesses presiding over harmony, arts, and sciences.

  [36] Some suggest that this incident happened over the river Nessos.

  [37] According to historical records, the priest Abaris, the Hyperborean, joined the Pythagorean community at later stage. Hyperboreans were a mysterious people that had probably originated from the mountains of the northern region, the birthplace of Apollo. They are said to have built the first temple of Apollo at Delos. Some say that they are the ancestors of the Celts.

  [38] The Golden Verses were written later by one of the Pythagorean masters, sometime around the fourth century BCE. His name remains unknown to us. Yet they, undoubtedly, reflect to a big extent, the spirit of Pythagoras, his teachings, and of course, the essence of the Pythagorean lifestyle. The Golden Verses are presented in seventy one lines. The reader can get to know a big part in this book. The teachings of Pythagoras, here stated, are from different sources, including the Golden Verses.

  [39] Some have suggested that the meeting between Pherecydes and Pythagoras happened on the isle of Delos, near Syros, but there is no such historical proof.

  [40] The Pentagon, or the State Department in the United States of America, is undoubtedly based on the Pythagorean idea of the Cycle of the Pentagon. Of course, the US State Department is ideologically built not with the idea of commanding the movements of the Kosmos, but rather, those of Earth. From here, came the idea of building an American Empire.

  [41] In almost all Ancient Religions, the male was represented as the God-Energy descending from Heaven (▼) and impregnating the female, Earth (▲). One of the most famous examples to such an archaic belief could be seen with Giaia, Earth, and Zeus, the Most High God of Ancient Greece. In Greek Mythology, Zeus has been often regarded for his divine insemination of Giaia. And so, Zeus made life beat in her bosom.

  [42] It could possibly be Hermotimus of Clazomenae, a Greek philosopher who first proposed, before Anaxagoras, as per Aristotle, the concept of the mind being primary in the cause of change. He declared that physical entities are constant, while the mind instigates the variation.

  [43] Pythagoras named the Sun and its rotating planets ‘small universe’, which is what we call today ‘Solar System’.

  [44] Some historians say his daughter was called Myia, but the general knowledge is that she was named Damo.

  [45] Some historians claim that Pythagoras fled the White City to Metapontium where he found refuge. Returning after the attack had ended he later died at the Temple of the Muses after fasting for forty days. We, however, do not deem this historical claim to be logical and acceptable. A strong character and sublime visionary such as Pythagoras could have never fled the White City, and everything he had lived for. His magnificent contribution to humankind proved the courageous man he was in facing trials and danger. Based on his ideology and principles, Pythagoras considered death as a passage to a better life. He could not therefore fear death, since he considered the ‘Psyche’ to be immortal. Moreover, the alleged forty days fasting period is just a symbolic idea.

  [46] Works on Cosmology, Construction of the Universe, Theory of Numbers, Theorem of the Golden Mean, and On Virtue are often accredited to her.

  [47] Some historians and modern thinkers believe that Theano was not the wife of Pythagoras but rather the name given to his much beloved school. In accordance, these historians assume that his children were but his favorite disciples. However, at the lack of credible proof, such an assumption is to be discarded as untrue.