Pythagoras
Was a Greek philosopher who lived from about 569 BC to 500 BC. The dates of birth and death are not real accurately known. A commonly accepted Date is 570 BC.
Pythagoras is said to have been raised to the Sublime Degree of a Master Mason. Pythagoras was probably not a Mason as we understand Freemasonry today but he was well versed in the secret Mysteries, at least some of which are used in Freemasonry today. If Freemasonry existed at that time, and perhaps it did, Pythagoras would probably have been a member as he was a great student, teacher and Freethinker. He seems to have been way ahead of his time.
Pythagoras traveled through Asia, Africa and Europe.
Pythagoras spent a lot of time studying the topic of Geometry, which is also known as Masonry, or Freemasonry.
Pythagoras solved the 47th Problem of Euclid and is said to have called out "Eureka' after which he sacrificed a Hecatomb of cattle to God. (An odd comment since Euclid is considered to have been born between 325 BC and 300 BC. Nobody really knows.)
Masons, like Pythagoras, are to be lovers of the Arts and Sciences.
The Pythagorean Theorem is named for Pythagoras. It is as follows:
c^2 = a^2 + b^2 where ^2 means squared, or multiplied by itself.
The 3,4,5 triangle is probably the best known where the legs of the triangle have lengths of 3 and 4 and the the hypotenuse has a length of 5 so 5^2 = 3^2 + 4^2 or 25 = 9 + 16.
It is used to solve for any side of a right triangle when the other two sides are known.
This contribution to the world is now taught in probably every school in the world. At one time this knowledge would have been kept a secret. Early Masons who knew this secret mathematics would have kept it a secret since it would have permitted them to build better buildings than those who did not know it, thus they could expect better pay for their knowledge and expertise.
It is said that Pythagoras never wrote anything down and never offered any proofs which caused us to learn of this from Euclid who wrote 13 books called the "Elements" about plane geometry, and geometric and abstract algebra. Pythagoras traveled to the East to study and later returned to the west to teach. He was a preacher of of mystic doctrines who was on a spiritual and philosophic journey to God. At Kroton in southern Italy he established a religious community and a school of science where he protected his information and veiled it from the general public via a system of initiation, somewhat like Freemasonry. (See MPD_0040 for source information)
Also see for more information:
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Pythagoras.html
(20100715)
http://www.nndb.com/people/773/000087512/ (20100721)
http://www.thebigview.com/greeks/pythagoras.html (20100721)
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Printonly/Pythagoras.html (20100721)