Pythagoras: A Life

First published in 1979, Pythagoras aims to make available to a wide range of readers the events of Pythagoras’s life and his theories, and to present him not primarily as a mathematician and scientific genius nor as a poetical and mystical phenomenon but as a man of his times subject to diverse influences. Today, Pythagoras is best remembered as a mathematician and for his mystical religious beliefs but his seminal influence as a thinker has been largely misunderstood.

Peter Gorman considers that the mystical and esoteric interpretations of Pythagoras’ work have now been vindicated and that modern attempt to describe him in terms of more primitive cultures have been based upon mistaken ideas about Greek mentality and the civilization of the sixth century BC. The concise chronological narrative precludes a more comprehensive discussion of this civilization, exemplified by such fascinating figures as Sappho and Ibycus. Mr Gorman’s lucid account, however, allows Pythagoras, his times and influence to emerge more clearly than in many larger works and in a manner comprehensible to the general reader as well as to the classical scholar.