The Unknown Legendary Ancestry of Greek Scientist Pythagoras
Source: GreekReporter.com

Pythagoras is one of the most famous figures from the ancient Greek world. His life is the subject of interest to many historians, and even children from all around the world learn about him and his mathematical concepts. However, the ancestry of Pythagoras is something which many people have never heard of before despite its fascinating legendary connections.
The records of Pythagoras’ ancestry
The ancestry of Pythagoras was not something which seems to have particularly concerned ancient Greeks. There are not many ancient records about this. One of our best sources about the ancestry of this Greek scientist is Pausanias.
Pausanias lived in the second century CE some 700 years after Pythagoras himself. Therefore, it goes without saying that his writings cannot be taken as a definitive historical record. Nonetheless, it does reveal what people in the second century CE believed about him. In the absence of any superior information, this is the best evidence we have about what Pythagoras’ ancestry really was.
Historians agree that Pythagoras was born around 570 BCE. According to Pausanias, he was the son of a man named Mnesarchus. This fact is also mentioned by earlier historians, such as Herodotus and Isocrates.
How the ancestry of Pythagoras is connected to Greek legends
What those earlier historians did not mention (at least, not in any surviving sources) is the fascinating lineage that Pythagoras’ father Mnesarchus had. According to Pausanias, the grandfather of Mnesarchus (in other words, the great-grandfather of Pythagoras) was a man named Hippasus.
The reason that Hippasus is so fascinating is because, according to Pausanias, he fought against one of the descendants of Heracles. He was the mighty Greek hero who engaged in twelve incredible labors, fighting monsters such as the Hydra and a lion with impenetrable skin. This famous Greek hero had several sons in the stories of Greek mythology.
From one of these sons came the man named Temenus just a few generations later. He was an important figure in Greek legend. During an event called the Return of the Heracleidae, he led some of Heracles’ descendants in a conquest of certain important areas of Greece. This event also involved the invasion of a Greek people known as the Dorians.
Hippasus against Rhegnidas
Temenus conquered Argos and founded the dynasty which ruled that kingdom for generations. One of his sons, Perdiccas I, went on to found Macedon. Conflict between the descendants of Heracles and the other Greeks continued for many decades, according to legend.
The grandson of Temenus was a man named Rhegnidas. From Argos, he invaded a region of the Peloponnese called Phlius. Pausanias reveals the following:
“Some of the Phliasians were inclined to accept the offer of Rhegnidas, which was that they should remain on their own estates and receive Rhegnidas as their king, giving the Dorians with him a share in the land.”
In other words, Rhegnidas wanted the people of Phlius to accept him as their new king. Some of the people wanted to accept. However, Pausanias goes on to explain that Hippasus led a resistance against Rhegnidas. Yet despite his best efforts, the people in general refused to support Hippasus.
Pythagoras’ ancestry and Greek mythology
As a result, Hippasus and his followers fled to Samos and settled there. As Pausanias explains at this point, his great-grandson was Pythagoras, ‘the celebrated sage.’
Therefore, the ancestry of Pythagoras links him to someone who fought against one of the descendants of Heracles. In this way, Pythagoras’ family has a fascinating connection to Greek mythology. While this is surprising, it is not unusual. Many figures from Greek history claimed descent from legendary mythical characters.
Whether Heracles was a real person or not is unknown, but it is very likely that the legendary descendant Rhegnidas was historical, as was Hippasus, the great-grandfather of Pythagoras.
The original article: GreekReporter.com .
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