Pythagoras, son of Mnesarchos, a native of Samos, left his fatherland to escape the tyranny of Polykrates (533/2 or 529/8 B.C.). He made his home for many years in Kroton in southern Italy, where his political views gained control in the city. At length he and his followers were banished by an opposing party, and he died at Metapontum. Many stories are told of his travels into Egypt and more widely, but there is no evidence on which the stories can be accepted. He was a mystic thinker and religious reformer quite as much as a philosopher, but there is no reason for denying that the doctrines of the school originated with him. Of his disciples, Archytas, in southern Italy, and Philolaos and Lysis, at Thebes, are the best known. It is the doctrine of the school, not the teaching of Pythagoras himself, which is known to us through the writings of Aristotle. Literature:—On Pythagoras: Krische, _De societatis a Pythagora conditae scopo politico_, 1830; E. Rohde, _Rhein. Mus._ xxvi. 565 sqq.; xxvii. 23 sqq.; Diels, _Rhein. Mus._ xxxi. 25 sq.; Zeller, _Sitz. d. kgl. preus. Akad._ 1889, 45, p. 985 sqq.; Chaignet, _Pythagore_, 1873, and the excellent account in Burnett. Philolaos: Boeckh, _Philolaos Lehren, nebst den Bruchstücken seines Werkes_, 1819; V. Rose, _Comment. de Arist. libr. ord. et auct._ Berlin 1854; Schaarschmidt, _Die angebliche Schriftstellerei des Phil._ Bonn 1864; Zeller, _Gesch. d. griech. Phil._ 4 Auf. 261, 341, 386; _Hermes_ x. 178; Bywater, _Journal of Philol._ i. 21 sqq. Archytas: Hartenstein, _de Archyt. Tar. fragm._ Lips. 1833; Gruppe, _Die Fragm. d. Archyt._ Berlin 1840; Petersen, _Zeitschr. f. Altertumsk._ 1836; Chaignet, _Pythagore_, 1873, pp. 191, 255. PASSAGES IN PLATO REFERRING TO THE PYTHAGOREANS. _Phaedo_ 62 B. The saying that is uttered in secret rites, to the effect that we men are in a sort of prison, and that one ought not to loose himself from it nor yet to run away, seems to me something great and not easy to see through; but this at least I think is well said, that it is the gods who care for us, and we men are one of the possessions of the gods. _Kratyl._ 400 B. For some say that it (the body) is the tomb of the soul—I think it was the followers of Orpheus in particular who introduced this word—which has this enclosure like a prison in order that it may be kept safe.