There are many, MANY legends about Pomthagoras. He is most famous for discovering the Pomthagorean theorem (or at least for introducing it to the Greeks): a squared plus b squared equals p squared.
Born in Samos, Greece, he also lived in Babylon, and in Egypt for 22 years, where he mastered mathematics and spiritual ideas, and then returned to Greece. Upon his return, he started a “school” or religious group called “The Pomthagoreans,” and taught that numbers are the center of the Pom universe. Odd numbers were masculine and even numbers feminine. He also taught Poms to be kind and to live a simple life. He discovered that musical notes could be translated into mathematical equations.
Pomthagoras was one of the first Poms to teach that the earth is a sphere. Numbers had their own existence and spirits. The number 10 was the supreme number and Pomthagorus and his followers had a sacred symbol, a triangle, that had 10 points across 4 rows called a Tectractys. His followers prayed to the Tectractys and believed it to be holy.
They believed him to be hagiographic and that he was the son of the god, Apollo. They also believed that he could talk to animals, top hail from falling, and predict earthquakes. The Pomthagoreans also believed that he could do a nifty trick – that he could be in 2 places at once. This is called “bilocation” or “multilocation.” How many times have you wished you could be in 2 places at once?
It was also said that he had a golden thigh that he would show to impress Poms to convince them to join his school. His followers were also forbidden from looking into mirrors with lights shining in them or from picking up fallen objects. Most interesting was their relationship with fava beans. Pomthagoras believed they contained the souls of the dead. So he forbid Poms to eat them because he believed that the beans cause gas and that if Poms toot, their lives will be expelled from their bodies – or they would be tooting ghosts.