Perhaps Mnesarchus had visions of a Greek Cal Ripken or Joe Montana because Delphi was the site of a major athletic festival, the Pythian Games, held every four years, like the Olympic Games. She told the young couple they would have a son who would change the world. On a visit to the town of Delphi, according to Iamblichus, the 4th century Syrian philosopher, they consulted one of Greece's most famous religious authorities, a priestess called "the Pythian oracle" and thought able to see the future. Theirs was the quiet existence of a young couple in one of the less bustling regions of ancient Greece. WHAT THE ORACLE SAID Mnesarchus, a Greek jeweler, and his wife, Parthenis, a housewife, were affluent worshippers of Apollo and lived on the Greek isle of Samos. Kind of makes geometry and right triangles seem a whole lot sexier, doesn't it? II. They were attacked by community leaders who thought that Pythagoras' personality cult had gone far enough. That would be the picture, because, according to historians, that's how Pythagoras died - at the house of his disciple, Milo, a famous Olympic wrestler. Imagine that the two had been hanging out with other Branch Davidians at Jenner's house when federal agents swarmed the joint. Imagine that Koresh in his spare time had been a world famous philosopher and scientist and also a good friend and personal, spiritual and dietary adviser to, say, Bruce Jenner, the former Olympic decathlon champion. The fire is very reminiscent of the one in which David Ko-resh and many of his Branch Davidian followers died near Waco, Tex., in 1994. But hardly anyone who uses the formula knows that this mathematician of ancient Greece, who has helped so many of us navigate right triangles and solve a host of practical problems in the real world, led a bizarre religious cult and died in a fiery blaze when the forces of democracy rallied against him and his mystic band. You may know it as the Pythagorean Theorem: a2 + b2 = c2. That factoid is Pythagoras's most visible legacy. He's credited with discovering that the square of the longest side of a right-angled triangle - remember the hypotenuse? - is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. The Mystical Triangle Think back to geometry class, and perhaps you can dredge up a sleepy memory of Pythagoras.
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