Pythagoras’s figure seems to us to be colored and strongly fabled by the quill of his late hagiographers Diogenes Laercio and Porfirio, of the 3rd century A.D., and Jamblichus, of the 4th century. But even in the 5th century B.C. Herodotus itself presents a mythical Pythagoras confused with a figure as fabulous as Zalmoxis, half a hero, half a god. And also the figure that Aristotle draws of Pythagoras appears in the mist of the legend. It is a pity that the work that Aristotle dedicated to the Pythagorean ones, under the title, oi Pythagoricoi, has not got to us, since undoubtedly with it we would have had a much more complete vision of the primitive Pythagoreanism, though probably not much better on Pythagoras himself. 

What on Pythagoras’s life is known with relative certainty is the following: He was born in the island of Samos, together with Miletus, in the first half of the 4th century. He was a son of Menesarcus, maybe a rich merchant of Samos. He probably traveled to Egypt, Phoenicia and Babylonia. He returned to Samos during the dictatorship of Policrates (538-522). Towards 529 he traveled to the south of Italy and founded in Crotona the Pythagorean fraternity. He died very elderly in Metapontum. The following information of his life is a matter of discussions: The year of his birth (600 according to Eratosthenes, 570 according to Aristoxenus); The exact chronology of his trips; What happened with him when the citizens of Crotona expelled the Pythagorean ones in 509; If he died violently or not in Metapontum.

Three stages can be distinguished in his life: the first one in the Greek world, the second one in trips to Babylonia and Egypt and the third one in what was later called the Great Greece (South of Italy), with an interval in Samos between the second and the third stage. Little is known of the first two. Jamblichus tells that Pythagoras visited Thales in Miletus, which chronologically is likely and geographically very possible because of the proximity between Samos and Miletus. There he could also know the philosopher Anaximander personally. As his teacher, Ferekides of Siros (Aristotle, Aristoxeno, Dicaiarcos) is especially mentioned, to whom Aristotle characterizes as theologian and thaumaturgic. There exist many legends on Pythagoras’s trips to the East that his later biographers narrate in detail. But the fact of his stays in Egypt and Babylonia already appears testified in much more ancient writers like Isocrates (5th century B.C.), Herodotus (5th century B.C.) and Aristoxeno (4th century B.C.). On the other hand the kinship of many of the primitive Pythagorean ideas, as much mathematical and astronomical as religious, reveal very clearly the strong oriental and Egyptian influence and it is possible to think with confidence that they belong to the heritage of Pythagoras’s initial teachings. 

According to some traditions, when Pythagoras returned to Samos he was asked to teach his ideas to his own fellow-citizens. Apparently it turned out to be too abstract and his teachings had little success. This, together with the oppression of the tyrant Polycrates, must have led him to take the decision to emigrate. In 529 Pythagoras moved to the polis (city-state) of Crotona, aquean foundation of the 8th century B.C., in the south part of the gulf of Tarento. The Greek colonies of the south of Italy were then enjoying a great prosperity, standing out among them Sibari, famous in the Greek world for its wealth and its luxurious life. Crotona was its main rival and neighbor. There Pythagoras came with a thinking system more or less well-shaped after his long experience in the East and Egypt. The city asked him to expound his ideas and, according to the tradition, Pythagoras gave four separately big speeches to the young people, the Senate, the women and the children. The content of these four speeches as it has been transmitted by diverse channels is full of moral recommendations of great perfection, fundamentally derived from the need to fit the human conduct to the norms of harmony and justice which are derived from the nature of things and illustrated with specific elements of the mythology of the inhabitants of Crotona. As a consequence of this first contact arose, apparently, not only in Crotona but all over Italy a great enthusiasm for Pythagoras.