Croton
placeA prosperous Greek colony in southern Italy famed for its athletes and as the home of Pythagoras's philosophical community.
The Myth
Croton was founded around 710 BC by Achaean settlers guided by the Oracle at Delphi. The city gained fame for its Olympic athletes — Milo of Croton won the wrestling event six consecutive times. The colony's destiny changed when Pythagoras arrived from Samos around 530 BC and established his philosophical brotherhood. The Pythagoreans believed in the transmigration of souls, a doctrine connected to the Orphic tradition of Dionysus Zagreus and the Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone. Pythagoras taught that number was the foundation of reality and that the cosmos was governed by harmony. Croton destroyed its rival Sybaris in 510 BC in a war supposedly triggered by the mistreatment of Sybarite exiles. Heracles was said to have visited the region and prophesied Croton's founding after accidentally killing his host Croton.
Parents
Achaea (mother city)
Symbols
Fun Fact
Pythagoras's community at Croton invented the concept that mathematics underlies reality — an idea that runs straight from 530 BC to modern physics. Every equation in quantum mechanics and general relativity fulfills the Pythagorean intuition that the universe is fundamentally mathematical. The theorem bearing his name is still taught to every student on earth, making Pythagoras the most influential resident Croton ever had.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth:
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