33. Pythagoras’ Bean Fixation Did Him In
As to Pythagoras himself, he was killed in the backlash against his cult, and a number of differing accounts depict his end. One of the more interesting ones has it that, while fleeing for his life with angry pursuers hot on his heels, Pythagoras’ flight took him to a field of beans. Beans being sacred to him, Pythagoras stated that he would rather die than step on a single bean. Which is what happened when his pursuers caught up with him at the edge of the bean field, and slit his throat.
Other versions have the people of Croton attacking a house in which Pythagoras and his followers were conducting a meeting, and setting it on fire. Pythagoras escaped with a small group of followers and eventually took shelter in a temple. There, he was besieged, and eventually starved to death. This version has him refusing to eat the only food available: beans. Contra his claims, Pythagoras was not a god, and contra his and his followers’ prediction, he did not return from the dead.
