Like Thales shortly before him, Pythagoras travelled to further his education. The Erasmus programme did not yet exist, but scholars were keenly aware that the intellectual world was vast and probably more advanced elsewhere. This attraction to foreign cultures has existed in every age, including in the Middle Ages, despite the way we sometimes picture that period, as Adelard of Bath, himself a great traveller, attests when he writes to his nephew:
"You would therefore do well to visit the scholars of different peoples and commit to memory whatever you find most remarkable among them. What the schools of Gaul do not know, scholars beyond the Alps will reveal to you; what you do not learn from the Latins, the eloquence of Greece will teach you." (Questions sur la nature, avec en complément Comme l’atteste Ergaphalau, edited by Charles Burnett, Les Belles Lettres, 2016, p. 82)
Pythagoras's travels
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Pythagoras dreamed of travelling to Egypt, where mathematics and philosophical thought were regarded as ahead of their time. He lived on the Greek island of Samos, near what is now the Turkish coast, and was walking along the harbour.
"Approaching the ship, he simply asked: "Are you going to Egypt?" "When they answered yes, he went aboard and silently sat down where he was least likely to get in the sailors' way. […]
