Many of us in modern society remember Pythagoras from early high school geometry as we desperately tried to figure out the hypotenuse of right-angled triangles. However, in Ancient Greece Pythagoras was better known for his philosophical teachings and religious mystery school which continued long after his death. While we may never really know exactly how Pythagoras died (presumably) in 495 B.C.E., one version of his demise states that after a narrow escape, Pythagoras met his death at the hands of his enemies after stopping in his tracks and refusing to run through a field of beans. Yes, beans, and not even magical ones, these were just your standard variety fava beans (also known as a broad beans):

“Pythagoras met his death in this wise. As he sat one day among his acquaintances at the house of Milo, it chanced that the house was set ablaze out of jealousy by one of the people who were not accounted worthy of admittance to his presence, though some say it was the work of the inhabitants of Croton anxious to safeguard themselves against the setting-up of a tyranny. Pythagoras was caught as he tried to escape; he got as far as a certain field of beans, where he stopped, saying he would be captured rather than cross it, and be killed rather than prate about his doctrines; and so his pursuers cut his throat” Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, R.D. Hicks, Ed.

There is little recorded of Pythagoras’ life at the time he was alive, and no records of documents directly written by Pythagoras, but we do know that by the time early biographies were written, Pythagoras had become a man encased in myth and legend. While it is entirely possible that Pythagoras simply died of starvation in the Temple of the Muses, or committed suicide out of guilt after his followers sacrificed themselves to save him, an account containing this bean element appeared in two major historical treatises of Pythagoras’ life: Lives of Eminent Philosophers written by Diogenes Laertius in the 3^rd century CE and The Life of Pythagoras by Iamblichus in the 4^th Century CE. Regardless of whether it is fact or folklore, many throughout history have believed that this is how the brilliant polymath Pythagoras met his end. So, what would explain the idea of a man willing to die a brutal death rather than run through a field of beans?

The Pythagorean school was an immersive, spiritual education with the initiates often living together and the teachings of Pythagoras influencing much of their daily lives, including diet. By all accounts, there were many food prohibitions mostly to do with eating the flesh of animals… and you guessed it, fava beans. While many religious traditions have taboos on eating meat, abstaining from a staple such as beans, rice, or wheat was rare given how important they were in earlier societies where food insecurity was a huge issue, especially in the winter season when little grew. Diogenes Laertius summarizes some of the many reasons provided for the Pythagorean’s bean prohibition from Aristotle’s lost work, On the Pythagoreans.

According to Aristotle, Pythagoras counseled abstinence from beans either because they are like the genitals, or because they are like the gates of Hades . . . as being alone unjointed, or because they are injurious, or because they are like the form of the universe, or because they belong to oligarchy, since they are used in election by lot.” Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, R.D. Hicks, Ed.

Working through Aristotle’s list:

Beans as a symbolic representation of genitals is a straightforward visual connection: As beans sprout, they split in two and a shoot begins to form between the two halves. For those of you still confused please refer to the self-explanatory picture below:

Symbolically, beans were also often thought to resemble human embryos. Even today early-stage embryos are often compared in shape and size to a kidney bean at the 8-week mark. The ancient philosopher Porphyry, an early anti-Christian Neo-Platonist, described some of the unappetizing folk beliefs around the bean and embryos in his work, Life of Pythagoras:

“For if anyone should chew a bean, and having ground it to a pulp with his teeth, and should expose that pulp to the warm sun, for a short while, and then return to it, he will perceive the scent of human blood. Moreover, if at the time when beans bloom, one should take a little of the flower, which then is black, and should put it into an earthen vessel, and cover it closely, and bury in the ground for ninety days, and at the end thereof take it up, and uncover it, instead of the bean he will find either the head of an infant, or the pudenda of a woman.” Porphyry, Life of Pythagoras, Trans. Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie.

In terms of the chthonic symbolism of beans, Aristotle refers to their connection with Hades. This
relationship is linked through the mythological story of Demeter and Persephone, and Persephone’s abduction by Hades. For those of you who need a quick recap of this seasonal myth, Hades abducted the virgin Persephone as she played in a field, dragging her beneath the earth to be his wife. Her mother, Demeter, was devastated by her missing daughter, and, as the goddess of grains and cereals, she threatened to starve the earth until her missing daughter was returned. Eventually Persephone was located but, as she had partaken of food in the underworld, she could not return. Eventually a deal was struck to share Persephone between Hades and Demeter; the spring months bloom each year in celebration of Persephone’s return to the earth, while the winter months reflect Demeter’s sadness as Persephone follows the path back down to her husband Hades.

In Pausanias’ 2^nd Century AD travelogue, Description of Greece, he makes two references to the idea that while Demeter is the mother of grains and cereals, beans are an exception to her realm:

“[Beside the River Kephissos (Cephissus) near Eleusis in Attika :] On the road stands a small temple called that of Kyamites (Cyamites). I cannot state for certain whether he was the first to sow beans, or whether they gave this name to a hero because they may not attribute to Demeter the discovery of beans. Whoever has been initiated at Eleusis or has read what are called the Orphica knows what I mean.” Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 37. 4, Trans. Jones.

“The Pheneatians [of Pheneos, Arkadia] have a story that . . . the wanderings of Demeter brought her to their city also. To those Pheneatians who received her with hospitality into their homes the goddess gave all sorts of pulse save the bean only. There is a sacred story to explain why the bean in their eyes is an impure kind of pulse.” Pausanias, Description of Greece 8. 15. 1-4, Trans. Jones.

Classicist and Mythologist Karl Kerényi explains Demeter’s offense towards the bean as an element of this seasonal myth, explaining that the bean is one of the few crops that can continue to grow during the winter months, thus defying Demeter’s punishment of the earth:

“Beans belonged to the gods and spirits of the underworld. While Persephone dwelt in the underworld and Demeter was unable to see her, the earth was not permitted to bear fruit. That beans, a gift of the underworld, grew nevertheless, added to her rancor.” Karl Kerényi, Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter.

Given that we know Pythagoras had a voracious appetite for studying religions throughout the classical world, he would have been acutely aware of the Eleusinian mystery tradition, and more than likely an initiate himself. Seasonal myths were seen as vital in agriculturally dependent societies, and if beans were that offensive to Demeter, it stands to reason that her devotees would have avoided them where possible. In addition, bean sprouts were considered gifts of Hades and Persephone’s myth certainly taught us the dangers of eating anything connected to the underworld.

Besides the symbolic connections, the Pythagoreans saw beans as injurious to human health, or as Diogenes Laertius succinctly stated: “abstain from beans because they are flatulent and partake most of the breath of life”. The Pythagoreans held the belief that humans were made up of a combination of body and soul, referring to the latter as pneuma (if you don’t think you know the word pneuma, well, you do: heard of pneumonia? Medical terms dealing with breath often contain the word pneuma). In the ancient world pneuma, or soul, was believed to be contained in the breath so therefore eating too many beans could literally result in farting out your soul.

Interestingly enough, the fava bean can be fatal in humans with a genetic disposition to Favism, otherwise known as Glucose-6-Phosphate-Dehydrogenase-Deficiency. Favism is a hemolytic disease which causes rapid red blood cell disintegration triggered by biochemicals within fava beans, which can lead various symptoms including cardiac arrest in individuals with this genetic trait. According to medical researchers: 

“G6PD is the most common human enzyme defect, affecting over 400 million people worldwide. Men are more commonly affected than women due to X-linked inheritance. It is most prevalent in tropical and subtropical areas. With regards to ethnicity, G6PD deficiency is more common in people of African, Mediterranean, or Asian descent.” Richardson, SR & O’Malley, GF. Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency.

Favism is not just linked to eating fava beans either; sufferers can have an attack just by ingesting the pollen. In Iamblichus’ account of the Pythagoreans and the bean field he states: 

“So they would have escaped, and their pursuit would have been given up by Eurymenes’s soldiers, who were heavily armed, had their flight not led them up against a field sown with beans, which were already flowering.” Iamblichus, The Life of Pythagoras, Trans. Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie

Considering this, it is possible that the Pythagoreans had a rudimentary understanding of Favism, and the prohibition on beans and bean fields may have been due to observing people sicken and die at random just from walking through a bean field, especially while the fields were flowering.

Finally, the connection with beans, oligarchy, and elections stems from the practice of political voting systems where anonymous voting would be performed by representatives dropping a white bean for yes, or a black bean for no when casting votes. The Pythagoreans were anti-democratic, believing that democracy was inherently flawed, and therefore abstaining from eating one of the symbols of this political system makes sense.

Regardless of whether Pythagoras death was directly related to an avoidance to beans, or something else entirely, it certainly makes for an interesting glimpse into the beliefs of the Pythagoreans. One thing I know for sure is that the Pythagorean’s make a convincing case for avoiding fava beans, and I am certainly never going to look at one the same way again.