Pythagoras's oxen revisited. (Q1411674): Difference between revisions

This article deals humoristically with the well known, though most certainly erroneous, anecdote that Pythagoras should have sacrificed a large number of oxen in gratitude for the enlightenment bestowed upon him as he discovered the so called Pythagorean Theorem. A total of 100 oxen. Departing from treatment by poets Ludwig Börne, Albert von Chamisso and Heinrich Heine, various witticisms concerning the incident are rendered. One source being the (German) double meaning of the word ``ox'' as also designating a \textit{blockhead} (similar, by the way, to the Norwegian word ``stut''). Heine plays on the aspect of ``transmigration': Perhaps now Pythagoras' soul is reincarnated in an unfortunate student, who fails his exam because he can not prove the Pythagorean Theorem, while in his examiners are reincarnated those very oxen who had to pay with there lives at that earlier encounter?''.