Pythagoras

Gratiano:

O, be thou damn'd, inexecrable dog!

And for thy life let justice be accused.

Thou almost makest me waver in my faith,

To hold opinion with Pythagoras,

That souls of animals infuse themselves

Into the trunks of men: thy currish spirit

Govern'd a wolf, who, hang'd for human slaughter,

Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet,

And, whilst thou lay'st in thy unhallow'd dam,

Infused itself in thee; for thy desires

Are wolfish, bloody, starved, and ravenous.

Serge Lang and Gene Murrow (1988) Geometry, →ISBN, page 203: “By Pythagoras, we find the length of the third side, |AB|² = (2a)² – a² = 4a² – a² = 3a²”