The fact that a famous mathematical theorem is named after a person who certainly was not its discoverer may seem puzzling at first, but it points to the significance of the individual and his influence on posterity. In many accounts, Pythagoras is described primarily as a philosopher and religious prophet, and less as a mathematician. Many ideas attributed to Pythagoras were actually developed by his followers, the Pythagoreans. The patterns made from coloured stones, the Pythagorean number patterns, are particularly ingenious.