By Den Ardinger 32° KCCH

Euclid, known as the “Father of Geometry”, was a legendary figure in ancient Greece.  He was of Greek descent but lived in Alexandria, Egypt about 2,300 years ago although it is not known if he was born there.  It is certain that he lived after the time of the great mathematician Pythagoras but before Archimedes. Scholars place his birth about 330 BCE.  Scholars commonly believe that he was educated by Plato’s disciples and studied at the Platonic Academy in Athens. Little is known of his life and what has been preserved are only fragments from texts written much later including those by Roman historians and those in the Renaissance.

Euclid is best known for the 13 volumes that he wrote titled Elements which have been preserved down to our time and were in circulation as early as the early 2nd century BCE.  The popularity of Elements was second only to the Bible in past ages and, after the Bible, is the most frequently studied book in the Western World’s history.  His works are important in that Euclid emphasized detailing proofs, called axioms, upon which other mathematical problems were based.  As a Geometrician, he taught “the science of numbers” according to the doctrine of Pythagoras. His school of thought is referred to as Euclidean Geometry and Euclid is considered among the greatest mathematicians in history.

Studied in Freemasonry is Euclid’s 47th Proposition in Book 1 of Elements called the Pythagorean Theorem.  This translates as “In right-angled triangles the square on the side subtending the right angle is equal to the squares on the sides containing the right angle.”  Simply put, A squared plus B squared equals C squared.  Albert Pike devoted an entire chapter to this 47th Problem in his book Esoterika that studies the symbolism of Freemasonry.

Besides Elements it is known that he wrote on optics, perspective, spherical geometry, and number theory in his books, Optics, Data, and Phaenomena.  It is also known that he wrote other lost works of which only references in other texts survive. 

Exactly when he died is not known but scholars place his death before 270 BCE. Euclid’s impact on modern society is well recognized.  There is the lunar crater Euclides, the minor planet Euclides, and the European Space Agency’s Euclid spacecraft. 

Quotes attributed to Euclid include, “The Laws of Nature are but the mathematical thoughts of God.”

Euclid, more than a great man, a thinker.