When maths was taken seriously

From Wikipedia, Hippasus of Metapontum.

Hippasus of Metapontum (/ˈhɪpəsəs/; Greek: Ἵππασος ὁ Μεταποντῖνος, Híppasos; fl. 5th century BC), was a Pythagorean philosopher. Little is known about his life or his beliefs, but he is sometimes credited with the discovery of the existence of irrational numbers. The discovery of irrational numbers is said to have been shocking to the Pythagoreans, and Hippasus is supposed to have drowned at sea, apparently as a punishment from the gods for divulging this.

A slight elaboration. Pythagoreans argued that all numbers could be expressed as the ratio of integers. The mathematical discoveries of the Pythagorean were part of a tightly woven mesh of science, philosophy and religion. The discovery of irrational numbers was, therefore not just a mathematical shock but a philosophical one as well and bordered on blasphemy.