The Greek island with about 470 km² in the eastern Aegean Sea is off the Ionian coast of Asia Minor (Anatolia, Turkey). According to legend, the Argonaut and first Samos king Ankaios brought the vine to the island in 1,000 BC. Three famous men were born here. The first was the mathematician Pythagoras (580 to 496 BC) to whom the mathematical theorem named after him is attributed. The mathematician Aristarchus (~310-250 BC) was convinced of the heliocentric system with the sun as the centre. And the third was the philosopher Epicurus (341-270), whose doctrine of the needless, wise, withdrawn enjoyment of life (Epicureanism) was later defamed into hedonism.