Greek colonists in southern Sicily were the first to study the
regular dodecahedron. In Sicily there was a lot of pyrite...
and Pythagoreans!
Pythagoras of Samos
(about 582–507 BC)
The Pythagoreans, with their love of symmetry and geometry, may
have invented the regular dodecahedron after seeing pyrite crystals -
"perfecting" what nature showed them.
This picture is from the Wikipedia article on Pythagoras.
It is believed to be in the public domain.
