The present paper is devoted to the consideration of three interconnected questions:
(1) How reliable is the customary image of Pythagoras as a mathematician?
(2) Which particular achievements in mathematics may be attributed to him on the
basis of authentic evidence? (3) What role did Pythagoras play in the development
of mathematics?
The first question is posed mainly because as early as the beginning of the 20th
century, doubt was cast on the reality of Pythagoras’s mathematical activity. The
tendency to negate his scientific pursuits is shown in the works of E. Sachs [ 19171,
E. Frank [1923], W. Rathmann [1933], A. Rey [1933, 10%1061, and W. A. Heidel
[1940]. From the 1940s to the 197Os, this point of view was reflected in the books