Pythagoras

If you've read Metamorphoses you'll notice that Pythagoras is one of the central Characters in the book, but if you remember closely Pythagoras is actually a commonly renowned philosopher and mathematician who is typically brought up in school a lot. Pythagoras from Metamorphoses is actually the same Pythagoras who developed the "Pythagorean Theorem".

"Pythagoras of Samos (Ancient Greek: Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος [Πυθαγόρης in Ionian Greek] Pythagóras ho Sámios "Pythagoras the Samian", or simply Πυθαγόρας; b. about 570 – d. about 495 BC[1][2]) was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of the information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived, so very little reliable information is known about him. He was born on the island of Samos, and might have travelled widely in his youth, visiting Egypt and other places seeking knowledge. Around 530 BC, he moved to Croton, a Greek colony in southern Italy, and there set up a religious sect. His followers pursued the religious rites and practices developed by Pythagoras, and studied his philosophical theories. The society took an active role in the politics of Croton, but this eventually led to their downfall. The Pythagorean meeting-places were burned, and Pythagoras was forced to flee the city. He is said to have ended his days in Metapontum.

Pythagoras made influential contributions to philosophy and religious teaching in the late 6th century BC. He is often revered as a great mathematician, mystic and scientist, but he is best known for the Pythagorean theorem which bears his name. However, because legend and obfuscation cloud his work even more than with the other pre-Socratic philosophers, one can give account of his teachings to a little extent, and some have questioned whether he contributed much to mathematics and natural philosophy. Many of the accomplishments credited to Pythagoras may actually have been accomplishments of his colleagues and successors. Whether or not his disciples believed that everything was related to mathematics and that numbers were the ultimate reality is unknown. It was said that he was the first man to call himself a philosopher, or lover of wisdom,[3] and Pythagorean ideas exercised a marked influence on Plato, and through him, all of Western philosophy." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoras

"Pythagorean theorem


A visual proof of the Pythagorean theorem
Since the fourth century AD, Pythagoras has commonly been given credit for discovering the Pythagorean theorem, a theorem in geometry that states that in a right-angled triangle the area of the square on the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the areas of the squares of the other two sides—that is, .

While the theorem that now bears his name was known and previously utilized by the Babylonians and Indians, he, or his students, are often said to have constructed the first proof. It must, however, be stressed that the way in which the Babylonians handled Pythagorean numbers implies that they knew that the principle was generally applicable, and knew some kind of proof, which has not yet been found in the (still largely unpublished) cuneiform sources.[46] Because of the secretive nature of his school and the custom of its students to attribute everything to their teacher, there is no evidence that Pythagoras himself worked on or proved this theorem. For that matter, there is no evidence that he worked on any mathematical or meta-mathematical problems. Some attribute it as a carefully constructed myth by followers of Plato over two centuries after the death of Pythagoras, mainly to bolster the case for Platonic meta-physics, which resonate well with the ideas they attributed to Pythagoras. This attribution has stuck down the centuries up to modern times.[47] The earliest known mention of Pythagoras's name in connection with the theorem occurred five centuries after his death, in the writings of Cicero and Plutarch." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoras#Pythagorean_theorem

I knew very well since High School that it was Pythagoras was the philosopher who played in a part the development of Music Theory and Music Scales from studying Music Theory and also by having read part of this book, which I unfortunately never got to finish reading though which is called "The Secret Teachings of All Ages" by Manly P. Hall.

(I'm not exactly sure if I'm correct or not I'll have to study a bit further, but I remember before having read Metamorphoses that it was Pythagoras who had developed the Modern Color Spectrum and Music Theories what I didn't know until now was that he apparently seemed to be one of actually the main characters within Metamorphoses. I happen to think the discovery of having found out Pythagoras! being a central character in the book to be a really great discovery, I never thought Pythagoras could have possibly been one of our Hero's from Ovid's Metamorphoses the whole time, really an amazing and awesome discovery.)

Here are the sections dealing with Pythagoras' Teachings and Discoveries from "The Secret Teachings of All Ages" by Manly P. Hall:

The Pythagorean Theory of Music and Color

Pythagorean Mathematics