> Myths and folklore are part of the history (and charm) of mathematics.
> Surely we can pass on to our students the stories that inspired us ...
There is a very striking example of this described in W Burkert, _Lore and
Science in Ancient Pythagoreanism_, Harvard University Press, 1972, p.406:
"What is the origin of the firmly rooted conviction that Pythagoreanism was
the source of Greek mathematics? This question is easy to answer: it came
from the educational tradition. Everyone comes upon the name of Pythagoras
for the first time in school mathematics; and this has been true from the
earliest stages of the Western cultural tradition. None of the ancient
textbooks which formed the basis of the medieval curriculum forgets
Pythagoras. He is the companion of Arithmetica in Martinus Capella; and
according to Isidore he was the first, among the Greeks, to sketch out the
doctrine of number, which was then set forth in detail by Nicomachus. This
takes back to the origin of this tradition; Nichomachus, who is himself
called a Pythagorean, begins his _Arithmetica_, which was used much as a
schoolbook, with praise of the Master. Boethius _Arithmetica_ ...Gerbert of
Aurilliac ... medieval Freemasons ... ... Finally, the early modern period
derived the astronomy of Copernicus and Galileo from Pythagoras."
David Fowler