Everything you know about Pythagoras is wrong

A genuinely interesting article from the LRB about Pythagoras. Far from being the founder of mathematics, he was actually some sort of proto-L. Ron Hubbard or Shoko Asahara who used thought control techniques, arbitrary rules and far-out superman stories to convince his followers he was Apollo. Not content to abstain from beans, ponder numerology and speculate about reincarnation, his restless acolytes succeeded in seizing power in several southern Italian cities.

The article raises some interesting questions, starting from the interesting insight that the conventional legend of Pythagoras as history's first mathematician is in fact totally wrong. This was established by one giant and completely obscure book first published in 1962 as Weisheit und Wissenschaft: Studien zu Pythagoras, Philolaus und Platon.

This raises the question: Why is it that so many significant discoveries in the field of classics are:

1. Established by one dedicated scholar?
   
2. Totally unknown outside the field by otherwise well-educated people?

Two anecdotes

1. The man we know as "Ivan the Terrible" is called, in Russia, "Ivan the Awesome."
2. William Wilberforce, famous abolitionist and opponent of the slave trade, was an opium addict. It makes sense if you know where he came from.
   

We hoped for the best but things turned out like always

Do you think this article will start changing their minds? I'm not holding my breath.

For more on the appeal of dictators to "progressives," read this.