Pythagoras

Pythagoras of Samos or Pythagoras of Rhegion who bore a remarkable personal likeness to each other. In the nineteenth century Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Philip Smith accepted the opinion of Karl Julius Sillig (1801–1855) that Pliny's date of Olympiad 87 (c. 428 BC) ought to be referred to a Pythagoras of Samos but not a Pythagoras of Rhegium; Modern writers consider it certain these two were the same artist, and that this Pythagoras was one of the Samian exiles who moved to Zankle at the beginning of the 5th century BC and came under the power of the tyrant Anaxilas in Rhegium. While a Samian by birth, he was a pupil of Clearchus of Rhegium. Pliny reports that Pythagoras' skill exceeded even that of Myron, credits him with the innovation of sculpting athletes with visible veins, and calls him the first artist to aim for "rhythm and symmetry". He was celebrated as the maker of seven nude statues (which some suggest may have represented the Seven against Thebes), and lists several of his works, including a sculpture of the boxer Euthymos, without mentioning this artist's home town. The base of the statue has been found at Olympia however, on which Pythagoras signs himself as "the Samian".