What distinguishes Ovid’s Pythagoras from the Pythagoras of Ausonius and Martianus Capella?

This paper examines the reception of Ovid’s representation of the figure of Pythagoras in the works of Ausonius and Martianus Capella. These two authors are typical of and, to a large degree, determinative for the representation of Pythagoras as a mathematician, musician and ethical sage common in late-antique and medieval literature and art. Thus, in the present study they serve as fitting test-cases to evaluate the degree to which the subsequent tradition was influenced by Ovid’s version of Pythagoras, in particular as political exile, teacher of Numa, and moral reformer whose great intellect made him godlike.