26:9
“Pythagoras learned that a chain around the ankle is visible, while the chain that says wisdom cannot come from an enemy often passes for education.”
The Book of Diesel · Gospel Threshold Edition v4.5
What is history and what is fiction?
Later biographical traditionAncient or late-antique tradition supplies the premise; the private scenes are reconstructed.
Historical anchor
Later biographies say Pythagoras was taken from Egypt to Babylon after Cambyses’s conquest and studied with Magi and Babylonian scholars. These detailed traditions were written centuries later and cannot be treated as secure biography.
Fiction boundary
The captivity, teacher Mehrasp, and all private scenes are historical fiction built from later traditions.