The oldest recorded version of the legend was presented centuries after the time of Pythagoras by the Neopythagorean Nicomachus of Gerasa, who in the 1st or 2nd century AD documented the story in his Harmonikḗ Encheirídion ("Handbook of Harmony"). He relied on the philosopher Philolaus, a Pythagorean of the 5th century BC, for his representation of the numerical ratios in music theory.This passage from Nicomachus' work is edited, translated into English, and commented on by Carl A. Huffman: Philolaus of Croton, Cambridge 1993, pp. 145–165.
