Pseudo-Archytas is the name given to an unknown author, or group of authors, from the Hellenistic period. They wrote philosophical works between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE, falsely attributing them to the famous early Pythagorean thinker, Archytas of Tarentum. This was a common practice at the time, used to give new ideas the authority of an ancient master.

The author wrote in the Doric dialect to mimic early Pythagorean style and produced a series of complete treatises. The most important is On the Categories, which reinterprets Aristotle’s work from a Pythagorean and Platonic perspective. Other surviving works include On Opposites, On the Intellect and Sensation, and texts on ethics like On Moral Education.

According to modern scholars, the significance of these forgeries is historical. They were highly influential in late antiquity, as thinkers like Porphyry and Iamblichus believed them to be authentic. These texts helped create a narrative that Pythagorean philosophy was the original source for ideas found in Plato and Aristotle. The corpus is therefore a key example of philosophical syncretism, showing how Hellenistic thinkers blended different schools of thought to construct a unified tradition.