The Moon and the Planets in Classical Greece and Rome (original) (raw)
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The roles of observational astronomy in ancient Greece
2015
This paper offers an investigation into the interface between science, in the form of astronomy, and culture, in the form of religion and the calendar. Early societies made use of a variety of mechanisms to mark time, based on the cycles of the sun, moon and stars, whether separately or in combination. In this paper I provide a survey of the use of one of these cycles, namely that of the stars, in one ancient culture, that of the Greeks. I show how gradually the night sky was mapped out with a number of distinct constellations, the number increasing over time. The Greeks used the first and last visible risings and settings of these stars at dawn and dusk as ‘event markers’, in order to signal the appropriate time for pivotal activities, especially in the agricultural sphere, such as ploughing, sowing and harvesting. At the same time, Greek societies used the moon as the basis for their civil and religious calendar, and within the lunar months were situated regular festivals of an ag...
Early Greek Astrophysics: The Foundations of Modern Science and Technology
American Journal of Space Science, 2013
The foundations of modern science and technology, metrology, experimental physics, theoretical physics, theoretical mathematics, astrophysics, including applied optics and spectroscopy go back to the Prehistoric, Presocratic, Classical and Hellenistic Greece. This tradition is well deep rooted in time, going back mainly to the epoch of the prehistoric Aegean sea, the mainland of Greece and the Islands, Cycladic, Euboea, as well as Crete, at the late Neolithic period, probably starting back at 4400 BC. Humans observe the sky before the prehistoric era and wonder and as even Plato declares, these observations that lead us to try and understand the Cosmos make us humans as well, since the actual meaning and etymology of this term human in Greek, the word ANTHROPOS, is the one that looks up, observes the ordered Universe and tries to understand its nature and its hidden Laws which govern it. Science and Philosophy emerged as a result of the human efforts to live even more successfully within a hostile environment. Humanity eventually manages to understand Nature and especially the Cosmos, using the Pythagorean principle: "Nature can only be understood accurately by the use of Mathematics, which expresses the underlying Laws of Nature and which explain all natural phenomena based on the Principe of Causality.
ANCIENT GREEK HELIOCENTRIC VIEWS HIDDEN FROM PREVAILING BELIEFS?
We put forward the working hypothesis that the heliocentric, rather than the geocentric view, of the Solar System was the essential belief of the early Greek philosophers and astronomers. Although most of them referred to the geocentric view, it is plausible that the prevalent religious beliefs about the sacred character of the Earth as well as the fear of prosecution for impiety (asebeia) prevented them from expressing the heliocentric view, even though they were fully aware of it. Moreover, putting the geocentric view forward, instead, would have facilitated the reception of the surrounding world and the understanding of everyday celestial phenomena, much like the modern presentation of the celestial sphere and the zodiac, where the Earth is at the centre and the Sun makes an apparent orbit on the ecliptic. Such an ingenious stance would have set these early astronomers in harmony with the dominant religious beliefs and, at the same time, would have helped them to 'save the appearances', without sacrificing the essence of their ideas.
Astronomical Basis of Hellenistic Planetary Order in Astrology
The structure of astrological sign rulership from the Hellenistic Egyptian period around 150-200 BCE was based on observational astronomy. This structure of Hellenistic planetary order has been maintained for over 2,000 years yet the reason for it’s order has been forgotten. This article is a culmination of 20 years of research to find the artifacts and astronomical verification for this ordering of planetary rulership of zodiacal signs.
Ancient Greece and origins of the Heliocentric theory
Since early antiquity, the important question of philosophy and astronomy was, what occupies the center of the known world. According to the geocentric system, in accordance with the anthropocentric view, the Earth lies at the center of the world. For centuries this was the dominant theory, supported by the majority of philosophers and astronomers. However, the Ancient Greek world was also the cradle of the opposite view, the heliocentric theory of Aristarchus of Samos (c.310 -230 BC), which is generally credited to be the first to postulate a non-geocentric system. But, centuries before him, seeds of the heliocentric theory can be traced back to the Orphic Hymns and to the teachings of Anaximander and the Pythagoreans. Here, the evolution of the heliocentric theory of Antiquity will be analyzed and discussed from the first mention of it in the Orphic Hymns. The theory was further advanced by the Pythagoreans, especially the “pyrocentric” system with a central fire, of Philolaus of Croton. Also contributing to the heliocentric theory were the views and ideas of Icetas, Ecphantus, Heraclides of Pontos, Anaximander, Seleucus of Seleucia, and finaly of Aristarchus of Samos. Unfortunately, the heliocentric theory did not prevail over the geocentric view, which gained wide recognition due to the weight of Aristotle’s support, and later on due to the theories of the great astronomer Claudius Ptolemy (2nd century AD).
In this article we consider the role of the three principal celestial bodies, the Earth (Gaia), the Sun (Helios) and the Moon (Selene), as well as the Sky (Ouranos) in the ancient Greek cosmogony. This is done by the analysis of antique Greek texts like Orphic Hymns and the literary remains of the writers and philosophers like Aeschylus, (Pseudo) Apollodorus, Apollonius Rhodius, Aristotle, Euripides, Hesiod, Homer, Hyginus, Nonnus, Pausanias, Pindar and Sophocles, as well as by the analysis of texts of Roman writers like Cicero, Ovid and Pliny.
Hellenistic Astronomy: The Science in Its Contexts edited by Alan C. Bowen and Francesca Rochberg
Aestimatio: Sources and Studies in the History of Science, 2021
One of the daunting challenges involved in reviewing a 750-page standard tome on a subject like astronomy is being able to evaluate all aspects of the volume, covering technical data as well as any possible impact of subject matter on other disciplines. The editors, mindful of their readership consisting of both “insiders” and “outsiders”, have taken decisive steps towards making Hellenistic astronomy accessible and comprehensible, with an appropriate balance between complex graphs and arithmetic equations and more general topics, as well as a glossary of technical terminology. The present reviewer, an unrepentant “outsider”, will attempt to focus on some key issues involving the connections between Babylonian and Greek astronomy in the period in question, as well as the impact of astronomy as a whole. Reviewed by: M. J. Geller, Published Online (2021-08-31)Copyright © 2021 by M. J. GellerThis open access publication is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-...
Putting the astronomy back into Greek calendrics: the parapegma of Euctemon
Instruments – Observations – Theories: Studies in the History of Astronomy in Honor of James Evans, ed. Alexander Jones and Christián Carman, 2020
It is a pleasure to be able to offer a paper to our honorand. Many years ago James Evans established himself as a great teacher of the history of ancient Greek astronomy to many beyond the confines of his own lecture room through his book, The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy. While in more recent years he has provided us with sophisticated papers on the more technical aspects of astronomy, especially as they pertain to the Antikythera Mechanism, it is to that earlier monograph, and its impact on myself and my own students, that I wish to pay homage in this small offering on ancient "observational" astronomy.
Two cosmic routes for Night and Day in greek archaic thought ?
My aim is to show that there are at least two routes for Day and Night in archaic thought, or at least that Hesiod – or the author of Theog. 744-761 – invented a new route, as a result of a new interrogation of a probably previous route or maybe several previous routes that can still be observed in later authors. The variety of these routes is a testimony of the ongoing interrogation, within archaic poetry, on the best way to represent cosmic phenomena. And Hesiod's innovation shows an attempt to clarify this representation through the use of explicit criteria and the appeal to symmetry. This give us a sense of the scientific debate before and outside the rise of ionian thought.