Within the lyrics of the Orphic poems, we can find remarkable information such as that the Earth is round, it has an axis and it moves around it in one day, it has three climate zones and that the Sun magnetizes the Stars and planets. Also, a more detailed description about the cosmos, Stars, Sun, Moon and the Earth can be found in the Orphism, which dates back to the end of the 5th century BC, and it is probably even older. Such reports show that Greeks of the 6th and 5th centuries BC were aware of the planets and speculated about the structure of the cosmos. 405 BC) the Pythagorean described a cosmos with the stars, planets, Sun, Moon, Earth, and a counter-Earth ( Antichthon)-ten bodies in all-circling an unseen central fire. 546 BC) described cyclical earth suspended in the center of the cosmos, surrounded by rings of fire. Speculation about the cosmos was common in Pre-Socratic philosophy in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. At certain times of the year, certain stars will rise or set at sunrise or sunset. Some stars rise and set ( disappear into the ocean, from the viewpoint of the Greeks) others are ever-visible. Though neither Homer nor Hesiod set out to write a scientific work, they hint at a rudimentary cosmology of a flat Earth surrounded by an “ Ocean River.” Hesiod, who wrote in the early 7th century BC, adds the star Arcturus to this list in his poetic calendar Works and Days. In the Iliad and the Odyssey, Homer refers to the following celestial objects: Eclipses that can even permit the dating of these events as the place is known and the calculation of the time is possible, especially if other celestial phenomena are described at the same time. In the oldest European texts, the Iliad and the Odyssey, Homer has several astronomical phenomena including solar eclipses. ![]() References to identifiable stars and constellations appear in the writings of Homer and Hesiod, the earliest surviving examples of Greek literature. It was influenced by Egyptian and especially Babylonian astronomy in turn, it influenced Indian, Arabic-Islamic and Western European astronomy. Most of the constellations of the northern hemisphere derive from Greek astronomy, as are the names of many stars, asteroids, and planets. Greek astronomy is characterized from the start by seeking a rational, physical explanation for celestial phenomena. The development of astronomy by the Greek and Hellenistic astronomers is considered, by historians, to be a major phase in the history of astronomy. This phase of Greek astronomy is also known as Hellenistic astronomy, while the pre-Hellenistic phase is known as Classical Greek astronomy.ĭuring the Hellenistic and Roman periods, much of the Greek and non-Greek astronomers working in the Greek tradition studied at the Museum and the Library of Alexandria in Ptolemaic Egypt.
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