Early Greek Astronomy

Abstract

It is the purpose of Book IV to present a survey of the fragmentary data from the early stages of Greek astronomy. About six centuries have to be covered by such an attempt, beginning with the calendaric cycles of Meton and his school in the fifth century B.C. to Ptolemy in the second A.D. Only in two areas is our information substantial enough to make a separate discussion desirable: early planetary and lunar theory on the evidence of tables preserved on papyri of the hellenistic and Roman period (cf. below V A) and the work of the direct predecessors of the Almagest, Apollonius. and Hipparchus (above I D and I E, respectively). For the material left to be included in Book IV we must frequently operate with fragmentary data transmitted by authors of very limited technical competence. The little one can extract from these sources hardly deserves the name “history.”KeywordsSolar EclipseSummer SolsticeLunar EclipseLunar TheoryZodiacal SignThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.