Abstract

Abstract. Whilst hydrology is a Greek term, it was not in use in the Classical literature, but much later, during the Renaissance, in its Latin form, hydrologia. On the other hand, Greek natural philosophers (or, in modern vocabulary, scientists) created robust knowledge in related scientific areas, to which they gave names such as meteorology, climate and hydraulics. These terms are now in common use internationally. Greek natural philosophers laid the foundation for hydrological concepts and the hydrological cycle in its entirety. Knowledge development was brought about by searches for technological solutions to practical problems as well as by scientific curiosity. While initial explanations belong to the sphere of mythology, the rise of philosophy was accompanied by the quest for scientific descriptions of the phenomena. It appears that the first geophysical problem formulated in scientific terms was the explanation of the flood regime of the Nile, then regarded as a paradox because of the spectacular difference from the river flow regime in Greece, i.e. the fact that the Nile flooding occurs in summer when in most of the Mediterranean the rainfall is very low. While the early attempts were unsuccessful, Aristotle was able to formulate a correct hypothesis, which he tested through what appears to be the first scientific expedition in history, in the transition from the Classical to Hellenistic periods. The Hellenistic period brought advances in all scientific fields including hydrology, an example of which is the definition and measurement of flow discharge by Heron of Alexandria. These confirm the fact that the hydrological cycle was well understood in Ancient Greece, yet it poses the question why correct explanations were not accepted and, instead, why ancient and modern mythical views were preferred up to the 18th century.

Highlights

  • In all ancient civilizations, the causes of natural processes, the geophysical and hydrological, were attributed to supernatural powers, usually deities

  • The rich Ancient Greek mythology has been inspiring in the arts and continues to be so even in modern times

  • Sophocles introduces her, saying, “My suitor was a river, I mean the Achelous, who demanded me of my father under three forms; one while coming as a bull of perfect form, another time as a spotted writhing serpent, at another with the body of a man and the forehead of a bull.”. That this was the horn of Amaltheia, which Hercules broke off from the Achelous, and presented to Oeneus as a bridal gift

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Summary

Introduction – Ancient wisdom and its modern perception

The causes of natural processes, the geophysical and hydrological, were attributed to supernatural powers, usually deities. A first characteristic example is the following extract from Price (1996): Today, our version of the hydrological cycle seems so logical and obvious that it is difficult to believe that it did not gain widespread acceptance until the 17th century This was caused in large part by the tendency of the philosophers of Ancient Greece to distrust observations and by the tendency of later philosophers to accept the opinions of the Greeks almost without question. (Plato, Theaetetus, 201d; translation by the authors; original: [OT5]) In his dialogue Republic, Plato gives the following definition of philosophers, who in that period were not distinguished from scientists:. [Glaucon:] Who are the true philosophers? [Socrates:] Those, I said, who are lovers of the vision of truth. (Plato, Republic, V, 475e; English translation by Benjamin Jowett; original: [OT6])

Hydrology at the birth of science
Aristotle
The Nile paradox and its solution by Aristotle
From antiquity to modern science
Epilogue
Full Text
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