INTRODUCTION
1. Manilius, Astronomica, translated by G. P. Goold (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1977), 1.717.
2. Aratus, Phaenomena, in Callimachus; Lycophron; Aratus, translated by G. R. Mair (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1955), 373.
3. [Homer, Iliad, translated by A. T. Murray and William F. Wyatt (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999), 18.483]; some evidence suggests that Paleolithic peoples defined Ursa Major, Orion, and the Pleiades before the last Ice Age migrations from Asia to America. The universal recognition of these star groups as a bear, a hunter, and seven sisters lends credibility to the theory. [William Gibbon, “Asiatic Parallels in North American Star Lore: Ursa Major,” Journal of American Folklore, 77 no. 305 (1964): 236–250; William Gibbon, “Asiatic Parallels in North American Star Lore: Milky Way, Pleiades, Orion,” Journal of American Folklore, 85 no. 337 (1972): 236–247; Maud Makemson, “Astronomy in Primitive Religion,” Journal of Bible and Religion, 22 no. 3 (1954): 163–171]; evidence also exists of possible constellation diagrams depicted in Ice Age cave paintings in France and Spain, most notably on the walls of Lascaux Cave. One aurochs (bull no. 18) at Lascaux closely parallels the orientation of the constellation Taurus, with its horns lowered and face speckled with a pattern akin to the asterism named Hyades. Above its back is another pattern resembling the six visible stars of the Pleiades—an asterism found on the hump of the constellation Taurus. [Michael Rappenglueck, “The Pleiades in the ‘Salle des Taureaux,’ Grotte de Lascaux,” www.infis.org/research.]
4. An asterism is a named group of stars not designated as a constellation. The Pleiades and Hyades, both within the constellation Taurus, serve as examples.
5. Aratus, Phaenomena, 531.
6. Ibid, 452.
7. Ibid, 454.
8. Our word planet comes from the Greek verb planasthai, which means to wander.
9. [Homer, Iliad, 23.226]; Pindar described Phosphoros as splendid to behold among the other stars. [Pindar, Isthmian Odes, in Nemean Odes; Isthmian Odes; Fragments, translated by William Race (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997), 4.24.]
10. Homer, Odyssey, translated by A. T. Murray and George E. Dimock (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995), 13.93.
11. Homer, Iliad, 22.316.
12. Pythagoras was the first to identify the five wandering planets and to hypothesize that the Earth was a sphere. Venus’ mysterious changing position in the sky, from morning to evening, was later explained by the planet’s close orbit around the sun.
13. Aphrodite, Zeus, Ares, and Hermes represented four of the fourteen major Greek gods. Apollo, the sun god, and his twin sister Artemis, the moon goddess, represented two others. Among the modern planets, Uranus (Father Sky) was the husband of Gaea (Mother Earth). They were the parents of the Titans and grandparents of the gods. Poseidon (Neptune) ruled as god of the sea and Pluto as god of the underworld. The gods that remained unrepresented among the planets included Athena—goddess of wisdom and skill-at-arms; Demeter—goddess of farming and harvest; Hestia—goddess of hearth and home; Hera—goddess of women and childbirth; Hephaestus—god of fire and metallurgy; and Dionysus—god of wine and revelry.
14. See the Oxford Classical Greek Dictionary and Oxford English Dictionary.
15. Plato, Timaeus, in The Dialogues of Plato, translated by B. Jowett (New York: Random House, 1937), section 40.
16. Ptolemy catalogued many stars that depicted animal anatomy, specifically denoting the head, skull, hair, forehead, horn, tip of the horn, temple, eye, eyebrow, ear, snout, nostril, cheek, mouth, muzzle, bird’s beak, tongue, jaw, neck, bend of the neck, horse’s mane, fish gills, body, chest, bird’s breast, heart, belly, navel, back, upper back (between the shoulders), shoulder blade, dorsal fin, flank, hindquarters, rump, buttocks, forelegs, hind legs, armpit, thigh, back of the thigh, knee, knee bend, hock, wing, upper wing, bend of the wing, under the wing, wing tip, wing feathers, hoof, paw, claw, tail, base of the tail, bend of the tail, tip of the tail, tail fin, and scorpion’s stinger. [Ptolemy, Almagest, in Syntaxis Mathematica, translated by J. L. Heiberg (Leipzig: B. G. Teubneri, 1898); Ptolemy, Almagest, in Ptolemy’s Almagest, translated by G. J. Toomer (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998).]
17. Ptolemaic stars showing anthropomorphic anatomy depicted the head, skull, face, eye, neck, body, chest, female breast, back, upper back (between the shoulders), shoulder blade, belly, groin, side, shoulder, arm, armpit, elbow, upper arm, forearm, wrist, hand, buttocks, hip, legs, thigh, back of the thigh, knee, knee bend, lower leg, calf muscle, shin, ankle, foot, heel, and arch. Clothing is sparsely distinguished and includes an apron (or tunic), girdle, garment’s lower hem, coat, cloak with tie strings, belt, and tiara. Accoutrements are more abundant and include a shepherd’s staff, club, sword (with hilt), dagger, shield, bow (with grip), arrow (with arrowhead, shaft, and notch), animal pelt (used as a garment or arm-guard), fishing line knotted together, cup or bowl (with base, rim, and handles), lyre (with tortoise-shell body, cattle-horn neck, and bridge), incense burner (with base, burning pan, and burning apparatus—perhaps an incense or wick holder), thyrsus (a branch adorned with vine leaves and pine cones carried by followers of Dionysus), throne, and ship (with deck, mast, mast-holder, poop-deck, stern-post, keel, and steering oars). Natural objects are limited to water sources and include a flow of water and the bend of a river in the constellations Aquarius and Eridanus.
18. Every Greek, from early childhood, had heard the tales of Heracles (Hercules). Now they could see their hero in the northern sky at night, wreathed in a robe of heavenly light. Beneath him, a slithering serpent, named Draco, appeared as a coiling stream of stars. With a little imagination, the dramatic story of old that told of the deadly duel between the two now came to life. With ease, one could see Heracles kneeling to pin the beast, while raising a club to strike it down. The constellations of Orion and Scorpius stand as another example. The two are easy to see among the stars as Scorpius pursues the path of his eternal enemy: Orion. Thus, they provide a perfect portrayal of the oft-told tale of Orion’s fateful plight.
19. James Evans, The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 39.
20. Aristotle called astronomy that branch of mathematical science which is most akin to philosophy. [Aristotle, Metaphysics, translated by Hugh Tredennick (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1947), section 12.8.7.]
21. See Appendix 4.
22. Plato’s ideal person was well rounded and whole: an athlete, musician, and seeker of knowledge, wisdom, and truth. The ideal person knew how to stand silent and still in order to listen and learn; unlike the foolish man who runs his mouth non-stop—trying to make up for all he is not. Plato complained about those who go ringing on in a long harangue, like brazen pots, which when they are struck continue to sound unless someone puts his hand upon them. [Plato, Protagoras, in The Dialogues of Plato, translated by B. Jowett (New York: Random House, 1937), section 329]; The ideal person also had a broad perspective, based on a broad background that included hard physical labor, practical sense, theoretical knowledge, and spiritual yearning. Plato said, He who is careful to fashion the body, should in turn impart to the soul its proper motions, and should cultivate music and all philosophy, if he would deserve to be called truly fair and truly good. [Plato, Timaeus, section 88.]
23. Pausanias wrote, In the fore-temple at Delphi are written maxims useful for the life of men, inscribed by those whom the Greeks say were sages. These were: from Ionia, Thales of Miletus [et al.]. . . These sages, then, came to Delphi and dedicated to Apollo the celebrated maxims, “Know thyself,” and “Nothing in excess.” [Pausanias, Description of Greece, translated by W. H. S. Jones (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1955), 10.24.]
24. Archaeological evidence, from the Paleolithic to the present, often suggests a standard belief in a single all-encompassing deity, whether it be a Mother Earth goddess, a Father Sky god, or an undefined concept that becomes manifest in standardized rituals and burials. In addition, earliest encounters with prehistoric societies, like those in Africa and America, evince a global belief in a single, beneficent, all-embracing deity.
25. There is a logical explanation for the numerous stories of philandering gods. Archaic Greece was characterized by small city-states, each of which venerated its own deity. More often than not, these were local earth goddesses. As Zeus’s reputation as the supreme god spread, he supplanted many of the local goddesses. The logical way to affect this change was to explain in a myth that Zeus had cohabitated with the local goddess—an act that would have established his paternal dominance. As the same story became repeated in different localities, Zeus gained a reputation as a philanderer.
26. Other Mediterranean cultures also denoted asterisms and constellations to mark cardinal directions. Richard Allen noted that: the three constellations mentioned in the biblical Book of Job [Chapters 9:9 and 38:31–32; written c. 600 BC] and Book of Amos [Chapter 5:8; written c. 750 BC] fitly represent the cardinal points in the sky: the Bear in the north, Orion in the south, and the Pleiades rising and setting in the east and west. [Richard Allen, Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning (New York: Dover Publications, 1963), p. 309.]
27. Aratus, Phaenomena, 5.
28. Homer, Odyssey, 12.310, 14.482.
29. Aratus, Phaenomena, 740.
30. [Aratus, Phaenomena, 559]; Due to the Earth’s approximate 365-day orbit around the sun, each star and constellation appears on the horizon about four minutes (or one angular degree) earlier each night—that is, farther ahead of the sun—as it begins a westward journey across the sky.
31. In the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh—the oldest existing written story—a falling star (meteor) is a herald of good fortune. The Epic also mentions that stars offer protection as Watchmen of the Night. [Epic of Gilgamesh, translated by N. K. Sandars (New York: Penguin Books, 1972), Cuneiform Tablet 1, p. 66; Cuneiform Tablet 3, p. 75.]
32. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:Atlante.JPG.
CHAPTER 1
1. Homer said of the great-hearted Erechtheus that Athena settled him in her own rich shrine, suggesting some validity to the tradition that Erechtheus was buried at the temple on the Acropolis. [Homer, Iliad, 2.547]; In the Odyssey, Athena left Odysseus with King Alcinous and came to broad-wayed Athens, and entered the well-built house of Erechtheus—the temple he had dedicated. [Homer, Odyssey, 7.80]; A much later temple, begun in 421 BC, was named the Erechtheum after him and still stands on the Acropolis. Erechtheus is sometimes called Erichthonius.
2. The Charioteer of Delphi once stood in the Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi.
3. Five of the Caryatids are now preserved in the Acropolis Museum while reproductions stand in their place at the Erechtheum. The sixth Caryatid stands alone in the British Museum near the Elgin Marbles. Carya is the Greek word for nut. Today the name Carya is applied to the genus of nut-bearing trees represented by hickories worldwide, including the North American pecan—Carya illinoinensis. The genus Corylus probably derives from Carya as well and is represented by Corylus avellana—the hazelnut tree common in Eurasia.
4. The manger is marked by the open star cluster now called Praesepe (Greek for manger).
5. Ptolemy referred to the larger fish beneath Pegasus as being in advance of the other. Presumably, this one is Aphrodite and the smaller one beneath Andromeda is Eros.
6. Piscis Austrinus is marked by the bright star Fomalhaut.
7. Apollonius Rhodius, The Argonautica, translated by William H. Race (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008), 4.933.
8. Homer, Iliad, 20.233.
9. Ganymede is an asterism of the constellation Aquila. Ptolemy later referred to the asterism as Antinous.
10. The Greek term for incense altar, thymiaterion, likely comes from the use of thyme as a common incense. Thyme was thought to instill courage.
11. Homer, Iliad, 9.496.
CHAPTER 2
1. The complete passage states: Those who do not turn aside from justice at all, their city blooms and the people in it flower. For them, Peace, the nurse of the young, is on the earth, and far-seeing Zeus never marks out painful war; nor does famine attend straight-judging men, nor calamity, but they share out in festivities the fruits of the labors they care for. For these the earth bears the means of life in abundance, and on the mountains the oak tree bears acorns on its surface, and bees in its center; their woolly sheep are weighed down by their fleeces; and their wives give birth to children who resemble their parents. They bloom with good things, continuously. [Hesiod, Works and Days, in Theogony; Works and Days; Testimonia, translated by Glenn W. Most (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006), 225]; The ancient Greeks later quoted this passage in praise of the goddess Dice. [Hesiod, Testimonia, in Theogony; Works and Days; Testimonia, translated by Glenn W. Most (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006), 107.]
2. Astraea is often identified as Dice. The ancient Greeks and Romans knew Dice (Justice), Eunomia (Order), and Eirene (Peace) collectively as the Horae—the daughters of Zeus and Themis. Richard Allen noted that Virgo, or Dice, was also known as Astraea, the starry daughter of Themis, the last of the celestials to leave the earth . . . when the Brazen Age began. The name Astraea literally means starry in Greek. The constellation Virgo is the oldest existing representation of innocence and virtue in the human record. [Allen, Star Names, p. 422.]
3. Hesiod said, Eos, a goddess bedded in love with a god, bore to Astraeus the strong-spirited winds, clear Zephyrus and swift-pathed Boreas and Notus; and after these the Early-born one (Eos) bore the star, Dawn-bringer (Phosphoros), and the shining stars with which the sky is crowned. [Hesiod, Theogony, in Theogony; Works and Days; Testimonia, translated by Glenn W. Most (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006), 378.]
4. Aratus, Phaenomena, 107.
5. In ancient Greece, Vindemiatrix’s heliacal rising marked the beginning of the grape harvest on approximately September 13.
6. The nine Muses—daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (Memory)—included Calliope (Muse of epic poetry), Clio (history), Erato (lyric and love poetry), Euterpe (instrumental music, and inventor of the flute and woodwinds), Melpomene (tragic drama), Polyhymnia (singing and oratory), Terpsichore (dance), Thalia (comedic drama), and Urania (astronomy). These represent the enlightened accomplishments of humans that transcend the tangible and mundane. History and astronomy are aptly included, as they represent a broadened human perspective in time and space, and like the arts, open the mind to a more meaningful existence.
7. Pegasus, too, had danced in mirth and ecstasy in company with the Muses on Mount Helicon. During an especially robust prance, he pierced the ground, from which came a sparkling stream known thereafter as the Hippocrene. The name literally translates as fountain of the horse. The fountain served as a source of sustenance and poetic inspiration for the Muses. Hesiod said the Muses bathe in the sacred waters of the Hippocrene, then perform choral dances on highest Helikon, beautiful, lovely ones . . . and dance on their soft feet around the violet-dark fountain and the altar of Zeus. [Hesiod, Theogony, 1–8.]
8. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 1.553.
9. Aratus, Phaenomena, 130.
10. Homer, Iliad, 11.152.
11. Ibid, 1.3.
12. [Aesop, Fables, in Babrius and Phaedrus, compiled by Babrius, translated by Ben Edwin Perry (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965), Fable 79: The Dog and the Shadow]; Aesop is a shadowy figure mentioned by Herodotus, Aristotle, Plutarch, and other reliable sources. These suggest that he was born about 620 BC in Thrace on the Black Sea, perhaps at Mesembria (present-day Nesebar, Bulgaria). Herodotus and Aristotle said he was later a slave in Samos, but was freed. Plutarch added that he was executed at Delphi. By the fifth century BC, an Aesop legend developed on the island of Samos. His fables probably circulated as oral traditions before being written down. Over the ensuing centuries, the original writings were lost; however, later versions survived. The earliest surviving versions are by Babrius in Greek and Phaedrus in Latin, both of whom lived sometime during the first two centuries AD. The two probably worked independently from extant copies. Babrius appears as the more reliable source and claims only to make the fables more poetic, while Phaedrus inserts much new but inferior material.
13. Herodotus, The Histories, translated by Robin Waterfield (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 1: sections 1–4.
14. Homer, Odyssey, 1.1.
15. Zeus had designated fertile Sicily to be the best of the fruitful earth. [Pindar, Nemean Odes, in Nemean Odes; Isthmian Odes; Fragments, translated by William Race (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997), 1.15.]
16. [Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 4.964]; the triangular island of Thrinacia, or Sicily, is mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey and Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica. The early Greeks often referred to the constellation Triangulum as Deltaton, because of the similar isosceles-triangular shape of the letter Delta. [Allen, Star Names, p. 415]; Aratus described the constellation as drawn with three sides, whereof two appear equal but the third is less. [Aratus, Phaenomena, 234]; other observers referred to the constellation by various related titles, including Trinacia and Triqueta—terms that also referred to the triangular island of Sicily. [Callimachus, Hymns and Epigrams, in Callimachus; Lycophron; Aratus, translated by A. W. Mair (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1955), Hymn 3 to Artemis, 57, note a.]
17. Craters were typically used for diluting wine with water.
CHAPTER 3
1. Homeric Hymns describe the rugged wilds of ancient Arcadia as having mountain peaks . . . rocky tracks... thick brush and towering crags. [Homeric Hymns; Homeric Apocrypha; Lives of Homer, translated by Martin West (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003), section 19.7.]
2. Eratosthenes credited Hesiod with this story. [Eratosthenes, Catasterismi, in Star Myths of the Greeks and Romans, compiled by Pseudo-Eratosthenes, translated by Theony Condos (Grand Rapids: Phanes Press, 1997), p. 197]; The Greek word for bear is arktos, from which the Arctic region gets its name. The Bear’s unusually long tail has been variously explained. Some say that Zeus stretched the tail when he flung her into heaven. Because of the constellation’s immense age, and its near-universal recognition as a bear (and usually a she-bear), some scholars suggest that Ursa Major dates to the Bering Strait migrations of the last Ice Age. Scholars have confirmed that many Native Americans knew the constellation as a bear before the arrival of European influence. But the tail was interpreted differently, typically as three hunters, the middle one carrying a container—the dim star Alcor—on his back.
3. The name Bootes derives from boetes, which is Greek for shouter. [Allen, Star Names, 93.]
4. The Bear and the Little Bear are the modern constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor; but they are commonly known by the names of their asterisms: the Big Dipper and Little Dipper. The seven stars of each asterism can be seen within their respective constellations on the Northern Hemisphere Charts. Aratus called Ursa Minor the Dog-tailed Bear. [Aratus, Phaenomena, 182, 227.]
5. Aratus, Phaenomena, 276.
6. [Manilius, Astronomica, 4.521]; the five Hyades were the daughters of Atlas and Aethra. Zeus placed them in heaven in appreciation for their faithful service as nurses to the infant Dionysus. Zeus also sought in this way to comfort their undying grief over the death of their brother Hyas—a famed hunter killed by a wild boar. Both Homer and Hesiod mentioned the Hyades. Hesiod referred to them as Nymphs similar to the Graces, Phaesyle and Coronis and well-garlanded Cleeia and lovely Phaeo and long-robed Eudora, whom the tribes of human beings on the earth call the Hyades. [Hesiod, Fragments, in The Shield; Catalogue of Women; Other Fragments, translated by Glenn W. Most (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007), section 227a.]
7. Apollonius Rhodius provided this tribute to Ariadne: Once upon a time Ariadne, Minos’ maiden daughter, rescued Theseus . . . from terrible trials through her kindness. Thereafter, she boarded his ship with him and left her country; and even the immortals themselves loved her, and in the midst of the sky her sign, a crown of stars they call Ariadne’s, turns all night among the heavenly constellations. [Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 3.997]; Aratus called Corona Borealis that Crown, which glorious Dionysus set to be memorial of the dead Ariadne. [Aratus, Phaenomena, 71.]
CHAPTER 4
1. Homer, Odyssey, 11.309, 572.
2. Xenophon, On Hunting, in Scripta Minora, translated by E. C. Marchant (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1925), 1.18.
3. Xenophon, On Hunting, 4.1–2, 7–8; 5.1–5; 6.2–4, 11, 13.
4. Ibid, 4.4–5; 5.10, 16–17; 6.11, 13.
5. The parents, Atlas and Pleione, are now included in the asterism of the Pleiades, making a total of nine. But only six are easily visible. Of the sisters, Alcyone was the mother of Hyrieus (some say Arethusa) by Poseidon. Maia was the oldest and most beautiful, and probably the brightest star at one time (before that star’s magnitude diminished). She was the mother of the god Hermes, by Zeus. Electra was the mother of Dardanus, founder of the royal house of Troy, by Zeus. Merope was the wife of Sisyphus, King of Corinth. Taygeta was the mother of Lacedaemon, founder of Sparta, by Zeus. On either side of Taygeta, Celaeno and Sterope are the fainter and lesser known sisters. Athena’s three temples on the Athenian Acropolis, dated 1530 BC, 1150 BC (the Hecatompedon), and 438 BC (the Parthenon), were all oriented toward the rising of the Pleiades, as were several other Greek temples. [Evans, Ancient Astronomy, p. 399.]
6. Aesop, Fables, Fable 5: The Fighting Cocks.
7. Aratus, Phaenomena, 402, 643.
8. Ancient Greek astronomers consistently viewed this constellation as the Claws of Scorpius. But later Roman astronomers began to refer to the constellation as a set of scales, or a balance. Libra first appeared as such in the Julian Calendar of 46 BC. The Roman astronomer Manilius wrote that when the sun is in Libra, then the Balance, having matched daylight with the length of night, draws on the Scorpion. [Manilius, Astronomica, 1.266]; in other words, the days and nights are equally balanced because, at the time of the autumnal equinox, the sun is over the equator. Eventually, the lethal claws of Scorpius became recognized as Virgo’s scales of justice. Arabic astronomers, however, retained the Greek designation of the claws. They called two of the stars: Zubenelgenubi—the southern claw and Zubeneschamali—the northern claw. These remain their modern names.
9. Aratus, Phaenomena, 323.
10. The constellations Orion and Taurus represented to Sumerians a contest between Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven, as described in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
11. Homer, Iliad, 18.487.
12. According to Hyginus, Lepus is the eternal warning against introducing a prolific species into a new environment. In ancient times, hares were introduced onto the island of Leros with devastating results. With no natural predators to stop them, they soon ate all the crops. [Hyginus, Poetic Astronomy, in Star Myths of the Greeks and Romans, translated by Theony Condos (Grand Rapids: Phanes Press, 1997), p. 130.]
13. The Greeks referred to Canis Major as a spotted dog. Perhaps this is because some of his bright stars appear like spots on the rump. Some have suggested that the spots refer to his position in the speckled Milky Way, or are due to Sirius’ strong variability as it rises in the atmosphere. [Allen, Star Names, pp. 119, 127]; Homer said that Sirius shines brightest of all others when he has bathed in the stream of Ocean. [Homer, Iliad, 5.1.]
14. The Greek term Procyon literally means Herald of the Dog, and at one time was applied to both the constellation and its brightest star. The ancient term has no association with the modern genus name of Procyon, which naturalists applied, in 1780, to the raccoon. This New World animal was first described by Christopher Columbus two thousand years after the era of classical Greece.
15. [Hesiod, Theogony, 338]; Phoebus means bright and is a common forename for Apollo.
16. Ovid, Metaphorphoses, translated by Frank Justus Miller (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984), 2.319.
17. [Aratus, Phaenomena, 359; Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 4.603]; the star called Achernar now marks the source of the river Eridanus. But because it appears far to the celestial south, it remained unknown to the ancient Greeks.
18. Homer, Iliad, 6.182.
19. Pindar, Isthmian Odes, 7.44–47.
20. Homer, Iliad, 6.200.
CHAPTER 5
1. Pegasus is depicted in the heavens as he emerges newborn from the sea foam, in the same manner that Taurus and Aries appear half-submerged in the sea.
2. Euripides, Fragments, in Fragments: Aegeus to Meleager, translated by Christopher Collard and Martin Cropp (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008), Andromeda section 124.
3. Ovid, Metamorphoses, 4.625.
4. Ibid, 4.673.
5. Poseidon’s wife Amphitrite was a Nereid, as was Achilles’ mother, Thetis.
6. Euripides, Fragments, Andromeda section 145.
7. The Arabs later called the star Al-gol, meaning the ghoul.
8. Herodotus, Histories, 7: section 61.
9. Aratus, Phaenomena, 653.
10. Hesiod, Theogony, 278.
11. A winged horse, or wind horse, also appears in the religious symbolism of central and eastern Asia where it represents the soul. It is a common feature on Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags.
12. Celeris, during his lifetime, was a remarkably fast horse. Hermes, the messenger god, was so impressed with the speed of Celeris that he gave him to Castor, the greatest of mortal horsemen.
13. Heracles is also known by the Roman name Hercules.
14. Eratosthenes and Hyginus linked the constellation Hydra to the story of Corvus and Crater, but this is not attested in Archaic literature. Moreover, Aratus made no connection between Hydra, Corvus, and Crater, except that Corvus pecks at the serpent. Hesiod related the story of Hydra and Heracles at a much earlier date: They say that Typhon, terrible, outrageous, lawless sired the evil-minded Hydra of Lerna that Hera sent against Heracles. [Hesiod, Theogony, 306.]
15. The Hesperides were the three daughters of Atlas and Hesperis. They lived in the westernmost region of the known world, on the shores of the Strait of Gibraltar. The names of the mother and daughters mean western or evening, denoting the evening setting of the sun in the west. Hesperis’ father was Hesperos, the evening star. Our modern word vesper comes from this name.
16. Serpents are often depicted as trusted guardians, typically keeping watch over springs, homes, and temples. The Erechtheum on the Acropolis had its own guardian serpent that was tended by temple maidens. The constellation Draco was thought to never set in the west because he remained ever vigilant. One of Draco’s stars, Thuban, marked the celestial north pole in 2750 BC. As such, all the stars in the sky rotated around it. This made Thuban and the constellation Draco extremely important in the ancient Near East. Thuban was visible from dusk to dawn from a main passage of the Great Pyramid of Cheops at Giza, at 30 degrees N latitude, and could be similarly viewed from the entrances of other sacred structures. [Allen, Star Names, pp. 206–207.]
CHAPTER 6
1. Apollodorus provided a concise account of the voyage, based upon Apollonius Rhodius. [Apollodorus, The Library, translated by James George Frazer (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1939), I.9, sections 16–28.]
2. [Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 1.106, 4.1466]; the helmsman served as the primary navigator. He was the onboard expert in noting celestial signs both day and night. He interpreted the winds, ripples, currents, and flocks of migrating birds. His mind was a storehouse of information on coastal landmarks, dangerous obstacles, and the local aggregate of the seafloor. He also steered the ship and adjusted the sail by means of brail lines. As such, he remained indispensable. [Samuel Mark, Homeric Seafaring (College Station: Texas A&M Press, 2005), p. 148.]
3. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 4.1192.
4. Ibid, 2.160.
5. Ibid, 3.189, note 10.
6. Ibid, 2.1145.
7. Ibid, 4.123.
8. Standard shipbuilding tools of ancient Greece included an axe and an adze for cutting and shaping timbers and mortises; an auger for drilling holes for pegs; a mallet for joining the timbers by means of pegs and mortises; and a chalk line to shape the timbers straight and true. [For descriptions and illustrations of tools used for constructing boats and dwellings, see Anthony Rich, The Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary and Greek Lexicon (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1849); W. M. Flinders-Petrie, Tools and Weapons (London: British School of Archaeology in Egypt, 1917); Henry Mercer, Ancient Carpenters’ Tools (Doylestown, PA: Horizon Press, 1975)]; Homer described the tools that Calypso provided to Odysseus so he could build a raft: She gave him a big axe, well fitted to his hands, an axe of bronze, sharpened on both sides; and in it was a beautiful handle of olive wood, securely fastened; and thereafter she gave him a polished adze. . . . Twenty trees in all did he fell, and trimmed them with the axe; then he cunningly smoothed them all and trued them to the line. Meanwhile Calypso, the beautiful goddess, brought him augers; and he bored all the pieces and fitted them to one another, and with pegs and mortising he hammered it together. . . . And he set in place the decks, bolting them to the close-set ribs, as he continued the work; and he finished the raft with long gunwales. In it he set a mast and a yardarm, fitted to it, and furthermore made him a steering oar. . . . Meanwhile Calypso, the beautiful goddess, brought him cloth to make him a sail, and he fashioned that too with skill. And he made fast in the raft braces and halyards and sheets, and then with levers worked it down into the bright sea. [Homer, Odyssey, 5.233.]
9. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 1.1182.
10. Ibid, 1.562.
11. Pindar, Pythian Odes, in Olympian Odes; Pythian Odes, translated by William Race (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997), 4.202–203.
12. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 1.1272.
13. [Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 1.1084]; a halcyon was probably a kingfisher. Alcyone, the Pleiad, got her name from this bird.
14. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 1.1118, note 118.
15. The Black Sea was once known as the Pontus. Propontis means Before Pontus and is now called the Sea of Marmara.
16. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 3.957.
17. Ibid, 3.744.
18. Ibid, 3.1348.
19. Ibid, 3.1372.
20. Pindar said the serpent exceeded in breadth and length a ship of fifty-oars. [Pindar, Pythian Odes, 4.244–245.]
21. The Aries motif appeared in ancient Greek art, most notably in images of Hermes Kriophoros (the ram-bearer), and remained popular into late antiquity. The Ram looking back over his flank, as in the constellation image, became a common pose that continued to appear in Christian depictions of the Good Shepherd in sculptures of the first centuries AD, and in stucco in the Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome, and elsewhere.
22. Homer revered the ship of the Argonauts as that Argo famed of all. [Homer, Odyssey, 12.70]; because of its size in the heavens, Argo Navis was later divided into four constellations: Carina, Vela, Pyxis, and Puppis. It also contained one star now part of the modern constellation Columba.
23. Pindar, Pythian Odes, 4.176–177.
24. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 1.26.
25. Ibid, 1.496.
26. Ibid, 4.904.
27. Ibid, 4.1193.
28. Homer, Odyssey, 8.478.
29. Pindar said, Chiron raised Jason in his rocky dwelling and then Asklepios, whom he taught the gentle-handed province of medicines. [Pindar, Nemean Odes, 3.53–55.]
30. For one of many modern depictions of this Rod of Asclepius, see the flag of the United Nations World Health Organization.
31. Herodotus, Histories, 8: section 41.
32. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 4.592.
33. Ibid, 4.652.
34. The star that marks Polydeuces’ head is known in modern times by his Latin name: Pollux.
35. Ancient sources refer to these appearances of St. Elmo’s Fire. One of the Homeric Hymns declared that when winter tempests race over the implacable sea, and the men from their ships invoke the Sons of great Zeus in prayer, with [sacrifice of] white lambs, going onto the stern deck, and the strong wind and sea swell overwhelm the ship: suddenly they [Castor and Polydeuces] appear, speeding through the air on tawny wings, and at once they make the fierce squalls cease, and lay the waves amid the flats of a clear sea—fair portents, and release from travail; the sailors rejoice at the sight, and their misery and stress are ended. [Homeric Hymns, section 33]; Alcaeus wrote praises to the Twins who rescue men from chilling death, leaping on the peaks of their well-benched ships, brilliant from afar as you run up the fore-stays, bringing light to the black ship in the night of trouble. [Alcaeus, Fragments, in Greek Lyric: Sappho; Alcaeus, translated by David Campbell (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982), Fragment 34]; Pliny also described this appearance of St. Elmo’s Fire as the favorable light of Castor and Polydeuces: On a voyage, stars alight on the yards and other parts of the ship, with a sound resembling a voice, hopping from perch to perch in the manner of birds. . . . If there are two of them, they denote safety and portend a successful voyage; . . . for this reason they are called Castor and Pollux, and people pray to them as gods for aid at sea. [Pliny, Natural History, translated by H. Rackham (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1949), 2.37]; In like manner, the Bible recorded the high regard in which ancient seafarers held the Twins. On one occasion, the Apostle Paul was taken under military escort from Crete to Rome. Along the way, the crew encountered fourteen stormy nights at sea and was shipwrecked on the island of Malta. Paul and the Roman guards recuperated for three months before securing another ship to Rome. This time they boarded a ship that was sure to be safer because it had the sign of Castor and Pollux on the figurehead of the bow. [Book of Acts, 28:11]; according to James Evans, the Greek Alexandria, and Ostia, the harbor of Rome, were considered to be under the tutelage of the Twins, who were often represented on either side of the bows of vessels owned in those ports. [Evans, Ancient Astronomy, p. 226.]
PART TWO
1. Johann Bayer’s constellations of 1603 adorn the ceiling of Grand Central Terminal in New York City.
CHAPTER 9
1. Homer, Odyssey, 24.143.
2. Aratus, Phaenomena, 740.
3. The Greeks marked the seasons by noting the positions of stars, asterisms, or constellations on the eastern and western horizons at dawn and dusk. At early dawn, while the stars still shine, the heliacal rising of a star denotes its first appearance in the east, just ahead of the rising sun. Every morning thereafter, the same star appears higher in the sky at dawn and farther ahead of the sun. Months later, the same star finally sets on the western horizon at dawn. This is called the apparent cosmical setting. The Greeks noted similar positions at dusk. The first appearance of a star on the eastern horizon at dusk is called the apparent achronycal rising; and the appearance of a star on the western horizon at dusk, as it follows the setting sun, is called the heliacal setting. After its heliacal setting, a star disappears from the night sky for several weeks and reappears in the morning sky at its heliacal rising. In summary, at dawn, the heliacal rising of a star occurs just ahead of the rising sun, while the apparent cosmical setting of another star is occurring opposite the sun. At dusk, the apparent achronycal rising of a star occurs opposite the setting sun, while the heliacal setting of another star is occurring just behind the setting sun. For example, in the time of Hesiod, the Pleiades made a heliacal rising in the east at dawn on May 16. After crossing the night sky for several months, the Pleiades made an apparent cosmical setting on November 3. Several months later, its heliacal setting occurred at dusk on April 5. At that point, the Pleiades disappeared from the sky for about forty nights until making a heliacal rising again on May 16. Twenty-seven centuries later, the precession of the Earth (the slow wobble around its axis) has caused these stars to appear several days later than in ancient times. Risings and settings are also affected by differences in latitude and several other factors.
4. Aratus, Phaenomena, 562.
5. All dates are approximations applied to our modern calendar. They are based on calculations and computer simulations for 700 BC, at the latitude of Athens. See Appendix 3: Annual Celestial Events, noted by Hesiod with additions by Eudoxus.
6. Hesiod, Works and Days, 414, 427.
7. [Hesiod, Works and Days, 423]; for illustrations and descriptions of ancient tools, see Rich, Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary and Greek Lexicon; and Flinders-Petrie, Tools and Weapons.
8. [Hesiod, Works and Days, 564]; when providing day counts, Hesiod rounded estimates to multiples of ten (e.g. sixty wintry days, and forty nights and days). [A. W. Mair, Hesiod: The Poems and Fragments Done into English Prose (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908), p. 144; Harald Reiche, “Fail-Safe Stellar Dating: Forgotten Phases,” Transactions of the American Philological Association 119 (1989): 45–46.]
9. The pruning hook was sometimes used. It consisted of a sickle-shape iron blade and wooden handle—a smaller version of the reaping sickle used for the grain harvest. [Mair, Hesiod, p. 153.]
10. Homer, Odyssey, 24.246, 340.
11. Xenophon, Oeconomicus, in Memorabilia and Oeconomicus, translated by E. C. Marchant (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013), 19.3–5, 7–8, 11.
12. Theophrastus, Concerning Weather Signs, in Enquiry into Plants, translated by Arthur Hort (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1949), 1.10, 14, 15; 3.38–40, 46, 47.
13. Xenophon, Oeconomicus, 17.12.
14. Hesiod, Works and Days, 569.
15. Aelian, On the Characteristics of Animals, translated by A. F. Scholfield (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958), 1.52.
16. Aristotle, in typical manner, offered a scientific explanation for this migratory bird behavior: Animals have an innate perception of change in respect of hot and cold. . . . Some find protection . . . in their habitual locations, while others [like cranes and fishes] migrate. Aristotle refers here to the common crane—Grus grus. [Aristotle, History of Animals, translated by D. M. Balme (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991), 709.]
17. When the Atlas-born Pleiades rise, start the harvest—the plowing, when they set. They are concealed for forty nights and days, but when the year has revolved they appear once more, when the iron is being sharpened. [Hesiod, Works and Days, 383, 571; Xenophon, Oeconomicus, 18.1–2.]
18. Hesiod, Works and Days, 597.
19. Xenophon, Oeconomicus, 18.1, 4–5.
20. In the land of Canaan, the threshing floor of Araunah, the Jebusite, was situated on a hilltop for this same purpose. When David, the neighboring Hebrew King, sought a lofty site to serve as a Temple Mount, he purchased Araunah’s threshing floor. For the following three thousand years, Jews, Christians, and Muslims have cherished the sacred site. The Temple Mount, that was once a threshing floor, is now home to the mosque called Dome of the Rock, in Jerusalem. [2 Samuel 24:18–25, 1 Chronicles 21:18–26.]
21. Xenophon, Oeconomicus, 18.7–8; Hesiod, Works and Days, 606.
22. Hesiod, Works and Days, 414; Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 2.524.
23. Hesiod, Works and Days, 393, 582, 588.
24. Xenophon, Oeconomicus, 19.18–19.
25. Homer, Odyssey, 24.340.
26. Xenophon, Oeconomicus, 19.19.
27. Hesiod, Works and Days, 609.
28. Ibid, 383, 571, 615.
29. Ibid, 458, 479.
30. Theophrastus, Concerning Weather Signs, 4.55; Aratus, Phaenomena, 1064.
31. Aristotle, History of Animals, 597a.21.
32. Theophrastus, Concerning Weather Signs, 3.38; Aratus, Phaenomena, 1075; Hesiod, Works and Days, 448; Aristophanes, Birds, in Birds; Lysistrata; Women at the Thesmophoria, translated by Jeffrey Henderson (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000), 709.
33. Hesiod, Works and Days, 427, 469.
34. Aristophanes, Acharnians, in Acharnians; Knights, translated by Jeffrey Henderson (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998), 1025.
35. Hesiod, Works and Days, 427.
36. Xenophon, Oeconomicus, 17.2–4.
37. Ibid, 17.1–6.
38. Ibid, 17.7–8, 11.
39. Hesiod, Works and Days, 470; Xenophon, Oeconomicus, 5.6.
40. [Leviticus 26:5; Deuteronomy 11:14]; the farming cycle is further described by Mair in Hesiod: The Poems and Fragments.
41. Hesiod, Works and Days, 463.
42. Hesiod, Works and Days, 462; Xenophon, Oeconomicus, 16.11–15.
43. Hesiod, Works and Days, 551, 576.
44. The ancient Greeks celebrated agriculture as a gift from the gods. In particular, they praised Demeter—the goddess of farming and harvest—as the divine benefactress who first gave man the golden seeds of grain and taught him how to plant and harvest a crop. The stories of old told how she poured the priceless gift of grain into the hands of a pious man named Triptolemus. At the time, Triptolemus served as a priest at the shrine of Eleusis, near Athens, where he devoted his life to the ritual worship of Demeter. After receiving the grain, he followed her will in a more fruitful way. First, he planted, harvested, threshed, and winnowed a crop at Eleusis. Then, with bags of grain seed, he left the shrine behind and traveled the breadth of Greece to bestow the blessings of agriculture. In this manner, he offered the means of subsistence and survival to his countrymen and assured a steady supply of food for future generations. Through the centuries, Greeks continued to favor farming as a noble profession and a praiseworthy occupation. Xenophon voiced a common belief—repeated through the ages—that farmers, being bound to the land, have the greatest stake in their country, and the strongest desire to defend it against invasion. Farming, he said, seems to turn out citizens who are the bravest and most loyal to the community. Xenophon also considered farming the most feasible means of assuring a family’s survival. He claimed that it ranked as one of the healthiest and most rewarding ways to make a living: The best occupation and the best branch of knowledge is farming, from which people obtain what is necessary to them. For this occupation seemed to be the easiest to learn and the most pleasant to practice; to afford the body the greatest measure of strength and beauty; and to afford the mind the greatest amount of spare time. Any person, declared Xenophon, can learn to farm through common sense and simple observation of their surroundings. For example, if a person sees an uncultivated meadow producing happy, healthy native plants, then he knows, straight away, that the soil is fertile. A person may also note the types of plants that local farmers successfully grow. In this way, he will know at a glance what the soil can bear. The land, he said, makes no deceptive displays but reveals frankly and truthfully what she can and cannot do. Xenophon pointed out that, in addition to making simple observations, a person can seek the advice of agrarian neighbors. Almost every farmer proves ready and willing to offer his knowledge and local lore to all who will listen, so to acquire a basic knowledge of farming is a simple matter. Beyond that, a person must only be willing to work. The difference between a good farmer and a bad farmer, said Xenophon, is not so much due to a difference in knowledge as it is due to a difference in diligence. According to nature’s design, the lazy person goes hungry, and the hard worker comes home to find food on the table. In the words of Hesiod: Famine is ever the companion of a man who does not work. Even a farmer of minimal financial means can succeed, said Xenophon, if he is willing to work. One way to begin, or to add to one’s holdings, is to buy cheap land in a poor location, with poor soil, then work hard to improve it. If the land is low and boggy, it can be drained. If the soil is weak or alkaline, it can be strengthened with richer soil, and with fertilization from manure or vegetative mulch. Xenophon concluded that in farming, it is possible for any determined person to learn the profession and to succeed at the art of subsistence and survival. [Homeric Hymns, “To Demeter,” 2.474; Apollodorus, The Library, 1.5.2; Pausanias, Description of Greece, “Attica,” 14.2–4; 38.6–7; Hesiod, Works and Days, 302; Xenophon, Oeconomicus, 6.8–10; 15.10–12; 16.3, 5; 18.10; 20.2, 6, 11–13, 22–23.]
45. Aristophanes, Birds, 713.
46. Theocritus, Idylls, in Theocritus; Moschus; Bion, translated by Neil Hopkinson (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015), 13.25.
47. Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus, in Ajax; Electra; Oedipus Tyrannus, translated by Hugh Lloyd-Jones (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994), 1137.
48. Aelian, On the Characteristics of Animals, 7.8.
49. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 4.1629.
50. Sappho, Fragments, in Greek Lyric: Sappho; Alcaeus, translated by David Campbell (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982), Fragment 104.
51. Hesiod, Theogony, 22; Albert Schachter, Cults of Boiotia (London: University of London, Institute of Classical Studies, 1986).
52. Homer, Iliad, 8.555.
53. [Theocritus, Idylls, 13.25]; likewise, the Greek fleet of a thousand ships that sailed to Troy—a city strategically located near the entrance of the Hellespont—gathered first and wintered at Aulis (modern Avlida) in Boeotia. Only after winter’s end did they dare to cross the Aegean Sea. [Homer, Iliad, 2.303; Hesiod, Works and Days, 651.]
54. Hesiod, Works and Days, 663.
55. Ibid, 618.
56. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 1.1203.
57. Aratus, Phaenomena, 167.
58. Hesiod, Works and Days, 623.
CHAPTER 10
1. Morton’s excellent study is reflected in this chapter. [Jamie Morton, The Role of the Physical Environment in Ancient Greek Seafaring (Leiden: Brill, 2001).]
2. Hesiod, Works and Days, 678.
3. Leonidas of Tarentum, Epigrams, in The Greek Anthology, translated by W. R. Paton (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1948), 10.1.
4. Marcus Argentarius, Epigrams, in The Greek Anthology, translated by W. R. Paton (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1948), 10.4.
5. Strabo, Geography, in The Geography of Strabo, translated by Horace L. Jones (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1949), 10.4.5.
6. Homer, Odyssey, 14.252.
7. See Appendix 5, Aegean Sea Map.
8. Aristotle, History of Animals, 596b.24.
9. Aristophanes, Birds, 709.
10. Theocritus, Epigrams, in Theocritus; Moschus; Bion, translated by Neil Hopkinson (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015), 25.3.
11. Xenophon described the restless nature of merchant sailors as they fervently searched for the most prized commodity—grain: On receiving reports that it is abundant anywhere, merchants will voyage in quest of it: they will cross the Aegean, the Euxine [Black], the Sicilian sea, and when they have got as much as possible, they carry it over the sea and actually stow it in the very ship in which they themselves sail. And when they need money they don’t unload the grain just anywhere, but they carry it to the place where they hear that grain is most valued. [Xenophon, Oeconomicus, 20.27.]
12. The name came from the belief that the halcyon seabird had the power to calm the waters. Theocritus claimed that halcyons, being the birds dearest to the seagreen Nereids and to fishermen, would often smooth the sea. [Theocritus, Idylls, 7.57 and note 15.]
13. Aratus, Phaenomena, 758.
14. Homer, Odyssey, 12.310.
15. Theophrastus, Concerning Weather Signs, 1.10, 2.27, 3.38.
16. Aratus, Phaenomena, 408.
17. Theophrastus, Concerning Weather Signs, 1.22; 2.32, 34; 3.43, 45.
18. Ibid, 2.31, 35, 37.
19. Aratus, Phaenomena, 1010; Theophrastus, Concerning Weather Signs, 4.52; Aelian, On the Characteristics of Animals, 3.13.
20. Theophrastus, Concerning Weather Signs, 1.20; 3.38, 40; Aelian, On the Characteristics of Animals, 3.14, 7.7.
21. Greeks on land and sea had long observed the four primary winds according to their most common properties: the colder north wind, hotter south wind, wetter west wind, and drier east wind. Their sensory observations of temperature and humidity worked in ways that seem amazing today.
22. Homer, Odyssey, 24.76.
23. Strabo, Geography, 3.2.5.
24. A stadion was a unit of measure in the ancient Mediterranean world. It was based on the pous (pl. podes)—our equivalent of the foot. A pous consisted of sixteen finger widths. With an average of about three-fourths inch per finger width, the pous measured some twelve inches. One hundred podes equaled a plethron (pl. plethra), and six plethra equaled a stadion. The stadion (stadium in Latin) was the length of the most popular foot race, and the standard length of the edifice (stadium) in which it was run. Stadion distances varied by locale. In general, a stadion measured about six hundred feet, or 183 meters.
25. Strabo, Geography, 6.3.10, 10.4.5.
26. Anaximander (c. 610–c. 546 BC) is credited with bringing the gnomon to the Greeks. This simple vertical stick was used in his time to cast the sun’s shadow in order to determine noon. Also, the length of the noon shadow indicated the solstices. [Robert Hannah, Time in Antiquity (London: Routledge, 2009), p. 69]; Pytheas of Massalia (present-day Marseilles), a Greek navigator of the fourth century BC, put the gnomon to good use when he brazenly sailed from the Mediterranean Sea into the rough waters of the Atlantic Ocean, then ventured northward to the British Isles and beyond.
27. Homer, Odyssey, 5.269.
28. Thales of Miletus (c. 624–546 BC), promoted the use of Ursa Minor and convinced Greek mariners to follow the more accurate Phoenician method. [Callimachus, Iambi, in Aetia; Iambi; Lyric Poems, translated by C. A. Trypanis (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958), 1.52.]
29. Eratosthenes, Catasterismi, p. 201.
30. Aratus, Phaenomena, 37.
31. Phoenician sailors enjoyed a widespread reputation as excellent mariners. Accordingly, Xenophon expressed amazement at the impeccable outfitting of their merchant ships: I have never seen tackle so excellently and accurately arranged. Each piece rested in its own compact storage receptacle, ready for immediate use. This included the full array of rigging, as well as a worthy assortment of weapons for fighting pirates. It also consisted of utensils for cooking and eating, and all the cargo carried for trade: Each kind of thing was so neatly stowed away that there was no confusion, no work for a searcher, nothing out of place, no troublesome untying to cause delay when anything was needed for immediate use. Moreover, the captain’s first mate routinely checked the quantity and arrangement of equipment and supplies. In their small, wooden world, order was essential: People aboard a merchant vessel, even if it’s a little one, find room for things and keep order, though tossed violently to and fro, and find what they want to get, though terror stricken. [Xenophon, Oeconomicus, 8.11–17.]
32. In addition to his talents as a mathematician, Eratosthenes was an astronomer, geographer, historian, music theorist, poet, and athlete. He coined the term geography and founded the discipline. He created a map of the known world, and invented latitude and longitude. He proved the Earth’s spherical shape, calculated its circumference, and determined its approximate axis tilt. As an astronomer, he invented the armillary sphere and compiled a star catalog—the Catasterismi. As a historian, he recorded a chronology from the fall of Troy to his own time. As a humanitarian, he condemned Aristotle’s division of humans into Greeks and barbarians. He also produced a work on ethics. He served as the third head librarian at Alexandria, succeeding Apollonius Rhodius. His close friend was the famed mathematician and inventor, Archimedes.
33. Aratus, Phaenomena, 727.
34. Homer, Odyssey, 12.310, 14.482.
APPENDIX 3
1. Hesiod used five easily identifiable celestial objects, also mentioned by Homer, to provide nine calendar markers of practical value to farmers, shepherds, and sailors. He also used the summer and winter solstices to mark general seasonal characteristics. He was aware of the equinoxes (Hesiod, Fragments, 226), but found little calendar use for them as they proved difficult to pinpoint. Eudoxus’ contributions to Hesiod’s calendar are preserved by Aratus in the Phaenomena. His supplements include the four constellation markers of the solstices and equinoxes; additional information added to five of Hesiod’s calendar events; and three new markers. The approximate calendar dates shown here are based on calculations for the year 700 BC at the latitude of Athens. The dates are provided courtesy of Anthony B. Kaye, PhD, professor of physics and astronomy at Texas Tech University. The following is a summary of the complexities and methodologies involved in producing these calculations: Gregorian calendar dates for the vernal equinox, autumnal equinox, summer solstice, and winter solstice were all computed using the algorithm given in Jean Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms, 2nd ed. (Richmond, Virginia: Willmann-Bell, Inc., 1998). This returned a Julian date as a solution, which was converted to a Gregorian calendar date using the “Julian Date Converter” application made available by the United States Naval Observatory. The determination of the other four quantities (heliacal rising, heliacal setting, apparent achronycal rising, and apparent cosmical setting) proved more complicated. To compute these dates, one must first compute the positions of each of the stars in the sky. As each star has its own three-dimensional coordinates (given by its right ascension, declination, and distance), it also has three-dimensional motion in the sky (given by its proper motion in right ascension and declination and its radial velocity). Thus, one may go back in time to determine the positions of the stars given their current positions (or rather, their positions on a given day) and their individual motions. However, the problem is not that simple. Due to the c. 2700 years considered here, the complicated motion of the Earth has to be taken into account. A good discussion of the various effects can be found in James G. Williams, “Contributions to the Earth’s Obliquity Rate, Precession, and Nutation,” Astronomical Journal 108 (1994): 711–724. The three main effects on the Earth’s motion, in addition to its simple revolution around the sun, are precession, nutation, and obliquity. Precession is a result of the gravity of the sun and the moon acting on the oblateness of the Earth. As a result, the Earth’s spin axis describes a circle of roughly 23.4 degrees and takes c. 26,000 years to complete. The consequence of precession is that the north star—Polaris—is drifting. During the time period considered here, the north celestial pole was remarkably dark. The closest bright star would have been Kochab, in Ursa Minor. Nutation is an effect caused mainly by the precession of the planet on the moon’s tilted, elliptical orbit. This means that there is another change in the direction of the north celestial pole, but with a smaller amplitude and a shorter period of 18.6 years. Obliquity, which is a measure of the tilt of the Earth’s axis, ranges a total of plus or minus 1.3 degrees from its average value of 23.4 degrees. Further, since the night sky appears differently from each location on Earth, we must have reliable coordinates, including an altitude, for the observer. In addition to these “external” considerations, there are also more “local” variables that must be addressed. These include questions like, Where is the observer on the Earth? At what altitude? How dark is the night sky in that location and at that time? [See: R. H. Garstang, “Night-Sky Brightnesses at Observatories and Sites,” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 101 (1989): 306–329; and K. Krisciunas, “Further Measurements of Extinction and Sky Brightness on the Island of Hawaii,” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 102 (1990): 1052–1063.] Other questions include, What was the atmosphere like? Was it stable, or was it turbulent enough to cause starlight to shimmer drastically? What were the effects of atmospheric refraction and aberration? What was the weather like that day? (In addition to clouds, mist, and fog, local temperature and humidity also affected the specific time of the event.) How experienced was the observer? How good was his vision? Of course, these latter questions cannot be answered, so we must work with optimal viewing conditions. [See Bradley Schaefer, “Predicting Heliacal Risings and Settings,” Sky & Telescope 70 (1985): 261–263; G. V. Rozenberg, “Light Scattering in the Earth’s Atmosphere,” Soviet Physics Uspekhi 3 (1960): 346–371; H. Richard Blackwell, “Contrast Thresholds of the Human Eye,” Journal of the Optical Society of America 36 (1946): 624–643; and I. S. Bowen, “Limiting Visual Magnitude,” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 59 (1947): 253–256.] Further, although we have various definitions of different kinds of twilight today, those definitions did not exist in the first millennium BC. So, if we use the term “heliacal rising” to mean the rising of a star with or just before the sun, how close can the object be to the sun before the sun’s light overwhelms it and makes it invisible? With all of these variables, we decided to use four different methods to calculate the four events of interest: 1) The technique of Lacroix—a loop-based method that marks when the star and the sun are at altitudes that allow first visibility of the star; 2) The method described by Karine Gadré, “Conception d’un modèle de visibilitè d’ètoile à l’oeil nu. Application à l’identification des dècans ègyptiens” (PhD dissertation, Universitè Paul Sabatier, 2008); 3) The software Planetary, Lunar, and Stellar Visibility (PLSV), version 2.0, which is based on a slightly more elaborate version of Ptolemy’s method described in the Almagest; and, 4) The software Stellarium (v 0.16) with the “Observability Analysis” plugin (v 1.0.2).
2. Hesiod, Works and Days, 564–570.
3. [Aratus, Phaenomena, 745]; Aratus said dread Arcturus marks stormy seasons with both its heliacal and its apparent achronycal risings.
4. Aratus, Phaenomena, 516.
5. Hesiod, Works and Days, 384.
6. Ibid, 383, 572.
7. Aratus, Phaenomena, 266.
8. [Hesiod, Works and Days, 597]; Hesiod said winnowing begins when Orion’s strength first shows itself. Orion’s rising and setting is marked by the star Betelgeuse because it is the first bright star of the constellation to rise and the last to set.
9. Hesiod, Works and Days, 663.
10. Aratus, Phaenomena, 500.
11. [Hesiod, Works and Days, 587; Aratus, Phaenomena, 332]; Hesiod does not specify the time of Sirius’ rising. Aratus is more specific.
12. Aratus called the Lion the Sun’s hottest summer path. [Aratus, Phaenomena, 151]; Apollonius said the Etesian Winds last forty days. [Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 2.524.]
13. [Aratus, Phaenomena, 138]; Aratus does not define the role of this star because the name requires no further explanation.
14. [Hesiod, Works and Days, 610]; Sirius is used as an approximate marker of the grape harvest at this time, as it approaches a southern zenith at dawn. Homer and Hesiod both note its prominent appearance during the harvest. [Homer, Iliad, 5.5, 22.26; Hesiod, Works and Days, 609.]
15. Aratus, Phaenomena, 745.
16. [Aratus, Phaenomena, 519, 546]; Aratus does not specifically mention the Claws as an equinoctial marker, but makes the constellation’s role obvious in his designation of the twelve zodiacal constellations.
17. Hesiod, Works and Days, 383, 615, 619.
18. [Aratus, Phaenomena, 266]; Aratus agrees that this marks the plowing season.
19. Hesiod, Works and Day, 615.
20. [Hesiod, Works and Days, 615]; the Pleiades, Hyades, and Orion offer three distinct warnings to complete the plowing before winter. Otherwise, the crop will fail. [Hesiod, Works and Days, 479.]
21. [Aratus, Phaenomena, 313]; Aratus calls Eagle the Storm-bird, that tosses in the storm . . . in its rising from the sea when the night is waning.
22. Hesiod, Works and Days, 564.
23. Aratus, Phaenomena, 284, 501.