Greek astronomy is the
astronomy of those who wrote in the
Greek language in
classical antiquity; for example,
Aristarchus of Samos Greek astronomer/mathematician and his
heliocentric model of the
solar system. Greek astronomy is understood to include the
ancient Greek,
Hellenistic,
Greco-Roman, and
Late Antiquity eras. It is not limited
geographically to
Greece or to ethnic
Greeks, as the Greek language had become the language of scholarship throughout the
Hellenistic world following the conquests of
Alexander. This phase of Greek astronomy is also known as
Hellenistic astronomy, while the pre-Hellenistic phase is known as
Classical Greek astronomy. During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, much of the Greek and non-Greek
astronomers working in the Greek tradition studied at the
Musaeum and the
Library of Alexandria in
Ptolemaic Egypt. The development of astronomy by the Greek and Hellenistic astronomers is considered by historians to be a major phase in the
history of astronomy in
Western culture. It was influenced by
Babylonian astronomy; in turn, it influenced
Islamic,
Indian, and
Western European astronomy.
Archaic Greek astronomy
References to identifiable
stars and
constellations appear in the writings of
Homer and
Hesiod, the earliest surviving examples of Greek literature. In the
Iliad and the
Odyssey, Homer refers to the following celestial objects:
Hesiod, who wrote in the early 7th century BCE, adds the star
Arcturus to this list in his poetic calendar
Works and Days. 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." Some stars rise and set (disappear into the ocean, from the viewpoint of the Greeks); others are
ever-visible. At certain times of the year, certain stars will rise or set at sunrise or sunset.
Anaximander
Speculation about the
cosmos was common in
Pre-Socratic philosophy in the 6th and 5th centuries BCE.
Anaximander (c.610 BC–c. 546 BC) described a cylindrical earth suspended in the center of the cosmos, surrounded by rings of fire.
Philolaus (c. 480 BC–c. 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. Such reports show that Greeks of the 6th and 5th centuries were aware of the planets and speculated about the structure of the cosmos.
The planets in early Greek astronomy
The name "planet" comes from the Greek term πλανήτης,
planētēs, meaning "wanderer", as ancient astronomers noted how certain lights moved across the sky in relation to the other stars. Five planets can be seen with the naked eye:
Mercury,
Venus,
Mars,
Jupiter, and
Saturn. Sometimes the
luminaries, the Sun and Moon, are added to the list of
naked eye planets to make a total of seven. Since the planets disappear from time to time when they approach the Sun, careful attention is required to identify all five.
Observations of Venus are not straightforward. Early Greeks thought that the evening and morning appearances of Venus represented two different objects, calling it
Hesperus ("evening star") when it appeared in the western evening sky and
Phosphorus ("light-bringer") when it appeared in the eastern morning sky. They eventually came to recognize that both objects were the same planet.
Pythagoras is given credit for this realization.
The planets eventually received names drawn from
Greek mythology. The equivalent names in
Roman mythology are the basis for the modern English
names of the planets.
Calendars
Many ancient
calendars are based on the cycles of the Sun or Moon. The
Hellenic calendar incorporated these cycles. A
lunisolar calendar based on both cycles is difficult. Some Greek astronomers worked out calendars based on the
eclipse cycle.
Eudoxan astronomy
In classical Greece, astronomy was a branch of
mathematics; astronomers sought to create geometrical models that could imitate the appearances of celestial motions. This tradition began with the Pythagoreans, who placed astronomy among the four mathematical arts (along with
arithmetic,
geometry, and
music). The study of
number comprising the four arts was later called the
quadrivium.
Although he was not a creative mathematician,
Plato (427-347 BCE) included the
quadrivium as the basis for philosophical education in the
Republic. He encouraged a younger mathematician,
Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 410 BCE-c. 347 BCE), to develop a system of Greek astronomy. According to a modern historian of science,
David Lindberg:
In their work we find (1) a shift from stellar to planetary concerns, (2) the creation of a geometrical model, the "two-sphere model," for the representation of stellar and planetary phenomena, and (3) the establishment of criteria governing theories designed to account for planetary observations. (Lindberg 1992, p. 90)
The
two-sphere model is a
geocentric model. It divides the
cosmos into two regions:
- A spherical heavenly realm centered on the Earth, which may contain multiple rotating spheres made of aether
Renaissance woodcut illustrating the two-sphere model.
Plato's main books on cosmology are the
Timaeus and the
Republic. In them he described the two-sphere model and said there were eight circles or spheres carrying the seven planets and the fixed stars. He put the celestial objects in the following order, beginning with the one closest to Earth:
According to the "
Myth of Er" in the
Republic, the cosmos is the
Spindle of Necessity, attended by
Sirens and spun by the three daughters of the Goddess Necessity known collectively as the
Moirae or Fates.
According to a story reported by
Simplicius of Cilicia (6th century CE), Plato posed a question for the Greek mathematicians of his day: "By the assumption of what uniform and orderly motions can the apparent motions of the planets be accounted for?" (quoted in Lloyd 1970, p. 84). Plato proposed that the seemingly chaotic wandering motions of the planets could be explained by combinations of uniform circular motions centered on a spherical Earth, apparently a novel idea in the 4th century.
Eudoxus rose to the challenge by assigning to each planet a set of
concentric spheres. By tilting the axes of the spheres, and by assigning each a different period of revolution, he was able to approximate the celestial "appearances." Thus, he was the first to attempt a mathematical description of the motions of the planets. A general idea of the content of
On Speeds, his book on the planets, can be gleaned from
Aristotle's
Metaphysics XII, 8, and a commentary by Simplicius on
De caelo, another work by Aristotle. Since all his own works are lost, our knowledge of Eudoxus is obtained from secondary sources.
Aratus's poem on
astronomy is based on a work of Eudoxus, and possibly also
Theodosius of Bithynia's Sphaerics. They give us an indication of his work in
spherical astronomy as well as planetary motions.
Callippus, a Greek astronomer of the 4th century, added seven spheres to Eudoxus' original 27 (in addition to the planetary spheres, Eudoxus included a sphere for the fixed stars). Aristotle described both systems, but insisted on adding "unrolling" spheres between each set of spheres to cancel the motions of the outer set. Aristotle was concerned about the physical nature of the system; without unrollers, the outer motions would be transferred to the inner planets.
Hellenistic astronomy
Planetary models and observational astronomy
The Eudoxan system had several critical flaws. One was its inability to predict motions exactly. Callippus' work may have been an attempt to correct this flaw. A related problem is the inability of his models to explain why planets appear to change speed. A third flaw is its inability to explain changes in the brightness of planets as seen from Earth. Because the spheres are concentric, planets will always remain at the same distance from Earth. This problem was pointed out in Antiquity by
Autolycus of Pitane (c. 310 BCE).
Apollonius of Perga (c. 262 BC–c. 190 BCE) responded by introducing two new mechanisms that allowed a planet to vary its distance and speed: the
eccentric deferent and the
deferent and epicycle. The
deferent is a circle carrying the planet around the Earth. (The word
deferent comes from the Latin
ferro, ferre, meaning "to carry.") An
eccentric deferent is slightly off-center from Earth. In a
deferent and epicycle model, the deferent carries a small circle, the
epicycle, which carries the planet. The deferent-and-epicycle model can mimic the eccentric model, as shown by
Apollonius' theorem. It can also explain
retrogradation, which happens when planets appear to reverse their motion through the
zodiac for a short time. Modern historians of astronomy have determined that Eudoxus' models could only have approximated retrogradation crudely for some planets, and not at all for others.
In the 2nd century BCE,
Hipparchus, aware of the extraordinary accuracy with which
Babylonian astronomers could predict the planets' motions, insisted that Greek astronomers achieve similar levels of accuracy. Somehow he had access to Babylonian observations or predictions, and used them to create better geometrical models. For the Sun, he used a simple eccentric model, based on observations of the
equinoxes, which explained both changes in the speed of the Sun and differences in the lengths of the
seasons. For the Moon, he used a
deferent and epicycle model. He could not create accurate models for the remaining planets, and criticized other Greek astronomers for creating inaccurate models.
Hipparchus also compiled a
star catalogue. According to
Pliny the Elder, he observed a
nova (new star). So that later generations could tell whether other stars came to be, perished, moved, or changed in brightness, he recorded the position and brightness of the stars.
Ptolemy mentioned the catalogue in connection with Hipparchus'
discovery of precession. (
Precession of the equinoxes is a slow motion of the place of the equinoxes through the zodiac, caused by the shifting of the Earth's axis). Hipparchus thought it was caused by the motion of the sphere of fixed stars.
Heliocentrism and cosmic scales
In the 3rd century BCE,
Aristarchus of Samos proposed an alternate
cosmology (arrangement of the universe): a
heliocentric model of the
solar system, placing the Sun, not the Earth, at the center of the known universe (hence he is sometimes known as the "Greek
Copernicus"). His astronomical ideas were not well-received, however, and only a few brief references to them are preserved. We know the name of one follower of Aristarchus:
Seleucus of Seleucia.
Aristarchus also wrote a book
On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon, which is his only work to have survived. In this work, he calculated the sizes of the Sun and Moon, as well as their distances from the Earth in
Earth radii. Shortly afterwards,
Eratosthenes calculated the size of the Earth, providing a value for the Earth radii which could be plugged into Aristarchus' calculations. Hipparchus wrote another book
On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon, which has not survived. Both Aristarchus and Hipparchus drastically underestimated the distance of the Sun from the Earth.
Astronomy in the Greco-Roman and Late Antique eras
Hipparchus is considered to have been among the most important Greek astronomers, because he introduced the concept of exact prediction into astronomy. He was also the last innovative astronomer before Claudius
Ptolemy, a mathematician who worked at
Alexandria in
Roman Egypt in the 2nd century CE. Ptolemy's works on astronomy and
astrology include the
Almagest, the
Planetary Hypotheses, and the
Tetrabiblos, as well as the
Handy Tables, the
Canobic Inscription, and other minor works.
Ptolemaic astronomy
The
Almagest is one of the most influential books in the history of Western astronomy. In this book, Ptolemy explained how to predict the behavior of the planets, as Hipparchus could not, with the introduction of a new mathematical tool, the
equant. The
Almagest gave a comprehensive treatment of astronomy, incorporating theorems, models, and observations from many previous mathematicians. This fact may explain its survival, in contrast to more specialized works that were neglected and lost. Ptolemy placed the planets in the order that would remain standard until it was displaced by the
heliocentric system and the
Tychonic system:
The extent of Ptolemy's reliance on the work of other mathematicians, in particular his use of Hipparchus' star catalogue, has been debated since the 19th century. A controversial claim was made by Robert R. Newton in the 1970s. in
The Crime of Claudius Ptolemy, he argued that Ptolemy faked his observations and falsely claimed the catalogue of Hipparchus as his own work. Newton's theories have not been adopted by most historians of astronomy.
A few mathematicians of Late Antiquity wrote commentaries on the
Almagest, including
Pappus of Alexandria as well as
Theon of Alexandria and his daughter
Hypatia. Ptolemaic astronomy became standard in medieval western European and
Islamic astronomy until it was displaced by
Maraghan,
heliocentric and
Tychonic systems by the 16th century. However, recently discovered manuscripts reveal that Greek
astrologers of Antiquity continued using pre-Ptolemaic methods for their calculations (Aaboe, 2001).
Interactions with Indian astronomy
Hellenistic astronomy is known to have been practiced near India in the
Greco-Bactrian city of
Ai-Khanoum from the
3rd century BCE. Various sun-dials, including an equatorial sundial adjusted to the latitude of
Ujjain have been found in archaeological excavations there. Numerous interactions with the
Mauryan Empire, and the later expansion of the
Indo-Greeks into India suggest that some transmission may have happened during that period.
Several Greco-Roman astrological treatises are also known to have been imported into India during the first few centuries of our era. The
Yavanajataka ("Sayings of the Greeks") was translated from Greek to Sanskrit by
Yavanesvara during the 2nd century CE, under the patronage of the
Western Satrap Saka king
Rudradaman I. Rudradaman's capital at Ujjain "became the Greenwich of Indian astronomers and the Arin of the Arabic and Latin astronomical treatises; for it was he and his successors who encouraged the introduction of Greek horoscopy and astronomy into India."
Later in the 6th century, the
Romaka Siddhanta ("Doctrine of the Romans"), and the
Paulisa Siddhanta ("Doctrine of
Paul") were considered as two of the five main astrological treatises, which were compiled by
Varahamihira in his
Pañca-siddhāntikā ("Five Treatises"). Varahamihira wrote in the
Brihat-Samhita: "The Greeks, though impure, must be honored since they were trained in sciences and therein, excelled others....." The
Garga Samhita also says: "The
Yavanas are
barbarians, yet the science of astronomy originated with them and for this they must be reverenced like gods."
Others have suggested mutual influence between Hellenistic and Indian astronomers, as it is known that Brahmins and Yogis were active in the Mediterranean.
[Richard L. Thompson (2003). Vedic Cosmography and Astronomy, p. 15-17, 181-198. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. ISBN 8120819543.][J. S. Phillimore (1912). Philostratus in Honour of Appolonius of Tiana. Clarenden Press, Oxford.] Sources for Greek astronomy
Many Greek astronomical texts are known only by name, and perhaps by a description or quotations. Some elementary works have survived because they were largely non-mathematical and suitable for use in schools. Books in this class include the
Phaenomena of
Euclid and two works by
Autolycus of Pitane. Three important textbooks, written shortly before Ptolemy's time, were written by
Cleomedes,
Geminus, and
Theon of Smyrna. Books by Roman authors like Pliny the Elder and
Vitruvius contain some information on Greek astronomy. The most important primary source is the
Almagest, since Ptolemy refers to the work of many of his predecessors (Evans 1998, p. 24).
Famous astronomers of antiquity
In addition to the authors named in the article, the following list of people who worked on mathematical astronomy or cosmology may be of interest.
Pythagoras
