Leonid Zhmud The Origin of the History of Science in Classical Antiquity

op. cit., 171f.; Boll. Finsternisse, 2341.
66
Stephenson, Fatoohi,
op. cit. It should be noted, however, that even the latest com-
puter methods do not allow us to calculate the dates and visibility characteristics of
solar eclipses in Antiquity with the desired accuracy: Thomann, J. Zur Nachrech-
nung antiker Sonnenfinsternisse,
Antike Naturwissenschaft und ihre Rezeption,
Vol. 9 (1999) 103–110.
67
Such as 1) how exactly did Thales learn about saros? 2) Why does Herodotus assert
that Thales predicted the year of the eclipse, and not the month and day? 3)How do
the traditions of Thales’ prediction and of the battle between the Medes and Lydians
relate to each other?
68
See Gigon.
Ursprung, 52f.; Guthrie, op. cit., 47f.; KRS, 81f.; Zaicev. Griechisches
Wunder, 181f. Even such a sceptic as Dicks (Thales, 285; idem. Early Greek astron-
omy, London 1970, 43f.) was inclined to endorse this conclusion. See also van der
Waerden.
Astronomie, 8f. (cf. 11); Görgemanns, H. Sonnenfinsternisse in der
antiken Astronomie, “
Stürmend auf finsterem Pfad …”: Ein Symposion zur Sonnen-
finsternis in der Antike, ed. by H. Köhler et al., Heidelberg 2000, 73f. Cf. von Fritz.
Grundprobleme, 134 n. 243.

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Chapter 7: The history of astronomy
244
of eclipses.
69
It seems that the Greeks did not use saros cycles to make possi-
bility predictions, possibly because their application to subsequent solar
eclipses observable in Greece proved unsuccessful. Besides, Greek astronomy
after Thales was concerned with explanations, not predictions.
70
In the case of solstices, Eudemus obviously could not credit Thales with the
discovery of the ‘turnings of the sun’ (tropaì 1líou) mentioned by Hesiod
(
Op. 479, 564, 663) and Alcman (fr. 17.5 Page). His report of Thales’ discovery
of the
inequality of periods between the sun’s passage through solstices
(fr. 145) seems more trustworthy.
71
The time from the summer to the winter
solstice is, indeed, four days shorter than that from the winter to the summer
solstice.
72
It seems that Thales tried to estimate the solstices’ dates
73
and,
hence, the length of the solar year
74
more accurately than it had been known be-
fore. According to Meton’s and Euctemon’s calculations, which Eudemus
could not ignore (cf. fr. 149), the length of seasons, starting with summer sol-
stices, equaled 90, 90, 92, and 93 days; according to Callippus, 92, 89, 90, and
69
The only exception is Plutarch’s note that Helicon of Cyzicus foretold a solar eclipse
while accompanying Plato on his third visit to Sicily (
Dion. 19, 4 = Lasserre 16 T 3;
see Demandt,
op. cit., 24f., 29). According to Boll (Finsternisse, 2356f.; idem. Heli-
kon (3),
RE 8 [1912] 78f.), it was the eclipse of May 12, 361, almost full in Syracuse.
But Helicon was Eudoxus’ pupil, so he was born no earlier than 375/70, which ex-
cludes both his prediction of this eclipse and his trip to Syracuse together with Plato.
Helicon could have made Plato’s acquaintance only around 350, when Eudoxus and
his pupils came from Cyzicus to Athens (see above, 98f.). Cf. Lasserre.
Léodamas,
575f.
70
Attempts to explain eclipses were made by practically all the early Presocratics: An-
aximander (12 A 11, 19, 21–22), Xenophanes (21 A 41), Alcmaeon (24 A 4), and He-
raclitus (22 A 1, 12).
71
A source book in Greek science, ed. by M. R. Cohen, I. E. Drabkin, Cambridge,
Mass. 1958, 92 n. 2; Szabó, Maula,