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

Nic. 13, 7–8, Alcib. 17, 5–6; Ael. VH 13, 12.
174
Ptol.
Alm., 203.7f. (notes the inaccuracy of observations), 205.15f., 207.9f. Still
more frequent are the references in his
Phaseis, where Ptolemy says that Meton and
Euctemon conducted their observations in Athens, on the Cyclades, in Macedonia,
and in Thrace (67.2f.).
175
See above, 251 and n. 95.
176
Eudoxus considered the number of days in the four seasons to be practically the
same: 91, 92, 91 and 91 (
Ars Eudoxi, col. XXIII; Neugebauer. HAMA II, 627f.).
177
See above, 251 and n. 95.
178
Rehm. Das Parapegma des Euktemon; idem.
Parapegmastudien, 27f.; Pritchett,

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6. From Meton to Eudoxus. ‘Saving the phenomena’
269
the manifest progress made in mathematical astronomy since Oenopides’ time.
The sources often refer to Meton as the ‘geometer’,
179
which probably reflects
the scientific character of his studies, rather than any particular contribution to
geometry. With Euctemon’s parapegma, Greek astronomy starts to divide the
ecliptic into twelve zodiacal signs, with the sun staying for thirty or thirty-one
days in each of them. After A. Böckh, it has been generally admitted that Euc-
temon already distinguished between the real and the visible rising and setting
of stars,
180
which presupposes calculations made by means of a celestial
globe.
181
The instrument used by Meton and Euctemon in their observations
was the polos, i.e. a concave hemisphere with a gnomon in its center and the
circle of the celestial meridian with solstices, equinoxes, etc., marked on its
surface.
182
The geometrical character of Meton’s and Euctemon’s astronomy is
manifest, so that they could hardly fail to draw conclusions from the anomaly
W. K., Waerden, B. L. van der. Thucydidean time-reckoning and Euctemon’s sea-
sonal calendar,
BCH 85 (1961) 17–52.
179
Áristo~ @stronómo~ kaì gewmétrh~ (Schol. Ar. Av. 997a). Kubitschek, W. Meton,
RE 15 (1932) 1465, believed that these words might have been induced by Aristo-
phanes’
Birds (see above, 267 n. 173), yet Meton also figures as the geometer in the
scholia that derive, through Achilles as intermediary, from Posidonius and are hardly
dependent on Aristophanes: Pasquali, G. Doxographica aus Basiliusscholien,
NGWG (1910) 197.2 (= fr. 3b Lasserre).
180
Böckh, A.
Über die vierjährigen Sonnenkreise der Alten, Berlin 1863, 82f., 96f.;
Rehm.
Parapegmastudien, 10; idem. Parapegma, RE18 (1949) 1335f.; Pritchett, van
der Waerden,
op. cit., 37f.; van der Waerden. Astronomie, 80; Wenskus, O. Astrono-
mische Zeitangaben von Homer bis Theophrast, Stuttgart 1990, 29. It is with this
distinction that Autolycus begins his book
On Risings and Settings (I, 1). It was ob-
viously known much earlier. See also Gemin.
Eisag. XIII, 6ff.
181
Cf. Bowen, Goldstein. Meton, 54f. The tradition ascribes the invention of the celes-
tial globe to Atlas, Musaeus, Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, and Eudoxus
(Schlachter, A.
Der Globus, Berlin 1927, 9ff.; Eudox. fr. 2, cf. T 14). In Aristo-
phanes, to Strepsiades’ question: “Tell me, for the gods’ sake, what is this?” the pupil
answers: ^Astronomía mèn aûthí (Nub. 200f.). The scholiast explains: sfa$ran
deíknusin. See Schlachter, op. cit., 14; Franciosi, op. cit., 64, 114f.; Gisinger saw
here an allusion to a terrestrial globe or a book entitled
Astronomy (Schlachter, op.
cit., 107), but the map of the earth is mentioned later, while the book does not ac-
count for Strepsiades’ puzzlement. Worthy of notice is Plato’s remark (