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

Catasterismi figures among the works on this subject.
137
Hypatia is called a philosopher by contemporary sources, including her father Theon
(see Knorr.
TS, 754ff., 794 n.3–4), but the Suda cites her scientific works only. Since
her philosophical writings are unknown, Hypatia must have expounded her philos-
ophy orally.

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Chapter 8: Historiography of science after Eudemus: a brief outline
306
know nothing. Among the few characters called ‘geometers’ is Dicaearchus,
who, like Scylax, wrote on geography, not geometry.
138
Though each of these
many absurdities has causes and origins of its own, taken as a whole they dem-
onstrate how impoverished and distorted the idea of ancient science really was
among the literary men of Byzantium.
The Byzantine polymath Joannes Tzetzes (12
th
century) can hardly be re-
proached for ignorance of ancient literature. One of the cases he used to dem-
onstrate his vast learning is connected with the Athenian astronomer Meton.
Tzetzes knows Meton quite well: he dates him correctly to 432/28, cites his
patronymic, and points to his discovery of the 19-year cycle. The idea that
Meton was “the first of all the astronomers” found by Tzetzes in one of his con-
temporaries exasperates him. He gives vent to his indignation in a special
chapter of his learned poem
Chiliades (XII, 399), heaping imprecations on his
opponents. Here, apparently, is an excellent occasion to show his superior
knowledge of the history of Greek astronomy by citing the names of Meton’s
predecessors, from Thales to Oenopides. But Tzetzes, unlike as-Samaw’al,
who was proving that Euclid was not the first geometer, does not seem to care
for the history of science at all. What really interests him is mythical heurema-
tography and chronology. According to him, the founder of astronomy was
Atlas of Libya, who lived in the time of Osiris, Noah, and Dionysus; Hercules
later borrowed this science from him. “Did not they precede Meton in time?
Did not they write on astronomy?” (v. 142–143). For those who remain in
doubt, Tzetzes adduces the names of the next three astronomers – Orpheus,
Homer, and Hesiod. Since the youngest of them lived three hundred years be-
fore Meton, the latter can in no way be considered the author of the first work
on astronomy. Despite all Tzetzes’ vast learning, he gives a still more distorted
perspective of the history of astronomy than the
Suda does.
In the 14
th
century, the Byzantines return to the study of Ptolemy, as can be
seen from the
Astronomical Elements by Theodore Metoichites (ca. 1332) and
Astronomical Tribiblos by Theodore of Melitene (ca. 1352).
139
In both authors
we encounter extensive overviews of the history of astronomy, which culminate
in Ptolemy. A chapter of Metoichites’
 Semeioseis gnomikai, entitled “That the
science of mathematics was not fully developed in the beginnings”, follows the
scheme of
inventio – translatio artium and starts with motifs already familiar to
us from Aristotle.
140
 Mathe¯mata, like many other things, “do not emerge in a
perfect state at the start, but in each case develop initially from some slight be-
ginning and yet are finally, with time, completed and established in the best
138
The other two ‘geometers’ figure but as the fathers of their more famous children:
Nicon as the father of Galen, and Theon as the father of Hypatia. In the entry on
Theon he is called a philosopher.
139
Théodore Méliténiote
. Tribiblos Astronomique, Livre I–II, ed. by R. Leurquin, Am-
sterdam 1990–1993; Bydén,
op. cit.
140
Theodore Metoichites on ancient authors and philosophy. Semeioseis gnomikai
1–26 & 71, ed. and transl. by K. Hult, Göteborg 2002, 135–145.

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3. From
inventio to translatio artium: scheme and reality
307
way possible and in fulfillment of their own nature.” (14,1.1). The Chaldaeans
studied astronomy from the beginnings, among them Abraham and Moses,
whereas the Egyptians were experts in geometry, so that “both these sciences
came to Greece from those people, and at a very late point in time compared to
the whole of human history”. Thales, Pythagoras, and later Plato personally
went to Egypt and worked with mathematics; Pythagoras traveled to the Chal-
daeans and even to India (14,2.1–8). Further on, Theodore discusses the
achievements of Euclid, who is confused with the Socratic Euclid of Megara,
141
and Apollonius of Perga, who is named Alexander of Perga. Both of them were
excellent in geometry, but in astronomy they would seem like children if com-
pared with Ptolemy. The latter ranks Hipparchus far above all his predecessors
and often pays respectful attention to him. With Ptolemy himself, astronomy
comes to the point of its complete perfection:
He has widely surpassed his predecessors, and has left his successors no oppor-
tunity to add anything to the science of astronomy, or indeed to add anything to
his work, but only to spend their time going over the same ground, and labour
with his results without contributing anything new unless, again, it comes from
his works (14,5.6–7).
The same though more detailed historical scheme is found in Theodore of
Melitene’s overview “Who was the first to discover astronomy and how it came
subsequently to Greece”.
142
Astronomy was discovered, as Josephus Flavius
says, by the descendants of Seth, one of Adam’s sons, and written on two col-
umns. After the flood, one of them fell into the hands of the Chaldaeans, who
lived in Babylon. The Chaldaeans appropriated astronomy and improved it.