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

Ant. 332–375). A similar list in Euripides’ Suppliant
Women takes the form of Theseus’ praise of the divinity (195–213) and con-
cludes by reproaching people who strive to surpass the gods intellectually
(216–217). A reaction to the onset of rationalism and agnosticism is particu-
larly manifest in the polemical verses from the pseudo-Epicharmean comedy
Politeia (late fifth century):
The lógo~ steers mankind aright and ever preserves them.
Man has calculations (logismó~), but there is also the divine Logos.
But the human Logos is sprung from the divine Logos,
And it brings to each man his means of life, and his maintenance.
The divine Logos accomplishes all the técnai,
Itself teaching men what they must do for their advantage;
For no man has discovered any técnh, but it is always God.
71
One of those who may have caused such a reaction was Herodotus, notable
for his rationalistic views on the origin of culture. Gods and heroes do not fig-
ure in him as
pro¯toi heuretai at all. He either names the author of an invention
or assigns it to a particular nation.
72
Most of the inventions mentioned by He-
rodotus occur in book II and are associated with the Egyptians. Thus, at the
very beginning of the book (II, 4) he asserts, referring to local priests, that the
Egyptians were the first to establish the (exact) length of the year by dividing it
into 12 months with 30 days plus 5 additional days. It follows, accordingly, that
the basis for astronomy, or at least calendar astronomy, was laid in Egypt. Else-
where, speaking of the Egyptian origin of geometry (i.e., the art of land survey-
ing), Herodotus makes a reservation: two important astronomical instruments,
namely the gnomon and polos, as well as the division of the day into 12 hours,
come from Babylon, not Egypt (II, 109).
In the first passage, Herodotus explicitly refers to Egyptians priests as his
immediate source. In the second, he seems to voice his own opinion on the ori-
gin of geometry (dokéei dé moi). The source of information on Babylonian as-
70
This was pointed out by Prodicus (84 B 5); Thraede. Erfinder, 1219f.
71
23 B 57, transl. by K. Freeman. According to Aristoxenus (fr. 45),
Politeia was
written by a certain Chrysogonus. The author of the Hippocratic treatise
On Diet
(11) also maintained that the divine mind taught men the crafts, which are, according
to him, the imitation of the divine nature. On the ‘secondary sacralization’ of inven-
tors in Plato, see below, 6.3. The Epicureans, by contrast, and Diogenes of Oenoanda
in particular, contended that técnai do not owe their origin to gods, but arise because
of circumstances and needs (fr. 12 II, 4–11 Smith).
72
For material, see Kleingünther,
op. cit., 47ff.

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3. Inventors and imitators. Greece and the Orient
39
tronomy is not indicated, but judging by the historian’s polemical tone, he was
not ready to accept that all astronomical knowledge derives from Egypt. (This
may have been an idea of his precursor Hecataeus.) Considering other asser-
tions by priests, namely, that the Egyptians were one of the most ancient
peoples on earth (II, 2), the first to erect altars, statues, and temples to gods, and
further, that the names of the twelve principal gods of the Greeks come from
Egypt (II, 4, 43, 50), we ought to admit that we are dealing not so much with
Herodotus’ own guesses as with the purposeful propaganda of Egyptian priests
suggesting to Greek travelers the idea of the superiority of local culture and re-
ligion in particular.
73
Most of the ‘discoveries’ mentioned in book II belong to
religion, which obviously concerned priests first of all. In late Egypt, calendar
astronomy was in the hands of priests, so their claim appears to be quite logical.
Land surveying, the domain of trained specialists, the so-called