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

On Homer by Stesimbrotus of Thasos (FGrHist 107) or On
Theognis by Antisthenes (VA 41 Giannantoni), fall outside our subject.
21
Blum, R.
Kallimachos. The Alexandrian library and the origin of bibliography,
Madison 1991, 19f.

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Chapter 2: Science as técnh: theory and history
50
(F 86). Another chronological writing of Hellanicus is the list of the priestesses
of the sanctuary of Hera in Argos (
FGrHist 4 F 74–84). Still more important for
the later chronology is the list of Olympic victors compiled by Hippias of Elis
(
FGrHist 6 F 2). Another work by Hippias, Sunagwg2, can be regarded as the
first treatise on the history of ideas, the predecessor of the Peripatetic do-
xography.
22
In this book Hippias tried to find similarities between the ideas of
the ancient poets, on the one hand, and the prose writers, mainly philosophers,
on the other.
These early researches, continued by Aristotle,
23
served as a model for the
Peripatetic histories of music, including such works as Sunagwg3 tõn ën
mousikÆ by Heraclides of Pontus,
24
Perì mousik4~ by
Aristoxenus (fr. 71–89), whose first book deals with the history of musical ‘in-
ventions’,
25
and Dicaearchus’ treatise on musical agones (fr. 75–76, 85). Hip-
pias played an important role in Peripatetic doxography as the author who con-
veyed information about Thales and the other early figures;
26
his book was one
of the sources for Eudemus’
History of Theology and History of Geometry. The
problems raised by Glaucus and the chronological principle of organizing cul-
tural discoveries introduced by him also exerted strong influence on Aristotle’s
and Eudemus’ works.
More often than not, the genealogy of different técnai was considered not in
special writings, but in prefaces or introductions to the systematic treatises.
27
22
Patzer, A.
Der Sophist Hippias als Philosophiehistoriker, Freiburg 1986.
23
See e.g. the lists he compiled of the winners at the Dionysiac agones (D. L. V, 26
No.135) and the Olympian and Pythian games (D.L. V, 26, No.130–131, fr.615–617
Rose = fr. 408–414 Gigon; Blum,
op. cit., 20ff.), the dialogue On Poets (fr. 70–77
Rose = fr. 14–22 Gigon), where much attention is paid to the founders of various
genres, and, in particular, the history of rhetoric in Tecnõn sunagwg2 (see below,
4.3).
24
Fr. 157–163. Lasserre completed the title of this work as Sunagwg3 tõn mátwn> ën mousikÆ. Wehrli, however, considered it to be identical to Heraclides’
Perì mousik4~ (cf. D. L. V, 87). In the latter case, its historical part might have been
limited to the first two books, and the title Sunagwg2 may have appeared at a later
date (Wehrli.
Herakleides, 112); cf., however, Hippias’ Sunagwg2 and Aristotle’s
Tecnõn sunagwg2 (see below, 51 n. 31).
25
Wehrli.
Aristoxenos, 69f. The historical evidence in Ps.-Plutarch’s De musica goes
back mainly to Glaucus, Heraclides, and Aristoxenus.
26
On the influence of Hippias on Aristotle’s doxography, see Mansfeld. Aristotle,
28ff.; Patzer,
op. cit.
27
This genre of ‘manual’ goes back to the epoch of the Sophists (Fuhrmann, M.
Das
systematische Lehrbuch, Göttingen 1960, 122ff.). Among such manuals are works
on medicine ([Hipp.]
De arte), horse breeding (see Xen. Eq. I, 1 on his precursor
Simon), gymnastics (Iccus of Tarentum,
DK 25), architecture (Hippodamus, DK 39),
scenography (Agatharchides, Vitr. VIII, praef. 11), sculpture (Polyclitus