Astronomica

They investigated this using the calculations of the Attic Tetraeteris A four-year calendar cycle used in ancient Greece to synchronize lunar months with the solar year, among whom was Ephorus, an associate of Eudoxus and Plato. Since the author of this work—whether it be Sophocles or another—did the same, he must certainly have been a man of the highest caliber. Beyond the calculations of the civil Tetraeteris, he also demonstrated the subject through the Phenomena The observable appearances of the stars and that branch of astronomy which held a place among the Greek nations at that time.

Because of this, it happened that ancient critics attributed the tragedy Rhesus to Euripides. This was because Euripides had traveled to Egypt with Eudoxus and was the first to make certain facts about the planets known in Greece, as ancient histories record. They say of that play: original Greek: ὅτι ἡ περὶ τὰ μετάρσια ἐν αὐτῇ πολυπραγμοσύνη τὸν Εὐριπίδην ὁμολογεῖ "because the great interest in celestial matters within it identifies it as the work of Euripides," referring to the passage we have already explained.

However, the style suggests the offspring of a more grandiloquent poet, such as Sophocles; indeed, I doubt whether Euripides could have reported these things so accurately. What makes me doubt it is a passage from Iphigenia in Aulis regarding a very similar matter: original Greek: σείριος ἐγγὺς τῆς ἑπταπόρῠ πλειάδος ἄϊσσων "Sirius darting near the seven-pathed Pleiades." How did he not consult his own eyes to see how great a distance there is between Sirius and the Great Bear? The author notes a scientific error in Euripides' poetry, as Sirius and the Pleiades/Great Bear are in different parts of the sky

This, therefore, was the more unrefined astronomy of those less-skilled men. For there also existed an ancient book under the name of Thales titled Nautical Astronomy. But poetic or judicial astrology original: ἡ ποιητικὴ siue ἀποτελεσματικὴ; refers to the practice of predicting human affairs from the stars migrated late from the regions of the Euphrates into the cities of the Greeks. Even when it was finally admitted, it was long in development, not yet driven by the curiosity...