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[German version] (ἡμισφαίριον; hēmisphaírion). The term refers to a ‘hemisphere’ a) in stereometry as a geometrical body, b) in astronomical cosmology as half a celestial sphere on both sides of one of the large celestial circles ( Kykloi), mostly of the horizon, i.e. outwards from the earth that was thought to be central, the upper, visible celestial hollow sphere and the bottom, invisible half of the sky, then also c) the convex hemisphere of the earth on both sides of the horizon that was only deduced in antiquity. Furthermore human artefacts were also called hemisphairion: on a larg…

(Λάσος; Lásos). [German version] [1] L. of Hermione Poet, c. 500 BC in the Argolis (incorrectly in the Suda: Achaia). The Suda places his date of birth in the 58th Oympiad. (548-544 BC). Like Anacreon and Simonides, this Greek poet was under the patronage of Hipparchus in Athens. According to Hdt. 7,6, Onomacritus was expelled by Hipparchus when L. caught him forging oracles of Musaeus. The Schol. Aristoph. Av. 1403 quotes authorities who consider L. the first organizer of dithyrambic choruses positione…

[German version] I. Ancient Orient In Mesopotamia, the visible stars were combined into constellations; some of these notions about constellations were communicated to other cultures as early as the 2nd millennium BC and, through Greek-Roman transmission, are still common today. The constellations of the  zodiac ─ Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, and Pisces ─ can be traced back to Babylonian models, also the Big Dipper ( Ursa Maior), the Raven, and the Eagle, among others. Babylonian  lists of constellations have existed since the early 2nd mille…

[German version] [1] Egyptian priest and Greek writer According to uncertain sources, M. (see [1]) was a priest from Sebennytus, who lived under Ptolemy I and II and played a part in the introduction of the cult of Sarapis ( Sarapis) [2]. As a Hellenized Egyptian, he wrote in Greek about Egyptian topics. A number of isolated quotations have survived from a maximum of eight works, among them a work regarding the preparation of kyphi (incense), further a hierá bíblos about Egyptian religion, as well as a book about rituals. The question of the works' authenticity remains uns…

(Κάλλιππος; Kállippos). [German version] [1] Athenian student of Plato Athenian student of  Plato, who took Callistratus, who had been sentenced in an   eisangelía proceeding, to Thasos in 361 BC on the order of the stratēgós Timomachus (Dem. Or. 50,47-52). In 357 C. evaded charges in Athens by accompanying  Dion [I 1] during his enforced return to Sicily (Plut. Dion 22,5 and 54,1; Pl. Ep. 7, 333e). Though initially held in high esteem by Dion as a philosophical and political advisor and ‘condottiere’, C. turned against Dion in 3…

I. Astronomy [German version] A. General points Because of their peculiar motions, which differ significantly from the regular motions of the fixed stars (so called because they seem to be attached to the vault of the heavens), the planets were conceived by the Greeks as wandering stars (οἱ πλάνητες/ hoi plánētes and οἱ πλανῆται/ hoi planêtai; lat. planetae) from the earliest periods of planetary observations (traceable from the 5th cent. BC). The Greeks and Romans knew of five planets only: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn (cf. fig. 6). The term πλάνητες/ plánētes is first at…

[German version] I. Ancient Orient The expression for the MW in ancient Mesopotamia has not yet been discovered. However, it is possible that it referred to milk; in hymnal texts, the stars were described as the ‘cattle herds of the Moon deities’. In Egypt, too, the MW was perceived as a phenomenon; its designation is still discussed in modern scholarship [2]. Hunger, Hermann (Vienna) Bibliography 1 W. Heimpel, The Babylonian Background of the Term ‘Milky Way’, in: H. Behrens (Ed.), FS A.Sjöberg, 1989, 249-252 2 O. Neugebauer, R. A. Parker, Egyptian Astronomical Texts I, 1960, 50. …

(Zodiakos: ζῳδιακὸς κύκλος/ zōidiakós kýklos, Lat. zodiacus or signifer, literally: 'circle of animals'). Name     Name     Name     Melothesia     Twelve Gods     English     Greek     Latin     Ram     Kriós     Aries     Head     Minerva     Bull     Taûros     Taurus     Neck     Venus     Twins     Dídymoi     Gemini     Shoulders, arms     Apollo     Crab     Karkínos     Cancer     Chest     Mercurius     Lion     Léōn     Leo     Flanks     Iuppiter     Maiden     Parthénos     Virgo     Abdomen     Ceres     Scales     Zygós (Chēlaí)     Lib…

(ἀστρολογία; astrología). [German version] A. Term Astrology is the original and more natural name for the study of the heavens in general; until well into late antiquity it was not strictly demarcated from its rival word astronomía, which is closely linked to the Platonic school [24]. According to current understanding astrology is concerned with forecasts according to a specific position of the stars and, according to the mythical way of thinking, has available for this a comprehensive categorization system of space and time [10]. Hübner, Wolfgang (Münster) [German version] B. Anc…

Hübner, Wolfgang (Münster) [German version] I. History (CT) Hübner, Wolfgang (Münster) [German version] A. Introduction (CT) The term Horoskópos, 'hour observer', originally referred to the ascendant (zodiacal sign rising on the eastern horizon), later to the first 30° segment of the dodecatropus (twelve hour circle), and finally to the position of all the stars at a particular point in time. The ca. nine Egyptian and over 180 extant Greek horoscopes have been transmitted mostly on papyrus but also on ostracon or…

[German version] I. Ancient Orient Sumerian and Akkadian languages do not distinguish between fixed stars and planets: for both MUL or kakkabu is used. Nevertheless the movement of the planets in relation to the fixed stars was known. Individual fixed stars certainly rarely had their own names (e.g. Li9-si4 = Antares), but most were grouped into  constellations. According to their position in the sky, they were initially roughly organized in the so-called  astrolabia (earliest example around 1100 BC), then more precisely in the astronomical c…

[German version] I. Ancient Orient Currently 32 horoscopes are known from Babylonia from the period 410 to 69 BC. They mostly begin with the date on which a child was born. This is followed by the positions of the moon, sun and planets in the sequence Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, Saturn, Mars. The positions are given relative to the signs of the zodiac, and sometimes the degree within a sign. Sometimes this is followed by further astronomical phenomena from the month or the year of birth. The positions a…

(Κόνων; Kónōn). [German version] [1] Athenian, after 411/10 BC repeatedly stratēgós Athenian, in 413 BC commander in Naupactus, after 411/10 repeatedly stratēgós. C. was bottled up in 406 by the Peloponnesian fleet in the port of Mytilene and lost 30 ships (Xen. Hell. 1,6,14-23; Diod. Sic. 13,77-79). After Athens' victory at the  Arginusae he was freed. Since he did not participate in the battle, he was not deposed and sentenced to death like the other generals (Xen. Hell. 1,6,38-7,1). He escaped the destruction of …

[German version] I. Ancient Orient The rotation of the moon and the phases of the moon served as significant structural elements of the calendar from early times in all ancient Oriental cultures. People discussed not only the phases of the moon but also, from earliest times, the eclipses of the moon, regarding them as ominous signs (Astrology; Divination). Like the sun, the moon, which was represented as a deity, was the protagonist of numerous myths in Egypt, Asia Minor [1. 373-375] and Mesopotamia (Moon deities). In Babylonia, as early as toward the end of the 3rd millennium,…

(Τεῦκρος/ Teûkros, Latin Teucer). [German version] [1] Mythical king in the Troad Oldest mythical king in the Troad, son of Scamander and Idaea [2]; he gave both his daughters, Neso and Bat(i)eia (Arisbe), in marriage to Dardanus [1] (Dardanidae). Bat(i)eia bore Dardanus a son, Erichthonius, who fathered Tros, the father of Ilos [1], who in turn was the father of Laomedon [1]. The latter’s daughter, Hesione [4], bore a son T. [2] to Telamon [1] (Apollod. 3,139f.; Diod. Sic. 4,75). He is considered to be an …

(ὧραι, hôrai; tempora anni). [German version] I. Asia Minor/ Egypt The definition of seasons and of a year as a unit of time was largely governed by regularly recurring natural events, such as the floods of the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia (a short vegetation period and summer drought, the topic of the Sumerian poem about the dispute between summer and winter, see Kindler 19, 604) and of the Nile in Egypt (Nile inundation, vegetation period, summer heat, each lasting for four months). The prevalent…

(Μέτων; Métōn). [German version] [1] Son of Empedokles, who won a victory at Olympia in 496BC Meton came from Acragas, he was the son of one Empedocles who won a victory at Olympia in 496BC, and father of the famous philosopher Empedocles [1]. After the overthrow of the tyrant Thrasydaeus in 472/1 Meton was a highly regarded figure in Akragas (Diog. Laert. 8,51-53; 8,72 = Diels/Kranz 31 A 1; Suda s.v. Empedokles = Diels/Kranz 31 A 2). Meister, Klaus (Berlin) [German version] [2] From Athens, Astronomer und Geometrist end of. 4th cent.BC Astronomer and geometrist from Athens, son of Pau…

(Πολέμαρχος/ Polémarchos). [German version] [1] Metic (resident foreigner) in Athens, brother of the orator Lysias Wealthy métoikos in Athens, son of Cephalus [2] and brother of the orator Lysias [1], who unsuccessfully brought Eratosthenes [1], the main culprit amongst the Thirty Tyrants ( triákonta ) of the murder of P., to trial (Lys. Or. 12). Kinzl, Konrad (Peterborough) Bibliography Traill, PAA 776500. [German version] [2] P. of Cyzicus Greek astronomer, c. 380-370 BC Astronomer who, between 380 BC and 370 BC, worked as the student of Eudoxus [1] and as teacher …

(Τίμαιος; Tímaios). [German version] [1] Main speaker in Plato's [1] Timaeus T. of Locri [2] Epizephyrii in southern Italy (Τίμαιος Λοκρός/ Tímaios Lokrós), the main speaker in Plato's [1] Timaeus, was in Antiquity regarded as a Pythagorean [1.83-85]. The Suda s.v. T. (IV p. 553,26f. Adler) and the scholia to Pl. Tim. 20 A Greene report that he wrote on mathematical problems, on nature and on the life of Pythagoras [2] (μαθηματικά, περὶ φύσεως, περὶ τοῦ Πυθαγόρου βίου/ M athēmatiká, Perì phýseōs, Perì toû Pythagórou bíou) [1.85]. One treatise, in the Doric dialect [2.11-19], ent…

(Ἐπιγένης; Epigénēs). [German version] [0] Of Sicyon, Greek tragedian, 6th cent. BC E. of  Sicyon. According to the Suda s. v.  Thespis (θ 282 = TrGF I 1 T 1), the first tragedian (6th cent. BC). The audience supposedly reacted to the lack of Dionysiac content in his plays with the proverbial exclamation οὐδὲν πρὸς τὸν Διόνυσον ( oudèn pròs tòn Diónyson, ‘But this has nothing to do with  Dionysus!’; TrGF I 1 T 18,3). Perhaps E.'s activity may be related to the τραγικοὶ χοροί ( tragikoì choroí, ‘tragic choruses’) attested for Sicyon in Hdt. 5,67 [2. 21-23].  Tragedy I Zimmermann, Bernhard (Fr…