Hecataeus of Miletus

Historian, Geographer (c.549 BC – c.476 BC)

Before Herodotus, there was Hecataeus of Miletus, considered as the first and most renowned historiographer of Greece. Hecataeus was also the prodrome of scientific geography and chartography, considered by many as the Father of Geography.

He was a student of Anaximander. He travelled from southern Russia to Egypt where he learned historiography and wrote down his experiences from the places he visited. Hecataeus was an active statesman in Miletus and the only one from his homeland to oppose a revolution against the Persians foreseeing its failure. He succeeded in persuading the Persian satrap Artaphernes to restore the constitution of the Ionian cities when he was sent as an ambassador of his homeland.

He wrote numerous books. His most famous one, Periodos Ges (Tour Round the World) consists of two books, one on Europe and one on Asia, the latter also containing Africa. It provides ethnologic descriptions on the peoples found around the Mediterranean and the Black Sea in a clockwise manner, from Gibraltar to Morocco such as about their civilization, their origins and their history. He developed Anaximander’s map of the globe and attempted to define the distances on the geographic map based on the constellations of the sky. He was the one who introduced geometric shapes and zones on geographic maps that are used to this day. His other, non-surviving works include Aeolics, Map of the Persian State, Historiae, Heroologia, Map of the Globe and Genealogia.

Hecataeus’s work exerted massive influence on his forerunners. Strabo and especially Herodotus cite him numerous times in their books, while the plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles which contain geographic knowledge support the fact that Hecataeus’ works were very popular among the spiritual world of ancient Greece.

Bibliography

1. Georgakopoulos, Konstantinos. Ancient Greek Scientists. Georgiades, Athens: 1995. Print.
2. “Haecateus of Miletus”. Helios New Encyclopaedic Dictionary. Passas, I. Athens, 1946. Print.
3. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Brittanica. ”Hecataeus of Miletus” Encyclopaedia Britannica. Web. March 6, 2008. Retrieved on April 19, 2017.

Pausanias of Lacaedemon

General (5^th century BC)

Pausanias of Lacedaemon was a Spartan general, son of Cleombrotus and nephew of King Leonidas. His name has been connected with the Battle of Plataeae, where he led the Greeks to victory against the Persians in 479 BC.

Pausanias was regent of King Pleistarchus, Leonidas’ adolescent son and Pausanias’ cousin when he was appointed leader of the Greeks against the Persians, led by Mardonius. He led a total of 110.000 Greek warriors from 36 different city-states against the Persian army, consisting of 300.000 warriors. The battle took place in Plataeae in 479 BC, 1 year after the Battle of Thermopylae and the Battle of Salamis and 10 years after the Battle of Marathon, in which the two latter the Persians had lost. After a fierce battle, the Persians were defeated, having suffered 270.000 casualties according to Herodotus while the Greeks 1360 according to Plutarch. Among the dead was Mardonius, the Persian general whose king, Xerxes, had cut the head of Leonidas in the Battle of Thermopylae and had impaled it as a trophy. When he was advised to do the same to Mardonius as a form of retribution, Pausanias refused, saying that these actions befall only to the hands of barbarians.

The outcome of the Battle of Plataeae meant the end of the Persians’ expeditions in Greece and ended the second Graeco-Persian War in favour of the Greeks. In order to secure their freedom, Pausanias ordered the destruction of all Persian fortifications in the area, so that no barbarians remained in the land of the Greeks.

The victory of the Battle of Plataeae granted enormous fame and glory to Pausanias’ name. He was appointed admiral of the Greek navy and sailed to the Greek seas where he confronted the Persian fleet and liberated the islands of the Aegean Sea with 50 ships. Additionally, he liberated Cyprus and Byzantium from the Persian rule. As a result, the Greeks reclaimed their dominance in the Aegean Sea and the Euxine Sea.

Unfortunately, Pausanias’ course after his accomplishments turned to corruption and betrayal. According to ancient sources, he bargained with Xerxes in order to impose himself as sole ruler of Sparta and conquer Greece. He was accused of treason and misdemeanor and sentenced to death. He escaped to a temple where he found sanctuary whereupon the Spartans sealed the temple and Pausanias died of starvation. The once glorious Spartan general who had granted the victory to the Greeks in the Battle of Plataeae had fallen victim to his own arrogance. Nevertheless, in spite of his downfall, his name remained in history next to those of Miltiades, Leonidas, Demophilus, Themistocles, Aristides and Cimon.

1. “Pausanias”. Helios New Encyclopaedic Dictionary. Passas, I. Athens, 1946. Print.
2. Volonakis, Ioannis. ΤΗΣ ΑΡΧΑΙΑΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ ΟΙ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΙ ΗΓΕΤΑΙ. Georgiades: Athens, 1997. Print.

Diades of Pella

Engineer, Inventor (4^th century BC)

Diades the Besieger, also known as Diades of Pella, was Alexander’s engineer in his expedition in Asia. Together with Charias they constructed some of the most impressive and powerful war machines used by Alexander’s army in his conquests, which proved decisive in his victories against the Persians. He chiefly designed battering rams, moving towers, catapults and cranes aimed at demolishing enemy walls.

Nothing is known about Diades, save for his inventions. These include the following:

• The “Moving Towers” was a siege engine made of towers that could be disassembled and reassembled on site by the warriors. They were used to siege cities.
• The “palintonos” catapult, a V-spring catapult that launched stones at distance.
• The demolition raven, a tall scaffold with wheels. It had a long beam extending on both sides, one of which was operated by the operators on the back, and the front one, which resembled a raven’s beak and was used to extract rocks from the enemy’s walls. This way, it could demolish walls of cities.
• The Wall Perforator, a sophisticated siege engine used for perforating walls.
• The lifting machine, which was used for helping warriors climb on walls. It resembled the climax of Magirus.
• The ditch-filling tortoise was an armoured, pyramid-shaped vehicle that literally resembled a turtle. It was used in sieges for the levelling of ground and for filling the defensive ditches around cities. This way, it was easier for war machines to approach their target. Its area spanned 120 square meters for the protection of the digging crew that hid under it. Its exposed walls were covered with iron sheets, wicker wood, clay mixed with hair and lambskins stuffed with seaweed soaked with vinegar in order to neutralize incoming fire arrows and to absorb the impact of stones. The machine could move in all directions. Another version of the machine, the digging tortoise, had a vertical front face, enabling better contact with the wall and a greater efficacy.
• The trypanon, or borer, was a war machine resembling an oversized drill, operated by warriors inside a platform, covered by a double-layered roof. The drill consisted of a wooden beam with a metal head at its tip, fastened with ropes that ran around a series of pulleys. By moving the ropes, the beam moved backward and forward, able to jam the enemy wall.
• The roofed ram, a cage on wheels with a double-layered roof and a three-storey tower equipped with catapults. Its lower storeys were used for water reservoir in case of fire. On its floor, there were a series of holders on which the battering ram moved. The operators on both sides moved the ram by pulling the ropes, causing it to strike the enemy wall with great force.
• The epivathra was a type of movable bridge that was used not only for bypassing enemy walls but also during sea battles.

Diades was also responsible for developing and improving some of the older war engines used by Philipp II, most notably the euthytonos catapult, or the scorpion, was it was called, which could launch arrows at a long range. He wrote a treatise on engineering and the descriptions of his machines have survived in Heron’s works.

Bibliography:

1. Georgakopoulos, Konstantinos. Ancient Greek Scientists. Georgiades, Athens: 1995. Print.
2. Kotsanas, Kostas. Ancient Greek Technology The Inventions of the Ancient Greeks. Kostas Kotsanas: Pyrgos, 2013. Print.

Diophantus

Mathematician (c200 – c284)

Diophantus was one of the greatest mathematicians of antiquity. He is the father of algebra and the first to introduce the use of letters as quantitative symbols in mathematics. His treatise Arithmetics, considered by many as the first enchiridion of algebra, is a landmark in the history of mathematics and represents the dawning of algebra.

Very few things are known about his personal life. He flourished in Alexandria, the most prestigious spiritual centre of humanity at the time, where he worked as a researcher on mathematics and a pedagogue. He wrote numerous treatises, two of which survive to this day. The first, Arithmetics, is the first treatise on algebra ever to have been written. It consists of 13 books, 11 of which survive in different languages. The books contain subjects on first, second and polynomial equations, with one or two unknowns, calculation of powers etc. The second one is Polygonal Numbers and Geometric Elements, a book containing complex geometry and of which only a fragment survives. Other works include Porisms, possibly on the theory of numbers and Moriastics, a book on fractions.

Furthermore, Diophantus studied meticulously the polynomial equations where only the integer values are sought. These came to be known as Diophantine Equations and the study of them today is called Diophantine Analysis, in his honour. French mathematician Pier de Fermat’s last theorem, considered to be one of mathematics’ most difficult problems is such an equation, evidently showing that Fermat was inspired by the great algebraist.

Diophantus was recognized as a great mathematician and a highly respected geometrician even during his own lifetime. His works, primarily Arithmetics exerted a tremendous influence on the Arabic civilization when during the 10^th century they were translated to Arabic. In the Middle Ages, intellects such as Maximus Planoudes, Georgios Pachymeres and Wilhelm Xylander studied his works and disseminated them.

Bibliography

1. “Diophantos”. Helios New Encyclopaedic Dictionary. Passas, I. Athens, 1946. Print.
2. O’Connor, JJ, Robertson, E.F. Diophantus of Alexandria. History.mcs.st-andac.uk. Web.
3. Vlachou, Angeliki. Ο Διόφαντος και η Διδακτική της Άλγεβρας. National and Capodistrian University of Athens. Athens, 2014. Math.uoa.gr. Web.

Aristophanes

Comic poet (c.446 BC – c.386 BC)

Aristophanes was the greatest comic poet of antiquity, who distinguished for his innovative role in comedy and his ingenuity in satirical poetry. He is the only representative of comedy from whom complete parts of his works have survived. He belongs to the great poets of the Classical Greek era, along with Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, him being the youngest of the four.

For 40 years, Aristophanes dominated the comical stage of Athens and became perhaps the most widely-known Athenian of his time. Nevertheless, almost nothing is known about his life, let alone the place he was born. He was an aristocrat but lived a simple life, indulged in his spiritual work, in spite of the fact that he was involved with the commons and with political satire.

The total number of his works is estimated to have been around 44. His major influences were Aeschylus, the greatest tragic poet of mankind, Orpheus, the founder of Orphism and Hesiod, the author of the divine Theogony. Aristophanes would frequently put his plays on stage under a different name or would pay others so that his name would be hidden behind those who would accept to take the responsibility of his plays.

A total of 11 plays have survived in their full form. They are the following: Acharnians, the first in chronological order, takes place during the Peloponnesian War. The protagonist Dicaeopolis secures a private peace treaty with the Spartans but is confronted by his fellow citizens, the Acharnians, who wish for the war to continue. It is a play of war and justice. Hippeis (Knights) is a satire about a statesman named Cleon and about the people’s compliance on flattery. Both Acharnians and Hippeis won him the first prize in the Lenaian festival. Nephelae (Clouds) won him the 3^rd prize on the Megala Dionysia and is a play where he criticizes the Sophists. Socrates is a key figure in this play. The Wasps satirizes the Athenian legal system and corruption while Peace, as its name suggests, conveys a message of peace. His two most renowned plays are The Birds and Lysistrata. The Birds is a play about two Athenians who decide to build their own imaginary city with the help of the bird king between Heaven and Earth. It satirizes the Athenian politics and its irresponsibility. It won him the 2^nd prize in the Megala Dionysia. Lysistrata is a powerful play in which women from all over Greece go on a sex strike in order the men to make peace. Thesmophoriazusae is about a group of women who plot Euripides’ death for defemating them in his plays. In The Frogs, Dionysus descends to Hades to bring back to life one of the three great tragedians because the people on Earth are writing dumb plays. He eventually becomes a judge in a poetry competition between the three. This also won first prize in the Lenaian festival. The Ecclisiazousae is a play about women who, after disguising into men, they organize a coup to take over Athens and establish community-property for everything. Wealth, the final one to have survived, deals with the unjust distribution of goods to people.

Aristophanes draws themes from the political, social and spiritual life of Athens. He portrays the mentality of the peoples, their traditions and actions in a comical and philosophical way. His works were original, imaginative and very daring for their time. He was greatly admired by Plato because of his critical stance against aristocracy and his radical art.

He was highly critical of democracy and would often be a subject of denouncement and resentment in his plays. He struggled against the demagogues of Athens whom he accused of philopolemy, and the sophists, whom he satirized greatly in his play Clouds (Nephelae). Through his plays, he fought for righteousness (Wealth), peace (Lysistrata, Peace, Acharnians) and the search for the ideal republic (Clouds), as his friend Plato did. His works were extensively studied by the philologists of the Byzantine Empire and the Renaissance, particularly by Erasmus, who considered them very important. To this day, his plays continue to educate the peoples of the 21^st century worldwide.

Bibliography:

1. “Aristophanes”. Helios New Encyclopaedic Dictionary. Passas, I. Athens, 1946. Print.
2. Platnauer Maurice, Taplin Oliver. Aristophanes Greek Dramatist. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Britannica.com. Web. September 24, 2015. Retrieved on March 27, 2017.
3. Stefos, Stergioulis, Charitidou. History of the Ancient Greek Literature. Οργανισμός Εκδόσεως Διδακτικών Βιβλίων: Athens, 1999. Print.

Xenophanes

Philosopher, Theologist, Poet (c.570 BC – c.475 BC)

Xenophanes was a Pythagorean philosopher from Colophon. He lived and worked primarily in Elea, Magna Graecia, where he founded of the Eleatic School of Philosophy together with Zenon of Elea. His philosophy is mostly metaphysical, deals with religious issues such as the nature of God and the Divine, and encompasses a broad spectrum of philosophy of civilization. He is chiefly remembered for his strong criticism on the common misconceptions of God.

Thales of Miletus and Anaximander were his teachers and while in Syracuse, he met Aeschylus, Pindar and Simonides. Xenophanes was a skilled poet. He wrote numerous epic poems, elegies and hexameter verses and with those he earned his living. In one of his epic poems, he narrates the foundation of Colophon while in another he praises the value of wisdom over physical strength.

Xenophanes fought against the public’s perception of God, the anthropomorphism of God and the human characteristics attributed to God. Xenophanes spoke about a God that serves his own purpose, was not born and cannot be destroyed. God is the soul of the sphaerical universe that spreads towards every direction, giving life to everything there is. At the same time, God is motionless and eternal. Xenophanes’s monotheism speaks of one God, whose body and mind is completely different from that of mortals. He is all eye, all spirit and all ear. Everything is one and is one with God. He rejects the idea that God has the appearance, the clothes and the voice of man with his famous saying: “But if cattle or horses or lions had hands, or were able to draw with their hands and do the work that men can do, horses would draw the forms of the gods like horses, and cattle like cattle, and they would make their bodies such as they each had themselves”. He also criticized Homer and Hesiod for attributing human characteristics and weaknesses to God such as thievery, adultery and deceit, nevertheless recognized that “All men begin their learning from Homer”. In addition, Xenophanes rejects God’s intervention to the human affairs, stating that each one must take responsibility of their own actions. According to Xenophanes, God did not designate everything from the start to man. Part of the benevolent things of civilization was designated by God; the rest of the comforts of civilization were discovered by man, following his continual quest for betterment.

He was involved with the natural sciences and cosmology but his work has been largely obscured due to the influence of Aristotle. He considered the earth and water as the two primordial elements of creation. Everything is a product of alleloconversion of earth and water. This is summed in his saying that all things come from earth and all things end by becoming earth. He wrote the book On Nature, which dealt with cosmological issues. He explained about the celestial bodies and meteorological phenomena, supported the geocentric model, studied the fossils and made important geological and paleontological discoveries and proposed that the sea creates the clouds and the wind.

Xenophanes’s philosophical views were very daring for his time. He is a pure representative of the Greek spirit that doubts almost everything, even if it means going against the world he lives. A great pre-Socratic philosopher, who acted as an adviser to humanity with his poems and as a corrector with his theology, it is unfortunate that little of his work survives today to have a broader glimpse of his work.

Bibliography

1. Georgakopoulos, Konstantinos. Ancient Greek Scientists. Georgiades: Athens, 1995. Print.
2. Pan, Sarantos. Xenophanes (575 – 480 BC). ΔΑΥΛΟΣ. Issue 185, May, 1997. pages 11395-11394. Print.
3. Patzia, Michael. Xenophanes. Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. Iep.utm.edu. Web. Retrieved on March 17, 2017.
4. Pleures, Konstantinos. Greek Philosophers. Athens: Hilektron Publications, 2014. Print.
5. “Xenophanes”. Helios New Encyclopaedic Dictionary. Passas, I. Athens, 1946. Print.

Ictinus & Callicrates

Architects, Philosophers (5^th century BC)

Ictinus and Callicrates were the two architects who constructed the Parthenon of the Acropolis of Athens, the most beautiful monument of human civilization. Both were Athenians and were active during the 5^th century BC. The mathematical deciphering of the Parthenon reveals that Ictinus and Callicrates were also philosophers.

Five monuments bare Ictinus’ signature: The Parthenon of the Acropolis of Athens, the Telesterium of Eleusis, the Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae, the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens and the Odeon of Pericles at the eastern-northern side of the Acropolis. The Telesterium of Eleusis, also called “the secret temple”, was the place where the Eleusinian Mysteries took place and was devoted to goddesses Demeter and Persephone. The temple’s construction was directed by Ictinus, together with several other architects, under the supervision of Pericles. Ictinus worked with other architects for the construction of the Temple of Apollo Epicurius, which is the only Greek temple facing the north. The Temple of Hephaestus, known previously as the Theseion, is the best preserved ancient temple to this day.

Callicrates, apart from the Parthenon, constructed the following monuments: The Temple of Athena Nike (Victory) at the Acropolis of Athens, which is of Ionian rhythm in contrast to the Parthenon, the Temple of Apollo in Delos, the Temple of Artemis in Athens, by the side of the river Ilisus, which was destroyed in 1778 by the Ottomans and the Long Walls, which ran a total of 6 kilometers, connecting Athens to Piraeus. They had 160 meters distance from each other and were 20 meters high. They remained standing for 54 years, until the Spartans occupied Athens following the end of the Peloponnesian War. They were rebuilt by Conon and parts of them are still visible today. In addition, Callicrates repaired the peripheral walls of the Acropolis and improved the fortification.

Ictinus and Callicrates, with the help of Pheidias and the supervision of Pericles, worked together to build the Parthenon. Ictinus designed the architecture and Callicrates supervised its construction. It took nine years for its completion. The Parthenon is not just an architectural wonder. It is an ark of wisdom whose ancientness is lost in the depths of time. On its front section, the equation length = φ×height is always true. This manifests as a spiral with the analogy α/2α+1, known as the golden ratio, which is a sacred number in the Greek arithmosophy. The pillars of the Parthenon are not longitudinal on their axis. Instead, if an imaginary line extended above each pillar, they would all join at a height of 1852 meters, forming a pyramid, whose apex is exactly above the head of the statue of Athena inside the Parthenon. The volume of this imaginary pyramid is half the volume of the Great Pyramid of Egypt. Furthermore, the Parthenon has a remarkable antiseismic construction.

The total number of the Parthenon’s pillars (84) multiplied by 2, multiplied by 10 is equal to the lexarithm of the word ΟΙΚΟΣ ΘΕΑΣ ΠΑΡΘΕΝΩΝ (House of Goddess Parthenon) = 1680. The lexarithm of the word Parthenon (ΠΑΡΘΕΝΩΝ) is equal to the lexarithm of ΜΕΣΟΝ Ο ΙΚΤΙΝΟΣ (the connection Ictinus) and ΜΕΛΑΘΡΟΝ Ο ΚΑΛΛΙΚΡΑΤΗΣ (melathron Callicrates) = 1095. The lexarithm of the word The Parthenon (Ο ΠΑΡΘΕΝΩΝ) is equal to ΜΕΣΟΝ Ο ΦΕΙΔΙΑΣ (the connection Pheidias) and ΜΕΣΟΝ Η ΑΞΙΑ ΚΑΛΛΙΚΡΑΤΗΣ (the connection the value Callicrates) = 1165. Finally, Ο ΠΑΡΘΕΝΩΝ (The Parthenon) divided by ΘΑΥΜΑ ΑΘΗΝΑΣ (Miracle of Athena), Η ΔΟΜΗ Ο ΠΑΡΘΕΝΩΝ (The structure the Parthenon) divided by Ο ΦΕΙΔΙΑΣ (Pheidias) and Ο ΠΑΡΘΕΝΩΝ (The Parthenon) divided by ΚΑΛΛΙΚΡΑΤΗΣ (Callicrates) are all equal to 1,618=φ, the golden ratio.

This wisdom was acquired by the two architects – philosophers from the Mystery Schools, of which they were initiates, primarily Ictinus. This is also indicated by the Temple of Apollo Epicurius, which also hides magnificent knowledge on astronomy, knowledge that was taught in the Mysteries. To this day, the decipherment of the Parthenon has given us important information that the Greeks knew the shape and the dimensions of the Earth before the 5^th century BC, including the fact that the pyramids of Egypt are closely linked to the Greek mathematics.

Bibliography

1. Georgakopoulos, Konstantinos. Ancient Greek Scientists. Georgiades: Athens, 1995. Print.
2. “Ictinus”. Helios New Encyclopaedic Dictionary. Passas, I. Athens, 1946. Print.
3. “Kallikratis”. Helios New Encyclopaedic Dictionary. Passas, I. Athens, 1946. Print.
4. Manias, Theophanis. The Holy Geometry of the Greeks and the Mathematical Structure of the Greek Language. Pyrinos Kosmos: Athens, 2006. Print.
5. Manias, Theophanis. The Unknown Masterpieces of the Ancient Greeks. Pyrinos Kosmos: Athens, 2006. Print.
6. Ικτίνος και Καλλικράτης: οι αρχιτέκτονες του Παρθενώνα. Pronews. Pronews.gr. December 12, 2014. Web. Retrieved on March 7, 2017.

The Berlin Painter

Vase Painter (c.490 BC – c.400 BC)

If hypothetically there was an art exhibition being held in the museum of art in Berlin, Germany, entitled “The Berlin Painter”, most of us would probably think of a famous German painter from the Renaissance who flourished in Berlin by producing phenomenal oil paintings. This, however, is far from the truth. The Berlin Painter is not an Albrecht Durer or a Caspar Friedrich; he was not even German. Instead, he was an ancient Greek vase painter from the time of the Golden Age of Pericles, known conventionally as the Berlin Painter.

The name was given by British classicist and historian Sir John Beazley, who, in 1911, while studying one of his amphorae in the Museum of Berlin, noticed the pattern of stylistic traits of the painter that he had seen in other vases and fragments. The painter, who was conventionally named after the city where his amphora was found, was one of the most prolific and influential vase painters of antiquity, who flourished in Athens. He had the habit of not signing his name on his works and as a result, nothing is known about him, besides his collection of 330 surviving vases and their fragments found throughout the whole Mediterranean, from Southern Italy and Etruria to Libya, Rhodes and Crimea.

The Berlin Painter is considered worldwide as the most gifted and charismatic pottery artist of the ancient world, the man who perfected and disseminated the red-figure vase painting in Southern Europe. The one responsible for depicting representations of the Divine in a manner completely different from his predecessors; his figures were portrayed with elegancy, detail, great symmetry and extraordinary realism, with themes borrowed primarily from mythology. Youth and spring are common depictions. According to Beazley, there is nothing lacking and nothing in hyperbole; all in moderation (μέτρον ἄριστον). Some scholars even believe that he was also the ceramicist who built the pottery.

Among the Berlin Painter’s most famous paintings, which we all have admired, are Dionysos holding a kantharos, Hermes, the Satyr and the hind, which is the vase found in the Museum of Berlin, the Discus Thrower, Ganymedes with cockerel and hoop, found in the Louvre Museum, Europe and the Bull (Zeus), Apollo and the winged tripod, Achilles and Penthesellia, Nike with lyre, the Panathenaic amphora of the running athletes, Perseus and Medusa, The Lioness, Goddess Athena, Zeus holding thunder and many other paintings.

Even though his true name remains a mystery, after nearly 2500 years of anonymity, the Berlin Painter earned the position in history that he deserved. Today, 30 of his paintings decorate the Greek museums, the remaining 300 scattered throughout the museums of Europe, providing the visitors there with a glimpse of the world 2500 years ago through a window to the past.

Bibliography

1. The Berlin Painter and His World: Athenian Vase-Painting in the Early Fifth Century B.C.’ opens March 4. Princeton University Art Museum. Princeton.edu. Web. September 28, 2016. Retrieved on February 28, 2017.
2. Ποιος ήταν ο ζωγράφος του Βερολίνου; Archaeology Newsroom. Archaiologia.gr. Web. Retrieved on March 1, 2017.

Plutarchus

Philosopher, Historian, Writer, Ambassador, Priest (c.46 – 120)

The historian and philosopher Plutarch was one of the greatest spiritual figures and philosophers of post-Classical Greece, characterized as the “eye of all wisdom”. His monumental works on history, philosophy, biographies, religion, natural sciences and pedagogy are part of the Ancient Greek thesaurus and reflect some of the most influential writings ever survived from antiquity.

Plutarch studied philosophy, mathematics and rhetoric in Chaeronea and Athens under the philosopher Ammonius. From a young age, he joined the higher echelons of the Roman elite and occupied important diplomatic positions in Rome. Under Emperor Trajanus’ rule, he was appointed supreme commissioner of the Illyrians and imperial procurator of Achaea by Emperor Hadrian. According to Suidas, Plutarch also served as Trajanus’ teacher. He travelled to several placed in an effort to educate himself, until settling in Rome, where he obtained a dual Greek and Roman citizenship. There, he delivered influential lectures to the Romans on Platonic philosophy, becoming one of the most respected philosophers of the Roman elite. In addition, Plutarch served significant hieratic ranks, most notably as the high hieratic priest of the Oracle of Delphi from 95 until his death in 120. He was responsible for the interpretation of the Oracle’s predictions.

Plutarch founded the Plutarcheian School of philosophy, an unofficial school composed of a circle of students to whom Plutarch taught philosophy, rhetoric and sciences. He was a prolific writer, having written over 200 works as slated in the Catalogue of Lambrias. His works which survive today have been grouped into two major books: Parallel Lives and Moralia. In the first one, Plutarch compares the biographies of historical Greek and Roman figures in pairs of 2. With a total of 23 surviving pairs, Plutarch’s book becomes one of the most valuable sources of study of the lives of Hesiod, Nero, Cicero, Pindar, Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great. Plutarch wrote the Parallel Lives in order to display examples of virtuous men.

While Parallel Lives seems to have been more famous throughout the West, Moralia is appreciated more than Parallel Lives. It is a collection of 83 books, some of which survive completely, which have, nevertheless, no particular thematic connection with each other. Their content ranges from philosophical, ethical and religious, to historical, anecdotal and purely scientific. The most notable books included in the collection are On the Education of Children, On the Glory of the Athenians, On Isis and Osiris, On the Ei on Delphi, On the Obsolescence of Oracles, On the Sign of Socrates, On Moral Virtue and On the Malice of Herodotus.

Plutarch was a polymath. As reflected in his books On Isis and Osiris, On the Ei on Delphi and On the Sign of Socrates, he possessed profound knowledge on the issues of the soul. Even though primarily a Platonist, he had vast knowledge on all philosophic schools. He embraced doctrines from various different schools provided that they were in accordance with virtue and ethics. Plutarch lived at a time when Classicism was on its downfall and Christianity began prevailing over the ancient religion. As such, he devoted all of his efforts in restoring the Oracle of Delphi to its former glory.

Important philosophers and reformists such as Calvin, Melanchthon, Amyot, Aldus Manutius, Goethe, Schiller, Benjamin Franklin, Wyttenbach and Frederick the Great were all influenced tremendously by his works and considered him as one of the wisest philosophers of antiquity. Erasmus was one of Plutarch’s greatest admirers, calling his works the holiest writings next to the Holy Scripture while Jean-Jacque Rousseau referred to him as “Teacher”, spending 6 whole years studying his works in Ancient Greek. His works also played a pivotal role in the revival of Classicism during the Renaissance. His pedagogic books were introduced in the educational system and in the military schools of France during the Enlightenment thus becoming the textbook of Napoleon.

In the end, Plutarch is considered one of the Greatest Greeks because through his titanic work, he was educator of children and men throughout the ages, taught philosophy and science to the entire Western world and showed humanity the way to a virtuous life and to the unification with the Divine, at a time when the Ancient Greek spirit was beginning to eclipse.

Bibliography

1. Cartwright, Mark. Plutarch. Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient.eu. Web. February 25, 2017. Retrieved on February 17, 2017.
2. “Plutarchus”. Helios New Encyclopaedic Dictionary. Passas, I. Athens, 1946. Print.

Meton of Athens

Astronomer, Mathematician, Engineer (5^th century BC)

Meton was a geometrician, astronomer, engineer and inventor, active during the 5^th century BC in Athens. He is most widely known for discovering the Metonic cycle, a calendar system which was introduced in 432 BC and was used as the lunisolar Attic calendar.

He studied geometry and astronomy from his teacher Phaeinus, who made celestial observations from Mount Lycabettus, where he had established his own observatory. Meton’s most important discovery is the Metonic cycle or “Lunar cycle”, a lunar calendar which is composed of 19 years. Meton calculated that 19 solar years correspond to 6940 days and in turn to 235 lunar months. He also introduced the notion of the embolismic month, the 13^th month that was added in certain years of the cycle. These were based on Meton’s own observations, together with his student’s Euctemon, with whom he examined the positions of the sun. The Metonic cycle was used as the basis of the Greek calendar until its replacement by the Gregorian calendar in 46. To this day, the Metonic cycle is used for the calculation of the Easter Sunday each year because every 19 years the same lunar phases are repeated.

100 years after Meton, Calippus developed the Calippic cycle, which was composed of 76 years with a mean year of 365 days. The world’s oldest astronomical computer, the Antikythera mechanism has both cycles built into it, each with its own set of cogwheels, and was able to perform astronomical calculations based on these two cycles.

Except from the development of the Metonic cycle, Meton built a solar horologeion (clock) which was placed in Pnyx, the same place where his observatory was located, ruins of which can still be seen today. Furthermore, he constructed the hydragogeion (aqueduct) of Colonus, the calendar of Athens, which was a large marble pillar with plaques of orichalcos which showed the months, the years, the holidays and the rise and dawn of the sun and the stars, made important discoveries on the equinoxes and the solstices and wrote several books, all of which were burned during the Middle Ages.

Meton was popular enough during his own lifetime to even make a cameo appearance as a character in Aristophanes’ Birds, where he comes into the stage with his topographic instruments to solve some geometrical problems. Today, a lunar crater is named after him, in his honour.

Bibliography

1. Georgakopoulos, Konstantinos. Ancient Greek Scientists. Georgiades: Athens, 1995. Print.
2. Ο ΜΕΤΩΝΙΚΟΣ ΚΥΚΛΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΑ ΜΑΘΗΜΑΤΙΚΟΥ, ΑΣΤΡΟΝΟΜΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΓΕΩΜΕΤΡΗ ΜΕΤΩΝΑ!!!!. ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝΙΑ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΚΙΝΗΣΗ. Apollonios.pblogs.gr. Web. July 2, 2014. Retrieved on February 5, 2017