This line of thought was developed by the Pre-Socratic Philosophers, so-called because they lived before the time of Socrates of Athens (470/469-399 BCE), notably by Pythagoras (l. 585 BCE), various Greek thinkers began offering non-theistic explanations for natural phenomena which, even so, could fit within the theistic paradigm. There was no break with this vision, as atheism was considered a capital offense by the Greeks, but beginning with Thales of Miletus (l.c. Understanding how the planets moved as they did encouraged a “scientific” view of astrology and the belief in celestial influences through the concept of planetary movements that brought celestial bodies closer, then further away, from the earth exerting a certain power over humans and the natural world as they did so.īy the 8th century BCE, Homer and Hesiod were writing about planetary influences according to the accepted model of a polytheistic universe maintained by the gods. This is not to say that Greek astronomy countered the claims made by astrology that the planets influenced human affairs. Drawing on the works of the Babylonians and Egyptians, however, they were able to develop a working model of the universe explained by natural laws rather than supernatural influences. There were astronomers at work in ancient India, Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and elsewhere prior to the development of the discipline in Greece and, actually, the Greeks were latecomers to the field. Ancient Greek astronomers relied on observation and mathematical calculation to determine the operation of the universe and Earth’s place within it. Photo via Wikimedia Commonsīy the 8th century BCE, Homer and Hesiod were writing about planetary influences.Īncient Greek astronomy was the study of the universe to understand how it functioned and why apart from the established theistic model that claimed all things were ordered and maintained by the gods. Picture of George Trebizond’s Latin translation of Claudius Ptolemy’s Almagest (ca.
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