1.
Flammarion engraving
–
The Flammarion engraving is a wood engraving by an unknown artist, so named because its first documented appearance is in Camille Flammarions 1888 book Latmosphère, météorologie populaire. The engraving has often, but erroneously, been referred to as a woodcut, the caption that accompanies the engraving in Flammarions book reads, A missionary of the Middle Ages tells that he had found the point where the sky and the Earth touch. In 1957, astronomer Ernst Zinner claimed that the image dated to the German Renaissance, therefore, it is plausible that Flammarion himself created the image, though the evidence for this remains circumstantial. Like most other illustrations in Flammarions books, the engraving carries no attribution, the decorative border surrounding the engraving is distinctly non-medieval and it was only by cropping it that the confusion about the historical origins of the image became possible. The Greek astronomers represented it as formed of a solid substance, and so recently as Copernicus. The Latin poets placed the divinities of Olympus and the stately mythological court upon this vault, above the planets, the correspondence between the text and the illustration is so close that one would appear to be based on the other. Had Flammarion known of the engraving in 1872, it seems unlikely that he would have left it out of that years edition, the more probable conclusion therefore is that Flammarion commissioned the engraving specifically to illustrate this particular text, though this has not been ascertained conclusively. The idea of the contact of a sky with the earth is one that repeatedly appears in Flammarions earlier works. In his Les mondes imaginaires et les mondes réels, he cites a legend of a Christian saint, Macarius the Roman and this legend includes the story of three monks who wished to discover the point where the sky and the earth touch. Such is the notion of the universe, it is always the terrestrial valley crowned by the canopy of the heavens. In the legend of St. Macarius, the monks do not in fact find the place where earth, in Les mondes imaginaires Flammarion recounts another story, This fact reminds us of the tale which Le Vayer recounts in his Letters. Flammarion also mentioned the story, in nearly the same words, in his Histoire du Ciel, I have in my library, interrupted the deputy. The Letters referred to are a series of essays by François de La Mothe Le Vayer. Le Vayer does not specify who this anchorite was, nor does he provide further details about the story or its sources, the combination of the story of St. Macarius with Le Vayers remarks seems to be due to Flammarion himself. It also appears in his Les terres du ciel, With respect to the bounds, the Flammarion engraving appeared in C. G. Jungs Flying Saucers, A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies. The first color version to be published was made by Roberta Weir and that color image spawned most of the modern variations that have followed since. Donovans 1973 LP, Cosmic Wheels, used an extended black, the image also appeared in The Compleat Astrologer by Derek and Julia Parker in 1971. The Flammarion engraving appeared on the cover of Daniel J. Boorstins bestselling history of science The Discoverers, other books devoted to science that used it as an illustration include The Mathematical Experience by Philip J. Vollmann
Flammarion engraving
–
A traveller puts his head under the edge of the
firmament in the original (1888) printing of the Flammarion engraving.
2.
Universe
–
The Universe is all of time and space and its contents. It includes planets, moons, minor planets, stars, galaxies, the contents of intergalactic space, the size of the entire Universe is unknown. The earliest scientific models of the Universe were developed by ancient Greek and Indian philosophers and were geocentric, over the centuries, more precise astronomical observations led Nicolaus Copernicus to develop the heliocentric model with the Sun at the center of the Solar System. In developing the law of gravitation, Sir Isaac Newton built upon Copernicuss work as well as observations by Tycho Brahe. Further observational improvements led to the realization that our Solar System is located in the Milky Way galaxy and it is assumed that galaxies are distributed uniformly and the same in all directions, meaning that the Universe has neither an edge nor a center. Discoveries in the early 20th century have suggested that the Universe had a beginning, the majority of mass in the Universe appears to exist in an unknown form called dark matter. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the Universe, under this theory, space and time emerged together 13. 799±0.021 billion years ago with a fixed amount of energy and matter that has become less dense as the Universe has expanded. After the initial expansion, the Universe cooled, allowing the first subatomic particles to form, giant clouds later merged through gravity to form galaxies, stars, and everything else seen today. Some physicists have suggested various multiverse hypotheses, in which the Universe might be one among many universes that likewise exist, the Universe can be defined as everything that exists, everything that has existed, and everything that will exist. According to our current understanding, the Universe consists of spacetime, forms of energy, the Universe encompasses all of life, all of history, and some philosophers and scientists suggest that it even encompasses ideas such as mathematics and logic. The word universe derives from the Old French word univers, which in turn derives from the Latin word universum, the Latin word was used by Cicero and later Latin authors in many of the same senses as the modern English word is used. Another synonym was ὁ κόσμος ho kósmos, synonyms are also found in Latin authors and survive in modern languages, e. g. the German words Das All, Weltall, and Natur for Universe. The same synonyms are found in English, such as everything, the cosmos, the world, the prevailing model for the evolution of the Universe is the Big Bang theory. The Big Bang model states that the earliest state of the Universe was extremely hot and dense, the model is based on general relativity and on simplifying assumptions such as homogeneity and isotropy of space. The Big Bang model accounts for such as the correlation of distance and redshift of galaxies, the ratio of the number of hydrogen to helium atoms. The initial hot, dense state is called the Planck epoch, after the Planck epoch and inflation came the quark, hadron, and lepton epochs. Together, these epochs encompassed less than 10 seconds of time following the Big Bang, the observed abundance of the elements can be explained by combining the overall expansion of space with nuclear and atomic physics. As the Universe expands, the density of electromagnetic radiation decreases more quickly than does that of matter because the energy of a photon decreases with its wavelength
Universe
–
The
Hubble ultra deep field image shows some of the most remote galaxies that can be seen with present technology
Universe
–
In this diagram, time passes from left to right, so at any given time, the Universe is represented by a disk-shaped "slice" of the diagram.
Universe
–
This diagram shows Earth's location in the Universe.
3.
Chaos (cosmogony)
–
Chaos refers to the formless or void state preceding the creation of the universe or cosmos in the Greek creation myths, or to the initial gap created by the original separation of heaven and earth. Greek χάος means emptiness, vast void, chasm, abyss, from the verb χαίνω, gape, be open, etc. from Proto-Indo-European *ǵheh2n, cognate to Old English geanian, to gape. It may also mean space, the expanse of air, pherecydes of Syros interpretes chaos as water, like something formless which can be differentiated. Hesiod and the Pre-Socratics use the Greek term in the context of cosmogony, Hesiods chaos has been interpreted as a moving, formless mass from which the cosmos and the gods originated. In Hesiods opinion the origin should be indefinite and indeterminate, and it represents disorder, Chaos has been linked with the term tohu wa-bohu of Genesis 1,2. The term may refer to a state of non-being prior to creation or to a formless state, in the Book of Genesis, the spirit of God is moving upon the face of the waters, and the earliest state of the universe is like a watery chaos. The Septuagint makes no use of χάος in the context of creation, instead using the term for גיא, chasm, cleft, in Micah 1,6, a parallel can be found in the Genesis. In the beginning God creates the earth and the sky, the earth is formless and void, and later God divides the waters under the firmament from the waters over the firmament, and calls the firmament heaven. In both cases, chaos referring to a notion of a primordial state contains the cosmos in potentia and this model of a primordial state of matter has been opposed by the Church Fathers from the 2nd century, who posited a creation ex nihilo by an omnipotent God. In modern biblical studies, the chaos is commonly used in the context of the Torah. Parallels between the Hebrew Genesis and the Babylonian Enuma Elish were established by Hermann Gunkel in 1910, besides Genesis, other books of the Old Testament, especially a number of Psalms, some passages in Isaiah and Jeremiah and the Book of Job are relevant. Use of chaos in the sense of complete disorder or confusion first appears in Elizabethan Early Modern English. The motif of Chaoskampf is ubiquitous in myth and legend, depicting a battle of a culture hero deity with a chaos monster, often in the shape of a serpent or dragon. The same term has also extended to parallel concepts in the religions of the Ancient Near East, such as the abstract conflict of ideas in the Egyptian duality of Maat. Early work by German academics such as Gunkel and Bousset in comparative mythology popularized translating the mythological sea serpent as a dragon. Indo-European examples of this mythic trope include Thor vs. Jörmungandr, Tarhunt vs. Illuyanka, Indra vs. Vritra, Fereydun vs. Aži Dahāka, and Zeus vs. Typhon among others. In the Theogony of Hesiod, Chaos is a divine primordial condition, which is the origin of the gods and it seems that in Hesiods opinion, the origin should be indefinite and indeterminate, and it may represent infinite space, or formless matter. The notion of the temporal infinity was familiar to the Greek mind from remote antiquity in the conception of immortality
Chaos (cosmogony)
–
Magnum Chaos represented by
Lorenzo Lotto, at the
Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in
Bergamo.
Chaos (cosmogony)
–
Depiction of the Christianized Chaoskampf: statue of Archangel Michael slaying Satan, represented as a dragon.
Quis ut Deus? is inscribed on his shield.
4.
Philosopher
–
A philosopher is someone who practices philosophy, which involves rational inquiry into areas that are outside of either theology or science. The term philosopher comes from the Ancient Greek φιλόσοφος meaning lover of wisdom, the coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek thinker Pythagoras. Typically, these brands of philosophy are Hellenistic ones and those who most arduously commit themselves to this lifestyle may be considered philosophers. The separation of philosophy and science from theology began in Greece during the 6th century BC, thales, an astronomer and mathematician, was considered by Aristotle to be the first philosopher of the Greek tradition. While Pythagoras coined the word, the first known elaboration on the topic was conducted by Plato, in his Symposium, he concludes that Love is that which lacks the object it seeks. Therefore, the philosopher is one who seeks wisdom, if he attains wisdom, therefore, the philosopher in antiquity was one who lives in the constant pursuit of wisdom, and living in accordance to that wisdom. Disagreements arose as to what living philosophically entailed and these disagreements gave rise to different Hellenistic schools of philosophy. In consequence, the ancient philosopher thought in a tradition, as the ancient world became schism by philosophical debate, the competition lay in living in manner that would transform his whole way of living in the world. Philosophy is a discipline which can easily carry away the individual in analyzing the universe. The second is the change through the Medieval era. With the rise of Christianity, the way of life was adopted by its theology. Thus, philosophy was divided between a way of life and the conceptual, logical, physical and metaphysical materials to justify that way of life, philosophy was then the servant to theology. The third is the sociological need with the development of the university, the modern university requires professionals to teach. Maintaining itself requires teaching future professionals to replace the current faculty, therefore, the discipline degrades into a technical language reserved for specialists, completely eschewing its original conception as a way of life. In the fourth century, the word began to designate a man or woman who led a monastic life. Gregory of Nyssa, for example, describes how his sister Macrina persuaded their mother to forsake the distractions of life for a life of philosophy. Later during the Middle Ages, persons who engaged with alchemy was called a philosopher - thus, many philosophers still emerged from the Classical tradition, as saw their philosophy as a way of life. Among the most notable are René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, Nicolas Malebranche, with the rise of the university, the modern conception of philosophy became more prominent
Philosopher
–
The School of Athens, by
Raphael, depicting the central figures of
Plato and
Aristotle, and other ancient philosophers exchanging their knowledge.
5.
Pythagoras
–
Pythagoras of Samos was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and the putative founder of the movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of the information about Pythagoras was written centuries after he lived. He was born on the island of Samos, and travelled, visiting Egypt and Greece, around 530 BC, he moved to Croton, in Magna Graecia, and there established some kind of school or guild. In 520 BC, he returned to Samos, Pythagoras made influential contributions to philosophy and religion in the late 6th century BC. He is often revered as a mathematician and scientist and is best known for the Pythagorean theorem which bears his name. Many of the accomplishments credited to Pythagoras may actually have been accomplishments of his colleagues, some accounts mention that the philosophy associated with Pythagoras was related to mathematics and that numbers were important. It was said that he was the first man to himself a philosopher, or lover of wisdom, and Pythagorean ideas exercised a marked influence on Plato. Burkert states that Aristoxenus and Dicaearchus are the most important accounts, Aristotle had written a separate work On the Pythagoreans, which is no longer extant. However, the Protrepticus possibly contains parts of On the Pythagoreans and his disciples Dicaearchus, Aristoxenus, and Heraclides Ponticus had written on the same subject. These writers, late as they are, were among the best sources from whom Porphyry and Iamblichus drew, while adding some legendary accounts. Herodotus, Isocrates, and other writers agree that Pythagoras was the son of Mnesarchus and born on the Greek island of Samos. His father is said to have been a gem-engraver or a wealthy merchant, a late source gives his mothers name as Pythais. As to the date of his birth, Aristoxenus stated that Pythagoras left Samos in the reign of Polycrates, at the age of 40, around 530 BC he arrived in the Greek colony of Croton in what was then Magna Graecia. There he founded his own school the members of which he engaged to a disciplined. He furthermore aquired some political influence, on Greeks and non-Greeks of the region, following a conflict with the neighbouring colony of Sybaris, internal discord drove most of the Pythagoreans out of Croton. Pythagoras left the city before the outbreak of civil unrest and moved to Metapontum, after his death, his house was transformed into a sanctuary of Demeter, out of veneration for the philosopher, by the local population. In ancient sources there was disagreement and inconsistency about the late life of Pythagoras. His tomb was shown at Metapontum in the time of Cicero, according to Walter Burkert, Most obvious is the contradiction between Aristoxenus and Dicaearchus, regarding the catastrophe that overwhelmed the Pythagorean society
Pythagoras
–
Bust of Pythagoras of Samos in the
Capitoline Museums,
Rome.
Pythagoras
–
Bust of Pythagoras,
Vatican
Pythagoras
–
A scene at the
Chartres Cathedral shows a philosopher, on one of the
archivolts over the right door of the west portal at Chartres, which has been attributed to depict Pythagoras.
Pythagoras
–
Croton on the southern coast of Magna Graecia (Southern Italy), to which Pythagoras ventured after feeling overburdened in Samos.
6.
Ancient Greek
–
Ancient Greek includes the forms of Greek used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BC to the 6th century AD. It is often divided into the Archaic period, Classical period. It is antedated in the second millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Hellenistic phase is known as Koine. Koine is regarded as a historical stage of its own, although in its earliest form it closely resembled Attic Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects, Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical phases of the language, Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language, divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic, Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, some dialects are found in standardized literary forms used in literature, while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms, homeric Greek is a literary form of Archaic Greek used in the epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic, the origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of a lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period and they have the same general outline, but differ in some of the detail. The invasion would not be Dorian unless the invaders had some relationship to the historical Dorians. The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, the Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people—Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians, each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Often non-west is called East Greek, Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric, Southern Peloponnesus Doric, and Northern Peloponnesus Doric. The Lesbian dialect was Aeolic Greek and this dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects, although Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language, which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek, by about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosized into Medieval Greek
Ancient Greek
–
Inscription about the construction of the statue of
Athena Parthenos in the
Parthenon, 440/439 BC
Ancient Greek
–
Ostracon bearing the name of
Cimon,
Stoa of Attalos
Ancient Greek
–
The words ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ as they are inscribed on the marble of the 1955
Leonidas Monument at
Thermopylae
7.
Alexander von Humboldt
–
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was a Prussian geographer, naturalist, explorer, and influential proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher. Humboldts quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography, Humboldts advocacy of long-term systematic geophysical measurement laid the foundation for modern geomagnetic and meteorological monitoring. Between 1799 and 1804, Humboldt travelled extensively in Latin America and his description of the journey was written up and published in an enormous set of volumes over 21 years. Humboldt was one of the first people to propose that the lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean were once joined and this important work also motivated a holistic perception of the universe as one interacting entity. Alexander von Humboldt was born in Berlin in Prussia on 14 September 1769 and he was baptized as a baby in the Lutheran faith, with the Duke of Brunswick serving as godfather. At age 42, Alexander Georg was rewarded for his services in the Seven Years War with the post of Royal Chamberlain and he profited from the contract to lease state lotteries and tobacco sales. He first married the daughter of Prussian General Adjutant Schweder, in 1766, Alexander Georg married Maria Elisabeth Colomb, a well-educated woman and widow of Baron Hollwede, with whom she had a son. Alexander Georg and Maria Elisabeth had three children, a daughter, who died young, and then two sons, Wilhelm and Alexander and her first-born son, Wilhelms and Alexanders half-brother, was something of a neer do well, not often mentioned in the family history. Alexander Georg died in 1779, leaving the brothers Humboldt in the care of their emotionally distant mother, Humboldts mother expected them to become civil servants of the Prussian state. The money Baron Holwede left to Alexanders mother became, after her death, instrumental in funding Alexanders explorations, due to his youthful penchant for collecting and labeling plants, shells and insects, Alexander received the playful title of the little apothecary. On April 25,1789, he matriculated at Göttingen, then known for the lectures of C. G. Heyne and his brother Wilhelm was already a student at Göttingen, but they did not interact much since their intellectual interests were quite different. His vast and varied interests were by this time fully developed, at Göttingen he met Georg Forster, a naturalist who had been with Captain James Cook on his second voyage. Humboldt traveled with Forster in Europe, the two traveled to England, Humboldts first sea voyage, The Netherlands, and France. In England, he met Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, the scientific friendship between Banks and Humboldt lasted until Bankss death in 1820, and the two shared botanical specimens for study. Banks also mobilized his scientific contacts in later years to aid Humboldts work, Humboldts scientific excursion up the Rhine resulted in his 1790 treatise Mineralogische Beobachtungen über einige Basalte am Rhein. Humboldts passion for travel was of long standing, Humboldts talents were devoted to the purpose of preparing himself as a scientific explorer. During this period, his brother Wilhelm married, but Alexander did not attend the nuptials, Humboldt graduated from the Freiberg School of Mines in 1792 and was appointed to a Prussian government position in the Department of Mines as an inspector in Bayreuth and the Fichtel mountains
Alexander von Humboldt
–
Alexander von Humboldt (by
Joseph Stieler, 1843)
Alexander von Humboldt
–
The Tegel Palace (or Humboldt Palace), where Alexander von Humboldt and
Wilhelm von Humboldt lived for several years.
Alexander von Humboldt
–
Portrait of Alexander von Humboldt by Friedrich Georg Weitsch, 1806
Alexander von Humboldt
–
Geography of Plants, 1805.
8.
Kosmos (Humboldt)
–
Kosmos is an influential treatise on science and nature written by the German scientist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt. Kosmos began as a lecture delivered by Humboldt at the University of Berlin. In the first volume of Kosmos, Humboldt paints a general “portrait of nature”, describing the nature of outer space. In the second volume he describes the history of science, Humboldt goes on to suggest that when one contemplates the beauty of the cosmos, one can obtain personal inspiration and a beneficial, if subjective, awareness about life. Kosmos was influenced by Humboldt’s various travels and studies, but mainly by his journey throughout the Americas. As he wrote, “it was the discovery of America that planted the seed of the Cosmos. ”Due to all of his experience in the field, Humboldt was preeminently qualified for the task to represent the universe in a single work. He had extensive knowledge of fields of learning, varied experiences as a traveler. Kosmos was highly popular when it was released, with the first volume selling out in two months, and the work translated into most European languages, since the early years of the nineteenth century, Humboldt had been a world-famous figure, second in renown only to Napoleon. As the son of a family in Prussia, he received the best education available at the time in Europe, studying under famous thinkers at the universities of Frankfurt. By the time he wrote Kosmos, Humboldt was an explorer, cosmographer, biologist, diplomat, engineer. While considered a geographer, he is accredited with contributing to most of the sciences of the world environment found today. Probably more than any other factor, Humboldts career was shaped by his travels in South, Humboldt said that his Cosmos was born on the slopes of the Andes. From the notes he gathered on this journey, Humboldt was able to produce at least thirty volumes based on his observations. Twenty-five years after his exploration of the Americas, at the age of sixty, Humboldt undertook a tour, subsidized by the Tsar of Russia. Between May and November 1829, Humboldt and his two subordinates, C. G, ehrenberg and Gustav Rose, traveled across the vast expanse of the Russian empire. This work was very modest in comparison to Humboldts South American publications, asie Centrale focused on the facts and figured of Central Asian geography, along with data to complete his isothermal world map. It was during his South American and Asian explorations that Humboldt made the observations crucial to forming his physical description of the universe in Kosmos. In 1827, having spent himself into poverty publishing his works, his king, Friedrich Wilhelm III, reminded Humboldt of his debt
Kosmos (Humboldt)
–
Humboldt and his Kosmos (1843),
Joseph Karl Stieler
Kosmos (Humboldt)
–
A portrait of Humboldt by Friedrich Georg Weitsch, 1806
Kosmos (Humboldt)
–
A portrait of Humboldt greeting death, by Wilhelm von Kaulbach, 1869
Kosmos (Humboldt)
–
Humboldt statue at the
Humboldt University of Berlin.
9.
Holism
–
Holism is the idea that systems and their properties should be viewed as wholes, not just as a collection of parts. The term Holism was coined by J C Smuts in Holism and it was Smuts opinion that Holism is a concept that represents all of the wholes in the universe, and these wholes are the real factors in the universe. Further, that Holism also denoted a theory of the universe in the vein as Materialism and Spiritualism. The derived adjective holistic has been applied to a range of fields where they incorporate the concept of holism. The field characterizes a whole as a unified and synthesised event in the system of Relativity, as such, the concept of field entails both activity and structure. Darwins theory of organic descent placed primary emphasis on the role of natural selection, the whole exhibits a discernible regulatory function as it relates to cooperation and coordination of the structure and activity of parts, and to the selection and deselection of variations. The result is a correlation of organs and functions. The activities of the parts are directed to central ends, co-operation and it is the intermingling of fields which is creative or causal in nature. This is seen in matter, where if not for its dynamic structural creative character matter could not have been the mother of the universe, with minds the regulatory function of Holism acquires consciousness and freedom, demonstrating a creative power of the most far-reaching character. Holism is not only creative but self-creative, and its structures are far more holistic than its initial structures. Holism exemplifies this idea while emphasizing the holistic character of the process. The whole completely transforms the concept of Causality, results are not directly a function of causes, the whole absorbs and integrates the cause into its own activity, results appear as the consequence of the activity of the whole. It is the edition of Holism and Evolution that provides the most recent. In philosophy, any doctrine that emphasizes the priority of a whole over its parts is holism, some suggest that such a definition owes its origins to a non-holistic view of language and places it in the reductivist camp. Alternately, a definition of holism denies the necessity of a division between the function of separate parts and the workings of the whole. It suggests that the key characteristic of a concept of holism is a sense of the fundamental truth of any particular experience. This exists in contradistinction to what is perceived as the reductivist reliance on inductive method as the key to verification of its concept of how the function within the whole. In the philosophy of mind, a state may be identified only in terms of its relations with others
Holism
–
The Earth seen from
Apollo 17.
10.
Medieval
–
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
Medieval
–
The
Cross of Mathilde, a
crux gemmata made for
Mathilde, Abbess of Essen (973–1011), who is shown kneeling before the Virgin and Child in the
enamel plaque. The body of Christ is slightly later. Probably made in
Cologne or
Essen, the cross demonstrates several medieval techniques:
cast figurative sculpture,
filigree, enamelling, gem polishing and setting, and the reuse of Classical
cameos and
engraved gems.
Medieval
–
A late Roman statue
depicting the four Tetrarchs, now in
Venice
Medieval
–
Coin of
Theodoric
Medieval
–
Mosaic showing
Justinian with
the bishop of
Ravenna, bodyguards, and courtiers
11.
Peter Apian
–
Petrus Apianus, also known as Peter Apian, was a German humanist, known for his works in mathematics, astronomy and cartography. The lunar crater Apianus and minor planet 19139 Apian are named in his honour and he was born as Peter Bienewitz in Leisnig in Saxony, his father was a shoemaker. The family was well off, belonging to the middle-class citizenry of Leisnig. Apianus was educated at the Latin school in Rochlitz, from 1516 to 1519 he studied at the University of Leipzig, during this time, he Latinized his name to Apianus. When the plague broke out in Vienna in 1521, he completed his studies with a B. A. and moved to Regensburg and he married the daughter of a councilman of Landshut, Katharina Mosner, in 1526. They would have 14 children together, five girls and nine sons, in 1527, Peter Apian was called to the University of Ingolstadt as a mathematician and printer. Among the first books he printed were the writings of Johann Eck, later, his print shop soon became well known for its high-quality editions of geographic and cartographic works. Through his work, Apian became a favourite of emperor Charles V. Charles had praised his work at the Imperial Diet of 1530, in 1535, the emperor made Apian an armiger, i. e. granted him the right to display a coat of arms. All this furthered Apians reputation as an eminent scientist, Apian is also remembered for publishing the only known depiction of the Bedouin constellations in 1533. On this map Ursa Minor is an old woman and three maidens, Draco is four camels and Cepheus was illustrated as a shepherd with sheep, despite many calls from other universities, including Leipzig, Padua, Tübingen, and Vienna, Apian remained in Ingolstadt until his death. Although he neglected his duties, the university evidently was proud to host such an esteemed scientist. Apians work included in mathematics—in 1527 he published a variation of Pascals triangle, in 1531, he observed a comet and discovered that a comets tail always point away from the sun. Apian was followed by his son Philipp, who, in addition to his own research, ein newe und wolgegründete underweisung aller Kauffmanns Rechnung in dreyen Büchern, mit schönen Regeln und fragstücken begriffen, Ingolstadt 1527. A handbook of commercial arithmetic, depicted in the painting The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger, Cosmographiae introductio, cum quibusdam Geometriae ac Astronomiae principiis ad eam rem necessariis, Ingolstadt 1529. Ein kurtzer bericht der Observation unnd urtels des jüngst erschinnen Cometen, a scientific book on astronomical instruments in German. ^1 Whether Apian ever received the money is uncertain, in any case he wrote a letter to the emperor in 1549 asking him to finally pay the promised sum. Röttel, K. Peter Apian, Astronomie, Kosmographie und Mathematik am Beginn der Neuzeit, Polygon-Verlag 1995, Peter and Philipp Apian, in German. Volume 1, Vom Astrolab zum mathematischen Besteck, oConnor, John J. Robertson, Edmund F. Petrus Apianus, MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews
Peter Apian
–
Portion of a map by Petrus Apianus showing the New World (1520). Narrative and critical history of America, Volume 2 by
Justin Winsor.
Peter Apian
–
Apianus on an 18th-century engraving
Peter Apian
–
A page of the Astronomicum Caesareum (1540)
Peter Apian
–
Arms of coat of nobility Apian in
Leisnig /
Saxony
12.
Cosmology
–
Cosmology is the study of the origin, evolution, and eventual fate of the universe. The term cosmology was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blounts Glossographia, religious or mythological cosmology is a body of beliefs based on mythological, religious, and esoteric literature and traditions of creation and eschatology. Physical cosmology is studied by scientists, such as astronomers and physicists, as well as philosophers, such as metaphysicians, philosophers of physics, and philosophers of space and time. Because of this scope with philosophy, theories in physical cosmology may include both scientific and non-scientific propositions, and may depend upon assumptions that can not be tested. Cosmology differs from astronomy in that the former is concerned with the Universe as a whole while the latter deals with individual celestial objects. Theoretical astrophysicist David N. Spergel has described cosmology as a science because when we look out in space. Physics and astrophysics have played a role in shaping the understanding of the universe through scientific observation. Physical cosmology was shaped through both mathematics and observation in an analysis of the whole universe, cosmogony studies the origin of the Universe, and cosmography maps the features of the Universe. In Diderots Encyclopédie, cosmology is broken down into uranology, aerology, geology, metaphysical cosmology has also been described as the placing of man in the universe in relationship to all other entities. Physical cosmology is the branch of physics and astrophysics that deals with the study of the physical origins and it also includes the study of the nature of the Universe on a large scale. In its earliest form, it was what is now known as celestial mechanics, greek philosophers Aristarchus of Samos, Aristotle, and Ptolemy proposed different cosmological theories. The geocentric Ptolemaic system was the theory until the 16th century when Nicolaus Copernicus. This is one of the most famous examples of epistemological rupture in physical cosmology, when Isaac Newton published the Principia Mathematica in 1687, he finally figured out how the heavens moved. A fundamental difference between Newtons cosmology and those preceding it was the Copernican principle—that the bodies on earth obey the same laws as all the celestial bodies. This was a crucial advance in physical cosmology. Physicists began changing the assumption that the Universe was static and unchanging, in 1922 Alexander Friedmann introduced the idea of an expanding universe that contained moving matter. In parallel to this approach to cosmology, one long-standing debate about the structure of the cosmos was coming to a climax. This difference of ideas came to a climax with the organization of the Great Debate on 26 April 1920 at the meeting of the U. S. National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D. C
Cosmology
–
The
Hubble eXtreme Deep Field (XDF) was completed in September 2012 and shows the farthest
galaxies ever photographed. Except for the few stars in the foreground (which are bright and easily recognizable because only they have
diffraction spikes), every speck of light in the photo is an individual galaxy, some of them as old as 13.2 billion years; the observable universe is estimated to contain more than 200 billion galaxies.
Cosmology
–
Evidence of
gravitational waves in the
infant universe may have been uncovered by the microscopic examination of the
focal plane of the
BICEP2 radio telescope.
Cosmology
–
Art
13.
Philosophy
–
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. The term was coined by Pythagoras. Philosophical methods include questioning, critical discussion, rational argument and systematic presentation, classic philosophical questions include, Is it possible to know anything and to prove it. However, philosophers might also pose more practical and concrete questions such as, is it better to be just or unjust. Historically, philosophy encompassed any body of knowledge, from the time of Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle to the 19th century, natural philosophy encompassed astronomy, medicine and physics. For example, Newtons 1687 Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy later became classified as a book of physics, in the 19th century, the growth of modern research universities led academic philosophy and other disciplines to professionalize and specialize. In the modern era, some investigations that were part of philosophy became separate academic disciplines, including psychology, sociology. Other investigations closely related to art, science, politics, or other pursuits remained part of philosophy, for example, is beauty objective or subjective. Are there many scientific methods or just one, is political utopia a hopeful dream or hopeless fantasy. Major sub-fields of academic philosophy include metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, political philosophy, logic, philosophy of science, since the 20th century, professional philosophers contribute to society primarily as professors, researchers and writers. Traditionally, the term referred to any body of knowledge. In this sense, philosophy is related to religion, mathematics, natural science, education. This division is not obsolete but has changed, Natural philosophy has split into the various natural sciences, especially astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology and cosmology. Moral philosophy has birthed the social sciences, but still includes value theory, metaphysical philosophy has birthed formal sciences such as logic, mathematics and philosophy of science, but still includes epistemology, cosmology and others. Many philosophical debates that began in ancient times are still debated today, colin McGinn and others claim that no philosophical progress has occurred during that interval. Chalmers and others, by contrast, see progress in philosophy similar to that in science, in one general sense, philosophy is associated with wisdom, intellectual culture and a search for knowledge. In that sense, all cultures and literate societies ask philosophical questions such as how are we to live, a broad and impartial conception of philosophy then, finds a reasoned inquiry into such matters as reality, morality and life in all world civilizations. Socrates was an influential philosopher, who insisted that he possessed no wisdom but was a pursuer of wisdom
Philosophy
–
René Descartes
Philosophy
–
Thomas Aquinas
Philosophy
–
Jeremy Bentham
Philosophy
–
Thomas Hobbes
14.
Metaphysics
–
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy exploring the fundamental nature of reality. In this vein, metaphysics seeks to answer two questions, Ultimately, what is there. Topics of metaphysical investigation include existence, objects and their properties, space and time, cause and effect, a central branch of metaphysics is ontology, the investigation into the basic categories of being and how they relate to one another. Another branch is metaphysical cosmology, which seeks to understand the origin, there are two broad conceptions about what world is studied by metaphysics. The strong, classical view assumes that the objects studied by metaphysics exist independently of any observer, the weaker, more modern view assumes that the objects studied by metaphysics exist inside the mind of an observer, so the subject becomes a form of introspection and conceptual analysis. Some philosophers, notably Kant, discuss both of these worlds and what can be inferred about each one, some philosophers and scientists, such as the logical positivists, reject the entire subject of metaphysics as meaningless, while others disagree and think that it is legitimate. Ontology deals with the determination whether categories of being are fundamental and it is the inquiry into being in so much as it is being, or into beings insofar as they exist—and not insofar as particular facts may be obtained about them or particular properties belong to them. Most ontologies assume or assert the existence of categories including objects, properties, space, immediate questions arising from this include the nature of objects. Only properties can be observed directly, so what does it mean for an object to exist, how can we be sure that such objects exist at all. The word is has two uses in English, separated out in ontology. It can denote existence as in there is an elephant in the room, some philosophers also include sub-classing as a third form of is-ness or being, as in the elephant is a mammal. Some philosophers, notably of the Platonic school, contend that all refer to existent entities. Other philosophers contend that nouns do not always name entities, between these poles of realism and nominalism, stand a variety of other positions. An ontology may give an account of which refer to entities, which do not, why. Other controversial categories of objects and properties which may be argued to exist or not include aesthetic and moral properties, stances about the status of such things may form the foundation for other branches of philosophy such as aesthetics, ethics and political philosophy. Identity is a fundamental metaphysical issue, metaphysicians investigating identity are tasked with the question of what, exactly, it means for something to be identical to itself. Other issues of identity arise in the context of time, what does it mean for something to be itself across two moments in time, how do we account for this. Another question of identity arises when we ask what our criteria ought to be for determining identity, and how does the reality of identity interface with linguistic expressions
Metaphysics
–
Plato –
Kant –
Nietzsche
15.
Big Bang
–
The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model for the universe from the earliest known periods through its subsequent large-scale evolution. If the known laws of physics are extrapolated to the highest density regime, detailed measurements of the expansion rate of the universe place this moment at approximately 13.8 billion years ago, which is thus considered the age of the universe. After the initial expansion, the universe cooled sufficiently to allow the formation of subatomic particles, giant clouds of these primordial elements later coalesced through gravity in halos of dark matter, eventually forming the stars and galaxies visible today. Since Georges Lemaître first noted in 1927 that a universe could be traced back in time to an originating single point. More recently, measurements of the redshifts of supernovae indicate that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, the known physical laws of nature can be used to calculate the characteristics of the universe in detail back in time to an initial state of extreme density and temperature. American astronomer Edwin Hubble observed that the distances to faraway galaxies were strongly correlated with their redshifts, assuming the Copernican principle, the only remaining interpretation is that all observable regions of the universe are receding from all others. Since we know that the distance between galaxies increases today, it must mean that in the past galaxies were closer together, the continuous expansion of the universe implies that the universe was denser and hotter in the past. Large particle accelerators can replicate the conditions that prevailed after the early moments of the universe, resulting in confirmation, however, these accelerators can only probe so far into high energy regimes. Consequently, the state of the universe in the earliest instants of the Big Bang expansion is still poorly understood, the first subatomic particles to be formed included protons, neutrons, and electrons. Though simple atomic nuclei formed within the first three minutes after the Big Bang, thousands of years passed before the first electrically neutral atoms formed, the majority of atoms produced by the Big Bang were hydrogen, along with helium and traces of lithium. Giant clouds of primordial elements later coalesced through gravity to form stars and galaxies. The framework for the Big Bang model relies on Albert Einsteins theory of relativity and on simplifying assumptions such as homogeneity. The governing equations were formulated by Alexander Friedmann, and similar solutions were worked on by Willem de Sitter, extrapolation of the expansion of the universe backwards in time using general relativity yields an infinite density and temperature at a finite time in the past. This singularity indicates that general relativity is not a description of the laws of physics in this regime. How closely models based on general relativity alone can be used to extrapolate toward the singularity is debated—certainly no closer than the end of the Planck epoch. This primordial singularity is itself called the Big Bang, but the term can also refer to a more generic early hot. The agreement of independent measurements of this age supports the model that describes in detail the characteristics of the universe. The earliest phases of the Big Bang are subject to much speculation, in the most common models the universe was filled homogeneously and isotropically with a very high energy density and huge temperatures and pressures and was very rapidly expanding and cooling
Big Bang
–
Panoramic view of the entire
near-infrared sky reveals the distribution of galaxies beyond the Milky Way. Galaxies are color-coded by
redshift.
Big Bang
–
According to the Big Bang model, the
universe expanded from an extremely dense and hot state and continues to expand.
Big Bang
–
Abell 2744 galaxy cluster -
Hubble Frontier Fields view.
Big Bang
–
Lambda-CDM, accelerated expansion of the universe. The time-line in this schematic diagram extends from the big bang/inflation era 13.7 Gyr ago to the present cosmological time.
16.
Physical cosmology
–
Physical cosmology is the study of the largest-scale structures and dynamics of the Universe and is concerned with fundamental questions about its origin, structure, evolution, and ultimate fate. These advances made it possible to speculate about the origin of the universe, a few researchers still advocate a handful of alternative cosmologies, however, most cosmologists agree that the Big Bang theory explains the observations better. Cosmology draws heavily on the work of many areas of research in theoretical. Areas relevant to include particle physics experiments and theory, theoretical and observational astrophysics, general relativity, quantum mechanics. Modern cosmology developed along tandem tracks of theory and observation, in 1916, Albert Einstein published his theory of general relativity, which provided a unified description of gravity as a geometric property of space and time. At the time, Einstein believed in a universe. This is because masses distributed throughout the universe gravitationally attract, however, he realized that his equations permitted the introduction of a constant term which could counteract the attractive force of gravity on the cosmic scale. Einstein published his first paper on relativistic cosmology in 1917, in which he added this cosmological constant to his equations in order to force them to model a static universe. However, this so-called Einstein model is unstable to small perturbations—it will eventually start to expand or contract, the Einstein model describes a static universe, space is finite and unbounded. It was later realized that Einsteins model was just one of a set of possibilities, all of which were consistent with general relativity. The cosmological solutions of general relativity were found by Alexander Friedmann in the early 1920s and his equations describe the Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker universe, which may expand or contract, and whose geometry may be open, flat, or closed. In the 1910s, Vesto Slipher interpreted the red shift of spiral nebulae as a Doppler shift that indicated they were receding from Earth, however, it is difficult to determine the distance to astronomical objects. One way is to compare the size of an object to its angular size. Another method is to measure the brightness of an object and assume an intrinsic luminosity, due to the difficulty of using these methods, they did not realize that the nebulae were actually galaxies outside our own Milky Way, nor did they speculate about the cosmological implications. In 1929, Edwin Hubble provided a basis for Lemaîtres theory. Hubble showed that the nebulae were galaxies by determining their distances using measurements of the brightness of Cepheid variable stars. He discovered a relationship between the redshift of a galaxy and its distance and he interpreted this as evidence that the galaxies are receding from Earth in every direction at speeds proportional to their distance. Given the cosmological principle, Hubbles law suggested that the universe was expanding, two primary explanations were proposed for the expansion
Physical cosmology
–
Evidence of
gravitational waves in the
infant universe may have been uncovered by the microscopic examination of the
focal plane of the
BICEP2 radio telescope.
17.
Spacetime
–
In physics, spacetime is any mathematical model that combines space and time into a single interwoven continuum. Until the turn of the 20th century, the assumption had been that the 3D geometry of the universe was distinct from time, Einsteins theory was framed in terms of kinematics, and showed how measurements of space and time varied for observers in different reference frames. His theory was an advance over Lorentzs 1904 theory of electromagnetic phenomena. A key feature of this interpretation is the definition of an interval that combines distance. Although measurements of distance and time between events differ among observers, the interval is independent of the inertial frame of reference in which they are recorded. The resultant spacetime came to be known as Minkowski space, non-relativistic classical mechanics treats time as a universal quantity of measurement which is uniform throughout space and which is separate from space. Classical mechanics assumes that time has a constant rate of passage that is independent of the state of motion of an observer, furthermore, it assumes that space is Euclidean, which is to say, it assumes that space follows the geometry of common sense. General relativity, in addition, provides an explanation of how gravitational fields can slow the passage of time for an object as seen by an observer outside the field. Mathematically, spacetime is a manifold, which is to say, by analogy, at small enough scales, a globe appears flat. An extremely large scale factor, c relates distances measured in space with distances measured in time, waves implied the existence of a medium which waved, but attempts to measure the properties of the hypothetical luminiferous aether implied by these experiments provided contradictory results. For example, the Fizeau experiment of 1851 demonstrated that the speed of light in flowing water was less than the speed of light in air plus the speed of the flowing water, the partial aether-dragging implied by this result was in conflict with measurements of stellar aberration. By 1904, Lorentz had expanded his theory such that he had arrived at equations formally identical with those that Einstein were to derive later, but with a fundamentally different interpretation. As a theory of dynamics, his theory assumed actual physical deformations of the constituents of matter. For example, most physicists believed that Lorentz contraction would be detectable by such experiments as the Trouton–Noble experiment or the Experiments of Rayleigh and Brace. However, these negative results, and in his 1904 theory of the electron. Einstein performed his analyses in terms of kinematics rather than dynamics and it would appear that he did not at first think geometrically about spacetime. It was Einsteins former mathematics professor, Hermann Minkowski, who was to provide an interpretation of special relativity. Einstein was initially dismissive of the interpretation of special relativity
Spacetime
–
Key concepts
18.
Observable universe
–
There are at least two trillion galaxies in the observable universe, containing more stars than all the grains of sand on planet Earth. Assuming the universe is isotropic, the distance to the edge of the universe is roughly the same in every direction. That is, the universe is a spherical volume centered on the observer. Every location in the Universe has its own universe, which may or may not overlap with the one centered on Earth. The word observable used in this sense does not depend on modern technology actually permits detection of radiation from an object in this region. It simply indicates that it is possible in principle for light or other signals from the object to reach an observer on Earth, in practice, we can see light only from as far back as the time of photon decoupling in the recombination epoch. That is when particles were first able to emit photons that were not quickly re-absorbed by other particles, before then, the Universe was filled with a plasma that was opaque to photons. The detection of gravitational waves indicates there is now a possibility of detecting signals from before the recombination epoch. The surface of last scattering is the collection of points in space at the distance that photons from the time of photon decoupling just reach us today. These are the photons we detect today as cosmic microwave background radiation, however, with future technology, it may be possible to observe the still older relic neutrino background, or even more distant events via gravitational waves. It is estimated that the diameter of the universe is about 28.5 gigaparsecs. The total mass of matter in the universe can be calculated using the critical density. Some parts of the Universe are too far away for the light emitted since the Big Bang to have had time to reach Earth. In the future, light from distant galaxies will have had time to travel. This fact can be used to define a type of cosmic event horizon whose distance from the Earth changes over time, both popular and professional research articles in cosmology often use the term universe to mean observable universe. It is plausible that the galaxies within our observable universe represent only a fraction of the galaxies in the Universe. If the Universe is finite but unbounded, it is possible that the Universe is smaller than the observable universe. In this case, what we take to be very distant galaxies may actually be duplicate images of nearby galaxies and it is difficult to test this hypothesis experimentally because different images of a galaxy would show different eras in its history, and consequently might appear quite different
Observable universe
–
Hubble Ultra-Deep Field image of a region of the observable universe (equivalent sky area size shown in bottom left corner), near the
constellation Fornax. Each spot is a
galaxy, consisting of billions of stars. The light from the smallest, most
red-shifted galaxies originated nearly
14 billion years ago.
Observable universe
–
Visualization of the whole observable universe. The scale is such that the fine grains represent collections of large numbers of superclusters. The
Virgo Supercluster – home of Milky Way – is marked at the center, but is too small to be seen.
Observable universe
–
An example of one of the most common misconceptions about the size of the observable universe. Despite the fact that the universe is 13.8 billion years old, the distance to the edge of the observable universe is not 13.8 billion light-years, because
the universe is expanding. This plaque appears at the
Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City.
Observable universe
–
Image (computer simulated) of an area of space more than 50 million light years across, presenting a possible large-scale distribution of light sources in the universe - precise relative contributions of galaxies and quasars are unclear.
19.
William Smith (lexicographer)
–
Sir William Smith was an English lexicographer. Smith was born in Enfield in 1813 of Nonconformist parents and he attended the Madras House school of John Allen in Hackney. Originally destined for a career, he instead was articled to a solicitor. In his spare time he taught classics, and when he entered University College London he carried off both the Greek and Latin prizes. He was entered at Grays Inn in 1830, but gave up his studies for a post at University College School. Smith next turned his attention to lexicography and his first attempt was A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, which appeared in 1842, the greater part being written by him. Then followed the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology in 1849, a parallel Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography appeared in 1857, with some leading scholars of the day associated with the task. In 1867, he became editor of the Quarterly Review, a post he held until his death. Meanwhile, he published the first of several school dictionaries in 1850, and in 1853 he began the Principia series, then came the Students Manuals of History and Literature, of which the English literature volume went into 13 editions. He himself wrote the Greek history volume and he was joined in the venture by the publisher John Murray when the original publishing partner met difficulties. Murray was the publisher of the 1214-page Latin–English Dictionary based upon the works of Forcellini and this was periodically reissued over the next thirty-five years. It goes beyond classical Latin to include many entries not found in dictionaries of the period, including Lewis. Perhaps the most important of the books Smith edited were those that dealt with ecclesiastical subjects, the Atlas, on which Sir George Grove collaborated, appeared in 1875. From 1853 to 1869 Smith was classical examiner to the University of London and he sat on the Committee to inquire into questions of copyright, and was for several years registrar of the Royal Literary Fund. He edited Gibbon, with Guizots and Milmans notes, in 1854–1855, Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology Smith was created a DCL by Oxford and Dublin, and the honour of a knighthood was conferred on him in 1892. He died on 7 October 1893 in London and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed. Works by William Smith at Project Gutenberg Works by or about William Smith at Internet Archive Smith, a Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature
William Smith (lexicographer)
–
Sir William Smith.
20.
Pythagoreanism
–
Later revivals of Pythagorean doctrines led to what is now called Neopythagoreanism or Neoplatonism. Pythagorean ideas exercised an influence on Aristotle, and Plato. According to tradition, pythagoreanism developed at some point into two schools of thought, the mathēmatikoi and the akousmatikoi. There is the inner and outer circle John Burnet noted Lastly, we have one admitted instance of a philosophic guild, that of the Pythagoreans. And it will be found that the hypothesis, if it is to be called by that name, of a regular organisation of scientific activity will alone explain all the facts. The development of doctrine in the hands of Thales, Anaximander, according to Iamblichus in The life of Pythagoras, by Thomas Taylor There were also two forms of philosophy, for the two genera of those that pursued it, the Acusmatici and the Mathematici. The latter are acknowledged to be Pythagoreans by the rest but the Mathematici do not admit that the Acusmatici derived their instructions from Pythagoras, memory was the most valued faculty. All these auditions were of three kinds, some signifying what a thing is, others what it especially is, others what ought or ought not to be done. By musical sounds alone unaccompanied with words they healed the passions of the soul and certain diseases, enchanting in reality and it is probable that from hence this name epode, i. e. enchantment, came to be generally used. Each of these he corrected through the rule of virtue, attempering them through appropriate melodies, therefore its function is none of what are called ‘parts of virtue’, for it is better than all of them and the end produced is always better than the knowledge that produces it. Nor is every virtue of the soul in that way a function, nor is success, for if it is to be productive, different ones will produce different things, as the skill of building produces a house. However, intelligence is a part of virtue and of success, according to historians like Thomas Gale, Thomas Taler, or Cantor, Archytas became the head of the school, about a century after the murder of Pythagoras. According to August Böckh, who cites Nicomachus, Philolaus was the successor of Pythagoras, and according to Cicero, Philolaus was teacher of Archytas of Tarentum. According to the historians from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Philolaus and Eurytus are identified by Aristoxenus as teachers of the last generation of Pythagoreans, a Echecrates is mentioned by Aristoxenus as a student of Philolaus and Eurytus. The mathēmatikoi were supposed to have extended and developed the more mathematical, the mathēmatikoi did think that the akousmatikoi were Pythagorean, but felt that their own group was more representative of Pythagoras. Commentary from Sir William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, Aristotle states the fundamental maxim of the Pythagoreans in various forms. According to Philolaus, number is the dominant and self-produced bond of the continuance of things. But number has two forms, the even and the odd, and a third, resulting from the mixture of the two, the even-odd and this third species is one itself, for it is both even and odd
Pythagoreanism
–
Bust of
Pythagoras,
Musei Capitolini,
Rome.
Pythagoreanism
–
Pythagoreans celebrate sunrise by
Fyodor Bronnikov
Pythagoreanism
–
Excerpt from
Philolaus Pythagoras book, (Charles Peter Mason, 1870)
21.
Philolaus
–
Philolaus was a Greek Pythagorean and Presocratic philosopher. He argued that at the foundation of everything is the part played by the limiting and limitless and he is also credited with originating the theory that the Earth was not the center of the universe. According to August Böckh, who cites Nicomachus, Philolaus was the successor of Pythagoras, Philolaus is variously reported as being born in either Croton, or Tarentum, or Metapontum — all part of Magna Graecia. It is most likely that he came from Croton and he may have fled the second burning of the Pythagorean meeting-place around 454 BCE, after which he migrated to Greece. According to Platos Phaedo, he was the instructor of Simmias and Cebes at Thebes, around the time the Phaedo takes place and this would make him a contemporary of Socrates, and agrees with the statement that Philolaus and Democritus were contemporaries. The various reports about his life are scattered among the writings of later writers and are of dubious value in reconstructing his life. He apparently lived for time at Heraclea, where he was the pupil of Aresas. Diogenes Laërtius is the authority for the claim that Plato, shortly after the death of Socrates. The pupils of Philolaus were said to have included Xenophilus, Phanto, Echecrates, Diocles, Diogenes Laërtius speaks of Philolaus composing one book, but elsewhere he speaks of three books, as do Aulus Gellius and Iamblichus. It might have been one treatise divided into three books, Plato is said to have procured a copy of his book from which, it was later claimed, Plato composed much of his Timaeus. One of the works of Philolaus was called On Nature, which seems to be the work which Stobaeus calls On the World. Other writers refer to a work entitled Bacchae, which may have another name for the same work. However, it has been mentioned that Proclus describes the Bacchae as a book for teaching theology by means of mathematics, the second book appears to have been an exposition of the nature of numbers, which in the Pythagorean theory are the essence and source of all things. Additionally Charles Peter Mason noted Pythagoras and his earliest successors do not appear to have committed any of their doctrines to writing, but amid the different and inconsistent accounts of the matter, the first publication of the Pythagorean doctrines is pretty uniformly attributed to Philolaus. Other versions of the story represent Plato as purchasing it himself from Philolaus or his relatives when in Sicily, out of the materials which he derived from these books Plato is said to have composed his Timaeus. L. The story of Platos purchase of books from Philolaus was probably invented to authenticate the three forged treatises of Pythagoras. Burkerts arguments, supported by study, have led to a consensus that some 11 fragments are genuine. Fragments 1, 6a and 13 are identified as coming from the book On Nature by ancient sources, robert Scoon explained Philolaus universe in 1922 Philolaus is trying to show how the ordered universe that we know came into its present condition
Philolaus
–
Philolaus book, (Charles Peter Mason, 1870)
Philolaus
–
Medieval woodcut by
Franchino Gaffurio, depicting
Pythagoras and Philolaus conducting musical investigations.
22.
Religious cosmology
–
A religious cosmology is a way of explaining the origin, the history and the evolution of the cosmos or universe based on the religious mythology of a specific tradition. Religious cosmologies usually include an act or process of creation by a deity or a larger pantheon. The universe of the ancient Israelites was made up of a flat disc-shaped earth floating on water, heaven above, underworld below. In this period too the older three-level cosmology was widely replaced by the Greek concept of a spherical earth suspended in space at the centre of a number of concentric heavens. Around the time of Jesus or an earlier, the Greek idea that God had actually created matter replaced the older idea that matter had always existed. This concept, called creatio ex nihilo, is now the accepted orthodoxy of most denominations of Judaism, most denominations of Christianity and Judaism claim that a single, uncreated God was responsible for the creation of the cosmos. The Earths creation, according to Mormon scripture, was not ex nihilo, according to the King Follett discourse, God the Father himself once passed through mortality like Jesus did, but how, when, or where that took place is unclear. The prevailing view among Mormons is that God once lived on a planet, in Buddhism, the universe comes into existence dependent upon the actions of its inhabitants. The beings in these worlds are all coming into existence or being born, a world comes into existence when the first being in it is born, and ceases to exist, as such, when the last being in it dies. Other universes, however, also exist, and there are planes of existence which are never destroyed, though beings that live in them also come into. Islam teaches that God created the universe, including Earths physical environment, below here there are some other citations from the Quran on cosmology. And the heavens We constructed with strength, and indeed, We are expander,51,47 Sahih International Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together, before We clove them asunder. We made from water every living thing, the Rig Veda questions the origin of the cosmos in, Neither being nor non-being was as yet. And in whose protection. …Who really knows, whence was it born, and whence came this creation. The devas were born later than this worlds creation, so who knows from where it came into existence, none can know from where creation has arisen, and whether he has or has not produced it. He who surveys it in the highest heavens, he alone knows-or perhaps does not know. The Rig Vedas view of the cosmos also sees one true divine principle self-projecting as the word, Vaak, birthing the cosmos that we know. The Hiranyagarbha is alternatively viewed as Brahma, the creator who was in turn created by God, the creation begins anew after billions of years of non-existence
Religious cosmology
–
Large scale structure of the Universe according to one Hindu cosmology.
23.
Orphism (religion)
–
Orphics also revered Persephone and Dionysus or Bacchus. Orpheus was said to have invented the Mysteries of Dionysus, poetry containing distinctly Orphic beliefs has been traced back to the 6th century BC or at least 5th century BC, and graffiti of the 5th century BC apparently refers to Orphics. Classical sources, such as Plato, refer to Orpheus-initiators, and associated rites, as in the Eleusinian mysteries, initiation into Orphic mysteries promised advantages in the afterlife. Distinctively Orphic views and practices are attested as early as Herodotus, Euripides, the recently published Derveni papyrus allows Orphic mythology to be dated back to the end of the 5th century BC, and it is probably even older. Other inscriptions found in parts of the Greek world testify to the early existence of a movement with the same core beliefs that were later associated with the name of Orphism. The Orphic theogonies are genealogical works similar to the Theogony of Hesiod and they are possibly influenced by Near Eastern models. Athena saves the heart and tells Zeus of the crime who in turn hurls a thunderbolt on the Titans, the resulting soot, from which sinful mankind is born, contains the bodies of the Titans and Dionysus. The soul of man is divine, but the body holds the soul in bondage. Thus, it was declared that the returns to a host ten times. Many of these differ from accounts in the classical authors. Firmicus Maternus, a Christian author, gives a different account with the book On the Error of Profane Religions and he says that Jupiter originally was a king of Crete—a concept of Euhemerus—and Dionysos was his son. Only his heart was salvaged by Athena, a statue of gypsum was then made to look like Dionysos, and the heart is placed within. The Protogonos Theogony, lost, composed c.500 BC which is known through the commentary in the Derveni papyrus, the Eudemian Theogony, lost, composed in the 5th century BC. It is the product of a syncretic Bacchic-Kouretic cult, the Rhapsodic Theogony, lost, composed in the Hellenistic age, incorporating earlier works. It is known through summaries in later neo-Platonist authors,87 hexametric poems of a shorter length composed in the late Hellenistic or early Roman Imperial age. Surviving written fragments show a number of beliefs about the similar to those in the Orphic mythology about Dionysus death. Bone tablets found in Olbia carry short and enigmatic inscriptions like, the function of these bone tablets is unknown. Gold-leaf tablets found in graves from Thurii, Hipponium, Thessaly, although these thin tablets are often highly fragmentary, collectively they present a shared scenario of the passage into the afterlife
Orphism (religion)
–
Orphic mosaics were found in many late-Roman villas
Orphism (religion)
–
Gold orphic tablet and case found in
Petelia, southern Italy (
British Museum)
24.
Theology
–
Theology is the critical study of the nature of the divine. It is taught as a discipline, typically in universities, seminaries. Augustine of Hippo defined the Latin equivalent, theologia, as reasoning or discussion concerning the Deity, the term can, however, be used for a variety of different disciplines or fields of study. Theologians use various forms of analysis and argument to help understand, explain, test, critique, the English equivalent theology had evolved by 1362. Greek theologia was used with the discourse on god in the fourth century BC by Plato in The Republic, Book ii. Drawing on Greek Stoic sources, the Latin writer Varro distinguished three forms of discourse, mythical, rational and civil. Theologos, closely related to theologia, appears once in some manuscripts, in the heading to the book of Revelation, apokalypsis ioannoy toy theologoy. The Latin author Boethius, writing in the early 6th century, used theologia to denote a subdivision of philosophy as a subject of study, dealing with the motionless. Boethius definition influenced medieval Latin usage, Theology can also now be used in a derived sense to mean a system of theoretical principles, an ideology. They suggest the term is appropriate in religious contexts that are organized differently. Kalam. does not hold the place in Muslim thought that theology does in Christianity. To find an equivalent for theology in the Christian sense it is necessary to have recourse to several disciplines, and to the usul al-fiqh as much as to kalam. Jose Ignacio Cabezon, who argues that the use of theology is appropriate, can only do so, he says, I take theology not to be restricted to its etymological meaning. In that latter sense, Buddhism is of course atheological, rejecting as it does the notion of God, within Hindu philosophy, there is a solid and ancient tradition of philosophical speculation on the nature of the universe, of God and of the Atman. The Sanskrit word for the schools of Hindu philosophy is Darshana. Nevertheless, Jewish theology historically has been active and highly significant for Christian. It is sometimes claimed, however, that the Jewish analogue of Christian theological discussion would more properly be Rabbinical discussion of Jewish law, the history of the study of theology in institutions of higher education is as old as the history of such institutions themselves. Modern Western universities evolved from the institutions and cathedral schools of Western Europe during the High Middle Ages
Theology
–
Augustine of Hippo (354–430),
Latin theologian. His writing on
free will and
original sin remains influential in Western Christendom.
Theology
–
Albert the Great (1193/1206–1280),
patron saint of
Roman Catholic theologians
Theology
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Tommaso D'aquino was the greatest Western theologist of the Middle Ages.
Theology
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Allamah Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi was the most influential Islamic theologist of the 20th century.
25.
Creation myth
–
A creation myth is a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it. While in popular usage the term often refers to false or fanciful stories, formally. Cultures generally regard their creation myths as true, in the society in which it is told, a creation myth is usually regarded as conveying profound truths, metaphorically, symbolically and sometimes in a historical or literal sense. They are commonly, although not always, considered cosmogonical myths – that is, Creation myths often share a number of features. They often are considered sacred accounts and can be found in all known religious traditions. They are all stories with a plot and characters who are either deities, human-like figures, or animals and they are often set in a dim and nonspecific past that historian of religion Mircea Eliade termed in illo tempore. Creation myths develop in oral traditions and therefore typically have multiple versions, found throughout human culture, Creation myth definitions from modern references, A symbolic narrative of the beginning of the world as understood in a particular tradition and community. Creation myths are of importance for the valuation of the world, for the orientation of humans in the universe. Creation myths tell us how things began, all cultures have creation myths, they are our primary myths, the first stage in what might be called the psychic life of the species. As cultures, we identify ourselves through the collective dreams we call creation myths, … Creation myths explain in metaphorical terms our sense of who we are in the context of the world, and in so doing they reveal our real priorities, as well as our real prejudices. Our images of creation say a deal about who we are. A philosophical and theological elaboration of the myth of creation within a religious community. Religion professor Mircea Eliade defined the word myth in terms of creation, Myth narrates a history, it relates an event that took place in primordial Time. All creation myths are in one sense etiological because they attempt to explain how the world was formed, in the past historians of religion and other students of myth thought of them as forms of primitive or early-stage science or religion and analyzed them in a literal or logical sense. However they are seen as symbolic narratives which must be understood in terms of their own cultural context. Charles Long writes, The beings referred to in the myth – gods, animals, the myths should not be understood as attempts to work out a rational explanation of deity. While creation myths are not literal explications they do serve to define an orientation of humanity in the world in terms of a birth story. They are the basis of a worldview that reaffirms and guides how people relate to the world, to any assumed spiritual world
Creation myth
–
The Creation (c. 1896–1902) by
James Tissot
Creation myth
–
In
Maya religion, the
dwarf was an embodiment of the
Maize God 's
helpers at
creation.
Creation myth
–
Brahmā, the
Hindu deva of creation, emerges from a
lotus risen from the navel of
Viṣņu, who lies with
Lakshmi on the serpent
Ananta Shesha.
Creation myth
–
Creation on the exterior shutters of
Hieronymus Bosch 's
triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights (1480–90)
26.
Christian theology
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Christian theology is the study of Christian belief and practice. Such study concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament, Christian theologians use biblical exegesis, rational analysis and argument. Systematic theology as a discipline of Christian theology formulates an orderly, rational and coherent account of the Christian faith, inherent to a system of theological thought is that a method is developed, one which can be applied both broadly and particularly. Christian theology has permeated much of Western culture, especially in pre-modern Europe, Revelation is the revealing or disclosing, or making something obvious through active or passive communication with God, and can originate directly from God, or through an agent, such as an angel. One who has experienced such contact is called a prophet. Christianity considers the Bible as divinely or supernaturally revealed or inspired, such revelation does not always require the presence of God or an angel. For instance, in the concept called of interior locution by Roman Catholics, thomas Aquinas first described in two types of revelation in Christianity as general revelation and special revelation. General revelation occurs through observation of the created order, such observations can logically lead to important conclusions, such as the existence of God and some of Gods attributes. General revelation is also an element of Christian apologetics, certain specifics, such as the Trinity and the Incarnation, are revealed in the teachings in the Scriptures and can not otherwise be deduced except by special revelation. Christianity regards varied collections of books known as the Bible as authoritative, Biblical inspiration is the doctrine in Christian theology concerned with the divine origin of the Bible and what the Bible teaches about itself. Different groups understand the meaning and details of inspiration in different ways, in many passages of the Bible it claims divine inspiration of itself. In the New Testament, Jesus treats the Old Testament as authoritative and says it cannot be broken in John 10,2 Peter 2 Pet 1, 20–21 says that no prophecy of Scripture. Christians who receive the Bible as authoritative generally think that the Bible is breathed out by God, in English,2 Timothy 3. 16–17 reads, All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correction and training in righteousness. Some argue that Biblical inspiration can be corroborated by examining the weight of the Bibles moral teaching and its prophecies about the future, corroboration of this sort is a form of Christian apologetics. Others maintain that the authority of the Church and its counsels should carry more or less weight in formulating the doctrine of inspiration, Christianity regards the collections of books known as the Bible as authoritative and written by human authors under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Some Christians believe that the Bible is inerrant or infallible, in addition, for some Christians, it may be inferred that the Bible cannot both refer to itself as being divinely inspired and also be errant or fallible. For if the Bible were divinely inspired, then the source of inspiration being divine, for them, the doctrines of the divine inspiration, infallibility, and inerrancy, are inseparably tied together. Historians note, or claim, that the doctrine of the Bibles infallibility was adopted hundreds of years after those books were written, the Protestant Old Testament is synonymous with the Hebrew Scriptures included in the Jewish canon, but not the Catholic Old Testament, which contains additional texts
Christian theology
–
Thomas Aquinas from
Valle Romita Polyptych by
Gentile da Fabriano
Christian theology
–
Rembrandt 's The Evangelist Matthew Inspired by an Angel.
27.
Afterlife
–
The afterlife is the concept of a realm, or the realm itself, in which an essential part of an individuals identity or consciousness continues to exist after the death of the body. Belief in an afterlife, which may be naturalistic or supernatural, is in contrast to the belief in oblivion after death, in this latter view, such rebirths and deaths may take place over and over again continuously until the individual gains entry to a spiritual realm or Otherworld. Major views on the afterlife derive from religion, esotericism and metaphysics, in metaphysical models, theists generally believe some type of afterlife awaits people when they die. Members of some generally non-theistic religions, tend to believe in an afterlife, the Sadducees were an ancient Jewish sect that generally believed that there was a God but no afterlife. Reincarnation refers to a concept found among Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Rosicrucians, Theosophists, Spiritists. Reincarnation is also a belief described in Kabbalistic Judaism as gilgul neshamot and this succession leads toward an eventual liberation. One consequence of reincarnationist beliefs is that our current lives are both afterlife and a beforelife, according to those beliefs events in our current life are consequences of actions taken in previous lives, or Karma. In most denominations, heaven is a condition of reward for the righteous to go after they die, traditionally defined as eternal union with God. In contrast to heaven, hell is a condition of punishment and torment for the wicked, traditionally defined as eternal separation from God and confinement with other sinful souls and fallen angels. So they are seen as existing in a state of natural. In other Christian denominations it has described as an intermediate place or state of confinement in oblivion. The notion of purgatory is associated particularly with the Catholic Church, the tradition of the church, by reference to certain texts of scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire although it is not always called purgatory. Anglicans of the Anglo-Catholic tradition generally also hold to the belief, traditional African religions are diverse in their beliefs in an afterlife. For each soul remains distinct and each represents a new soul. In some societies like the Mende, multiple beliefs coexist, the Mende believe that people die twice, once during the process of joining the secret society, and again during biological death after which they become ancestors. However, some Mende also believe that people are created by God they live ten consecutive lives. One cross-cultural theme is that the ancestors are part of the world of the living, interacting with it regularly, the afterlife played an important role in Ancient Egyptian religion, and its belief system is one of the earliest known in recorded history. When the body died, parts of its known as ka
Afterlife
Afterlife
–
Domenico Beccafumi 's Inferno: a Christian vision of hell
Afterlife
–
Mictlan
Afterlife
28.
World to come
–
Under Christian eschatology, the phrase is found in the Nicene Creed, We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. It is also found in the King James Version of the New Testament at Matthew 12,32, Mark 10,30, Luke 18,30, Hebrews 2,5, in Hindu eschatology the current age is the Kali Yuga, a period of decline. Kalki will appear to all evil, beginning a golden age of Satya Yuga. HaOlam HaBa, or the world to come, is an important part of Jewish eschatology, the afterlife is known as Olam haBa, Gan Eden and Gehinom. According to the Talmud, any non-Jew who lives according to the Seven Laws of Noah is regarded as a Ger toshav, and is assured of a place in the world to come, the final reward of the righteous. In Zoroastrian eschatology, the world to come is the frashokereti and this is followed by a last judgment. The yazatas Airyaman and Atar will melt the metal in the hills and mountains, and the molten metal will then flow across the earth like a river. All mankind—both the living and the resurrected dead—will be required to wade through that river, the river will then flow down to hell, where it will annihilate Angra Mainyu and the last vestiges of wickedness in the universe. There have been a range of dates predicted, purportedly from different methods of calculation and this is not a rare occurrence and last happened in early 2012, passing without event. The time of arrival of Kalki has not been asserted by astrologers
World to come
–
Resurrection of the dead, fresco from the Dura-Europos synagogue
World to come
–
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, an 1887 painting by
Victor Vasnetsov. The
Lamb of God is visible at the top.
World to come
–
Kalki with his white horse
29.
Thales
–
Thales of Miletus was a pre-Socratic Greek/Phoenician philosopher, mathematician and astronomer from Miletus in Asia Minor. He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece, Thales is recognized for breaking from the use of mythology to explain the world and the universe, and instead explaining natural objects and phenomena by theories and hypothesis, i. e. science. Aristotle reported Thales hypothesis that the principle of nature and the nature of matter was a single material substance. In mathematics, Thales used geometry to calculate the heights of pyramids and he is the first known individual to use deductive reasoning applied to geometry, by deriving four corollaries to Thales theorem. He is the first known individual to whom a mathematical discovery has been attributed, the ancient source, Apollodorus of Athens, writing during the 2nd century BCE, thought Thales was born about the year 625 BCE. The dates of Thales life are not exactly known, but are roughly established by a few events mentioned in the sources. According to Herodotus Thales predicted the eclipse of May 28,585 BC. Diogenes Laërtius quotes the chronicle of Apollodorus of Athens as saying that Thales died at the age of 78 during the 58th Olympiad and attributes his death to heat stroke while watching the games. Plutarch had earlier told this version, Solon visited Thales and asked him why he remained single, nevertheless, several years later, anxious for family, he adopted his nephew Cybisthus. Thales involved himself in many activities, taking the role of an innovator, some say that he left no writings, others say that he wrote On the Solstice and On the Equinox. Diogenes Laërtius quotes two letters from Thales, one to Pherecydes of Syros, offering to review his book on religion, Thales identifies the Milesians as Athenian colonists. He was aware of the existence of the lodestone, and was the first to be connected to knowledge of this in history, according to Aristotle, Thales thought lodestones had souls, because iron is attracted to them. According to Hieronymus, historically quoted by Diogenes Laertius, Thales found the height of pyramids by comparison between the lengths of the shadows cast by a person and by the pyramids, several anecdotes suggest Thales was not just a philosopher, but also a businessman. A story, with different versions, recounts how Thales achieved riches from an olive harvest by prediction of the weather, in one version, he bought all the olive presses in Miletus after predicting the weather and a good harvest for a particular year. Thales’ political life had mainly to do with the involvement of the Ionians in the defense of Anatolia against the power of the Persians. In neighbouring Lydia, a king had come to power, Croesus and he had conquered most of the states of coastal Anatolia, including the cities of the Ionians. The story is told in Herodotus, the war endured for five years, but in the sixth an eclipse of the Sun spontaneously halted a battle in progress. It seems that Thales had predicted this solar eclipse, the Seven Sages were most likely already in existence, as Croesus was also heavily influenced by Solon of Athens, another sage
Thales
–
Thales of Miletus
Thales
–
An olive mill and an olive press dating from Roman times in
Capernaum, Israel.
Thales
–
Total
eclipse of the
Sun
Thales
–
The Ionic Stoa on the Sacred Way in Miletus
30.
Miletus
–
Miletus was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia, near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria. Its ruins are located near the village of Balat in Aydın Province. Before the Persian invasion in the middle of the 6th century BC, Miletus greatest wealth and splendor was reached during the Hellenistic era and later Roman times. Evidence of first settlement at the site has been inaccessible by the rise of sea level. The first available evidence is of the Neolithic, in the early and middle Bronze age the settlement came under Minoan influence. Legend has it that an influx of Cretans occurred displacing the indigenous Leleges, the site was renamed Miletus after a place in Crete. The Late Bronze Age, 13th century BC, saw the arrival of Luwian language speakers from south central Anatolia calling themselves the Carians, later in that century other Greeks arrived. The city at that time rebelled against the Hittite Empire, after the fall of that empire the city was destroyed in the 12th century BC and starting about 1000 BC was resettled extensively by the Ionian Greeks. Legend offers an Ionian foundation event sponsored by a founder named Neleus from the Peloponnesus, the Greek Dark Ages were a time of Ionian settlement and consolidation in an alliance called the Ionian League. The Archaic Period of Greece began with a sudden and brilliant flash of art, Miletus is the birthplace of the Hagia Sophias architect Isidore of Miletus and Thales, a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher in c.624 BC. The ruins appear on maps at 37°31. 8N 27°16. 7E, about 3 km north of Balat and 3 km east of Batıköy in Aydın Province. In antiquity the city possessed a harbour at the entry of a large bay. The harbour of Miletus was additionally protected by the small island of Lade. Over the centuries the gulf silted up with alluvium carried by the Meander River, there is a Great Harbour Monument where, according to the New Testament account, the apostle Paul stopped on his way back to Jerusalem by boat. He met the Ephesian Elders and then headed out to the beach to bid farewell, recorded in the book of Acts 20. During the Pleistocene epoch the Miletus region was submerged in the Aegean Sea and it subsequently emerged slowly, the sea reaching a low level of about 130 meters below present level at about 18,000 BP. The site of Miletus was part of the mainland, a gradual rise brought a level of about 1.75 meters below present at about 5500 BP, creating several karst block islands of limestone, the location of the first settlements at Miletus. At about 1500 BC the karst shifted due to small crustal movements, since then the sea has risen 1.75 m but the peninsula has been surrounded by sediment from the Maeander river and is now land-locked
Miletus
–
The
theater of Miletus
Miletus
–
The Ionic Stoa on the
Sacred Way
Miletus
–
The plan of Milet in the Classical period
Miletus
–
Illustration of Miletus
