An historical survey of the astronomy of the ancients / by Sir George Cornewall Lewis.
- George Cornewall Lewis
- Date:
- 1862
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An historical survey of the astronomy of the ancients / by Sir George Cornewall Lewis. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
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![times, considered as evidence of their astronomical knowledge. The navigator, steering his bark by night along the trackless sea, guided his course by a northern constellation ;(5) even travellers, passing through an unknown country, (6) and camel- drivers journeying across the desert, (7) used the same indication. The Greeks are reported to have steered by the Great, and the Phoenicians by the Little Bear.(8) Thales is supposed to have taught his countrymen the use of the Little Bear in navi- gation ; but the statements on this head, referred to in a former chapter, are confused, and probably inaccurate. (9) The connexion between navigation and astronomy was con- sidered as intimate; (10) Virgil supposes that sailors were the first to give names to the stars. (n) A treatise on Nautical Astronomy was attributed to Thales ; and the works of Eudoxus and Aratus on the stars are stated to have been intended for (5) II. xviii. 485 ; Od. v. 272. (6) Soph. (Ed. T. 795. (7) Trporepov pev ovv (pvKTmropovv irpos ra aarpa ftXeTrovres ol KaprjXepiropoi, Kai, nadaTTep ol nXeovTes, wSevov Kopl£ovres Kal vOioop, Strab. xvii. 1, § 45. Diod. ii. 54, says that travellers in the Arabian deserts directed their course by the Bears. (8) Aratus, v. 42—44, says that the Sidonians steer by the Little Bear, and that it is preferable to the Great Bear, as being nearer the North Pole. Magna minorque ferte, quarum regis altera Graias, Altera Sidonias, utraque sicca, rates.—Ovid. Trist. iv. 3, 1. Esse duas Arctos, quarum Cynosura petatur Sidoniis, Helicen Graia carina notet.—Fast. iii. 107. Majoremque helice major decircinat arcum, Septem illam stellar certantes lumine signant, Qua duce per fluctus Graiae dant vela carina?. Angusto cynosura brevis torquetur in orbe, Quam spatio, tarn luce minor ; sed judice vincit Majorem Tyrio. Manil. i. 304—8. Compare Hygin. Poet. Astr. ii. 2, who states that the Little Bear bore the name of ^oivlkt]. (9) Above, p. 83, n. 59. (10) Pliny informs us that the inhabitants of Taprobane did not steer by the stars, but that, in order to sail to India, they let out birds, and followed their course, vi. 24. (11) Navita turn stellis numeros et nomina fecit, Pleiadas, Hyadas, claramque Lycaonis Arcton. Georg. i. 137—8.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21015855_0461.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
