supposing that any of these peoples had troubled themselves to give a theoretical demonstration of its properties, though Demokritos would certainly have been able to do so. As we shall see, however, there is no real evidence that Thales had any mathematical knowledge which went beyond the Rhind papyrus, and we must conclude that mathematics in the strict sense arose in Greece after his time. It is significant in this connexion that all mathematical terms are purely Greek in their origin.[1]
XII.Babylonian astronomy. The other source from which the Ionians were supposed to have derived their science is Babylonian astronomy. It is certain, of course, that the Babylonians had observed the heavens from an early date. They had planned out the fixed stars, and especially those of the zodiac, in constellations.[2] That is useful for purposes of observational astronomy, but in itself it belongs rather to mythology or folklore. They had distinguished and named the planets and noted their apparent motions. They were well aware of their stations and retrograde movements, and they were familiar with the solstices and equinoxes.
- ↑ Cf. e.g. κύκλος, κύλινδρος. Very often these terms are derived from the names of tools, e.g. γνώμων, which is the carpenter's square, and τομεύς, "sector," which is a cobbler's knife. The word πυραμίς is sometimes supposed to be an exception and has been derived from the term piremus used in the Rhind papyrus, which, however, does not mean "pyramid" (p. 19); but it too is Greek. Πυραμίς (or πυραμοῦς) means a "wheat-cake," and is formed from πυροί on the analogy of σησαμίς (or σησαμοῦς). The Greeks had a tendency to give jocular names to things Egyptian. Cf. κροκόδειλος, ὀβελίσκος, στρουθός, καταράκτης (lit. "sluice"). We seem to hear an echo of the slang of the mercenaries who cut their names on the colossus at Abu-Simbel.
- ↑ That is not quite the same thing as dividing the zodiac into twelve signs of 30° each. There is no evidence of this before the sixth century B.C. It is also to be noted that, while a certain number of names for constellations appear to have reached the Greeks from Babylon, most of them are derived from Greek mythology, and from its oldest stratum, which became localised in Crete, Arkadia, and Boiotia. That points to the conclusion that the constellations were already named in "Minoan" times. The disproportionate space occupied by Andromeda and her relatives points to the time when Crete and Philistia were in close contact. There is a clue here which has been obscured by the theory of "astral mythology."
