220
8 Conclusion
This discussion overall suggests that awareness of the movement of stellar bodies
permeated ancient everyday life and activities. It can be argued that the ability to
make use of astronomical knowledge was for the ancient Greeks not restricted to
specific classes or groups. Whether educated or not Greeks could identify at least a
handful of constellations and stars, enabling themselves thus to be both cardinally
orientated and to estimate the time of the month or year. Such a practice and knowledge may seem unusual to us, when the use of clocks and diaries have distanced us
from our astronomical/celestial surroundings. The importance of this knowledge
should, however, not be downplayed. Nor should the significance of the night-sky in
everyday life be overlooked. The night-sky was for the ancients an inseparable part
of their perceived environment, a part that was not only embedded in daily activities
but also in their belief systems, cosmologies, religious practices and civic activities
(see Boutsikas, 2017). The elements of the night-sky were a kind of time device that
could influence all activities, from those on which the subsistence of the community
relied (e.g. agriculture and navigation), to those which guaranteed economic and
civic stability, as well as the maintenance of the cosmic order through the performance of religious festivals at the correct time.
References
Aujac, G. (1975). Géminos, Introduction aux Phénomènes. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Aveni, A. F. (1979). Old and new world naked-eye astronomy. In K. Brecher & M. Feirtag (Eds.),
Astronomy of the ancients (pp. 61–89). Cambridge: MIT Press.
Barton, T. (1994). Ancient astrology. London: Routledge.
Bilić, T. (2005). Latitude Sailing on the Mediterranean. Opuscula Archaeologica, 29, 121–157.
Bilić, T. (2009). The myth of alpheus and arethusa and open-sea voyages on the Mediterranean–
Stellar navigation in antiquity. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 38(1), 116–132.
Bilić, T. (2014). Following heavenly fire: Latitude sailing in apollonius of rhodes and plutarch?
Antiquité Vivante, 64, 205–216.
Boll, F., & Gundel, W. (1924–1937). Sternbilder. In W. H. Roscher (Ed.), Ausführliches Lexicon
der griechischen und römischen Mythologie (pp. 928–931). Leipzig: B. G. Teubner.
Boutsikas, E. (2017). The role of darkness in ancient Greek religion and religious practice. In
C. Papadopoulos & H. Moyes (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of light in archaeology. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Coldstream, N., & Huxley, G. (1996). An astronomical graffito from Pithekoussai. La Parola del
Passato, 51, 221–224.
Dilke, O. A. W. (1987). The culmination of Greek cartography in ptolemy. In J. B. Harley &
D. Woodward (Eds.), Cartography in prehistoric, ancient, and medieval Europe and the
Mediterranean (The History of Cartography) (Vol. 1, pp. 177–200). Chicago: The History of
Cartography Project.
Dow, S. (1968). Six Athenian sacrificial calendars. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique, 92,
170–186.
Fermor, J., & Steele, J. M. (2000). The design of Babylonian waterclocks: astronomical and experimental evidence. Centaurus, 42, 210–222.
R. Hannah
8 Conclusion
This discussion overall suggests that awareness of the movement of stellar bodies
permeated ancient everyday life and activities. It can be argued that the ability to
make use of astronomical knowledge was for the ancient Greeks not restricted to
specific classes or groups. Whether educated or not Greeks could identify at least a
handful of constellations and stars, enabling themselves thus to be both cardinally
orientated and to estimate the time of the month or year. Such a practice and knowledge may seem unusual to us, when the use of clocks and diaries have distanced us
from our astronomical/celestial surroundings. The importance of this knowledge
should, however, not be downplayed. Nor should the significance of the night-sky in
everyday life be overlooked. The night-sky was for the ancients an inseparable part
of their perceived environment, a part that was not only embedded in daily activities
but also in their belief systems, cosmologies, religious practices and civic activities
(see Boutsikas, 2017). The elements of the night-sky were a kind of time device that
could influence all activities, from those on which the subsistence of the community
relied (e.g. agriculture and navigation), to those which guaranteed economic and
civic stability, as well as the maintenance of the cosmic order through the performance of religious festivals at the correct time.
References
Aujac, G. (1975). Géminos, Introduction aux Phénomènes. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Aveni, A. F. (1979). Old and new world naked-eye astronomy. In K. Brecher & M. Feirtag (Eds.),
Astronomy of the ancients (pp. 61–89). Cambridge: MIT Press.
Barton, T. (1994). Ancient astrology. London: Routledge.
Bilić, T. (2005). Latitude Sailing on the Mediterranean. Opuscula Archaeologica, 29, 121–157.
Bilić, T. (2009). The myth of alpheus and arethusa and open-sea voyages on the Mediterranean–
Stellar navigation in antiquity. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 38(1), 116–132.
Bilić, T. (2014). Following heavenly fire: Latitude sailing in apollonius of rhodes and plutarch?
Antiquité Vivante, 64, 205–216.
Boll, F., & Gundel, W. (1924–1937). Sternbilder. In W. H. Roscher (Ed.), Ausführliches Lexicon
der griechischen und römischen Mythologie (pp. 928–931). Leipzig: B. G. Teubner.
Boutsikas, E. (2017). The role of darkness in ancient Greek religion and religious practice. In
C. Papadopoulos & H. Moyes (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of light in archaeology. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Coldstream, N., & Huxley, G. (1996). An astronomical graffito from Pithekoussai. La Parola del
Passato, 51, 221–224.
Dilke, O. A. W. (1987). The culmination of Greek cartography in ptolemy. In J. B. Harley &
D. Woodward (Eds.), Cartography in prehistoric, ancient, and medieval Europe and the
Mediterranean (The History of Cartography) (Vol. 1, pp. 177–200). Chicago: The History of
Cartography Project.
Dow, S. (1968). Six Athenian sacrificial calendars. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique, 92,
170–186.
Fermor, J., & Steele, J. M. (2000). The design of Babylonian waterclocks: astronomical and experimental evidence. Centaurus, 42, 210–222.
R. Hannah