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Cleosteatus and his Work
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
Extract
Dr. Fotheringham, in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. XLV (1925) has written a rejoinder to a criticism which I made six years ago in the same Journal (XLI, pp. 70–85) on his earlier article, ‘Cleostratus of Tenedos’ (1919). In this second paper Dr. Fotheringham very handsomely admits that he has been converted, not indeed so far as to embrace the—somewhat negative—views which my article expressed, but as to admit the error of at least one theory which he had himself rather confidently advanced. If I return to the controversy it is because the entire conversion of Dr. Fotheringham, whose services to the study of ancient astronomy no one values more highly than I, would be an event, in my opinion, of real importance to that neglected branch of archaeology. Moreover, now that Cleostratus has, by Dr. Fotheringham's aid, been brought back on to the historic stage, I cannot but think it hard that he should be obliged to pose thereon in the Babylonian garments with which Dr. Fotheringham insists on investing him.
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- Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1928
References
1 For what Dr. Fotheringham might call an ‘instructive example’ of such pleadings I may cite an earlier attempt to supply the missing Ram to the Babylonian lists. In the old legend relating the fight between Merodach and Tiamat, or Chaos, the goddess of darkness is assisted by eleven monsters with names mostly unintelligible. But one of them was a Scorpion, and this was held enough to prove that the eleven—not twelve—helpers were the ubiquitous Signs of the Zodiac. Now another of them was a Kusarrikku, and when it was found that in the late Seleucid tablets the sign answering to our Aries is called Ku, the inference was drawn with cheerful confidence that Ku was short for Kusarrikku, and consequently that Kusarrikku meant ‘Ram.’ Unhappily it has turned out that Ku stands, not for Kusarrikku, but for Ku-mal, now translated ‘Hireling.’
2 The earliest appearance of Ζυγός, in Hipparchus, is almost certainly a false reading, as the writer everywhere else uses Χηλαί.
3 Cf. his Handbuch der altorientischen Geisteakultur, 1913.
4 Sirius is 40°, Altair 30° from the ecliptic.
5 I am glad to see that Dr. Fotheringham appreciates this point, which has been missed even by careful writers.
6 At any rate people like Columella thought so.
7 Cf. Manilius, III. 218 sqq., and III. 483 sqq.
8 Sayce, in Soc. Bibl. Archaeol., Vol. III. 1874.Google Scholar
9 Seneca, , Nat. Quaest., vii. 25.Google Scholar
10 Maass, , Comment. in Arat., p. 75.Google Scholar