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Thales predicted a solar eclipse (1)

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05 Scientific knowledge and scholarly lore
05 Scientific knowledge and scholarly lore


 		Keywords
eclipse
presocratics
Period
5th century BCE
Greek Classical Age 		Channel
Greek philosophers and scholars

Text
Thales of Miletus may have made his prediction of a solar eclipse on the basis of Babylonian knowledge.

Herodotus 1.74:
[Lydians and Medes] were still warring with equal success, when it chanced, at an encounter which happened in the sixth year, that during the battle the day was suddenly turned to night. Thales of Miletus had foretold this loss of daylight to the Ionians, fixing it within the year in which the change did indeed happen.

Source (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Herodotus 1.74

Bibliography

Godley 1960, I 90-91Godley, A. D. Herodotus. 4 Vols. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, London: Heinemann 1960.
Pingree 1998, 129Pingree, David. “Legacies in Astronomy and Celestial Omens.” In: S. Dalley (ed.). The Legacy of Mesopotamia. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1998, 125-137.

Amar Annus


URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0000171.php

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