Aratus – författare

'Athena seized the writhing serpent and hurled it into the sky, and fixed it to the very pole of the heavens.' The constellations we recognize today were first mapped by the ancient Greeks, who arranged the stars into patterns for that purpose. In the third century BC Eratosthenes compiled a handbook of astral mythology in which the constellations were associated with figures from legend, and myths were provided to explain how each person, creature, or object came to be placed in the sky. Thus we can see Heracles killing the Dragon, and Perseus slaying the sea-monster to save Andromeda; Orion chases the seven maidens transformed by Zeus into the Pleiades, and Aries, the golden ram, is identified flying up to the heavens. This translation brings together the later summaries from Eratosthenes' lost handbook with a guide to astronomy compiled by Hyginus, librarian to Augustus. Together with Aratus's astronomical poem the Phaenomena, these texts provide a complete collection of Greek astral myths; imaginative and picturesque, they also offer an intriguing insight into ancient science and culture.ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

An ancient Greek guide to the heavens, translated in a new accessible modern English edition.  A poetic guide to the heavens, the Phaenomena of Aratus—dating from around 270 BCE—was widely known across the ancient world, second only in fame to the works of Homer. Beginning with an invocation to Zeus, the poem describes the constellations of the northern and southern skies, the celestial sphere, and weather signs. Aratus’s vivid work offered a complete handbook of astronomy, constellations, and weather, and this treatise on the night sky was later translated or adapted by luminaries including Cicero, Virgil, and Ovid. The Phaenomena remained popular throughout the Renaissance and had more than sixty printed editions by the early seventeenth century, but its fame has faded in the modern world.  With this edition, renowned translator and amateur astronomer Stanley Lombardo renders Aratus’s poem in reader-friendly vernacular English verse. Complete with endnotes, an accessible introduction, and astronomically accurate illustrations, The Sky Is Our Song brings this master poet’s celebration of the sky to a twenty-first-century audience, inviting new readers to follow Aratus on a visual journey through star signs, moon phases, weather phenomena, and all wonders of the heavens.

Aratus of Soli was a highly original poet of the early third century BC, famous throughout antiquity for his didactic epic on constellations and weather signs, and imitated by later Greek and Latin poets. Modelled on Hesiod's Works and Days the poem is cleverly updated to appeal to the interests of contemporary Greek readers. This volume presents for the first time in English an edition of the poem with a full introduction, facing translation and a line-by-line commentary. The introduction explains the literary and scientific background, the characteristic features of Aratus's language, style and metre, and the transmission of the text to the end of the Middle Ages. The commentary gives help with the content of the poem and aims to resolve the many problems of text and interpretation. The text is based on a new reading of the manuscripts, including one not used before.

Aratus of Soli was a highly original poet of the early third century BC, famous throughout antiquity for his didactic epic on constellations and weather signs, and imitated by later Greek and Latin poets. Modelled on Hesiod's Works and Days the poem is cleverly updated to appeal to the interests of contemporary Greek readers. This volume presents for the first time in English an edition of the poem with a full introduction, facing translation and a line-by-line commentary. The introduction explains the literary and scientific background, the characteristic features of Aratus's language, style and metre, and the transmission of the text to the end of the Middle Ages. The commentary gives help with the content of the poem and aims to resolve the many problems of text and interpretation. The text is based on a new reading of the manuscripts, including one not used before.

After the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Phaenomena was the most widely read poem in the ancient world. Its fame was immediate. It was translated into Latin by Ovid and Cicero and quoted by St. Paul in the New Testament, and it was one of the few Greek poems translated into Arabic. Aratus' Phaenomena is a didactic poem-a practical manual in verse that teaches the reader to identify constellations and predict weather. The poem also explains the relationship between celestial phenomena and such human affairs as agriculture and navigation. Despite the historical and pedagogical importance of the poem, no English edition suitable for students and general readers has been available for decades. Aaron Poochigian's lively translation makes accessible one of the most influential poets of antiquity. Poochigian's interpretation of the Phaenomena reestablishes the ancient link between poetry and science and demonstrates that verse is an effective medium for instruction.Featuring references to Classical mythology and science, star charts of the northern and southern skies, extensive notes, and an introduction to the work's stylistic features and literary reception, this dynamic work will appeal to students of Ancient Greece who want to deepen their understanding of the Classical world.