Page 215 - Foundations

There shone the image of the master mind;
There earth, there heaven, there ocean he design'd;
The unwearied sun, the moon completely round;
The starry lights that heaven's high convex crown'd;
The Pleiads, Hyads, with the northern team;
And great Orion's more refulgent beam;
To which around the axle of the sky
The Bear revolving points his golden eye;
Still shines exalted in the ethereal plain,
Nor bathes his blazing forehead in the main...

Eudoxos, a Greek mathematician and astronomer (astronomy was considered to be part of Greek
mathematics), received a detailed map of the constellations (a celestial sphere) in 400 B.C. from
Egypt. Eudoxos was a student of Plato, and produced a number of important astronomical writings.
130 years later, Aratus, a Greek man of acknowledged poetic ability, was encouraged by the King of
Macedonia to render Eudoxos’ work into poetic form. Aratus penned Phaenomena and Diosemeia
(English - Phenomena and Divine Signs) in 270 B.C.. The work became widely popular. Although
this writing is no longer extant, details of this writing were mentioned by the Greek writers Aratus
and Hipparchus. The apostle Paul even made reference unto the poetry of Aratus when he gave a
speech at the Areopagus in Athens.

Acts 17:28
“As even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His offspring.’”

Aratus described the entire zodiac in his poetry, with all of its constellations (44 were named by
Aratus, though 48 are more typical), making mention of the mythology that went along with each
figure. Aratus’ zodiacal figures agree with Homer’s, being more complete. Herodotus, a Greek
th
historian writing in the 5 century B.C. states that the Greeks received their zodiac from Egypt. In the
introduction to John Lamb’s translation of Aratus’ Phaenomena and Diosemeia (published 1848), the
author writes:

Herodotus states that they borrowed the names of their twelve gods, their religious ceremonies, and
their geometry from Egypt; and from the same people they are said to have obtained the celestial
sphere. At the same time it is not probable that the Egyptians were the inventors of it. There is
nothing of an Egyptian character in the figures depicted upon it; nor can this people establish any
claim to the invention, being never celebrated for their astronomical discoveries. Their talents and
skill were directed to Geometry and Architecture, in which two sciences they greatly excelled. But
there are two nations whose claim to the introduction of the celestial sphere rests upon such strong
presumptive evidence that it is difficult to refuse to either the credit of the invention. These are the
Assyrians and the Phenicians (sic)...

At an early period after the deluge that family of the human race which constituted the great Assyrian
empire spread themselves over the central plain of Asia, founded large cities, among others Babylon,
where they carried all the arts and sciences of civilized life to high perfection. We know that they
excelled in the knowledge of astronomy; much of which they might derive from the antediluvian