When the Egyptian and Phoenician colonies arrived in Greece, they carried with them to that savage coun try the arts and sciences of their native land. So early as the 13th or 14th century before the Christian nra, the position of the stars, with regard to the circles of the sphere, was established with great exactness ; a strong proof that the sphere described by Eudoxus was the pro duction of a more perfect system of astronomy, and that the Greeks merely changed the names of the constella tions in honour of the adventurous Argonauts. In this fabulous period of Grecian history, it is impossible to ascertain the state of astronomical science, or even to name the individuals who contributed to its progress. Atlas, Hercules, Linus, Orpheus, Palamedes, Ste. are all mentioned as improvers of astronomy ; but it is not till the 7th century before Christ, that the obscurity of ancient fable begins to be chased away by the light of authentic history.
Thales of Miletus, who flourished about 640 years be fore Christ, seems to have been the first of the Creeks who made any discoveries in astronomy. Descended from the kings of Phoenicia, this illustrious philosopher spent a great part of his life with the Egyptian priests, who instructed him in the science which they cultivated ; and during his stay in Egypt, he taught them how to determine the height of the pyramids from the length of the shadows which they projected. When Thales returned to Greece, he established the Ionian school, and instructed his disciples in the knowledge which he had collected. He maintained, that the stars were of the same substance as the earth ; that the moon borrow ed her light from the sun; that the eclipses of the moon were occasioned by her immersion into the earth's sha dow; that the earth was round ; that it was divided into five zones by the polar circles, the tropics, and the equa tor ; and that the equinoctial line was cut obliquely by the ecliptic, and perpendicularly by the meridian. By means of the periods or rules which he received from Egypt, Thales predicted an eclipse of the sun ; and the fulfilment of this prediction raised him to a high place among his countrymen, and drew around him a number of disciples.
Anaximander, the disciple of Thales, followed his master in the career of discovery ; and seems to have been the first of the ancients who ventured to explore the heavens with the eye of a philosopher. Hitherto the science of astronomy consisted of a number of rude observations, inaccurate rules, and ill-founded opinions. The mind had not yet risen to general views, nor at tempted to combine, in its comprehensive grasp, the loose materials which had been accumulating for ages. Guided by analogy, Anaximander regarded the planets as unconnected with this little globe which we inhabit.
He taught, that they were peopled by animated beings, and that the fixed stars were centres of other systems, perhaps more extensive and glorious than our own. Besides this opinion, sufficient of itself to immortalise the Grecian philosopher, he considered the sun as a body of fire, and he taught that the earth moved•round the centre of the world. lie also maintained, that the sun was 27 times greater, and the moon 19 times great er, than the earth. Anaximander erected at Laceclemon a gnomon for celestial observations, and is said to have been the inventor of geographical charts.
Anaximenes succeeded Anaximander as chief of the Ionian school ; but he does not seem to have added much to the science of astronomy. Misled, perhaps, by the charts of his master, he is said to have maintained, that the earth was flat, and that the heavens were composed of solid matter like the earth He has also been con sidered as the inventor of sun ials.
Anaxagoras, the disciple and successor of Anaxi menes, was born at Clazomene in Ionia. Abandoning his private concerns to the care of his friends, and re fusing to mingle in the bustle of public life, he dedi cated himself solely to the study of science, and consi dered the contemplation of the stars as the natural des tiny of man. About the second year of the 78th Olym piad, a meteoric stone fell near the river Egos, in Thrace. This circumstance induced Anaxagoras to believe, that the superior regions, which he called nether, were filled with fire, and that the rapid revolution of this mther raised from the earth masses of stone, which, when in flamed, formed the stars of the firmanent. Anaxagoras considered the sun as a mass of fire, or, according to Plutarch, an inflamed stone greater than Peloponnesus. He ascribed the whiteness of the milky way to the na tive light of some of the stars. He regarded the comets as formed of a number of wandering-stars. He was the first who wrote on the phases and eclipses of the moon; and anticipating, in his sagacious mind, the discoveries of the telescope, he taught that the moon was a habit able world, and contained seas, mountains, and valleys, like our own globe. The attempts of Anaxagoras to explain, by natural causes, the phenomena of the hea vens, was regarded by the Athenians as an attempt to subvert the influence of their gods, and the philosopher, along with his family, was proscribed as an enemy of the established religion. Pericles, the friend and disci ple of Anaxagoras, interposed in his behalf; but the conversion of death to banishment was the only mitiga tion of punishment which he had influence to procure.