The astronomical thought of the ancient Greeks from distant eras developed in the scheme of the lunisolar calendar; They counted the days in civil life according to the moon, from new moon to new moon; their calendar numbers thus showed only the age of the Moon. But with that scientific realism that characterizes Greek culture, with that soulful “surprise” with which the Greeks approached nature, they quickly learned that astronomical observations should reveal the connection between the phenomena of the starry sky and the movement of the Sun and that the calendar should reflect this connection. From the 8th century BC e. they knew the eight-year period (octoetheris) - an instrument, as we know, a very primitive one. By the time of Solon the legislator (around the 6th century BC), the corrected octoetheride was in effect in Attica; each period was lengthened by ½ day. Consequently, from two such periods it turned out:

2.922 · 2 + 3 = 5.847 days = 198 lunar months = 16 solar years.

This ratio gives a completely acceptable result for the Moon; but the solar year turns out to be equal to a day, that is, a day longer than the Julian year. Consequently, for every 16 years the solstices - the year for the ancient Greeks began with the summer solstice - were shifted 3 days back in the calendar; The error is obvious, even with all the difficulty of the corresponding observations. But already in the 5th century. Meton achieved significant improvement. “This man achieved the truth regarding the prediction of the phenomena of the starry sky, for the movements of the stars and changes in the weather are quite consistent with his data; therefore, most Greeks before my time use its 19-year circle,” wrote the historian Diodorus in the 1st century. BC e. That meteorological or climatological predictions went hand in hand with astronomical predictions among the ancient Greeks is one of the characteristic features of their general worldview; their knowledge of nature was based on purely observational material, without any admixture of astrology. In what calendar form was it clothed?

The annual circle of the Sun is divided into 12 equal parts (dodecatemorium), into 12 signs of the Zodiac; the origin of this division is a special question, very complex and not of interest to us now; for the ancient observer it was significant that the change of annual sunrises and sunsets of stars and - he thought - changes in weather (episemasia) occur at certain moments of the Sun's passage through its circle; Therefore, from observations, zodiac tables are constructed, in which both phenomena are described according to 12 signs. It is clear that it is enough to compile such tables for 365 days of the year; then all that remains is to reconcile them with the counting of days in the civil lunar year and make this data publicly available - Greek science was never locked in temples and was not caste-based. To observe the solstices, Meton erected his steles (columns) and instruments on the Pnyx in Athens, right next to the public assembly square, and everyone could definitely see his parapegmas, that is, calendars carved on stone.

For a long time, archaeologists did not understand how these calendars could be arranged; After all, it’s impossible to put 6,940 dates of a 19-year circle on a stone, repeating 19 rounds of the Sun in all the signs of the Zodiac. Only in 1902, during excavations of a theater in Miletus (in Asia Minor), fragments of such a parapegma were found; from them, an ingenious solution to this technical problem, found by the Greeks, immediately emerged. In Fig. 9 shows one of the fragments of the monument; a series of inscriptions arranged along lines is visible on it; to the left of the lines, as well as between them, there is a number of small holes; there are a total of 30 of them on the right column - which is shown above by the Greek letter Λ; Let's number all these holes, putting numbers in front of the lines for clarity that are not on the monument.

Rice. 9. Ancient Greek adjustable calendar

The translation of the inscription reads as follows:

1 ♦ Sun in Aquarius

2 ♦ The lion begins to set at dawn and Lyra enters

5 ♦ The swan sets in the evening dawn

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

15 ♦ Andromeda begins to rise in the morning at dawn

18 ♦ Aquarius midpoint rising

19 ♦ Pegasus begins to rise in the morning at dawn

21 ♦ Centaurus sets entirely in the morning

22 ♦ Hydra enters entirely in the morning

23 ♦ The whale sets in the evening dawn

24 ♦ The arrow sets, bringing the time of Zephyr (spring)

29 ♦ The whole swan sets in the evening dawn

30 ♦ [Arcturus] rises at the evening dawn

We see that this is a perfectly preserved zodiac table for 1 month, precisely for the time the Sun passed through the sign of Aquarius. In our modern calendar, the Sun enters this sign (longitude 300°) around January 22; from here it would be easy, using the numbers placed in front of the lines, to determine the calendar dates of all other predicted phenomena. But now we must completely forget this solar dating; the Greeks did not know it. In their lunar calendar, the entry of the Sun into any of the signs jumped from date to date according to the years of the circle, as shown in 6. The eight-year period and the Metonic circle, type A. But here the holes in the stone come to the rescue: if you know what date of the lunar calendar The Sun enters the first sign in a given year, then it is enough to put pins with consecutive dates in all the holes, both at the lines and between the lines, alternating months of 29 and 30 days according to the rules of the lunar calendar; then each of the rows of the table, i.e., each phenomenon, will fall on a very specific date of the lunar year; Everyone will immediately see on what numbers important and interesting natural phenomena will fall. Thus, they finally found out the previously mysterious meaning of the word parapegma and its connection with the verb meaning “to attach”, “to stick in”. It was a nationally adjustable calendar.

The question of the internal structure of the Metonic circle among the Greeks has not yet been finally resolved by chronologists; for 19 years it is necessary to insert 7 embolismic months (12 · 12 + 7 · 13 = 235); the ancients did not leave any precise description of the structure of the cycle in relation to the order of their placement. It is now generally believed that the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 17th and 19th years of the circle were embolic. Taking into account that the average solar year in this system is equal to months, the reader can easily construct a table of the distribution of errors at the beginning of each of the lunar years, as was done for the 8-year period or for the free lunar calendar.

The introduction of the Metonic circle is associated with the famous astronomical observation reported by Ptolemy: “The summer solstice, which was observed by Meton and Euktemon, is given in the records under the Athenian archon Apseida, on the 21st day of the Egyptian month Phamenoth in the morning.” The dating translation and historical data very accurately determine the day of observation: it is June 27, 432 BC. e. But from the table of equinoxes it is easy to check that the solstice was 432, June 28, at 2 hours, counting the day from noon, Athenian time (Athens 1½ hours east of Greenwich). Consequently, Meton's observation was erroneous by no more than 1½ days - a good result for that era. The first day of the first Metonic circle is placed on the first neomenia after this solstice, which gives July 16, 432 BC. e., following most chronologists.

test

Calendar of Ancient Greece

Initially, various Greek centers had their own timekeeping systems, which led to considerable confusion. This was explained by the independent adjustment of the calendar in each policy. There were differences in determining the beginning of the calendar year.

The Athenian calendar is known, which consisted of twelve lunar months, the beginning of each of which approximately coincided with Neomenia. The length of the months varied between 29-30 days, and the calendar year consisted of 354 days.

Since the true lunar year includes 354.36 days, the phases of the Moon did not exactly correspond to the calendar dates to which they were assigned. Therefore, the Greeks distinguished between the calendar “new moon,” i.e., the first day of the month and the actual new moon.

The names of the months in Greece were in most cases associated with certain holidays and only indirectly correlated with the seasons.

The Athenian year began in the month of Hecatombeon (July-August), associated with the summer solstice. To align the calendar year with the solar year, in special years the 13th (embolismic) month was inserted - the 2nd Poseideon - with a duration of 29-30 days.

In 432 BC. The Athenian astronomer Meton developed a new 19-year cycle with seven embolismic years: 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th. This order, called the “Metonian cycle,” ensured fairly high accuracy. The discrepancy of one day between solar and lunar years accumulated over 312 solar years.

Later, the Kalippus and Hipparchus cycles were developed, further clarifying the lunisolar calendar. However, in practice their amendments were almost never applied.

Up to the 2nd century. BC e. The 13th month was added as the need arose, and sometimes for political and other reasons.

The Greeks did not know a seven-day week and counted the days within a month by decades.

The dating of events in Athens was carried out by the names of officials - archons. From the 4th century BC e. The chronology of Olympiads, held once every four years, became generally accepted.

The first Olympiad, held in the summer of 776 BC, was considered the beginning of the era.

During the Hellenistic era in Greece, various eras were used: the era of Alexander, the era of the Seleucids, etc.

The official calendar, due to deviations from the solar year, was inconvenient for agriculture. Therefore, the Greeks often used a kind of agricultural calendar based on the visible movements of the stars and the changing seasons. He gave a detailed description of such a calendar in the form of advice to farmers back in the 8th century. BC e. Hellenic poet Hesiod.

Such a folk calendar was of great practical importance and was preserved along with the official timekeeping system for many centuries of Greek history.

Upbringing and education in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome

In the 3rd - 2nd millennium BC. e. In Greece, Crete and some other islands of the Aegean Sea, a distinctive culture with its own writing arose. From pictography to cuneiform to syllabic writing - this is the evolution of this writing. It was owned by priests...

History of astrology

During the period of antiquity, many ancient Greek scientists were widely known. They propagated the doctrine “about the influence of the planets on our Earth” both in oral conversations and in numerous works, which, unfortunately, have been little preserved. So, for example...

Calendar

Agricultural calendar. Like their neighbors the Greeks, the ancient Romans determined the beginning of their work by the rising and setting of individual stars and their groups, i.e. they connected their calendar with the annual change in the appearance of the starry sky...

Political thought of Ancient Greece

Natural conditions largely contributed to the formation of the uniqueness of Greek statehood. Mountainous terrain, the presence of minerals, a convenient sea coast, an ice-free sea with many islands, the absence of large rivers...

Political ideas of the ancient Greeks

War…. One word, but how much meaning is contained in this word. Blooming cities full of human happiness, magnificent architectural ensembles, personalities, human relationships, like grain in a millstone, are ground in this terrible mill...

Problems of the history of archaic Greece in Soviet historiography

Although already in the 1920s. works appeared in which there was an attempt to apply Marxist theory to the history of antiquity, however, as noted by S.B. Crick...

Greek philosophy viewed the human body as a temple of the mind and soul, and therefore physical education was supposed to promote physical and mental health, the development of the intellectual and spiritual spheres. Surikov I...

The physical education system of Ancient Greece

Meanwhile, the boys acquired comprehensive intellectual development, improving their body culture in every possible way. Sometimes boys 7-14 years old studied in private schools for grammarians and cyfarists. The lesson was conducted by teachers...

The physical education system of Ancient Greece

Physical activities were called orchestrics and palaestrics. The first was in the nature of sports games and included exercises to develop dexterity and strength. Palestrika included applied military sports...

Types and types of calendars

The original time keeping systems were developed by the peoples of the New World. The most famous are the calendars of the Mayans, who created them in the 1st millennium AD. e. distinctive culture in Central America. The Mayans achieved success in astronomy...

Types and types of calendars

The modern solar calendar, adopted in most countries of the world, dates back to the ancient Roman calculation of time. Information about the first Roman calendar, which arose during the legendary period of the reign of Romulus (mid-8th century BC)...

Types and types of calendars

lunar time Gregorian calendar The Christian Church, approving the Julian calendar, faced a difficult task. The main holiday of the new religion - Easter - was celebrated according to the lunisolar calendar...

derived from deities or such holidays that took place during these months. Finally, it should also be noted that in many states priests or magistrates for religious affairs were the eponyms of the year. All this points to the close connection in which the timekeeping of the Greeks stood with their religious institutions, and this connection from ancient times forced them to pay great attention to the precise regulation of timekeeping.

It goes without saying that the improvement of the calendar proceeded slowly, with the gradual development of astronomical and mathematical knowledge. In ancient times, people were content, especially in agricultural life, with approximate determinations of time based on the rising and setting of heavenly bodies, the state of vegetation, the flight of birds, etc. signs. Hesiod advises starting the harvest at the rising of the Pleiades, plowing at their setting (Works and Days, 383), or when the cry of the cranes is heard (v. 448). Already Homer's poems repeatedly mention years (Il. II, 329; Od. II, 175, etc.). Since the course and phases of the moon are very easy to observe and, first of all, should have attracted attention, the calculation of chronology by lunar months and years came into general use among the Greeks and, with very few exceptions, was preserved until the time of Christianity.

A lunar or synodic month (from new moon to new moon) has 29 days. 12 hours 44 minutes 3 seconds, therefore, the lunar year consists of 354 days. 8 hours 48 minutes 36 seconds and differs from the solar one (comprising 365 days, 5 hours, 48 ​​minutes and 17.8 seconds) by 10 days and 21 hours without a few seconds. But accurate calculation of minutes and seconds, with imperfect means of observation, could only be done very slowly, over the course of many centuries. Initially, they were content with the approximate definition of a lunar month of 29 or 30 days and a lunar year of 354 days, but this year lagged so significantly behind the solar one that after a short period of time the months and holidays would no longer correspond to the seasons in which they originally fell. Therefore, there was a need to find ways to accurately coordinate or equalize lunar years with solar years, and this question occupied Greek astronomers for many centuries. The usual method of coordination was that from time to time a thirteenth intercalary month (mhn embolimoV) was added to the ordinary lunar year, so that the year then had 384 days. Initially, this month was added to every third year (triethriV). A somewhat more accurate method of equation is attributed to the Athenian legislator Solon (Plut. Sol. 25; Cent.

Nilsson, whose work "Primitive Time-Reckoning" is the most authoritative on the ancient history of the calendar, argues that the Greek calendar was not Greek in origin and that it was introduced no earlier than the 7th century or at most in the 8th century. century BC e. under the supervision of the Delphic priesthood.
The first part of this conclusion is undoubtedly correct in the sense that the Greek calendar did not belong to the local traditions of the Greek-speaking immigrants in the Aegean region. They adopted it from the cultures with which they had previously come into contact. But when? If it was a product of religious belief, as Nilsson believes, then it is very likely that, like much else in Greek religion, it was inherited from the Minoan era. There are positive reasons to consider it more ancient and less dependent on Delphi than Nilsson admits.
If this calendar was compiled at a relatively recent time at Delphi, we would expect to find some uniformity in the beginning of the calendar year and in the names of the months. But that's not true. Only in Athens and Samos the year begins, as in Delphi, with the summer solstice. Delphic names for the five months appear sporadically here and there, but the remaining names are unique. Moreover, a comparison of Attic-Ionian and Doric names suggests that their history followed the history of the dialects themselves.
The Attic names agree closely with the Delian ones, indicating an Attic-Ionian prototype older than the Ionian migration. We naturally turn to Boeotia. There we find the month of sloth mentioned by Hesiod; it is found both on Delos and throughout Ionia. At Athens the festival of Lena was held in the same month, and no doubt, like other cults of Dionysus, this cult came to Athens from Boeotia. Likewise, the month Poseideon, which can only be found in the Ionian calendars, recalls the Panionic cult of Poseidon Heliconius, which, as the name indicates, originated from Boeotia.

Athens Hecatombius* Metageitnius Boedromius Pianopsius Maimacterius Poseideon Hamelius Anthesterius Elaphebolius Munichius Thargelius Scirophorius
Delos
Hecatombius
Metagatenia
Buphonius
Apatury
Aresius
Poseideon
Leney*
Gieros
Galaxius
Artemisius
Thargelius
Panemos
Rhodes. Panamos Karnei Dalii
Thesmophorium*
Sminthius
Diostius
Theudeisius
Pedagateniy
Badromiy
Artamitium
Agrianius
Hyacinthius
Delphi Apellei* Bukatius i
Boatoi;- Gerey
Daidophorium
Poitropius
Amaliy
Bisiy
Teoxenium
Andyspoitropium
Heraclius
Iley

* First month of the calendar year.
Doric names are different, but within themselves they are surprisingly uniform. Carnei and Hyacinthium, related to the ancient Doric festivals, are found almost everywhere. The same is true of pedageitnia, badromium and theudeisium. The first two, although placed in different places, are the same names as the Attic-Ionian metageitnium and boedromium, and badromium or boedromium correspond in meaning to the Delphic boathoi. But, since they occupy different places in the calendar, it is difficult to assume that they were borrowed from Delphi so late - in the 8th or 7th century. And finally, the Doric Agrianium, which is found in Aegina, Sparta, Rhodes, Kos, Kalymnos and Byzantium, is not found anywhere else except Thebes and three other cities of Boeotia (Chaeronea, Libadea, Oropos). Likewise, the festival of Agriania is known only in Boeotia and Argos (see vol. I, pp. 192-193) and it is clear that it came to Argos from Boeotia. In Argos he associated with the Protids, who repeated the Myniads from Orkhomenes, and with Melampus, who was descended from Minias (see vol. I, p. 222). Where and when did this month name appear in the Doric calendar? Not in Argos, because that would not explain its widespread occurrence in other Dorian communities. Most likely, the Dorians borrowed it from Boeotia before entering the Peloponnese.
If the Attic-Ionian and Doric calendars go back to a common source in Boeotia, their origins should be attributed to the Minoan period. This brings us to the next question. What is the relationship between the Boeotian and Delphic calendars? We don’t know how to answer this, because materials on Boeotia have survived only in fragments. If the calendars go back to the Minoan age, then there is no reason to attribute priority to Delphi over Thebes and Orchomenus. All we can say with certainty is that both the Attic-Ionian and Doric calendars are derived from a prehistoric original in central Greece.
If we accept this hypothesis, it will immediately provide us with the connection with the East that we have been looking for. Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, was a Phoenician related through Europe to Minos of Knossos. It will be remembered that Europa was abducted from Phenicia by Zeus in the form of a bull, and that one of the religious texts from Ugarit relates how the bull-god El united with the mother-goddess Asherath (see Vol. I, pp. 376-377).
If the Greek calendar was of Minoan origin, how, one might ask, is it possible that only one month name is mentioned in Hesiod's Works and Days, a poem dedicated to the annual cycle of agricultural work, and not a single month is mentioned at all in Homer? As far as Hesiod is concerned, the answer "is that, owing to the Greek system of intercalation, which will be discussed in the next paragraph, the calendar names of the months were useless for his purpose, which was to prescribe the exact times of the year when the farmer should begin the various works. This could only be done by reference to the solar year, as it is revealed in the annual movement of the stars. As for Homer, it would be a mistake to assume, as Nilsson did, that the Greeks of Homeric times did not have names for the months simply because these names. are not mentioned in the Homeric poems. Since the aim of the epic poets was to present an idealized picture of the heroic past, they avoided any mention of those institutions that had only local or short-term significance and on this basis references to the calendar were excluded, since the names of the months were different in different cities. *
In Works and Days we will find some confirmation of the hypothesis that the Greek calendars, as we know them, originate from prehistoric Boeotia; but before we come to this point we must examine the Greek system of insertion into the calendar.

At the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. Greece, which consisted of separate city-states (polises), was under the cultural influence of many countries of the East. The ancient Greeks colonized neighboring islands and coasts from Asia Minor to southern Italy and even the northern shores of the Black Sea. And those of them who sailed, and those who were engaged in agriculture, needed certain knowledge, they needed a calendar,

To carry out agricultural work in a timely manner, the ancient Greeks coordinated their lives with the change of seasons, with the visible annual movement of the Sun across the sky. That is why it is already evidenced in the poems of Homer (8th century BC) that the ancient Greeks had the concept of a solar year, although... there is no evidence that they used solar calendars at that time. We can only say that already somewhere in the 9th century. BC e. The ancient Greeks knew how the appearance of the starry sky changed in rhythm with the changing seasons. They used this annually repeating change in the visibility of individual groups of stars and constellations in everyday life as a kind of solar calendar.

This is confirmed by the advice that the poet Hesiod (8th century BC) gave to rural workers:

“Begin the harvest when the Pleiades are rising, and the plowing when they are about to set. When Sirius is overhead, cut down trees. Arcturus appears in the evening - prune the vines. Orion and Sirius go to the middle of the sky - pick the grapes. Fifty days after the solstice, goods can be transported by sea for sale... With the setting of Orion and the Pleiades, the year is completed.”

As you can see, the beginnings of specific field work are clearly compared here with the view of the starry sky. In particular, the sickle should be taken up during the first morning (heliac) rising of the Pleiades (for the time of Hesiod at the latitude of Greece this is around May 12 according to the modern calendar), when the Pleiades sets at dawn (early November), it is time to plow. At the end of February, when the star Arcturus rises from the sea in the evening, it is necessary to prune the vines, etc.

Moments of morning and evening sunrises and sunsets of several of the most notable stars, at the latitude of Athens in 501 BC. e. and 300 AD e. are given in table.

Table. Rising and setting of “calendar” stars at the latitude of Athens according to the Gregorian calendar

	BC e. (-)	Evening	Morning	Evening	Morning
Alcyone
Betelgeuse
(α Orion)
(α Bootes)

It is easy to see that due to precession, the visibility conditions of specific stars and their groups are constantly changing. Therefore, in our time, Hesiod’s advice can no longer be used...

“...In days and months - with the Moon”

As the ancient Greek scientist of the 1st century noted. to. n. e. Geminus in his “Elements of Astronomy”, the Greeks had to make sacrifices to their gods according to the customs of their ancestors, and therefore “they must maintain agreement in years with the Sun, and in days and months with the Moon.” Indeed, in their business and social life the Greeks used lunisolar calendars. The names of the months of these calendars usually came from the names of the festivals celebrated in the corresponding month. Thus, in the first month of their calendar, the Athenians solemnly sacrificed one hundred bulls - a “hecatomb”, which is why the month received the name Hekatomveon. On the first day, civil servants took up their positions; on the 12th day there were holidays dedicated to the god Chronos, who personified time. On the seventh day of the third month - Voidromion - a holiday was celebrated in honor of Apollo Voidromius - “who helps in battle with a cry”, and the day before the Greeks honored the dead. In the month of Pianepsion, on the 7th, the Greeks celebrated the festival of grape bunches, on the 10th-14th - the women's holiday, on the 28th in every fourth year there were hephaestias accompanied by a torchlight procession - festivals in honor of Hephaestus - the god of fire and blacksmithing, the next two days and were the holidays of blacksmiths. On the eighth month - Anfestirion - there was a holiday of the beginning of the bottling of new wine ("small Dionysia"), and the corresponding event, the "Feast of Flowers" was called Anthestiria. Marriages took place in the month of Gamilion.

The Athenian and Macedonian lunisolar calendars were the most famous. The first of them, in particular, was used by Greek astronomers, the second became widespread in the East after the conquests of Alexander the Great. Here is an approximate correspondence between the months of the Athenian (left), Macedonian and our calendars:

According to some sources, the ancient Greeks originally began their year around the winter solstice. Then its beginning was moved to the summer solstice, since at this time meetings usually took place at which officials were elected.

The ancient Greeks' day began at sunset and consisted of night and the following day. The days of the month were divided into three decades (this division was already found in Hesiod). The first 10 days were simply counted - from the first to the tenth, the next 9 were called “first”, “second”, etc. with the addition of the words “after ten”, the remaining days were counted in the reverse order: “ninth from the end of the month”, “eighth from the end of the month”, etc. The 30th day was called “old and new”, and the previous 29th was “preliminary”; in a month of 29 days, it was excluded from the count.

The name of the 30th day has a deep meaning. To them, the Greeks, in counting days, seemed to “break away” from observations: they considered the next day to be the 1st day of the new calendar month, regardless of whether the crescent Moon was visible in the sky or not (after all, in the fall at the latitude of Athens it can be seen only on the third day after the conjunction ).

It is noteworthy that the ancient Greeks honored one or more gods to whom that day was dedicated on each day of the month. In Athens, in particular, the first and last day of each month was dedicated to Hecate - a goddess who was first considered the patroness of human affairs, later - the goddess of ghosts, nightmares, the mistress of shadows in the underworld, sometimes identified with the moon goddess Selene. The 1st day of the month was also dedicated to Apollo and Hermes, the 3rd, 13th and 23rd days to Athena. The last three days of each month were considered unlucky; they were dedicated to the dead, as well as to the underground gods.

In Geminus we also find some information about the structure of the ancient Greek lunisolar calendars: “For business and social life, the duration of the monthly period was rounded to 291/2 days, so that two months were 59 days.” The calendar year consisted of 12 months. To harmonize the length of the civil year with the solar year, according to Geminus, “the ancients inserted an additional month (in Athens this was usually the winter Posideon) every year.” This means that the Greeks at that time used trietheride, the most primitive two-year lunar cycle. How long this lasted, how the Greeks brought their lunar calendar into agreement with the solar one, is unknown.

Another testimony about ancient Greek calendars comes from Herodotus (484-425 BC): “The Greeks inserted a month into every second or third year for the sake of (corresponding to) the seasons.” Apparently, here we are already talking about the use by the Greeks of an 8-year cycle - octaetheride, which was allegedly introduced in Greece by the poet and politician Solon (640-560 BC) in 593 BC. e.

In fact, information about the reform carried out at that time is very contradictory. Plutarch (46-126) says about Solon: “Noticing the inequality of the month and the fact that the movement of the Moon does not agree with either the setting or the rising of the Sun, but often on the same day the Moon catches up with the Sun and moves away from it, he decreed call this day “old and new,” believing that part of this day before the conjunction (of the Moon with the Sun) belongs to the expiring month, and the rest to the beginning.”

The writer Diogenes Laertius (1st half of the 3rd century BC) limited himself to the statement that Solon ordered the Athenians to count days by the Moon. According to the philosopher Proclus (410-485), before Solon, the Greeks did not even know that lunar months were not always 30 days long.

Apparently, Solon coordinated the calendar with the Moon by inserting additional days, and perhaps not by the Sun, throwing out the intercalary month to bring the beginning of the lunar year to the summer solstice. It is possible, of course, that he actually introduced octaetheride. Embolism years were the 1st and 3rd years of the odd and 2nd year of the even Olympiad.

It would seem that, observing the phases of the same Moon, the same neomenia, the townspeople of different policies would have to begin counting the days in months from the same days (another thing is that the months themselves could be called differently). But this was precisely not the case. Partly, apparently, because the octaesteride system was not universally accepted at that time, and it still “worked” poorly. As a result, as Plutarch noted, there was no agreement between individual calendars regarding the counting of days in months. Let's limit ourselves to just one example. Describing one of the events of the war of 431-421. BC e., Aristotle’s student Aristoxenus (however, more than a hundred years later) wrote that at that time “the tenth day of the month among the Corinthians corresponded to the fifth day among the Athenians and the eighth according to some other calendar.” Apparently, this particular day corresponded to the 7th or 8th day of the moon, but in Athens the calendar was two or three days behind the changing phases of the moon, while in Corinth it was ahead of it...

One can therefore understand the enormous enthusiasm with which in 432 BC. e. During the Olympic Games, the discovery of the astronomer Meton was welcomed. Meton derived a relationship connecting the tropical year with the synodic month, and also calculated and compared on special tables the change in the annual rising and setting of stars with the change in the phases of the Moon in a 19-year cycle. These tables were carved on stone slabs and installed in city squares for public viewing. This stone calendar was called parapegma.

Praise for parapegma

The word “parapegma” itself means “to attach”, “to stick”. But what relation it has to calendars was established only in 1902, when fragments of such a parapegma were found during excavations of a theater in the city of Miletus (a former Greek colony on the southwestern coast of Asia Minor). One of its fragments is shown in Fig.

Rice. Fragment of the ancient Greek calendar-parapegma

Here you can see the inscriptions arranged along the lines, to the left of which, as well as between them, there is a row of holes, in total there are 30 of them on the right column. To better understand the principle of operation of this calendar, let’s number all the holes, putting numbers in front of the lines (there are none on the monument). The inscriptions say the following:

1 O Sun in Aquarius 2 O Leo begins to set at dawn and Lyra sets O O 5 O Swan sets at evening dawn OOOOOOOOO 15 O Andromeda begins to rise in the morning at dawn O O 18 O Aquarius the middle rises 19 O Pegasus begins to rise in the morning at dawn O 21 O Centaur sets entirely in the morning 22 O Hydra sets entirely in the morning 23 O Whale sets at evening dawn 24 O Arrow sets, bringing the time of Zephyr (spring) O O O O 29 O Swan sets entirely at evening dawn 30 O Arcturus rises at evening dawn

Analysis of these inscriptions shows that we are talking about a change in the visibility conditions of the rising and setting of stars in Greece during the passage of the Sun through the constellation Aquarius. The left side of the table obviously spoke of similar phenomena occurring thirty days earlier. It can be assumed that there were a total of six such tables and each was “scheduled” for 61 days. The duration of one year in the Metonic cycle is on average 6940:19 = 365.26 days. During this time, Meton believed, the Sun passes through 12 zodiacal constellations, staying in each of them for 365.26:12 = 30.4 days.

So, on parapegma the civil lunar-solar calendar was compared with changes in the appearance of the starry sky throughout the solar year and with the corresponding change in seasons. Let us try, following Meton, to “use” the fragment of parapegma at our disposal. Let’s assume that in the year that we take as the initial one (let’s call it the first year of the cycle), the new moon (or neomenia) took place at the moment when “The Swan sets entirely at dawn”, corresponding to hole 29. Insert a pin with number 1, into the next hole (30) - with number 2, etc. These will be the calendar dates of the lunar month of a given year. Likewise, after 29 and 30 days, the same pins will be installed on other tables (including the left side of the parapegma and the upper part of the right side). Thus, the change in the appearance of the starry sky (not so clearly noticeable!) will be compared with a clearly visible phenomenon - a change in the phases of the Moon. Somewhere on one of the tables it will be recorded on what date and which lunar month “In the morning the Pleiades rise”, announcing the time of harvest...

After 12 lunar months, the same new moon will occur 11 days earlier. Therefore, in the next, second year of the 19-year cycle, the same month will begin when the “midpoint of Aquarius rises” - hole 18 (= 29-11). Consequently, all the pins with the numbers of days must be moved in the holes 11 positions back. In the third year of the cycle, the beginning of the month moves back another 11 days (on this fragment of the parapegma it will be at hole 18-11 = 7). Accordingly, we rearrange all the pins with the numbers of days. Over these two years, the beginning of the month has moved back by 11 11 = 22 days. Therefore, in the third year an insertion of the 13th month will be made. As a result, the pin with the beginning of the month in the fourth year will move 30-11 = 19 days forward - into hole 7 + 19 = 26. In general, the numbers of the holes in this parapegma fragment, corresponding to the beginning of the lunar month in subsequent years of the 19-year lunar cycle, can be written down in the form of a plate:

After 19 years, the cycle repeats itself completely. The following is interesting here. The parapegma fragment has holes corresponding to 30 days. Meanwhile, as can be seen from the tablet, if the Metonic cycle were perfectly accurate, the new moon could occur only on 19 of them. These days can be somehow distinguished, for example, by gilding the corresponding holes and writing near each of them in gold numbers the number of the year in the 19-year cycle, in which the lunar month is counted from this hole (corresponding to a certain position of the stars in the sky!). If this is done, then it’s okay if the pins fell out of the hole while transporting the parapegma, or if inquisitive boys rearranged them as a joke at night. Having remembered the number of the year in the 19-year cycle, we will immediately find the places (holes) for the first numbers of the months, after which it is not difficult to establish all the others.

A perennial herbaceous plant that blooms in early spring, before the leaves bloom. The flowers are large, broadly bell-shaped, light purple, at the beginning