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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 defining 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 count of time for many centuries of Greek history.

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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...

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The modern solar calendar, adopted in most countries of the world, dates back to the ancient Roman account 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...

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 defining 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 count of time for many centuries of Greek history.

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 back in the calendar by 3 days; 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 weather changes 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.

Ancient Greek calendar

At the beginning of the first millennium BC. e. In ancient Greece, lunar-solar calendars began to be created, and each polis (city-state) had its own calendar system. Despite their similarities, each calendar had its own peculiarity and was somewhat different from all the others. The year was divided into 12 months, each of which began with neomenia. To communicate with the seasons, an additional 13th month was periodically inserted.

In different cities of Greece, the months had their own names, but the most widespread were the Athenian names, namely:

The approximate correspondence to our months is indicated in brackets.

The year most often began with the month of the summer solstice, which at that time fell on hecatombeon (July).

In leap years, a second Poseideon was inserted as the embolismic month; sometimes the additional month was the second scyrophorion.

At different times, embolism years alternated in different ways. So, in the VI century. BC e. in some places in Greece, octaetheride was used, in which 3 out of 8 years were leap years - the 2nd, 5th and 8th years of the cycle.

The most popular calendar in Greece was developed by Meton. In 432 BC. e., during the festivities dedicated to the 86th Olympiad, a parapegma was installed in the center of Athens - a stone slab with holes into which pins were inserted indicating the numbers of the current month. Near the holes there was a text carved on stone indicating upcoming astronomical phenomena, such as the rising and setting of certain stars, the position of the Sun in the constellations and other phenomena.

Further improvement of the Greek calendar is associated with the names of Kalippus and Hipparchus, which we discussed in the section on the mathematical theory of lunar and lunisolar calendars.

Chronology. In Ancient Greece until the middle of the first millennium BC. e. events were dated by the names of officials. Thus, in Athens, the years were counted by the names of eponyms - heads of executive power (archons) responsible for the correctness of the calendar.

In the 4th century. BC e. Pan-Hellenic chronology spread through the Olympiads. The history of this chronology is as follows. Sports games were widely developed in Ancient Greece. Since 776 BC. e. In the city of Olympia, once every 4 years, games took place, which took on the character of large public celebrations. Based on the location where they were held, they were called Olympic. The Olympic Games were timed to coincide with the beginning of the year, but since this time was not associated with a specific date due to the abundance of calendar systems, before the games, messengers had to be sent to all cities to notify the population about the upcoming celebrations.

The Olympic Games became so integral to the life of the ancient Greeks that they began to count time according to the Olympiads and conventionally dated the beginning of their era to July 1, 776 BC. e. It is believed that the first Olympic Games took place on this day.

The chronology of the Olympiads was first used in 264 BC. e. by the ancient Greek historian Timaeus, and this count continued for about seven centuries. Although in 394 AD. e. Emperor Theodosius I abolished the Olympic Games; the calculation of time according to the Olympics was used somewhat later.

In chronology for Olympiads, years were designated by the serial number of the Olympiad and the number of the year in the four-year period. Thus, the victory of the Greeks over the Persians in the naval battle in the Strait of Salamis is dated by the numbers “75. 1", which means "the first year of the 75th Olympiad".

The conversion of these dates to our calendar is made using the formula

A = 776 - [(Ol - 1) × 4 + (t - 1)],

where A is the required date, O1 is the number of the Olympiad, (t is the number of the year in the Olympiad.

The Battle of Salamis took place in the first year of the 75th Olympiad. Let's convert this date to our calendar.

Substituting the values ​​O1 = 75 and I = 1 into the formula, we get

A = 776 - [(75 - 1) × 4 + (1 - 1)1 = 480.

Indeed, the Battle of Salamis took place in September 480 BC. e.

If the expression in square brackets in this formula were equal to 776 or more, then 775 would have to be subtracted from it. In this case, we would get the year of our era.