Pedro Lilienfeld

I have come across a striking dichotomy about what we learn about Ancient Greece’s greatness and accomplishments. That subject is usually treated in a lopsided manner. In school, in books, magazine articles, etc. we hear about the stupendous manifestations of that civilization’s architectural, sculptural, literary, philosophical, military, political and overall cultural achievements. Most frequently an entire other aspect of Hellenic greatness is overlooked: its stunning scientific contributions to human knowledge.

Most educated people have heard about Aristoteles, Plato, Socrates, Homer, the Acropolis, the Venus of Milo, Alexander the Great, and (perhaps) Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides. In the sciences, some will remember having heard about Archimedes and perhaps (vaguely), Pythagoras. However, how many will know Philolaus, Aristarchus of Samos, Thales of Miletus, Euclid, Eratosthenes, Ptolemy, Hipparchus, Anaximander, Democritus, Apollonius of Perga and a host of others? Ever heard of the over 2000 year old Antikythera Mechanism, considered the first analog computer?

I venture to attribute that ignorance to the overall absence of schooling in the history of science, in particular, and more generally to the two-culture educational alienation between the humanities and the sciences.

Obviously, the visual arts marvels of the Greeks are more tangible and accessible than geometric rules or the measurement of Earth’s size. We can admire the sculpture and architecture far more easily than comprehend hydrostatic phenomena.

Epicurus (341-270 BC) has become synonymous with sybaritic living rather than through his teachings about the universe and his elaboration of Democritus’ atomic structure of matter.

What we most often forget is that our standard school curriculum incorporates Euclid’s geometry, that the oath memorized by every medical student today is that which was pronounced 2,400 years ago by Hippocrates of Kos (460-370 BC), or that the hydrostatic principle we learn in school was discovered by Archimedes (287-212) in about 200 BC, that Eratosthenes (276-194 BC) measured the size of the Earth within an accuracy of about 2%, and Hipparchus (190-120 BC) determined the distance to the Moon within about 20% of its actual value using the parallax method which is still used at present to measure stelar distances within our galaxy.

The list of fundamental scientific accomplishments of the remarkable and, perhaps, unique culture of Ancient Greece, is interminable but needs to be taught in parallel with its literary and artistic marvels.

Returning for a moment to Hippocrates, here is one of his remarkably modern pronouncements: “If you want to learn about the health of a population, look at the air they breathe, the water they drink, and the places where they live”.

Although the scientists of Ancient Greece were not always right, we need to recognize their accomplishments. They were the first to approach nature and reality with scientific rigor and mathematical methodology.

Unfortunately, we must also recognize, however, that the vast majority of the writings and thinking of that brilliant period between about 500 BCE and 200 AD are lost to us. It is estimated that only 5%, at most, of what was written during that period has reached us today. A lethal combination of fires, both intentional and not so, willfully destruction, neglect, etc. have ensured the loss of much of that ancient wisdom. We are thus left only with a tantalizing taste of that unprecedented outpouring of intellectual erudition. Much of what we have inherited was bequeathed to us by Islamic savants of the 9th to 13th centuries who recognized and admired the Greeks of Antiquity.