Aetna and the Moon: Explaining Nature in Ancient Greece and Rome.

Taub, Liba:

ISBN 10: 0870711962 / ISBN 13: 9780870711961

Published by Corvallis : Oregon State University, 2008

About this Item

XIV, 138 p. From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - Somewhat rubbed jacket, overall very good and clean. / Etwas beriebener Umschlag, insgesamt sehr gut und sauber. - In ancient Greece and Rome, most of the technical literature on scientific, mathematical, technological, and medical subjects was written in prose, as it is today. However, Greek and Roman poets produced a significant number of widely read poems that dealt with scientific topics. Why would an author choose poetry to explain the natural world? This question is complicated by claims made, since antiquity, that the growth of rational explanation involved the abandonment of poetry and the rejection of myth in favor of science. In Aetna and the Moon, Liba Taub uses two texts to explore how scientific ideas were disseminated in the ancient world. The anonymous author of the Latin Aetna poem explained the science behind the volcano Etna with poetry. The Greek author Plutarch juxtaposed scientific and mythic explanations in his dialogue On the Face on the Moon. Both texts provide a lens through which Taub considers the nature of scientific communication in ancient Greece and Rome. General readers will appreciate Taubs thoughtful discussion concerning the choices available to ancient authors to convey their ideas about scienceas important today as it was in antiquity while Taubs careful research and lively writing will engage classicists as well as historians of science. - Liba Taub is Director and Curator of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science and Reader in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Newnham College. Her research and scholarship focus on the history of early science and the history of scientific instruments. She is the author of Ancient Meteorology and Ptolemys Universe: The Natural Philosophical and Ethical Foundations of Ptolemys Astronomy. ISBN 9780870711961 Sprache: Englisch Gewicht in Gramm: 293 Original cloth with dust jacket.

Seller Inventory # 1172857

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Aetna and the Moon: Explaining Nature in Ancient Greece and Rome.
• Publisher: Corvallis : Oregon State University
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0870711962
• ISBN 13: 9780870711961
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Sehr gut
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Weight: 293 grams
• Seller catalogs:
  • Klassische Philologie

About this title

Synopsis

In Aetna and the Moon, Liba Taub uses two texts to explore how scientific ideas were disseminated in the ancient world. The anonymous author of the Latin Aetna poem explained the science behind the volcano Etna with poetry. The Greek author Plutarch juxtaposed scientific and mythic explanations in his dialogue On the Face on the Moon.
Both texts provide a lens through which Taub considers the nature of scientific communication in ancient Greece and Rome. General readers will appreciate Taub's thoughtful discussion concerning the choices available to ancient authors to convey their ideas about science - as important today as it was in antiquity - while Taub's careful research and lively writing will engage classicists as well as historians of science.

About the Author

Liba Taub is Reader in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Newnham College.