Aglaonike

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According to legend, Aglaonike ( ancient Greek Ἀγλαονίκη , also Aganike Ἀγανίκη ), daughter of the Hegemony or Hegemon, was a Greek from Thessaly who knew how to “pull down” the moon and was punished for it by the gods.

From Plutarch it is rationalizing as an early astronomer considered the lunar eclipses could predict.

Based on Plutarch's interpretation, Peter Bicknell assumes that Aglaonike was born before the 1st century (Plutarch writes about her) and at the earliest in the 3rd century BC. BC (Babylonian astronomers can calculate lunar eclipses) must have lived. Since the moon usually remains visible even during a total eclipse, Bicknell hypothesizes, based on some ancient reports, a phase of particularly dark eclipses in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. BC, during which the moon would have become completely invisible, thereby making it possible for charlatans (including Aglaonike) to claim to have “pulled it down”.

The Venus crater Aglaonice was named after her by the IAU in 2006. In addition, the feminist artist Judy Chicago immortalized Aglaonike on a floor tile in her work The Dinner Party .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Plutarch coniugalia praecepta 48, in: Moralia p. 145c; de defectu oraculorum 13, in: Moralia p. 417a
  2. ↑ a b Scholion to Apollonios of Rhodes Argonautika 4,59
  3. ↑ Peter Bicknell: The witch Aglaonice and dark lunar eclipses in the second and first centuries BC. In: Journal of the British Astronomical Association , Vol. 93, No. 4, pp. 160-163, bibcode : 1983JBAA ... 93..160B
  4. ↑ Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: The Dinner Party. Heritage Floor: Aglaonice. Brooklyn Museum, January 17, 2007, accessed April 23, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Aglaonike
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ἀγλαονίκη; Aganike; Ἀγανίκη
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Thessalian witch or early astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH between 6th century BC BC and 1st century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH between 6th century BC BC and 1st century BC Chr.