Krates from Mallos

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Krates von Mallos (also Krates von Pergamon ; * probably in Mallos ; † around 145 BC) was an ancient philosopher from Cilicia and one of the most respected Greek grammarians of the 2nd century BC. He was a representative of the Stoa and founded his own school in Pergamon , which was in fundamental opposition to the Alexandrian school of Aristarchus , both in terms of the grammatical conception of the language and in Homer's interpretation.

Schematic representation of the cratetic worldview with habitable (green) and uninhabitable (gray) zones.

Life and works

Around 167 BC BC (other sources give 169 or 170) Krates went from Pergamum to Rome as envoy of King Attalus II and gave lectures there that gave the first impetus for grammatical studies in Rome. Probably died around 145 .

Of his numerous writings, of which an extensive critical exegesis by Homer was probably the main work, only the titles and scanty fragments have survived.

worldview

Krates also dealt with the spherical shape of the earth. His thesis of a four-part globe shaped the ancient and occidental worlds of imagination until the end of the Middle Ages. Accordingly, the earth is divided into five climate zones , of which the two polar regions are too cold and the equatorial zone too hot for humans. Only two temperate zones are habitable. The four continents are created by the world oceans intersecting at right angles, one of which extends around the equator, the other as a meridian that connects the poles.

The known region of the world (Asia, Africa and Europe) describes Krates as ecumenism and the continent that may be reached via the Atlantic as periocumenism . The parts of the world that can not be reached because of the equatorial heat belt are the Antecumene and the Antichthonic continent . Krates also recognized that the seasons in the southern hemisphere must be opposite to those in the northern hemisphere.

According to Roman sources, Krates is said to have been around 150 BC. Built the first globe .

literature

  • Jean-Marie Flamand: Cratès de Mallos. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 2, CNRS Éditions, Paris 1994, ISBN 2-271-05195-9 , pp. 487-495
  • Hans Joachim Mette : De Crate Mallota s. Pergameno. Noske, Leipzig-Borna 1931.
  • Hans Joachim Mette: Sphairopoiia: Investigations on the cosmology of the crate of Pergamon. Beck, Munich 1936.
  • Hans Joachim Mette: Parateresis. Investigations on the linguistic theory of the Krates of Pergamon. Niemeyer, Halle 1952.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Strabon , Geographika 2,5,10 ( online in English translation ).
  2. ↑ Strabon, Geographika 1,2,24 ( online in English translation ); Edward Luther Stevenson: Terrestrial and celestial globes; their history and construction, including a consideration of their value as aids in the study of geography and astronomy , New Haven 1921, pp. 7-10 ( online ).
personal data
SURNAME Krates from Mallos
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Crates Mallotes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek grammarian and stoic philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH before 170 BC Chr.
PLACE OF BIRTH uncertain: Mallos
DATE OF DEATH around 145 BC Chr.