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Hesiod

Hesiod

This article discusses the ancient Greek poet Hesiod. For the computer application, see Hesiod (name service). ---- Hesiod (Hesiodos, Ἡσιοδος), the early Greek poet and rhapsode, presumably lived around 700 BC. Historians have debated the priority of Hesiod or of Homer, and some authors even brought them together in an imagined poetic contest; most modern scholars agree that Homer lived after Hesiod. Hesiod serves as a major source for knowledge of Greek mythology, of farming techniques, of archaic Greek astronomy and of ancient time-keeping. As with Homer, legendary traditions have accumulated round Hesiod. Unlike Homer, some biographical detail has survived: the few details of Hesiod's life come from three references in Works and Days; some further inferences derived from his Theogony. Hesiod lived in Boeotia. His father came from Cumes in Aeolia, which lay between Ionia and the Troad in southwestern Anatolia, but crossed the sea to settle at Ascra, "a cursed place, cruel in winter, hard in summer, never pleasant" (Works, 640). Hesiod's patrimony there, a small piece of ground at the foot of Mount Helicon, occasioned a lawsuit with his brother Perses, who won; some scholars have seen Perses as a literary creation, a foil for the moralizing of the Works and Days that Hesiod directed to him. The Muses traditionally lived on Helicon, and they gave Hesiod the gift of poetic inspiration one day while he tended sheep. In another biographical detail, Hesiod mentions a poetry contest at Chalcis in Euboea where the sons of one Amiphidamas awarded him a tripod (ll.654-662). Plutarch first identified this passage as an interpolation into Hesiod's original work, based on his identification of Amiphidamas with the hero of the Lelantine War between Chalcis and Eretria, which occurred around 705 BC. The account of this contest inspired the later tale of a competition between Hesiod and Homer. Two different, yet early, traditions record the site of Hesiod's grave. One, as early as Thucydides, reported in Plutarch, the Suda and John Tzetzes, states that the Delphic oracle had warned Hesiod that he would die in Nemea, and so he fled to Locris, where he was killed at the local temple to Nemean Zeus, and buried there. This tradition follows a familiar ironic convention: the oracle that turns out to be true, after all. The other tradition, first mentioned in an epigram of Chersios of Orchomenus written in the 7th century BC (within a century or so of Hesiod's death) claims that Hesiod lies buried at Orchomenus, a town in Boeotia. According to Aristotle's Constitution of Orchomenus, when the Thespians ravaged Ascra, the villagers sought refuge at Orchomenus, where, following the advice of an oracle, they collected the ashes of Hesiod and placed them in a place of honour in their agora, beside the tomb of Minyas, their eponymous founder, and in the end came to regard Hesiod too as their "hearth-founder" (οἰκιστής / oikistês). Later writers attempted to harmonize these two accounts. Legends that accumulated about Hesiod came from several sources: a treatise "The poetic contest (Ἀγών / Agôn) of Homer and Hesiod"; a vita of Hesiod by the Byzantine grammarian John Tzetzes; the entry for Hesiod in the Suda; two passages and some scattered remarks in Pausanias (IX, 31.3–6 and 38.3–4); a passage in Plutarch Moralia (162b).

Works

Hesiod wrote only one poem universally considered authentic: the Works and Days, which revolves around two general truths: labour is the universal lot of Man, but he who is willing to work will get by. Scholars have seen this work against a background of agrarian crisis in mainland Greece, which inspired a wave of documented colonizations in search of new land. This work lays out the five Ages of Man, as well as containing advice and wisdom, prescribing a life of honest labour and attacking idleness and unjust judges (like those who decided in favour of Perses). Tradition also attributes the Theogony to Hesiod, although the authorship remains uncertain. The Theogony resembles Works and Days very closely in style and substance considering the purposely different subject-matter. The Theogony concerns the origins of the world (cosmogony) and of the gods (theogony), beginning with Gaia, Nyx and Eros, and shows a special interest in genealogy. Embedded in Greek myth there remain fragments of quite variant tales, hinting at the rich variety of myth that once existed, city by city; but Hesiod's retelling of the old stories became the accepted version that linked all Hellenes.
- Classical authors also attributed to Hesiod later genealogical poems -- known as Catalogues of Women or as Eoiae (because sections began with the Greek words e oie 'or like her'). Only small fragments of these have survived. They deal with the genealogies of kings and heroes of the legendary heroic period. Scholars generally classify them as later examples of the poetic tradition to which Hesiod belonged.
- A final poem traditionally attributed to Hesiod, The Shield of Heracles ( Ἀσπὶς Ἡρακλέους / Aspis Hêrakleous ), apparently forms a late expansion of one of these genealogical poems, taking its cue from Homer's description of the Shield of Achilles. Hesiod's works survive in Alexandrian papyri, some dating from as early as the 1st century BCE. Demetrius Chalcondyles issued the first printing (editio princeps) of Works and Days, possibly at Milan, probably in 1493. In 1495 Aldus Manutius published the complete works at Venice.

External links

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- Web texts taken from Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica, edited and translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, published as Loeb Classical Library #57, 1914, ISBN 0674990633:
- [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin//perscoll?.submit=Change&collection=Perseus%3Acollection%3AGreco-Roman&type=text&lang=Any&lookup=Hesiod Perseus Classics Collection: Greek and Roman Materials: Text: Hesiod] (Greek texts and English translations for Works and Days, Theogony, and Shield of Heracles with additional notes and cross links.)
- Versions of the electronic edition of Evelyn-White's English translation edited by Douglas B. Killings, June 1995:
- [http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/348 Project Gutenberg plain text].
- [http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Hesiod Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE: The Online Medieval and Classical Library: Hesiod]
- [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hesiod/index.htm Sacred Texts: Classics: The Works of Hesiod] (Theogony and Works and Days only) Category:Ancient Greek poets ko:헤시오도스 ja:ヘシオドス

Hesiod (name service)

In computing, the Hesiod name service originated in Project Athena (1983 - 1991). It uses DNS functionality to provide access to databases of information that changes infrequently. In Unix environments it often serves to distribute information kept in the /etc/passwd, /etc/group, and /etc/printcap files, among others.

Greek language

Greek (Greek Ελληνικά, IPA – "Hellenic") is an Indo-European language with a documented history of 3,500 years. Today, it is spoken by 15 million people in Greece, Cyprus, the former Yugoslavia, particularly The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania and Turkey. There are also many Greek emigrant communities around the world, such as those in Melbourne, Australia which is the third-largest Greek-populated city in the world, after Athens and Thessaloniki. Greek has been written in the Greek alphabet, the first true alphabet, since the 9th century B.C. and before that, in Linear B and the Cypriot syllabaries. Greek literature has a long and rich tradition.

History

This article does not cover the reconstructed history of Greek prior to the use of writing. For more information, see main article on Proto-Greek language. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan Peninsula since the 2nd millennium BC. The earliest evidence of this is found in the Linear B tablets dating from 1500 BC. The later Greek alphabet (q.v.) is unrelated to Linear B, and was derived from the Phoenician alphabet (abjad); with minor modifications, it is still used today. Greek is conventionally divided into the following periods:
- Mycenean Greek: the language of the Mycenean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 16th century BC onwards.
- Classical Greek (also known as Ancient Greek): In its various dialects was the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman empire. Classical Greek fell into disuse in western Europe in the Middle Ages, but remained known in the Byzantine world, and was reintroduced to the rest of Europe with the Fall of Constantinople and Greek migration to Italy.
- Hellenistic Greek (also known as Koine Greek): The fusion of various ancient Greek dialects with Attic (the dialect of Athens) resulted in the creation of the first common Greek dialect, which gradually turned into one of the world's first international languages. Koine Greek can be initially traced within the armies and conquered territories of Alexander the Great, but after the Hellenistic colonisation of the known world, it was spoken from Egypt to the fringes of India. After the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial diglossy of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. Through Koine Greek it is also traced the origin of Christianity, as the Apostles used it to preach in Greece and the Greek-speaking world. It is also known as the Alexandrian dialect, Post-Classical Greek or even New Testament Greek (after its most famous work of literature).
- Medieval Greek: The continuation of Hellenistic Greek during medieval Greek history as the official and vernacular (if not the literary nor the ecclesiastic) language of the Byzantine Empire, and continued to be used until, and after the fall of that Empire in the 15th century. Also known as Byzantine Greek.
- Modern Greek: Stemming independently from Koine Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the late Byzantine period (as early as 11th century). Two main forms of the language have been in use since the end of the medieval Greek period: Dhimotikí (Δημοτική), the Demotic (vernacular) language, and Katharévousa (Καθαρεύουσα), an imitation of classical Greek, which was used for literary, juridic, and scientific purposes during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Demotic Greek is now the official language of the modern Greek state, and the most widely spoken by Greeks today. It has been claimed that an "educated" speaker of the modern language can understand an ancient text, but this is surely as much a function of education as of the similarity of the languages. Still, Koinē , the version of Greek used to write the New Testament and the Septuagint, is relatively easy to understand for modern speakers. Greek words have been widely borrowed into the European languages: astronomy, democracy, philosophy, thespian, etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as a basis for coinages: anthropology, photography, isomer, biomechanics etc. and form, with Latin words, the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary. See English words of Greek origin, and List of Greek words with English derivatives.

Classification

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient languages which were probably most closely related to it, Ancient Macedonian language (which may be regarded as a dialect of Greek) and Phrygian, are not well enough documented to permit detailed comparison. Among living languages, Armenian seems to be the most closely related to it.

Geographic distribution

Modern Greek is spoken by about 15 million people mainly in Greece and Cyprus. There are also Greek-speaking populations in Georgia, Ukraine, Egypt, Turkey, Albania, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Southern Italy. The language is spoken also in many other countries where Greeks have settled, including Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States.

Official status

Greek is the official language of Greece where it is spoken by about 99.5% of the population. It is also, alongside Turkish, the official language of Cyprus. Due to the membership of Greece and Cyprus, Greek is one of the 20 official languages of the European Union.

Phonology

This section generally describes the post-Classic phonology of the Greek language. :All phonetic transcriptions in this section use the International Phonetic Alphabet

Vowel sounds

Greek has 5 vowel sounds, all phonemic:

Poet

Poets are authors of poems, or of other forms of poetry such as dramatic verse. Poets are often regarded as imaginative thinkers or writers. Bad poets are called poetasters.
- List of poets
- List of poetry groups and movements
- Apocalypse poets
- List of surrealist poets
- Mystic poets
- Symbolist poets
- War poets
- Georgian poets

Poets by language

Poets by nationality

- List of Canadian poets
- List of Nigerian poets
- List of South African poets
- List of contemporary Turkish poets ---- Poets day is a reference to Friday in workplaces which have a shorter working day at the end of the week. In this context, POETS is an acronym for "Push off early, tomorrow's Saturday". ja:詩人
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700 BC

Centuries: 9th century BC - 8th century BC - 7th century BC Decades: 750s BC 740s BC 730s BC 720s BC 710s BC - 700s BC - 690s BC 680s BC 670s BC 660s BC 650s BC ----

Events and trends

- 708 BC - Spartan immigrants found Taras (Tarentum, the modern Taranto) colony in southern Italy.
- 705 BC - Sennacherib succeeds his brother Shalmaneser V as king of Assyria
- 704 BC - Sennacherib moves the capital of Assyira back to Nineveh
- 701 BC - King Hezekiah of Judah, backed by Egypt, revolts against king Sennacherib of Assyria. Sennacherib sacks many Palestinian cities, but fails in his attempt to take Jerusalem
- 700 BC - The Scythians start settling in Cimmerian areas, slowly replacing the previous inhabitants.
- 700 BC - end of the Villanovan culture in northern Italy and rise of the Etruscan civilization.

Significant people

- Category:700s BC

Homer

] :For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). Homer (Greek μηρος Hómēros) was a legendary early Greek poet and rhapsode traditionally credited with authorship of the major Greek epics Ιλιάς Iliad and Οδύσσεια Odyssey. The comic mini-epic Βατραχομυομαχία Batrachomyomachia ("The Frog-Mouse War"), the corpus of Homeric Hymns, and various other lost or fragmentary works such as Margites have been attributed to him, but this is now believed to be unlikely. A few ancient authors credited him with the entire Epic Cycle, which included further poems on the Trojan War as well as the Theban poems about Oedipus and his sons. Tradition held that Homer was blind, and various Ionian cities are claimed to be his birthplace, but otherwise his biography is a blank slate. There is considerable scholarly debate about whether Homer was actually a real person, or the name given to one or more oral poets who sang traditional epic material. It has repeatedly been questioned whether the same poet was responsible for both the Iliad and the Odyssey; the Batrachomyomachia, Homeric hymns and cyclic epics are generally agreed to be later than these two epic poems.

Ancient Accounts of Homer

Of the date of Homer probably no record, real or pretended, ever existed. Herodotus (2.53) maintains that Hesiod and Homer lived not more than 400 years before his own time, consequently not much before 850 BC. From the controversial tone in which he expresses himself it is evident that others had made Homer more ancient; and accordingly the dates given by later authorities, though very various, generally fall within the 10th and 11th centuries BC, but none of these statements has any claim to the character of external evidence. The extant lives of Homer (edited in Westermanns Vitarum Scriptores Graeci minores) are eight in number, including the piece called the Contest of Hesiod and Homer. The longest is written in the Ionic dialect, and bears the name of Herodotus, but is certainly spurious. In all probability it belongs to the time which was fruitful beyond all others in literary forgeries, viz, the 2nd century of our era. The other lives are certainly not more ancient. Their chief value consists in the curious short poems or fragments of verse which they have preserved, the so-called Epigrams, which used to be printed at the end of editions of Homer. These are easily recognized as Popular Rhymes, a form of folklore to be met with in most countries, treasured by the people as a kind of proverbs. In the Homeric epigrams the interest turns sometimes on the characteristics of particular localities Smyrna and Cyme (Epigr. 4), Erythrae (Epigr. 6, 7), Mt Ida (Epigr. 10), Neon Teichos (Epigr. 1); others relate to certain trades or occupations: potters (Epigr. 14), sailors, fishermen, goat herds, etc. Some may be fragments of longer poems, but evidently they are not the work of any one poet. The fact that they were all ascribed to Homer merely means that they belong to a period in the history of the Ionian and Aeolian colonies when Homer was a name which drew to itself all ancient and popular verse. Again, comparing the epigrams with the legends and anecdotes told in the Lives of Homer, we can hardly doubt that they were the chief source from which these Lives were derived. Thus in Epigr. 4 we find a blind poet, a native of Aeolian Smyrna, through which flows the water of the sacred Meles. Here is doubtless the source of the chief incident of the Herodotean Life, the birth of Homer Son of the Meles. The epithet Aeolian implies high antiquity, inasmuch as according to Herodotus Smyrna became Ionian about 688 BC. Naturally the Ionians had their own version of the story, a version which made Homer come out with the first Athenian colonists. The same line of argument may be extended to the Hymns, and even to some of the lost works of the post-Homeric or so-called Cyclic poets. Thus: 1. The hymn to the Delian Apollo ends with an address of the poet to his audience. When any stranger comes and asks who is the sweetest singer, they are to answer with one voice, "the blind man that dwells in rocky Chios; his songs deserve the prize for all time to come." Thucydides, who quotes this passage to show the ancient character of the Delian festival, seems to have no doubt of the Homeric authorship of the hymn. Hence we may most naturally account for the belief that Homer was a Chian. 2. The Siargitesa humorous poem which kept its ground as the reputed work of Homer down to the time of Aristotle began with the words, "There came to Colophon an old man, a divine singer, servant of the Muses and Apollo." Hence doubtless the claim of Colophon to be the native city of Homer a claim supported in the early times of Homeric learning by the Colophonian poet and grammarian Antimachus. 3. The poem called the Cypria was said to have been given by Homer to Stasinus of Cyprus as a daughter's dowry. The connexion with Cyprus appears further in the predominance given in the poem to Aphrodite. 4. The Little Iliad and the Phocais, according to the Herodotean life, were composed by Homer when he lived at Phocaea with a certain Thestorides, who carried them off to Chios and thert gained fame by reciting them as his own. The name Thestorides occurs in Epigr. 5. 5. A similar story was told about the poem called the Taking of Oechalia, the subject of which was one of the exploits of Heracles. It passed under the name of Creophylus, a friend or (as some said) a son-in-law of Homer; but it was generally believed to have been in fact the work of the poet himself. 6. Finally the Thebaid always counted as the work of Homer. As to the Epigoni, which carried on the Theban story, some doubt seems to have been felt. These indications render it probable that the stories connecting Homer with different cities and islands grew up after his poems had become known and famous, especially in the new and flourishing colonies of Aeolis and Ionia. The contention for Homer, in short, began at a time when his real history was lost, and he had become a sort of mythical figure, an eponymous hero, or personification of a great school of poetry. An interesting confirmation of this view from the negative side is furnished by the city which ranked as chief among the Asiatic colonies of Greece, viz. Miletus. No legend claims for Miletus even a visit from Homer, or a share in the authorship of any Homeric poem. Yet Arctinus of Miletus was said to have been a disciple of Homer, and was certainly one of the earliest and most considerable of the Cyclic poets. His Aethiopis was composed as a sequel to the Iliad; and the structure and general character of his poems show that he took the Iliad as his model. Yet in his case we find no trace of the disputed authorship which is so common with other Cyclic poems. How has this come about? Why have the works of Arctinus escaped the attraction which drew to the name of Homer such epics as the Cypria, the Little Iliad, the Thebaid, the Epigoni, the Taking of Oechalia and the Phocais. The most obvious account of the matter is that Arctinus was never so far forgotten that his poems became the subject of dispute. We seem through him to obtain a glimpse of an early post-Homeric age in Ionia, when the immediate disciples and successors of Homer were distinct figures in a trustworthy tradition when they had not yet merged their individuality in the legendary Homer of the Epic Cycle.

The Homeric Question

Arctinus of Miletus Scholars generally agree that the Iliad and Odyssey underwent a process of standardization and refinement out of older material beginning in the 8th century BC. An important role in this standardization appears to have been played by the Athenian tyrant Hipparchus, who reformed the recitation of Homeric poetry at the Panathenaic festival. Many classicists hold that this reform must have involved the production of a canonical written text. Other scholars, however, maintain their belief in the reality of an actual Homer. So little is known or even guessed of his actual life, that a common joke has it that the poems "were not written by Homer, but by another man of the same name," and the classical scholar Richmond Lattimore, author of well regarded poetic translations to English of both epics, once wrote a paper entitled "Homer: Who Was She?" Samuel Butler was more specific, theorizing a young Sicilian woman as author of the Odyssey (but not the Iliad), an idea further speculated on by Robert Graves in his novel Homer's Daughter. In Greek his name is Homēros, which is Greek for "hostage". There is a theory that his name was back-extracted from the name of a society of poets called the Homeridae, which literally means "sons of hostages", i.e., descendants of prisoners of war. As these men were not sent to war because their loyalty on the battlefield was suspect, they would not get killed in battles. Thus they were entrusted with remembering the area's stock of epic poetry, to remember past events, in the times before literacy came to the area. Most Classicists would agree that, whether there was ever such a composer as "Homer" or not, the Homeric poems are the product of an oral tradition, a generations-old technique that was the collective inheritance of many singer-poets, aoidoi. An analysis of the structure and vocabulary of the Iliad and Odyssey shows that the poems consist of regular, repeating phrases; even entire verses repeat. Could the Iliad and Odyssey have been oral-formulaic poems, composed on the spot by the poet using a collection of memorized traditional verses and phases? Milman Parry and Albert Lord pointed out that such elaborate oral tradition, foreign to today's literate cultures, is typical of epic poetry in an exclusively oral culture. The crucial words are "oral" and "traditional." Parry started with "traditional." The repetitive chunks of language, he said, were inherited by the singer-poet from his predecessors, and they were useful to the poet in composition. He called these chunks of repetitive language "formulas." Exactly when these poems would have taken on a fixed written form is subject to debate. The traditional solution is the "transcription hypothesis", wherein a non-literate "Homer" dictates his poem to a literate scribe in the 6th century BC or earlier. More radical Homerists, such as Gregory Nagy, contend that a canonical text of the Homeric poems as "scripture" did not exist until the Hellenistic period (3rd to 1st century BC).

Historical Aspects of the Poems

1st century BC, Italy.]] See main article Troy. Another significant question regards the tales' possible historical basis. The commentaries on the Iliad and the Odyssey written in the Hellenistic period began exploring the textual inconsistencies of the poems. Modern classicists continue the tradition. The excavations of Heinrich Schliemann in the late 19th century began to convince scholars there was a historical basis for the Trojan War. Research (pioneered by the aforementioned Parry and Lord) into oral epics in Serbo-Croatian and Turkic languages began to convince scholars that long poems could be preserved with consistency by oral cultures until someone bothered to write them down. The decipherment of Linear B in the 1950s by Michael Ventris and others, convinced scholars of a linguistic continuity between 13th century BC Mycenaean writings and the poems attributed to Homer.

References

Literature

Commentaries

- Scholia Veneta on the Iliad , ed. Villoison (Venice, 1788);
- 'Scholia in Homeri Iliades ed. Bekker Berlin, 1825-1826).
- The Scholia on the Odyssey, ed. Buttmann (Berlin, 1821), Dindorf (Oxford, 1855)
- Commentary of Eustathius, first printed at Rome in 1542;
- Heynes. Iliad (Leipzig, 1802)
- Nitzsch, Odyssey (books i.-xii., Hanover)
- Negelbach Anmerkungen zur Ilias (Autenrieth, Nuremberg, 1864).
Homeric Question

- Wolf, Prolegomena (Halle, 1795)
- W. Muller, Homerische Vorschule (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1836)
- G. Hermann, De interpolationibus Homeri (1832), De iteratis apud Homerum (1840)
- Lachmann, Betrachtungen über Homers Ilias (2nd ed. Berlin, 1865).
Homeric dialect

- H. L. Ahrens, Griechische Formenlehre (Gottingen, 1852)
- A. Fick, Die homerische Odyssee in der ursprünglichen Sprachform wiederhergestelt (Gottingen, 1883), Die homerische Ilias (ibid., 1886)
- W. Schulze, Quaestiones epicae (Goterslohe, 1892).
- B. Delbrück, Syntactische Forschungen (Halle, 1871-1879)
- Hartel, Homerische Studien (i-vi., Vienna)
- Thumb, Zur Geschichte des griech. Digamma, Indogermanische Forschungen (1898)
Editions

- The editio princeps of Homer, published at Florence in 1488, by Demetrius Chaicondylas
- Aldine editions of 1504 and 1517
- Wolf (Halle, 1794-1795; Leipzig, 1804 1807)
- Spitzner (Gotha, 1832-1836)
- Bekker (Berlin, 1843; Bonn, I858)
- La Roche (Odyssey, 1867-1868; Iliad, 1873-1876, both at Leipzig)
- Ludwich (Odyssey, Leipzig, 1889-1891; Iliad, 2 vols., 1901 and 907)
- W. Leaf (Iliad, London, 1886-1888; 2nd ed. 1900 1902);
- Merry and Ridciell (Odyssey i.-xii., 2nd ed., Oxford, 1886);
- Monro (Odyssey xiii-xxiv. with appendices, Oxford, 1901);
- Monro and Allen (Iliad), and Allen (Odyssey, 1908, Oxford).
English Translations

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External links

- [http://www.gpc.edu/~shale/humanities/literature/world_literature/homer.html Collection of Homer-related links]
- [http://www.geocities.com/protoillyrian/homer Homer of Cumaean origin] Category:Ancient Greek poets Category:Blind people
- ko:호메로스 ms:Homer ja:ホメロス simple:Homer th:โฮเมอร์

Farming

working the land in the traditional way, with horse and plough]] Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock). The practice of agriculture is also known as "farming", while scientists, inventors and others devoted to improving farming methods and implements are also said to be engaged in agriculture. More people in the world are involved in agriculture as their primary economic activity than in any other, yet it only accounts for four percent of the world's GDP.

Overview

GDP, Indonesia]] Agriculture can refer to subsistence agriculture, the production of enough food to meet just the needs of the farmer/agriculturalist and his/her family. It may also refer to industrial agriculture, (often referred to as factory farming) long prevalent in "developed" nations and increasingly so elsewhere, which consists of obtaining financial income from the cultivation of land to yield produce, the commercial raising of animals (animal husbandry), or both. Agriculture is also short for the study of the practice of agriculture—more formally known as agricultural science. Agricultural students are known (sometimes derisively) as "Aggies". Increasingly, in addition to food for humans and animal feeds, agriculture produces goods such as cut flowers, ornamental and nursery plants, timber or lumber, fertilizers, animal hides, leather, industrial chemicals (starch, sugar, ethanol, alcohols and plastics), fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, and flax), fuels (methane from biomass, biodiesel) and both legal and illegal drugs (biopharmaceuticals, tobacco, marijuana, opium, cocaine). Genetically engineered plants and animals produce specialty drugs. In the Western world, the use of gene manipulation, better management of soil nutrients, and improved weed control have greatly increased yields per unit area. At the same time, the use of mechanization has decreased labour requirements. The developing world generally produces lower yields, having less of the latest science, capital, and technology base. Modern agriculture depends heavily on engineering and technology and on the biological and physical sciences. Irrigation, drainage, conservation and sanitary engineering, each of which is important in successful farming, are some of the fields requiring the specialized knowledge of agricultural engineers. Agricultural chemistry deals with other vital farming concerns, such as the application of fertilizer, insecticides (see Pest control), and fungicides, soil makeup, analysis of agricultural products, and nutritional needs of farm animals.Plant breeding and genetics contribute additionally to farm productivity. Advanced seed engineering has allowed strains of seed to become perfect in every farming situation. Seeds can now germinate faster and adapt to shorter growing seasons in different climates. Present-day seed can resist the spraying of pesticides that kill all green-leaf plants. Hydroponics, a method of soilless gardening in which plants are grown in chemical nutrient solutions, may help meet the need for greater food production as the world's population increases. The packing, processing, and marketing of agricultural products are closely related activities also influenced by science. Methods of quick-freezing and dehydration have increased the markets for farm products (see Food preservation; Meat packing industry). Mechanization, the outstanding characteristic of late 19th and 20th century agricultural evolution, has eased much of the backbreaking toil of the farmer. More significantly, mechanization has enormously increased farm efficiency and productivity (see Agricultural machinery). Animals, including horses, mules, oxen, camels, llamas, alpacas, and dogs; however, are still used to cultivate fields, harvest crops and transport farm products to markets in many parts of the world. Airplanes, helicopters, trucks and tractors are used in agriculture for seeding, spraying operations for insect and disease control, Aerial topdressing, transporting perishable products, and fighting forest fires. Radio and television disseminate vital weather reports and other information such as market reports that concern farmers. Computers have become an essential tool for farm management. Aerial topdressing] According to the National Academy of Engineering in the US, agricultural mechanization is one of the 20 greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century. Early in the century, it took one American farmer to produce food for 2.5 people, where today, due to engineering technology (also, plant breeding and agrichemicals), a single farmer can feed over 130 people [http://www.greatachievements.org/greatachievements/ga_7_2.html]. This comes at a cost, however, of large amounts of energy input, from unsustainable, mostly fossil fuel, sources. Animal husbandry means breeding and raising animals for meat or to harvest animal products (like milk, eggs, or wool) on a continual basis. In recent years some aspects of industrial intensive agriculture have been the subject of increasing discussion. The widening sphere of influence held by large seed and chemical companies, meat packers and food processors has been a source of concern both within the farming community and for the general public. There has been increased activity of some people against some farming practices, raising chickens for food being one example. Another issue is the type of feedgiven to some animals that can cause Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in cattle. There has also been concern because of the disastrous effect that intensive agriculture has on the environment. In the US, for example, fertilizer has been running off into the Mississippi for years and has caused a dead spot in the Gulf of Mexico, where the Mississippi empties. Intensive agriculture also depletes the fertility of the land over time and the end effect is that which happened in the Middle East, were some of the most fertile farmland in the world was turned into a desert by intensive agriculture. The patent protection given to companies that develop new types of seed using genetic engineering has allowed seed to be licensed to farmers in much the same way that computer software is licensed to users. This has changed the balance of power in favor of the seed companies, allowing them to dictate terms and conditions previously unheard of. Some argue these companies are guilty of biopiracy. Soil conservation and nutrient management have been important concerns since the 1950s, with the best farmers taking a stewardship role with the land they operate. However, increasing contamination of waterways and wetlands by nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus are of concern in many countries. Increasing consumer awareness of agricultural issues has led to the rise of community-supported agriculture, local food movement, slow food, and commercial organic farming, though these yet remain fledgling industries.

History

organic farming Archaeobotanists have traced the selection and cultivation of specific food plant characteristics, such as a semi-tough rachis and larger seeds, to just after the Younger Dryas (about 9,500 BC) in the early Holocene in the Levant region of the Fertile Crescent. Limited anthropological and archaeological evidence both indicate a grain-grinding culture farming along the Nile in the 10th millennium BC using the world's earliest known type of sickle blades. There is even earlier evidence for conscious cultivation and seasonal harvest: grains of rye with domestic traits have been recovered from Epi-Palaeolithic (10,000+ BC) contexts at Abu Hureyra in Syria, but this appears to be a localised phenomenon resulting from cultivation of stands of wild rye, rather than a definitive step towards domestication. It is not until ca. 8,500 BC, in middle-Eastern cultures referred to as Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB), where there is the first definite evidence for the emergence of a widespread subsistence economy that was dependent on domesticated plants and animals. In these contexts lie the origins of the eight so-called founder crops of agriculture: firstly emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, then hulled barley, pea, lentil, bitter vetch, chick pea and flax. These eight crops occur more or less simultaneously on PPNB sites in this region, although the consensus is that wheat was the first to be sown and harvested on a significant scale. There are many sites that date to between ca. 8,500 BC and 7,500 BC where the systematic farming of these crops contributed the major part of the inhabitants' diet. From the Fertile Crescent agriculture spread eastwards to Central Asia and westwards into Cyprus, Anatolia and, by 7,000 BC, Greece. Farming, principally of emmer and einkorn, reached northwestern Europe via southeastern and central Europe by ca. 4,800 BC (see, among others, Price, D. [ed.] 2000. Europe's First Farmers. Cambridge University Press; Harris, D. [ed.] 1996 The Origins and Spread of Agriculture in Eurasia. UCL Press). Europeing an alfalfa field]] The reasons for the earliest introduction of farming may have included climate change, but possibly there were also social reasons (e.g. accumulation of food surplus for competitive gift-giving). Most certainly there was a gradual transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural economies after a lengthy period when some crops were deliberately planted and other foods were gathered from the wild. Although localised climate change is the favoured explanation for the origins of agriculture in the Levant, the fact that farming was 'invented' at least three times, possibly more, suggests that social reasons may have been instrumental. In addition to emergence of farming in the Fertile Crescent, agriculture appeared by at least 6,800 BC in East Asia (rice) and, later, in Central and South America (maize, squash). Small scale agriculture also likely arose independently in early Neolithic contexts in India (rice) and Southeast Asia (taro). Southeast Asia. Baked clay. Field Museum]] Full dependency on domestic crops and animals (i.e. when wild resources contributed a nutritionally insignificant component to the diet) was not until the Bronze Age. If the operative definition of agriculture includes large scale intensive cultivation of land, mono-cropping, organised irrigation, and use of a specialized labour force, the title "inventors of agriculture" would fall to the Sumerians, starting ca. 5,500 BC. Intensive farming allows a much greater density of population than can be supported by hunting and gathering and allows for the accumulation of excess product to keep for winter use or to sell for profit. The ability of farmers to feed large numbers of people whose activities have nothing to do with material production was the crucial factor in the rise of standing armies. The agriculturalism of the Sumerians allowed them to embark on an unprecedented territorial expansion, making them the first empire builders. Not long after, the Egyptians, powered by effective farming of the Nile valley, achieved a population density from which enough warriors could be drawn for a territorial expansion more than tripling the Sumerian empire in area. The invention of a three field system of crop rotation during the Middle Ages vastly improved agricultural efficiency. After 1492 the world's agricultural patterns were shuffled in the widespread exchange of plants and animals known as the Columbian Exchange. Crops and animals that were previously only known in the Old World were now transplanted to the New and vice versa. Perhaps most notably, the tomato became a favorite in European cuisine, while certain wheat strains quickly took to western hemisphere soils and became a dietary staple even for native North, Central and South Americans. By the early 1800s agricultural practices, particularly careful selection of hardy strains and cultivars, had so improved that yield per land unit was many times that seen in the Middle Ages and before, especially in the largely virgin lands of North and South America. With the rapid rise of mechanization in the 20th century, especially in the form of the tractor, the demanding tasks of sowing, harvesting and threshing could be performed with a speed and on a scale barely imaginable before. These advances have led to efficiencies enabling certain modern farms in the United States, Argentina, Israel, Germany and a few other nations to output volumes of high quality produce per land unit at what may be the practical limit.

Crops

Seed Testing

Seeds are tested for various qualities to ensure a high quality harvest, and to limit or prevent the spread of undesirable and invasive species. Seed test types Descriptions of various tests done on seed Seed related databases ISTA, the International Seed Testing Association, maintains a list of links to Seed Organizations worldwide:
- http://www.seedtest.org/en/content---1--1014--329.html

World production of major crops in 2004

In millions of metric tons, based on FAO estimates[http://faostat.fao.org/faostat/form?collection=Production.Crops.Primary&Domain=Production&servlet=1&hasbulk=0&version=ext&language=EN]: By crop types :Cereals 2,264 :Vegetables and melons 866 :Roots and Tubers 715 :Milk 619 :Fruit 503 :Meat 259 :Oilcrops 133 :Fish 130 (2001 estimate) :Eggs 63 :Pulses 60 :Vegetable Fiber 30 By individual crops :Sugar Cane 1,324 :Maize 721 :Wheat 627 :Rice 605 :Potatoes 328 :Sugar Beet 249 :Soybean 204 :Oil Palm Fruit 162 :Barley 154 :Tomato 120

Crop improvement

Tomato Tomato
- See main article on Plant breeding Domestication of plants is done in order to increase yield, improve disease resistance and drought tolerance, ease harvest and to improve the taste and nutritional value and many other characteristics. Centuries of careful selection and breeding have had enormous effects on the characteristics of crop plants. Plant breeders use greenhouses and other techniques to get as many as three generations of plants per year so that they can make improvements all the more quickly. Plant selection and breeding in the 1920s and '30s improved pasture (grasses and clover) in New Zealand. Extensive radiation mutagenesis efforts (i.e. primitive genetic engineering) during the 1950s produced the modern commercial varieties of grains such as wheat, corn and barley. For example, average yields of corn (maize) in the USA have increased from around 2.5 tons per hectare (40 bushels per acre) in 1900 to about 9.4 t/ha (150 bushels per acre) in 2001, primarily due to improvements in genetics. Similarly, worldwide average wheat yields have increased from less than 1 t/ha in 1900 to more than 2.5 t/ha in 1990. South American average wheat yields are around 2 t/ha, African under 1 t/ha, Egypt and Arabia up to 3.5 to 4 t/ha with irrigation. In contrast, the average wheat yield in countries such as France is over 8 t/ha. Higher yields are due to improvements in genetics, as well as use of intensive farming techniques (use of fertilizers, chemical pest control, growth control to avoid lodging). [Conversion note: 1 bushel of wheat = 60 pounds (lb) ≈ 27.215 kg. 1 bushel of corn = 56 pounds ≈ 25.401 kg] In industrialized agriculture, crop "improvement" has often reduced nutritional and other qualities of food plants to serve the interests of producers. After mechanical tomato-harvesters were developed in the early 1960s, agricultural scientists bred tomatoes that were harder and less nutritious (Friedland and Barton 1975). In fact, a major longitudinal study of nutrient levels in numerous vegetables showed significant declines in the last 50 years; garden vegetables in the U.S. today contain on average 38 percent less vitamin B2 and 15 percent less vitamin C (Davis and Riordan 2004). Very recently, genetic engineering has begun to be employed in some parts of the world to speed up the selection and breeding process. The most widely used modification is a herbicide resistance gene that allows plants to tolerate exposure to glyphosate, which is used to control weeds in the crop. A less frequently used but more controversial modification causes the plant to produce a toxin to reduce damage from insects (c.f. Starlink). There are specialty producers who raise less common types of livestock or plants. Aquaculture, the farming of fish, shrimp, and algae, is closely associated with agriculture. Apiculture, the culture of bees, traditionally for honey—increasingly for crop pollination. See also : botany, List of domesticated plants, List of vegetables, List of herbs, List of fruit

Environmental problems

Agriculture may often cause environmental problems because it changes natural environments and produces harmful by-products. Some of the negative effects are:
- Nitrogen and phosphorus surplus in rivers and lakes.
- Detrimental effects of herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, and other biocides.
- Conversion of natural ecosystems of all types into arable land.
- Consolidation of diverse biomass into a few species.
- Erosion
- Depletion of minerals in the soil
- Particulate matter, including ammonia and ammonium off-gasing from animal waste contributing to air pollution
- Weeds - feral plants and animals
- Odor from agricultural waste
- Soil salination in dry areas.

Policy

Agricultural policy focuses on the goals and methods of agricultural production. At the policy level, common goals of agriculture include:
- Food safety: Ensuring that the food supply is free of contamination.
- Food security: Ensuring that the food supply meets the population's needs.
- Food quality: Ensuring that the food supply is of a consistent and known quality.
- Conservation
- Environmental impact
- Economic stability

Methods

There are various methods of agricultural production:
- aeroponics
- aerial topdressing
- agricultural machinery
- animal husbandry
- aquaculture
- beekeeping
- crop rotation
- Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO, factory farming)
- composting
- dairy farming
- detasseling
- domestication
- fencing
- fertilizers
- greenhouse
- harvest
- heliciculture
- hybrid seed
- hydroponics
- Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
- irrigation
- livestock
- market gardening
- monoculture
- no-till farming
- organic farming
- plant breeding
- pollination management
- precision farming
- ranching
- season extension
- seed saving
- shepherding
- subsistence farming
- succession planting
- sustainable agriculture
- terracing
- vegetable farming
- tillage
- weed control

References

- Wells, Spencer: The Journey of Man : A Genetic Odyssey. Princeton University Press, 2003. ISBN: 069111532X
- Crosby, Alfred W.: The Columbian Exchange : Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492. Praeger Publishers, 2003 (30th Anniversary Edition). ISBN: 0275980731
- Collinson, M. (editor): A History of Farming Systems Research. CABI Publishing, 2000. ISBN: 0851994059
- Davis, Donald R., and Hugh D. Riordan (2004) Changes in USDA Food Composition Data for 43 Garden Crops, 1950 to 1999. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol. 23, No. 6, 669-682.
- Friedland, William H. and Amy Barton (1975) Destalking the Wily Tomato: A Case Study of Social Consequences in California Agricultural Research. Univ. California at Sta. Cruz, Research Monograph 15.·

External links

- [http://www.fao.org www.fao.org] — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations World Agricultural Information Centre
- [http://www.fao.org/waicent/portal/statistics_en.asp www.fao.org] — The UN Statistical Databases
- [http://www.fao.org/ag/ FAO Agriculture Department] and its [http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/y5160e/y5160e00.HTM State of Food and Agriculture 2003-2004] with a focus on the impact of biotechnology
- [http://www.greenfacts.org/gmo/index.htm GM Crops in Agriculture] – A summary for non-specialists of the above FAO report by GreenFacts.
-
- [http://imperium.lenin.ru/~kaledin/tmp/agricltr.txt Agriculture: Demon Engine of Civilization] by John Zerzan
- [http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/index.html History of farming in Nebraska, USA]

Specific countries

- [http://www.agr.gc.ca/ www.agr.gc.ca] — Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada
- [http://www.nationalpak.com www.nationalpak.com] — Agriculture of Pakistan
- [http://www.nationalacademies.org/agriculture/ www.nationalacademies.org] — Agriculture at the United States National Academies
- [http://www.usda.gov/ www.usda.gov] — United States Department of Agriculture
- [http://www.fas.usda.gov/currwmt.html Current World Production, Market and Trade Reports] from the Foreign Agricultural Service
- [http://www.ers.usda.gov/ USDA's main source of economic information and research] from the Economic Research Service
- [http://www.ars.usda.gov/ In-house Research Arm] from the Agricultural Research Service
- [http://www.nal.usda.gov/ National Agricultural Library]
- [http://www.trader-china.com/Agriculture/index.html Agriculture Directory] ko:농업 ja:農業 nb:Landbruk simple:Agriculture

Astronomy

:This article is about the science branch. For information about the magazine, see Astronomy (magazine). Astronomy (magazine) as they circled the Moon in 1969. Located near the center of the far side of Earth's Moon, its diameter is about 58 miles (93 km).]] Astronomy (Greek: αστρονομία = άστρον + νόμος, astronomia = astron + nomos, literally, "law of the stars") is the science of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere, such as stars, planets, comets, galaxies, and the cosmic background radiation. It is concerned with the formation and development of the universe, the evolution and physical and chemical properties of celestial objects and the calculation of their motions. Astronomical observations are not only relevant for astronomy as such, but provide essential information for the verification of fundamental theories in physics, such as general relativity theory. Complementary to observational astronomy, theoretical astrophysics seeks to explain astronomical phenomena. Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences, with a scientific methodology existing at the time of Ancient Greece and advanced observation techniques possibly much earlier (see archaeoastronomy). Historically, amateurs have contributed to many important astronomical discoveries, and astronomy is one of the few sciences where amateurs can still play an active role, especially in the discovery and observation of transient phenomena. Astronomy is not to be confused with astrology, which assumes that people's destiny and human affairs in general are correlated to the apparent positions of astronomical objects in the sky -- although the two fields share a common origin, they are quite different; astronomers embrace the scientific method, while astrologers do not. In other words, there is no proof that the stars predict our future, but there is proof that our planet is 93 million miles from the sun.

Divisions

In ancient Greece and other early civilizations, astronomy consisted largely of astrometry, measuring positions of stars and planets in the sky. Later, the work of Kepler and Newton, whose work led to the development of celestial mechanics, mathematically predicting the motions of celestial bodies interacting under gravity, and solar system objects in particular. Much of the effort in these two areas, once done largely by hand, is highly automated nowadays, to the extent that they are rarely considered as independent disciplines anymore. Motions and positions of objects are now more easily determined, and modern astronomy is more concerned with observing and understanding the actual physical nature of celestial objects. Since the twentieth century, the field of professional astronomy has split into observational astronomy and theoretical astrophysics. Although most astronomers incorporate elements of both into their research, because of the different skills involved, most professional astronomers tend to specialize in one or the other. Observational astronomy is concerned mostly with acquiring data, which involves building and maintaining instruments and processing the results; this branch is at times referred to as "astrometry" or simply as "astronomy". Theoretical astrophysics is concerned mainly with ascertaining the observational implications of different models, and involves working with computer or analytic models. The fields of study can also be categorized in other ways. Categorization by the region of space under study (for example, Galactic astronomy, Planetary Sciences); by subject, such as star formation or cosmology; or by the method used for obtaining information.

By subject or problem addressed

theoretical astrophysics. Photographed by Mars Global Surveyor, the long dark streak is formed by a moving swirling column of Martian atmosphere (with similarities to a terrestrial tornado). The dust devil itself (the black spot) is climbing the crater wall. The streaks on the right are sand dunes on the crater floor.]]
- Astrometry: the study of the position of objects in the sky and their changes of position. Defines the system of coordinates used and the kinematics of objects in our galaxy.
- Astrophysics: the study of physics of the universe, including the physical properties (luminosity, density, temperature, chemical composition) of astronomical objects.
- Cosmology: the study of the origin of the universe and its evolution. The study of cosmology is theoretical astrophysics at its largest scale.
- Galaxy formation and evolution: the study of the formation of the galaxies, and their evolution.
- Galactic astronomy: the study of the structure and components of our galaxy and of other galaxies.
- Extragalactic astronomy: the study of objects (mainly galaxies) outside our galaxy.
- Stellar astronomy: the study of the stars.
- Stellar evolution: the study of the evolution of stars from their formation to their end as a stellar remnant.
- Star formation: the study of the condition and processes that led to the formation of stars in the interior of gas clouds, and the process of formation itself.
- Planetary Sciences: the study of the planets of the Solar System.
- Astrobiology: the study of the advent and evolution of biological systems in the Universe. Other disciplines that may be considered part of astronomy:
- Archaeoastronomy
- Astrochemistry
- Astrosociobiology
- Astrophilosophy See the list of astronomical topics for a more exhaustive list of astronomy-related pages.

Ways of obtaining information

list of astronomical topics :Main article: Observational astronomy. In astronomy, information is mainly received from the detection and analysis of light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation. Other cosmic rays are also observed, and several experiments are designed to detect gravitational waves in the near future. A traditional division of astronomy is given by the region of the electromagnetic spectrum observed:
- Optical astronomy is the part of astronomy that uses optical components (mirrors, lenses, CCD detectors and photographic films) to observe light from near infrared to near ultraviolet wavelengths. Visible light astronomy (using wavelengths that can be detected with the eyes, about 400 - 700 nm) falls in the middle of this range. The most common tool is the telescope, with electronic imagers and spectrographs.
- Infrared astronomy deals with the detection and analysis of infrared radiation (wavelengths longer than red light). The most common tool is the telescope but using a detector which is sensitive to the infrared. Space telescopes are also used to avoid atmospheric thermal emission, atmospheric opacity, and the effects of astronomical seeing at infrared and other wavelengths.
- Radio astronomy detects radiation of millimetre to dekametre wavelength. The receivers are similar to those used in radio broadcast transmission but much more sensitive. See also Radio telescopes.
- High-energy astronomy includes X-ray astronomy, gamma-ray astronomy, and extreme UV (ultraviolet) astronomy, as well as studies of neutrinos and cosmic rays. Optical and radio astronomy can be performed with ground-based observatories, because the atmosphere is transparent at the wavelengths being detected. Infrared light is heavily absorbed by water vapor, so infrared observatories have to be located in high, dry places or in space. The atmosphere is opaque at the wavelengths of X-ray astronomy, gamma-ray astronomy, UV astronomy and (except for a few wavelength "windows") Far infrared astronomy, so observations must be carried out mostly from balloons or space observatories. Powerful gamma rays can, however be detected by the large air showers they produce, and the study of cosmic rays can also be regarded as a branch of astronomy.

History of astronomy

cosmic ray :Main article: History of astronomy. In early times, astronomy only comprised the observation and predictions of the motions of the naked-eye objects. Aristotle said that the Earth was the center of the Universe and everything rotated around it in orbits that were perfect circles. Aristotle had to be right because people thought that Earth had to be in the center with everything rotating around it because the wind would not scatter leaves, and birds would only fly in one direction. For a long time, people thought that Aristotle was right, but it is probable that Aristotle accidentally did more to hinder our knowledge than help it. The Rigveda refers to the 27 constellations associated with the motions of the sun and also the 12 zodiacal divisions of the sky. The ancient Greeks made important contributions to astronomy, among them the definition of the magnitude system. The Bible contains a number of statements on the position of the earth in the universe and the nature of the stars and planets, most of which are poetic rather than literal; see Biblical cosmology. In 500 AD, Aryabhata presented a mathematical system that described the earth as spinning on its axis and considered the motions of the planets with respect to the sun. Observational astronomy was mostly stagnant in medieval Europe, but flourished in the Iranian world and other parts of Islamic realm. The late 9th century Persian astronomer al-Farghani wrote extensively on the motion of celestial bodies. His work was translated into Latin in the 12th century. In the late 10th century, a huge observatory was built near Tehran, Persia (now Iran), by the Persian astronomer al-Khujandi, who observed a series of meridian transits of the Sun, which allowed him to calculate the obliquity of the ecliptic. Also in Persia, Omar Khayyám performed a reformation of the calendar that was more accurate than the Julian and came close to the Gregorian. Abraham Zacuto was responsible in the 15th century for the adaptations of astronomical theory for the practical needs of Portuguese caravel expeditions. During the Renaissance, Copernicus proposed a heliocentric model of the Solar System. His work was defended, expanded upon, and corrected by Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler. Galileo added the innovation of using telescopes to enhance his observations. Kepler was the first to devise a system that described correctly the details of the motion of the planets with the Sun at the center. However, Kepler did not succeed in formulating a theory behind the laws he wrote down. It was left to Newton's invention of celestial dynamics and his law of gravitation to finally explain the motions of the planets. Newton also developed the reflecting telescope. Stars were found to be faraway objects. With the advent of spectroscopy it was proved that they were similar to our own sun, but with a wide range of temperatures, masses, and sizes. The existence of our galaxy, the Milky Way, as a separate group of stars was only proven in the 20th century, along with the existence of "external" galaxies, and soon after, the expansion of the universe, seen in the recession of most galaxies from us. Modern astronomy has also discovered many exotic objects such as quasars, pulsars, blazars and radio galaxies, and has used these observations to develop physical theories which describe some of these objects in terms of equally exotic objects such as black holes and neutron stars. Physical cosmology made huge advances during the 20th century, with the model of the Big Bang heavily supported by the evidence provided by astronomy and physics, such as the cosmic microwave background radiation, Hubble's Law, and cosmological abundances of elements.

Timelines in astronomy

cosmological abundances of elements
- Artificial satellites and space probes
- Astronomical maps, catalogs, and surveys
- Big Bang
- Black hole physics
- Cosmic microwave background astronomy
- Cosmology
- Galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and large scale structure
- Interstellar medium and intergalactic medium
- Natural satellites
- Other background radiation fields
- Solar astronomy
- Solar system astronomy
- Stellar astronomy
- Telescopes, observatories, and observing technology
- White dwarfs, neutron stars, and supernovae

External Links

- [http://www.space.com/ Space.com]
- [http://www.Astronomy.com/ Astronomy.com]
- [http://www.AbsoluteAstronomy.com/ AbsoluteAstronomy.com]
- [http://www.badastronomy.com/ Bad Astronomy]
- [http://www.nasa.gov/ Nasa]
- [http://www.run4space.com Run4Space Forum]
- [http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html/ Astronomy Picture of the Day] ko:천문학 ms:Astronomi ja:天文学 simple:Astronomy th:ดาราศาสตร์

Boeotia

Boeotia or Beotia (Greek Βοιωτια; see also List of traditional Greek place names) was the central area of ancient Greece. It is also a prefecture of modern Greece, see Boeotia Prefecture. The oldest city of Greece was sited there and was named Graia (Γραία) which means ancient or old. From the name of this city the word "Greece" derives. Aristotle said that this city was created before the deluge. The same assertion about the origins of Graia city was found also in an ancient marble, the Parian Chronicle, discovered in 1687 and dated in 267-263 B.C., that is currently kept in Oxford and on Paros. Reports about this ancient city can be found also in Homer, in Pausanias, in Thucydides etc. The main and most important city during history was Thebes which it is said it was related to the Egyptian Thebes. Thebes was the birthplace of the legendary hero Hercules. Ancient Thebes was destroyed totally by Alexander the Great. Boeotia had significant political importance, owing to its position on the north shore of the Gulf of Corinth, extending westwards between Thessaly and Peloponnesus to the Isthmus of Corinth; the strategic strength of its frontiers; and the ease of communication within its extensive area. On the other hand, the lack of good harbours hindered its maritime development. The Boeotian people, although they included great men like Pindar, Hesiod, Epaminondas, Pelopidas and Plutarch, were proverbially dull. In Greek mythology, Boeotia plays a prominent part. Of the two great centres of legends, Thebes, with its Cadmean population, figures as a military stronghold, and Orchomenus, the home of the Minyae, as an enterprising commercial city. The importance of the latter has been confirmed by its archaeological remains (notably the "Treasury of Minyas"). The Boeotian population seems to have entered the land from the north at a date possibly before the Dorian invasion. With the exception of the Minyae, the original peoples were soon absorbed by these immigrants, and the Boeotians henceforth appear as a homogeneous nation. In historical times, the leading city of Boeotia was Thebes, whose central position and military strength made it a suitable capital; other major towns were Orchomenus, Plataea, and Thespiae. It was the constant ambition of the Thebans to absorb the other townships into a single state, just as Athens had annexed the Attic communities. But the outlying cities successfully resisted this policy, and only allowed the formation of a loose federation which, initially, was merely religious. While the Boeotians, unlike the Arcadians, generally acted as a united whole against foreign enemies, the constant struggle between the cities was a serious check on the nation's development. Boeotia hardly figures in history before the late 6th century. Previous to this, its people are chiefly known as the makers of a type of geometric pottery, similar to the Dipylon ware of Athens. In about 519 BC, the resistance of Plataea to the federating policy of Thebes led to the interference of Athens on behalf of the former; on this occasion, and again in 507 BC, the Athenians defeated the Boeotian levy. During the Persian invasion of 480 BC, Thebes assisted the invaders. In consequence, for a time, the presidency of the Boeotian League was taken from Thebes, but in 457 BC the Spartans reinstated that city as a bulwark against Athenian aggression after the Battle of Tanagra. Athens retaliated by a sudden advance upon Boeotia, and after the victory at the Battle of Oenophyta took control of the whole country except the capital. For ten years the land remained under Athenian control, which was exercised through the newly installed democracies; but in 447 BC the people revolted, and after a victory at the Battle of Coronea regained their independence. In the Peloponnesian War the Boeotians fought zealously against Athens. Though slightly estranged from Sparta after the peace of Nicias, they never abated their enmity against their neighbours. They rendered good service at Syracuse and at the Battle of Arginusae; but their greatest achievement was the decisive victory at the Battle of Delium over the Athenian army (424 BC), in which both their heavy infantry and their cavalry displayed unusual efficiency. About this time the Boeotian League comprised eleven groups of sovereign cities and associated townships, each of which elected one Boeotarch or minister of war and foreign affairs, contributed sixty delegates to the federal council at Thebes, and supplied a contingent of about a thousand foot and a hundred horse to the federal army. A safeguard against undue encroachment on the part of the central government was provided in the councils of the individual cities, to which all important questions of policy had to be submitted for ratification. These local councils, to which the propertied classes alone were eligible, were subdivided into four sections, resembling the prytaneis of the Athenian council, which took it in turns to vote on all new measures. Boeotia took a prominent part in the war of the Corinthian League against Sparta, especially at Haliartus and the Battle of Coronea (395-394 BC). This change of policy seems due mainly to the national resentment against foreign interference. Yet disaffection against Thebes was now growing rife, and Sparta fostered this feeling by stipulating for the complete independence of all the cities in the peace of Antalcidas (387). In 374 BC Pelopidas restored the Theban dominion and their control was never significantly challenged again. Boeotian contingents fought in all the campaigns of Epaminondas against the Spartans, most notably at the Battle of Leuctra in 371, and in the later wars against Phocis (356-346); while in the dealings with Philip of Macedon the cities merely followed Thebes. The federal constitution was also brought into accord with the democratic governments now prevalent throughout the land. The sovereign power was vested in the popular assembly, which elected the Boeotarchs (between seven and twelve in number), and sanctioned all laws. After the battle of Chaeroneia, in which the Boeotian heavy infantry once again distinguished itself, the land never rose again to prosperity. The destruction of Thebes by Alexander the Great (335 BC) seems to have removed the political energy of the Boeotians. They never again pursued an independent policy, but followed the lead of protecting powers. Though military training and organization continued, the people proved unable to defend the frontiers, and the land became more than ever the "dancing-ground of Ares". Though enrolled for a short time in the Aetolian League (about 245 BC) Boeotia was generally loyal to Macedon, and supported its later kings against Rome. Rome dissolved the league, which, however, was allowed to revive under Augustus, and merged with the other central Greek federations in the Achaean synod. The death-blow to the country's prosperity was given by the devastations during the First Mithridatic War. ---- As a result of proud Athens' proud assertion of its cultural superiority, first of all compared to its closest, rural neighbours (bad luck for them, there was no convincing reason), the word Boeotian or Beotian, the adjective derived from and word for the inhabitants of Boeotia, has been adopted in many classical and antique languages as a pejorative term for backward people, simpletons etc.

References

- Category:Boeotia

Ionia

:This article is about the region of western Anatolia. For the group of islands west of Greece, see Ionian Islands. Ionian Islands Ionia (Greek Ιωνία; see also List of traditional Greek place names) was an ancient region of southwestern coastal Anatolia (now in Turkey) on the Aegean Sea. It comprised a narrow coastal strip from Phocaea in the north near the mouth of the river Hermus (now the Gediz), to Miletus in the south near the mouth of the river Maeander, and included the islands of Chios and Samos. It was bounded by Aeolia to the north, Lydia to the east and Caria to the south. According to the universal Greek tradition, the cities of Ionia were founded by migrants from the other side of the Aegean and their settlement was connected with the legendary history of the Ionic race in Attica, by the statement that the colonists were led by N

Hesiod

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