Cosmology
is the word used to describe the philosophy, science and religion of
the ancient world when such subjects were not so separate and
specialized in location and vocabulary as they are today. The cosmology
of the ancient world was dominated by the astronomy and astrology of
the Babylonians and later Persians and Egyptians. Their understandings
spread along trade lines accross the interconnected ancient world,
forming a background for the thought of not only ancient Greece and Rome
but also of India and China.
By
observing the stars and recording regular patterns of the skies and
earth, it was thought that the cosmos worked according to regular
principles and that knowing these principles and patterns gave power and
control. Aristotle speaks of the Babylonians, who devoted much time
and energy to the study of the stars, as the major source of this
cosmological science. The sun was identified with either a central
father god or son of the father god, planets were identified with major
gods, and stars with minor gods and spirits. We still use the major
Roman gods to name the planets today. In addition, we still use the 24
hours in a day, 60 minutes to an hour and 360 degrees in a circle from
the base 6 Babylonian numerical system used along with Babylonian
sundials.
Much
mythology of the ancient world, including the earliest traditions of
the Greeks and Israelites, are allegorical metaphors for the processes
of the cosmos. As the city states of ancient Greece rose and became
more powerful centers of culture and trade, earlier Greek polytheistic
mythology was brought into line with the increasingly monotheistic
cosmologies of the Tigris-Euphrates and Nile valleys. This paved the
way for Greek and Roman Christianity, which then became the dominant
culture of Europe. The golden age of Greek philosophy, which we study
exclusively in this class, is central to this transformation. Most
Greek philosophers were moving away from the earlier traditions of Homer
and Hesiod while remaining polytheistic, and then Plato and Aristotle,
who were also polytheists of an increasingly abstract solar monotheistic
bent, became central philosophers of Christianity and thus the European
tradition.
Modern
science is indebted not only to the ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, and
Greeks, but also to Muslims, who began to surpass Aristotle in
understanding and observing nature with the invention of algebra. By
using algebra to code-break nature, the sciences surpassed earlier
ancient cosmology in the Islamic Golden Age (around 800 to 1200 CE), and
from there went on to find another golden age in the Italian
Renaissance. Thus, while many say that it was the ancient Greeks and
particularly Aristotle who started the sciences, it is more correct to
say that first were the Babylonians (as far as systems of writing
reveal), then the Egyptians, then the Greeks and Aristotle, then the
Muslims, then the Renaissance, and finally modern Europe, each building
on and surpassing the previous culture. In fact, we do get much from
cultures not mentioned in this lineage (such as prehistoric Africa,
ancient China, ancient India and the Americas) but we are concerned here
with the complex relationship between ancient Greece and our modern
society.
In
ancient world cosmology, the cosmos was seen as a stack of elements
from lightest above to heaviest downward, an order still carried today
in the periodic table. If one looks out into nature, one sees water, on
top of which is earth, on top of which is air, on top of which float
fiery lights such as the sun, moon and stars. Just as the lights move
in circles above, so too do the complex situations of plants, animals
and people move in cycles below, often corresponding to the seasons
which correspond to the positions of the lights above. The Babylonians
and Assyrians of the Tigris-Euphrates valley believed that the sky god
Anu, earth god Enlil and water god Ea were a primary trinity of deities
presiding over the order of the cosmos. When the elements of the cosmos
are in order, harmony prevails. When they fall out of order, chaos
prevails.
In
addition, the cosmos was understood to be shaped like a great person,
and the elements/levels of the cosmos corresponded to the
levels/faculties of a human individual. Fire was identified with mind
and sight, air with speech/breath/emotion, earth with stomach/desire,
and water with lower regions and functions associated with desires and
chaos. In Plato’s Republic, possibly the most famous work of ancient
Greek philosophy, we are told that the levels of a human individual
(desire, emotion and mind) correspond to the levels of society (workers,
guardians and philosophers) and the levels of the cosmos (earth, air
and fire). Plato argues that just as the mind rules over emotion which
rules over desire in the best individual, philosophers rule over
guardians who rule over workers in the best society.
Both
Plato and Aristotle argue against other Greek thinkers who do not
believe in the divinity of the stars and elements, accusing them of
atheism. Both of them viewed the cosmos as an intelligent, purposeful
organism composed of other intelligences. This placed them between the
early Greek polytheists and later Greek monotheists, as previously
mentioned.
It
is interesting to consider that the ancient Greeks considered ideas and
theories to be god-like visions or views (hence the ‘theo’ in
‘theory’). To have a theory or view of fire was to share fires own view
of itself, to rise into a higher view of fires just as an individual
rises into a higher view of reality by climbing a mountain or rising
into a higher level of authority and ability in an institution. The
ideas and views that human beings have were understood to be alive and
independent and waiting to share themselves. The cosmos is ordered
because the cosmos is itself reasonable.
The Influence of Ancient Egypt
While
astronomy and cosmology comes originally from the Tigris-Euphrates, the
ancient Egyptians had a tremendous impact on the thought and culture of
ancient Greece. It should also be noted that sub-saharan Africa is the
original home of humanity, culture, civilization and technology, such
that African civilization, including thousands of years of Egyptian
civilization, is possibly the most influential in all of human history.
Just as Babylonian cosmology affected an interconnected humanity from
Ireland to China, so too do we find parallels between Egyptian mythology
and myths from around the world. Consider that the Egyptian and
Tibetan books of the dead are strikingly similar.
Egypt
is often thought to have been a brutal slave driving civilization,
compared to democratic Greece. This results from the Book of Exodus of
the Old Testament and the very recent celebration of Greece as the
birthplace of true politics and democracy. However, everyone in Egypt
did not obey the Pharaoh without question. There were cycles of
regional and central control in the thousands of years of Egyptian
civilization, sometimes with regions having more autonomy and others
with central Pharaoh control. The central power of the Pharaoh was
challenged by other powerful regional lords, and so both the Pharaoh and
lords had to appeal to the people and please them with rights and
charity to get their support against the other. Egypt had a complex
society with many competing powers, popular uprisings were common and
bureaucracy of scribes and visiers provided modestly positioned people
with opportunities for upward class mobility.
Egyptians,
like Muslims, often portrayed as intolerant and monolithic but had the
best diverse marketplaces in their times with many foreigners, creating a
rich culture. Consider that there are early statues of Indian Buddhas
found in Alexandria around 300 BCE. Alexandria was made the capital of
Alexander’s empire after he conquered Egypt, and it, not Athens, became
the greatest center of learning for hundreds of years.
Egypt
treated women better, giving them more rights and acceptance, than the
Greek city states, though admittedly it could not be called a culture of
gender equality. In one of my favorite passages of Egyptian wisdom, we
are warned that we should provide for our women and value them, though
never go to court with them, or let them take over your house. Women
did not have the right to speak in courts of law in Athens, but they
could in Egypt.
Greece
also had a higher percentage of slaves in the population compared to
Egypt and most other ancient civilizations, quite high even in Athens
during the brief period of democracy. Greeks were less tolerant of
foreigners, giving them less rights and treating them with suspicion.
They were even intolerant towards Greeks from other Greek city states.
Aristotle was viewed as a foreigner in Athens, had no rights or ability
to become a citizen. Alexander was the first to unify Greece as a land
beyond a common culture, and of course Alexander united it together
with other non-Greek lands such as Egypt and Persia in his brief empire.
Alexander, interestingly, was Macedonian, and he is proudly claimed by
Greeks today even though Macedonians (as well as Turks, the other half
of ancient Greece) are discriminated against and denied immigration.
Egyptian
scholarship and study was incredible for thousands of years. Egypt was
the place to seek education for Greek elites, and even in the greatest
times of Athens many prominent Greeks such as Euclid and Pythagoras went
to Egypt to become educated at the greatest centers of knowledge of
their time. Greeks clearly borrowed from Egyptian math, medicine,
technology, use of chemicals and minerals, and study of animals and
plants. Our word ‘Chemistry’ means ‘Egypt Study’, as it comes from the
Egyptian word for Egypt, ‘Kemer’, which means ‘The Dark/Black/Rich Land’
after the black Nile soil (note: while the Egyptians were a dark
skinned people and should be understood as ‘black’, neither this nor the
word ‘white’ was used in the ancient world to describe ethnicities).
Consider that the Egyptians were the preferred doctors of the Romans in
the beginning of the Roman empire, but were replaced by Greek doctors
toward its end. The Egyptians were also the best at math and geometry,
which they not only understood abstractly but used for the purposes of
building the largest monuments of their day. Much of cosmology that
sets the background for Greek philosophy comes from building things,
such as the pyramids (top lightest, balance of opposites, aligning
lowest and highest elements).
Plato,
a big fan of Egyptian education and hierarchy, says in his Republic (as
Socrates) that his ideal state, which is designed for producing
intellectual philosophers and placing them on top of society, is the
same as the Egyptians. Thus, Plato believed that Egypt was the most
rational and beneficial society, that the Egyptian priests were
comparable to Greek philosophers in their pursuit of knowledge and
wisdom, and that Athens should copy Egypt. Critics of Plato and his
Republic at the time mocked Plato for ripping off Egypt. In his
Phaedrus, Plato (again, as Socrates) says that Thoth, the Egyptian god
of knowledge, invented math, language and science. Aristotle, like his
teacher Plato, believed that Egypt was the most ancient of societies,
was the birthplace of math and science, and that this was because the
Egyptians had set the priests as a caste above everyone allowing them
the leisure to study and discover. While Aristotle was critical of
parts of Plato’s theoretical republic, on this, the central defining and
ruling structure of society, they are in complete agreement, as we will
see when studying Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s politics.
The
Egyptians were excellent and influential in art and sculpture. Some
believe that Egyptian performances of heroic and tragic tales inspired
the comedies and tragedies of Greek Drama. While the Greeks, who were
first known in the ancient world as excellent mercenaries and sculptors
before they rose considerably in wealth and power, were indeed
phenomenal at carving the human form, we can see that this in part comes
from thousands of years of the Egyptians slowly developing sculpture in
a more human, complex way from earlier representations. One famous
example is Akhenaten lounging with family, compared to more rigid formal
human forms of earlier periods. The world’s first colossal statues
were Egyptian, and the celebrated Greek styles of columns derive from
similar Egyptian styles.
Herodotos,
wrongly called the ‘Father of History’, as other ancient Greek
historians before him, wrote that the Egyptians colonized areas of
Greece in the centuries before its golden age. While this is disputed
by scholars today, it was widely believed by the ancient Greeks
themselves.
The Influence of Ancient Persia
Persia
conquered Egypt in 525 BCE. Before that, in the centuries just before
the flourishing of ancient Greece and the compiling of the Old
Testament, Egypt and Persia were fighting over alliances with and
conquests of Greece and Israel. The Persian Empire stretched from
Greece to India, encompassing the crossroads of most of the world’s
culture and trade. Persian culture had a massive effect on everyday
Greek life. Persian dress and adornments were copied, as well as styles
of plates and cups. Greek warriors would even curl their hair like the
Assyrians and Persians before battle to inspire awe. Athenian nobles
often had ties to Persia that including intermarriage and business
ventures.
Phoenicia,
a civilization in what is today Lebanon that was a powerful trade
center before the rise of Persia, became a vital part of the Persian
empire after their conquest. The Phoenician navy was the most feared
part of the Persian military. We not only get the legend of the
Phoenix, the bird that is reborn by fire, from Phoenicia, but also the
Phoenician alphabet, the ancestor of the Greek alphabet and the
Roman-European alphabet we use here today. The finest togas worn in
Athens were made of Asian silks, brought over the silk road to
Phoenicia, where it was there patterned and died. Far from being white
bedsheets, Athenian nobles would show off by wearing the finest
Phoenician cloth in the latest styles.
Cyrus,
the first Persian great emperor, was venerated by many Greeks as a
model king who benefited his subjects and helped them to flourish unlike
a greedy tyrant. Cyrus is also presented as the first messiah in the
Old Testament, the liberator of the Jews from Babylon. The New
Testament, originally written in Greek, clearly presenting Jesus as the
second, confirmed by the three Persian maji following the stars, and
then later predicts an apocalyptic third messiah. This puts the Bible
in line with Persian Zoroastrianism, the world’s first great solar
monotheism, spread by Cyrus’ empire, which predicted three saoshyants
(messiah in hebrew), who would lead the forces of good to triumph over
the forces of darkness. Regardless of one’s beliefs, the Jews and
Christians presented themselves as in agreement with Zoroastrianism (for
Christians, as its fulfillment) during periods of Persian influence.
Christianity first spread in Syria and Greece, and from there to Rome,
Egypt and elsewhere.
Unlike
Cyrus, the Greeks were not known as benevolent conquerors. In the
brief period of Athenian empire, several states including Cyprus
rebelled and appealed to Persia as they had been treated better by the
Persian empire.
The Idea of the West
Sadly,
Europeans believed that the Egyptians and Persians were the great
teachers of wisdom and philosophy to the Greeks for two thousand years
after the golden age of Greek philosophy. In the Renaissance, the two
greatest philosophers, Ficino and Pico della Mirandola, both
Neo-Platonists, believed that there was one true philosophy which was
passed from the Egyptian priests and Persian maji to the Greek
philosophers and Indian sages, and then that this wisdom was incarnated
on earth as Jesus. The Neo-Platonic academy of Florence, center of
Renaissance art and philosophy, was modeled on Plato’s Republic under
the assumption that this was a recreation of ancient Egyptian
institutions.
It
was only when Europe rose in power and wealth in the late 1600s and
spoke of itself as unique and like no other culture on earth in terms of
reason and freedom that the ancient Greeks were similarly said to be
unique in reason and freedom and separate from the rest of the ancient
world. The idea that ‘The West’ is a unique and separate culture
beginning in ancient Athens and resulting in the power of European
nations today is clearly dominant in American and European scholarship.
This can be seen by reading the first paragraphs of most history and
science textbooks.
Roland
Barthes, the french literary critic and theorist, warns us in his book
Mythologies that we must beware of the modern mythology of History with a
capital ‘H’ and Science with a capital ‘S’. Our modern Greek
mythology, not to be confused with the ancient Greek mythology we will
be discussing next week, would have astounded the ancient Greeks
themselves. Considering the overwhelming majority of ancient Greek
slaves came from the Germanic and Celtic tribes of Europe, and were
considered a race of people incapable of reason and thus incapable of
freedom, it would have astounded Plato and Aristotle to hear Europeans
today say that the ancient Greeks invented civilization and that the
Europeans receive civilization as their descendants.
Next
time we will focus on ancient Greek culture, identity and mythology to
give us more background for Greek philosophy, the subject of the rest of
our course.
