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The Greek Vision of Prehistory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

E. D. Phillips
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Extract

The tradition of Greek thought with which we are concerned here is quite different from the mythology that preceded it, and, as it develops, has to contend with philosophical and literary traditions no less sophisticated than itself, but inspired by other interests than scientific curiosity. It treats occasionally of human physique in a manner which is scientifically interesting, but does not anywhere, in my opinion, present a theory of man's physical evolution from animal ancestors. It foreshadows much of the speculation about cultural progress which has been current during the last 150 years, touching also on the origins of religion and language, Its rather scanty remains represent a period of seven or eight centuries, the same during which medicine and some other branches of science were actively pursued or initiated by the Greeks.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 38 , Issue 151 , September 1964 , pp. 171 - 178
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1964

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References

Notes

[1] 109–201.

[2] As most recently Baldry, H. C., ‘Who invented the Golden Age?’, Classical Quarterly, n. ser. 2 (1952), 83–92 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and ‘Hesiod’s Five Ages’, Journal of the History of Ideas, 17 (1956), 553–4 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Guthrie, W. K. C., In the Beginning (1957)Google Scholar, ch. IV.

[3] See Gwyn Griffiths, J., ‘Archaeology and Hesiod’s Five Ages’, Journal of the History of Ideas, 17, 109–19 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and ‘Did Hesiod invent the Golden Age?’, ibid., 18 (1958), 91–3, in controversy with Baldry.

[4] On primitivism see the texts and commentary in Lovejoy, A. O. and Bass, G., Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity (1935)Google Scholar.

[5] Fragments of Anaximander and other cos- mologists are quoted from Diels-Kranz, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker (D-K), the two volumes of text (fifth or later editions), where mentions in later writers are classified as A and direct quotations as B. Here, D-K, 1, Anaximander, A. 10, 11 and 30.

[6] For a full discussion see Loenen, J. H., ‘Was Anaximander an Evolutionist?’, Mnemosyne, ser. 4, (1954). 214–32 Google Scholar.

[7] D-K, 11, Archelaus, A. 1 and 4.

[8] D-K, 1, Xenophanes, A. 191.

[9] See Uxkull-Gyllenband, W., Griechische Kulturentstehungslehren (1924), 6–7Google Scholar.

[10] D-K, 11, Anaxagoras, B. 21.

[11] Ibid., 102. A. On the hand in ancient thought see Spoerri, W., Späthellenistische Berichte über Welt, Kultur und Gutter (1959), 148–5Google Scholar2.

[12] See D-K. 11, 253–71, Uxkull-Gyllenband, op. cit., ch. v, Nestlé, W., Platon, Protagoras (1931 Google Scholar), introduction, and Guthrie, op. cit., 84–94.

[13] 320D-322D.

[14] 454–507-

[15] 332–64.

[16] 195–218.

[17] 1, 8.

[18] See Reinhardt, K., ‘Hekataios von Abdera und Demokrit’, Hermes, XLIV (1921), 492–51 Google Scholar3, and Vlastos, G., ‘On the Prehistory in Diodorus’, American Journal of Philology, 67 (1946), 51–CrossRefGoogle Scholar9. D-K print Diodorus, 1, in frag. B. 5 of Democritus, 11, 135–6.

[19] Printed by D-K in frag. B. 5 of Democritus, loc. cit.

[20] D-K, 11, Democritus, B. 154.

[21] Ibid., B. 144.

[22] Ibid., B. 38.

[23] Ch. III.

[24] In a passage of his book On Piety, reconstructed from Porphyry, On Abstinence, 11, 5–7. See Uxkull-Gyllenband, op. cit., 38–9.

[25] Quotations and summaries in Wehrle, F., Die Schule der Aristoteles, 1 (1944); frags. 47 and 49Google Scholar.

[26] See Reinhardt, K., Poseidonius (1921), 392–401Google Scholar and 408–13, and his article ‘Poseidonius’ in Pauly- Wissowa’s Real-Encylopädie, XXII (cols. 558–826), cols. 719–25 and 805–14.

[27] E.g. Seneca, Moral Letter 90; Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods, 11, 123 ff.; Vitruvius, On Architecture, 11, 1; Dio Chrysostom, Oration XII; Philo, On the Posterity of Cain, 162; Gregory of Nyssa, On the Human Frame, IX (Migne, Patrologia Graeca, 44. 139–51); Strabo, Geography, 1, 2, 34, VII, 3, 3.

[28] Here, Letter to Herodotus, 75–6; see Bailey, C., Epicurus (1926), 246–Google Scholar9, and Arrighetti, G., Epicuro, Opere (1960 Google Scholar), both editions of the remains.

[29] Diogenes was a wealthy landowner who left inscribed monuments at Oenoanda in Lycia. Text in Arrighetti, op. cit., 473–75.

[30] Book v, 805–1360.

[31] E.g. Herodotus, 11, 4–5 and 10 on the Delta, and Xanthus of Lydia, as quoted in Strabo, 1, 3, 4, on Asia Minor and its rocks.

[32] History of Animals, 11, 8–9, 502 a-b.

[33] Ibid., 1. 16, 494 b.

[34] Thucydides, 1, 8.

[35] Diodorus, 1, 9 ff.