The Tilting of the Heavens in Presocratic Cosmology

Archaeology and the Origins of Philosophy

“…As he is arguing against an article of mine in which I maintain that Diels' translation is wrong, I will take the opportunity to make a few remarks [cf. Couprie 2001]. First of all, in defense of his translation, Diels [1954] adduces two texts from Hippocrates' De articulatione in which is described how a sack (ἀσκός) is blown up (like a child's balloon) by means of a brazen pipe (αὐλὸς ἐκ χαλκέου) that is attached to it.…”

“…The tilting of the celestial axis was a problem that bothered several Presocratics. Since ancient times, its interpretation is haunted by the failure to recognize the difference between how things are seen from a flat and from a spherical Earth, as I have explained extensively elsewhere [Couprie 2009]. Hahn, too, falls into this trap when he mentions 'the stunning reality' for the archaic Greeks who thought that the Earth was flat, 'that either the cosmos is inclined 23.5 • north or that the Earth is inclined 23.5 • north' [176].…”