Ancient Greek cosmogony

Author / Creator

Gregory, Andrew, 1960-

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Summary

"This is the first detailed and comprehensive account of ancient Greek theories of the origins of the world. It covers the period from 800 B.C. to 600 A.D., beginning with myths concerning the crea...

"This is the first detailed and comprehensive account of ancient Greek theories of the origins of the world. It covers the period from 800 B.C. to 600 A.D., beginning with myths concerning the creation of the world. It covers the cosmogonies of all the major Greek and Roman thinkers, as well as the debate between Greek philosophical cosmogony and early Christian views. It argues that Greeks formulated many of the perennial problems of philosophical cosmogony and produced philosophically and scientifically interesting answers." "The atomists argued that our world was one among many worlds, and came about by chance. Plato argued that our world is unique, and is the product of design. Empedocles and the Stoics, in quite different ways, argued that there was an unending cycle whereby our world is generated, destroyed and generated again. Aristotle on the other hand argued that there was no such thing as cosmogony, and our world has always existed."--BOOK JACKET.

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