How did people imagine the solar system in antiquity. How did ancient people imagine the Earth and what has changed since then? Representations of ancient peoples about the Universe

In this lesson, we will learn about what the Universe is, how it works. We will discover the world of mysterious and incomprehensible outer space. Let's talk about how ancient civilizations imagined the Universe. Let's get acquainted with the scientists, whose ideas have taken an important place in the development of science.

Theme: Universe

Lesson: How ancient people imagined the universe

As we found out, the methods of cognition can be different. The tasks and goals set for the study are also different. But the only most important thing will remain the interest of knowing the world, the Universe, living and non-living. What is the Universe?

Definition.Universe - it is boundless outer space and everything that fills it: celestial bodies, gas, dust.

If we peer into the starry sky, we will see various star constellations, solar systems, the Moon - they are all components of the Universe, even stars that cannot be seen without the help of special instruments - telescopes (Fig. 1).

In ancient times, there were no such telescopes, and people have been observing the movement of the Moon, the Sun, and the planets for thousands of years, so it is clear that modern views on the structure of the Universe did not arise instantly, but developed gradually, and the earliest views differed significantly from what we know today . Different peoples of the world represented the Universe in different ways.

According to the ideas of the ancient Indians, our Earth was like a hemisphere, which rested on the backs of huge elephants that stood on a giant tortoise. The turtle leaned on a snake, which closed the space and personified the world (Fig. 2).

For example, the Egyptians had a different idea of ​​the structure of the universe. Their views were expressed in the form of a myth.

The god of the earth - Geb and the goddess of the sky - Nut loved each other very much, and therefore at first our Universe was merged together. Every evening, Nut gave birth to stars that appeared in the sky. Every morning before sunrise she swallowed them. And so it went on day after day, year after year, until Geb began to get annoyed, because of which he called Nut a pig that eats its piglets. Then the god of the sun, Ra, intervened and called the god of the wind, Shu, so that he would separate heaven and earth. So Nut ascended into heaven in the form of a cow. Sometimes Technud came to the aid of her husband Shu, but she very quickly got tired of supporting the heavenly cow and began to cry, and her tears fell like rain on the ground (Fig. 3).

The ancient Babylonians imagined the earth as a huge mountain. In the west of this mountain was Babylonia, which was surrounded by mountains in the east, and the sea in the south. The sea as a whole surrounded this entire mountain, and on top of it, in the form of an inverted bowl, was the sky. The inhabitants of Babylonia thought that there was also land and water in the sky, perhaps even life. The celestial land is a belt of 12 constellations of the Zodiac: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces. They also believed that the sun comes out and enters back into the sea (Fig. 4). They could not explain the observed phenomena of nature.

The ancient Jews imagined the Earth differently. They lived on a plain, and the Earth seemed to them a plain, on which mountains rise in some places. The Jews assigned a special place in the universe to the winds, which bring rain or drought with them. The abode of the winds, in their opinion, was in the lower zone of the sky and separated the Earth from the heavenly waters: snow, rain and hail. There are waters under the Earth, from which channels go up, feeding the seas and rivers. Apparently, the ancient Jews had no idea about the shape of the entire Earth.

The ancient Greeks made a great contribution to the development of views on the structure of the universe. For example, the philosopher Thales (Fig. 5) imagined the Universe as a liquid mass, inside of which there is a large bubble shaped like a hemisphere. The concave surface of this bubble is the vault of heaven, and on the lower, flat surface, like a cork, the flat Earth floats. It is easy to guess that Thales based the idea of ​​the Earth as a floating island on the fact that Greece is located on islands. Pythagoras (Fig. 6) was the first to suggest that our Earth is not flat, but looks like a ball. And Aristotle (Fig. 7), developing this hypothesis, created a new model of the world, according to which the motionless Earth is located in the center and it is surrounded by eight solid and transparent spheres. The ninth - provided the movement of all celestial spheres. According to these views, the Sun, the Moon and the planets known at that time were attached to the eight spheres (Fig. 8). Aristotle's views were not shared by all scholars. Aristarchus of Samos got closest to the truth, because he believed that not the Earth, but the Sun, was located in the center of the Universe, but he could not prove this. Subsequently, his views were forgotten for many years.

The views of Aristotle were strengthened in science for a long time, for example, the ancient Greek scientist Claudius Ptolemy also placed the motionless Earth at the center of the Universe, around which Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn revolved. The entire universe was limited to the sphere of fixed stars. The scientist outlined all these views in his work “Mathematical Construction in Astronomy”. The views of Claudius Ptolemy lasted more than the 13th century and for a long time were a reference book for many generations of astronomers.

Rice. 7

In the next lesson, we will talk about the further development of views on the Universe.

1. Melchakov L.F., Skatnik M.N. Natural history: textbook. for 3.5 cells. avg. school - 8th ed. - M.: Enlightenment, 1992. - 240 p.: ill.

2. Andreeva A.E. Natural History 5. / Ed. Traitaka D.I., Andreeva N.D. - M.: Mnemosyne.

3. Sergeev B.F., Tikhodeev O.N., Tikhodeeva M.Yu. Natural History 5.- M.: Astrel.

1. Melchakov L.F., Skatnik M.N., Natural history: textbook. for 3.5 cells. avg. school - 8th ed. - M.: Enlightenment, 1992. - p. 150, assignments and questions. 3.

2. State interesting facts that relate to the views of the ancient Greeks on the structure of the universe.

3. Imagine that you need to observe the starry sky. Think over and describe the sequence of actions that you will perform.

4. * Invent a new universe. Describe what is in it. What are the names of the planets and constellations? How do they interact with each other?

The ancient Greeks imagined the earth to be flat. They considered the earth to be a flat disk, surrounded by a sea inaccessible to man, from which the stars emerge every evening and into which the stars set every morning. From the eastern sea in a golden chariot, the sun god Helios rose every morning and makes his way across the sky.

The world in the view of the ancient Egyptians: below - the Earth, above it - the goddess of the sky; left and right - the ship of the sun god, showing the path of the sun across the sky from sunrise to sunset.

ancient indians represented the Earth in the form of a hemisphere held by four elephants. Elephants stand on a huge turtle, and the turtle is on a snake, which, curled up in a ring, closes the near-Earth space.

The inhabitants of Babylon The earth, in their opinion, is a mountain over which they did not dare to cross, which is surrounded on all sides by the sea. Above them in the form of an overturned bowl is the starry sky - the heavenly world, where, like on Earth, there is land, water and air. Under the Earth is an abyss - hell, where the souls of the dead descend. At night, the Sun passes through this dungeon from the western edge of the Earth to the eastern, in order to begin its daytime journey through the sky again in the morning. Watching the sunset over the sea horizon, people thought that it goes into the sea and also rises from the sea.

Technological map of the lesson.

Thing: Geography

Class: 5

UMK “Geography. Initial course. 5th grade

• · Geography. Initial course. Grade 5 Textbook (authors I.I. Barinova, A.A. Pleshakov, N.I. Sonin).
• · Geography. Initial course. Grade 5 Methodological guide (author I.I. Barinova)
• · Geography. Initial course. Grade 5 Workbook (authors N.I. Sonin., S.V. Kurchina).
• · Geography. Initial course. Grade 5 Electronic Application.

Lesson type. The study and primary consolidation of new knowledge and methods of activity.

Lesson topic: How ancient people imagined the universe.

The purpose of the lesson: to organize the activities of students in the perception, comprehension and primary consolidation of the idea of ​​geographical discoveries.

Lesson objectives:

a) educational: — formation of the concept of how ancient people imagined the Universe;

b) developing

Continue developing the ability to highlight the main thing when working with geography textbooks and additional literature;

Improving self-control skills;

Stimulation of curiosity.

c) educational

develop skills: — work in pairs, groups;

Ability to listen to the interlocutor;

Forms of organization of cognitive activity: collective, individual, group.

Teaching aids: textbook, atlas of geography Grade 5, diagrams of the universe according to Aristotle and Ptolemy, drawings. Illustrating ideas of ancient people about the Universe, presentation, reflection cards, didactic material, computer, projector.

Leave your comment, thanks!

To use the preview of presentations, create a Google account (account) and sign in: https://accounts.google.com

Slides captions:

The topic of our lesson: “How ancient people imagined the Universe” Geography Grade 5 Teacher: Drozd V.G.

The purpose of the lesson: to study earlier ideas about the universe.

You have probably heard the word "universe" more than once. What it is? The Universe is outer space and everything that fills it: celestial bodies, gas, dust In other words, it is the whole world. Our planet is part of the vast universe, one of the countless celestial bodies

Modern ideas about the structure of the universe evolved gradually. In ancient times, they were not at all what they are now. For a long time, the Earth was considered the center of the universe.

Representations of ancient peoples about the Universe

Representations of the ancient Indians

Representation of the inhabitants of Mesopotamia According to them, the Earth is a mountain, which is surrounded by the sea on all sides and which rests on 12 columns.

The peoples of Babylon saw the Universe differently. The earth, in their opinion, is a mountain, which is surrounded by the sea on all sides. Above them in the form of an overturned bowl is the starry sky.

Fizminutka I looked at you from the darkness Together with a thousand friends, (The star stands up to its full height, raises its hands and looks up.) I sparkled and shone, (The star rhythmically either presses its arms bent at the elbows with fingers clenched into fists to the sides, then spreads them to the sides, spreading her fingers, depicting her glow) And then she suddenly fell. (Star squats down again.)

Pythagoras (c. 580-500 BC) Great ancient Greek mathematician. He was the first to suggest that the Earth is not flat, but has the shape of a ball.

Aristotle (384-322 BC) Aristotle's system of the world

Aristarchus of Samos (320-250 BC) Ancient Greek scientist. He believed that the center of the universe is not the Earth, but the Sun

Claudius Ptolemy (c. 90-160 AD)

Exercise. Using the material of the textbook, fill in the table The name of the scientist The idea of ​​the Universe Aristotle (384-322 BC) Created a model of the Universe. He believed that in the center of the Universe there is a stationary Earth around which 8 celestial spheres revolve BC) He believed that the center of the Universe is the Sun, and the Earth and other planets move around it Claudius Ptolemy (c. 90-160 AD) Developed a system of the world, in the center of which the Earth and around which five planets revolve, Moon and Sun). Wrote the work "The Great Mathematical Construction of Astronomy" in 13 books.

Test your knowledge 1. Which of the ancient scientists first proposed that the Earth has the shape of a ball? A - Aristotle B - Pythagoras C - Ptolemy 2. According to the ancient Indians, the Earth is: A - flat and rests on a turtle B - round and rests on the backs of giant elephants C - flat and rests on the backs of giant elephants, which, in turn , rest on the turtle G - round and rests on the backs of giant elephants, which, in turn, rest on the turtle. 3. The first of the scientists who believed that the center of the Universe is the Earth was: A - Pythagoras B - Aristotle C - Aristarchus of Samos D - Claudius Ptolemy 4. Ptolemy's system dominated science for: A - 13 centuries B - 15 centuries C – 10 centuries D – 8 centuries

Homework: 1. Paragraph 8 and draw a picture "The idea of ​​the ancient peoples about the universe" 2. Paragraph 8, prepare a message about the ideas of the ancient peoples about the Universe 3. Paragraph 8, prepare a presentation on the topic.

Thank you for your attention!

Ideas about the universe in antiquity

Ancient myths about the Earth and the Universe

People have been observing the sky since ancient times. In that distant era, when people were completely powerless in front of nature, a belief arose in powerful forces that allegedly created the world and rule it, for many centuries the Moon, the Sun, and the planets were deified. We learn about this from the myths of all the peoples of the world.

So the ancient people imagined "the dwelling of God in heaven"

The first ideas about the universe were very naive, they were closely intertwined with religious beliefs, which were based on the division of the world into two parts - earthly and heavenly. If now everyone knows that the Earth itself is a celestial body, then earlier “earthly” was opposed to “heavenly”. They thought that there was a "firmament of heaven", to which the stars were attached, and the Earth was taken for the motionless center of the universe.

The correct idea of ​​the Earth and its form did not develop among different peoples immediately and not at the same time. However, it is difficult to establish exactly where, when, among which people it was most correct. Very few reliable ancient documents and material monuments have been preserved about this.

According to legend, the ancient Indians imagined the Earth as a plane lying on the backs of elephants. Valuable historical information has reached us about how the ancient peoples who lived in the basin of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in the Nile Delta and along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea - in Asia Minor and Southern Europe imagined the Earth. For example, written documents from ancient Babylonia dating back about 6 thousand years have been preserved. The inhabitants of Babylon, who inherited their culture from even more ancient peoples, represented the Earth in the form of a mountain, on the western slope of which Babylonia is located. They knew that there was a sea to the south of Babylon, and mountains to the east, which they did not dare to cross. Therefore, it seemed to them that Babylonia is located on the western slope of the "world" mountain. This mountain is surrounded by the sea, and on the sea, like an overturned bowl, the firm sky rests - the heavenly world, where, like on Earth, there is land, water and air. The heavenly land is a belt of 12 constellations of the Zodiac: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces. In each of the constellations, the Sun visits each year for about a month. The Sun, the Moon and five planets move along this belt of land (since Babylonian times, people have been able to distinguish planets from stars: firstly, planets, unlike stars, do not flicker, and secondly, the location of the planets relative to the familiar pattern of constellations is constantly changing) . Under the Earth is an abyss - hell, where the souls of the dead descend. At night, the Sun passes through this dungeon from the western edge of the Earth to the eastern, in order to begin its daytime journey through the sky again in the morning. Watching the sunset over the sea horizon, people thought that it goes into the sea and also rises from the sea. Thus, the basis of the ideas of the ancient Babylonians about the Earth were observations of natural phenomena, but the limited knowledge did not allow them to be explained correctly.

The ancient Jews imagined the Earth differently. They lived on a plain, and the Earth seemed to them a plain, on which mountains rise in some places. The Jews assigned a special place in the universe to the winds, which bring with them either rain or drought. The abode of the winds, in their opinion, was in the lower zone of the sky and separated the Earth from the heavenly waters: snow, rain and hail. There are waters under the Earth, from which channels go up, feeding the seas and rivers. Apparently, the ancient Jews had no idea about the shape of the entire Earth.

Representations of the "firmament" in the Abrahamic religions

The ancient Greeks and Egyptians had a similar concept of day and night. The Egyptians believed that there was a heavenly river flowing from east to west above the Earth, and there was an underground river flowing from east to west. During the day, the god of the Sun named Ra travels along the heavenly river from east to west, and we see him as the Sun, and at night he returns back along the underground river. The ancient Greek myth differed from the Egyptian only in that among the Greeks, the sun god named Helios did not float across the sky on the river, but rode in a chariot.

However, already in ancient times, such primitive myths ceased to suit thinking people. Already in the poems of the ancient Greek poet Homer "Iliad" and "Odyssey" the Earth is spoken of as a slightly convex disk resembling a warrior's shield. The land is washed by the Ocean River from all sides. A copper firmament spreads over the Earth, through which the Sun moves, rising daily from the waters of the Ocean in the east and plunging into them in the west.

People watched the luminaries not only out of curiosity, but also because the observation of the movement of celestial bodies helped in planning agricultural work. For example, the agriculture of ancient Egypt depended on the floods of the Nile, which recurred annually. And it turned out that the periods of floods of the Nile are preceded by the appearance in the sky of one of the brightest stars - Sirius, which, as a result of the annual rotation of celestial sulfur, becomes visible annually starting from a certain date. Later, when mankind settled in places where weather changes with the change of seasons are noticeable, the observation of the movement of celestial bodies served as the basis for the creation of the first calendars.

Ancient ideas about space and religion . For an ancient farmer, tied to his piece of land, the circle of observation and experience could not be large. He judged the world only on the basis of what he directly felt, saw with his own eyes. He believed that the world is divided into two completely different parts - the Earth and the sky. The earth seemed to him small and flat, above which, like the roof of a house, rose the crystal "firmament of heaven." Above the “firmament” there are allegedly “upper waters”, which sometimes pour out through holes in the sky, by the will of God, onto the Earth, in the form of rain. The sun, moon and other celestial bodies move around the earth in the sky.

With such ideas, it was easy to come to the conclusion that everything in the world was created for man, that man is the “crown of creation”, that only for people the Sun, Moon and stars pour their light on the Earth. At the same time, each ancient people not only considered the Earth to be the center of the entire universe, but was inclined to believe that the very place where they lived was the center of the world. For example, the Chinese still call their country the Middle Kingdom; The Incas of Peru said that the center of the world is in the temple of Kutsko, whose name means "navel".

In one form or another, we meet this view among all the peoples of the ancient world - Egyptians, Greeks, etc. Even Babylonian astronomy, despite its rather high development, still did not come to a new, more correct view of heaven and Earth, on the structure of the universe. In the most ancient Babylonian writings, we read that the Earth looks like a convex island surrounded by the ocean, and the sky is just a solid dome resting on the earth's surface. Heavenly bodies are attached to this dome, and it separates the waters that are "below" (the ocean flowing around the earth's island) from the waters that are "above" (rainwater). The sun rises in the morning, leaving the gates of heaven, and in the evening, when it sets, it passes through the western gates and moves somewhere under the Earth at night.

This primitive view of the structure of the whole world did not undergo any change in Babylon, despite the continued development of the science of the sky. But this will not surprise us if we remember that Babylonian (as well as Egyptian, etc.) astronomy was the science of the priests. It was only an auxiliary tool for compiling a calendar and developing a cult ritual and remained completely captive to religious ideas inextricably linked with the anthropogeocentric worldview.

The Babylonian idea of ​​the universe influenced the biblical description of the world. In the European-Christian sacred books, the view is everywhere held that the Earth plays an exceptional role in the whole world, which was created and exists only for man. About heaven in the Bible, for example, it is said that they are “hard as a cast mirror” (Book of Job, XXXVII, 18) and that they are established on columns - “the earth shook, the foundations of the heavens trembled and moved” (Second Book of Kings, XXII, 8 ), “the pillars of heaven tremble” (Book of Job, XXVI, 41). As for the question of what the Earth rests on, then the same “sacred” in different places gives contradictory ideas: the Earth is approved on some basis - “where were you when I laid the foundation of the Earth”, “on what were its foundations and whoever laid the cornerstone" (XXXIX, 4, 6), then a different look peeps through - "he spread the north over the void, hung the Earth on nothing" (XXVI, 7).

The idea of ​​the exclusive position of the Earth in the world was the basis not only of any religion, but also of astrology, which believed that by the movement of the planets and their position among the zodiac constellations, it is possible to predict the future of peoples, the fate of individuals, etc.

The enormous, all-encompassing influence of the Sun on all processes occurring on Earth, on the life of plants and animals, was noticed very early by people. Just as long ago, it was found that the position of the stars in the sky can determine the time of year, and therefore it seemed that, for example, the harvest depends on the stars, and not only on the Sun. All this eventually led to the idea that all earthly events depend on the occurrence of certain celestial phenomena and that, consequently, all the events of human life can be predicted from the heavenly bodies. Therefore, in ancient Egypt, in Babylon, Assyria and other ancient countries, astrology was very popular. Astrologers-priests made observations of heavenly bodies not only for the calendar, but also for astrological divination.

The Christian Church in the first centuries was unfriendly to, as a "pagan doctrine", recognizing predestination and, therefore, contrary to the idea of ​​free will and responsibility for sins. However, during the Renaissance, astrology became widespread in Western Europe and even became a compulsory subject of teaching in a number of universities, which was in complete harmony with the anthropogeocentric worldview.

If the Earth as the abode of the "crown of creation" - man occupies a special position in the universe, and the heavenly bodies were created only for the Earth and its inhabitants, then, according to astrologers, it can be assumed that the planets (astrologers also included the Sun and the Moon among the planets) influence everything that happens on Earth and the fate of individual people. Therefore, under kings, generals, etc., there was a special position of an astrologer who made horoscopes, that is, predictions of future events based on the location of the planets among the constellations at the time of a person’s birth and at other important moments of his life. Astrology and astronomy at that time were closely related, and astrology was the source of livelihood for astronomers. Moreover, both were based on the same anthropogeocentric idea of ​​the world.

This naive idea fully satisfied the needs of ancient agriculture, hunting, crafts and navigation, while people's experience was limited.

The birth of the scientific approach . Already in ancient times, the question arose before man: where does the Sun go after sunset in the west? As we have seen, the Babylonians, to whom the sky seemed to be a solid hemisphere, believed that the Sun rises in the morning through the eastern "heavenly gates" and sets in the evening through the western. Thales, Anaximander and other Greek thinkers who lived between 600-500 B.C. to ch. era in the Ionian cities on the shores of Asia Minor, were no longer limited to the old question: what is above us and around us? They took a new path, asking another question: what is under us?

From observing that some stars do not set, but describe a full circle above the horizon, while others sink under it and rise again, they broke away from visible impressions and came to the conclusion that the sky is spherical. But if this is so, if, in addition to one domed "ceiling" above the Earth, there is also a hemisphere under it, i.e. if the sky has the shape of a full sphere, then there is nothing to talk about "heavenly gates". From this point of view, it is necessary that the spherical, spherical sky rotate around its axis, which is why the sunrise and sunset of the luminaries occur. It followed from this that the Earth does not lie on anything, but is isolated on all sides in space, and when the Sun; sets in the west, it describes the second half of its circular path on an invisible part of the celestial sphere.

However, the view still existed that the Earth was flat, that it was a disk or a thin cylinder, on the upper surface of which people lived. Anaximander (610-547 BC) made a very important correction to this idea: he mentally increased the size of the celestial sphere and reduced the size of the Earth, so that the naive, primitive idea of ​​\u200b\u200blimiting the Earth to the sky disappeared. It turned out, therefore, that the flat Earth, surrounded by an air shell, hangs freely in space, that equally remote from every point of the celestial sphere of almost infinite dimensions, it cannot fall either up or down and therefore remains in “balance” in the center of the whole world. . Of course, for a long time this idea of ​​Anaximander seemed dizzying, because it broke with the usual ideas.

After the whole world began to be represented as a sphere, a further step was taken: ideas appeared that the Earth was not a flat disk or a cylinder, but a sphere. After all, if the Earth is flat, then the horizon must be the same in all places, and as a result, the appearance of the starry sky must be the same everywhere, while earthly objects from any point must be visible entirely from top to bottom. Meanwhile, Greek navigators noticed that the stars rising above the southern part of the horizon off the coast of Africa are not at all visible off the coast of the Black Sea, that is, in more northern countries; this indicated that the Earth has a curved surface, that the position of the horizon is different in different places. At the same time, the Greeks living on the islands and sailing the seas could not help but pay attention to the fact that when approaching the coast, the tops of tall objects (mountains, ships, buildings, etc.) are first visible, then the middle ones, and finally the lower ones; this led to the idea that the Earth must have some bulge that obscures the lower parts of objects from us.

When people began to make long journeys, evidence gradually began to accumulate that the Earth was not flat, but convex. So, moving south, travelers noticed that in the southern side of the sky the stars rise above the horizon in proportion to the distance traveled and new stars appear above the Earth that were not visible before. And in the northern side of the sky, on the contrary, the stars go down to the horizon and then completely disappear behind it. The bulge of the Earth was also confirmed by observations of receding ships. The ship disappears over the horizon gradually. The hull of the ship has already disappeared and only the masts are visible above the surface of the sea. Then they disappear too. On this basis, people began to assume that the Earth is spherical.

Pythagoras, a philosopher and mathematician of the 6th century BC, is considered the founder of the doctrine that the Earth is a ball freely hanging in the world space. In its significance and boldness, this idea can be put on a par with the doctrine of the motion of the Earth or with the discovery of the law of universal attraction. In any case, it is one of the greatest achievements of ancient scientific thought in general.

The famous ancient Greek scientist Aristotle (4th century BC) was the first to use observations of lunar eclipses to prove the sphericity of the Earth: the shadow from the Earth falling on the full Moon is always round. During eclipses, the Earth is turned to the Moon in different directions. But only the ball always casts a round shadow.

Finally, the outstanding astronomer of the ancient world Aristarchus of Samos (late 4th - first half of the 3rd century BC) suggested that it is not the Sun, together with the planets, that moves around the Earth, but the Earth and all the planets revolve around the Sun. However, he had very little evidence at his disposal. And about 1700 years passed before the Polish scientist Copernicus managed to prove this.

Gradually, ideas about the Earth began to be based not on a speculative interpretation of individual phenomena, but on precise calculations and measurements.

Then the question arose about the size of the spherical Earth. This issue was first resolved, and, moreover, amazingly simply, by the Greek scientist Eratosthenes (276-196 BC). Eratosthenes established that on the day of the summer solstice in Alexandria, at noon, the Sun was 7.2 ° away from the zenith (from the highest point of the sky), that is, one fiftieth of a circle. On the same day, to the south, in Siena (now the city of Assuan), lying on the same meridian with Alexandria, the Sun illuminated the bottom of the wells, that is, there the Sun was just at the zenith, directly overhead. These two cities are 5,000 stadia apart. Therefore, Eratosthenes believed that if this distance is one fiftieth of the circumference of the globe, then its entire circumference is 250,000 stadia.

Eratosthenes' scheme of calculations

Having put forward the idea of ​​a spherical form of the firmament, the Ionian philosophical school in the person of Anaximander took the first step towards the renunciation of direct impressions. By the way, one of the representatives of this school Anaximenes (VI century BC) considered the celestial sphere to be solid and transparent, and therefore invisible. According to this philosopher, who for a very long time owned the minds of people, the heavenly "firmament" rotates around an axis, and the stars are driven into it, like golden nails. However, one of the most remarkable representatives of the Ionian school, Anaxagoras (500-428 BC), completely rejected the idea of ​​attaching heavenly bodies to a hard, crystal firmament. He considered the stars to be composed of the same matter as the Earth, namely, stone masses, some of them hot and shining, while others cold and dark. In connection with this idea of ​​the unity of terrestrial and celestial matter, Anaxagoras said that the Sun consists of a molten substance similar to terrestrial matter. In support of this, Anaxagoras cited meteorites falling from the sky as an example. He described one "heavenly stone" that fell in his time in Thrace and was equal in size to a millstone. He believed that this piece of iron, which fell on the Earth in daylight, originated from the Sun. This allegedly proves that our daylight consists of red-hot iron.

Anaxagoras further asserted that the Sun was many times larger in size than the entire Peloponnese, and that the Moon was approximately equal to the Peloponnese. The moon is so large that mountains and valleys fit on it, and - like the Earth - it is the seat of living beings; this dark body receives its light from the Sun; it is eclipsed when it falls into the shadow cast by the Earth. It is characteristic at the same time that the answer to the question: if celestial bodies, like earthly bodies, are heavy, then why do they not fall to the Earth? - Anaxagoras answered that the reason for this lies in their circular motion around the Earth. Hence, from the point of view of this thinker, celestial bodies do not fall to the Earth because their circular motion has an advantage over the force of falling, which drags the bodies down. In this regard, he compared the movement of the Moon around the Earth with the movement of a stone in a sling, the rapid rotation of which destroys the desire of the stone to fall to the Earth (this is probably the oldest concept of centrifugal force that has come down to us).

For a long time Anaxagoras hid these views of his, or expounded them only to his closest disciples. When these views became known thanks to the distribution of his work “On Nature” (only a few fragments of it have come down to us), he became a victim of obscurantism - he was imprisoned as an atheist and sentenced to death. Only thanks to the persistent efforts of his powerful student and friend Pericles, Anaxagoras' death penalty was replaced by exile from his native country: he was released with the obligation to leave Athens forever.

This idea of ​​matter undoubtedly influenced the great ancient Greek materialist Democritus (460-370 or 360 BC), who developed the atomistic theory of the world, which played a colossal role in the development of natural science and philosophy.

According to this theory of Democritus, the universe is without beginning and has never been created by anyone; everything that was, is and will be, is conditioned by necessity, depends on certain reasons, and not on the whims of some supernatural, divine beings. The Universe consists of indivisible, qualitatively identical smallest particles - atoms, which are eternally in continuous motion. Atoms, differing in form, change their mutual position, and in order for this to be possible, space must be completely empty. By changing the mutual position of the atoms, every modification is caused, so that the variety of things depends on the number, shape, and combination of atoms. The number of atoms is infinitely great and their forms are infinitely different, but qualitatively these particles are completely identical. When moving in infinite space, they collide, and this causes vortices from which celestial bodies and various worlds are formed. Democritus taught that in infinite space an infinite number of combinations, compounds of atoms can form an innumerable number of worlds.

In general, Democritus drew himself such a picture of the universe: the universe is infinite, its matter is eternal, and the number of worlds is countless, some of the worlds are similar to each other, others are completely different. These bodies are not permanent; they arise and disappear, we see them in various stages of development. The whitish flickering strip in the sky, since ancient times called the Milky Way, Democritus took for a cluster of a colossal number of very closely spaced stars. He called the stars very distant suns; about the Moon he said that it is similar to the Earth, has mountains, valleys, etc.

The views of Democritus were clearly atheistic, and therefore they were considered "dangerous" for the masses. To prevent their spread, aristocrats and reactionaries did not hesitate in means. For example, Plato and his disciples bought up the writings of Democritus and destroyed them (only small fragments of them have come down to us). As a result, the bold materialistic ideas of Democritus had only a minor influence in the era in which they arose.

The “Father of the Church” Hippolytus (about 220 AD) in his essay “The Refutation of All Heresies” expounds the Democritanian idea of ​​the universe as follows: “The worlds (according to Democritus) are countless and different in size. In some of them there is neither sun nor moon, in others the sun and moon are larger than ours, and in some there are more of them. The distances between the worlds are not equal, between some they are large, between others they are smaller, and some worlds are still growing, others are already in their bloom, others are being destroyed, and at the same time in some places worlds arise, in others they are destroyed. They die from each other, colliding with each other. Some worlds do not have animals and plants and are completely devoid of moisture ... Our world is in its prime, not being able to receive anything from the outside.

These ideas were used and developed by the outstanding thinker Epicurus (341-270 BC), one of the pillars of ancient materialism. This philosopher defended the doctrine of the innumerable worlds and clearly showed that from this doctrine the idea of ​​the spatial infinity of the universe necessarily follows.

Epicurus deduced the infinity of the universe from the fact that the "universe" means "all-containing", so that outside of it there is nothing and cannot be. He argued: “The universe is infinite, space has no bottom, no top, no end; the universe is infinite, because everything limited has something outside of itself; after all, the external presupposes another next to itself, with which it could be compared, but precisely such an other does not exist next to the universe, and therefore it cannot be compared with anything. Thus, there is nothing external, and therefore the universe has no boundaries - therefore, it is - infinite and unlimited.

The ardent follower of Epicurus, the great Roman poet Lucretius Carus (99-55 BC), approached this issue in the same way, who in his philosophical poem “On the Nature of Things” outlined the main ideas of ancient materialism. In this atheistic work, Lucretius says: “If we must admit that there is nothing beyond the universe, it has no edges and no end or limit. And it doesn’t matter what part of the universe you are in: wherever you are, everywhere, from the place that you occupy, everything remains infinite in all directions. By the way, Lucretius correctly emphasized the fact that the denial of the idea of ​​the central position of the Earth or any other point of the universe logically follows from the idea of ​​the infinity of world space. He wrote: "...do not believe the statement that everything rushes to some kind of center of the universe," because "...there is no center anywhere in the universe, since there is no end to it."

If ancient natural philosophy put forward the doctrine of the innumerability of worlds and the spatial infinity of the universe, then ancient astronomy, on the contrary, tried to further establish geocentrism and, therefore, supported the doctrine of the spatial finiteness of the universe. In connection with this contradiction, materialistic natural philosophers and practical astronomers usually simply completely ignored each other, without even trying to reconcile their different points of view. The losers, however, were the materialists, although their ideas were never completely forgotten in the ancient world. But these ideas, which refuted the religious worldview, could not achieve such a spread as the idealistic philosophy developed by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. These philosophers had a great influence on the subsequent development of thought, but they did not contribute to the progress of our knowledge of the universe, as they put certain limits on science. For example, Socrates (469 - 399 BC) strictly bequeathed to his students not to deal with questions about the movement of celestial bodies, about their distances from the Earth, about their (origin, etc.), considering these questions unsolvable. According to his message beloved student of Xenophon, he assured that “all this will forever remain a mystery to a mortal, and, of course, it is regrettable for the gods themselves to see the efforts of a person to unravel what they wanted to hide forever from him with an impenetrable veil.”

From the point of view of the progress of the natural-scientific worldview, the ancient Greek idealistic philosophy, which reached its highest development in the teachings of Aristotle, was undoubtedly a step backwards in comparison with the teachings of Democritus. This philosophy, by its very essence, served as a justification for the religious worldview. She was clothed in a thick shell of animism, extreme anthropomorphism, naive teleology and other attributes of priesthood (which is why it was used by Christian theologians).

Questions and tasks?

1. How did the ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks imagine the Earth and the Universe?

2. How is the structure of the world described in the Bible? Do these descriptions fit the data of science?

3. Why did people begin to study the motion of celestial bodies?

4. How and when did people guess that the Earth is spherical?

5. Which of the ancient scientists came up with materialistic ideas? Why did religion and the church criticize them? Who was right in their disputes?

Once at a tender age, hearing the expression “at the end of the world” in fairy tales, I thought - where is this edge and what does it look like? If this is just the end of the Earth, and the void begins, then did they put a fence there so that no one would fall? Childhood is over, I learned about planets and solar system, galaxies and Universe. Even now it is difficult to imagine the immensity and assume where is the end of the universe. Probably, in this matter, we are all, like ancient people, imagining the Earth and universe.

How did our ancestors imagine the world?

Scientific attempts to describe the universe

Some peoples have advanced knowledge of the world deeper than the convenient legend of grandma's tales. The most advanced in this area were:

• Greeks. Officially, they were the first to suggest that The earth is round. But their theory was geocentric It was believed that the Sun and the planets revolve around the Earth. The atomists assumed that our system is not the only one, and represented the Universe as a cluster of systems, in which they were not far from the truth.
• Hindus. In the Vedas and Puranas, it was described in an allegorical form solar system model like planets going around the sun, and the Sun itself around the Earth. With the degradation of the priestly level, the projection drawings themselves began to be perceived by the servants as flat objects, from which the version of flat earth.
• Romans. Like the Greeks, they said geocentric Universe, while quite accurately calculating temporary length of orbits planets and their distance from the Earth.

Today

The fact that today much is known about our solar system, our and nearby galaxies, does not give confidence in the correctness of our ideas about the universe. Most of them are just conjectures. It is quite possible that our ideas will also fall into someone's discussions in 300 years.