Hipparchus on the ratio of longest day to shortest night in Eudoxus, Aratus and Attalus: Part II: The error

TitleHipparchus on the ratio of longest day to shortest night in Eudoxus, Aratus and Attalus: Part II: The error
Publication TypeJournal Article
AuthorsBodnár, I.
Journal titlePolanyiana
Year2021
Pages6-19
Volume30
Issue1
Abstract

As the title indicates, this is a sequel, or indeed, a correction to a paper, "Hipparchus on the ratio of longest day to shortest night in Eudoxus, Aratus and Attalus (In Arati et Eudoxi Phaenomena I.3.10)", which appeared as a contribution to the Festschrift to Professor László Török. That paper argued for a conjecture of Otto Neugebauer, who suggested that in Hipparchus‘ report about the two different values for the ratio of longest day to shortest night in two different works of Eudoxus – 5 : 3 in the Mirror (Enoptron) and 12 : 7 in the Phaenomena – the latter value should be emended to 11 : 7. In this I argued against Alan Bowen and Bernard Goldstein, who defended the transmitted value.
In this Part II I recapitulate the argumentation of that paper, and then set out the reading of the passage proposed by Alexander Jones, and then reassess the import of this passage about the ratio of longest day to shortest night.

ISSN1215-6582
LanguageEnglish
Publisher linkhttps://polanyiana.org/articles/polanyiana-2021-1-30_istvn-m-bodnr-hipparchus-on-the-ratio-of-longest-day-to-shortest-night-in-eudoxus-aratus-and-attalus.pdf
Unit: 
Department of Philosophy