Talk:Sosigenes (astronomer)

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This is a project I'd like to take on some day, & could be applied to more of Wikipedia than just Ancient Egypt. Take one of the standard authorities of history or culture -- Herotodus, the Elder Pliny, the writings of Breasted or Kenneth Kitchen, & see if you can't smoothly merge quotations or information into relevant articles. Probably a good exercise for someone who owns one of those impressive texts, yet can't get access to a research library.

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Sosigenes: Tutor of Cleopatra?[edit]

The brilliant mathematician, astronomer, and scientist Sosigenes of Alexandria was said to be the tutor of the Princess, later Queen Cleopatra VII Philopater. I cannot document this, it is based on hearsay and folklore; but the famous Queen was said to have had a brilliant intellect in her own right. The producers of the blockbuster 1963 Elizabeth Taylor film accepted this bit of lore and had Sosigenes played by the noted actor Hume Cronyn. This is an interesting bit of trivia. Buddmar 00:00, 23 March 2007 (UTC)buddmar[reply]

Pliny book 18[edit]

Perhaps someone has a source for Pliny book 18, 210-212 English translation for a reference for the first Pliny paragraph of "He appears in Pliny book 18, 210-212"? --Doug Coldwell ^talk 17:27, 2 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Multiple pieces of misinformation[edit]

The title of the article and Sosigenes' name as given in the first line are both false. There is no basis whatsoever for regarding Sosigenes as Alexandrian. The claim does not appear in any ancient source. Pliny is the only ancient source to mention Sosigenes, and he does not mention a geographic origin.

The titles of Sosigenes' works given in the article are fabrications. No titles of Sosigenes' works are known. Pliny states that he wrote three treatises (commentationes), but gives no titles.

There is no basis for giving Sosigenes' name in Greek, nor for inventing Greek titles for his works. No indication exists that he wrote in Greek. He advised on the revision of the Roman calendar, not any Greek calendar. The Alexandrian solar calendar was nearly 20 years later, after the fall of Cleopatra. And again, no titles of Sosigenes' works are known.

The third title given in the article, 'Optics (Περί όψεως)', is the title of a work written by Sosigenes the Peripatetic, a 2nd century CE philosopher (source: New Pauly).

Here by the way is an online copy of the text of Pliny. --2401:7000:DAA5:BA00:C0E9:454C:46C7:B1C (talk) 23:20, 24 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

There is a blogpost about this misinformation by the classics scholar Peter Gainsford. Some of it (like the titles of books by Sosigenes) may even be a hoax. The article needs an overhaul. /Pieter Kuiper (talk) 07:45, 4 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The article should mention the appelation "Sosigenes of Alexandria"[edit]

I know that he has no documented link with Alexandria, but the fact remains that a lot of books call him Sosigenes of Alexandria. The article should explain why this is an incorrect appellation, and that it is only a modern fabrication. Imerologul Valah (talk) 19:24, 26 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I did so, with the data available, as it is not a topic addressed in the academic literature. He is always named as Sosigenes of Alexandria and no one questions it. In any case, the lack of evidence is definitive, at least until an unknown source appears. I had to reference it, because it is not my research, and the reference, although from a blog, comes from a Hellenist expert and as such is reliable. Gustavo Rubén (talk) 15:27, 26 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I like to emphasizes the fact Sosigenes devised solar colander for Caesar,base on duration of earth orbiting around the Sun.this denotes the fact that he understood the solar system. Yet scientific communities give credit to Copernicus 1400 years later of his knowledge of solar system,in a related matter the year about 1200 Ad ,Malek shah of Saljoug in Iran commissioned Omar Khiam to come up with his solar calendar namely taqweem Jalali 138.207.198.216 (talk) 05:07, 29 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Mercury misinformation[edit]

Mercury's synodic period is not 9 days faster than Venus's. He was off by about 459 days. That's an error of 5100%. Perhaps 9 days faster at something else?

Contrary to his claim, Mercury is often farther that 22 degrees from the sun. It can reach 28 degrees of elongation. So he was 27% off... on what might be the easiest datum to measure with Mercury, because it's most visible at maximum elongation.

Why is someone nobody but Pliny has ever heard of, and who was wrong about 100% of the Mercury facts he's known for, credited for something accomplished, and accomplished correctly, by the Babylonians 100s if not 1000+ years earlier? Skintigh (talk) 04:35, 5 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]