I know that I am mortal by nature and ephemeral, but when I trace at my pleasure the windings to and fro of the heavenly bodies, I no longer touch earth with my feet. I stand in the presence of Zeus himself and take my fill of ambrosia.
Epigram in some manuscripts of Almagest
- Almagest (Wikipedia)
The Almagest (/ˈælmədʒɛst/ AL-mə-jest) is a 2nd-century mathematical and astronomical treatise on the apparent motions of the stars and planetary paths, written by Claudius Ptolemy (c. AD 100 – c. 170) in Koine Greek. One of the most influential scientific texts in history, it canonized a geocentric model of the Universe that was accepted for more than 1,200 years from its origin in Hellenistic Alexandria, in the medieval Byzantine and Islamic worlds, and in Western Europe through the Middle Ages and early Renaissance until Copernicus. It is also a key source of information about ancient Greek astronomy.
- Ptolemy (Wikiquote)
Claudius Ptolemaeus (Greek: Κλαύδιος Πτολεμαῖος; c. 100 – c. 170), known in English as Ptolemy, was an ancient Greek geographer, astronomer, and astrologer who probably lived and worked in Alexandria, off the coast of Egypt.