Astronomers

Ancient Greek Astronomers Below is a list of ancient astronomers (mostly Greek) arranged in alphabetical order with links to more information about their lives and works (at present only a few of these entries have been completed). The term ‘astronomer’ is often used quite loosely and comprises the following rough and ready categories (indicated in the listing by square brackets []):
  1. Astronomers proper, whose main endeavour appears to have been astronomy, such as Hipparchos and Ptolemy. Given the gradual specialisation of science in ancient Greece, such a designation is not really valid until the C4th BCE.
  2. Philosophers and scientists, whose main work may have been in other fields but who made or reported on significant contributions to astronomy, such as Anaxagoras, Aristotle or Euclid. Before the C4th BCE all astronomers were of this generalist type.
  3. Writers of various sorts (usually early poets) who were not principally philosophers or scientists as we would think of them, but whose work contains incidental matter of astronomical interest, such as Homer, Hesiod or Xenophanes.
One thing to bear in mind is that reliable evidence about the lives and opinions of many of these people is scarce. In the case of the earliest astronomers (the so called presocratic philosophers) much of it comes from the long tradition of making anthologies and summaries of earlier sources. This is known as the doxography and it is highly variable in quality. I have generally tried to indicate where plausible inference does duty for established fact.
     Even for the later astronomers, where there may be copious written material (for example, Ptolemy) their dates are often not precisely known, but it is useful to offer best guesses where hard information is lacking. The ubiquitous 'c.' for circa and 'fl.' for floruit do sterling work throughout. A rough chronological guide to the astronomers may be obtained by perusing the main timeline section.


  1. Agrippa of Bithynia [1] (fl. 92 CE)
  2. Alexander of Ephesos [3]
  3. Alkmaion of Krotone [3]
  4. Anakreon of Alexandria
  5. Anaximander of Miletos [2] (c. 610 - c 546 BCE)
  6. Anaxagoras of Klazomenai [2]
  7. Anaximenes of Miletos [2]
  8. Apollonios of Perga [2]
  9. Aratos of Soloi [2/3] (c. 310 - c. 240 BCE)
  10. Archelaos of Athens [2]
  11. Archimedes of Syracuse [2]
  12. Aristarchos of Samos [1]
  13. Aristotheros
  14. Aristotle of Stagira [2]
  15. Aristyllos of Alexandria [1] (fl. 258 BCE)
  16. Attalos of Rhodes [1]
  17. Autolykos of Pitane [1]
  18. Bion of Abdera
  19. Censorinus [2]
  20. Demokritos of Abdera [2]
  21. Diodoros of Alexandria [1]
  22. Diogenes of Apollonia [2]
  23. Dionysios [1]
  24. Ekphantos of Syracuse [2] (fl. C4th BCE)
  25. Empedokles [2]
  26. Eratosthenes of Kyrene [2]
  27. Euclid of Alexandria [2]
  28. Eudemos of Rhodes [2]
  29. Eudoxos of Knidos [2]
  30. Euktemon of Athens [2]
  31. Geminos of Rhodes [1]
  32. Harpalos of Tenedos [2]
  33. Helikon of Kyzikos [1]
  34. Herakleides of Pontos [2]
  35. Herakleitos of Ephesos [2]
  36. Hesiod [3] (fl. 700 BCE)
  37. Hiketas
  38. Hipparchos of Nicaea [1] (c. 190 - c. 120 BCE)
  39. Homer [3] (fl. 750 BCE)
  40. Hypatia of Alexandria [2]
  41. Hypsikles of Alexandria [1]
  42. Kallippos of Kyzikos [1]
  43. Kleomedes [1]
  44. Kleostratos of Tenedos [2] (fl. 520 BCE)
  45. Konon of Samos [1]
  46. Leukippos of Miletos [2]
  47. Martianus Capella [2]
  48. Menelaos of Alexandria [1]
  49. Meton Of Athens [2]
  50. Oinopides of Chios [2]
  51. Pappos of Alexandria [2]
  52. Phaeinos [2]
  53. Philippos of Opous [2]
  54. Philolaos of Krotone [2]
  55. Plato [2]
  56. Polemarchos of Kyzikos [1]
  57. Posidonios of Apameia [2]
  58. Pseudo–Eratosthenes [3]
  59. Pseudo–Hyginus [3]
  60. Ptolemy of Alexandria [1]
  61. Pythagoras of Samos [2]
  62. Pytheas of Massalia [2]
  63. Sosigenes of Alexandria [1] (c. 100 BCE ‒ c. 30 BCE?)
  64. Thales of Miletos [2] (624 ‒ 546/534 BCE)
  65. Theodosios of Bythinia [1]
  66. Theon of Alexandria [1]
  67. Theon of Smyrna [2]
  68. Theophrastos of Eresos [2]
  69. Timocharis of Alexandria [1] (fl. 295 ‒ 272)
  70. Vettius Valens [2]
  71. Xenophanes of Kolophon [2]
  72. Zenodoros [2]

Last updated 19/06/20

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