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Aratus (ca. 315 BC/310 BC – 240 BC) was a Greek
Greeks

The Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in Greek diaspora communities around the world....
 didactic poet
Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry....
, known for his technical poetry.

as born in Soli
Soli, Cilicia

Soli was an ancient city and port in Cilicia, in present day Turkey, 11 km west of present day Mersin . It was a colony of Rhodes, founded c....
 in Cilicia and was a contemporary of Callimachus
Callimachus

Callimachus was a native of the Greek colony of Cyrene, Libya, Libya. He was a noted poet, critic and scholar of the Library of Alexandria and enjoyed the patronage of ancient Egyptian Greeks Pharaohs Ptolemy II Philadelphus and Ptolemy III Euergetes....
 and Theocritus
Theocritus

Theocritus , the creator of ancient Greek bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC....
. He is known to have studied with Menecrates in Ephesus
Ephesus

Ephesus was an ancient Greek city on the west coast of Anatolia, in the region known as Ionia during the period known as Classical Greece. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League....
 and Philitas in Cos
Kos

Kos or Cos is a Greece island in the south Sporades group of the Dodecanese, next to the Gulf of G?kova. It measures 40 km by 8 km, and is only 4 km from the coast of Bodrum, Turkey and the ancient region of Caria....
. As a disciple of the Peripatetic philosopher Praxiphanes
Praxiphanes

Praxiphanes a Peripatetic philosopher, was a native of Mytilene, who lived a long time in Rhodes. He lived in the time of Demetrius Poliorcetes and Ptolemy I Soter, and was a pupil of Theophrastus, about 322 BC....
, in Athens
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
, he met the Stoic
Stoicism

Stoicism was a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early third century B.C. The stoics considered passionate emotions to be the result of errors in judgment, and that a Sage , or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not have such emotions....
 philosopher Zeno
Zeno of Citium

Zeno of Citium was a Greeks philosopher from Citium , Cyprus. Zeno was the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy which he taught in Athens, from about 300 BC....
, as well as Callimachus
Callimachus

Callimachus was a native of the Greek colony of Cyrene, Libya, Libya. He was a noted poet, critic and scholar of the Library of Alexandria and enjoyed the patronage of ancient Egyptian Greeks Pharaohs Ptolemy II Philadelphus and Ptolemy III Euergetes....
 of Cyrene
Cyrene

Cyrene may refer to:* Cyrene , a Greek mythological figure* Cyrene, Libya, an ancient Greek colony in North Africa* The USS Cyrene , a motor torpedo boat tender...
 and Menedemus
Menedemus

Menedemus, , a Greece philosopher and founder of the Eretrian School of Philosophy, was born at Eretria.Though of noble birth, he worked as builder and tentmaker until he was sent with a military expedition to Megara, where, according to Diogenes Laertius, he heard Plato and resolved to devote himself to philosophy....
, the founder of the Eretrian School.

About 276 he was invited to the court of the Macedonian
Macedon

Macedon or Macedonia was the name of a monarchy centred in the northernmost part of ancient Greece. The homeland of the ancient Macedonians, it was bordered by the kingdom of Epirus to the west and the region of Thrace to the east....
 king Antigonus II Gonatas
Antigonus II Gonatas

Antigonus II Gonatas was a powerful ruler who firmly established the Antigonid dynasty in Macedonia and acquired fame for his victory over the Gauls who had invaded the Balkans....
, whose victory over the Gauls
Gauls

The Gauls were a Continental Celtic Celts people of Classical Antiquity, the inhabitants of Gaul , and speakers of the Gaulish language.Archaeologically, they were the bearers of the La T?ne culture ....
 in 277 BC Aratus set to verse.






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Aratus (ca. 315 BC/310 BC – 240 BC) was a Greek
Greeks

The Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in Greek diaspora communities around the world....
 didactic poet
Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry....
, known for his technical poetry.

Biography

He was born in Soli
Soli, Cilicia

Soli was an ancient city and port in Cilicia, in present day Turkey, 11 km west of present day Mersin . It was a colony of Rhodes, founded c....
 in Cilicia and was a contemporary of Callimachus
Callimachus

Callimachus was a native of the Greek colony of Cyrene, Libya, Libya. He was a noted poet, critic and scholar of the Library of Alexandria and enjoyed the patronage of ancient Egyptian Greeks Pharaohs Ptolemy II Philadelphus and Ptolemy III Euergetes....
 and Theocritus
Theocritus

Theocritus , the creator of ancient Greek bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC....
. He is known to have studied with Menecrates in Ephesus
Ephesus

Ephesus was an ancient Greek city on the west coast of Anatolia, in the region known as Ionia during the period known as Classical Greece. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League....
 and Philitas in Cos
Kos

Kos or Cos is a Greece island in the south Sporades group of the Dodecanese, next to the Gulf of G?kova. It measures 40 km by 8 km, and is only 4 km from the coast of Bodrum, Turkey and the ancient region of Caria....
. As a disciple of the Peripatetic philosopher Praxiphanes
Praxiphanes

Praxiphanes a Peripatetic philosopher, was a native of Mytilene, who lived a long time in Rhodes. He lived in the time of Demetrius Poliorcetes and Ptolemy I Soter, and was a pupil of Theophrastus, about 322 BC....
, in Athens
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
, he met the Stoic
Stoicism

Stoicism was a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early third century B.C. The stoics considered passionate emotions to be the result of errors in judgment, and that a Sage , or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not have such emotions....
 philosopher Zeno
Zeno of Citium

Zeno of Citium was a Greeks philosopher from Citium , Cyprus. Zeno was the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy which he taught in Athens, from about 300 BC....
, as well as Callimachus
Callimachus

Callimachus was a native of the Greek colony of Cyrene, Libya, Libya. He was a noted poet, critic and scholar of the Library of Alexandria and enjoyed the patronage of ancient Egyptian Greeks Pharaohs Ptolemy II Philadelphus and Ptolemy III Euergetes....
 of Cyrene
Cyrene

Cyrene may refer to:* Cyrene , a Greek mythological figure* Cyrene, Libya, an ancient Greek colony in North Africa* The USS Cyrene , a motor torpedo boat tender...
 and Menedemus
Menedemus

Menedemus, , a Greece philosopher and founder of the Eretrian School of Philosophy, was born at Eretria.Though of noble birth, he worked as builder and tentmaker until he was sent with a military expedition to Megara, where, according to Diogenes Laertius, he heard Plato and resolved to devote himself to philosophy....
, the founder of the Eretrian School.

About 276 he was invited to the court of the Macedonian
Macedon

Macedon or Macedonia was the name of a monarchy centred in the northernmost part of ancient Greece. The homeland of the ancient Macedonians, it was bordered by the kingdom of Epirus to the west and the region of Thrace to the east....
 king Antigonus II Gonatas
Antigonus II Gonatas

Antigonus II Gonatas was a powerful ruler who firmly established the Antigonid dynasty in Macedonia and acquired fame for his victory over the Gauls who had invaded the Balkans....
, whose victory over the Gauls
Gauls

The Gauls were a Continental Celtic Celts people of Classical Antiquity, the inhabitants of Gaul , and speakers of the Gaulish language.Archaeologically, they were the bearers of the La T?ne culture ....
 in 277 BC Aratus set to verse. Here he wrote his most famous poem, Phaenomena ("Appearances"). He then spent some time at the court of Antiochus I Soter
Antiochus I Soter

Antiochus I Soter , was a king of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire. He reigned from 281 BC - 261 BC.Antiochus I was half Persians, his mother Apama being one of the eastern princesses whom Alexander the Great had given as wives to his generals in 324 BC....
 of Syria
Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
, but subsequently returned to Pella
Pella

Pella was the Capital of the Ancient Greece Monarchy of Macedon. A common folk etymology is traditionally given for the name Pella, ascribing it to a form akin to the Doric Greek Apella, originally meaning a ceremonial location where decisions were made....
 in Macedon, where he died about 240 BCE.

Writings

Aratus' major extant work is his hexameter poem Phaenomena ("Appearances"), the first half of which is a verse setting of a lost work of the same name by Eudoxus of Cnidus
Eudoxus of Cnidus

Eudoxus of Cnidus was a Ancient Greece astronomer, mathematician, scholar and student of Plato. Since all his own works are lost, our knowledge of him is obtained from secondary sources, such as Aratus's poem on astronomy....
. It describes the constellation
Constellation

A constellation is a group of stars that appear to have a physical proximity in the sky. The stars in a constellation are often vastly distant from each other, but they appear close to each other from the perspective of Earth....
s and other celestial phenomena. The second half of Phaenomena, "on weather signs", is chiefly about weather lore. Frequently referred to as the Diosemeia, and sometimes circulated separately under that title, it draws chiefly from a work on weather signs attributed to Theophrastus
Theophrastus

Theophrastus , a Greek native of Eressos in Lesbos Island, was the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. His interests were wide-ranging, extending from biology and physics to ethics and metaphysics....
. The work as a whole has all the characteristics of the Alexandria
Alexandria

Alexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports....
n school of poetry
Poetry

Poetry is a form of literature art in which language is used for its aesthetics and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning ....
. Although Aratus was ignorant of astronomy, his poem attracted the favorable notice of 18 distinguished specialists, such as Hipparchus
Hipparchus

Hipparchus, the common Latinization of the Greek Hipparkhos, can mean:* Hipparchus, the ancient Greek astronomer** Hipparchic cycle, an astronomical cycle he created...
, who wrote a commentary upon it.

Aratus also wrote a number of other poems, many of an astronomical
Astronomy

Astronomy is the science of Astronomical object and Phenomenon that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere . It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the physical cosmology....
 or technical nature.

Later influence

Aratus enjoyed immense prestige among Hellenistic poets, including Theocritus
Theocritus

Theocritus , the creator of ancient Greek bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC....
, Callimachus
Callimachus

Callimachus was a native of the Greek colony of Cyrene, Libya, Libya. He was a noted poet, critic and scholar of the Library of Alexandria and enjoyed the patronage of ancient Egyptian Greeks Pharaohs Ptolemy II Philadelphus and Ptolemy III Euergetes....
 and Leonidas of Tarentum
Leonidas of Tarentum

Leonidas of Tarentum was an Epigram and Lyric poetry. He lived in the third century B.C. Leonidas lived in Taranto, in the coast of Calabria, then Magna Graecia. Over a hundred of his epigrams are present in the Greek Anthology....
. This assessment was picked up by Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 poets, including Ovid
Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso was a Roman Empire poet known as Ovid to the English language-speaking world, who wrote about love, seduction, and Roman mythology transformation....
 and Virgil
Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works?the Bucolics , the Georgics and the Aeneid?although several Appendix Vergiliana are also attributed to him....
. Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 versions were made by none other than Cicero
Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Ancient Rome philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Constitution of the Roman Republic. Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest rhetoric and prose stylists....
 (mostly extant), Ovid (only two short fragments remain), the member of the imperial Julio-Claudian dynasty
Julio-Claudian Dynasty

The Julio-Claudian Dynasty refers to the four Roman Emperors: Tiberius, Caligula , Claudius, and Nero. They ruled the Roman Empire from 27 BC to AD 68, when the last of the line, Nero, committed suicide....
 Germanicus
Germanicus

Germanicus Julius Caesar Claudianus . Born in Lugdunum, Gaul , was a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty of the early Roman Empire. At birth he was named either Nero Claudius Drusus after his father or Tiberius Claudius Nero after his uncle and received the agnomen Germanicus, by which he is principally known, in 9 BC, when...
 (extant, with scholia), and the less-famous Avienus (extant). Quintilian
Quintilian

Marcus Fabius Quintilianus was a Roman Empire rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in Middle ages schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing....
 was less enthusiastic. Aratus was also cited by Luke the Evangelist
Luke the Evangelist

Luke the Evangelist was an early Christianity leader who is said by tradition to be the author of both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles....
 in the second half of Acts
Acts of the Apostles

The Acts of the Apostles is a book of the Bible, which now stands fifth in the New Testament. It is commonly referred to as simply Acts. The title "Acts of the Apostles" was first used by Irenaeus in the late second century, but some have suggested that the title "Acts" be interpreted as "the Acts of the Holy Spirit" or even "the Acts...
, 17.28, where he relates Saint Paul
Paul of Tarsus

Saint Paul, also called Paul the Apostle, the Apostle Paul or Paul of Tarsus , was a Hellenistic Judaism, who called himself the "Apostle to the Gentiles", and was, together with Saint Peter and James the Just, the most notable of early Christian missionaries....
's address on the Areopagus
Areopagus

The Areopagus or Areios Pagos is the 'Hill of Ares', north-west of the Acropolis, Athens, which in classical times functioned as the high Court of Appeal for criminal and civil cases in Athens....
. Paul, speaking of God
God

God is a deity in theism and deism religions and other belief systems, representing either the sole deity in monotheism, or a principal deity in polytheism....
, quotes the fifth line of Aratus's Phaenomena (Epimenides
Epimenides

Epimenides of Knossos was a semi-Greek mythology 6th century BC Greeks prophet and philosopher-Poetry, who is said to have fallen asleep for fifty-seven years in a Cretan cave sacred to Zeus, after which he reportedly awoke with the gift of prophecy....
 seems to be the source of the first part of , although this is less clear):

Let us begin with Zeus, whom we mortals never leave unspoken.
For every street, every market-place is full of Zeus.
Even the sea and the harbour are full of this deity
Deity

A deity is a postulated preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divinity, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by human beings....
.
Everywhere everyone is indebted to Zeus.
For we are indeed his offspring... (Phaenomena 1-5).


Authors of twenty-seven commentaries are known; ones by Theon of Alexandria
Theon of Alexandria

Theon was a Greeks scholar and mathematician who lived in Alexandria, Egypt. The biographical tradition defines Theon as "the man from the Mouseion"; actually, both the Library of Alexandria and the Mouseion may have been destroyed a century before by the Emperor Aurelian during his struggle against Zenobia....
, Achilles Tatius
Achilles Tatius

Achilles Tatius of Alexandria was a Roman era Greek literature writer whose fame is attached to his only surviving work, the erotic Novel#Individual Novels Discussed Leucippe and Clitophon....
 and Hipparchus of Nicaea survive. An Arabic
Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
 translation was commissioned in the ninth century by the Caliph
Caliph

The Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the leader of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah....
 Al-Ma'mun
Al-Ma'mun

Abu Jafar al-Ma'mun ibn Harun was an Abbasid caliph who reigned from 813 until his death in 833. He succeeded his brother al-Amin....
. He is cited by Vitruvius
Vitruvius

File:Vitruvius.jpgMarcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Ancient Rome writer, architect and engineer , active in the 1st century BC. By his own description Vitruvius served as a Ballista , the third class of arms in the military offices....
, Stephanus of Byzantium
Stephanus of Byzantium

Stephanus of Byzantium, also known as Stephanus Byzantinus was the author of an important Gazetteer entitled Ethnica . Of the dictionary itself only meagre fragments survive, but we possess an epitome compiled by one Hermolaus....
 and Stobaeus
Stobaeus

Joannes Stobaeus , so called from his native place Stobi in North Macedonia , was the compiler of a valuable series of extracts from Greece authors....
. Several accounts of his life are extant, by anonymous Greek writers.

The crater Aratus
Aratus (crater)

Aratus is a small moon impact crater located on the highland to the south and east of the rugged Montes Apenninus range. It is a circular, cup-shaped crater with a relatively high albedo....
 on the Moon
Moon

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the List of natural satellites by diameter satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is km, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth....
 is named in his honour.

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