6. Cleostratus of Tenedos

Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers, by Kathleen Freeman, [1948], at sacred-texts.com

6. CLEOSTRATUS OF TENEDOS

Cleostratus of Tenedos lived in the sixth century B.C.

He wrote an astronomical work called Astrologia or Phaenomena.

1. (Scholiast on Euripides, Rhesus 528: explanation of the words 'first signs'.): But when for the third day over the eighty (Arctophylax) remains (shining, then the 'first signs') of the Scorpion fall into the sea. ¹

2. (He then, it is said, observed the signs in the Zodiac, beginning with the Ram and the Archer).

3. (He is said to have been the first to point out the Kids among the constellations).

4. (The eight year cycle is commonly attributed to Eudoxus of Cnidus, but they say that it was Cleostratus of Tenedos who first devised it).

Footnotes

13:1 Restoration and meaning uncertain; for discussion, see Companion, p. 34, note 3.