Lessico
Arato di Soli
da Veterum illustrium philosophorum etc. imagines
(1685)
di Giovanni Pietro Bellori (Roma 1613-1696)
In greco Įratos.
Poeta didascalico greco (Soli, Cilicia, ca. 315 - Macedonia
dopo il 240 aC). Fu amico del giovane Callimaco; ad Atene venne istruito nello
stoicismo da Zenone e, messo da lui in rapporto con Antigono Gonata re di
Macedonia, fu invitato alla corte di Pella, dove visse dal 276 aC, tranne un
soggiorno in Siria presso il re Antioco I Sotere.
L'opera pił famosa di Arato, l'unica giuntaci, Fenomeni, č un poema astronomico di 1154 esametri, composto su richiesta di Antigono e ispirato a un trattato in prosa del famoso astronomo Eudosso di Cnido. Dopo un breve proemio rivolto a Zeus si hanno successivamente le descrizioni delle stelle fisse, della sfera celeste, del sorgere e del tramontare degli astri; nell'ultima parte, che č pure indicata separatamente col titolo di Pronostici, si indicano i segni premonitori del tempo. La lingua, la sintassi, la verseggiatura sono raffinate. Il poema ebbe un immediato e durevole successo.
Fu
commentato nel secolo seguente da uno dei sommi scienziati dell'antichitą,
Ipparco di Nicea, ed ebbe varie traduzioni latine: di Varrone Atacino, di
Cicerone,
di Claudio Germanico, di Festo Avieno
(che ne fece una libera parafrasi). Quale testo scolastico di astronomia fu
poi usato per tutta l'antichitą e ancora nel Medioevo.
Soli - Antica cittą dell'Asia Minore, sulla costa della Cilicia, nei pressi dell'odierna cittą turca di Mersin (provpncia di Iēel). Oggetto di lotte, in etą ellenistica, tra i Seleucidi e i Tolomei, fu distrutta nel sec. I aC da Tigrane, re di Armenia, e ricostruita da Pompeo con il nome di Pompeiopoli. I resti archeologici maggiori sono rappresentati da una monumentale via colonnata (ventitré colonne delle duecento originarie) che attraversava tutta la cittą, congiungendo l'agorį con una delle porte cittadine, dal porto artificiale di forma ovale e dalla necropoli.
Aratus Solensis (natus circa annum 310 a.C.n.; mortuus anno 245 a.C.n.) fuit poeta didacticus Graecus. Aratus, filius Athenodori Letophilaeque, Solis Ciliciae (non Cypri) natus est circa 315 a.C.n. Suda dixit Aratum esse discipulum grammatici Menecratis Ephesii atque philosophorum Timon Menedemique. Menecrates poemas de agricultura, apibus, et astris scripsit; ut Varro dixit, "ut Hesiodus Ascraeus, Menecrates Ephesius." Circa 291, Aratus Athenas progressus est, ut litteris philosophis Praxiphane Zenoque studeat. Hic etiam Callimachi, maximi poetae aetatis, occurrit. Antigono Gonata anno 276 rege, Pesaeus Philonides poetae Aratusque ipse in regia Macedoniae iverunt. Hic, proximos annos duos, Aratus maximum opus suum, poemam didacticum 'Phaenomena' composuit. Opus oratione soluta Eudoxi in versos transtulit. Cum Pyrrhus Macedoniam invaseret, Aratus regia Antiochi I Seleuci filii ivit; in Macedoniam tamen regressus est. Pellae circa 240 mortuus est.
Operum Arateorum solum "phaenomenon", quae graece dicuntur, 1154 versuum poema de rebus caelestibus traditum est; quod poema maxima ex parte Eudoxum Cnidium atrologum sequitur. Aratus vero poema lima poetica emendans catasterismos, id est mutationes animantium in signa caelestia, addidit. Pars secunda operis de signis tempestatum disputat; quae pars graece "diosemeia" dicitur. Carmina Aratea notabiliora facta sunt propter siccitatem rei, quam Aratus astrologiam penitus ignorans aemulatione poetica instigatus vivificare nisus est.
Arati opus vero imitati sunt complures auctores Romani, qui veri aemuli auctoris graeci dici possunt. Inter eos sunt Manilius atque Vergilius. Versiones autem memoratu dignae Marci Tulli Ciceronis ('admodum adulescentulus'), Germanici, Avieni sunt. Cum autem Arati carmina difficiliora sint, temporibus iam antiquis ii, qui illa lexerant, in margine voluminum scholia addiderunt. Inter explanatores Geminus Rhodius (primum saeculum a.C), Achilles (circa annum 200) Leontius (circa annum 600). Nominibus siderum, quae nobis versionibus latinis tradita sunt, hodie quoque utimur; index siderum autem syntaxi mathematicae Claudii Ptolemaei (saeculum II) subest et res gravis per saeculorum decursum in traditione arabica permansit.
Aratus (Greek Įratos) (ca. 315 BC/310 BC 240 BC) was a Greek didactic poet, known for his technical poetry. He was born in Soli in Cilicia and was a contemporary of Callimachus and Theocritus. He is known to have studied with Menecrates in Ephesus and Philitas in Cos. As a disciple of the Peripatetic philosopher Praxiphanes, in Athens, he met the Stoic philosopher Zeno, as well as Callimachus of Cyrene and Menedemus, the founder of the Eretrian School.
About 276 he was invited to the court of the Macedonian king Antigonus II Gonatas, whose victory over the Gauls in 277 BC Aratus set to verse. Here wrote his most famous poem, Phaenomena ("Appearances"). He then spent some time at the court of Antiochus I Soter of Syria, but subsequently returned to Pella in Macedon (now located in the periphery of Central Macedonia, Greece), where he died about 240 BCE.
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. It describes the constellations 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. The work as a whole has all the characteristics of the Alexandrian school of poetry. Although Aratus was ignorant of astronomy, his poem attracted the favorable notice of 18 distinguished specialists, such as Hipparchus, who wrote a commentary upon it. Aratus also wrote a number of other poems, many of an astronomical or technical nature.
Aratus
enjoyed immense prestige among Hellenistic poets, including Theocritus,
Callimachus and Leonidas of Tarentum. This assessment was picked up by Latin
poets, including Ovid and Virgil. Latin versions were made by none other than
Cicero (fragmentary), Ovid (only two short fragments remain), the near-emperor
Germanicus (mostly extant), and the less-famous Avienus (extant). Quintilian
was less enthusiastic. Aratus was also cited by Luke the Evangelist in the
second half of Acts, 17.28, where he relates Saint Paul's address on the
Areopagus. Paul, speaking of God, quotes the fifth line of Aratus's Phaenomena
(Epimenides seems to be the source of the first part of Acts 17.28, 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.
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, Achilles Tatius and Hipparchus of Nicaea survive. An Arabic translation was commissioned in the ninth century by the Caliph Al-Ma'mun. He is cited by Vitruvius, Stephanus of Byzantium and Stobaeus. Several accounts of his life are extant, by anonymous Greek writers. The Aratus crater on the Moon was named in his honour.
