ARAT (Aratos)

Arat, Aratos, III in the first half of. BC. e., Greek poet. In Athens, met with the teachings of the Stoics, probably listened Zeno Kiteonskogo. Most of his life at the court of the Macedonian king Antigonus Gonata, where almost married the king of the hymn to Pan. For some time also resided at the court of Antiochus I Soter in Syrian Antioch, where he worked on a new edition of the Odyssey of Homer. A. was not preserved by the author of numerous works of poetry, among them one or two didactic poems, relating to medical, funeral poems on the case, as well as a collection of short works Shards (cm. Appendix Vergiliana).

A true glory. brought astronomical didactic poem Phenomena (Fainomena; verbatim.: "that light" or "what you see") in 1154 hexameters, created, perhaps at the initiative of Antigone Gonata. Served as the basis for its work Eudoxus of Cnidus. It opens a hymn to Zeus, resembling (even verbal formulations), Anthem Cleanthes. Here is a description of the starry sky, only occasionally interrupted by mythological inserts. At the end of A. lists the signs to help predict the weather by using this kind of difficulty peripatetics, in turn, makes the processing of more ancient works on the subject, perhaps Theophrastus. In general, in his poem A. took a sample of Hesiod. He wrote in the spirit of Stoic philosophy, trying to show the great law governing the universe.

To a lesser extent, he cared about the accuracy of astronomical information that criticized Hipparchus of Nicea in the remaining comments to the phenomena. Phenomena enjoyed great popularity among his contemporaries and descendants. Admired Callimachus and Leonid of Tarentum, some parts of the poem translated into Latin Atacinus Varro, Cicero, entirely the same poem - Germanicus and Avien (both translation preserved). Effect A. evident in the works of Virgil and Ovid. In the Middle Ages phenomena were considered a source of knowledge on astronomy.