Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffC
“Some think it [the universe] had no beginning and will have no end; while others have made bold to name its creator and describe its construction. The latter caused me the most astonishment, since they posited some god as the creator of the universe, but didn’t tell us further where he came from or where he stood when he fitted it all together. Yet it is impossible to conceive of time and place before the creation of the universe.”
- Lucian of Samosata in his dialogue ‘Icaromenippus’
I believe he also had a description of the beginning of the Universe that reads with similarity to recent theories on the Big Bang .... [unable to reference at the moment, though]. |
Excellent Lucian quote, Geoff! I like that better than the one I posted. Here's the way the Francklin translation of that passage reads:
.....How little they agree upon any one thing, and what a variety of tenets they embrace, is but too evident; for first, with regard to the world, their opinions are totally different; some affirm that it hath neither beginning nor end; some, whom I cannot but admire, point out to us the manner of its construction, and the maker of it, a supreme deity, whom they worship as creator of the universe; but they have not told us whence he came, nor where he exists; neither, before the formation of this world, can we have any idea of time or place.
..........— Lucian (120-200 C.E.), Greek satirist. "Icaro-Menippus. A Dialogue." From
Trips to the Moon (c. 170), translated from the Greek by Thomas Francklin, D. D., Edited by Henry Morley.
I'm not familiar with his Big Bang description of the beginning of the Universe you spoke of, but if I come across it, I'll post it. Those ancient Greeks came up with some fascinating conjectures!