Editing Cosmos (section)

== History ==

=== Ancient Greek religion ===
The 1870 book ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' noted<ref name=CPM />
:[[Thales]] dogma that water is the origin of things, that is, that it is that out of which every thing arises, and into which every thing resolves itself, Thales may have followed Orphic cosmogonies, while, unlike them, he sought to establish the truth of the assertion. Hence, Aristotle, immediately after he has called him the originator of philosophy brings forward the reasons which Thales was believed to have adduced in confirmation of that assertion; for that no written development of it, or indeed any book by ''Thales'', was extant, is proved by the expressions which Aristotle uses when he brings forward the doctrines and proofs of the [[Miletus|Milesian]]. (p. 1016)

:[[Plato]], describes the idea of the good, or the Godhead, sometimes ''teleologically'', as the ultimate purpose of all conditioned existence; sometimes ''cosmologically'', as the ultimate operative cause; and has begun to develop the ''cosmological'', as also the physico-theological proof for the being of God; but has referred both back to the idea of the Good, as the necessary presupposition to all other ideas, and the cognition of them. (p. 402)

The book ''The Works of Aristotle'' (1908, p.&nbsp;80 ''Fragments'') mentioned<ref name=Aristotle1908>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/worksofaristotle12arisuoft|title=The Works of Aristotle|year=1908|author=Aristotle|author2=Ross, W. D. (William David)|author3=Smith, J.A. (John Alexander)|page=[https://archive.org/details/worksofaristotle12arisuoft/page/80 80]|publisher=Oxford : Clarendon Press}}</ref>
:Aristotle says the poet ''Orpheus'' never existed; the Pythagoreans ascribe this Orphic poem to a certain ''Cercon'' (see [[Cercops]]).

[[Bertrand Russell]] (1947) noted<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/westernphilosoph035502mbp|title=History of Western Philosophy|year=1947|author=Bertrand Russell|publisher=George Allen And Unwin Ltd London}}</ref>
:The Orphics were an ascetic sect; wine, to them, was only a symbol, as, later, in the Christian sacrament. The intoxication that they sought was that of "enthusiasm," of union with the god. They believed themselves, in this way, to acquire mystic knowledge not obtainable by ordinary means. This mystical element entered into Greek philosophy with Pythagoras, who was a reformer of Orphism as Orpheus was a reformer of the religion of Dionysus. From Pythagoras Orphic elements entered into the philosophy of Plato, and from Plato into most later philosophy that was in any degree religious.

=== Anaximander ===
[[Anaximander]] was a pre-[[Socrates|Socratic]] Greek philosopher who is widely referred to as the "father of astronomy" and even as the "father of cosmology" as a result of his works to explain the origin and makeup of the physical universe. He is regarded as the most important of the [[Ionian Islands|Ionian]] philosophers, and was a pupil of [[Thales of Miletus|Thales]]. Traditionally, details of his life and opinions are perpetuated not only by [[Aristotle]] and [[Theophrastus|Theophrastos]], but also by a great number of secondary authors.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Pedersen|first=Olaf|title=Early Physics and Astronomy: A Historical Introduction|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1993|pages=13–16}}</ref> He lived throughout the fifth and fourth centuries, BCE, and was most likely the first philosopher to try to rationalize the system of the Earth, Sun, and Moon by the use of geometry and mathematics. Anaximander was also said to have created the first map of the world, however, like much of the rest of his works, this has been lost since his time. There is, however, documentation of Anaximander being responsible for the conception of the first mechanical model of the world, which is outlined by a [[geocentric model]]. He postulated that the Earth was at the center of the universe, and that its shape was convex and cylindrical, with life existing on one of the two flat sides. Beyond the Earth, sits the other planets, which Anaximander also details the order of. Next are the fixed stars, which he regarded as wheel-like condensations of air filled with fire, provided at certain places with openings through which flames are discharged.<ref name=":2" /> Anaximander places the Moon beyond these stars, and assumed it to also be wheel-like in shape, being nineteen times the size of Earth. Finally, on the top of the universe is the Sun, which interacts with the Moon, and the relationship between them is described in terms of [[aperture]], in which a stoppage in would lead to eclipses.

In this model, the Sun is a ring, 28 times the size of the Earth, with a hollow rim, filled with fire, which at a certain place is seen through an aperture as in a pair of bellows.<ref name=":2" /> He also postulated regarding the formation of thunder and lightning, maintaining that they are caused by the wind becoming compressed inside a thick cloud and suddenly breaking through, causing the loud sound to be heard as the cloud is bursting. He claimed the fissure then looked like a spark because of the contrast with the dark cloud. Anaximander's model set a precedent for succeeding theories, including [[Nicolaus Copernicus|Copernicus]]'s system, with the major change being the shift away from the [[geocentric model]] and towards the [[heliocentric model]] of the universe. The explained model, although accredited to Anaximander, did necessarily take from ideas originated in foreign cultures, such as the astronomical wheels which are known from [[Persians|Persian]] cosmology.<ref name=":2" /> But even without detailed commentary, these elements of the Anaximander tradition give a strong impression of an original and courageous thinker making conscious efforts towards producing a rational explanation of fundamental physical principles, the nature and motion of heavenly bodies, the shape of Earth, its place in the universe, etc.