Editing Dating creation (section)

==Greek and Roman==
Most ancient Greek and Roman chroniclers, poets, grammarians, and scholars ([[Eratosthenes]], [[Varro]], [[Apollodorus of Athens]], [[Ovid]], [[Censorinus]], [[Catullus]], and [[Castor of Rhodes]]) believed in a threefold division of history: ''ádelon'' (obscure), ''mythikón'' (mythical) and ''historikón'' (historical) periods.<ref>''Ovid, Varro, and Castor of Rhodes: The Chronological Architecture of the "Metamorphoses"'', Thomas Cole, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 102, (2004), pp. 355-422.</ref> According to the Roman [[Grammarian (Greco-Roman)|grammarian]] Censorinus, the first period of ''ádelon'' (obscure), was calculated by Varro as follows:

{{quote|The first [period] stretches from the beginning of mankind [the creation] to the first cataclysm [i.e. the flood of [[Ogyges]]].<ref name="Epoch-making Eratosthenes 2005">''Epoch-making Eratosthenes'', Astrid Möller, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 45 (2005) 200–260.</ref>}}

The primordial ''ádelon'' (obscure) period ''ended'' with the flood of Ogyges and what followed was the beginning of the ''mythikón'' (mythical) period. Varro dated this flood to 2137 BC<ref>Varro (''Rust''. 3.1.2–3) roughly 2100 years before himself writing in 37 BC.</ref> but Censorinus wrote in his ''De Die Natali'' ch. xxi that the Ogyges’ diluvium occurred 1600 years before the first [[Olympiad]] (776 BC) meaning 2376 BC.<ref>H. Peter, ''Die Epochen in Varros Werk De Gente Populi Romani'', RhM 57 (1902) 231–251.</ref> Castor of Rhodes also provided another date for the start of the ''mythikón'' (mythical) period, 2123 BC.<ref name="duke.edu">{{cite web |url=http://www.duke.edu/web/classics/grbs/FTexts/45/Moller.pdf |title=Moller |access-date=2012-11-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018171632/http://www.duke.edu/web/classics/grbs/FTexts/45/Moller.pdf |archive-date=2012-10-18 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Censorinus recorded that the second period, the ''mythikón'', stretched from the flood of Ogyges to the first [[Olympiad]]:

{{quote|The second stretches from the first cataclysm to the first Olympiad; because many myths are recorded in it, it is called “mythical”.<ref name="Epoch-making Eratosthenes 2005"/>}}

Censorinus quoted Varro in saying the second period (''mythikón'') lasted from 2137 to 776 BC, or if Censorinus' own dates are used: 2376 BC to 776 BC, or finally if Castor's: 2123 BC to 776 BC. Ovid, however, dated the start of the ''mythikón'' period to the reign of [[Inachus]], whom he dated 400 or so years ''after'' the flood of Ogyges, meaning around 1900–1700 BC, but agreed with Varro that the ''mythikón'' ended during the first Olympiad (776 BC).<ref>H. Peter, ''Die Epochen in Varros Werk De Gente Populi Romani'', RhM 57 (1902) 231–251; James Ussher dated [[Inachus]] to 1825 BC.</ref> See [[Ages of Man]] for more details about Ovid's chronology. Another ancient date for the start of the ''mythikón'' (mythical) period is found preserved in [[Augustine]]'s [[City of God (book)|''City of God'']] xviii.3, which dates it to 2050 BC.<ref>. Peter, ''Die Epochen in Varros Werk De Gente Populi Romani'', RhM 57 (1902) 231–251.</ref> The final period according to Censorinus and Varro, the ''historikón'' (historical) era, began from 776 BC (the first [[Olympiad]]) to their own time:

{{quote|The third stretches from the first Olympiad to us. Because the events in it are contained in true histories, he calls it “historical.”<ref name="Epoch-making Eratosthenes 2005"/>}}

[[Eratosthenes]] and [[Apollodorus of Athens]], however, pushed back the start of the historical period to the [[Trojan War]], which they fixed at 1184 BC.<ref name="duke.edu"/>

Very few ancient Greeks or Romans attempted to date the creation, or beginning of the ''ádelon'' (obscure) period. While all ancient sources (excluding Ovid) dated the ''end'' of this period and start of the mythical (''mythikón'') period to 2376–2050 BC, most did not claim to know when the creation (''ádelon'' period) exactly began. As [[Censorinus]] admitted:

{{quote|If the origin of the world had been known to man, I would have begun there.<ref>''De Die Natali'', ch. xx.</ref>}}

[[Varro]] and [[Castor of Rhodes]] also wrote something very similar; however, some ancient Greeks and Romans attempted to calculate the date for the creation by using ancient sources or records of mythological figures.<ref>''Bibliotheca Classica'', John Lemprière, 1788.</ref> Since [[Inachus]] was dated 400 years after the flood of [[Ogyges]] and that Ogyges himself was considered a [[Titan (mythology)|Titan]]<ref>Theophilus, in the 4th century (ad Autol.), says he was one of the Titans, an earlier fragment from Thallus also makes this identification.</ref> or a primordial [[Autochthon (ancient Greece)|Autochthon]] "from earliest ages",<ref>The Greek word Ogygios (Ωγύγιος), meaning Ogygian, came to be synonymous with "primeval," "primal," or "from earliest ages".</ref> some ancient Greeks or Romans dated the creation (beginning with [[Chaos (cosmogony)|Chaos]] or [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]]) only a few hundred years before [[Ogyges]] (2376–2050 BC).<ref>A. Grafton, ''Tradition and Technique in Historical Chronology'', in M. H. Crawford and C. R. Ligota (eds.), ''Ancient History and the Antiquarian: Essays in Memory of Arnaldo Momigliano'' (London 1995).</ref> Most ancient Greeks, however, did not subscribe to such a literalist view of using mythology to attempt to date the creation; [[Hecataeus of Miletus]] was an early ancient Greek logographer who strongly criticised this method, while [[Ptolemy]] wrote of such an "immense period" of time before the historical period (776 BC), and thus believed in a much greater age for the creation.<ref>''Great Syntaxis'', i. 3.</ref>

Among the ancient Greek and Roman philosophers there were different opinions and traditions pertaining to the date of the creation. Some philosophers believed the Universe was eternal, and actually had no date of creation.