Euctemon was an Athenian astronomer. He was a contemporary of Meton and worked closely with this astronomer. Little is known of his work apart from his partnership with Meton and what is mentioned by Ptolemy. With Meton, he made a series of observations of the solstices (the points at which the Sun is seen at the greatest distance from the equator) in order to determine the length of the tropical year. Geminus and Ptolemy quote him as a source on the rising and setting of the stars. Pausanias's Description of Greece names Damon and Philogenes as Euctemon's children.
The lunar crater Euctemon is named after him.
External links
- The Ancient Library[usurped]
- Greek Astronomy Archived 2016-04-07 at the Wayback Machine
References
Hockey, Thomas (2009). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer Publishing. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. Retrieved August 22, 2012. 978-0-387-31022-0 ↩
"Pausanias 7. 1 - 17". Theoi Texts Library. Retrieved 28 April 2024. https://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias7A.html ↩