Talk:Sosigenes (astronomer): Difference between revisions

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This is a project I'd like to take on some day, & could be applied to more of Wikipedia than just Ancient Egypt. Take one of the standard authorities of history or culture -- Herotodus, the Elder Pliny, the writings of Breasted or Kenneth Kitchen, & see if you can't smoothly merge quotations or information into relevant articles. Probably a good exercise for someone who owns one of those impressive texts, yet can't get access to a research library.

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Sosigenes: Tutor of Cleopatra?

The brilliant mathematician, astronomer, and scientist Sosigenes of Alexandria was said to be the tutor of the Princess, later Queen Cleopatra VII Philopater. I cannot document this, it is based on hearsay and folklore; but the famous Queen was said to have had a brilliant intellect in her own right. The producers of the blockbuster 1963 Elizabeth Taylor film accepted this bit of lore and had Sosigenes played by the noted actor Hume Cronyn. This is an interesting bit of trivia. Buddmar 00:00, 23 March 2007 (UTC)buddmar[reply]

Pliny book 18

Perhaps someone has a source for Pliny book 18, 210-212 English translation for a reference for the first Pliny paragraph of "He appears in Pliny book 18, 210-212"? --Doug Coldwell ^talk 17:27, 2 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Multiple pieces of misinformation

The title of the article and Sosigenes' name as given in the first line are both false. There is no basis whatsoever for regarding Sosigenes as Alexandrian. The claim does not appear in any ancient source. Pliny is the only ancient source to mention Sosigenes, and he does not mention a geographic origin.

The titles of Sosigenes' works given in the article are fabrications. No titles of Sosigenes' works are known. Pliny states that he wrote three treatises (commentationes), but gives no titles.

There is no basis for giving Sosigenes' name in Greek, nor for inventing Greek titles for his works. No indication exists that he wrote in Greek. He advised on the revision of the Roman calendar, not any Greek calendar. The Alexandrian solar calendar was nearly 20 years later, after the fall of Cleopatra. And again, no titles of Sosigenes' works are known.

The third title given in the article, 'Optics (Περί όψεως)', is the title of a work written by Sosigenes the Peripatetic, a 2nd century CE philosopher (source: New Pauly).

Here by the way is an online copy of the text of Pliny. --2401:7000:DAA5:BA00:C0E9:454C:46C7:B1C (talk) 23:20, 24 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

There is a blogpost about this misinformation by the classics scholar Peter Gainsford. Some of it (like the titles of books by Sosigenes) may even be a hoax. The article needs an overhaul. /Pieter Kuiper (talk) 07:45, 4 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]