The problem of antipodes in eighteenth-century Greece

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleΤο πρόβλημα των αντιπόδων στην προεπαναστατική Ελλάδα
3. Language term Greek, Modern (1453-)
4. lemma author Katsiampoura, Gianna
5. lemma category Scientific theories and disciplines - Education, Science and Orthodoxy
6. Publication date 14-03-2017
7. lemma work Makrides, Vasilios [Author]. Το πρόβλημα των αντιπόδων στην προεπαναστατική Ελλάδα (The problem of antipodes in 18th-century Greece)
8. lemma manifestations Ιστορικογεωγραφικά
9. Keywords cosmology - History of Science - Greek Enlightenment
10. Citations
    1. <p>Makrides, Vasilios (1995), Το πρόβλημα των αντιπόδων στην προεπαναστατική Ελλάδα (The problem of antipodes in 18th-century Greece), Ιστορικογεωγραφικά, v. 5, pp. 9-49</p>
11. Lemma body

    1. The main objective of this paper is to examine the various problems in 18th-century Greece cause by the exixtence of antipodean people. It is well-known that the whole issue was vividly discussed in Antiquity and was later severely criticized by several Christian writers until the late Middle Ages. Due to 15th-century explorations, however, conceptions concerning the figure of the earth radically changed and consequently, its sphericity as well as the existence of antipodes became indisputed. Yet the intellectual and cultural backwardness of Greece under Ottoman rule had contributed to the preservation of ancient misconceptions about the earth until the 18th century. As a result, a new scientific and intellectual currents entered this closed social system, and faced the strong negative reaction of several circls, religious and otherwise. After having examined the various facet of this isue, the paper's conclusions are as follows:

       i. Althougt the official Church played a crucial role in condemning new scientific ideas (e.g., the heliocentric system) at that time, there is no evidence that there was any reaction to the part of the clerrgy.

       ii. Whereas most of the reactions against the antipodes came from the illiterate, superstitious and ignorant masses, certain of them were occasionally and unofficially given some religious legitimation.

       iii. Greek scientists referred very often to ancient problems concerning the antipodes (e.g., the debate between Viril and Boniface in the 8th c.) in order to show the necessity of keeping superstitious interpretations of the Bible and of religion in general apart from true scientific inquiries.