Ancient cosmology and earth science: Greek and Roman ideas about how the world works

3 Credits.

Through detailed analysis of source materials, we will explore the ancient Greek and Romans’ answers to questions such as: how the cosmos and our home-world, Earth, were structured; how weather works; how climate affects human health; what causes awesome natural phenomena such as comets, earthquakes and volcanoes; what climate prevailed on the Moon; life in the ocean; ancient palaeontology; how the movements of the stars were thought to influence events here on Earth.