One
evening, after coming home from making his house calls, the doctor made a
simple pronouncement during dinner.
Turning
to his son, while knowing the delight it would give his wife, he said,
“Tonight,
you will join me on my walk.”
The
son, perhaps seven, maybe nine, was ecstatic. Many a night, his father went out
into the dark night. Particularly dark nights were his favorites. Ones with a
new moon but clear of clouds. Those were the nights of stars. Those were his.
And
now his and his son’s.
Hand
in hand, the father and son walked down the marble steps of the town to the
harbor, they crossed over the stone bridge which connected the peninsula tip to
a small island, and climbed the hill on the other side. With hand motions, he
pointed. They zigged and zagged through alleys, up and up steps on the other
side of the harbor, until he emerged on the sharp craggy top of the island.
He
found his favorite spot, just on the south side of the island, sheltered from
the city and settled into his spot. His star-gazing spot. He showed his son how
to be comfortable among the rocks. Then he leaned back and stared.
“Just
look for a while. It takes a while to absorb them all.”
It
would be nice to think that the first star Aeschines pointed out to his
son, Eudoxus, was Canopus, the second-brightest star in the heavens. But what
is more important is to imagine this evening. And this relationship between an
exacting and curious doctor with his son in the town of Knidos two and a half
millenia ago. (2,500 years to us who think all numbers are irrational.)
Of
the countless people born and raised in Knidos during its era of glory, a
handful are remembered. That’s not bad for a town of which nothing more remains
today but a bunch of stones and columns.
Arguably
the most famous of those remembered is Eudoxus. He left Knidos in his early
twenties and went to Athens and studied under Plato. It’s possible that
Aristotle was a later pupil of his.
He
had a falling out with Plato over the concept of good and pleasure. Eudoxus
believed that pleasure was ultimate good because all creatures sought it and
all attempted to escape its opposite, pain.
Is
it possible that Eudoxus was highly influenced by the community in which he was
raised?
Knidos
was the first city (of which we know) to have exhibited a naked statue of a
woman. The life-size statue of Aphrodite by Praxiteles is considered the mother
of all subsequent statues depicting naked women.
Knidos
displayed this statue in a round temple to Aphrodite. It is said that the
temple was designed in its round shape so worshippers could appreciate every angle of the goddess.
The round Temple of Aphrodite commands the highest spot in Knidos overlooking the two harbors. |
Knidos also featured a temple to Dionysus, the god of wine and ecstasy.
An ancient column in Knidos which surely must have graced the temple to Dionysus. |
Plato
felt obliged to respond to his student’s views. He acknowledged that some
pleasure is good, but that intellectual activity superseded pleasure because it
could distinguish between true pleasures and false pleasures.
But lest anybody think Eudoxus was a sot, Aristotle apparently thought it was important to point out that Eudoxus was more the sober type. He wrote:
"His arguments about pleasure carried conviction more on account of the perfection of his character than through their contents. Eudoxus passed indeed for a man of remarkable moderation. Again he did not seem to embrace these arguments as being a friend of pleasure, but because he regarded them as conforming to the truth."
After
parting philosophically and geographically with Plato, Eudoxus traveled to
various cities around the Mediterranean continuing his studies and writing books that became the
foundation for astronomy and mathematics for centuries to come. In astronomy,
he achieved great insights into planetary orbits, the lunar cycle and solar
eclipses. In mathematics, he broke the code of irrational numbers. (I’ve always taken it for granted they were all irrational.)
He
eventually returned to Knidos.
Ruins of Knidos looking west. |
There
he became a member of the senate. There he founded a family, with three
daughters and one son. There he founded an observatory. It is said that the
star to which he dedicated most of his attention was Canopus.
If
that is so, then I am sure that as soon as he was able to chart Canopus’s path
in his new observatory, and everything was properly set up, and his son was of
the right age, he made a simple pronouncement during dinner one evening.
The main east-west street in Knidos. Perhaps the one which Aeschines would have walked with Eudoxus that special night. And one which Eudoxus would have walked with his children. |
The Knights of St. John expropriated many ancient cites in the Aegean, including Knidos. This is assumed to be the site of a church. |
Evidence of a very different worship than to Aphrodite. |
The Knidos amphitheater with the eastern bay in the background. Phoenix is the second boat in from the right on the dock. Not too different from 2,500 years ago: We came, we saw, we enjoyed. |
The goats seemed to have the patience of centuries for the next performance to start. Unless, we just didn't get that we were it. |
3 comments:
Marvelous...
Hey, how about some new photos of Phoenix in Aegean waters?
What a journey.....Hey Jennifer how about some pics of the newly decorated Phoenix....
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