Circa 310-Circa 240 B.C.E.
Poet, Astronomer

Influential Poet. Little is known of Aratus's life. Four letters allegedly written by him appear in an edition collected by Suidas, a Byzantine biographer, but likely they are spurious. This much can be reconstructed: he left his home of Soli in Cilicia for Athens, where he became intrigued by Stoic philosophy. Later he appeared in the courts of Antigonus Gonatas of Macedonia and Antiochus I of Syria. He prepared editions of Homer's Odyssey and Iliad and a poem celebrating the marriage of Antigonus Gonatas to Phile. His most influential work was the poem Phaenomena, which introduced Romans to Greek astronomy and meteorology. A celebrated piece of literature, it was translated into Latin and Arabic.

Sources:

Emma Gee, Ovid, Aratus, and Augustus: Astronomy in Ovid's Fasti (Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000).

G. J. Toomer, "Aratus," in The Oxford...