BEGINNINGS IN GREECE 39 



Greek desire that the months begin regularly at or near new moon, 

 and Aristophanes makes the Moon complain: 



CHORUS OF CLOUDS 



" The Moon by us to you her greeting sends, 

 But bids us say that she's an ill-used moon, 

 And takes it much amiss that you should still 

 Shuffle her days, and turn them topsy-turvy ; 

 And that the gods (who know their feast-days well,) 

 By your false count are sent home supperless, 

 And scold and storm at her for your neglect." 



About 400 B.C., Meton the Athenian observed that 19 years 

 consist of almost exactly 235 lunar months, and accordingly pro- 

 posed a new calendar with 125 months of 30 days and 110 of 29 

 days, corresponding to an average year of 365 days, 6 hours and 

 19 minutes only about 30 minutes too long. Of this Meton's 

 cycle the traditional rule for determining the date of Easter still 

 preserves traces. On account of so much confusion in the official 

 calendar the almanacs of the time even designated the dates for 

 agricultural operations by means of the constellations visible at 

 the corresponding time. 



TIME MEASUREMENT. While sun and moon suffice for large- 

 scale measurement of time, the approximate determination of its 

 subdivisions early became important, and this problem has been 

 solved with continually increasing precision to our own day. 

 Early time measurement depended either on some form of sun- 

 dial as a natural means, or on an apparatus analogous to the 

 hour-glass as an artificial method. 



In Isaiah xxxviii. 8, in connection with a promise of prolonged 

 life to Hezekiah, it is said 



And this shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord 

 will do this thing that he hath spoken ; behold, I will bring again the 

 shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun-dial of Ahaz, 

 ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which 

 degrees it was gone down. 



