Predecessor/Teacher of Archimedes?

January 26, 2008 5:58 AM

Greek history: one of Archimedes' predecessors?

My dad was watching some Discovery-channel special about Archimedes.

He claims the show stated that Archimedes gave a lot of credit to some teacher/predecessor of his...my dad has no idea how to spell the fellow's name, but he says it was pronounced "tuh-SEE-bus", more or less.

He asked me to google this but I've had no luck, probably as I have no idea how to spell it. Anyone know who this person might be?

(My best guess is that my dad's just senile and that the show mentioned John Tzetzes, who is mentioned as a biographer of Archimedes, but you never know).

posted by jjsonp to Society & Culture (4 answers total)

It might be Eratosthenes of Cyrene, whom Archimedes met in Alexandria as a child. Eratosthenes was 11 years older than Archimedes. Two of Archimedes' books have introductions addressed to Eratosthenes.
posted by BeaverTerror at 6:17 AM on January 26, 2008

Best answer: It could have been Ctesibius, although I'm not sure about the influence he might have had on Archimedes.
posted by greycap at 6:17 AM on January 26, 2008

Best answer: Ctesibius was from Alexandria and was a contemporary of Archimedes. Must be him, based on the pronunciation...
posted by BeaverTerror at 6:22 AM on January 26, 2008

Response by poster: That's got to be it - Ctesibius! Thanks!
posted by jjsonp at 8:33 AM on January 26, 2008