Cosmology and Astronomy from Prehistory to the Roman Empire

Abstract

In all pre-modern cultures, the great powers of nature, sun and moon, life and death, winds, storms, floods, earthquakes, volcanos, were thought of in divine terms. These great powers were gods, with terrifying and arbitrary potentials, needing to be appeased, often by sacrifices (which in some cultures such as the Aztec one took human form). Human beings seemed small and weak compared to such elemental and often destructive forces. The idea of human beings coming to dominate most of the planet, apart from the deep oceans and polar regions, and even being a threat to its eco-systems, would have seemed far-fetched.