Before the Church · c. 275 BC
The Phaenomena
Aratus of Soli · c. 315 – c. 240 BC
What it is
A didactic poem mapping the constellations and the signs of weather, opening not with the stars but with Zeus — every street and every market full of him, every harbour and sea, and we all have need of him always, for we are also his offspring.
Why it lasted
Paul quotes that last clause to the Areopagus in Acts 17:28. Aratus came from Soli in Cilicia, the province Paul was born in, and his poem was among the most copied books in antiquity — the natural line for a Cilician to reach for in Athens.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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