Found!Doulichion

In scroll 5 I talked about the calendar the ancient Greeks used and how that's simply based on the sun and moon. And that actually our modern calendar is a bit of a mess, as our months are too long with an average of 30.5 days, while one cycle of the moon only takes 29.5 days.

The months have been stretched to fit one year (cycle of the sun), even though 12 cycles of the moon (29.5x12=354 days) and one cycle of the sun (365 days) are 11 days off, each year!

The ancient Greeks were very well aware of this fact, as we can derive from the story of the birth of the twins Apóllo and Ártemis. In mythology Leto gave birth to both gods on the island of Delos. While Ártemis is born on the first day of labour, it's not till nine days and nights later that Apóllo arrives. Ártemis (day 1), then 9 days (day 2 till 10), followed by Apóllo (day 11), thus Apóllo is 11 days late, just like the sun each year.

This myth's a clear sign the ancient Greeks understood this fact.

Delos is said to be the centre of the Cyclades and the centre of religion of ancient Greece. It's also said that Delos was a floating island.

This indicates the ancient Greeks were also aware of the fact that the orbits of the sun and the moon aren't exactly the same, because Delos isn't exactly in the middle of the Cyclades and the reason it 'floated' must've been how the ancient Greeks explained the fact there isn't a solar eclipse every new moon.

They must've realised that if sun and moon were in exactly the same orbital plane the moon would cover the sun at each passing from old to new moon.

The repetitive element to solar eclipses, called Saros, which had already been found in the dials of the Antikythera Mechanism, we've now seen in much earlier dated Mythology.

Leto, Apollo and Artemis, Wikipedia

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