Abstract
In Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus, the first of the three great classical writers, tells us how Prometheus taught humans not just the use of fire but also so many other worthwhile things. In particular, Prometheus relates, “And numbers, too, the chiefest of sciences, I invented for them” (lines 459/460). These lines, written about 465 b.c.e., bear witness to the high esteem the early Greeks had for arithmetic.
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© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Artmann, B. (1999). Euclid Book VII: Basic Arithmetic. In: Euclid—The Creation of Mathematics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1412-0_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1412-0_17
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