In this episode, we continue the story of the changing models of the universe during the renaissance, and follow its effects into poetry and opera. We take a listen to some of the music inspired by these stories and the relationships between those involved.

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Music credits: Thanks to The Ocean

Blur

Here's Voyager 1's pale blue dot photo: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/536/voyager-1s-pale-blue-dot/

Paradise Lost on the Gutenberg project (please support this amazing project if you can)

Freesound user daveincamas for the cannonball sound effect

Freesound user _apintofmild_ for the clockwork sound effect

https://linktr.ee/thethreads

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Following on from episode 1, now we expand the directions up and down to look beyond, at the whole universe and where Earth sits within it. The journey the Earth has taken through various different cultural depictions is truly amazing and there’s no way I can cover it even in a 2 part podcast, so in this episode I’m focusing on aspects from Greek, Roman and arabic natural philosophy, and naturally coming to the European renaissance and the scientific revolution.

Relevant art section:

1. Kepler’s platonic solids model from Mysterium Cosmographicum
2. Kepler’s second law gif
3. A simulation in case you want to play with Kepler’s second law
4. Artworks in my Instagram post for this episode

References

On the Nature of Things (English) by Lucretius

Ptolemy’s Almagest in English

De Revolutionibis in English

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We don’t take a lot of time to think about the deeper meaning of the directions up and down, yet they have clearly permeated our thinking for as long as storytelling has existed. In this episode, we take a look at what people in different times and cultures have thought about what lies both above and below us, and how these ideas have changed throughout the last four millenia.

Starting with some of the oldest stories on record (the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh and the associated Babylonian Creation Myth), meandering through some classical Roman poetry, and eventually arriving in Europe’s middle ages, let’s have a go at exploring what the sky is, why down is the most important direction, and the power that direction has had in shaping countless religions and cosmologies.

Erratum: Caedmon wasn’t a writer, according to Bede he was actually a cow herder. Bede attributed the hymn to Caedmon.

Art referenced in the episode can be found on Instagram

References

English translation of Gilgamesh by Academy for Ancient Texts

Great Hymn to Aten translated by E.A. Wallis Budge

Mundus Subterraneus on Archive.org (please support this incredible resource)

Cosmigraphics by Michael Benson

Dante’s Divine Comedy 1 on Gutenberg

Aristotle’s Physics on Internet Archive

Clearquran.com on the heavens

Ovid’s Metamorphosis

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This is The Threads, the podcast that traces the threads of ideas through science, art, literature and history.

Coming up, the first episode: The directions Up and Down and the many ways they have been represented and interpreted by artists and scientists.

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