Claudius Ptolemy and Hamlet (Part 7, Claudius series)
Some might think I missed a comma and that this post is about three people: Hamlet, his uncle Claudius, and Ptolemy, the astronomer. But in fact, the astronomer was a Roman citizen with “Claudius” as part of his name. What does this have to do with Shakespeare’s Danish tragedy? Ptolemy (circa 100 – 170 AD) was on the wrong side of science from an Elizabethan point of view. He thought that the earth was at the center, and that the sun and other heavenly objects went around the earth. About 350 years before Ptolemy, Aristarchus of Samos (310 – 230 BC) had said that the sun was at the center, but that idea didn’t catch on until the likes of Copernicus (1473 – 1543) and others. Certain passages in the Bible claimed that the sun moved, so the church was slow to endorse the Copernican paradigm. When Polonius reads Hamlet’s love letter to Ophelia, it includes the lines, Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love. (2.2.124-12...