Conon of Samos

Conon of Samos (c. 280 BC in Samos; † around 220 BC, probably in Alexandria ) was a Hellenistic mathematician and astronomer at the court of Ptolemy III. and his wife Berenice in Alexandria.

He was a friend of Archimedes and his discovery of the Archimedean spiral is attributed. Through traditions of Pappus and Apollonius of Perga is known that he has written, among other writings on conics ( conics ) and astronomy. However, these are all lost.

His name is known mainly through the narrative of the hair of the Queen, who has survived from the period around 245 BC and who owes the constellation Coma Berenices ( Coma Berenices ) its origin.

As Berenike's husband moved shortly after the wedding because of a treason against the Seleucids in the third Syrian war, should the Queen have promised her hair goddess of love Aphrodite to ask for the safe return of Ptolemy. She brought it to a temple at Cape Zephyrion, where the memory of their mother Arsinoe II was maintained. The head of hair disappeared but unknown means what Berenice - or the king after his return - to have very upset. But the court astronomer Conon had an explanation at hand:

The victim had the gods done so much joy that it brought the strands of hair in the sky, where they could be seen as a new star group. Actually makes the constellation - although it only consists of fainter stars - the impression of flowing or flowing structure (see thumbnail).

Thus, a loose open cluster, as a small constellation in the spring sky between Leo and Bootes ( the boat) was the star group, according to present knowledge established. Callimachus dedicated his poem of this transformation Locke Berenice, Catullus transferred it into Latin.

According to the poem of Callimachus Conon has created a star map, on which is no longer known but.