Conon (Astronomer) - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

CONON, Greek astronomer and geometrician, flourished at Samos in the 3rd century B.C. He was the friend of Archimedes, who survived him. Conon is best known in connexion with the Coma Berenices (Hair of Berenice). Berenice, the wife of Ptolemy Euergetes, had dedicated her hair in the temple of Arsinoe of Zephyrium (Aphrodite Zephyritis) as an offering to secure the safe return of her husband from his Syrian expedition. It disappeared from the temple, and was declared by Conon to have been placed among the stars. The incident formed the subject of a poem by Callimachus, of which only a few lines are preserved, but we still possess the imitation of it by Catullus. Conon is also considered the inventor of the curve known as the "Spiral of Archimedes." He wrote a work on astronomy, which contained a collection of the observations of solar eclipses made by the Chaldaeans, and drew up a parapegma, or meteorological calendar, from his own observations. He also investigated the question of the number of points of intersection of two conics, and his researches probably formed the basis of the 4th book of the Conics of Apollonius of Perga.