The concept of modelling, i.e. the creation of models or symbols that simulate physical phenomena or systems, has its origins in the early steps of human thought. A number of early scientific models of the world appear in Greece in the period between the 7th and the 5th century B.C. and are ascribed to the so-called presocratic philosophers, and lead to the subsequent developments in terms of more complete cosmological or astronomical models. The origins of such developments may be traced in the mythical period preceding the presocratic period. Homer, the first and the greatest mythmaker poet of ancient Greece, who wrote his epics around 750 B.C., presages in his work of Iliad the creation of models that represent the whole world. More precisely, the conception, the form and the content of Achilles' shield give an indicative example of the first attempt to formulate a complete model not only of the physical but also of the human world and this is considered here. Early scientific models of the world emerge in Greece in the work of the presocratic philosophers such as Thales, Anaxagoras, Anaximander, etc. Later on, Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle interpret the world by means of more complicated mathematical, cosmological, or astronomical models, which get their final integrated form by astronomers such as Eudoxus and Ptolemy. However, the origins of these models may be traced back to the myths of the early period. In the mythical period, the order and the method of myths, as well as the intention of poets to comprehend and express the natural and the human world, gave rise to the then unformed notion of modelling.
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