Note 1 — Chapter CXXXII
P. Le Page (Peter Le Page) Renouf translation
The Bow, , often written with the determinative , of stretching, which is the conception implied in this name of the instrument. This mythological Bow, as I explained, Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch., VI, 131, is the moon’s crescent, which during its course through the sky is always turned towards the sun; so that a line at right angles to the chord of the arc passes through the sun’s centre. From this “very delicate observation,” as Arago calls it, the Alexandrian astronomer Geminus infers that the moon derives its light from the sun. The observation evidently had been made in Egypt some thousands of years before Geminus, and explains 264why in several chapters the sun is spoken of as shining in or from the moon.
