Arche

Arche (Ancient Greek: ἀρχή) is a Greek word with primary senses "beginning", "origin" or "source of action". (εξ’ ἀρχής: from the beginning, οr εξ’ ἀρχής λόγος: the original argument), and later first principle or element, first so used by Anaximander (Simplicius in Ph. 150.23), principles of knowledge (ἀρχαί) (Aristot. Metaph. 995b8). By extension, it may mean "first place, power", "method of government", "empire, realm", "authorities" (in plural: ἀρχαί), "command". The first principle or element corresponds to the "ultimate underlying substance" and "ultimate undemonstrable principle". In the philosophical language of the archaic period (8th-6th century BC), arche (or archai) designates the source, origin or root of things that exist. In ancient Greek philosophy, Aristotle foregrounded the meaning of arche as the element or principle of a thing, which although undemonstrable and intangible in itself, provides the conditions of the possibility of that thing.

Mythical cosmogonies

In the mythical Greek cosmogony of Hesiod (8th-7th century BC), the origin of the world is Chaos, considered as a divine primordial condition, from which everything else appeared. In the creation "chaos" is a gaping-void, but later the word is used to describe the space between the earth and the sky, after their separation. "Chaos" may mean infinite space, or a formless matter which can be differentiated. The notion of temporal infinity was familiar to the Greek mind from remote antiquity in the religious conception of immortality. The conception of the "divine" as an origin, influenced the first Greek philosophers.

Arche (moon)

Arche (/ˈɑːrkiː/ ARK-ee; Greek: Αρχή), also known as Jupiter XLIII, is a moon of Jupiter. It was discovered by a team of astronomers from the University of Hawaii led by Scott S. Sheppard in 2002, and received the temporary designation S/2002 J 1.

Arche is about 3 kilometres in diameter, and orbits Jupiter at an average distance of 23,717 Mm in 746.185 days, at an inclination of 165° to the ecliptic (162° to Jupiter's equator), in a retrograde direction and with an eccentricity of 0.149.

It was named in 2005 after Arche, whom some Greek writers described as one of the four original Muses, an addition to the earlier three (Aoede, Melete, and Mneme).

Arche belongs to the Carme group, made up of irregular retrograde moons orbiting Jupiter at a distance ranging between 23 and 24 Gm and at an inclination of about 165°.

References

Arche (mythology)

Arche (Ancient Greek: Ἀρχή) in ancient Greek religion was the muse of origins. She was one of the five later identified (Boeotian) muses. Nine different muses were later named which became known as the Olympian Muses, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne which is more familiar in classical descriptions of the muses.

See also