ἐφάπτομαι
ephaptomai

Greek verb

Last edited: 2025-03-31
Primary meaning to touch
Literal translation to attach oneself to
Variants
ἐφάπτομαι ephaptomai
Edited by
to touch geometrical term, mathematical term

in a mathematical sense

Ἀρκτικὸς μὲν οὖν ἐστι κύκλος ὁ μέγιστος τῶν ἀεὶ θεωρουμένων κύκλων, ὁ ἐφαπτόμενος τοῦ ὁρίζοντος καθ’ ἓν σημεῖον καὶ ὅλος ὑπὲρ γῆν ἀπολαμβανόμενος, ἐν ᾧ τὰ κείμενα τῶν ἄστρων οὔτε δύσιν οὔτε ἀνατολὴν ποιεῖται, ἀλλὰ δι’ ὅλης τῆς νυκτὸς περὶ τὸν πόλον στρεφόμενα θεωρεῖται.

‘The arctic circle is the biggest of the always visible circles, the one touching the horizon in one point and as a whole taken aside above the earth, in which the stars lying in it never perform a setting nor a rising, but are observed during the whole night turning around the pole.’

— Geminus 5.2

Genre: astronomy
Date: 1st century BCE

Geminus. 1975. Géminos, Introduction aux Phénomènes, ed. G. Aujac. Paris: Les Belles Lettres. 21

Cite this entry
APA (7th)
Peeters, T. (2025). ἐφάπτομαι (Lemma #5448). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/5448/
Chicago (Author-Date)
Peeters, T. (2025). ἐφάπτομαι (Lemma #5448). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/5448/
MLA (9th)
Peeters, T. (2025). ἐφάπτομαι (Lemma #5448). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/5448/
Harvard
Peeters, T. (2025) ἐφάπτομαι (Lemma #5448), The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. Available at: https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/5448/ (Accessed: February 2, 2026).
BibTeX 
@misc{zodiac5448,
	note = {[Online; accessed 2026-02-02]},
	author = {Peeters, Thomas},
	year = {2025},
	title = {ἐφάπτομαι ({Lemma} #5448)},
	url = {https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/5448/},
	howpublished = {https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/5448/},
}