ABSTRACT
Greek tradition invariably ascribed the beginning of geometry to Egypt. Plato in the Phaedrus1 makes Socrates say that he had heard that the Egyptian god Theuth was the first to invent arith metic, the science of calculation, geometry, and astronomy (Proclus, on the other hand, says that arithmetic began among the Phoenicians because of its use in commerce and contracts). Herodotus2 says that geometry arose out of mensuration or land-surveying, which became necessary to the Egyptians owing to the periodical flooding of the Nile, which would sweep away a portion of a plot of land subject to taxation, so that the area had to be recalculated in order to arrive at the proper assessment of tax. Or, as Proclus has it, the Nile would efface boundaries so that remeasurement of areas became necessary in order to replace them. Heron of Alexandria, Diodorus Siculus, and Strabo tell much the same story.
