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The letter theta is the initial of the Greek word Θεωρια (theoria) from which the corresponding words in western languages derive (English: theory, German: Theorie, French: theorie, Italian: teoria). The original meaning of the word is "observation" or "viewing". Herodotus, the father of history, tells us that Solon, the Athenian poet and legislator, "... has travelled around the world for the shake of theory ...". From the same root derives another wide-spread Greek word: theatron (theater, meaning viewing or show).

The proverb in Latin is from the Latin poet Virgil (70-19 BC):

Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas
(Happy is he who comes to know the causes of things)
Virgil Georgics, Book II, line 490. 29 BC