What were the theories of what caused the seasons prior to our knowledge of the tilt of the earth?

Answer 1

That's a difficult one because even the Babylonians (a thousand years before the Classical Greeks) knew of the tilt. And we do not have any writings from before.

We could point out that some thought it was the tilt of the ecliptic (the path of the Sun because, in an Earth centred system, the Earth does not 'tilt'; it is the path of the sun that is tilted).

At best, we could use some of the mythologies and pretend that the stories come from actual beliefs that people may have had at some time.

For example, Ceres, Roman goddess of agriculture (from whose name we get 'cereal'), was mother to Proserpina. The daughter was kidnapped by Pluto and brought to the underworld in the hope that she would marry him. She did not but while she was in the underworld, she ate six pomegranate seeds (she was hungry after a few weeks of being held prisoner).

When Ceres finally rescued her (with the help of Mercury), she discovered that because Proserpina had eaten six seeds while in the underworld, she had to return to Pluto for six months every year.

Angry at this decision, Ceres decided to stop food from growing for six months of the year. And, to celebrate her return among the living, every Spring, food would start growing again, until harvest time six months later.

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Ceres is first noted in Roman mythology around 600 BC at which time Greek culture had already entered the Roman one; it would appear that the story came AFTER the seasons were known to be the result of the tilt of the ecliptic.

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The henges (e.g., stonehenges) from 5000 years ago show that many cultures (like the old cultures in northern Scotland) knew that seasons were related to the shift in the sun's apparent path in the sky. They may have had stories that they told their children about seasons that had nothing to do with the tilt.

Just like we use stories about Santa Claus that have nothing to do with the real reason why toys appear under the tree. We know the stories are not true, yet we repeat them generation after generation.