In existographies, Heraclides of Ponticus (387-312BC) (IQ:180|#115), aka "Ponticus" (Guericke, 1672) or “Heraclides Ponticus”, was a Greek philosopher and astronomer, noted for []
Earth rotation | Heliocentrism
Heraclides, according to fragmentary evidence, proposed, supposedly, in contrast to the Aristotelian geocentric model (see: geocentrism), that the earth rotates on its axis, from west to east, once every 24 hours, and that the apparent daily motion of the stars was created by the rotation of the earth on its axis once a day.
This model, of note, supposedly, is similar to the an older model by Ecphantus (c.530-460BC), who proposed that the earth rotates like a wagon wheel, possibly cylinder like in shape.
Heraclides also proposed, according to Simplicius (c.590AD), that the irregular movements of the planets can be explained if the earth moves while the sun stays still (see: heliocentrism).
Aristotle
Heraclides, a contemporary of Aristotle, supposedly, battled him on the question whether the universe is finite or infinite. [2]
Quotes | On
The following are quotes on Heraclides:
“Crates and Dicaearchus were of opinion that there was no soul at all, but that the body thus stirs by a natural motion; Plato, that it was a substance moving of itself; Thales, a nature without repose; Asclepiades, an exercising of the senses; Hesiod and Anaximander, a thing composed of earth and water; Parmenides, of earth and fire; Empedocles, of blood, e.g. "He vomits up his bloody soul" (Sanguineam vomit ille animam). Posidonius, Cleanthes, and Galen that it was heat or a hot complexion: “their vigor of fire and of heavenly race” (Ignens est ollis vigor, et coelestis origo). Hippocrates, a spirit diffused all over the body; Varro, that it was an air received at the mouth, heated in the lungs, moistened in the heart, and diffused throughout the whole body; Zeno, the quintessence of the four elements ["I know not," says Mr. Coste, ''where Montaigne had this; for Cicero expressly says that this quintessence, or fifth nature is a thought of Aristotle, who makes the soul to be composed of it; and that Zeno thought the soul to be fire.'' (Cicero, Tusc. Quaes, i.9). After this, Cicero adds, "that Aristotle calls the mind, which he derives from that fifth nature entelechia [entelechy], a new-coined word, signifying a perpetual motion." Though Montaigne has copied these last words, in what he proceeds to tell us of Aristotle, he censures him for not having spoken of the origin and nature of the soul. But had he only cast his eye upon what Cicero had said a little before, he would have been convinced that Aristotle had taken care to explain himself concerning the origin of the soul, before he remarked the effect of it If he has not thereby fully demonstrated what the nature of it is, Zeno has not given us much better light into it when he says, "the soul or mind seems to be fire''; and it would not be difficult to show that in this article the other philosophers have not succeeded better than Zeno and Aristotle]; Heraclides Ponticus, that it was the light; Zenocrates and the Egyptians, a mobile number; the Chaldeans, a virtue without any determinate form: “A certain vital habit in man's frame, which harmony the Grecian sages name” (Habitum quemdam vitalem corporis ease, Harmonium Grseci quam dicunt.) Let us not forget Aristotle, who held the soul to be that which naturally causes the body to move, which he calls entelechia [entelechy], with as cold an invention as any of the rest; for he neither speaks of the essence, nor of the original, nor of the nature of the soul, but only takes notice of the effect. Lactantius, Seneca, and most of the dogmatists, have confessed that it was a thing they did not understand. Heraclitus, who was of opinion that every being was full of souls and demons, did nevertheless maintain that no one could advance so far towards the knowledge of the soul as ever to arrive at it; so profound was the essence of it.”
— Michel Montaigne (1580), “Apology for Raymond Sebond” [1]
“Anaximander stated that the earth was like a column, Leucippus, a cylinder or war drum; Cleanthes, a cone or top; Heraclitus, a boat-shaped vessel; Democritus, a concave disc; Anaximenes and Empedocles, etc., a level table. Thereafter, Parmenides and Epicurus came nearer actual fact, as did Heraclitus, Ponticus, and Ecphantus. The former believed that the earth was round like a ball, while the latter not only attributed the shape of a sphere to the earth, but also some movement, albeit not such that it could move forward and change place, however, as a wheel does.”
— Otto Guericke (1672), New Magdeburg Experiments on the Vacuum of Space (pg. 3)
References
1. (a) Montaigne, Michel. (1580). “Apology for Raymond Sebond”, Works of Raymond Sebond, Volume Two (translator: Orlando Wright) (§:12:117-344; quote, pg. 260-62). W. Vaezie, 1862.
(b) Montaigne, Michel. (1580). “An Apology for Raymond Sebond”; in: The Complete Works (translator: Donald Frame) (Varro and Aristotle, pg. 435). Everyman’s Library, 2003.
2. Couprie, Dirk L. (2011). Heaven and Earth in Ancient Greek Cosmology: from Thales to Heraclides Ponticus (Heraclides, pg. 225). Springer.
Further reading
● Heath, Thomas. (2013). Aristarchus of Samos: the Ancient Copernicus – a History of Greek Astronomy to Aristarchus, Together with Aristarchus’s Treatise on the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon (Heraclides, 38+ pgs). Cambridge University Press.
External links
● Heraclides Ponticus – Wikipedia.
