He says that, as the air was felted, the earth first came into being. It is very broad and is accordingly supported by the air.—Ps.-Plut. Strom. fr. 3 (R. P. 25).
In the same way the sun and the moon and the other heavenly bodies, which are of a fiery nature, are supported by the air because of their breadth. ‘The heavenly bodies were produced from the earth by moisture rising from it. When this is rarefied, fire comes into being, and the stars are com- posed of the fire thus raised aloft. There were also bodies of earthy substance in the region of the stars, revolving along with them. And he says that the heavenly bodies do not move under the earth, as others suppose, but round it, as a cap turns round ourhead. Thesun is hidden from sight, not because it goes under the earth, but because it is concealed by the higher parts of the earth, and because its distance from us becomes greater. The stars give no heat because of the greatness of their distance.—Hipp. Fe. i. 7, 4-6 (R. P. 28).
Winds are produced when air is condensed and rushes
along under propulsion; but when it is concentrated and
thickened still more, clouds are generated ; and, lastly, it turns
to water.1\—Hipp. Ref i. 7, 7 (Dox. p 561).
The stars are fixed like nails in the crystalline vault of the heavens.—Aet. ii. 14, 3 (Dox. p. 344).
They do not go under the earth, but turn round it.—JZJ, 16, 6 (Dox. p. 346).
The sun is fiery.— 72. 20, 2 (Dox. p. 348).
It is broad like a leaf.i—/d. 22, 1 (Dox. p. 352).
The heavenly bodies are diverted from their courses by the resistance of compressed air.—/d. 23, 1 (Dox. p. 352).
The moon is of fire—Jd. 25, 2 (Dox. p. 356).
Anaximenes explained lightning like Anaximander, adding as an illustration what happens in the case of ‘the sea, which flashes when divided by the oars.—JZJ. iii. 3, 2 (Dox. p. 368).
1 The text is very corrupt here. I retain ἐκπεπυκνωμένος, because we are told above that winds are condensed air, and I adopt Zeller’s ἀραιῷ εἰσφέρηται (p. 246, n. 1).
The Milesian School 81
Hail is produced when water freezes in falling; snow,
when there is some air imprisoned in the water.—Aet. iii. 4, 1
(Dox. p. 37°).
The rainbow is produced when the Beditis of the sun fall on thick condensed air. Hence the anterior part of it seems red, being burnt by the sun’s rays, while the other part is dark, owing to the predominance of moisture. And he says that a rainbow is produced at night by the moon, but not often, because there is not constantly a full moon, and because the moon’s light is weaker than that of the sun.—Scho/, Arat.1 (Dox. p. 231).
The earth was like a table in shape.—Aet. iii. 10, 3 (Dox. Ρ. 377).
The cause of earthquakes was the dryness and moisture of the earth, occasioned by droughts and heavy rains respectively.
—lb, 15, 3 (Dox. p. 379). Ἁ
We have seen that Anaximenes was quite justified in
going back to Thales in regard to his general theory of
the primary substance; but it cannot be denied that
the effect of this upon the details of his cosmology was
unfortunate. The earth is once more imagined as a
table-like disc floating upon the air. The sun, moon,
and planets are also fiery discs which float on the air
“like leaves.’ It follows that the heavenly bodies
cannot be thought of as going under the earth at night,
but only as going round it laterally like a cap ora
millstone.? This curious view is also mentioned in
Aristotle’s Meteorology, where the elevation of the
northern parts of the earth, which makes it possible for
1 The source of this is Poseidonios, who used Theophrastos. Dox. p. 231.
3 Theodoret (iv. 16) speaks of those who believe in a revolution like that of a millstone, as contrasted with one like that of a wheel. Diels (Dox. p. 46) refers these similes to Anaximenes and Anaximander respectively. They come, of course, from Aetios (Appendix, § 10), though they are given neither by Stobaios nor in the Placi¢a.
3 B, 1. 3544 28 (R. P. 28 c).
Innumerable worlds.
82 Early Greek Philosophy
the heavenly bodies to be hidden from sight, is referred
to. In fact, whereas Anaximander had regarded the
orbits of the sun, moon, and stars as oblique with
reference to the earth, Anaximenes regarded the earth
itself as inclined. The only real advance is the
distinction of the planets, which float freely in the
air, from the fixed stars, which are fastened to the
“crystalline ” vault of the sky.’ |
The earthy bodies, which circulate among the
planets, are doubtless intended to account for eclipses
and the phases of the moon.”
30. As might be expected, there is the same
difficulty about the “innumerable worlds” ascribed to
᾿ς Anaximenes as about those of Anaximander, and most
of the arguments given above (§ 18) apply here also.
The evidence, however, is far less satisfactory. Cicero
says that Anaximenes regarded air as a god, and adds
that it came into being. That there issome confusion
here is obvious. Air, as the primary substance, is
certainly eternal, and it is qui#e-likely that Anaximenes
called it “divine,” as Anaximander did the Boundless :
but it is certain that he also spoke of gods who came
into being and passed away. These arose, he said, from
the air. This is expressly stated by Hippolytos,* and
also by St. Augustine.” These gods are probably to
1 We do not know how Anaximenes imagined the “crystalline ” sky. It is probable that he used the word πάγος as Empedokles did. Cf. Chap. V. § 112.
2 See Tannery, Science helléne, p. 153. For the precisely similar bodies assumed by Anaxagoras, see below, Chap. VI. §135. See further Chap. VII. § 151.
3 Cic. de nat. D. i. 26 (ΚΕ. P. 28 b). On what follows see Krische, Forschungen, pp. 52 566.
4 Hipp. Ref. i. 7, 1 (R. P. 28).
5 Aug. de civ. D, viii. 2: ‘‘ Anaximenes omnes rerum causas infinito aéri dedit : nec deos negavit aut tacuit ; non tamen ab ipsis aérem factum, sed ipsos ex aére ortos credidit ” (R. P. 28 b).
The Milesian School $3
be explained like Anaximander’s. Simplicius, indeed,
takes another view;* but he may have been misled
by a Stoic authority.
31. It is not quite easy for us to realise that, Influence of
in the eyes of his contemporaries, and for long after, a
Anaximenes was_a much..more important figure than
Anaximander. And yet the fact is certain. We shall
see that Pythagoras, though he followed Anaximander
in his account of the heavenly bodies, was far more
- indebted to Anaximenes for his general theory. of
reality (§ 53). We shall see further that when, at a
later date, science revived once more in Ionia, it
was “the philosophy of Anaximenes” to which it
attached itself (§ 122). Anaxagoras adopted many of
his most characteristic views (§ 135), and some of them
even found their way into the cosmology of the
Atomists.” Diogenes of Apollonia went back to the
central doctrine of Anaximenes, and once more made
Air the primary substance, though he also tried to
combine it with the theories of Anaxagoras, (δ 188).
We shall come to all this later on; but it seemed
desirable’ to point out at once that Anaximenes marks
the culminating point of the line of thought which
? Simpl. Phys. p. 1121, 12(R. P. 28 a). The passage from the Placiéa is of higher authority than this from Simplicius. Note, further, that it is only to Anaximenes, Herakleitos, and Diogenes that successive worlds are ascribed even here. With regard to Anaximander, Simplicius is quite clear. For the Stoic view of Herakleitos, see Chap. III. § 78; and for Diogenes, Chap. X. § 188. That Simplicius is following a Stoic authority is suggested by the words καὶ ὕστερον οἱ ἀπὸ τῆς Στοᾶς. CF-.diso Simpl. de Caelo, p. 202, 13.
2 In particular, the authority of Anaximenes was so great that both Leukippos and Demokritos adhered to his theory of a disc-likeearth. Cf. Aet. iii, 10, 3-5 (Περὶ σχήματος γῆς), ᾿Αγαξιμένης τραπεζοειδῆ (τὴν γῆν). Λεύκιππος τυμπανοειδῆ.ς. Δημόκριτος δισκβειδῇ μὲν τῷ πλάτει, κοίλην δὲ τῷ μέσῳ. This, in spite of the fact thatthe spherical form of the earth was already a commonplace in circles affe by Pythagoreanism.
84. Early Greek Philosophy
started with Thales, and to show how the “ philosophy of Anaximenes” came to mean the Milesian doctrine
asawhole, This it canonly have done because it was |
really the work of a school, of which Anaximenes was
the last distinguished representative, and because his
contribution to it was one that completed the sy$t@m
he had inherited from his predecessors. That the
theory of rarefaction and condensation was really
such a completion of the Milesian system, we have
seen already (§ 26), and it need only be added that a
clear realisation of this fact will be the best clue at
once to the understanding of the Milesian cosmology
itself and to that of the systems which followed it. In
the main, it is from Anaximenes that they all start.
Thane Tins
Science and Religion
32. So far we have not met with any trace of direct Migrations to
antagonism between science and popular beliefs, though
the views of the Milesian cosmologists were really as
inconsistent with the religions of the people as with
the mythology of the anthropomorphic: poets.’ Two
_ things hastened the conflict—the shifting of the’scene
to the West, and the religious revival which swept over
Hellas in the sixth century B.C.
The chief figures in the philosophical history of the
period were Pythagoras of Samos and Xenophanes of
Kolophon. Both were Ionians by birth, and yet both
spent the greater part of their lives in the West. We
see from Herodotos how the Persian advance in Asia
Minor occasioned a series of migrations to Sicily and
Southern Italy 3? and this, of course, made a great
difference to philosophy as well as to religion. The
new views had probably grown up so naturally and
gradually in Ionia that the shock of conflict and
reaction was avoided; but that could no longer be so,
when they were transplanted to a region where men
were wholly unprepared to receive them.
1 For the theological views of Anaximander and Anaximenes, see §§ 22 and 30. * Cf, Herod. i. 170 (advice of Bias) ; vi. 22 sqq. (Kale Akte). é 85
the West.
86 Early Greek Philosophy
Another, though a somewhat later, effect of these
migrations was to bring Science into contact with
Rhetoric, one of the most characteristic products of
Western Hellas. Already in Parmenides we may note
the presence of that dialectical and controversial spirit
which was destined to have so great an influence on
Greek thought, and it was just this fusion of the art of
arguing for victory with the search for truth that
before long gave birth to Logic.
The religious 323. Most important of all in its influence on eae philosophy was the religious revival which culminated about this time. The religion of continental Hellas had developed in a very different way from that of Ionia. In particular, the worship of Dionysos, which came from Thrace, and is barely mentioned in Homer, contained in germ a wholly new way of looking at man’s relation to the world. It would certainly be wrong to credit the Thracians themselves with any very exalted views ; but there can be no doubt that, to the Greeks, the phenomenon of ecstasy suggested that the soul was something more than a feeble double of the self, and that it was only when “ out of the body” it could show its true nature.’ Toa less extent, such ideas were also suggested by the worship of Demeter, whose mysteries were celebrated at Eleusis ; though, in later days, these came to take the leading place in men’s minds. That was because they were incorporated’ in the public religion of Athens.
Before the time with which we are dealing, tradition shows us dimly an age of inspired prophets—Bakides
1 On all this, see Rohde, Psyche, pp. 327 sqq. It is probable that he exaggerated the degree to which these ideas were already developed among the Thracians, but the essential connexion of the new view of the soul with
᾿ Northern worships is confirmed by the tradition over and over again.
Science and Religion 87
and Sibyls—followed by one of strange medicine-men
like Abaris and Aristeas of Prokonnesos. With
Epimenides of Crete, we touch the fringe of history,
while Pherekydes of Syros is the contemporary of the
early cosmologists, and we still have some fragments
of his discourse. It looked as if Greek religion were
about to enter upon the same stage as that already
reached by the religions of the East ; and, but for the