Herakleides mummy
- •
Heraclides Ponticus facts for kids
This page is about the philosopher. For the former butterfly genus, see Papilio. For the historian, see Heracleides of Cyme.
Heraclides Ponticus (Greek: Ἡρακλείδης ὁ ΠοντικόςHerakleides; c. 390 BC – c. 310 BC) was a Greekphilosopher and astronomer who was born in Heraclea Pontica, now Karadeniz Ereğli, Turkey, and migrated to Athens. He is best remembered for proposing that the Earth rotates on its axis, from west to east, once every 24 hours. He is also hailed as the originator of the heliocentric theory, although this is doubted by some.
Life
Heraclides' father was Euthyphron, a wealthy nobleman who sent his son to study at the Platonic Academy in Athens under its founder Plato and under his successor Speusippus. According to the Suda, Plato, on his departure for Sicily in 361/360 BC, left the Academy in the charge of Heraclides. Heraclides was nearly elected successor to Speusippus as head of the academy in 339/338 BC, but narrowly lost to Xenocrates.
Work
All of Heraclides' writings have been lost; only a few fragments remain. Lik
- •
Pythagoras
Greek philosopher (c. 570 – c. 495 BC)
"Pythagoras of Samos" redirects here. For the Samian statuary, see Pythagoras (sculptor).
For other uses, see Pythagoras (disambiguation).
Pythagoras of Samos[a] (Ancient Greek: Πυθαγόρας; c. 570 – c. 495 BC)[b] was an ancient IonianGreek philosopher, polymath, and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His political and religious teachings were well known in Magna Graecia and influenced the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and, through them, the West in general. Knowledge of his life is clouded by legend; modern scholars disagree regarding Pythagoras's education and influences, but they do agree that, around 530 BC, he travelled to Croton in southern Italy, where he founded a school in which initiates were sworn to secrecy and lived a communal, ascetic lifestyle.
In antiquity, Pythagoras was credited with many mathematical and scientific discoveries, including the Pythagorean theorem, Pythagorean tuning, the five regular solids, the Theory of Proportions, the sphericity of the
- •
Heraclides Ponticus
4th cent. bc philosopher of the Academy. Born of a wealthy and aristocratic family in Heraclea Pontica, he came to Plato's Academy in Athens as a pupil of Speusippus. Like other Academics, he wrote a version of Plato's lectures On the Good; he also studied with Aristotle, probably while Aristotle was still in the Academic school (he does not really belong to Die Schule des Aristoteles, the ‘school of Aristotle’). He was placed in temporary charge of the Academy during Plato's third visit to Sicily (361/0) and after the death of Plato's successor Speusippus (338) he was runner-up for the headship of the school. He returned to Heraclea. He was still alive at the time of Aristotle's death in 322.
The fragments of his writings, mostly dialogues, reveal the wide variety of his interests—ethical, political, physical, historical, and literary. Diog. Laert. 5. 86–8 gives a list of his writings; more are mentioned in other sources.
Heraclides' significance for posterity lies in four directions: in the distinctive form of his dialogues; in physics, particularly astron
Copyright ©icythaw.pages.dev 2025