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A Source Book in Geography
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Biographical SummaryAnaxagoras of Clazomenae is considered to be the most prominent of the later Ionians; his views on the earth and on terrestrial phenomena constitute further elaboration of those ascribed to Anaximander. The first selection is from Hippolytus’ Refutatio Omnium Heresium; the second from Alexander of Aphro-disias’ De Fatis; the third from Plutarch’s De Placitis Philosophorum.
Geography Anaxagoras on the Shape of the Earth, Eclipses, and Atmospheric Phenomena
Hippolytus
The earth is flat in shape. It stays up because of its size, because there is no void, and because the air, which is very resistant, supports the earth, which rests on it. Now we turn to the liquids on the earth: The sea existed all along, but the water in it became the way it is because it suffered evaporation, and it is also added to from the rivers which flow into it. Rivers originate from rains and also from subterranean water; for the earth is hollow and has water in its hollows.
The moon does not shine with its own light, but receives its light from the sun. The stars go under the earth in their course. Eclipses of the moon occur when the earth cuts off the light, and sometimes when the bodies below the moon cut off the light. Eclipses of the sun take place at new moon, when the moon cuts off the light. The sun and moon reach turning points in their courses when they are forced back by the air. Often the moon turns when it can not prevail over the cold. Anaxagoras was the first to describe the circumstances under which eclipses occur and the way light is reflected by the moon. He said that the moon is made of earth and has plains and gullies on it.
Alexander of Aphrodisias
It is evident that hail is ice, that is, water in a solid state. As we have said, it seems inconsistent with this fact that it hails in warm weather rather than in cold weather and it is difficult to see how so much water can remain suspended in the air long enough to freeze. For these reasons, some people—among them Anaxagoras—say that hail falls, and freezes the way it does, because clouds are thrust to colder, higher altitudes by the warmth surrounding the earth below.
Plutarch
Concerning thunder, lightning, thunderbolts, hurricanes attended with lightning, and typhoons . . . Anaxagoras says that these phenomena occur when heat falls into the cold below, i.e. when a part of the aether falls into the atmosphere. Thunder is produced by the noise, lightning by the contrast between the color of the aether and the black of the clouds, thunderbolts by a large quantity of light. Typhoons are produced by heat substance composed of yet more particles, and hurricanes attended with lightning are produced by heat substance mixed with clouds.
From Anaxagoras and the Birth of Physics by Daniel E. Gershenson and Daniel A. Greenberg, © Copyright, 1964, by Xerox Corporation, pp. 151, 158, 120. Used by permission of Ginn and Company.
Contents:
Chicago:
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, "Anaxagoras on the Shape of the Earth, Eclipses, and Atmospheric Phenomena," A Source Book in Geography, ed. Daniel A. Greenberg in A Source Book in Geography, ed. George Kish (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978), 16–17. Original Sources, accessed July 12, 2025, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=CMYLK6S9A7QAQ4A.
MLA:
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae. "Anaxagoras on the Shape of the Earth, Eclipses, and Atmospheric Phenomena." A Source Book in Geography, edited by Daniel A. Greenberg, in A Source Book in Geography, edited by George Kish, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1978, pp. 16–17. Original Sources. 12 Jul. 2025. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=CMYLK6S9A7QAQ4A.
Harvard:
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, 'Anaxagoras on the Shape of the Earth, Eclipses, and Atmospheric Phenomena' in A Source Book in Geography, ed. . cited in 1978, A Source Book in Geography, ed. , Harvard University Press, Cambridge, pp.16–17. Original Sources, retrieved 12 July 2025, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=CMYLK6S9A7QAQ4A.
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