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{{Short description|Greek philosopher and astronomer (c. 390–c. 310 BC)}}
{{About|the philosopher|the former butterfly genus|Papilio|the historian|Heracleides  of Cyme}}
{{Use shortened footnotes|date=July 2023}}
'''Heraclides Ponticus''' ({{langx|grc|Ἡρακλείδης ὁ Ποντικός}} ''Herakleides''; c. 390 BC – c. 310 BC){{sfn|Dorandi|1999|p=48}} was a [[Greece|Greek]] [[philosopher]] and [[astronomer]] who was born in [[Heraclea Pontica]], now [[Karadeniz Ereğli]], [[Turkey]], and migrated to [[Athens]]. He is best remembered for proposing that the [[rotation of the Earth|Earth rotates]] on its axis, from west to east, once every 24 hours.{{sfn|Porter|2000}} He is also hailed as the originator of the [[heliocentric]] theory, although this is disputed.{{sfn|Eastwood|1992|p=233}}{{sfn|Gottschalk|1980|p=64-66}}

==Life==
Heraclides' father was Euthyphron,{{sfn|Gottschalk|1980|p=2}} 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]].{{sfn|Guthrie |1986|p=470}}

All of Heraclides' writings have been lost; only a few fragments remain. Like the [[Pythagoreans]] [[Hicetas]] and [[Ecphantus]], Heraclides proposed that the apparent daily motion of the stars was created by the rotation of the Earth on its axis once a day. This view contradicted the accepted Aristotelian model of the universe, which said that the Earth was fixed and that the stars and planets in their respective spheres might also be fixed. [[Simplicius of Cilicia|Simplicius]] says that Heraclides proposed that the irregular movements of the planets can be explained if the Earth moves while the Sun stays still.{{sfn|Simplicius|1997|p=48}}

Although some historians{{sfn|Heath|1921|pp=312, 316-317}} have proposed that Heraclides taught that [[Venus]] and [[Mercury (planet)|Mercury]] revolve around the Sun, a detailed investigation of the sources has shown that "nowhere in the ancient literature mentioning Heraclides of Pontus is there a clear reference for his support for any kind of heliocentrical planetary position."{{sfn|Eastwood|1992|p=256}}

A punning on his name, dubbing him Heraclides "Pompicus," suggests he may have been a rather vain and pompous man and the target of much ridicule.{{sfn|Davidson|2007|p=45}} [[Diogenes Laërtius]], citing [[Aristoxenus]] as his source, states that Heraclides forged plays under the name of [[Thespis]], and further states that [[Chamaeleon (philosopher)|Camaeleon]] claimed that Heraclides had plagiarised commentaries on [[Hesiod]] and [[Homer]] from him.{{sfn|Laërtius|1925|loc=§ 92}} Laërtius also conveys a story in which [[Dionysius the Renegade|Dionysius the Deserter]] fooled Heraclides by forging a play, ''Parthenopaeus'', under the name of [[Sophocles]]. Heraclides was deceived by this easily and cited it as the work of Sophocles.{{sfn|Laërtius|1925|loc=§ 92-93}} However, Heraclides seems to have been a versatile and prolific writer on philosophy, [[mathematics]], [[music]], [[grammar]], [[physics]], [[history]] and [[rhetoric]], notwithstanding doubts about attribution of many of the works. It appears that he composed various works in dialogue form.

Heraclides also seems to have had an interest in the occult. In particular he focused on explaining trances, visions and prophecies in terms of the retribution of the gods, and reincarnation.{{sfn|Porter|2000}}

A quote of Heraclides, of particular significance to historians, is his statement that fourth century B.C. [[Rome]] was a Greek city.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

Heraclides Ponticus refers with much admiration that Pythagoras would remember having been Pirro and before Euphorbus and before some other mortal.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|20em}}

==References==
*{{cite book |last=Dorandi |first=Tiziano |chapter=Chapter 2: Chronology |editor-last=Algra |editor-first=Keimpe |display-editors=etal |year=1999 |title=The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy |url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgehistory00algr |url-access=limited |page=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgehistory00algr/page/n67 48] |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=9780521250283 }}
*{{cite book |last=Davidson |first=Martin P. |year=2007 |title=The Stars And The Mind |publisher=Fabri Press |page=45 |isbn=978-1-4067-7147-3 }}
*{{cite journal |last=Eastwood |first=Bruce |year=1992 |title=Heraclides and Heliocentrism: Texts, Diagrams, and Interpretations |journal=Journal for the History of Astronomy |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=233–260 |doi=10.1177/002182869202300401 |bibcode=1992JHA....23..233E |s2cid=118643709 }}
*{{cite book |last=Gottschalk |first=H. B. |year=1980 |title=Heraclides of Pontus |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |isbn=0-19-814021-5 }}
*{{cite book |last=Guthrie |first=W. K. C. |year=1986 |title=A History of Greek Philosophy: Volume 5, The Later Plato and the Academy (Later Plato & the Academy) |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=470 |isbn=0-521-31102-0 }}
*{{cite book |last=Heath |first=Thomas L. |year=1921 |title=A History of Greek Mathematics: From Thales to Euclid |url=https://archive.org/details/ahistorygreekma00heatgoog |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ahistorygreekma00heatgoog/page/n329 312], 316–317 }}
*{{cite web |last1=Hutchinson |first1=D. S. |last2=Johnson |first2=Monte Ransome |date=25 January 2015 |url=http://blog.protrepticus.info/2015/01/new-reconstruction-includes-greek-text.html |title=Protrepticus: New Reconstruction, includes Greek text }}
*{{cite LotEP|chapter=Heraclides |§=92}}
*{{cite encyclopaedia |editor-last=Porter |editor-first=Roy |year=2000 |edition=1st |title=Heraklides of Ponticus |encyclopedia=The Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography |publisher=[[Hodder & Stoughton]] |isbn=978-1859863046 }}
*{{cite book |author=Simplicius |author-link=Simplicius of Cilicia |title=On Aristotle's ''Physics 2'' |year=1997 |url=https://archive.org/details/onaristotlesphys0000simp_h9k7/page/48 |url-access=registration |translator-first=Barries |translator-last=Fleet |location=Ithaca |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |isbn=0-8014-3283-9 |page=48 }}

==Further reading==
* [[Diogenes Laërtius]] trans. C.D. Yonge (1853) "Lives of Eminent Philosophers"
* [[O. Voss]] (1896) ''De Heraclidis Pontici vita et scriptis''
* Wehrli, F. (1969) ''Herakleides Pontikos. Die Schule des Aristoteles'' vol. 7, 2nd edn. Basel.
* ''Heraclides of Pontus. Texts and translations'', edited by Eckart Schütrumpf; translators Peter Stork, Jan van Ophuijsen, and Susan Prince, New Brunswick, N.J., Transaction Publishers, 2008
* ''Heraclides of Pontus. Discussion'', edited by William W. Fortenbaugh, Elizabeth Pender, New Brunswick, N.J. : Transaction Publishers, 2009
* {{Cite book |last=Neugebauer |first=Otto |orig-year=1957 |year=1969 |author-link=Otto E. Neugebauer |title=The Exact Sciences in Antiquity |edition=2 |publisher=[[Dover Publications]] |isbn=978-0-486-22332-2}}
* [[Otto Neugebauer|O. Neugebauer]] (1975) ''A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy''

== External links ==
* {{MacTutor Biography|id=Heraclides|mode=cs1}}

{{Greek astronomy}}
{{Platonists}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heraclides Ponticus}}
[[Category:390s BC births]]
[[Category:310s BC deaths]]
[[Category:4th-century BC Greek philosophers]]
[[Category:Academic philosophers]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek astronomers]]
[[Category:Ancient Pontic Greeks]]
[[Category:Metic philosophers in Classical Athens]]
[[Category:People from Heraclea Pontica]]