The Moon was not a God

Anaxagoras was one of the first persons to state that the moon was a rock. His theory was that the moon had been flung into space by the Earth. The Sun, in turn, was labeled as being a burning rock. The philosopher probably was born in 499 BC in Klazomenai, when Asia Minor was still under Persian rule.

His greatest merit was his attempt to describe the occurrence of eclipses, meteors, rainbows, and the behavior of the Sun and the Moon. The eclipse that he witnessed in 463 BC while he was travelling through Greece may have contributed to his further in-depth observations.

His most surprising “discovery” – that certainly was very disconcerting to people in antiquity – was his statement that the moon’s face was illuminated from the Sun on the opposite side of the Earth. He realized that the phases of the moon resulted from the alignment of the Moon, Sun and Earth. In short, he described the solar eclipse.

He wrote a book about this and other theories but, as so often, his knowledge only percolated through fragmentary work by later scholars among which we find Aristotle. As a consequence, Anaxagoras’ concepts may have been part of Alexander’s schooling baggage.

Contrary to the generally accepted theory of the time, he declared that the Moon and the Sun were objects (rocks) and not gods. The Athenians deeply resented this impiety and Anaxagoras was accused of blasphemy. Consequently, the philosopher was arrested and sentenced to death. However, thanks to the personal intervention of Pericles, Anaxagoras was exiled to Lampsacus on the Hellespont.

None of his contemporaries could have imagined that Anaxagoras’ ideas about the eclipses and lunar phases would live on for 2,600 years, that is until this day.