came from Miletus, introduced him to Pericles. Plato, in the Phaedrus, says:
Pericles "fell in, it seems with Anaxagoras, who was a scientific man; and satiating himself with
the theory of things on high, and having attained to a knowledge of the true nature of intellect and
folly, which were just what the discourses of Anaxagoras were mainly about, he drew from that
source whatever was of a nature to further him in the art of speech."
It is said that Anaxagoras also influenced Euripides, but this is more doubtful.
The citizens of Athens, like those of other cities in other ages and continents, showed a certain
hostility to those who attempted to introduce a higher level of culture than that to which they were
accustomed. When Pericles was growing old, his opponents began a campaign against him by
attacking his friends. They accused Pheidias of embezzling some of the gold that was to be
employed on his statues. They passed a law permitting impeachment of those who did not practise
religion and taught theories about "the things on high." Under this law, they prosecuted
Anaxagoras, who was accused of teaching that the sun was a red-hot stone and the moon was
earth. (The same accusation was repeated by the prosecutors of Socrates, who made fun of them
for being out of date.) What happened is not certain, except that he had to leave Athens. It seems
probable that Pericles got him out of prison and managed to get him away. He returned to Ionia,
where he founded a school. In accordance with his will, the anniversary of his death was kept as a
schoolchildrens' holiday.
Anaxagoras held that everything is infinitely divisible, and that even the smallest portion of matter
contains some of each element. Things appear to be that of which they contain most. Thus, for
example, everything contains some fire, but we only call it fire if that element preponderates. Like
Empedocles, he argues against the void, saying that the clepsydra or an inflated skin shows that
there. is air where there seems to be nothing.
He differed from his predecessors in regarding mind (nous) as a substance which enters into the
composition of living things, and distinguishes them from dead matter. In everything, he says,
there