of the fragments are preserved in D L. Epitomes of A’s Politeia
and Nomina Barbarica have been transmitted separately.
Ed.: M. Dilts, Heraclidis Lembi excerpta Politiarum (1971); S. Schorn, Satyros aus Kallatis. Sammlung der
Fragmente mit Kommentar (2005).
Mejer (1978) 40–42, 62–72.
Jørgen Mejer
He ̄rakleide ̄s of He ̄rakleia Pontike ̄, “Pontikos” (ca 365 – ca 320 BCE)
Son of Euthuphro ̄n, born between 390 and 380 into a prominent family of He ̄rakleia on
the Black Sea. In Athens, according to S (apud D L 5.86 [fr.3
Wehrli]), He ̄rakleide ̄s first encountered S, listened to the Pythagoreans, and
joined P’s Academy, where he was among those who recorded Plato’s lecture On the
Good, and served as scholarch during one of Plato’s visits to Sicily, probably in 361/360
(Souda H-461 [fr.2 W.]). After Plato’s death (347), He ̄rakleide ̄s remained in the Academy
under the scholarchate of Speusippos (fr.9). At that time (347–ca 334), A left
Athens, so if it is true, as So ̄tio ̄n adds, that He ̄rakleide ̄s also studied under Aristotle, this
must have happened during Plato’s lifetime, when both were members of the Academy.
This therefore does not imply that later in his life He ̄rakleide ̄s became a Peripatetic,
although he shared literary and historical interests with the Peripatos. In Athens, his
obesity and affected dress and manner encouraged the transformation of his toponymic
“Pontikos” into the nickname “Pompikos” (fr.3), i.e., “inclined to a life of luxury.” After
Speusippos’ death (339), He ̄rakleide ̄s competed with X for the scholarchate
and was defeated by only a few votes; he then returned to He ̄rakleia (fr.9), where he is
known to have had pupils (D.L. 7.166 = fr.12). But we do not whether he opened a regular
school.
None of He ̄rakleide ̄s’ numerous works survives. His wrote many dialogues, usually set in
the past, sometimes in a comic, sometimes in a tragic style, and employing myths rather
than dialectical arguments. Diogene ̄s Laërtios (5.86 = fr.22), listing He ̄rakleide ̄s’ works,
roughly classifies them under the headings “Ethics,” “Physics,” “Grammar,” “Music”
(including literary criticism), “Rhetoric,” and “History.” Only a small portion of the topics
reflected scientific interests, and his theories were largely embedded in mythical contexts.
He believed in the immortality and transmigration of souls, and in divine intervention in
human affairs. He explained e.g. the inundation and subsidence, which destroyed the town
of Helike ̄ in 373, as an act of divine vengeance. He was famous in antiquity not as a
scientist nor as a philosopher but as a literary writer, and as such he continued to have a
wide audience well into the Roman era.
According to He ̄rakleide ̄s, matter is composed of “jointless particles” (anarmoi onkoi,
fr.199a-b) endowed with quality and subject to change (unlike D’ and E-
’ atoms), but different in quality from the bodies composed of them, a theory followed
by later medical thinkers, especially A B (influential in his own
right), and well-known to G. He ̄rakleide ̄s’ main contributions to the history of science
concern the theory of planetary movements. He explained the daily movement of the fixed
stars by a rotation of the Earth on its own axis, as opposed to the traditional explanation by
a movement of the celestial spheres around the Earth – his main predecessor being possibly
P, who explained it by the daily motion of the Earth around a central fire.
He ̄rakleide ̄s was probably the first to develop in detail an astronomical theory hypothesizing
HE ̄RAKLEIDE ̄S OF HE ̄RAKLEIA PONTIKE ̄, “PONTIKOS”