As a scientist Philolaos was most original in astronomy. His system incorporated early
Pythagorean ideas of sphericity of the Earth and uniform circular motion of the planets,
but placed in the center a Central Fire, Hestia (“hearth”), which is the first thing that was
fitted together out of the unlimited and limiting things (B7). Around Hestia rotate counter-
Earth, Earth, Moon, Sun, five planets and the heavenly sphere. The bodies closer to the
center rotate faster: the Earth makes a revolution in a day, the Moon in a month, etc. The
Sun is a glass-like body and reflects the light of Hestia that, like the counter-Earth, is
invisible to us, since we live on the opposite hemisphere. The counter-Earth was, probably,
introduced in order to explain why lunar eclipses are more frequent than those of the
Sun, and not in order to bring the number of moving bodies to the “perfect” number 10.
(In total, there are 11 celestial bodies in Philolaos’ system, not 10.)
Philolaos also discussed arithmetic (B5), geometry (A7a), and harmonics; he gave a math-
ematical expression of musical intervals from an octave to a semitone (A6a). In physiology
Philolaos followed Alkmaio ̄n (consciousness is located in the brain, B13) and the other
Pythagoreans (H, M); he explained vital functions of an organism by
interaction of warm and cold. The soul is “harmony” of the opposite elements of the body
(A23) and, hence, dies with it (cf. P Phaid. 86b–c, 88d). Diseases are caused by the
influence of external factors on blood, bile and phlegm (A27).
DK 44; Burkert (1972); Huffman (1993); Zhmud (1997); Idem, “Some Notes on Philolaus and the
Pythagoreans,” Hyperboreus 4 (1998) 243–270.
Leonid Zhmud
Philome ̄los (325 BCE – 105 CE)
R, Ren. Ves. Morb. 6.7 (CMG 3.1, pp. 136–138), records that he pioneered assisted urination
in cases of partially-blocked urethra, by applying direct pressure. G, Loc. Aff. 1.1 (8.9 K.),
refers to the procedure. The archaic name is almost unattested after the 1st c. BCE: LGPN.
RE S.15 (1978) 308 (#8), H. Gärtner.
PTK
Philo ̄n (Geog.) (ca 300 – 250 BCE?)
Wrote an Aithiopika inspired by his expedition (under Ptolemy I or II) reaching Meroë and
the Red Sea. His astral data, e.g., that the Sun was in its zenith 45 days before the summer
solstice and the relation of gnomons to shadows in the solstices and equinoxes (S
2.1.20), were significant in estimating the Earth’s circumference. Cited by A
K and E; cf. perhaps P H.
Ed.: FGrHist 670.
RE 20.1 (1941) 51 (#44), R. Laqueur; BNP 11 (2007) 51 (#I.5), W. Ameling.
GLIM
Philo ̄n (Meteor.) (ca 200 BCE – ca 200 CE)
Author of a lost On Metals, known only through a brief reference in Athe ̄naios, Deipn.
(7 [322a]), to a certain fish called a stro ̄mateus (“patchwork”) found in the Red Sea and
mentioned in Philo ̄n’s book ( Thompson 1947: 253).
(*)
Bink Hallum
PHILOME ̄LOS