Thālēs

Thālēs, of Miletus (flourished c.600 BC), by tradition the earliest Greek philosopher-scientist, one of the Seven Sages. He is credited with offering sound advice in many spheres including politics, but he was chiefly famous as an astronomer and geometer. He is said to have predicted an eclipse of the sun within the year 585 BC which actually took place on the day of the battle of the Halys between the Medes and the Lydians. It is, however, impossible for one of his time to have known a system for predicting a solar eclipse at a given geographical latitude. Slightly more plausible is the belief that after visiting Egypt he originated geometry by generalizing from Egyptian land measurement. Aristotle attributed to him the view that all things are modifications of a single eternal (and therefore divine) substance, which Thales held to be water. With this is connected his saying that ‘all things are full of gods’. See PHILOSOPHY.