Anaximander of Miletus: 610 BC–547 BC

Anaximander was the first Greek to draw a map of the entire earth. At Anaximander’s time, Miletus was an important trading centre and had lively contacts with Mesopotamia and Egypt. The Milesians were known as intrepid sailors and Anaximander was no exception. According to Anaximander, the celestial bodies are at different distances from the earth. He placed them, however, in the wrong order: the stars nearest to the earth, then the moon, and the sun farthest away. Archaic astronomers were also astrologers, who could foretell which days were auspicious and which were inauspicious for all kinds of activities. Anaximander, on the contrary, introduced quite another kind of astronomy, which the philosophers would call speculative. His speculations were extremely fruitful, for with them he broke with the archaic world-view and introduced a completely new conception of the universe.