Anaxagoras, Democritus, and Cleanthes say that all the stars have their
motion from east to west. Alcmaeon and the mathematicians, that the
planets have a contrary motion to the fixed stars, and in opposition to
them are carried from the west to the east. Anaximander, that they
are carried by those circles and spheres on which they are placed.
Anaximenes, that they are turned under and about the earth. Plato and
the mathematicians, that the sun, Venus, and Mercury hold equal measures
in their motions.
CHAPTER XVII. WHENCE DO THE STARS RECEIVE THEIR LIGHT?
Metrodorus says that all the fixed stars derive their light from the
sun. Heraclitus and the Stoics, that earthly exhalations are those
by which the stars are nourished. Aristotle, that the heavenly bodies
require no nutriment, for they being eternal cannot be obnoxious to
corruption. Plato and the Stoics, that the whole world and the stars are
fed by the same things.
CHAPTER XVIII. WHAT ARE THOSE STARS WHICH ARE CALLED THE DIOSCURI, THE
TWINS, OR CASTOR AND POLLUX?
Xenophanes says that those which appear as stars in the tops of ships
are little clouds brilliant by their peculiar motion. Metrodorus, that
the eyes of frighted and astonished people emit those lights which are
called the Twins.
CHAPTER XIX. HOW STARS PROGNOSTICATE, AND WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF WINTER
AND SUMMER.
Plato says that the summer and winter indications proceed from the
rising and setting of the stars, that is, from the rising and setting
of the sun, the moon, and the fixed stars. Anaximenes, that the rest in
this are not at all concerned, but that it is wholly performed by the
sun. Eudoxus and Aratus assign it in common to all the stars, for thus
Aratus says:--
Thund'ring Jove stars in heaven hath fixed,
And them in such beauteous order mixed,
Which yearly future things predict.
CHAPTER XX. OF THE ESSENCE OF THE SUN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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