Alternate Name
BornSamos (Greece), circa470 BCE
Died Unknown
Melissus of Samos was a philosopher of the ancient Greek Eleatic School of philosophy and the elected admiral of the Samian fleet. In 441/440 BCE, during the Samian War (441–439) between Samos and Miletus, the Athenian fleet, under the command of Pericles (circa 495–429 BCE), tried to intervene in the dispute between these two city-states, but Pericles’ fleet was defeated by the Samian fleet under Melissus’ command.
The Epicurean philosopher Diogenes Laertius (flourished first half of the third century CE) tells us that Melissus was born on the island of Samos and his father was Ithaegenes (dates unknown). Little else of Melissus’ life is known for certain. Scholars speculate that Melissus was a student (disciple) of the philosophers Parmenides of Elea and Heraclitus of Ephesus. Melissus may have been a teacher of the Ionian Greek naturalistic philosopher Leucippus of Miletus. Leucippus was one of the earliest...
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Selected References
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Garfinkle, R.A. (2014). Melissus of Samos. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_9350
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