Commentary

This report, preserved by Hippolytus and in the Aetius doxography, describes the earth as a column-like or drum-shaped body whose height is a third of its breadth, a shape that allows it to remain balanced in the centre without support. The description is among the most concrete surviving accounts of Anaximander's cosmology and is often read as an attempt to model the earth geometrically. G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven, and M. Schofield note that the figures given by Hippolytus are late and that the doxographers may have systematised the description. Charles Kahn argues that the cylindrical form fits the broader Milesian interest in symmetry and balance, and that it complements the claim that the earth remains at rest because it is equidistant from all things. Jonathan Barnes cautions that the proportion of height to breadth is a detail whose authenticity cannot be verified. W. K. C. Guthrie treats the report as an early example of a geometrical model of the earth applied to physical explanation. The sentence is a paraphrase of late doxography and should be read with that in mind.