“The moon shines with light borrowed from the sun.”
— EmpedoclesReported in Plutarch and in Aetius' doxography; paraphrase of an astronomical doctrine attributed to Empedocles
Commentary
This doctrine, reported in later doxography, explains the moon's light as reflected from the sun, a view that Empedocles is said to have held and that anticipates later astronomical accounts. The claim belongs to a broader attempt to explain celestial phenomena through the interaction of the elements. Kirk, Raven, and Schofield discuss the report with caution, since the doxographical tradition often attributes such views to early thinkers without clear evidence. Daniel Graham argues that the astronomical doctrines fit the physical framework of the poem, though the details are uncertain. Richard Wright notes that the fragments say little about astronomy, and that the attribution rests on later witnesses. Jean Bollack's edition gathers the relevant testimonia. The sentence is a paraphrase of a doctrinal report, not a verbatim line, and should be labelled as such.
Commentary
This doctrine, reported in later doxography, explains the moon's light as reflected from the sun, a view that Empedocles is said to have held and that anticipates later astronomical accounts. The claim belongs to a broader attempt to explain celestial phenomena through the interaction of the elements. Kirk, Raven, and Schofield discuss the report with caution, since the doxographical tradition often attributes such views to early thinkers without clear evidence. Daniel Graham argues that the astronomical doctrines fit the physical framework of the poem, though the details are uncertain. Richard Wright notes that the fragments say little about astronomy, and that the attribution rests on later witnesses. Jean Bollack's edition gathers the relevant testimonia. The sentence is a paraphrase of a doctrinal report, not a verbatim line, and should be labelled as such.