Hiketas of Syracuse (Pythagoreans)

Hiketas of Syracuse ( ancient Greek Ἱκέτας Hikétas ) was an ancient Greek philosopher ( Pythagorean ) and astronomer. His lifetime is only known roughly; it probably falls into the late 5th and 4th centuries BC. Chr.

Life

The sources report nothing about the life of the hiketa. Due to the scientific-historical classification of his astronomical teaching, it is assumed in research that he was a contemporary of the Ekphantos and Philolaos . Accordingly, he lived in the late fifth and fourth centuries BC. Since his astronomy partly coincides with that of the Ekphantos, it has been assumed that he was his teacher; both were Pythagoreans (followers of the teaching of the philosopher Pythagoras ). The presumption of a teacher-student relationship remains hypothetical because of the unfavorable source situation; In any case, the assumption that the two were in contact and that they did not arrive at their views independently of one another is plausible.

Teaching

Since no writings of the Hiketa have survived, his teachings have to be reconstructed from a few brief statements in later sources. The doxographer Aëtios reports that Hiketas, like Philolaos, was a proponent of the hypothesis that there is a " counter- earth" that is always invisible from the inhabited part of the earth . Thus he belonged to the group of the "so-called Pythagoreans" mentioned by Aristotle , but not named by name, who represented this view. With reference to Theophrastus , Cicero reports that Hiketas explained the apparent movements in the starry sky with an axis rotation of the earth. This either meant - as is usually assumed in research - their own axis or an axis running outside the earth through the center of the cosmos. Cicero gives Theophrastus, the exact wording of which has not been passed down, in a very crude and simplistic way, by assuming Hiketas to claim that the earth is the only celestial body that moves. All other movements, including those of the sun, the moon and the planets, are supposed to be apparent, and this appearance is to be traced back for all equally to the axis rotation of the earth; the whole sky really stands still. The doxographer Diogenes Laertios gives information from some of his sources, according to which Hiketas did not place the earth in the center of the universe, but, like Philolaos, assigned it a circular orbit, and notes that it is unclear which of the two came up with this idea first. The counter-earth hypothesis attributed to Hiketas does indeed presuppose a model in which the earth orbits. Accordingly, Hiketas represented a novel minority position on this issue, because a geocentric worldview dominated at that time. It is unclear to what extent his astronomical model corresponds to that of Philolaos.

reception

According to an older research opinion, which has not caught on, Herakleides Pontikos wrote a dialogue, the protagonists of which were Hiketas and Ekphantos; this dialogue is the source for the ancient tradition about the alleged teachings of the two Pythagoreans. This assumption was linked to the assumption that Hiketas might not be a historical figure, but a literary fiction of Herakleides, or at least that, even if he had actually lived, he faked the teachings of Herakleides ascribed to him.

Nicolaus Copernicus mentions Hiketas, whom he erroneously calls "Nicetus", among the ancient astronomers who taught the motion of the earth and which he therefore regards as the forerunner of his conception of the mobility of the earth.

swell

• Maria Timpanaro Cardini : Pitagorici. Testimonianze e frammenti . Vol. 2, La Nuova Italia, Firenze 1962, pp. 406–415 (Greek source texts with Italian translation)

literature

• Bruno Centrone: Hicétas de Syracuse . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 3, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2000, ISBN 2-271-05748-5 , p. 681
• Leonid Zhmud : Hiketas and Ekphantos from Syracuse (DK 50–51) . In: Hellmut Flashar et al. (Ed.): Early Greek Philosophy (= Outline of the History of Philosophy . The Philosophy of Antiquity , Volume 1), Half Volume 1, Schwabe, Basel 2013, ISBN 978-3-7965-2598-8 , p. 428-429

Remarks

1. ↑ For example, Christoph Riedweg dates : Pythagoras: Life, Doctrine, Aftermath , 2nd Edition, Munich 2007, p. 147 and Leonid Zhmud: Science, Philosophy and Religion in Early Pythagoreism , Berlin 1997, p. 74.
2. ↑ See Bartel Leendert van der Waerden : Die Pythagoreer , Zurich / Munich 1979, pp. 459–464.
3. ↑ Bartel Leendert van der Waerden advocates the latter interpretation: Die Pythagoreer , Zurich / Munich 1979, p. 463; William KC Guthrie, however, argues: A History of Greek Philosophy , Vol. 1, Cambridge 1962, p. 328.
4. ↑ Diogenes Laertios 8,85.
5. ↑ See also Hans B. Gottschalk: Heraclides of Pontus , Oxford 1980, p. 44 f .; Bruno Centrone: Hicétas de Syracuse . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 3, Paris 2000, p. 681.
6. ↑ See also Charles H. Kahn: Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans , Indianapolis 2001, pp. 67, 160; Bronisław Biliński: Il pitagorismo di Niccolò Copernico , Wrocław 1977, pp. 47-69.