Heraclides of Pontus on the Solar Anomaly

Abstract

All scholars agree that Heraclides of Pontus affirmed the daily rotation of the Earth on its own axis. Almost all scholars also agree that he did not affirm the rotation of the Earth around the Sun. Nevertheless, there is a text which has been interpreted as asserting that Heraclides defended Heliocentrism. Geminos says: ?And thus a certain person, Heraclides of Pontus, coming forward, says that even if the Earth moves in a certain way and the Sun is in a certain way at rest, the apparent irregularity with regard to the Sun can be saved?. This text has been used to support that Heraclides held Heliocentrism because the diurnal rotation of the Earth cannot account for the solar anomaly (the apparent irregularity with regard to the Sun). Hence it seems that Heraclides must have introduced the annual revolution around the Sun. In this paper I offer a new interpretation of this text showing that it is possible to explain the non-uniform motion of the Sun through the Zodiac introducing some non-uniformity in the diurnal rotation of the Earth and, therefore, that there is no need to affirm that Heraclides held Heliocentrism, which is in clear contradiction to many other testimonies.