ss of gradual condensation and "rarification": earth condenses out of air, and fire is "exhaled" from the earth. The earth and heavenly bodies are flat and loft on infinite air like a leaf and do not set beneath the earth, just as in mythology, but instead turn at an angle so that many are obscured by the "higher" parts of earth.Ionic thought brought new influences to Greece. Xenophanes of Colophon (c. 570-490 BCE) migrated from Ionia to Italy. He propagated the view of heavenly bodies condensing into fiery clouds from earth's exhalation. His heavenly bodies, like Anaximines', followed circular courses and were obscured behind high parts of the earth. Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. 500 BCE), though criticizing his predecessors' work as data, not understanding, continued the idea of creation through balance of different substances and the process of condensation, this time, from fire. Night is formed of murkier exhalations from earth and day from exhalations ignited by the sun. Sun, moon, and stars are fire caught in bowls, which tip away to cause eclipses and lunar phases. The moon travels through the less purified air close to earth, and the sun is the closest and thus brightest and hottest of stars.The later of these "Pre-Socratic" philosophers began to specialize, develop, and apply the systems of empirical observation and deduction that their predecessors had invented. Some, like Parmenides and Zeno, concentrated on exposing the fallacies and logical traps to which the first uses of analytical thinking often fell prey. Others, like followers of the semi-legendary Pythagoras, used their theories about how the universe worked to develop new ideas of divinity, astronomy, universal harmony, and mathematics, and extended these ideas to dictate a proper, "harmonious" lifestyle. All these continued to refine and argue over the basic precepts put forth by the Milesian thinkers. Parmenides of Elea, in Italy, managed to demolish all physics by his...
