SOURCE: James B. Wilbur and Harold J. Allen, "The Eleatics: Melissus and Zeno," in The Worlds of the Early Greek Philosophers, Prometheus Books, 1979, pp. 118-33.

In the following excerpt, Wilbur and Allen examine the philosophies of the Eleatic thinkers Melissus and Zeno. The critics explain that the two philosophers both supported the views of Parmenides, Melissus by providing his own arguments and Zeno by criticizing and challenging Parmenides's opponents with the paradoxes he presented.

Melissus

Melissus is known to have led the Samians to victory over the Athenians in a naval battle in 440 B.C. The implication is that he was in his prime at that time. The following two testimonia, noting among other things that he was politically active, constitute our major sources of information concerning his life:

T49 Diogenes Laertius 9. 4. 24. [Loeb]

Melissus, the son of Ithagenes, was a native of Samos. He was a pupil of...