Hermotimus of Clazomenae
6th-century BCE Greek philosopher
Hermotimus of Clazomenae (Greek: Ἑρμότιμος; fl. c. 8th or 7th century BCE), was a possibly historic or legendary Presocratic philosopher about whom many legendary feats were ascribed in antiquity, including the ability for his soul to leave his body and travel around. Some ancient sources also considered him a previous reincarnation of Pythagoras. Aristotle also credited him with some of the metaphysical doctrines on Nous that were more commonly attributed to Anaxagoras.
Historicity
The best evidence for Hermotimus' potential historical existence is a tradition that the people of Clazomenae erected a temple for him, which is related by Pliny the Elder, Lucian, Apollonius, and Plutarch.
Philosophical views
According to Aristotle, prior to Anaxagoras' idea of mind being fundamental in the cause of change, Hermotimus proposed that physical entities are static, while reason causes the change. Sextus Empiricus places him with Hesiod, Parmenides, and Empedocles, as belonging to the class of philosophers who held a dualistic theory of a material and an active principle being together the origin of the universe. Lucian called him a Pythagorean.
Legends
Diogenes Laërtius records a story that Pythagoras remembered his earlier lives, one being Hermotimus, who had validated his own claim to recall earlier lives by recognizing the decaying shield of Menelaus in the temple of Apollo at Didyma.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 11, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q3134255. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hermotimus of Clazomenae” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.