There are many ancient references to the aurora, from the Chinese, the Jews and the Greeks. The first attempt for a rational explanation of the bright celestial appearance is often credited to Aristotle. Instead of invoking supernatural powers or beasts, he described the Northern Lights in his book Metereologia as a light resembling a shining cloud.
However, the credit for the first rational, non-mythical description of the aurora belongs to two Greek philosophers from Asia Minor (nowadays Turkey), who lived in the 6th century B.C., i.e. some 200 years before Aristotle: Anaximenes of Miletus (c. 585-528 B.C.) and Xenophanes of Colophon (c. 570-475 BC).
Anaximenes was a pioneer in the revolutionary new approach to the nature of human intellect that came to be known as natural philosophy; and for him, fundamental reality was material and mechanical. This is the viewpoint we have inherited as "scientific". Xenophanes, the founder of the Eleatic school of philosophy, wrote of "moving accumulations of burning clouds". At about the same time, Plutarch gave a clear description of the Northern Lights, but it was probably a quotation from missing writings of Anaxagoras: "there was an enormous and furious figure in the sky. It was like a flaming cloud, which did not stay at its position but moved windingly and regularly"…
I.A. Daglis and S.-I. Akasofu [Recorder, 29, pp. 45-48, November 2004]
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