ABSTRACT
Thales was born in the Greek city of Miletus in Ionia, which is now Turkish. The ancient sources describe him as a Greek speaker of Phoenician ancestry. Cadmus and Agenor are included among his ancestors, and he is also attributed a divine genealogy, being said to descend from Zeus. Thales of Miletus was the originator of scientific thought. Thales performed the difficult feat of determining the solstices, and was correct within a few days, perhaps assisted by astronomical records compiled by the Babylonians. Thales’ speculations inspired the natural philosophers who succeeded him; Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Anaxagoras and others, and ultimately laid the foundation for the scientific discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, and Einstein. When Thales questioned tradition and stepped outside the constraints of religion, the beginnings of science were announced to the world.
