Life and works of Homer, Thales and Aristotle

Homer was the most important and earliest of the Greek and Roman writers. He was born in Ionia in c. 800 BC. He’s nationality is Ancient Greece and he is a Pagan. Both Homer and Hesiod described a flat disc cosmography on the shield of Achilles. This poetic tradition of a earth-encircling (gaiaokhos) sea (Oceanus) and a flat disc also appears in Stasinus of Cyprus, Mimnermus, Aristophanes, and Apollonius Rhodius. Homer's description of the flat disc cosmography on the shield of Achilles with the encircling ocean is also found repeated far later in Quintus Smyrnaeus’ Posthomerica (4th century AD) which continues the narration of the Trojan War.
Thales of Miletus was born around 624BC, the son of Examyes and Cleobuline.He was born in Asia Minor (now Turkey). He’s nationality is Greek. In De Caelo Aristotle wrote: ‘This [opinion that the earth rests on water] is the most ancient explanation which has come down to us, and is attributed to Thales of Miletus (Cael. 294 a28-30). He explained his theory by adding the analogy that the earth is at rest because it is of the nature of wood and similar substances which have the capacity to float on water, although not on air (Cael. 294 a30-b1). In Metaphysics (983 b21) Aristotle stated, quite unequivocally: ‘Thales . . . declared that the earth rests on water’. This concept does appear to be at odds with natural expectations, and Aristotle expressed his difficulty with Thales’s theory (Cael. 294 a33-294 b6).
Aristotle, one of Plato's greatest students, was born in 384 BC in Stagirus. Aristotle's father was a physician to the king of Mecadonia, and when Aristotle was seven years old, his father sent him to study at the Academy. He’s Nationality is Greek. Aristotle proposed a spherical Earth as he observed the curved shadow of the Earth during the Lunar eclipse. Since this could only happen on a curved surface, he too believed Earth was a sphere "of no great size, for otherwise the effect of so slight a change of place would not be quickly apparent." Aristotle provided physical and observational arguments supporting the idea of a spherical Earth:

• Every portion of the Earth tends toward the center until by compression and convergence they form a sphere. (De caelo, 297a9–21)
• Travelers going south see southern constellations rise higher above the horizon; and
• The shadow of Earth on the Moon during a lunar eclipse is round. (De caelo, 297b31–298a10)