From The Archives 13: Grosseteste’s “On Light” and Greek Thought

Despite the fact that the class I was taking was *Medieval* Philosophy, I still managed to talk about Classical (Greek) philosophy. Of course.

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May 2017

            As is the nature of history, much of medieval philosophy grew out of classical philosophy and was updated and put within the new social context. Grosseteste is known for having arguing against using Aristotle’s work as representative of revelation, which is backed by his ability to actually read and understand Greek. However, his “On Light” can be easily connected to Greek sources and appears as a scientific mythological interpretation of creation from within Greek myth and the philosophies of Greek philosophers like Aristotle.

            One common characteristic of Greek philosophers is when they chose one of the four elements as the original element. Earth, air, fire, and water are all completely different, but various philosophers decided that 3 of those elements were created out of the forth. Anaximenes, for example, names air as the most basic element, whereas Thales says that it is water. For Grosseteste, he doesn’t directly say that one of the elements is the original element, but he uses light, which is basically an even more elemental version of fire, as his origin point for the creation of all things. From light comes fire, which then creates air, and from that water and earth are created. Water and earth are explained as heavier because of their nature as elements more focused on assembling other things versus dispersing into other elements. Considering most things are made up of earth and water, humans included, this follows reason. 

Because of the complicated nature of light and corporeality, light transcends being a form in the way that it is not tactile, but has large effects on physical things. Since light expands, he uses that to explain how other things are created. In the act of expansion, things other than light are created as the result of that reaction. As light is his origin element and the beginning of creation for all other things, light is the first bodily form. 

The Christian idea of “nothing from nothing” supports his choice in having an origin element because if nothing can come from nothing, then there must be something in the beginning in order for all else to be created. The universe cannot simply be created without some kind of elemental building block to start off with. Light is also ideal because of its connotations with good versus evil. Evil is likened with darkness, lack of insight and knowledge, and just general lack of existent goodness. Good, on the other hand, is associated with light, God’s existence, and Christian knowledge. In the bible there is even discussion of light in Genesis while explaining God’s creation of the universe. Creation is a good thing, and there is a purity and goodness assumed for the first bodily form, so the association of light with good works in Grosseteste’s favor. Out of the elements, Grosseteste picked the most Christian version of an element possible. 

The origin of light/fire being a beginning of knowledge exists within Greek myth as well. Prometheus, the Titan and creator of mankind, is known famously as the one who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity. Not only did giving physical fire allow for better and more efficient survival within their environment, but it also allowed humans to progress to a more civilized and intelligent version of society. Whether consciously chosen or not, Grosseteste’s declaration of light as origin fits in perfectly within the background of Greek myth.

An important aspect of Grosseteste’s theories about light is that of firmament and what lies within it. While largely based on existent planets, the structure and formatting mirrors Aristotle’s De Anima. There is another more minor coincidence in their titles being On Light and On the Soul, but that doesn’t provide any new information because we know already that Grosseteste is very familiar with Aristotle. Having similarities with Aristotle’s De Anima does prove, however, that those works had a greater effect on Grosseteste’s theories than what he might have admitted. For both, the outermost layer of the firmament is the fixed stars, followed by the six known planets along with the sun and moon. The Earth is the center in each because the world has not become knowingly heliocentric yet. There then becomes nine celestial spheres which are, according to Grosseteste, inalterable and incorruptible, along with the elemental spheres, which exist as the building blocks for everything else.

Having thirteen spheres making up the existent world has a connection with the thirteen major gods of Olympus from Greek myth. Five of the nine celestial spheres have the same planet name as the Roman version of names for the Greek gods. Poseidon is known as Neptune, and Aphrodite is known as Venus. In addition, Apollo and Artemis are the gods of the sun and the moon, making seven of the nine celestial spheres being represented. What are left are the fixed stars and the earth, but there are also lesser-known gods relating to the stars, and Gaia, the goddess representative of mother earth, is the mythological mother of several of the main Greek gods. 

This is where there contains bit of a divide. Gaia is the origin point for most existent things within Greek mythology, which is not congruent with Grosseteste’s choice of light. However, while Gaia was the mother and creator of almost all things, there were a few other entities that came into existence around the same time. First came Chaos, who was unsurprisingly a chaotic mess of matter before anything fully formed came into existence. Then came Gaia, night, day, darkness, and Aether. And so while Aether, light, was not the first one created from our knowledge of Greek myth, he was still one of the first. 

Even within his writing, Grosseteste names some of the influences from Greek myth. There is Pan, god of the wild nature, and whose name literally means “all.” Rather than take this to mean that earth should be the first element, Grosseteste uses it to defend the structure of the nine celestial spheres within the firmament. Earth, believed to be the center of the universe, is placed at the very center of the nine spheres. Grosseteste believes that creation expands outwards, so a point of light expands, and what comes outward of it is a new thing. Accepting that Earth has already been created, he argues that these higher bodies create in the same way, and that expansion outward from the Earth created the other celestial bodies. Therefore, Pan being “All” works because everything else was created out of what originally was Earth, and so Pan has a place within everything that has been created.

There other name Grosseteste mentions is Cybele. Her history is unique in that she is accepted as a goddess within Greek myth, but not of Greek origin, and not assimilated as a completely Greek being. Even so, she is a mix of different earthy figures as another version of Mother Earth, with a focus on mountains, wild animals, and motherhood, whereas Gaia is the mother of the physical earth itself. Grosseteste’s reasoning for mentioning her as important also goes back to her name. As Cybele comes from cubile, having to do with solidarity, he explains this connection because of Earth being the most compressed of the celestial bodies which other bodies arise from. The Earth as the origin point agrees with the Earth as mother also in relation to the other gods, because Jupiter (Zeus), Neptune (Poseidon), and the sun (Apollo) along with the other gods were all born out of the line that started with these mother earth figures. 

The problem with using Greek myth for reference is that there are always several versions to each myth, and all are accepted as truth. There is not always consistency, and so for Grosseteste it would be easy to rearrange what he knew of creation and formulate it in a way that made the most sense. Greek myth often explains previously unknown occurrences in a godly way because they did not have enough scientific knowledge at that point yet to be able to answer all the questions they had. Grosseteste as well does not have enough scientific evidence to fully prove his theories on light, but by using a combination of his knowledge of Greek myth, Greek philosophy, and the Christian and philosophical knowledge of his time, he is using all his possible resources to best come up with his theories of the existence of all things.