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Perhaps Thales anticipated problems with acceptance because he explained
that it floated because of a particular quality, a quality of buoyancy
similar to that of wood. At the busy city-port of Miletus, Thales had
unlimited opportunities to observe the arrival and departure of ships
with their heavier-than-water cargoes, and recognized an analogy to
floating logs. Thales may have envisaged some quality, common to ships
and earth, a quality of 'floatiness', or buoyancy. It seems that Thales's
hypothesis was substantiated by sound observation and reasoned
considerations. Indeed, Seneca reported that Thales had land supported
by water and carried along 0like a boat (Sen. QNat. III.14). Aristotle's
lines in Metaphysics indicate his understanding that Thales believed
that, because water was the permanent entity, the earth floats on water.
Thales may have reasoned that as a modification of water, earth must be
the lighter substance, and floating islands do exist. Thales could have
visited the near-by Reed Islands. He might have considered such readily
visible examples to be models of his theory, and he could well have
claimed that the observation that certain islands had the capacity to
float substantiated his hypothesis that water has the capacity to
support earth. Again it is understood that Thales did not mention any of
the gods who were traditionally associated with the simple bodies; we do
not hear of Oceanus or Gaia: we read of water and earth. The idea that
Thales would have resurrected the gods is quite contrary to the bold,
new, non-mythical theories which Thales proposed.
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