BION FROM ABDERA

Astrologer, meteorologist, mathematician and philosopher, student of Democritus

Diogenes Laertius ("Lives of the Philosophers", book , par. 58) informs that: "Bion of Abdera was a Democritean and a mathematician, he wrote in the Attic and Ionian dialect. He was the first to say that there are some settlements where the night lasts six months and the day six months" ("Ούτος πρώτος είπεν είναι τινάς οικήσεις, ένθα γίγνεσθαι εξ μηνών την νύκτα και εξ την ημέραν").

The above findings of Bion imply that he was aware of the sphericity of the earth. Bion also dealt with the relationship between wind direction and climate. From what is attributed to him, the conclusion is that Bion had traveled extensively to distant regions of the earth.