Melissus of Samos (500 BC-) was a Greek philosopher from Magna Graecia who was a member of Parmenides' Eleatic school of philosophy. He also served as commander of the Samian fleet shortly before the Peloponnesian War.
Biography[]
Melissus of Samos was born on the Greek island of Samos in 500 BC, and he was the pupil of Eleatic school founder Parmenides. Melissus authored a treatise of systematic arguments supporting Eleatic philosophy, arguing that reality was ungenerated, indestructible, indivisible, changeless, motionless, wholly unlimited, and infinitely extended in all directions. Using the argument that reality was unlimited, he argued that existence - which was also unlimited - was a reality. Melissus would go on to command the Samian fleet before the Peloponnesian War, defeating Pericles' Athenian fleet in 441 BC.