The Teachings of Anaxagoras

Pericles befriended philosophers and artists, especially Phidias and Anaxagoras. Anaxagoras was charged with denying the gods. He taught that the sun was not a god but a glowing rock perhaps as large as the Peloponnesus (actually it is a million times larger than Earth). He believed the moon had mountains and seas like Earth. These ideas angered the Athenians, who exiled him despite Pericles's defense. Anaxagoras continued studying in a distant city, supported by Pericles. Aspasia was another friend of Pericles—so brilliant that the wisest men of Athens, including Cimon, Phidias, Anaxagoras, and Socrates, gathered at her house to talk.