Acheloios, Thales, and the Origin of Philosophy

Nicholas J. Molinari, PhD, is an academic librarian in Milford, Massachusetts and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at Salve Regina University in Newport, RI. He is the author, with Dr Nicola Sisci, of ΠΟΤΑΜΙΚΟΝ: Sinews of Acheloios (Archaeopress, 2016), and general editor of KOINON: The International Journal of Classical Numismatics.

• Abstract; Introduction; Part I: Concerning the Neo-Marxian School; Chapter 1: Marx to Sohn-Rethel: Dialectical Materialist Approaches to the Origin of Philosophy; Chapter 2: Richard Seaford’s Contribution; Part II: Concerning Thales and Acheloios; Chapter 3: Thales’ Principle: A Provisional Assessment; Chapter 4: The Emergence of Acheloios and Major Elements of His Cult; Part III: Concerning the Etymological and Archaeological Evidence; Chapter 5: The Etymology of hýdōr: Pure, Sacred Water; Chapter 6: The Physical Evidence; Part IV: Philosophos and Philomythos; Chapter 7: Philosophy Ex Nihilo?; Chapter 8: The Mythological Wellspring; Part V: Concerning the Thaletan-Acheloian Tradition; Chapter 9: Thales and Acheloios; Chapter 10: The Thaletan Tradition from Pythagoras to Empedokles; Part VI: Purification of Body and Soul: Sophokles and Plato; Chapter 11: Sophokles’ Trachiniae: The Interplay of Gods and Souls; Chapter 12: Acheloios as the Horizon for an Understanding of Being; Conclusion; The Sacrifice of Acheloios: A Response to the Neo-Marxians; Bibliography; General Index; Index Locorum