> In the fifth century BC, Empedocles postulated that everything was composed of four elements; fire, air, earth and water. He believed that Aphrodite made the human eye out of the four elements and that she lit the fire in the eye which shone out from the eye making sight possible. If this were true, then one could see during the night just as well as during the day, so Empedocles postulated an interaction between rays from the eyes and rays from a source such as the sun.
P.S. : I really find it fascinating that, provided we could bring these ancient thinkers to our times and teach them the discoveries science has made since they died, they would still hold their initial view in some way. This is obvious with what modern physics calls 'atom' (etymologically: 'not divisible'), and I could see Empedocle saying "At least, I was not totally off the tracks when it comes to what sight is psychologically".
I saw a study a few years back (not necessarily a rigorous one) in which a surprisingly high proportion of the public have this mechanism as how the eye worked. But, IIRC, had no response to the "so why can't we see as well in the dark".
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light#Historical_theories_abou...
P.S. : I really find it fascinating that, provided we could bring these ancient thinkers to our times and teach them the discoveries science has made since they died, they would still hold their initial view in some way. This is obvious with what modern physics calls 'atom' (etymologically: 'not divisible'), and I could see Empedocle saying "At least, I was not totally off the tracks when it comes to what sight is psychologically".