Melissus

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Melissus is numbered by Dante in Paradise among the pagan philosophers who, despite seeking the truth, fell into error for lack of the necessary capacity for discernment. He is placed in the Heaven of the Sun, in the circle of the blessed who surround the crown of the wise, where Saint Thomas offers his examples. Together with Parmenides he is recalled as a representative of the Eleatic school, advocate of the theses on the unity, immobility, and indivisibility of being, refuted by Aristotle. Dante draws from this a negative judgment: even in the field of pure reason it is possible to err, just as theologians can fall into heresy.