The Origins of Thales' Beliefs

Thales of Miletus was known for arguing that earthquakes were caused by the fact that the continents, the land on which we walk, is actually part of a great, a great disk that floats on water. Thales quite remarkably believed that the entire basis of matter was water. The historian Herodotus claims that Thales correctly predicted a solar eclipse in advance with profound geopolitical implications for an ongoing war between the the Medes and the Lydians.