What is "leucippus"

Leucippus (; , Leúkippos; fl. 5th cent. BCE) is reported in some ancient sources to have been a philosopher who was the earliest Greek to develop the theory of atomism—the idea that everything is composed entirely of various imperishable, indivisible elements called atoms. The name Leucippus is often associated as master to pupil with that of Democritus, the philosopher who was also touted as the originator of the atomic theory. However, a brief notice in Diogenes Laertius’s life of Epicurus says that on the testimony of Epicurus, Leucippus never existed. As the philosophical heir of Democritus, Epicurus's word has some weight, and indeed a controversy over this matter raged in German scholarship for many years at the close of the 19th century. Furthermore, in his Corpus Democriteum, Thrasyllus of Alexandria, an astrologer and writer living under the emperor Tiberius (14–37 CE), compiled a list of writings on atomism that he attributed to Democritus to the exclusion of Leucippus. The present consensus among the world's historians of philosophy is that this Leucippus is historical. The matter must remain moot unless more information is forthcoming from the record.

Leucippus was most likely born in Miletus, although Abdera and Elea are also mentioned as possible birthplaces.

In Greek mythology, Leucippus ( Leukippos) was a name attributed to multiple characters, the most prominent of whom was Leucippus, father of the two Leucippides.

Leucippus is a crater on the Moon's far side. It is relatively isolated from other named craters, although it is located just over one crater diameter to the south-southeast of the huge walled plain Landau. To the southwest of Leucippus is the larger satellite crater Leucippus Q.

The rim of Leucippus is eroded, with a smaller crater laid across the southern end. A small craterlet lies along the western inner wall. The edge and inner wall is generally lacking in detail, forming a relatively smooth, gentle slope down to the interior floor. This interior is offset slightly to the southeast, where the inner wall is narrower. The floor is about half the diameter of the crater. There is a small craterlet on the floor along the southern edge, and a few tiny craterlets mark the otherwise relatively level surface.

In Greek mythology Leucippus was king of Sicyon. He was the son of Thurimachus, son of Aegyrus, son of Thelxion, son of Apis, son of Telchis, son of Europs, son of Aegialeus (an autochthon).

According to Pausanias' account, Leucippus had only one child, a daughter Calchinia. She bore Poseidon a son, Peratus, who was reared by Leucippus and inherited the kingdom. Peratus' son was Plemnaeus, whose own children would die as soon as they began to cry for the first time, until Demeter visited Plemnaeus and reared his son Orthopolis, which allowed him to survive and become Plemnaeus' successor. Orthopolis was the father of an only daughter Chrysorthe, who had a son Coronus with Apollo.

' Leucippus ' is a genus of hummingbirds. Its members are found in western South America. Two species, A. chionogaster, the white-bellied hummingbird and A. viridicauda, the green-and-white hummingbird are commonly placed in the genus Amazilia, while a third species, T. hypostictus, the many-spotted hummingbird, often is placed in the monotypic Taphrospilus, but are all sometimes placed here.

Leucippus may refer to:

• Leucippus, a Greek philosopher
• Leucippus (mythology), several figures in Greek mythology
  • Leucippus (son of Thurimachus)
• Leucippus (bird), a hummingbird genus
• Leucippus (crater)

In Greek mythology, Leucippus was a maiden of Phaestus, Crete, who was raised as a boy by her mother, and eventually changed her sex to male by the will of the goddess Leto.

Leucippus was born to Lamprus, the son of Pandion, and Galatea, daughter of Eurytius the son of Sparton. When Galatea was pregnant, Lamprus told her he would only accept the child if it was male, but Galatea gave birth to a daughter while Lamprus was away pasturing his cattle. Following the advice of seers, Galatea gave her daughter a masculine name, Leucippus, and told Lamprus that she had given birth to a son. Leucippus was raised as a boy, but as she reached the age of adolescence, it was becoming difficult to conceal her true sex, so Galatea went to the sanctuary of Leto and prayed that her daughter may be changed into a son, invoking a series of mythical examples of magical sex change, such as the story of Caeneus, Teiresias, Hypermnestra (otherwise known as Mnestra) who sold herself as a woman and then changed into a man to return home, and Sypretes of Crete who transformed into a woman to see Artemis bathing. Leto took pity on Galatea and changed Leucippus' sex to male. In commemoration of this event, people of Phaestus surnamed Leto Phytia (from Greek φύω "to grow"), because she let Leucippus grow a penis, and established a feast in honor of Leto, which was called Ecdysia (from Greek ἑκδύω "to undress"), because Leucippus got rid of woman's clothes after his transformation. It was a custom for women of Phaestus to lie next to the statue of Leucippus before their wedding.

The story of Leucippus is similar to that of Iphis the daughter of Ligdus and Telethusa.