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Mochus (), also known as Mochus of Sidon and Mochus the , is listed by Diogenes Laërtius along with Zalmoxis the Thracians and Atlas of Mauretania, as a proto-philosopher.Diogenes Laërtius, i. 1; cf. the Suda, ω 283, which calls him Ochus Athenaeus claimed that he authored a work on the history of Phoenicia.Athenaeus, iii. 126 Strabo, on the authority of Posidonius, speaks of one Mochus or Moschus of Sidon as the author of the atomism and says that he was more ancient than the Trojan War.Strabo, Geographica, XVI.2.24. He is also referred to by Josephus,Josephus, Ant. Jud. i. 107 Tatian,Tatian, adv. Gent. Eusebius,Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica, x. and Damascius.Damascius, de Princ. 125c. See, Guy Darshan, "Ruaḥ ’Elohim in Genesis 1:2 in Light of Phoenician Cosmogonies: A Tradition's History," Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 45,2 (2019), 51–78, esp. 59–60.
According to Robert Boyle, the father of modern chemistry, "‘Learned men attribute the devising of the atomical hypothesis to one Moschus a Phenician". Isaac Newton, Isaac Causabon, John Selden, Johannes Arcerius, Henry More, and Ralph Cudworth also credit Mochus of Sidon as the author of the atomic theory and some of them tried to identify Mochus with Moses the Israelite lawbringer.[2]
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