The tides received relatively little attention in the civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea, as the tides there are relatively small, and the areas that experience tides do so unreliably. A number of theories were advanced, however, from comparing the movements to breathing or blood flow to theories involving whirlpools or river cycles. A similar "breathing earth" idea was considered by some Asian thinkers. Plato reportedly believed that the tides were caused by water flowing in and out of undersea caverns. Crates of Mallus attributed the tides to "the counter-movement (ἀντισπασμός) of the sea” and Apollodorus of Corcyra to "the refluxes from the Ocean". An ancient Indian Purana text dated to 400-300 BC refers to the ocean rising and falling because of heat expansion from the light of the Moon.
Ultimately the link between the Moon (and Sun) and the tides became known to the Greeks, although the exact date of discovery is unclear; references to it are made in sources such as Pytheas of Massilia in 325 BC and Pliny the Elders Natural History in 77 AD. Although the schedule of the tides and the link to lunar and solar movements was known, the exact mechanism that connected them was unclear. Classicists Thomas Little Heath claimed that both Pytheas and Posidonius connected the tides with the moon, "the former directly, the latter through the setting up of winds". Seneca mentions in De Providentia the periodic motion of the tides controlled by the lunar sphere. Eratosthenes (3rd century BC) and Posidonius (1st century BC) both produced detailed descriptions of the tides and their relationship to the phases of the Moon, Posidonius in particular making lengthy observations of the sea on the Spanish coast, although little of their work survived. The influence of the Moon on tides was mentioned in Ptolemys Tetrabiblos as evidence of the reality of astrology. Seleucus of Seleucia is thought to have theorized around 150 BC that tides were caused by the Moon as part of his heliocentric model.
Aristotle, judging from discussions of his beliefs in other sources, is thought to have believed the tides were caused by winds driven by the Suns heat, and he rejected the theory that the Moon caused the tides. An apocryphal legend claims that he committed suicide in frustration with his failure to fully understand the tides. Heraclides also held "the sun sets up winds, and that these winds, when they blow, cause the high tide and, when they cease, the low tide". Dicaearchus also "put the tides down to the direct action of the sun according to its position". Philostratus discusses tides in Book Five of Life of Apollonius of Tyana' (circa 217-238 AD); he was vaguely aware of a correlation of the tides with the phases of the Moon but attributed them to spirits moving water in and out of caverns, which he connected with the legend that spirits of the dead cannot move on at certain phases of the Moon.