  This commentary (written after 565) is of particular interest, since it is the only complete commentary on the Meteorology extant from antiquity. There is another commentary, written by the Christian John Philoponus some 30 years earlier, but it is incomplete (comments break off in the 12th chapter of Book I). This was, in fact, Philoponus’ last commentary, written after the highly controversial contra Aristotelem and probably just at the time when he stopped teaching philosophy. Olympiodorus must have been familiar with the gist, if not the details, of Philoponus’ searing criticism of Aristotle, yet he appears to be entirely unfazed by it. He announces early on the Aristotelian orthodoxy that there are five elements, not merely four, and that the celestial element (aithêr) is creative (poiêtikos), the other elements material (hulikos) (in Meteor. 2,15f). Strikingly, he happily reproduces Aristotle’s argument for the existence of a fifth element from the de Caelo (the circularity of the celestial motion can only be explained on the assumption of a special celestial element, cf.  in Meteor. 16,25–17,9). He polemicizes against the view that the heavens consist of fire (in Meteor. 17,1–18,30), and in no way qualifies, hides, or denies the fact (scandalous to Christians) that Aristotle thought the universe, and time, to be eternal (in Meteor. 8,8f;123,24f).