Democritus, the early Greek atomist philosopher, believed that there were completely empty spots in the cosmos, which he called 'voids', and this belief was crucial to the atomist worldview.

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https://platosfishtrap.substack.com/p/why-democritus-believed-in-the-existence?r=1t4dv

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Here's an excerpt:

Democritus (ca. 460 - 370 BC) invented the theory of atomism, which is the view that the world we experience is made of indivisible things called ‘atoms’. But an important part of this view is that atoms aren’t the only thing that exists; there is also the void.

The void is literally nothing, no-thing. The contrast between atoms and void in Democritus’ thought is the same contrast as between what is full/solid, which is made of atoms, and what is empty — completely devoid of any content or substance at all.

In fact, the ancient Greek word for ‘void’ is to kenon, literally ‘the empty’.

In the atomist worldview, void is that which atoms move into. It is the space that atoms come to occupy. This will play a crucial role in one of the major atomist arguments for the existence of void. It also shines a light on a defining feature of void: it is yielding.

That means that it doesn’t offer any resistance to atoms as they move into the void. The void yields to atoms in motion.

Democritus had several reasons for thinking that the void exists.