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4
THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY
FOUNDED BY JAMES LOEB, LL.D.
EDITED BY
1. E. PAGE, c.#., LITT.D.
ἜΣ CAPPS, PH.D., LL.D. ΤᾺ. HD: ROUSE, LITT.D.
meee OST, M.A. E. H. WARMINGTON, M.A., F.R-HIST.SOC.
PiU LARCH S
MORALIA
XII
᾿ a Hoda TUE
ATTARONS »
Wz
ΕΠ {ΠῚ τ ΓΒ
MORALIA
WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY
HAROLD CHERNISS
THE INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY, PRINCETON, N.J.
AND
WILLIAM C. HELMBOLD
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
IN FIFTEEN VOLUMES
XII
920 A—999 B
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON
WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD
MCMLVII
se
{ι
ΓΓ ἔν ed fg
Ui Lt | Ὀ σοῦ fa
ary ᾿ 7 j
: y
J
4153693
Printed in Great Britain
CONTENTS OF VOLUME ΧΗ
PAGE
IR ἘΠ AB es et ee a ee τ AVL
Tue TRADITIONAL ORDER OF THE Books OF THE
ΠΟΙ wae ey, Ikea! ρα τε aN RS BS TS
CONCERNING THE Fack WHICH APPEARS IN THE
Ors or THE Moon—
Introduction... 5 ee ae 2
Text and aeanslation. ΠΥ ee 34.
On THE PRINCIPLE OF CoLD—
Introduction . . ΠΤ ον ΟΝ
Text and Tanslation- δ Ini ee eee ee ee ΜῪ (0 ()
WHETHER FIRE oR WATER IS MORE USEFUL—
Introduction ... Ee oir ete 988
Text and ΠΝ ταν an ene OO)
WHETHER Lanp or SEA ANIMALS ARE CLE-
VERER—
iiitreductione .4. 0 Mea eS ee ’Π’Π 91]
Text and Translation ἮΝ ee ben on iia PLS
NPM CM OG οροὁΕΨΦἘΕ͵ἍΠσἍἘΠορἀΈττ aoe Sane τ 481
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL—
INGEOGNetION aan as) es 6 oe 499
Text and Translation Mle vars a oe LAO
CONTENTS
On THE EatTinG or FLEsH—
Introduction a!
Text and Translation—
I
II
INDEX
PAGE
537
540
562
580
PREFACE
To prevent misunderstanding the editors wish to
make it clear that the essays contained in this
volume are not works of collaboration. Mr. Cherniss
is entirely responsible for the text and translation
of the first essay (pp. 1-223), Mr. Helmbold for all
the rest of the volume.
ες 4? Foc! af “ni
ψ ΠῚ Ὧ]Ὶ TiN Sit yd τ νυ
ἱ J »" Ls ofGley
’ Ps
eens
THE TRADITIONAL ORDER or tHE Books of
the Moralia as they appear since the edition of
Stephanus (1572), and their division into volumes
in this edition.
I. De liberis educandis (Ilepi παίδων ἀγωγῆς) .
Quomodo adolescens poetas audire debeat
(Πῶς δεῖ τὸν νέον ποιημάτων ἀκούειν)
De recta ratione audiendi (Περὶ τοῦ ἀκούειν)
Quomodo adulator ab amico internoscatur
(Πῶς ἄν τις διακρίνειε τὸν κόλακα τοῦ φίλου).
Quomodo quis suos in virtute sentiat profectus
(Πῶς ἂν τις αἴσθοιτο ἑαυτοῦ προκόπτοντος ἐπ᾽
ἀρετῇ) .
{1 De capienda ex inimicis utilitate (lias av τις
ὑπ᾽ ἐχθρῶν ὠφελοῖτο)
De amicorum multitudine (Ilepi πολυφιλία)
De fortuna (Ilepi τύχης) :
De virtute et vitio (Ilepi ἀρετῆς καὶ κακίας)
Consolatio ad Apollonium (ΠΠαραμυθητικὸς πρὸς
᾿ΑπολλώνιονῚ
De tuenda sanitate praecepta Ἢ Ἷ a
αγγέλματα)
Coniugalia praecepta ( αμικὰ παραγγέλματα).
— Septem sapientium convivium (Τῶν ἑπτὰ σοφῶν
συμπόσιον) :
De superstitione (Περὶ. Scr δ 5. ;
Iii. Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata (’ oe:
φθέγματα βασιλέων καὶ στρατηγῶν) :
Apophthegmata Laconica (᾿ Αποφθέγματα Nee
KWVLKG) .
Instituta Laconica (Ta Pate aoe ἜΣ
ἐπιτηδεύματα).
»"
͵
5A
S6B
934
97c
1008
101F
1228
1384
1468
1648
172A
2084
236F
ΙΧ
IW:
Vi.
VET.
THE TRADITIONAL ORDER
Lacaenarum Pa (Λακαινῶν ἀπο-
φθέγματα) :
Mulierum virtutes (Τυναικῶν ἀρεταί)
Quaestiones Romanae (Αἴτια ‘Pwpaixa).
Quaestiones Graecae (Αἴτια ‘EAAnuixa) . Ξ
Parallela Graeca et Romana (Συναγωγὴ ἕστο-
ριῶν παραλλήλων “EAAnvikav καὶ “Pwpaikdr) .
De fortuna Romanorum (Ilepi τῆς Ῥωμαίων
De i ees magni ‘fortuna aut virtute, li-
bri ii (Περὶ τῆς ᾿Αλεξάνδρου τύχης ἢ ἀρετῆς,
λόγοι β΄)
Bellone an pace clariores fuerint Athenienses
(Πότερον ᾿Αθηναῖοι κατὰ pee ἢ κατὰ σοφίαν
ἐνδοξότεροι)
. De Iside et Osiride (Tlepi "Toidos al ’OoipiBos).
De E apud Delphos (Περὶ τοῦ EI τοῦ ἐν Δελφοῖς)
De Pythiae oraculis (Περὶ τοῦ μὴ χρᾶν ἔμμετρα
νῦν τὴν ΤΠΙυθίαν)
De defectu oraculorum {περὶ τῶν ἐπλελσον
χρηστηρίων) .
An virtus doceri possit (Εἰ διδακτόν ἢ ἡ ΤῊ
De virtute morali (Περὶ τῆς ἠθικῆς dpe
De cohibenda ira (Ilepi ἀοργησίας)
De tranquillitate animi (Ilepi εὐθυμίας).
De fraterno amore (Περὶ φιλαδελφίας)
De amore prolis (Περὶ τῆς εἰς τὰ ἔκγονα φιλο-
στοργίας)
An vitiositas ad infelicitatem sufficiat (Ee
αὐτάρκης ἡ κακία πρὸς κακοδαιμονίαν).
Animine an corporis affectiones sint peiores
(Πότερον τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς ἢ τὰ τοῦ σώματος πάθη
χείρονα). : :
De garrulitate (Περὶ ἀδολεσχίας)
De curiositate (Ilepi πολυπραγμοσῖν ΕΥ
De cupiditate divitiarum (Ilepi bute hours)
De vitioso pudore (Περὶ δυσωπίας) :
De invidia et odio (Ilepi φθόνου καὶ lowes)
De se ipsum citra invidiam laudando (Ilepi τοῦ
ἑαυτὸν ἐπαινεῖν ἀνεπιφθόνως)
De sera numinis vindicta (Περὶ τῶν ὑπὸ τοῦ
θείου βραδέως τιμωρουμένων)
ΡΑΘΕ
240c
9495,
263D
9010
3054
316B
326D
345c
35Ic
384c
394D
4098
4394
440D
452E
4645
A784
4934
4984
5008
502B
515B
523c
528c
5365
5394
5484
VTL.
ΧΕΙ:
XC,
THE TRADITIONAL ORDER
De fato (Περὶ εἱμαρμένης)
De genio Socratis ([lepi τοῦ Sane δαιμονίου)
De exilio (Περὶ φυγῆς).
Consolatio ad uxorem (]αραμυθητεκὸς εἰς τ
γυναῖκα τὴν ἑαυτοῦ).
Quaestionum convivialium libri ix ἜΣ -:
κῶν προβλημάτων βιβλία 8’)
ΠΟΙ ΘΟ ΒΥ. ΠῚ ἢ Ξ IV, 659R ; 3 V,
672D; VI, 686A
VII, 697c; VIII, 716p; IX, 736c
Amatorius (Epwrtkos)
Amatoriae narrationes (’ ΤΠ ταὶ Sunyijoes)
Maxime cum principibus philosopho esse dis-
serendum (Περὶ τοῦ ὅτι μάλιστα τοῖς ἡγεμόσι
δεῖ τὸν φιλόσοφον διαλέγεσθαι) .
Αα ρτϊποίρεπη. ineruditum (Πρὸς ΠΣ
ἀπαίδευτον) :
An seni respublica gerenda sit (Ei Geetieko
πολιτευτέον)
Praecepta gerendae | reipublicae (een
παραγγέλματα)
De unius in republica dominatione, populari
statu, et paucorum imperio (Ilepi μοναρχίας
καὶ δημοκρατίας καὶ ὀλιγαρχίας) .
De vitando aere alieno (Περὶ τοῦ μὴ Me See
ζεσθαι) .
τ τ oratorum (Περὶ Her Se "ΠΡ
ρων
Comparationis Aristophanis et Menandri com-
pendium (Συγκρίσεως eats καὶ Mev-
ἄνδρου ἐπιτομή)
De Herodoti malignitate (Περὶ τῆς Ἡροδότου
κακοηθείας) .
De placitis philosophorum, libri v (Περὶ τῶν
ἀρεσκόντων τοῖς φιλοσόφοις, βιβλία ε.
Quaestiones naturales (Αἴτια φυσικά)
De facie quae in orbe lunae apparet (Περὶ τοῦ
ἐμφαινομένου προσώπου τῷ κύκλῳ τῆς σελή-
νης) : : : :
De primo frigido (Περὶ τοῦ πρώτως ψυχροῦ)
Aquane an ignis sit utilior (Ilepi τοῦ πότερον
ὕδωρ ἢ πῦρ χρησιμώτερον). : ,
XIII.
XIV.
mV
ΧΙ
THE TRADITIONAL ORDER
Terrestriane an aquatilia animalia sint callidi-
ora ore τῶν ζῴων prenpattees τὰ χερσαῖα
ἢ τὰ ἔνυδρα) :
Bruta animatlia ratione uti, Ὁ sive Gryllus (Περὶ
τοῦ τὰ ἄλογα λόγῳ χρῆσθαι)
De esu carnium orationes ii (Ilepi σαρκοφαγίας
λόγοι β΄)
Platonicae quaestiones (ΠἸλατωνικὰ ζητήματα).
De animae procreatione in Timaeo (Τ]ερὶ τῆς ἐν
Τιμαίῳ ψυχογονίαςῚ)
Compendium libri de animae procreatione in
Timaeo (Exrou τοῦ περὶ τῆς ev τῷ Tapes
ψυχογονίας)
De Stoicorum repugnantiis (ΠΩΣ Στωικῶν ἐναν-
τιωμάτων)
Compendium argumenti Stoicos absurdiora
poetis dicere (Σύνοψις τοῦ ὅτι παραδοξότερα οἱ
Συτωικοὶ τῶν ποιητῶν λέγουσι)
De communibus notitiis adversus Stoicos (Περὶ
τῶν κοινῶν ἐννοιῶν πρὸς τοὺς Στωικούς)
Non posse suaviter vivi secundum Epicurum
(Ὅτι οὐδ᾽ ἡδέως ζῆν ἔστι κατ᾽ ’Eixoupov)
Adversus Colotem (Πρὸς ΚΚολώτην)
An recte dictum sit latenter esse vivendum -:
καλῶς εἴρηται τὸ λάθε βιώσας)
De musica (Ilepi μουσικῆς). : ‘
Fragments and Index
PAGE
9594
985D
9934
999c
10124
1030D
10334
1057¢
1058E
1086c
1107D
11284
113la
CONCERNING THE FACE
ἌΔΑΞ μάν ἐθὸν Gia ον ELE
ORB OF THE MOON
(DE FACIE QUAE IN ORBE LUNAE
APPARET)
VOL. XII B
INTRODUCTION
1. Tue authenticity of this dialogue has sometimes
been questioned but without any plausible reason.*
On the other hand, despite statements to the con-
trary, it is certainly mutilated at the beginning,”
although one cannot tell whether much or little has
been lost ; this follows not merely from the abrupt-
ness of the opening as we have it, the lack of any kind
of introduction, and the failure to identify the main
speaker until two-thirds of the dialogue have been
@ Cf. 5. Giinther, quoted by M. Adler, Diss. Phil. Vind.
x (1910), p. 87, and R. Pixis, Kepler als Geograph, p. 105.
Wilamowitz (Commentariolum Grammaticum, iii, pp. 27-28)
suggested that the dialogue was published under the name
of Lamprias; and this notion that Lamprias was in some
sense either the real or the reputed author was adopted by
Christ in the third edition of his Geschichte der griechischen
Litteratur (1898), p. 662, and by Hirzel (Der Dialog, ii, p. 185).
Ὁ Mutilation was assumed by Xylander, Kepler, and
Diibner and has been reasserted by Pohlenz (B.P.W. xxxii
[1912], pp. 649-650), von Arnim (Plutarch iiber Dimonen und
Mantik, p. 38), Raingeard (Le ΠΕΡῚ TOY ΠΡΟΣΩΠΟΥ͂ de
Plutarque, pp. 49-50 on 920 8 1), and K. Ziegler (Plutarchos
von Chaironeia, 214). It was denied by Wilamowitz (loc.
cit.), Hirzel (Der Dialog, ii, p. 186, n. 6), and M. Adler (Diss.
Phil. Vind. x, pp. 88-89). Wyttenbach contended that
κε either nothing or no great part ”’ had perished.
2
THE FACE ON THE MOON
finished, but even more surely from the nature of
the text in the opening sentences.
2. In the dialogue as it stands the first speaker is
Sulla. His chief function is to recount the myth which
he mentions in the first extant words and which
occupies the final fifth of the work ; but he interrupts
the dialogue proper at 929 E—930 a to ask whether
a certain difficulty was treated in the discussion which
Lucius is reporting. He is a Carthaginian (cf. 942 c),
presumably the Sextius Sulla cited by Plutarch in
his Romulus, chap. 15 (26 c), and the same as the
Carthaginian Sulla who gave a dinner for Plutarch
in Rome (Quaest. Conviv. 727 B). He is probably the
Sulla who appears as the interlocutor of Fundanus
in the De Cohibenda Ira (note 6, 453 a) but probably
not the same as the Sulla of Quaest. Conviv. 636 A
(ὁ ἑταῖρος) and 650 a (one of tov συνήθων).
The second speaker, at once the narrator of the
whole conversation and the leader of the dialogue
@ Those who have defended ὁ μὲν οὖν Σύλλας ᾿ ταῦτ᾽ ᾿ εἶπε
“τῷ γ᾽ ἐμῷ μύθῳ προσήκει κτλ. as a possible opening appar-
ently were unaware that the reading of E is ᾿᾽Οαυνοσυλλας
ταῦτα εἶπε. τῷ yap ἐμῷ μύθῳ προσήκει κτλ. and that B’s ὁ μὲν
οὖν Σύλλας is in all probability a conjecture made by the
scribe of that ms. This being so, it is unjustifiable to “ἡ emend”’
the yap of τῷ yap ἐμῷ μύθῳ. the reading of both E and B ; and,
if this yap stands, it is certain that our mss. do not preserve
the beginning of the dialogue. The next sentence, ἀλλ᾽ εἰ
δεῖ τι. . . προσανακρούσασθαι, πρῶτον ἡδέως av μοι δοκῶ
πυθέσθαι, which Wyttenbach needlessly ‘* emended,”’ implies
that some introduction of Sulla and his myth preceded the
present beginning ; and 937 c(. . . Σύλλαν... οἷον ἐπὶ ῥητοῖς
ἀκροατὴν γεγενημένον) Suggests what the nature of this intro-
duction may have been. Even the tense of τί δ᾽ οὐκ ἐμέλλομεν
implies some preceding reference to an earlier conversa-
tion or a conversation itself interrupted by the arrival of
Sulla.
3
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
proper, is Lamprias,* who is also the narrator of the
De Defectu Oraculorum (ef. 413 p), a dialogue in which
he plays the leading réle.? In the De E apud Delphos,
where Lamprias appears with Plutarch, Plutarch calls
him brother (385 p); and he is frequently identified
as Plutarch’s brother in the Quaest. Conviv. (cf. 635 a,
726 p-E, 744 c [with 745 a], and possibly 626 a). He is
characterized as a wit and a tease (726 D-E, 740 a), one
accustomed to speak out in a loud voice (617 E-F), and
capable of inventing a story as evidence to support
his argument (De FE 386 a) ; he is an expert in culinary
matters (643 Ε, 669 c, 670 Ε) and in the dance (747 B)
and shrinks from appearing as a kill-joy to younger
men (704 £). He is made to emphasize his close
relations with a Cynic (De Defectu Oraculorum, 413 B) ;
but he is no Cynic himself, and he is mortified to
think that he might be supposed to have used his
skill in argument to discredit any pious belief (435 ΕἸ.
He is said to honour the school of Aristotle above that
of Epicurus (Quaest. Conviv. 635 a-B); but he does
not hesitate to disagree with Aristotle in the De
Defectu Oraculorum (424 c ff.) and to espouse against
him the doctrine of the Academy (430 FE ff.). In the
De Facie he is a vehement critic of Stoic doctrine and
a supporter of the Academic position (cf. 922 F).
Lamprias bore the name of his grandfather ; but this
@ His name is not mentioned until 937 p. There at the
beginning of a section which serves as the transition from
the main or “ scientific ’’ part of the dialogue to the myth
Theon calls Lamprias by name, as Sulla does also at the
beginning of his myth (940 F) and at the end of it (945 p). It
is probable that in the lost beginning of the work Lamprias
was similarly identified.
> Of. Flacelitre, Plutarque ; Sur la Disparition des Ora-
cles (Paris, 1947), pp. 19-22.
+
THE FACE ON THE MOON
does not prove, as has sometimes been asserted, that
he was older than his brothers, Plutarch and Timon.
De Defectu Oraculorum, 431 c-p, has been thought to
show that he was a priest of the oracle in Lebadeia,?
though this is not a necessary implication of that
passage ; and a Delphic inscription proves him to
have been an archon at Delphi towards the end of
Trajan’s reign or in the beginning of Hadrian’s.?
Apollonides, the third speaker, is at once identified
as expert in geometry (920 Fr), and Lamprias indicates
that the scope and limitations of his specialty coin-
cide with those of Hipparchus, the great astronomer
(921 p, cf. 925 a). He puts forward objections to
Lamprias’s explanation of the “face ᾿᾿ based upon
astronomical terminology and calculations (933 F,
935 p-E). An Apollonides appears at Quaest. Conviv.
650 Ε along with Sulla; but he is called ὁ τακτικὸς
᾿Απολλωνίδης, and there is no compelling reason to
identify the two. Prickard may well be right in
saying that the name Apollonides here was used by
Plutarch to mean “ one of the clan of Apollonius,”
1.6. a mathematician who, like Apollonius,? is in-
terested in astronomical theory.
* Hirzel, Der Dialog, ii, p. 189, n. 3; Flaceliére, op. cit.
p- 251, n. 233: Ziegler, Plutarchos von Chaironeia, 10.
® Dittenberger, S.I.G. ii. 868 c, n. 6; Stein, R.F#. xii. 1.
586, s.v. Λαμπρίας 4.
¢ Ziegler (Plutarchos von Chaironeia, 34) says that the
sentence at 927 B, οὐ yap ἐν στρατοπέδῳ τακτικῶν ὄφελος KTA.,
is spoken ‘ obviously with reference to the interlocutor
Apollonides ” ; but this is pretty obviously not true. Lam-
prias is not here speaking in answer to Apollonides; and
his subsequent words, οὐδὲ κηπουρῶν οὐδ᾽ οἰκοδόμων, certainly
have reference to none of the present company. These are
in fact stock examples of the argument from design.
4 Apollonius of Perga ; cf. Hultsch, R.Z. ii. 151-160.
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
Certainly Aristotle, who puts forward the orthodox
Peripatetic theory of the heavenly bodies (928 & ff.),
is only a name chosen by Plutarch to signify the
school that he represents (cf. 920 F), even as the
representative Epicurean in De Sera Numine Vindicta
is called Epicurus.*
The Stoic position is represented by Pharnaces.
This name was borne by the son of Mithridates, of
whom Plutarch tells in the Lives of Pompey and
Caesar, as well as by several notable Persians men-
tioned by Herodotus and Thucydides ὃ ; and Plutarch
probably chose it for his Stoic because of its Asiatic
sound. °
After the réle of Lamprias the largest in the dia-
logue proper is that of Lucius, who is probably the
same as “ Lucius, the pupil of Moderatus the Pytha-
gorean, from Etruria,” a guest at the dinner which
Sulla gave for Plutarch in Rome (Quaest. Conviv. viii.
7-8 [727 B ff., 728 p ff.]).¢ Early in the dialogue (921 F)
Lamprias turns to Lucius for aid ; he seems to think
it appropriate that Lucius should set forth the strict
‘““ demonstration ” of the Academic theory concerning
« There is no reason to change ’Ezixoupos of the mss. in
548 a to ’Emxovpecos, aS Fabricius did. ‘‘ Aristotle ’’ here
supports “‘ Epicurus ”’ there.
ὃ There was also a city in Pontus named Pharnaceia
(Lucullus, 17 [502 Ὁ}.
¢ Hirzel (Der Dialog, ii, p. 186, n. 4) says that Pharnaces
is certainly a former slave, one who had shared the fate
and sentiments of Epictetus. This, of course, is the merest
fancy ; not all Asiatics, not even all in Rome at this time,
had been slaves. For Athenians named Pharnaces ef. 1.G.
112. 1039. 84 and 202. 55.
4 Another Lucius, the son of Florus, appears in Quaest.
Conviv. vii. 4 [702 F]); ef. Ziegler, Plutarchos von Chairo-
neia, 55.
6
THE FACE ON THE MOON
the moon (cf. 928 p-£) ; and in fact the statement and
defence of this position are shared by the two of them.
Theon, whom Lamprias asks to identify a quotation
(923 r) and whom he later teases for admiring Aris-
tarchus to the neglect of Crates (938 p), is recognized
as the literary authority in the group (cf. 931 E, 940 a).
He is probably to be identified with Θέων ὁ γραμμα-
τικός, who was a guest at Sulla’s dinner along with
Lucius (Quaest. Conviv. 728 ΕἾ and who also dined
with Plutarch at the house of Mestrius Florus (Quaest.
Conviv. 626 £).” In the De Facie his chief contribution
is a speech (937 p—938 c) which he makes after the
main part of the dialogue has been concluded and
which Lamprias praises as a kind of relaxation after
the seriousness of the scientific discussion.
The last of the persons present is Menelaus the
mathematician. Lucius addresses him directly once
(930 a), but Menelaus makes no reply and neither
speaks nor is spoken to elsewhere in the dialogue as
we have it. He is not mentioned anywhere else by
Plutarch either ; but he is probably meant to be the
Menelaus of Alexandria whom Ptolemy once calls
α Tt is Lucius who demands that the Stoic theory should
not be passed over without refutation (921 F). It is he who
replies when Pharnaces complains of Lamprias’s violent
treatment of the Stoics (922 Fr). His speeches extend from
922 ¥ to 923 Fr, where Lamprias takes over to give him time
to collect his thoughts, from 928 F to 929 £, from 930 a to
931 c, and from 931 ἢ to 933 E.
ὃ This Theon, whose home was Egypt (ef. 939 c-p), is
certainly not the same as Θέων ὁ ἑταῖρος (Quaest. Conviv.
620 a, De E, 386 9). who is probably the Theon of De Pythiae
Oraculis, Non Posse Suaviter Vivi, and Quaest. Conviv.
667 a and 726 a ff.
¢ Unless the plural ὑμῖν used twice by Lamprias at 939 c-p
is meant to include Menelaus as well as Theon ; cf. note a on
p. 170 infra.
7
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
ὁ γεωμέτρης and twice cites for astronomical observa-
tions which he made at Rome in the first year of
Trajan (a.p. 98).¢
3. From 937 c-p it follows that the interlocutors
have hitherto been promenading as they talked and
that now they sit down upon the steps, seats, or
benches (ἐπὶ τῶν βάθρων) and remain seated to the
end. No other indication of the scene or location is
given in the work as we have it. It had generally
been assumed that the dialogue was meant to take
place in Chaeronea ὃ ; but nothing in the text requires
this, and F. H. Sandbach has adduced strong argu-
ments for believing that the dramatic location is
Rome or the vicinity of Rome.’ The persons in the
dialogue furnish one of these arguments. Apol-
lonides, Aristotle, and Pharnaces occur nowhere else
in Plutarch’s writings and are probably all fictitious
* Ptolemy, Syntawvis, vii. 3 (ii, p. 30. 18 ff. and p. 33. 3 ff.
[Heiberg]); cf. Orinsky, s.n. ““ Menelaos” 16 in Pauly-
Wissowa, R.E. xv. 1. 834 f.
» Of. Hirzel, Der Dialog, ii, p. 184, n. 1, who discusses and
rejects the suggestion that the scene is Delphi. Raingeard
in his note on 939 c (p. 129 of his commentary) says that
ὥσπερ ἄνω περὶ Θήβας there would allow the inference that the
speakers are on the coast of Egypt. No such inference is
justified by this phrase, of course; in fact, the preceding
ὕλην δὲ Kai καρποὺς αὐτοῦ (or αὐτόθι, as Raingeard conjectures)
μὲν ὄμβροι τρέφουσιν and the subsequent παρ᾽ ὑμῖν ev Αἰγύπτῳ
(939 p 1) show that the scene of the dialogue is not anywhere
in Egypt.
¢ F, H. Sandbach, ‘‘ The Date of the Eclipse in Plutarch’s
De Facie,” Class. Quart. xxiii (1929), pp. 15-16; cf. Ziegler,
Plutarchos von Chaironeia, 73-74. 1 am indebted to Mr.
Sandbach for sending me, along with copies of his publica-
tions, many of his unpublished opinions concerning points
in the De Facie and copies of his correspondence with J. K
Fotheringham occasioned by the publication of the article
cited above.
8
THE FACE ON THE MOON
characters. Plutarch nowhere else mentions Mene-
laus the mathematician either, but we know that
Menelaus spent some time in Rome (see note a,
p- 8). Sulla, Lucius, and Theon all appear together
at a dinner given for Plutarch when he had returned
to Rome after an interval of absence (Quaest. Conviv.
viii. 7-8) ; -and none of these three is ever mentioned
as being anywhere but in Rome or its vicinity (see
§ 2, supra). Lamprias alone belongs to Plutarch’s
circle at Chaeronea ; but it is by no means certain
that he did not visit Rome as Plutarch did, though
there seems to be no definite evidence either way.”
The other argument for the dramatic location is
connected with the question of the dramatic date
of the dialogue. At 931 Ρ-Ὲ Lucius refers to a recent
total solar eclipse, saying : “ if you will call to mind
this conjunction recently which, beginning just after
noonday, made ag stars shine out from many
parts of the sky...” Ginzel® identified this
eclipse with the one which occurred on 20 March
A.D. 71, for he found that all other solar eclipses
visible in Chaeronea during Plutarch’s lifetime fell
too far short of totality to permit the appearance of
* Lamprias at least pretends to be conversant with Latin
(Quaest. Conviv. 726 & ff.). On Plutarch’s visits to Rome
cf. oe. Plutarchos von C haironeia, 19-20.
. δότε μοι, ταύτης ἔναγχος τῆς συνόδου μνησθέντες ἣ
ΠΣ ἘΞ, ἄστρα πολλαχόθεν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ διέφηνεν εὐθὺς ἐκ με-
vil ἀρξαμένη...
inzel, Spezieller Kanon der Sonnen- und Mond-
ade fiir das Lindergebiet der klassischen Altertums-
wissenschaft (Berlin, 1899), pp. 202-204; cf. also Plates X
and XI for the paths of solar eclipses during the first and
second centuries a.p. The data for the eclipses of 75 and 83,
infra, come from Ginzel’s tables, op. cit. p. 78 and pp. 110-
ELE.
9
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
stars. His conclusion was generally accepted @ until
Sandbach ὃ pointed out that, since this eclipse
reached its maximum phase at about 11 a.m. local
solar time in Chaeronea,® Plutarch could not have
referred to it as having begun after noonday. Ginzel
had assumed that the place of observation was
Chaeronea ; Sandbach, having recognized that this
assumption is unwarranted, was able to consider two
other eclipses, that of 5 January a.p. 75 and that of
27 December a.p. 83. The latter was total at Alex-
andria shortly before 15 hours. The former was
total in Carthage a little after 15 hours and in the
latitude of Rome on the eastern side of the Adriatic
at about 15 hours, 20 minutes; at Rome itself the
maximum obscuration was 11-5 digits, so that, since
according to Fotheringham @ stars other than Venus
have been visible where the solar obscuration was
10-7 digits, it is perfectly possible that some stars
@ Struyck (cited by Ginzel, op. cit. p. 203) appears to have
come to this conclusion before Ginzel ; and Ginzel’s identifica-
tion was accepted by M. Adler (Zwei Beitradge zum plutar-
chischen Dialog, De Facie [Nikolsburg, 1910], p. 4) and by
Fotheringham as cited by A. O. Prickard (Plutarch on the
Face of the Moon [1911], p. 75, and Plutarch, Select Essays,
ii, p. 253). Hirzel (Der Dialog, ii, p. 182, n. 1), following
Volkmann, does not even mention the eclipses of 59, 71,
and 75, which Ginzel held to be the only ones worthy of
consideration.
> Op. cit. in note ¢, p. 8 supra.
¢ 10r, 58™, 4 according to Ginzel (op. cit. p. 204): 11 τι
4™, 1 according to Fotheringham as quoted by Prickard
(Plutarch, Select Essays, ii, p. 253).
4 Historical Eclipses (1921), cited by Fotheringham in a
letter to Sandbach (22 January 1929); in this letter Fother-
ingham states that “‘ a certain number of stars were visible
at Rome in 75.᾽ Cf. Ginzel, op. cit. p. 14: “ Bei den zen-
tralen Sonnenfinsternissen . . . einzelne Sterne treten mitunter
hervor, bevor die Phase 11 zéllig geworden ist.”
10
THE FACE ON THE MOON
would have been seen at Rome about 3.20 p.m. local
solar time on 5 January a.p. 75. This eclipse of
A.D. 75 as seen in Rome certainly fits the conditions
of Lucius’ statement better than does the one of
A.D. 71 as seen in Chaeronea, even though it was
rather late to be described as beginning just after
noonday.* It must be emphasized that there is no
reason to assume that Plutarch himself saw the
eclipse to which Lucius refers. He had undoubtedly
heard that it had been seen in or near Rome; he
almost certainly had seen the eclipse of a.p. 71 in
Chaeronea and may have seen that of a.p. 83 in
Alexandria ὃ ; and what he had seen during one or
both of these eclipses he may very well have applied
to the eclipse of a.p. 75, which he had not seen. We
* Its “ beginning,” which would have been at approxi-
mately 13.50 hours, could not have been observed with the
naked eye; but Plutarch was capable of calculating it
roughly. In any case, whether the συνόδου... 7... ἀρξαμένη
is to be taken strictly or in the sense of the time when dark-
ness began, μεσημβρία, as Sandbach has said, is an extended
period of time and not an astronomical moment ; and Lucius
means that the conjunction began just after noonday was over.
> We do not know when Plutarch visited Alexandria. In
Quaest. Conviv. v. 5 (678 c ff.) his grandfather is present at
a banquet given for him after his return from Alexandria.
Sandbach (loc. cit.) thinks that this could have been after 83;
but, whether this is so or not, we do not know whether there
may not have been more visits to Alexandria than this one.
ὁ If 932 B(. . . περιφαίνεταί τις αὐγὴ περὶ τὴν ἴτυν. ..
means, as has sometimes been supposed, that Plutarch had
seen the corona, he must have had this experience in 71 or 83.
No one in or near Rome would have seen it in 75. I doubt
that these words apply to the corona at all, however, for the
subsequent οὐκ ἐῶσα βαθεῖαν γενέσθαι τὴν σκιὰν καὶ ἄκρατον
would be a remarkably tame way of describing that spectacle.
If the passage refers to any observed phenomenon, it is more
likely to have reference to an annular eclipse.
11
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
may then conclude that the dramatic date of the
dialogue is later than a.p. 75, but how much later it
is remains uncertain despite Lucius’ reference to the
eclipse as “‘recent.”’ The word which he uses, ἔναγχος,
like the English “ recent,”’ has a meaning relative
to its context, and in the case of anything so unusual
as a total solar eclipse might refer to an event that had
taken place at any time within a decade or more ; it
seems in this passage not to be used of the immediate
past, for Lucius expressly reckons with the possibility
that his audience may not recall “ the recent con-
junction ᾿᾿ and may have to fall back upon literary
evidence for the impression made by a total solar
eclipse.t The attempts to find a historical refer-
ence in 945 B which would help to fix the date of the
dialogue are quite perverse ὃ ; and we are restricted
by the evidence at present available to the conclu-
sion that the conversation was meant to have taken
place in or about Rome some time—and perhaps
quite a long time—after a.p. 75.
So much for the dramatic date. There is no reason
4931 πε: εἰ δὲ μή, Θέων ἡμῖν (tov) Μίμνερμον ἐπάξει κτλ.
Of course, this is primarily a literary device to excuse the
introduction of the literary references; but it shows that
Plutarch does not expect his readers to remember what a
total solar eclipse is like.
» Hirzel (Der Dialog, ii, Ὁ. 182, n. 1) excised Τυφών in 945 B
(Τιτυοὶ δὲ καὶ Tuddves 6 τε Δελφοὺς κατασχὼν καὶ συνταράξας
τὸ χρηστήριον ὕβρει καὶ βίᾳ Tuday ἐξ ἐκείνων κτλ.). took ὁ...
συνταράξας... βίᾳ as a reference to Nero, and concluded -
that Plutarch must have written this after the devastation of
Delphi and before the restoration of the oracle. Adler (Zwei
Beitrdge, etc. [see note a, p. 10], pp. 5-7) defended the text
of the mss., which he interpreted to mean ‘‘ demons of the
nature of Tityus and Typho and among these especially the
Typhon who, etc.,’’ and followed Pomtow (Rhein. Mus. li
[1896], pp. 377 ff.), who showed that the extinction of the
12
THE FACE ON THE MOON
at all for Hirzel’s assertion ὦ that this and the date
of composition coincide. Certain striking similarities
between the De Facie and the De Defectu Oraculorum
have often been observed, but from these can be
drawn equally cogent—and equally hypothetical—
arguments for the priority of either to the other ὃ ;
Delphic oracle during the time from Nero to Hadrian was
pure invention and who took Τυφών in De Facie, 945 B, as a
reference to the conflagration in 83 B.c. Adler then, assuming
that after the ceremonious restoration of the temple in a.p. 84
Plutarch would not remind his readers of its devastation,
concluded that the dialogue must have been written before
A.D. 84. This argument was criticized by K. Mras (Zeitschrift
fiir die ésterreichischen Gymnasien, ἴχν [1914], p. 187), who
in turn deleted Tuddves from the text and read Τιτυοὶ δὲ καὶ
ὁ Τυφὼν ὁ Δελφούς. .. Bia κτλ. ‘This violent alteration is
even less justifiable than Hirzel’s excision of Τυφών, with
which it shares the fault of producing the hiatus βίᾳ ἐξ ; but
the text of the mss. is impossible despite Adler, for (a) one
does not say in any language “* such creatures as Tityus and
Typho and in particular Typho . . ..᾿ (6) nowhere else is
Typho himself said to have done the deed here ascribed to
him, and (6) a reference to the conflagration is at least as
improbable as the supposed reference to Nero. Kaltwasser’s
change of Τυφών to Πύθων, on the other hand, is practically
certain. Confusion of 7 and τ and of 6 and ¢ is easy and
common, and πύθων coming after τυφῶνες would very easily
be assimilated to it. Moreover, in De Defectu Oraculorum,
421 c, τὰ περὶ ΠΤύθωνα are included among δαιμόνων πάθη along
with τὰ Τυφωνικά and τὰ Τιτανικά. In 414 a-p the oracle at
Delphi is said to have been long deserted in what is repre-
sented as “‘ ancient times’’; and, if it is denied that the
beast (which is not here named but is certainly Python !) was
the cause, that is done in order to ascribe the cause to δαίμονες.
Finally, Πύθων and Titvds are named together by Plutarch in
Pelopidas, 16 (286 c) as they are by Strabo (ix. 3. 12 [ee.
422-423]) and Apollodorus (Bibliotheca, i. 4. 1. 3-5 [22-23]).
* Der Dialog, ii, p. 184, n. 1.
Ὁ M. Adler (Diss. Phil. Vind. x, pp. 115-116) contends
that in the De Defectu Plutarch excerpts the De Facie; but
see Raingeard, p. xxviii of his edition of De Facie.
13
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
and, since in any case the date of the De Defectu is
uncertain,* the relative chronology of the two if
established would not determine the date of the
De Facie.
4. The structure of the De Face is complicated.
The whole of the work is narrated by Lamprias who
speaks in the first person and quotes those who took
part in the conversation, including himself, some
few times in indirect discourse (e.g. 933 F) but for the
most part directly. The last part of his narration
(chaps. 26-30 [940 r—945 p] consists entirely of Sulla’s
myth given in Sulla’s own words ; this myth, Sulla
himself says, is a story told to him by an unnamed
stranger, whom he quotes first indirectly and then
(942 p ff.) directly to the end. The second or eschato-
logical part of the myth the stranger had told Sulla
that he had himself heard from “ the chamberlains
and servitors of Cronus ”’ (cf. 945 p). Hearing it from
Lamprias now, the reader has this part at fourth hand
and the geographical introduction of the stranger at
third hand.?
From 937 ὁ it appears that Sulla had promised to
tell his myth in return for an account of what had
been said in an earlier discussion about the nature
of the face which appears in the moon. Such a com-
pact may have been expressly made in the beginning
of the dialogue which is lost, where Sulla may have
come upon the company already engaged in reviewing
that earlier discussion (see note a, p. 3). So much
is no more than conjecture. It is certain, however,
* Ziegler, Plutarchos von Chaironeia, 76, gives “ about
100’ as the date; but cf. Flaceliere, Plutarque: Sur la
Disparition des Oracles, note 4 and pp. 13-17.
> Cf. Plato’s Parmenides and Shorey, What Plato Said,
p. 287.
14
THE FACE ON THE MOON
that most of what Lamprias narrates from chapter 2
through chapter 23 is a conversation which is itself
represented as containing a résumé or report of what
was said at an earlier conversation. This the begin-
ning of chapter 24 (937 c) states explicitly : ἡμεῖς μὲν
οὖν, ἔφην, ὅσα μὴ διαπέφευγε τὴν μνήμην τῶν ἐκεῖ λεχ-
θέντων ἀπηγγέλκαμεν, and the ἐδόκει λέγεσθαι at the
end of chapter 2 (920 F) implies that what Lamprias
has hitherto said in that chapter had been used as an
argument in the earlier discussion. The leader of
that discussion, which is referred to as a διατριβή,"
was not Lamprias or Lucius, who here recapitulate
it,2? but someone to whom Lamprias, Lucius, and
Sulla refer as “ our comrade ” and who probably is
meant to be Plutarch himself.° Lamprias and Lucius
are, of course, presumed to have been present at that
discussion with their ““ comrade ἡ and Sulla to have
been absent from it.¢ Of the others, Apollonides
certainly was not present,’ nor was Theon/ ; Phar-
α By Lucius at 929 B: ὁ μὲν οὖν ἑταῖρος ev τῇ διατριβῇ
τοῦτο. .. ἀποδεικνὺς... ηὐδοκίμησεν.
» Of. besides 937 c, 920 r, and 929 Β, which have already
been cited, especially 921 F, 930 a, 932 Ὁ, 933 c.
¢ Of. 921 τ΄, 929 8, 929 F, and see note a on p. 48 infra.
4 The logie of the situation demands this; but it is also
implied by Sulla’s question at 929 τ,
6 This is implied by his question in 920 Fr and confirmed
by that in 921 B: ἀλλὰ πῇ τὸν ἔλεγχον αὐτῷ προσῆγες; (in this
latter passage Pohlenz [B.P.W. xxxii, 1912, p. 649] argued
for retention of the mss. reading, προσῆγε, understanding
as subject 6 ἑταῖρος, who he assumes was mentioned in the
lost beginning of the dialogue; but surely this sentence
is too far from even such a hypothetical antecedent, and
Adler’s προσῆγες is an obvious and highly probable correc-
tion).
f This is certainly implied by his interchange with Lucius
in 932 D-E£.
15
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
naces probably was not”; and concerning Aristotle
and Menelaus the text as we have it allows no clear
inference to be drawn.” What these men other than
Lamprias and Lucius say in chapters 2-23 is not, then,
part of the report of that earlier discussion ἢ but
neither is all that Lucius says, for in several places
his remarks or arguments are expressly declared to
be his own contribution.© That earlier discussion
cannot, however, be identified with any that Plutarch
α This is the most reasonable inference to be drawn from
921 r, where Lucius requests that Pharnaces be given some
consideration, and from Pharnaces’ comment in 922 F upon
the attack of Lamprias. Nevertheless, Pharnaces’ words in
the latter passage, ἐμὲ δ᾽ οὖν οὐκ ἐξάξεσθε τήμερον κτλ., are
open to the interpretation that he had been present at the
earlier discussion and had there been drawn out by the
Academic gambit.
ὃ Lucius’s one remark to Menelaus (930 a), αἰσχύνομαι...
σοῦ παρόντος KrA., seems to imply that the latter had not been
present at the earlier discussion; but this is not decisive,
especially in view of the fact that Menelaus makes no reply.
Aristotle’s silence when Lamprias addresses him in 920 F
might be taken to mean that he had heard this before ; and
. πρὸς Κλέαρχον, ὦ ᾿Αριστότελες, . . . ἐδόκει λέγεσθαι τὸν
ὑμέτερον could be interpreted as a reminder, although what
follows, ὑμέτερος yap ἁνὴρ KrA., sounds as if this were some-
thing new. In 929 Β Lucius in a speech addressed especially
to Aristotle refers to what “ἡ our comrade ”’ said ἐν τῇ διατριβῇ
and adds that he will not repeat what he learned zap’ ὑμῶν
ἢ μεθ᾽ ὑμῶν, which might be taken to imply that Aristotle too
had attended the διατριβή in question, although it might have
a more general meaning.
¢ Cf. Lamprias’s comment, ody οὕτως δ᾽ ὁ ἑταῖρος judy, in
921 τ and his καλῷ λόγῳ καλὴν ἀναλογίαν προσέθηκας" οὐ yap
ἀποστερητέον σε τῶν ἰδίων (931 Ὁ). The latter marks the last
sentence of Lucius’s preceding speech (δότε δή μοι γεωμετρικῶς
εἰπεῖν κτλ.) as his own, while Lucius’s own subsequent state-
ment (οὐκοῦν καὶ δεύτερον ἀναλογίᾳ προσχρητέον) makes the
same claim for what follows. In 933 c (παρίημι 2)
ἐλέχθη) and possibly in 929 B (ἐγὼ δὲ ταῦτα μὲν οὐκ ἐρῶ κτλ.
16
THE FACE ON THE MOON
may have had with his friends or with any lecture
that he may have given; it is primarily a literary
fiction, part of the structure of the dialogue for which
it provides a specious motivation.
The recapitulation of this fictitious discussion along
with the incidental arguments provoked by it contains
all that Plutarch would consider to be “ scientific ”’
in the dialogue. At its conclusion Lamprias is ready
for Sulla’s myth (chap. 24 init. [937 c-p]) ; but before
Sulla can begin to speak Theon raises the question
of the habitability of the moon, contending that,
if it is not habitable, there can be no reason for it to
exist with the nature or composition that according
to Lamprias and Lucius it does have.* Lamprias calls
Theon’s speech a kind of relaxation after the serious-
ness of the preceding discussion. In fact, however,
Theon has raised the metaphysical problem of the
final cause ; and to this Lamprias replies at length
(chap. 25). He argues first that the moon, con-
stituted as he contends it is, need not, even if unin-
habitable, be without a purpose in the universe
(938 c-F), and secondly that, even if uninhabitable
by corporeal human beings, it may still be inhabited
by living beings of an entirely different kind to whom
the moon may justly appear to be the only real earth
and our earth the slime and dregs of the universe,
uninhabitable by creatures that have warmth and
breath and motion. Here Sulla checks Lamprias
(chap. 26 inet. [940 F]) lest the latter encroach upon
his myth ; and Lamprias was upon the very threshold
[see note 6 swpra]) Lucius indicates that he is not giving a
full account of the earlier discussion.
« Cf. 937 Ὁ: . -. εἰ δυνατὸν ἐκεῖ κατοικεῖν. εἰ yap od δυνατόν,
ἄλογον καὶ τὸ γῆν εἶναι τὴν σελήνην: δόξει γὰρ πρὸς οὐδὲν ἀλλὰ
μάτην γεγονέναι κτλ.
17
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
of it, for the myth, as it turns out, teaches that the
moon is inhabited by souls that have left their bodies
after death on earth or have not yet been incorporated
by birth into terrestrial bodies. So the episode con-
sisting of Theon’s speech and Lamprias’s reply (chaps.
24-25) is not merely a formal literary device. It is,
to be sure, a transition from the scientific part of the
dialogue, in which it is argued that the lunar pheno-
mena imply the earth-like constitution of the moon,
to the concluding myth in which the purpose of such
a moon in the universe is imaginatively portrayed ;
but this “ transitional episode ἡ raises the philo-
sophical question, without the answer to which the
strictly astronomical conclusion could to a Platonist
or Aristotelian be no complete or satisfactory explana-
tion, and itself contains the metaphysical answer, of
which the myth is, despite all its intrinsic interest,
essentially a poetical embellishment. When this
‘transition ὁ is properly attended to, there can be
no question about. the integral unity of the whole
dialogue or any doubt that the purpose of the whole
is to establish and defend the position that the moon
is entirely earthy in its constitution and that on this
hypothesis alone can the astronomical phenomena
and the existence of the moon itself be accounted
for.?
5. The main part of the dialogue is of extraordinary
interest for the history of astronomy, cosmology,
geography, and catoptrics ; and this aspect of the
work deserves more attention than it has usually
received.’ It is not a technical scientific treatise and
2 Cf. M. Pohlenz, Gétt. Gel. Anz. clxxx [1918], p. 323.
» J. O. Thomson, History of Ancient Geography (Cam-
bridge, 1948), pp. 330 f., gives a brief outline of this part of
18
THE FACE ON THE MOON
is not to be judged as if it were meant to be such ;
but it is all the more significant that in a literary work
intended for an educated but non-technical audience
towards the end of the first century a.p. Hipparchus
and Aristarchus of Samos are familiarly cited and
a technical work of the latter is quoted verbatim, the
laws of reflection are debated, the doctrine of natural
motion to the universal centre is rejected, and stress
is laid upon the cosmological importance of the
velocity of heavenly bodies.”
the work and cites Duhem’s and Humboldt’s praise of it.
A. O. Prickard has some general remarks on the subject
in the introductions to his two translations of the dialogue
(Plutarch on the Face which appears on the Orb of the Moon
[Winchester and London, 1911], pp. 9-15, and Plutarch :
Select Essays, ii [Oxford, 1918], pp. 246-253). So has S.
Giinther in his outline of the dialogue, Vergleichende Mond-
und Erdkunde (Braunschweig, 1911), pp. 24-35, nearly half
of which, however, is concerned with the myth. Hirzel in
his treatment of the dialogue (Der Dialog [ Leipzig, 1895], ii,
pp. 182-189) has little or nothing specific to say of its scientific
aspect. ‘The most extensive monograph on the dialogue,
Maximilian Adler’s Quibus Ex Fontibus Plutarchus Libellum
“ De Facie in Orbe Iunae”’ Hauserit (Diss. Phil. Vind. x
[1910], pp. 85-180), is concerned with the scientific passages
only in so far as the author thinks that from them he can
draw support for his thesis that Posidonius was Plutarch’s
source for the dialogue. <A similar purpose limits the treat-
ment of the work by K. Praechter in his Hierokles der Stoiker
(Leipzig, 1901), p. 26 and pp. 109-120. Cf. also the notes
of W. Norlind, Hranos, xxv (1927), pp. 265-277.
* Itis interesting to compare the treatise of Ibn Al-Haitham
(965-1039) which was translated from the Arabic by Carl
Schoy under the title Abhandlung des Schaichs Ibn ‘Ali Al-
Hasan Ibn Al-Hasan lbn Al-Haitham: Uber die Natur der
Spuren <(Flecken), die man auf der Oberfliche des Mondes
sieht (Hannover, 1925). Ibn Al-Haitham’s explanation of the
‘ face ’’ is that the nature of the moon’s substance must differ
from place to place, since the variation in illumination can be
the result only of a difference in the power to absorb and
19
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
Most of the attention given to the dialogue, how-
ever, has been attracted by the concluding myth.*
This consists of two parts. The second and main part
is the eschatological myth, which establishes the
purpose of the moon in the cosmos by explaining her
role in the “life-cycle” of souls and which the
stranger told Sulla he had from the chamberlains of
Cronus (942 p—945 p); the first is the introduction
reflect light, and the spots are places of greater density and
less power of absorption (pp. 20 ff. and 29-31). Though
Schoy appears to have been unaware of it and Plutarch does
not mention it, this explanation is ascribed to of ἀπὸ τῶν
μαθηματικῶν in Aétius, ii. 30. 7 (Dow. Graeci, p. 362. 5-13).
Ibn Al-Haitham rejects the theory that the spots are shadows
cast by prominences on the moon, arguing that such shadows
would not always have the same shape and position, as the
spots do (pp. 14-17). Like Plutarch, however, he knows and
refutes the notion that they are a reflection of the terrestrial
ocean or any other terrestrial feature (pp. 1-2, 5-7 ; De Facie,
chaps. 3-4); and he also adduces the colour of the moon in
eclipse (pp. 31 f.; De Facie, 934 B-p). He proves impossible
as well (pp. 4-5, cf. p. 2) an explanation unmentioned by
Plutarch but recorded by Simplicius (De Caelo, p. 457. 25-30)
that the spots are the result of vapours rising from below and
obscuring the moon’s brilliance (¢f., however, for something
similar, Milton, Paradise Lost, v. 415-420, and De Facie,
922 p-c). Like Cleomedes (ii. 4. 103 [p. 186. 14-27 Ziegler]),
Ibn Al-Haitham seems to hold that the moon as a reflecting
convex mirror would have to appear as a single point of light
(pp. 7 f. with Schoy’s note, p. 8, n. 1).
α It was probably the myth as much as the more strictly
astronomical part of the dialogue that caused Kepler to make
his Latin translation and commentary of the De Facie, which
he did shortly before his death. This is printed in volume
viii of Joannis Kepleri Opera Omnia, ed. Dr. Ch. Frisch
(Francofurti a. M., 1870). Cf. R. Schmertosch, “ Keppler
zu Plutarchs Schrift ‘ Vom Gesicht im Monde,’ ” Phil.-Hist.
Beitrége Curt Wachsmuth zum 60. Geburtstag iberreicht
(Leipzig, 1897), pp. 52-55, and R. Pixis, Kepler als Geograph
(Munich, 1899).
20
THE FACE ON THE MOON
to this myth or “ frame-story,”’ in which the stranger
explained to Sulla how from the continent on the
other side of the Atlantic he came to the Isle of
Cronus, one of several that lie westwards of Britain,
and thence, after having served thirty years, travelled
to Carthage where he met Sulla (941 a—942 c).
This geographical introduction has aroused the
wildest speculations. Kepler was convinced that the
trans-Atlantic continent was America, and he tried
to identify the islands mentioned in the myth?; W.
Christ in 1898 still could assert that Plutarch’s con-
tinent is ““ obviously America ” and proves that about
A.D. 100 sailors reached the North American coast
via Iceland, Greenland, and Baffinland ®; and in 1909
G. Mair argued that the source of this knowledge
of America was reports of Carthaginian seafarers
who had penetrated into the Gulf of Mexico, that
the Isle of Cronus is Scandinavia, and that the
northern geography of the myth derives from
accounts of the voyages of Pytheas of Massilia.° Even
2 Cf. notes 97, 98, 103, and 105 to Kepler’s translation
(see note a, p. 20 supra) and note 2 to his Somnium sive Astrono-
mia Lunaris. In Theatrum Orbis Terrarum Abrahami Ortelii
(Antwerp, 1593), p. 5, this passage of Plutarch was used,
apparently for the first time, to prove that the ancients knew
the American continent.
Ὁ Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur, Dritte Auflage
(1898), p. 662, n. 1. W. Schmid and O. Stéahlin in the sixth
edition of this work (Zweiter Teil, Erste Halfte [1920], p. 498)
suppress this note of Christ’s but write “‘ aus dem Festland
jenseits des atlantischen Ozeans (Amerika ?).”’
¢ G. Mair, “ Pytheas’ Tanais und die Insel des Kronos in
Plutarchs Schrift ‘ Das Gesicht im Monde’ ” (Jahresbericht
des K.K. Staats-Gymnasiums in Marburg αἰ). 1909). A
fair example of Mair’s argument is his identification (p. 18)
of the κόλπος mentioned in 941 B with the Christiana-Fjord,
although according to Plutarch it is in the trans-Atlantic
21
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
before Mair had published his fantastic theory Ebner
had conclusively demonstrated that Plutarch could
not have referred to any real crossing of the Atlantic
or any rumours of such a crossing, that by using the
name Ogygia at the beginning (941 a-B) he had
clearly indicated the purely mythical intention of
his geography, and that this geographical setting is
simply an imitation of Plato’s Atlantis in the spirit
of Hecataeus’ story of the Hyperboreans, Theo-
pompus’ Meropis, and the Sacred Records of Eu-
hemerus.? The additional geographical particulars
are the usual “ corroborative detail intended to give
continent. Moreover, all of Plutarch’s islands lie to the West
and North-West of Britain !
«Ἐπ Ebner, Geographische Hinweise und Ankldnge in
Plutarchs Schrift, de facie in orbe lunae (Munich, 1906).
A. von Humboldt had concluded long before that the geo-
graphical frame is entirely mythical (Kvitische Untersu-
chungen iiber die historische Entwicklung der geographischen
Kenntnisse von der Neuen Welt [Berlin, 1836], pp. 174-185).
H. von Arnim (“‘ Plutarch iiber Damonen und Mystik,” pp.
37-47 [ Verhand. Kk. Akad. van Wetenschappen te Amsterdam,
Afd. Letterk., 1921]) contended that Plutarch’s source for
chapter 26 was a “fantastic travel-romance’”’ that had
nothing to do with philosophy or moon-demonology, but in
which the demons of Cronus served the purpose of prophesy-
ing to the hero about his future. W. Hamilton (Class. Quart.
xxviii [1934], pp. 24 ff., cf. p. 24, n. 1),while citing as parallels
to the geographical myth Hecataeus, Euhemerus, Theo-
pompus, and the Abaris of Heraclides Ponticus (cf. also
Hirzel, Der Dialog, ii, p. 187, n. 4), maintains that Plutarch
wrote the whole of his myth in direct imitation of Plato’s story
of Atlantis. Rohde (Der griechische Roman, 204-276=3rd
edition [Leipzig, 1914], pp. 219-296) places Plutarch’s geo-
graphical myth in its proper environment with the romances
of Theopompus, Hecataeus, Euhemerus, Iambulus, Antonius
Diogenes, and Marcellus. Cf. also H. Martin, Etudes sur le
Timée de Platon (Paris, 1841), i, pp. 290-304, and J. O.
Thomson, op. cit. (note 6, p. 18), pp. 237-238.
22
THE FACE ON THE MOON
artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and un-
convincing narrative.’ The theme of the sleeping
Cronus may have been suggested to Plutarch by
Demetrius of Tarsus, who in the De Defectu Oracu-
lorum (419 E—420 a) is made to say that on an island
near Britain Cronus is kept prisoner by the bonds of
sleep and is guarded by Briareus and attended by
Spirits who are his servitors. This Demetrius appears
to have been an historical person who did travel to
Britain, whence in the dialogue he is said to have
recently returned ; and he may have told Plutarch
some Celtic legend or superstition which the latter
hellenized and wove into the fabric of his myth.?
The discussion of the second part of the myth, the
demonology and eschatology, has also been con-
cerned mainly with the problem of Plutarch’s sources.
Heinze attempted to prove that this myth had been
put together out of material drawn from Xenocrates
and from Posidonius and that in the resulting com-
bination the parts that belong to those two authors
@ For Demetrius cf. R. Flaceliere, Plutarque : Sur la Dis-
parition des Oracles (Paris, 1947), pp. 26-28, and K. Ziegler,
Plutarchos von Chaironeia (Stuttgart, 1949), 36. If Demetrius
did hear a Celtic tale of a god or hero asleep on some western
island, it would have been easy for him or Plutarch to identify
the subject with Cronus (cf. Hesiod, Works and Days, 169,
and Pindar, Olympian, ii. 77 [70] ff.; see also note a on p. 182
and note a on 942 a infra). Pohlenz’s notion (R.E. xi. 2013)
that Posidonius, who was “ familiar with the northern world,”’
was the intermediary of this “ Kyffhiusermotiv ”’ has nothing
to support it. Posidonius was the source of the Cronus-motif
as well as of the whole geographical part of the myth accord-
ing to M. Adler, op. cit. (note 6, p. 18), pp. 169-170, who
has no trouble in showing that Schmertosch adduced no real
_reason for designating Xenocrates as Plutarch’s source for
this section; but Hamilton (loc. cit. [note a, p. 22]) has
proved that Posidonius could not have been the source either.
23
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
are distinguishable.* Adler vigorously attacked this
thesis and argued that Posidonius was Plutarch’s
source for the whole myth and for whatever there is
in it that may have come ultimately from Xeno-
crates ὃ; but ἢ. M. Jones 5 proved conclusively that
neither Heinze’s conclusions nor Adler’s will bear
scrutiny, that Posidonius could not have been the
source, and that, while Plutarch combined various
eschatological notions which were current and some
of which were probably held in common by different
philosophers, his myth is in the main an interpretation
of Plato’s Timaeus. Later, against Karl Reinhardt’s
attempt to trace the myth back to a hypothetical
“solar eschatology ”’ of Posidonius, Jones re-estab-
lished the Platonic character of Plutarch’s eschato-
logy, psychology, and demonology here and the
impossibility of taking Posidonius for the source.4
@ Richard Heinze, Xenokrates (Leipzig, 1892), pp. 123 ff.
M. Pohlenz, Vom Zorne Gottes (Gottingen, 1909), p. 133,
n. 1, approved Heinze’s conclusion in general but differed
with him in some particulars.
ὃ Maximilian Adler, op. cit. (note 6, p. 18), pp. 166 ff.
Adler’s dissertation was reviewed by Pohlenz in B.P.W.
xxxii (1912), 648-654, and his thesis concerning the source
of the myth criticized, ibid. 653. P. Capelle (De luna stellis
lacteo orbe animarum sedibus [Halle, 1917], pp. 14-15) held
that chapter 28 came from Posidonius’s account of the state
of souls after death and chapters 29 and 30 from his supposed
commentary on the 7imaeus.
¢ The Platonism of Plutarch (Chicago Dissertation,
Menasha, Wisconsin, 1916), pp. 48-56 and 58-60.
4 K. Reinhardt, Kosmos und Sympathie (Munich, 1926),
pp. 313 ff. (cf. also F. Cumont, “‘ La Théologie solaire du paga-
nisme romain,”? Mém. del’ Acad. des Inscriptions, xii [1909}) ;
R. M. Jones, “ Posidonius and Solar Eschatology,” Class. Phil.
xxvii (1932), pp. 113-135, especially pp. 116-131. P. Boyancé,
Etudes sur le Songe de Scipion (Bordeaux and Paris, 1936),
pp. 78-104, follows Jones in refuting Cumont and Reinhardt.
24
THE FACE ON THE MOON
Hamilton later contended even more positively that
Plutarch took the 7zmaeus as the model for the whole
of his myth in the De Facie and that, since the De
Animae Procreatione in Timaeo shows that he regarded
the Timaeus seriously, he must have intended the cor-
responding portion of his myth in the De Facie to con-
tain an equally serious exposition of his own beliefs
concerning the nature and fate of the βου]. Soury in
his extensive study of the myth, while emphasizing the
possible influence of the mysteries, agrees in general
with Hamilton that it is preponderantly Platonic.’
Anyone who without a preconceived thesis to
defend reads the De Facie will recognize, I believe,
that Plato was Plutarch’s inspiration throughout
the dialogue but that Plutarch is himself the true
author of the whole work and that, while there is in
it a distillation of his wide and varied scientific and
philosophical reading, he cannot possibly have com-
posed it by copying out any source or combination
of sources. I have tried in the exegetical notes to
indicate the “ parallels ᾿᾿ which will help the reader
to understand the dialogue itself by seeing its relation
* W. Hamilton, Class. Quart. xxviii (1934), pp. 24-30.
Hamilton expressly opposes the theory of von Arnim, who,
in his “ἡ Plutarch iiber Dimonen und Mystik ” (see note a,
p- 22), pp. 24-65, argues that Plutarch took the geographical
myth and the eschatological myth from two different sources
and the latter from an eclectic Platonist later than Antiochus.
As to Hamilton’s notion of the seriousness with which
Plutarch intended the myth, Ziegler is surely right in saying
(Plutarchos von Chaironeia, 217) that Sulla’s final sentence,
taken together with Lamprias’s remark in 920 B-c, shows that
Plutarch had no intention of insisting upon the literal truth
of the myth; in this attitude also he follows Plato: see
note a on p. 223 imfra.
ὃ G. Soury, Rev. Et. Gr. ΠῚ (1940), pp. 51-58, and La Dé-
monologie de Plutarque (Paris, 1942), pp. 73-82 and 177-210.
25
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
to the rest of ancient scientific and philosophical
thought. Among these “ parallels ’’ some of the
most striking are drawn from later writers, especially
Neo-Platonists ; these I have mentioned not in order
to insinuate that they show Plutarch’s direct influence
upon those later writers, although many of them
certainly were acquainted with him, but because
they illuminate the meaning of the De Facie and at
the same time indicate what may have been con-
tained in some of the philosophical writings known
to Plutarch and long since lost to us, and may help
to cast some flicker of light upon that obscure and
controversial problem, the prehistory of Neo-
Platonism.
6. The De Facie, which is No. 73 in the so-called
Catalogue of Lamprias and No. 71 in the Planudean
order, is apparently preserved in only two mss. of the
Bibliotheque Nationale, Gree 1672 (saec. XIV) and
1675 (saec. XV), conventionally called Parisinus E
and Parisinus B respectively.* These have hitherto
been supposed to be independent copies of a single
archetype ὃ ; but recently G. R. Manton has put
@ On the mss. of Plutarch generally cf. the references cited
by M. Pohlenz, Plutarchi Moralia, i (Teubner, 1925), Prae-
fatio, p. vi, n. 1, and pp. xxvi and xxviii f. on B and E
respectively.
ὃ Wyttenbach (Plutarchi Moralia [Oxford, 1795], p. xliv)
says of B “ ut videtur, ex E, aut ejusdem exempli codice, ita
descriptus ut antiquiores melioresque simul adhiberentur ;
unde quaedam lacunae uberius etiam expletae, et plura menda
sanata.”’” M. Treu, Zur Geschichte der Uberlieferung von
Plutarchs Moralia, ii (Ohlau, 1881), pp. 5-7, argued that B
derives from the same source as E, which B must have used
later; and his conclusion was generally accepted by later
editors. Raingeard’s more complicated stemma (p. xiv of
his edition of the De Facie) is, in any case, entirely unjustified.
26
THE FACE ON THE MOON
forward strong arguments for thinking that B is a
descendant of E through an intermediate manuscript,
“a copy of E, which was worked over by a scholar
who filled in lacunae and inserted conjectures of his
own.” @
I have collated both manuscripts from photostats
which were generously put at my disposal by Dr.
William C. Helmbold:; and I have recorded under
the usual symbols the variant readings of each of
them, for I soon discovered that not only is Ber-
nardakis’ report of the mss. untrustworthy, but that
the same must be said of Raingeard’s in his recent
edition of the dialogue, and that even Treu’s collation
(see note 6, p. 26) is not free of errors. I have not
recorded mere omissions or variations of accent or
breathing, however, unless the sense is affected by
them; and 1 have regularized crasis and elision
without regard to the manuscripts or report of them,
« ** The Manuscript Tradition of Plutarch Moralia 70-7,”
Class. Quart. xliii (1949), pp. 97-104. Among the passages
discussed by Manton where B has readings other than those
of E are none from the De Facie, for the text of which Manton
(op. cit. p. 99, n. 1) depended upon Treu’s collation supple-
mented by Bernardakis’ list in vol. i of his edition, pp. | ff. ;
but I have found no variant reading of B in this essay that
would surely gainsay Manton’s hypothesis. Those which
might suggest that B is not descended from E are the follow-
ing: 927 Ε: τὸν -B for E’s correct ra before ἐμβριθῆ: 929 8:
ἔχων δὲ -B, ἔχων δὲ τοῦτο -E for the correct ἑκὼν δὲ: 932 Ὁ:
πεποιημένων -Β for E’s correct πεπεισμένων : 937 Ε : ἐπιφερο-
μένη -B, φερομένη -E for the probable original ἀντιφερομένη :
938 D: ἀναγινώσκων -B for E’s correct ἀναγινώσκοντος : 943 Ὁ:
καταγινομένας -B for E’s correct καταδυομένας. Manton’s con-
clusion has been rejected by K. Hubert (Rhein. Mus. xciii
[1950], pp. 330-336), but Hubert’s defence of the indepen-
dence of B and E has been counterattacked by Einarson and
De Lacy (Class. Phil. xlvi [1951], pp. 103 and 106, with notes
36 and 56).
20
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
for they show no consistency in this matter.” In con-
formity with the usage of Professor Babbitt and
regardless of the manuscripts, I have printed the forms
γίγνεσθαι, γιγνώσκειν, and οὐδείς, though the manu-
scripts usually have γίνεσθαι, γινώσκειν, and οὐθείς ;
but I have adopted the form δυεῖν throughout. I have
tried to the best of my ability to assign emendations
to those who first proposed them ; but for some which
appear without ascription in all modern editions, and
the author of which I have been unable to discover,
I have had to be content with the unsatisfactory note,
“editors.” For the suggestions said to be written in
three different hands on the margins of the copy of
the Aldine edition now in the Bibliotheque Natio-
nale (Rés. J. 94), I have had to rely upon the report
* For example, in 931 Ὁ they have τὰ αὐτὰ πάσχειν ὑπὸ τοῦ
αὐτοῦ. . . ταὐτὰ (B, ταυτὰ -E) ποιεῖν ταὐτὸν. . . and occa-
sionally of’ ὅπως and ἀλλ᾽ ὅπως, although they do not
ordinarily elide the a of οἶδα and ἀλλά. Almost invariably
both E and B have μὴ δὲ instead of μηδὲ or μηδ᾽. On these
matters cf. 'T. Doehner, Quaestionum Plutarch. Particula
Altera and Tertia (Meissen, 1858 and 1862), especially iii,
p. 51, and ii, p. 35, n.**; and on the question of hiatus ef.
Helmbold, Class. Phil. xxxiii (1938), pp. 244-245, and xlv
(1949), pp. 64 f. with his references, and for a much stricter
view Ziegler, Plutarchos von Chaironeia, 295-298. To
‘“emend”’ for the sole purpose of eliminating hiatus is to
take unwarranted liberty with the text; but, on the other
hand, to introduce hiatus by emendation is certainly in-
admissible. It should be observed, however, that in the
De Facie, besides the exceptions to avoidance of hiatus listed
by Ziegler (op. cit. 296-297), final at, ou, εἰς. and ov before an
initial vowel may always be possible (cf. for ov 4.5. τοῦ ἰδίου
ἀέρος in 944 a), ἄνω and κάτω are permissible before any word
beginning with a vowel (cf. ἄνω ἔχειν and κάτω ἄνωθεν in
924 c which guarantee ἄνω ἐστίν in 926 a), and other cases
of hiatus which cannot reasonably be eliminated occasionally
occur (6.9. χείλη εἰκόνας [921 c], τουτὶ εἴπω [935 D]).
28
THE FACE ON THE MOON
of Raingeard in the apparatus criticus of his edition
(cf. pp. xvi f. of his Introduction)“; all of these I in-
dicate without differentiation by the formula, “ Anon.,
Aldine, R.J. 94. Upon Raingeard’s report and
those of Reiske, Wyttenbach, Hutten, and Bernarda-
kis I have had to rely for the variant readings of
the Aldine edition and of the edition of Xylander ;
but the edition of Froben (Basiliensis, 1542), as well
as those of Stephanus (1624), Reiske, Wyttenbach,
Hutten, Diibner, Bernardakis, and Raingeard, and the
translations of Xylander, Amyot, Kepler, Kaltwasser,
the two translations of Prickard,? and that of por-
tions of the essay by Heath,’ I have consulted and
compared throughout.
Those emendations which, so far as I know, are
original with me are indicated by the initials H. C.
Besides the editions, translations, and articles already
mentioned in this Introduction, the chief aids to my
study of the text have been the following :
¢ P. Raingeard, Le ΠΕΡῚ TOY ΠΡΟΣΩΠΟΥ͂ de Plutarque,
texte critique avec traduction et commentaire (Paris, 1935).
Raingeard’s text is fantastically ‘“‘ conservative,’ reproducing
E for the most part even where E gives impossible Greek ;
and yet his report of the manuscripts is frequently erroneous
either explicitly or by implication. The translation is worse
even than the text; and the commentary, especially where
it touches upon philosophical and scientific questions, is more
often wrong than right, almost everywhere inadequate, and
frequently absurd.
> See note 6, p. 18. Prickard’s translation of 1911 was
reviewed by W. R. Paton, Class. Rev. xxvi (1912), p. 269, and
by L. C. Purser, Hermathena, xvi (1911), pp. 309-324, whose
review is rather a series of notes and suggestions for almost
two score passages in the essay.
¢ Sir Thomas L. Heath, Greek Astronomy (London, 1932),
pp. 166-180.
29
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
Apter, Maximinian: Diss. Phil. Vind. x (1910), pp.
87 ff. (cf. note b, p. 18).
Wiener Studien, xxxi (1909), pp. 305-309.
“ Zwei Beitrige zum plutarchischen Dialog ἡ De
Facie in Orbe Lunae,’”’ Jahreshericht des K.K.
Staatsgymnasiums in Nikolsburg, 1909-1910 (Ni-
kolsburg, 1910).
Wiener Studien, xlii (1920-1921), pp. 163-164.
Festschrift Moriz Winternitz (Leipzig, 1933), pp.
298-302.
ApeLtt, Orro: “ Zu Plutarch und Plato,” Jahres-
bericht Gymnasium Carolo-Alexandrinum zu Jena,
1904-1905 (Jena, 1905).
“ Kritische Bemerkungen,” Jahresbericht . . . Jena,
1905-1906 (Jena, 1906).
Cuarzipakis, G. N.: Athena, xiii (1901), pp. 462-
714.
Coset, C. G.: Novae Lectiones (Leiden, 1858).
Variae Lectiones (Leiden, 1878).
Collectanea Critica (Leiden, 1878).
Emperius, A.: Emperii Opuscula Philologica et His-
torica . . . ed. F. G. Schneidewin (Gottingen,
1847), pp. 287-295.
Hartman, J. J.: De Plutarcho Scriptore et Philosopho
(Leiden, 1916), pp. 557-563.
Herwerpven, H. van: Lectiones Rheno-Trairectinae
(Traj. ad Rhen., 1882).
Mnemosyne, xxii (1894), pp. 330-337, and xxxvii
(1909), pp. 202-223.
Kronenberg, A. J.: Mnemosyne, lii (1924), pp. 60-112,
and Ser. 111, x (1941), pp. 33-47.
Kunze, R.: Rhein. Mus. lxiv (1909), pp. 635-636.
Mapvia, J. N.: Adversaria Critica, I (Hauniae, 1871),
pp- 664-666.
30
THE FACE ON THE MOON
Mras, K.: Zevischrift fiir die Gsterreich. Gymnasien,
Ixv (1914), pp. 187-188.
Naser, 5. A. : Mnemosyne, xxviii (1900), pp. 329-364.
PapapasiLeIos, G. A.: Athena, x (1898), pp. 167-242.
Pontenz, Max: Berliner Philologische Wochenschrift,
xxxii (1912), pp. 648-654.
Gétting. Gelehrte Anzeig. clxxx (1918), pp. 321-343.
SanpgBacn, I’. H.: Proc. of the Cambridge Philological
Soc., 1943.
Haroitp CHERNISS
ADDENDUM
Since this Bibliography was compiled in February
1953 some publications dealing with the De Facie
have come to my attention which require a brief
notice.
Konrat Ziegler in Plutarch tiber Gott und Vorsehung,
Démonen und Weissagung (Ziirich, Artemis-Verlag,
1952) has written a brief summary of the essay (pp.
42-45) and has translated the myth (940 r—9Q45 p)
into German (pp. 268-278) with the addition of a few
explanatory notes. He makes one noteworthy altera-
tion in the text at 941 a-B: adopting τὸν δὲ Βριάρεων
ἔχοντα φρουρόν, after which he puts a full stop, he re-
moves the following words, τῶν τε νήσων... παρα-
κάτω κεῖσθαι (7), from their position in the mss. and
places them after κύκλῳ θάλαττα in 941 B three lines
below.
The question of the mss., which is touched upon in
the Introduction § 6 supra, has been discussed, though
without specific reference to the De Facie, by R.
31
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
Flaceliére in his edition and translation of the Ama-
torius (Plutarque : Dialogue sur Vamour { Paris, “ Les
Belles Lettres,” 1952], pp. 35-37) and in an article,
‘La Tradition manuscrite des traités 70-77 de Plu-
tarque,”’ Rev. Etudes Grecques, xv (1952), pp. 351-362.
By a different route he reaches the same conclusion
as did G. R. Manton, namely that B is derived from E,
probably through an intermediate manuscript now
lost. In Gnomon, xxv (1953), pp. 556-557 K. Hubert
replied to Flaceliére’s arguments and again sought to
establish the independence of B with respect to E.
Flaceliére in his article entitled “ Plutarque et les
éclipses de la lune ” (Rev. Etudes Anciennes, liii [1051],
pp. 203-221) is primarily concerned with the interpre-
tation of De Genio Socratis, 591 c, but in connection
with this he discusses De Facie, 933 p-E and 942 D-E
and argues that in the former of these two passages
- Plutarch depends upon the calculations of Hipparchus
(cf. my note in Class. Phil. xlvi [1951], p. 145 referred
to in note e on 933 & infra).
G. Zuntz in Rhein. Mus. xcvi (1953), pp. 233-234 has
proposed several emendations in the text of the
essay :
940 ©: He is right in assuming that Bernardakis’
ὑμεῖς is a misprint for ἡμεῖς of the Mss., but ὅσαπερ
which he condemns and emends is, of course, correct ;
he apparently misunderstood the construction, ὅσα-
περ ἡμεῖς (scl. χρώμεθα) ἀέρι.
042 π: After τίς δ᾽ οὗτός ἐστιν, he would add
ζέφην: 6 6+), thus producing the same effect as did
Reiske’s punctuation. Cf. on this sentence my note
in Class. Phil. xlvi (1951), pp. 150-151.
* Cf. Irigoin, Rev. de Philologie, xxviii (1954), pp. 117-119.
32
THE FACE ON THE MOON
943 p: He would write τὸ ἄλογον καὶ [τὸ] παθη-
τικόν on the strength of De Def. Orac. 417 B (p. 75.
23 [Sieveking]). This would be possible but is un-
necessary, since καὶ can here be taken as “ explica-
tive.”
944 c: He suggests Φερσεφόνης οὖδος ἀντιχθόνιος
or Pepredovys οὖδος ἀντίχθονος, apparently unaware
of von Arnim’s far more probable emendation (see
notes d and e on p. 221 infra). His further supple-
ment, τὰ δὲ (πρὸς Ta) ἐνταῦθα, is quite unnecessary.
944 E: To ἔρωτι τῆς περὶ τὸν ἥλιον εἰκόνος he
would add {τοῦ ἑνὸς) or {τοῦ νοητοῦ» or {τἀγαθοῦ»
on the ground that the phrase as it stands is unintel-
ligible. The following words, δι ἧς ἐπιλάμπει κτλ.
themselves explain what Plutarch means (see note
g on 944 Ε infra), and there is no excuse for any
supplement at all.
945 B: He rightly defends Kaltwasser’s alteration
of Τυφὼν to Πύθων (see Introduction, p. 12, note ὁ
supra).
HC,
November 1954
To my great regret I have been unable to take
account of Professor M. Pohlenz’s edition of this
essay in Plutarcht Moralia, vol. v, Fasc. 3 (Leipzig,
Teubner, 1955), since it became available only after
this volume had already been paged and corrected
for printing.
H.C.
February 1956
VOL. XII e 33
(920) ΠΕΡῚ TOY EM®AINOMENOY ΠΡΟΣΩΠΟΥ͂
ΤΩΙ KYKAQI ΤῊΣ ΣΕΛΉΝΗΣ
~ > ΄ » ~
Β 1....06 Σύλλας ταῦτ᾽ εἶπε. “᾿ τῷ yap ἐμῷ"
/ / > A / > > > > A \
μύθῳ προσήκει κἀκεῖθέν ἐστι: ἀλλ᾽ εἰ δεῖ τι πρὸς
τὰς ἀνὰ χεῖρα ταύτας καὶ διὰ στόματος πᾶσι δόξας
~ ~ / /
περὶ τοῦ προσώπου τῆς σελήνης mpocavaKpov-
~ ε / Μ “- / ᾽)
σασθαι πρῶτον ἡδέως ἄν μοι δοκῶ πυθέσθαι.
ce ul > 3 > / ᾽) ἣν ἘῈ ΤῊΝ \ ~ >’ /
τί δ᾽ οὐκ ἐμέλλομεν ᾿᾿ εἶπον “ ὑπὸ τῆς ἐν ταύταις
>’ ς >
ἀπορίας ἐπ᾽ ἐκείνας" ἀπωσθέντες; ὡς yap οἱ ἐν
/ \
νοσήμασι χρονίοις πρὸς τὰ Kowa βοηθήματα Kat
\
τὰς συνήθεις διαίτας ἀπειπόντες ἐπὶ καθαρμοὺς καὶ
/ \ > / -
περίαπτα καὶ ὀνείρους τρέπονται, οὕτως ἀναγκαῖον
/ \ ¢
ἐν δυσθεωρήτοις καὶ ἀπόροις σκέψεσιν, ὅταν οἱ
\ » Ws \ / / \ /
C κοινοὶ καὶ ἔνδοξοι καὶ συνήθεις λόγοι μὴ πείθωσι,
πειρᾶσθαι τῶν ἀτοπωτέρων καὶ μὴ καταφρονεῖν
3 > > / > ~ e - \ ~ ~ \
ἀλλ᾽ ἐπάδειν ἀτεχνῶς ἑαυτοῖς τὰ TOV παλαιῶν καὶ
\ / > \ 3 /
διὰ πάντων τἀληθὲς ἐξελέγχειν.
1 E, Β ; περὶ τοῦ ἐν τῇ σελήνη φαινομένου προσώπου--“᾿ Cata-
logue of Lamprias ” (No. 75) : περὶ τοῦ ἐμφαινομένου κύκλου
τῆς σελήνης -Folio 1 (verso) of Mare. 250 (Χ).
2 Raingeard ; ᾿Οαυνοσυλλας ταῦτα εἶπε κτλ. -E 3 ‘O μὲν οὖν
σύλλας ταῦτα εἶπε κτλ. -B; ‘O μὲν οὖν Σύλλας, “ἧ ταῦτα, εἶπε,
“ τῷ γ᾽ ἐμῷ κτλ. -Wyttenbach, who for γὰρ ἐμῷ also suggested
παρ᾽ ἐμοὶ.
3 Wyttenbach (ἐκείνας -Anon., Aldine, R.J. 94): τούτοις
. . . eketwous -E, B.
34
CONCERNING THE FACE WHICH
APPEARSSINY THE "ORB OF “ft HE MOON
1. ... These were Sulla’s words.? “ For it con-
cerns my story and that is its source ; but I think that
I should first like to learn whether there is any need
to put back for a fresh start ὃ to those opinions con-
cerning the face of the moon which are current and
on the lips of everyone.”” “‘ What else would you
expect us to have done,’ I said,° “‘ since it was the
difficulty in these opinions that drove us from our
course upon those others? As people with chronic
diseases when they have despaired of ordinary
remedies and customary regimens turn to expiations
and amulets and dreams, just so in obscure and per-
plexing speculations, when the ordinary and repu-
table and customary accounts are not persuasive, it is
necessary to try those that are more out of the way
and not scorn them but literally to chant over our-
selves 4 the charms of the ancients and use every
means to bring the truth to test.
¢ Concerning the mutilated beginning of the dialogue see
Introduction § 1.
ὃ For the metaphor ef. dn Seni Respublica Gerenda Sit,
787 ©, and Plato, Philebus, 13 p; the meaning is guaranteed
by ἀπωσθέντες (“ driven from our course’’) infra. Cf. the
nautical metaphor with which Sulla interrupts Lamprias at
940 F infra (τὸν μῦθον. . . ἐξοκείλας).
ὁ The speaker and narrator of the dialogue is Lamprias,
the brother of Plutarch; cf. 937 Ὁ, 940 F, 945 pb, infra.
4 Cf. Plato, Phaedo, 77 © and 114 pv, Republic, 608 a.
35
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(920) 2. “Opdas yap εὐθὺς ὡς ἄτοπος ὁ λέγων τὸ φαινό-
μενον εἶδος ἐν τῇ σελήνῃ πάθος εἶναι τῆς ὄψεως,
ὑπεικούσης τῇ λαμπρότητι δι᾽ ἀσθένειαν, ὃ (μαραυ-
yiav)* καλοῦμεν, > οὐ συνορῶν ὅτι πρὸς τὸν ἥλιον
ἔδει τοῦτο γίγνεσθαι μᾶλλον ὀξὺν ἀπαντῶντα καὶ
πλήκτην (ὥς που καὶ ᾿Εμπεδοκλῆς τὴν ἑκατέρων
ἀποδίδωσιν οὐκ ἀηδῶς διαφορὰν
ἥλιος ὀξυβελὴς ἡ δ᾽ αὖ ἱλάειρα σελήνη,"
τὸ ἐπαγωγὸν αὐτῆς καὶ ἱλαρὸν καὶ ἄλυπον οὕτως"
προσαγορεύσας) ἔπειτ᾽ (οὐδ λόγον ἀποδιδοὺς καθ᾽
Do ὃν αἱ ἀμυδραὶ καὶ ἀσθενεῖς ὄψεις οὐδεμίαν διαφορὰν
ἐν τῇ σελήνῃ μορφῆς ἐνορῶσιν ἀλλὰ λεῖος αὐταῖς
ἀντιλάμπει καὶ περίπλεως αὐτῆς ὁ κύκλος οἱ δ᾽
ὀξὺ καὶ σφοδρὸν ὁρῶντες ἐξακριβοῦσι μᾶλλον καὶ
διαστέλλουσιν ἐκτυπούμενα τὰ εἴδη τοῦ προσώπου
καὶ τῆς διαφορᾶς ἅπτονται σαφέστερον: ἔδει γάρ,
οἶμαι, τοὐναντίον, εἴπερ ἡττωμένου πά(θος)" ὄμ-
ματος ἐποίει τὴν φαντασίαν, ὅπου τὸ πάσχον
ἀσθενέστερον, (σαφέστερον εἶναι τὸ φαινόμενον.
ἡ δ᾽ ἀνωμαλία καὶ παντάπασιν ἐλέγχει τὸν λόγον"
οὐ γάρ ἐστι συνεχοῦς σκιᾶς καὶ συγκεχυμένης
1 H.C. (cf. Stobaeus, Hel. iii. 1. 196); vac. 8-E, 9-B;
μαραυγεῖν -Wyttenbach ; μαρμαρυγὰς -Raingeard (cf. Plato,
Timaeus, 68 a; Chariton, EF, 3. 9).
* So punctuated in Basiliensis; E and B have mark of
interrogation.
8. Xylander (ἱλάειρα σελήνη -Hesychius) ; ἥλιος ὀξυμελὴς ἡ
δὲ λάιρα σελήνη -E, B; . . . ἠδ᾽ ἱλάειρα τς -Dindorf feu
Emperius) followed by Diels-Kranz ; .. . ἠδ᾽ (ἥδ᾽) ἱλάειρα
σελήνη -Purser. 4 E; οὕτῶ -B.
5 Bases (1897); ἔπειτα λόγον -E, B; ἔπειτα λόγον (οὐκ)
-Emperius (1847).
6 Wyttenbach ; za vac. 4-E, 5-B.
36
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 920
2. Well, to begin with, you see that it is absurd to
call the figure seen in the moon an affection of vision
in its feebleness giving way to brilliance, a condition
which we call (bedazzlement). Anyone who asserts
this 7 does not observe that this phenomenon should
rather have occurred in relation to the sun, since the
sun lights upon us keen and violent (as Empedocles ὃ
too somewhere not infelicitously renders the differ-
ence of the two:
The sun keen-shafted and the gentle moon,
referring in this way to her allurement and cheerful-
ness and harmlessness), and moreover does (not)
explain why dull and weak eyes discern no distinction
of shape in the moon but her orb for them has an even
and full light, whereas those of keen and robust
vision make out more precisely and distinctly the
pattern of facial features and more clearly perceive
the variations. In fact the contrary, I think, should
have been the case if the image resulted from an
affection of the eye when it is overpowered: the
weaker the subject affected, (the clearer) should be
the appearance of the image. The unevenness also
entirely refutes the hypothesis, for the shadow that
one sees is not continuous and confused but is not
* If Plutarch has a definite person in mind, I have not been
able to identify him. Adler (Diss. Phil. Vind. x, p. 127)
thinks that ὁ λέγων refers to a physicist whose name Plutarch
himself probably did not know, and Raingeard that it refers
to ** esprits cultivés ”’ in general.
ὃ Frag. 40 (i, p. 329. 11 [Diels-Kranz]).
7 Wyttenbach (who, however, also inserted ἐστιν before
σαφέστερον). implied in the versions of Amyot and Kepler ;
ἀσθενέστερον εἶναι -E, B.
8 Wyttenbach : ἐπὶ -E, B.
37
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
» 5 3
20) ὄψις, ἀλλ᾽ οὐ φαύλως ὑπογράφων ὁ ᾿Αγησιάναξ'
εἴρηκε
E πᾶσα μὲν ἥδε πέριξ πυρὶ λάμπεται, ἐν δ᾽ ἄρα
μέσσῃ"
/ 7 / / 3. 9 /
γλαυκότερον κυάνοιο φαείνεται ἠύτε κούρης
” ΟΣ ἢ. \ ΄ \ y BY 3 " ”
ὄμμα καὶ ὑγρὰ μέτωπα: Ta δὲ ῥέθει" ἄντα ἔοικεν"
ὄντως γὰρ ὑποδύεται περιιόντα" τοῖς λαμπροῖς τὰ
\ \ / , 5 7, eS 5 ἃς
σκιερὰ καὶ πιέζει (mueCoueva)’? πάλιν ὑπ᾽ αὐτῶν
\ > / Δ / > > vr
Kal ἀποκοπτόμενα Kal ὅλως πέπλεκται δι᾿ ἀλλήλων
“ 8 \ \ , 7 > ~
F (wore) γραφικὴν τὴν διαζτύπωσιν) εἶναι τοῦ
σχήματος. (τοῦτο δὲ)" καὶ πρὸς Κλέαρχον, ὦ
᾿Αριστότελες, οὐκ ἀπιθάνως ἐδόκει λέγεσθαι τὸν
ὑμέτερον: ὑμέτερος γὰρ ἁνήρ," ᾿Αριστοτέλους"" τοῦ
παλαιοῦ γεγονὼς συνήθης, εἰ καὶ πολλὰ τοῦ
Περιπάτου παρέτρεψεν.᾽᾽
3. “YroAaBovros δὲ τοῦ ᾿Απολλωνίδου" τὸν λόγον
\ / Ss of / ~ / /
καὶ Tis ἦν ἡ δόξα τοῦ Κλεάρχου διαπυθομένου,
“παντὶ μᾶλλον ᾿᾿ ἔφην “ ἀγνοεῖν ἢ σοὶ προσῆκόν
ἐστι λόγον ὥσπερ ἀφ᾽ ἑστίας τῆς γεωμετρίας
E, B; Ἡγησιάναξ -Turnebus ; Ἑρμησιάναξ -Hartman.
E; μέσῃ -B. 3 Salmasius ; τὸ δ᾽ ἐρεύθει -E, B.
Turnebus ; περιόντα -E, B.
5 H.C.; πιέζει πάλιν -E, B; this sentence has been more
drastically altered by Wyttenbach, van Herwerden, Ber-
nardakis, and Adler.
6 Kepler, Wyttenbach, and implied by Amyot’s version ;
ἀλλήλων vac. 4- E, 8-B.
? Kepler, W yttenbach ; δια vac. 5-E, 8-B.
8 Bernardakis ; σχήματος vac. 7-E, B.
9 Bernardakis (ὁ ἀνήρ -Diibner) ; ἀνὴρ -Εἰ, Β.
10 Turnebus ; ὁ ἀριστοτέλης -E, Β. It is just possible that
ὁ ᾿ΔἈριστοτέλης was originally a marginal gloss on τοῦ παλαιοῦ.
38
ὮὩ τ μὶ
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 920
badly depicted by the words of Agesianax ¢ :
She gleams with fire encircled, but within
Bluer than lapis show a maiden’s eye
And dainty brow, a visage manifest.
In truth, the dark patches submerge beneath the
bright ones which they encompass and confine them,
being confined and curtailed by them in turn; and
they are thoroughly intertwined with each other (so
as to) make the (delineation) of the figure resemble
a painting. (This), Aristotle, seemed ὃ to be a point
not without cogency against your Clearchus ὁ also.
For the man is yours, since he was an associate of
the ancient Aristotle, although he did pervert many
doctrines of the School.” ¢
3. Apollonides broke in and inquired what the
opinion of Clearchus was. “‘ You are the last person,”
I said, “ who has any right not to know a theory of
which geometry is, as it were, the very hearth and
α Schmid (Christ-Schmid-Stahlin, Gesch. der griech.
Litteratur®, ii. 1, p. 164, n. 5) assumes that the verses here
quoted are from the astronomical poem of Hegesianax ; so
also Susemihl (Gesch. der griech. Litteratur in der Alex-
andrinerzeit, ii, p. 33, n. 19),.Schaefer (1... i. 795), and
Stahelin (1... vii. 2603. 59 ff.). Powell (Collectanea Alexan-
drina, Ὁ. 8) prints the verses as fragment 1 of the Phaenomena
of Hegesianax but observes that Cod. A Catalogi Interpretum
Arati gives ᾿Αγησιάναξ.
® i.e. in the earlier discussion which Lamprias is now re-
lating for Sulla’s benefit.
¢ Clearchus of Soli, pupil of Aristotle ; Wehrli, Die Schule
des Aristoteles, Heft IIL: Klearchos, frag. 97 (cf. A.J.P. Ixx
[1949], pp. 417-418).
4 For ὁ Περίπατος. “ἧ the Promenade,” used to designate the
school of Aristotle, cf. De Musica, 1131 τ, and “ the Peri-
patetics ” in Adv. Coloten, 1115 a-s, and Sulla, xxvi (468 8).
11 Editors (cf. 921 B) ; ἀπολλωνιάδου -E, B.
39
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
¢ / / \ ¢ \ 1 5» / > A
(920) ὁρμώμενον" λέγει yap ἁνὴρ' εἰκόνας ἐσοπτρικὰς
εἶναι καὶ εἴδωλα τῆς μεγάλης θαλάσσης ἐμφαινό-
921 μενα τῇ σελήνῃ τὸ καλούμενον πρόσωπον" ἥ τε γὰρ
ὄψις" ἀνακλωμένη πολλαχόθεν ἅπτεσθαι τῶν οὐ
κατ᾽ εὐθυωρίαν" δρωμένων πέφυκεν, ἢ τε πανσέλη-
νος αὐτὴ πάντων ἐσόπτρων ὁμαλότητι καὶ στιλ-
πνότητι κάλλιστόν ἐστι καὶ καθαρώτατον. ὥσπερ
> \ > 4 ” 3 ιν A > / a oe \
οὖν τὴν ipw)* οἴεσθ᾽ ὑμεῖς ἀνακλωμένης ἐπὶ τὸν
a ~ » , ~ ~ / / \
ἥλιον τῆς ὄψεως ἐνορᾶσθαι τῷ νέφει λαβόντι νοτερὰν
ἡσυχῇ λειότητα καὶ (πῆλξιν, οὕτως ἐκεῖνος ἐν-
Β ορᾶσθαι τῇ σελήνῃ τὴν ἔξω θάλασσαν οὐκ ἐφ᾽ ἧς
ἐστι χώρας ἀλλ᾽ ὅθεν ἡ κλάσις ἐποίησε τῇ ὄψει" τὴν
ἐπαφὴν αὐτῆς καὶ τὴν ἀνταύγειαν: ὥς που πάλιν ὁ
Diibner (“‘ vir ille ’’ -Kepler) ; ἀνὴρ -E, B.
Turnebus, Vulcobius, Kepler ; ἔτυς -E, B
E; κατευθυωρίαν -B.
Xylander, Turnebus ; τὴν 7 vac. 1-3-E (at end of line) ;
τὴν vac. 4-B.
5 Turnebus, Vulcobius (cf. Quaest. Conviv. 691 τ, Ama-
torius, 765 ©, and Aristotle’s Meteorology, 382 Ὁ 31 ff.) ; καὶ
vac. 2 éw -E, B.
6. Wyttenbach ; τὴν ὄψιν -E, B.
1
2
3
4
α Similar theories are referred to by Aétius, ii. 30. 1 (Dow.
Graeci, p. 361 b 10-13) =Stobaeus, Eelogae, i. 26. 4; Lucian,
Icaromenippus, § 20; Simplicius, De Caelo, p. 457. 15-16.
Such a theory is recorded and refuted by Ibn Al-Haitham,
the Arabic astronomer of the tenth and eleventh centuries (cf.
Schoy’s translation, pp. 1-2 and 5-6). Emperor Rudolph II
believed the spots on the moon to be the reflection of Italy
and the large Italian islands (cf. Kepler, Opera Omnia, ii,
p. 491 cited by Pixis, Kepler als Geograph, p. 102); and A.
von Humboldt (osmos, iii, p. 544 [Stuttgart, 1850]) tells of
a Persian from Ispahan who assured him that what we see
in the moon is the map of our earth (cf. Ebner, Geographische
Hinweise und Ankldnge in Plutarchs Schrift, de facie, p. 13,
n. 3):
40
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 920-921
home. The man, you see, asserts that what is called
the face consists of mirrored likenesses, that is images
of the great ocean reflected in the moon,’ for the
visual ray when reflected naturally reaches from many
points objects which are not directly visible and the
full moon is itself in uniformity and lustre ὃ the finest
and clearest of all mirrors. Just as you think, then,
that the reflection of the visual ray to the sun accounts
for the appearance of the (rainbow) in a cloud where
the moisture has become somewhat smooth and (con-
densed),° so Clearchus thought that the outer ocean
is seen in the moon, not in the place where it is but
in the place whence the visual ray has been deflected
to the ocean and the reflection of the ocean to us.
δ i.e. in the evenness and polish of its surface.
¢ For the rainbow as a reflection of the sun in the cloud
cf. De Iside, 358 τ, Amatorius, 765 E-F (where there is a
strong verbal similarity to the present passage), De Placitis,
894 c-F (=Aétius, 11]. 5, 3-10 and 11 [Dow. Graeci, pp. 372-
373]). According to Aétius, iii. 5. 11 (= De Placitis, 894 ¥F)
the theory was held by Anaxagoras (cf. frag. Β 19=ii, p. 41.
8-11 [Diels-Kranz]). It is developed by Aristotle in Meteoro-
logy, 111. 4, 373 a 32—375 Ὁ 15 (ef. Areius Didymus’s Epitome,
frag. 14= Dow. Graeci, p. 455. 14 ff., and Seneca, Vat. Quaest.
i. 3). Diogenes Laertius, vii. 152 cites Posidonius for the
definition ἔριν δ᾽ εἶναι. . . ws ΠΙἊοσειδώνιός φησιν. . . ἔμφασιν
ἡλίου τμήματος ἢ σελήνης ev νέφει δεδροσισμένῳ, κοίλῳ Kal
συνεχεῖ πρὸς φαντασίαν, ὡς ἐν κατόπτρῳ φανταζομένην κατὰ
κύκλου περιφέρειαν (cf. Seneca, Nat. Quaest. i. 5. 13); and
Adler (Diss. Phil. Vind. x, pp. 128-129) contends that Posi-
donius was Plutarch’s source for the formulation of the theory.
Plutarch’s οἴεσθ᾽ ὑμεῖς, however, addressed to Apollonides
must be intended to ascribe the theory generally to ‘* you
mathematicians ’’; and this is confirmed by the passage of
De Iside cited above, which reads: καὶ καθάπερ οἱ μαθηματικοὶ
τὴν ἶριν . .. λέγουσι... .. On the difference between the
theories of Aristotle and Posidonius cf. O. Gilbert, Die
meteorologischen Theorien des griechischen Altertums, pp.
614-616.
41
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(921) ᾿Αγησιάναξ εἴρηκεν
ἢ πόντου μέγα κῦμα καταντία κυμαίνοντος
δείκελον ἰνδάλλοιτο πυριφλεγέθοντος ἐσόπτρου.᾽᾽
4. ᾿Ησθεὶς" οὖν ὁ ᾿Απολλωνίδης “ὡς ἴδιον ᾿᾿ εἶπε
καὶ καινὸν ὅλως τὸ σκευώρημα τῆς δόξης, τόλμαν
δέ τινα καὶ μοῦσαν ἔχοντος ἀνδρός" ἀλλὰ πῇ τὸν
ἔλεγχον αὐτῷ προσῆγες; semis πρῶτον μὲν vi εἶπον
“ἢν μία φύσις τῆς ἔξω θαλάσσης ἐ ἐστί, σύρρουν καὶ
συνεχὲς (eav7@ )* πέλαγος, ἡ δ᾽ ἔμφασις οὐ μία
τῶν ἐν τῇ σελήνῃ μελασμάτων ἀλλ᾽ οἷον ἰσθμοὺς
σ ἔχουσα, τοῦ λαμπροῦ διαιροῦντος καὶ διορίζοντος
τὸ σκιερόν. ὅθεν ἑκάστου τόπου χωρισθέντος καὶ
πέρας ἴδιον ἔχοντος αἱ τῶν φωτεινῶν ἐπιβολαὶ τοῖς
σκοτεινοῖς ὕψους εἰκόνα καὶ βάθους" λαμβάνουσαι
τὰς περὶ τὰ ὄμματα καὶ τὰ χείλη εἰκόνας φαινο-
μένας ὁμοιότατα διετύπωσαν: ὥστ᾽ ἢ πλείονας ἔξω
θαλάσσας ὑποληπτέον ἰσθμοῖς τισι καὶ ἠπείροις
ἀπολαμβανομένας, ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἄτοπον καὶ ψεῦδος,
ἢ μιᾶς οὔσης οὐ πιθανὸν εἰκόνα διεσπασμένην οὕ-
τως ἐμφαίνεσθαι. ἐκεῖνο μὲν γὰρ ἐρωτᾶν ἀσφα-
λέστερόν ἐστιν ἢ ἀποφαίνεσθαι σοῦ παρόντος, εἶ,
τῆς οἰκουμένης εὖρος ἐχούσης" καὶ μῆκος, ξκϑόμεϑειι
D πᾶσαν ὡσαύτως ἀπὸ τῆς σελήνης ὄψιν ἀνακλω-
μένην ἐπιθιγγάνειν τῆς θαλάσσης καὶ τοῖς ἐν αὐτῇ
τῇ μεγάλῃ θαλάττῃ πλέουσι νὴ Δία καὶ οἰκοῦσιν,
1 E, B; ἡ -Emperius.
* Xylander ; πεισθεὶς -Εἰ, B.
3 Adler (Wiener Studien, xxxi [1909], p. 306, cf. Zwei
Beitrdge, etc., p. 7); : προσῆγε -E, Β.
WW, yttenbach ; : εἰ -Ἐ, B
6 Adler ; συνεχὲς vac. 5-E, B.
δ insous . . βάθους - “Leonicus ; udous . ,, βάθος -E, B.
q Leonicus ; ἴσης -K, B.
42
ce
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 921
So Agesianax again has somewhere said :
Or swell of ocean surging opposite
Be mirrored in a looking-glass of flame.”’ @
4. Apollonides was delighted. “ What an original
and absolutely novel contrivance the hypothesis is,”
he said, “ the work of a man of daring and culture ;
but how did you proceed to bring your counter-
argument against it? ”’ “ In the first place,” I said,
‘in that, although the outer ocean is a single thing,
a confluent and continuous sea,’ the dark spots in the
moon do not appear as one but as having something
like isthmuses between them, the brilliance dividing
and delimiting the shadow. Hence, since each part
is separated and has its own boundary, the layers
of light upon shadow,’ assuming the semblance of
height and depth, have produced a very close like-
ness of eyes and lips. Therefore, one must assume
the existence of several outer oceans separated by
isthmuses and mainlands, which is absurd and false ;
or, if the ocean is single, it is not plausible that its
reflected image be thus discontinuous. Tell me
whether—for in your presence it is safer to put this
as a question than as an assertion—whether it is
possible, though the inhabited world has length and
breadth, that every visual ray when reflected from
the moon should in like manner reach the ocean, even
the visual rays of those who are sailing in the great
ocean itself, yes and who dwell in it as the Britons
* Powell (Collectanea Alexandrina, p. 9) prints these
lines as fragment 2 of the Phaenomena of Hegesianax ; see
note a on p. 39 supra.
> Cf. Strabo, i. 1. 8 (i, p. 6. 4-7 [Meineke]).
¢ The language is that of painting ; cf. Lucian, Zeuwis, 5:
τῶν χρωμάτων ἀκριβῆ τὴν κρᾶσιν Kal εὔκαιρον THY ἐπιβολὴν
ποιήσασθαι.
48
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(921) ὥσπερ Βρεττανοῖς, καὶ ταῦτα μηδὲ τῆς γῆς, ws
pate, πρὸς τὴν σφαῖραν τῆς σελήνης κέντρου λόγον
ἐπεχούσης;" τουτὶ μὲν οὖν ἔφην “Ὧ σὸν ἔργον
ἐπισκοπεῖν τὴν δὲ πρὸς τὴν σελήνην ἢ {ζκαθόλουν"
τῆς ΤΈΩΣ κλάσιν οὐκέτι σὸν οὐδ᾽ “Ἱππάρχου:
καίτοι ἐφιλέργει ἁν(ὴρ)" ἀλλὰ πολλοῖς οὐκ
ἀρέσκει po aia loy@v περὶ τῆς ὄψεως αὐτῆς, <Hvy?
E ὁμοιοπαθῆ" κρᾶσιν ἴσχειν καὶ σύμπηξιν εἰκός ἐστι
μᾶλλον ἢ πληγάς τινας καὶ ἀποπηδήσεις οἵας
ἔπλαττε τῶν ἀτόμων ᾿Κπίκουρος. οὐκ ἐθελήσει
δέ, οἶμαι, τὴν “σελήνην ἐμβριθὲς ὑποθέσθαι σῶμα
καὶ στερεὸν ἡμῖν" ὁ Κλέαρχος ἀλλ᾽ ἄστρον αἰθέριον
καὶ φωσφόρον, ὥς φατε: τοιαύτῃ {δὲν" τὴν ὄψιν
1 Wyttenbach (implied in versions of Amyot and Kepler) ;
ἔφατε -E, B.
2 After ἐπεχούσης. E has a lacuna of 2 letter spaces.
3. H.C. (ef. Class. Phil. xlvi [1951], pp. 138-139) ; σελήνην ἢ
τῆς -E, Β ; σελήνην τῆς -Basiliensis.
21H. (95 (cf. Ptolemy, Syntaxis, iii. 1 [i. I, p. 191. 19-20,
Heiberg] : TO ἹἹππάρχῳ ἀνδρὶ φιλοπόνῳ τε ὁμοῦ καὶ φιλαλήθει) :
καίτοι γε φίλε πρίαμ vac. 2-EK, 3-B ; καίτοι γε φιλοπράγμων ἁ ἁνήρ
-Pohlenz (Phil. Woch. xxxii [1912], pp. 649-650); καίτοι γ᾽
copetre προτιμᾶσθαι -Apelt (Jena, 1905).
5 Wyttenbach : αὐτὴν -E, B.
6 Adler, Zwei Beitr dge, Ὁ. 8 (cf. De FE, 390 8, De Defectu,
433 Ὁ: Plato, Timaeus, 45 α: so in Quaest. Conviv. 626 Ὁ
read ὁμοιοπαθῆ with Bernardakis instead of Hubert’s ὁμοπαθῆ):
ὁμοπαθῆ -E, B.
7 H.C. ; ὑμῖν -E, B, and all editors, though the versions of
Xylander, Kepler, and Wyttenbach have “ἡ nobis ”’ and that
of Amyot has “ nous.”
8 Wyttenbach ; τοιαύτη τὴν ὄψιν -E, B; τοιαύτην τὴν ὄψιν
-Basiliensis.
* i.e. “ὁ you mathematicians’; see οἴεσθ᾽ ὑμεῖς in 921 A
supra. The reference is to the eccentrics of Hipparchus’s
theory of the motion of the moon, For defence of the text
41
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 921
do, and that too even though the earth, as you say,*
does not have the relation of centre to the orbit of
the moon. Well, this,” I said, “ it is your business
to consider; but the reflection of vision either in
respect to the moon or (in general) is beyond your
province and that of Hipparchus too.? Although
Hipparchus was industrious, still many find him un-
satisfactory in his explanation of the nature of vision
itself, (which) is more likely to involve a sympa-
thetic compound and fusion ° than any impacts and
rebounds such as those of the atoms that Epicurus
invented.?2 Moreover, Clearchus, I think, would
refuse to assume with us that the moon is a body of
weight and solidity instead of an ethereal and lumini-
ferous star as you say ®; (and) such a moon ought
and a detailed interpretation of this sentence cf. Class. Phil.
xlvi (1951), pp. 137-138.
ὃ Because Hipparchus was a mathematician and not a
physicist (φυσιολόγος) : on the difference cf. Geminus in
Simplicius, Phys. pp. 291. 23-292. 29, and the phrase, διὰ
τὸ μὴ ἐφωδιάσθαι ἀπὸ φυσιολογίας, which Theon of Smyrna
(p. 188. 19-20) uses of Hipparchus.
¢ Plato’s theory; cf. Timaeus, 45 c and De Placitis, 901
B-c= Aétius, iv. 13. 11 (Dow. Graeci, p. 404).
4 Cf. Adv. Coloten, 1112 c and De Placitis, 901 a-B=
Aétius, iv. 13. 1 (Dow. Graeci, p. 403. 2-4). The present
passage seems to imply that Hipparchus’s explanation of
vision resembled that of Epicurus. In De Placitis, 901 B=
Aétius, iv. 13. 9 (Dox. Graeci, p. 404) a theory of vision is
attributed to Hipparchus, however, which does not at all
resemble that of the atomists; but the name Hipparchus
there is probably a mistake, cf. Class. Phil. xlvi (1951), p. 154,
τί. Ὁ:
ὁ Lamprias addresses Apollonides and Aristotle, for that
the moon is an ethereal and luminiferous star is the Peri-
patetic theory (cf. the statement of Aristotle at 928 πὶ infra
and the references in the note there) and that is why it is
ascribed to Clearchus. Obviously then ὑμῖν of the mss. must
45
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(921) [ἢ] θραύειν' προσήκει καὶ ἀποστρέφειν, ὥστ᾽ ol-
χεσθαι τὴν ἀνάκλασιν. εἰ δὲ παραιτεῖταί" τις ἡμᾶς,
ἐρησόμεθα" πῶς μόνον πρόσωπόν ἐστιν ἐν τῇ σε-
λήνῃ τὸ τῆς θαλάσσης ἔσοπτρον ἄλλῳ δ᾽ οὐδενὶ
τῶν τοσούτων ἀστέρων ἐνορᾶται" καίτοι τό Y.
εἰκὸς ἀπαιτεῖ πρὸς ἅπαντας ἢ πρὸς μηδένα τοῦτο"
F πάσχειν τὴν ὄψιν. ἀλλ᾽ (ἐάσωμεν ταῦτα, καὶ
σύ, )" πρὸς τὸν Λεύκιον ἔφην" ἀποβλέψας, “‘ ὃ
πρῶτον ἐλέχθη τῶν ἡμετέρων ὑπόμνησον.᾽
5. Καὶ ὁ Λεύκιος “᾿ ἀλλὰ μὴ δόξωμεν ᾿᾿ ἔφη
᾿ κομιδῇ προπηλακίζειν τὸν Φαρνάκην οὕτω τὴν
Στωικὴν δόξαν ἀπροσαύδητον ὑπερβαίνοντες, εἰπὲ
δή τι πρὸς τὸν ἄνδρα πάντως, ἀέρος μῖγμα καὶ
μαλακοῦ πυρὸς ὑποτιθέμενον τὴν σελήνην εἶθ᾽ οἷον
ἐν γαλήνῃ φρίκης ὑποτρεχούσης φάσκοντα τοῦ
ἀέρος διαμελαίνοντος ἔμφασιν γίγνεσθαι μορ-
=
φοειδῆ.᾽ C μάλαλν" χρηστῶς γ᾽ εἶπον ᾿ ὦ
Λεύκιε, τὴν" ἀτοπίαν εὐφήμοις περιαμπέχεις ὀνό-
μασιν: οὐχ οὕτως" δ᾽ ὁ ἑταῖρος ἡμῶν," ἀλλ᾽ ὅπερ
1 Turnebus, Vulcobius ; ἢ θραῦσιν -Ἰὰ, B.
2 Wyttenbach : προσδεῖταί -E, B.
8 Wyttenbach after the versions of Amyot and Xylander ;
χρησόμεθα -E, B. 4 E 3 τούτων -B.
5 Adler; ἀλλ vac. 16-E, 19-B.
ὁ Wyttenbach ; ἐφ᾽ ὧν -E, B; εἶπον -Turnebus.
7 -Anon., Aldine, R.J. 94, printed by Wyttenbach without
note; παντὸς -E, B: πα(γέ)ντος -Pohlenz (Die Stoa, ii, p.
8 Adler ; μορφοειδῆ. vac. 5-E (at end of line), 4-B.
9. B; Λεύκιε vac. 3-E.
10 EF; οὕτω -B. 11 Aldine, Basiliensis ; ὑμῶν -E, B.
be an error and should be changed to ἡμῖν, for that the moon
is a body with weight and solidity is the opinion of the
Academy, i.e. of Lamprias, Lucius, and their circle (cf. 996 ο,
928 c, 931 B-c infra).
46
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 921
to shatter and divert the visual ray so that reflection
would be out of the question. But if anyone dismisses
our objections, we shall ask how it is that the reflec-
tion of the ocean exists as a face only in the moon
and is seen in none of all the many other stars,
although reason requires that all or none of them
should affect the visual ray in this fashion. But
(let us have done with this; and do you),” I said
with a glance at Lucius, “ recall to me what part of
our position was stated first.”’
5. Whereat Lucius said: “ Nay, lest we give the
impression of flatly insulting Pharnaces by thus
passing over the Stoic opinion unnoticed, do now by
all means address some remark to the gentleman
who, supposing the moon to be a mixture of air and
gentle fire, then says that what appears to be a figure
is the result of the blackening of the air as when in a
calm water there runs a ripple under the surface.” α
" You are (very) nice, Lucius,’’ I said, “ to dress up
the absurdity in respectable language. Not so our
« Von Arnim (S.V.F. ii, p. 198) prints this and some of
the subsequent sentences as frag. 673 among the Physical
Fragments of Chrysippus. For the Stoic doctrine that the
moon is a mixture of air and fire cf. De Placitis, 891 Β and
892 B (= Aétius, li. 25. 5 [Dow Graeci, p. 356] and ii, 30. 5
[ Dow. CGraeci, p. 361]),and 3. V.F. ii, p. 136. 32. The “ gentle
fire ” here mentioned is the πῦρ τεχνικόν aS iP ea from
destructive fire (cf. S.V.F. i, p. 34. 22-97 and ii, p. 200.
14-16). For the Stoic explanation of the face in the moon
cf. S.V.F. ii, p. 199. 3-5 (=Philo Judaeus, De Somniis, i,
§ 145); and for the simile of the ripple ef. Iliad, vii. 63- 64.
47
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(921) ἀληθὲς ἦν ἔλεγεν, ὑπωπιάζειν' αὐτοὺς τὴν σελήνην
922 σπίλων καὶ μελασμῶν ἀναπιμπλάντας, ὁμοῦ μὲν
Ἄρτεμιν καὶ ᾿Αθηνᾶν ἀνακαλοῦντας ὁμοῦ δὲ σύμ-
μιγμαῦ καὶ φύραμα ποιοῦντας ἀέρος ζοφεροῦ καὶ
\ 5 / > ” ” 3 >
πυρὸς ἀνθρακώδους, οὐκ ἔχουσαν ἔξαψιν οὐδ
αὐγὴν οἰκείαν, ἀλλὰ δυσκρινές τι σῶμα τυφόμενον
ἀεὶ καὶ πυρίκαυστον ὥσπερ τῶν κεραυνῶν τοὺς
ἀλαμπεῖς καὶ ψολόεντας ὑπὸ τῶν ποιητῶν προσα-
γορευομένους. ὅτι μέντοι πῦρ ἀνθρακῶδες, οἷον
= ~ ~ \
οὗτοι TO τῆς σελήνης ποιοῦσιν, οὐκ ἔχει διαμονὴν
οὐδὲ σύστασιν ὅλως ἐὰν μὴ στερεᾶς ὕλης καὶ στε-
/ “ \ / > / /
B yovons ἅμα Kat τρεφούσης ἐπιλάβηται βέλτιον
οἶμαι συνορᾶν ἐνίων φιλοσόφων τοὺς ἐν παιδιᾷ
/ \ “ 5». - \ “ \ ~
λέγοντας τὸν “Ἥφαιστον εἰρῆσθαι χωλὸν ὅτι τὸ πῦρ
ξύλου χωρὶς ὥσπερ οἱ χωλοὶ βακτηρίας οὐ πρόεισιν.
εἰ οὖν ἡ σελήνη πῦρ ἐστι, πόθεν αὐτῇ τοσοῦτος
ἐγγέγονεν ἀήρ; ὁ γὰρ ἄνω καὶ κύκλῳ φερόμενος
/
οὑτοσὶ τόπος οὐκ ἀέρος ἀλλὰ κρείττονος οὐσίας
εἰ Ψ
καὶ πάντα λεπτύνειν καὶ συνεξάπτειν φύσιν ἐχούσης
> / Ψ > ᾽ / 3 ~ > ” LAA
ἐστίν: εἰ δ᾽ ἐγγέγονε," πῶς οὐκ οἴχεται μεταβάλλων
1 Basiliensis, Turnebus ; ὑποπιέζειν -E, B.
2 Stephanus (1624) ; σύμμιγα -E, B.
3 -Anon., Aldine, R.J.94; δὲ γέγονε -E, B.
2 See 929 w and 929 r infra. This comrade was the leader
of the earlier discussion, which is here being recapitulated,
and is probably to be identified with Plutarch himself (so
Hirzel, Der Dialog, ii, p.184, n.2, and Hartman, De Plutarcho,
p. 557); of. De Tuenda Sanitate, 122 ¥ for a similar situation
and Quaest. Conviv. 643 c, where Hagias addresses Plutarch
as “* comrade.”
> Of. 8. VF. ii, p. 212. 38-39 (Chrysippus), iii, p. 217. 12-13
(Diogenes of Babylon); in general Quaest. Conviv. 658 r—
659 a, and Roscher, Uber Selene und Verwandtes, p. 116.
48
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 921-922
comrade“; but he said what is true, that they
blacken the Moon’s eye defiling her with blemishes
and bruises, at one and the same time addressing her
as Artemis ὃ and Athena © and making her a mass
compounded of murky air and smouldering fire
neither kindling nor shining of herself, an indis-
criminate kind of body, forever charred and smoking
like the thunderbolts that are darkling and by the
poets called lurid.¢ Yet a smouldering fire, such as
they suppose that of the moon to be, cannot persist
or subsist at all unless it get solid fuel that shelters
and at the same time nourishes it ὁ ; this some philo-
sophers, I believe, see less clearly than do those who
say in jest that Hephaestus is said to be lame because
fire without wood, like the lame without a stick,
makes no progress.’ If the moon really is fire, whence
came so much air init? For the region that we see
revolving above us is the place not of air but of a
superior substance, the nature of which is to rarefy all
things and set them δῆτε ; and, if air did come to be
there, why has it not been etherealized by the fire 2
¢ Of. 938 B infra. In De Iside, 354 c Isis, who later is
identified with the moon (372 Ὁ), is identified with Athena
(cf. 376 a). Cf. Roscher, op. cit. pp. 123 f. (on the supposed
fragment of Aristotle there cited see V. Rose, Aristoteles
Pseudepigraphus, pp. 616 (no. 4] and 617).
4 Cf. Odyssey, xxiii. 330 and xxiv. 539 ; Hesiod, Theogony,
515; Pindar, Nemean, x. 71; Aristotle, Meteorology, 371 a
17-24. ἐ See 934 B-c infra.
* Cf. Cornutus, chap. 18 (p. 33. 18-22 Lang); Heracliti
Quaestiones Homericae, § 26 (p. 41. 2-6 Oelmann).
9 Cf. S.V.F. ii, p. 184. 2-5: . . . ἐξαιθεροθσθαὶ mavra...
εἰς πῦρ αἰθερῶδες ἀναλυομένων πάντων. ‘The “ ether ”’ here is
Stoic ether, i.e. a kind of fire (ef. De Primo Frigido, 951 c-p
and note d on 928 p infra), not Aristotle’s “ fifth essence,”
which does not enter into the process of the alteration of
simple bodies.
49
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(922) εἰς ἕτερον εἶδος ὑπὸ τοῦ πυρὸς ἐξαιθερωθεὶς ἀλλὰ
σῴζεται καὶ συνοικεῖ πυρὶ τοσοῦτον χρόνον ὥσπερ
5 ~ ~
ἥλοις apapws ἀεὶ Tots αὐτοῖς" μέρεσι Kal ovy-
γεγομφωμένος; ἀραιῷ μὲν yap ὄντι καὶ συγ-
/ \ / 5 \ 7ὔ] ᾽ὔ
Ο κεχυμένῳ μὴ μένειν ἀλλὰ σφάλλεσθαι προσήκει
συμπεπηγέναι δ᾽ οὐ δυνατὸν ἀναμεμιγμένον πυρὶ
καὶ μήθ᾽ ὑγροῦ μετέχοντα μήτε γῆς, οἷς μόνοις
ἀὴρ συμπήγνυσθαι πέφυκεν. ἡ δὲ ῥύμη καὶ τὸν
? , 27 \ \ > A / 3
ἐν λίθοις ἀέρα Kai Tov ev ψυχρῷ μολίβδῳ" συνεκ-
κάει, μή Tl γε δὴ τὸν ἐν πυρὶ δινουμένῳ μετὰ
τάχους τοσούτου. καὶ γὰρ ᾿Εμπεδοκλεῖ δυσκο-
λαίνουσι πάγον ἀέρος χαλαζώδη ποιοῦντι τὴν σε-
λήνην ὑπὸ τῆς τοῦ πυρὸς σφαίρας περιεχόμενον
αὐτοὶ δὲ τὴν σελήνην σφαῖραν οὖσαν πυρὸς ἀέρα
φασὶν ἄλλον ἄλλῃ διεσπασμένον περιέχειν καὶ ταῦτα
/ evs ΕΣ ᾽ ες ~~ / / \
D μήτε ῥήξεις ἔχουσαν ev ἑαυτῇ μήτε βάθη καὶ
¢) ¢ ~
κοιλότητας, ἅπερ οἱ γεώδη ποιοῦντες ἀπολείπουσιν,
ἀλλ᾽ ἐπιπολῆς δηλονότι τῇ κυρτότητι ἐπικείμενον.
τοῦτο δ᾽ ἐστὶ καὶ πρὸς διαμονὴν ἄλογον καὶ πρὸς
θέαν ἀδύνατον ἐν ταῖς πανσελήνοις" διωρίσθαι γὰρ
, ” / \ \ LA 5 » ~
οὐκ ἔδει μέλανα καὶ σκιερὸν ἀλλ᾽ ἁμαυροῦσθαι
κρυπτόμενον ἢ συνεκλάμπειν ὑπὸ τοῦ ἡλίου κατα-
~ / A \ > ¢ an
λαμβανομένης THs σελήνης. καὶ yap παρ᾽ ἡμῖν
1 H.C. (cf. Class. Phil. xlvi [1951], Ὁ. 139); ἦλος -E, B.
TEA
2 ἘΣ; τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἀεὶ -B.
3 EE; μολββδω (1.6. μολύβδῳ) -B.
4 Τὶ ; μή τοί -Β. 5 Emperius ; διορίσασθαι -E, B.
« Of. De Primo Frigido, 951 τ, 952 B, 953 D—954 a: but
the Stoic opinion given in 949 8 (=S.V.F. ii, p. 142. 6-10)
was that solidification (πῆξις) is a state produced in water by
air, and Galen reports (δ. V.F’. ii, p. 145. 8-11) that according
50
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 922
and in this transformation disappeared but instead
has been preserved as a housemate of fire this long
time, as if nails had fixed it forever to the same
spots and riveted it together? Air is tenuous and
without configuration, and so it naturally slips and
does not stay in place; and it cannot have be-
come solidified if it is commingled with fire and
partakes neither of moisture nor of earth by which
alone air can be solidified.* Moreover, velocity
ignites the air in stones and in cold lead, not to speak
of the air enclosed in fire that is whirling about with
such great speed.?”. Why, they are vexed by Em-
pedocles because he represents the moon to be a
hail-like congelation of air encompassed by the sphere
of fire °; but they themselves say that the moon is
a sphere of fire containing air dispersed about it here
and there, and a sphere moreover that has neither
clefts nor depths and hollows, such as are allowed
by those who make it an earthy body, but has the
air evidently resting upon its convex surface. That
it should so remain is both contrary to reason and
impossible to square with what is observed when the
moon is full. On that assumption there should have
been no distinction of dark and shadowy air; but
all the air should become dark when occulted, or
when the moon is caught by the sun it should all
shine out with an even light. For with us too, while
to the Stoics the hardness and resistance of earth are caused
by fire and air.
ὃ Cf. Aristotle, De Caelo, 289 a 19-32, Meteorology, 341 a
17-19 ; Ideler, Avistotelis Meteorologica, i, pp. 359-360.
¢ Empedocles, A 60 (i, p. 294, 24-31 [Diels-Kranz]); ef.
[Plutarch], Stromat. § 10= Doz. Graeci, p. 582. 12-15=i,
p. 288. 30-32 (Diels-Kranz); and C. E. Millard, On the
Interpretation of Empedocles, pp. 65-68.
51
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(922) ὁ μὲν ἐν βάθεσι καὶ κοιλώμασι τῆς γῆς, οὗ μὴ
τώ αὐγή,' διαμένει" σκιώδης καὶ ἀφώτιστος ὁ
δ᾽ ἔξωθεν τῇ γῇ περικεχυμένος φέγγος ἴσχει καὶ
χρόαν αὐγοειδῆ: πρὸς πᾶσαν μὲν γάρ ἐστι ποιότητα
E καὶ δύναμιν εὐκέραστος ὑπὸ μανότητος μάλιστα δὲ
φωτὸς ἂν ἐπιψαύσῃ μόνον, ὥς φατε, καὶ θίγῃ δι᾿
ὅλου τρεπόμενος ἐκφωτίζεται. ταὐτὸν" οὖν τοῦτο
καὶ τοῖς εἰς βάθη τινὰ καὶ φάραγγας συνωθοῦσιν
ἐν τῇ σελήνῃ τὸν ἀέρα παγκάλως" ἔοικε βοηθεῖν
ὑμᾶς τε διεξελέγχει τοὺς ἐξ ἀέρος καὶ πυρὸς οὐκ
οἶδ᾽ ὅπως μιγνύντας αὐτῆς καὶ συναρμόζοντας τὴν
σφαῖραν: οὐ “γὰρ οἷόν τε λείπεσθαι σκιὰν ἐπὶ τῆς
ἐπιφανείας. ὅταν ὁ ἥλιος ἐπιλάμπῃ τῷ φωτὶ πᾶν
F ὁπόσον καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀποτεμνόμεθα τῇ ὄψει τῆς σε-
λήνης.᾽
6. Καὶ ὁ Φαρνάκης ἔτι μου λέγοντος “ τοῦτ᾽
ἐκεῖνο πάλιν ᾿᾿ εἶπεν “ ἐφ’ ἡμᾶς ἀφῖκται τὸ περί-
ακτον ἐκ τῆς ᾿Ακαδημείας"" ἐν τῷ πρὸς ἑτέρους
λέγειν διατρίβοντας ἑκάστοτε μὴ παρέχειν ἔλεγχον
ὧν αὐτοὶ λέγουσιν ἀλλ᾽ ἀπολογουμένοις δεῖ" χρῆ-
1 Stephanus (1624), cf. 999 π infra ; αὕτη -E, B.
2 Stephanus (implied by versions of Amyot and pipet ἀρλι
διαμελαίνει -E, Β. 3 Benseler ; ταὐτὸ -E,
4° W yttenbach ; : κἂν καλῶς -E, B.
5 Diibner ; ἀκαδημίας -E, B.
6 K, B; ἀεὶ -Wyttenbach (implied by Amyot’s version).
* Chrysippus, frag. 570 (S.V.F. ii, p 178. 20-2 2), cf. De
Primo Frigido, 952 τ. With the w Ἣν ws φατε Lamprias
addresses Pharnaces as representative of the Stoics, for whose
doctrine of the instantaneous alteration of air by light see
930 F infra and the references there ; oS. especially κατὰ
νύξιν ἢ ψαῦσιν there with ἂν ἐπιψαύσῃ μόνον, ὥς φατε, here.
Aristotle originated the doctrine that the transparent medium
is altered instantaneously throughout its whole extent by
52
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 922
the air in the depths and hollows of the earth, wher-
ever the sun’s rays do not penetrate, remains shadowy
and unlit, that which suffuses the earth outside takes
on brilliance and a luminous colour. The reason is
that air, because of its subtility, is delicately attuned
to every quality and influence ; and, especially if it
touches light or, to use your phrase, merely is tangent
to it, it is altered through and through and entirely
illuminated.? So this same point seems right hand-
somely to re-enforce those who pack the air on the
moon into depths of some kind and chasms, even as
it utterly refutes you who make her globe an unin-
telligible mixture or compound of air and fire—for
it is not possible ὃ that a shadow remain upon the
surface when the sun casts his light upon all of the
moon that is within the compass of our vision.”’
6. Even while I was still speaking Pharnaces spoke :
“ Here we are faced again with that stock manceuvre
of the Academy “ : on each occasion that they engage
in discourse with others they will not offer any
accounting of their own assertions but must keep
the mere presence of light at any point (cf. De Sensu, 446 Ὁ
27—447 a 10 and De Anima, 418 Ὁ 9 ff.).
> i.e. on the Stoic theory.
¢ The word τὸ zepiaxrov occurs in Comp. Lys. Sulla, iii,
476 ©, where it seems to mean “ the old saw,” though it may
refer to a proverbial state of “* inside out and wrong side to.”
In De Gloria Atheniensium, 348 © Plutarch mentions μηχανὰς
ἀπὸ σκηνῆς περιάκτους, but that rather tells against taking
τὸ περίακτον as the name of this stage-machine. He uses
περιαγωγή in De Genio Socratis, 588 τὸ in the sense of “ dis-
traction’ and in Praecepta Gerendae Reipublicae, 819 a in
the sense of ‘*‘ a trick of diversion,’’ a sense which certainly
suits τὸ περίακτον in the present context. The complaint of
Pharnaces is frequently made by the interlocutors of Socrates ;
cf. Xenophon, Memorabilia, iv, 4.9; Plato, Republic, 336 c¢ ;
Aristotle, Soph. Elench. 183 b 6-8.
53
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(922) σθαι μὴ κατηγορῶσιν' Cols)* ἂν ἐντυγχάνωσιν.
> \ > > > > / 7 > \ /
ἐμὲ δ᾽ οὖν οὐκ ἐξάξεσθε τήμερον εἰς TO διδόναι
λόγον ὧν ἐπικαλεῖτε τοῖς Στωικοῖς, πρὶν εὐθύνας
λαβεῖν παρ᾽ ὑμῶν ἄνω τὰ κάτω τοῦ κόσμου ποιούν-
}) \ ¢€ / “ ce / }) >
των. Kat ὃ Λεύκιος γελάσας “᾿ μόνον ᾿᾿ εἶπεν
cL. / \ / ¢ A > / > /
923 “ὦ τάν, μὴ κρίσιν ἡμῖν ἀσεβείας ἐπαγγείλῃς,
“ > / ” = , an ἢ ,
ὥσπερ Apiorapyov ᾧετο δεῖν Κλεάνθης" τὸν Σάμιον
> / με 4 2 -¢ ε “
ἀσεβείας προσκαλεῖσθαι" τοὺς “EAAnvas ὡς κινοῦντα
τοῦ κόσμου τὴν ἑστίαν ὅτι {τὰ " φαινόμενα σῴζειν
ἁνὴρ" ἐπειρᾶτο μένειν τὸν οὐρανὸν ὑποτιθέμενος
3 / \ \ ~ / \ ~ “
ἐξελίττεσθαι δὲ κατὰ λοξοῦ κύκλου τὴν γῆν ἅμα
καὶ περὶ τὸν αὑτῆς ἄξονα δινουμένην. ἡμεῖς μὲν
οὖν οὐδὲν αὐτοὶ παρ᾽ αὑτῶν λέγομεν, of δὲ γῆν
¢ / \ / “8ι / / ~
ὑποτιθέμενοι τὴν σελήνην, ὦ βέλτιστε, τί μᾶλλον
ὑμῶν, ἄνω τὰ κάτω ποιοῦσι τὴν γῆν ἱδρυόντων
ἐνταῦθα μετέωρον ἐν τῷ ἀέρι, πολλῷ τινι μείζονα
τῆς σελήνης οὖσαν ὡς ἐν τοῖς ἐκλειπτικοῖς πάθεσιν
Β οἱ μαθηματικοὶ καὶ ταῖς διὰ τοῦ σκιάσματος παρ-
ὄδοις τῇ ἐποχῇ τὸ μέγεθος ἀναμετροῦσιν; ἥ τε
1 H.C.; κατηγοροῦσιν -Ε, B.
2 Bernardakis.
3 Ménage; ἀρίσταρχος. . . κλεάνθη -E, B.
4 Emperius (cf. 925 p infra); προκαλεῖσθαι -E, B.
5 Diibner.
ὁ Diibner ; ἀνὴρ -E, B.
7 Xylander (cf. 923 πὶ infra: φατε ὑμεῖς) : ἡμῶν -E, B.
8 W. L. Bevan ; τῆς ἐποχῆς -E, B.
4.20, VFL iy pe 112, frag. 6008 sthe miley Sateen
Aristarchus,”’ appears in the list of Cleanthes’ writings given
by Diogenes Laertius, vii. 174. For the theory of Aristarchus
cf. Plutarch, Plat. Quaest. 1006 c; De Placitis 891 a=
Aétius, ii. 24. 8 (Dox. Graeci, p. 355) ; Archimedes, Arenarius,
54
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 922-923
their interlocutors on the defensive lest they become
the prosecutors. Well, me you will not to-day entice
into defending the Stoics against your charges until
I have called you people to account for turning the
universe upside down.” ‘Thereupon Lucius laughed
and said: “ Oh, sir, just don’t bring suit against us
for impiety as Cleanthes thought that the Greeks
ought to lay an action for impiety against Aristarchus
the Samian on the ground that he was disturbing the
hearth of the universe because he sought to save (the)
phenomena by assuming that the heaven is at rest
while the earth is revolving along the ecliptic and
at the same time is rotating about its own axis.®
We ὃ express no opinion of our own now ; but those
who suppose that the moon is earth, why do they,
my dear sir, turn things upside down any more than
you © do who station the earth here suspended in the
air? Yet the earth is a great deal larger than the
moon @ according to the mathematicians who during
the occurrences of eclipses and the transits of the
moon through the shadow calculate her magnitude
by the length of time that she is obscured.’ For the
i. 1. 4-7 (Opera Omnia. ii, p. 218 Heiberg) ; Sextus Empiricus,
aut x. 174; T. L. Heath, Aristarchus of Samos, pp.
301 ff.
δ i.e. we Academics, the party which did in fact maintain
that the moon is an earthy body.
¢ i.e. you Stoics ; cf. Achilles, Isagogé, 4=S.V.F. ii, frag.
555; p. 175. 36 ff.
4 This would not have been admitted by most of the Stoics,
who thought that the moon is larger than the earth; but in
this Posidonius and possibly others disagreed with the earlier
members of the school; cf. Aétius, ii. 26. 1 (Dox. Graeci, Ὁ.
357 and p. 68, n. 1),and M. Adler, Diss. Phil. Vind. x (1910),
alo
e Cf. Cleomedes, ii. 1, § 80 (p. 146. 18 ff. Ziegler) ; Sim-
plicius, De Caelo, p. 471. 6-11.
55
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(923) yap σκιὰ τῆς γῆς ἐλάττων' ὑπὸ μείζονος τοῦ φω-
/ > / \ ~ ~ aay ΠΣ \ Ἃ
τίζοντος ἀνατείνει καὶ τῆς σκιᾶς αὐτῆς λεπτὸν ὃν
τὸ ἄνω καὶ στενὸν οὐδ᾽ Ὅμηρον, ὥς φασιν,
ἔλαθεν, ἀλλὰ τὴν νύκτα ᾿ θοὴν ᾿ ὀξύτητι τῆς σκιᾶς
/ ς \ / > “ ς /
προσηγόρευσεν: ὑπὸ τούτου δ᾽ ὅμως ἁλισκομένη
A > / e / \ / A “πὰς Ὁ
ταῖς ἐκλείψεσιν ἡ σελήνη τρισὶ μόλις τοῖς αὑτῆς
/ > / / \ ’ « ~
μεγέθεσιν ἀπαλλάττεται. σκόπει δὴ πόσων ἡ γῆ
A > > \ > yr 5 ΄
σεληνῶν ἐστιν, εἰ σκιὰν ἀφίησιν 7° βραχυτάτη
/ / > > “ «ε \ ~ /
πλάτος τρισέληνον. ἀλλ᾽ ὅμως ὑπὲρ τῆς σελήνης
\ / / \ \ ~ ~ ” > /
μὴ πέσῃ δεδοίκατε περὶ δὲ τῆς γῆς ἴσως Αἰσχύλος
1B; ἐλάττω -E.
2 Turnebus ; ὄντα -E, B.
3 Xylander ; ὥς φησὶν -E, B.
4 Stephanus (1624) ; αὐτῆς -E, B.
5 -Anon., Aldine, R.J. 94; ἡ -E, B.
2 Cf. Cleomedes, ii. 2. 88 93-94 (p. 170. 11 ff. Ziegler) ;
Theon of Smyrna, p. 197. 1 ff. (Hiller); Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii.
11 (8), 51. .
> Cf. De Defectu Oraculorum, 410 pv. Homer uses the
phrase 607) νύξ frequently (e.g. liad, x. 394 [ef. Leaf’s note
ad loc.|, Odyssey, xii. 284). Another θοός, supposedly meaning
“ἢ pointed,” “‘ sharp’ and cognate with ἐθόωσα in Odyssey,
ix. 327, is used of certain islands in Odyssey, xv. 299 (ef.
Strabo, viii. 350-351; Pseudo-Plutarch, De Vita et Poesi
Homeri, 8, 21 [vii, p. 347. 19 ff. Bernardakis]). The latter
passage so understood was used to support the hypothesis
that 607 νύξ referred to the ‘“ sharpness’”’ of the earth’s
shadow: cf. Heracliti Quaestiones Homericae, §§ 45-46 (p.
67. 13 ff. Oelmann). Eustathius (Comment. ad Iliadem, 814.
15 ff.) mentions besides this another astronomical inter-
pretation of the phrase by Crates of Mallos.
¢ For this temporal dative without ἐν cf. Theon of Smyrna,
p. 194. 1-3 (Hiller).
56
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 923
shadow of the earth grows smaller the further it
extends, because the body that casts the light is
larger than the earth®; and that the upper part of
the shadow itself is taper and narrow was recognized,
as they say, even by Homer, who called night
‘nimble ᾿ because of the ἡ sharpness ’ of the shadow.?
Yet captured by this part in eclipses ὁ the moon
barely escapes from it in a space thrice her own
magnitude. Consider then how many times as large
as the moon the earth is, if the earth casts a shadow
which at its narrowest is thrice as broad as the moon.?
All the same, you fear for the moon lest it fall ;
whereas concerning the earth perhaps Aeschylus has
4 Cf. De An. Proc. in Timaeo, 1028 vp where Plutarch
ascribes to geometers the approximate calculation of three
to one as the ratio of the earth’s diameter to that of the moon
and of twelve to one as the ratio of the sun’s diameter to that
of the earth, figures which agree roughly with those of Hip-
parchus (t:1:s=1.4.124; cf. Heath, <Aristarchus of
Samos, pp. 342 and 350 after Hultsch). Hipparchus, how-
ever, considered the breadth of the shadow at the moon’s
mean distance from the earth in eclipses to be 24 lunar
diameters (Ptolemy, Syntazis, iv. 9 [i, p. 327. 1-4 Heiberg]),
while Aristarchus, whose calculations of the moon’s diameter
Plutarch quotes at 932 B infra, declared the shadow to be
2 lunar diameters in breadth (cf. Aristarchus, Hypothesis 5
[Heath, op. cit. p. 352. 13]; Pappus, Collectionis Quae
Supersunt, ii, p. 554. 17-18 and p. 556. 14-17 [Hultsch]), the
figure given by Cleomedes as well (pp. 146. 18-19 and 178.
8-13 [Ziegler] ; cf. Geminus, Hlementa, ed. Manitius, p. 272).
Plutarch may here simply have assumed that the ratio of
the lunar diameter to the breadth of the shadow would be the
same as the Hipparchean ratio of the lunar diameter to the
diameter of the earth; but he may also have erroneously
supposed that the time taken by the moon to enter the shadow,
the time of complete obscuration, and the time taken to leave
the shadow equal three diameters instead of two (cf. Cleo-
medes, p. 146. 21-25 [Ziegler] and M. Adler, Diss. Phil. Vind.
x [1910], p. 156, n. 2).
57
(923)
0
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
ὑμᾶς" πέπεικεν ws ὁ ΓΑτλας
ἕστηκε, Kilov’ οὐρανοῦ τε καὶ χθονὸς
” > / » > δι 4
ὥμοις ἐρείδων, ἄχθος οὐκ εὐάγκαλον.
oh τῇ μὲν σελήνῃ κοῦφος a ἀὴρ ὑποτρέχει καὶ στερεὸν
ὄγκον οὐκ ἐχέγγυος ἐνεγκεῖν τὴν δὲ γῆν κατὰ
Πίνδαρον ᾿ ἀδαμαντοπέδιλοι κίονες ᾿ περιέχουσι,
καὶ διὰ τοῦτο Φαρνάκης αὐτὸς μὲν ἐν ἀδείᾳ τοῦ
πεσεῖν τὴν γῆν ἐστιν οἰκτίρει δὲ τοὺς ὑποκειμένους
τῇ περιφορᾷ᾽ τῆς σελήνης Αἰθίοπας ἢ Ταπροβηνοὺς
μὴ βάρος αὐτοῖς ἐμπέσῃ τοσοῦτον. καίτοι τῇ μὲν
σελήνῃ βοήθεια πρὸς τὸ μὴ πεσεῖν ἡ κίνησις αὐτὴ
καὶ τὸ ῥοιζῶδες" τῆς περιαγωγῆς, ὥσπερ ὅσα ταῖς
σφενδόναις ἐντεθέντα τῆς καταφορᾶς κώλυσιν ἴσχει
τὴν κύκλῳ περιδίνησιν. ἄγει γὰρ ἕκαστον ἡ κατὰ
φύσιν κίνησις, ἂν ὑπ᾽ ἄλλου μηδενὸς ἀποστρέφηται.
διὸ τὴν σελήνην οὐκ ἄγει τὸ βάρος ὑπὸ τῆς περι-
φορᾶς τὴν ῥοπὴν ἐκκρουόμενον. ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἤ ἴσως
λόγον εἶχε θαυμάζειν μένουσαν αὐτὴν παντάπασιν
ὥσπερ ἡ γῆ καὶ ἀτρεμοῦσαν. ‘ νῦν δ᾽ Bf σελήνη
μὲν ἔχει “μεγάλην αἰτίαν τοῦ δεῦρο μὴ φέρεσθαι
τὴν δὲ γῆν ἑτέρας κινήσεως ἄμοιρον οὖσαν εἰκὸς
HV μόνῳ τῷ βαρύνοντι κινεῖν. βαρυτέρα δ᾽ ἐστὶ τῆς
σελήνης οὐχ ὅσῳ μείζων ἀλλ᾽ ἔτι μᾶλλον ἅτε δὴ
5: So ee Phanus (1624) ; ἡμᾶς -E, B.
-Anon., Aldine, RJ. 94, Mss. of Aeschylus; κίων -E, B.
8 H.C.; εἰ -E, B; καὶ -Wyttenbach after Amyot; ἐπεὶ
-Adler.
4 Editors ; οἰκτείρει -E, B.
5 H.C. (cf. Class. Phil. xlvi [1951], p. 139); petadopa
-E, B.
6 EF; ῥιζῶδες -B.
7 Emperius (cf. 926 a and 939 a infra); ἄτρεπτος ἄν. -E, B.
8 Bernardakis ; νῦν de -E,
58
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 923
persuaded you that Atlas
Stands, staying on his back the prop of earth
And sky, no tender burden to embrace.?
Or, while under the moon there stretches air unsub-
stantial and incapable of supporting a solid mass, the
earth, as Pindar says, is encompassed by ᾿ steel-shod
pillars °°; and therefore Pharnaces is himself without
any fear that the earth may fall but is sorry for the
Ethiopians or Taprobanians,° who are situated under
the circuit of the moon, lest such a great weight fall
upon them. Yet the moon is saved from falling by
its very motion and the rapidity of its revolution, just
as missiles placed in slings are kept from falling by
being whirled around in a circle.? For each thing is
governed by its natural motion unless it be diverted
by something elses That is why the moon is not
governed by its weight : the weight has its influence
frustrated by the rotatory motion. Nay, there would
be more reason perhaps to wonder if she were abso-
lutely unmoved and stationary like the earth. As
it is, while (the) moon has good cause for not moving
in this direction, the influence of weight alone might
reasonably move the earth, since it has no part in any
other motion; and the earth is heavier than the
moon not merely in proportion to its greater size but
* Aeschylus, Prometheus Vinct, 351-352 (Smyth).
ὃ Pindar, frag. 88 (Bergk)=79 (Bowra).
° 7.6. the Sinhalese ; cf. Strabo, ii. 1. 14, chap. 72 and xv.
1. 14, chap. 690; Pliny, Nat. Hist. vi. 22 (24).
4 Cf. Aristotle, De Caelo, 284 a 24-26 and 295 a 16-21 (on
Empedocles [Cherniss, Aristotle’s Criticism of Presocratic
Philosophy, p. 204, n. 234]). Plutarch himself in Lysander,
xli. 3-4 (439 Ὁ) ascribes to Anaxagoras the notion that the
heavenly bodies are kept from falling by the speed of their
circular motion.
59
(923)
E
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
διὰ θερμότητα καὶ πύρωσιν ἐλαφρᾶς γεγενημένης.
ὅλως δ᾽ ἔοικεν ἐξ ὧν λέγεις ἡ σελήνη μᾶλλον, εἰ
πῦρ ἐστι, γῆς δεῖσθαι καὶ ὕλης ἐν ἣ βέβηκε καὶ
προσπέφυκε καὶ συνέχει καὶ ζωπυρεῖ τὴν δύναμιν"
οὐ γὰρ ἔστι πῦρ χωρὶς ὕλης διανοηθῆναι σῳζόμενον
~ / ¢ al ΝΜ / \ «ὔ
γῆν δέ φατε ὑμεῖς ἄνευ βάσεως καὶ ῥίζης δια-
, γ3, ἢ a / \ a. 59, 5 ε ,
μένειν. πάνυ μὲν οὖν᾽᾽ εἶπεν ὁ Φαρνάκης
{{ \ >, A \ \ ΄ / ” v7
TOV οἰκεῖον Kal κατὰ φύσιν τόπον ἔχουσαν, ὅσπερ
~ ee /
αὐτῇ," TOV μέσον. οὗτος γάρ ἐστι περὶ OV ἀντερείδει
πάντα τὰ βάρη ῥέποντα καὶ φέρεται καὶ συννεύει
/ « > ” / ~ A /
πανταχόθεν: ἡ δ᾽ ἄνω χώρα πᾶσα, Kav τι δέξηται
γεῶδες ὑπὸ βίας ἀναρριφέν, εὐθὺς ἐκθλίβει δεῦρο
μᾶλλον δ᾽ ἀφίησιν ἧ πέφυκεν οἰκείᾳ ῥοπῇ κατα-
pepopevov.
rv \ aa 9 \ ~ A / / > /
7. Πρὸς τοῦτ᾽ ἐγὼ τῷ Λευκίῳ χρόνον ἐγγενέσθαι
βουλόμενος ἀναμιμνησκομένῳ τὸν Θέωνα καλέσας
1 Aldine, Basiliensis ; E and B have ἃ question-mark here.
2 Von Arnim (S.V.F. ii, p. 195); ὥσπερ αὐτὴ -E, B.
α Here Lucius assumes the Stoic theory of the composition
of the moon in order to rebut the Stoic objections.
’ Cf. Seneca, Nat. Quaest. vii. 1. 7: “. . . magni fuere
viri, qui sidera crediderunt ex duro concreta et ignem alienum
pascentia. ‘nam per se,’ inquiunt, ‘ flamma diffugeret, nisi
aliquid haberet, quod teneret et a quo teneretur, conglo-
batamque nec stabili inditam corpori, profecto iam mundus
turbine suo dissipasset.’ ”’
¢ Of. Aristotle’s remark (Meteorology, 353 a 34-b 5) about
the ancient θεολόγοι who assumed ῥίζαι γῆς καὶ θαλάττης and
see Hesiod, Theogony, 728; Aeschylus, Prometheus Vincet.
1046-1047; and the ‘‘ Orphic”’ lines quoted by Proclus,
60
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 923
still more, inasmuch as the moon has, of course,
become light through the action of heat and fire.”
In short, your own statements seem to make the
moon, if it is fire, stand in greater need of earth, that
is of matter to serve it as a foundation, as something
to which to adhere, as something to lend it coherence,
and as something that can be ignited by it, for it is
impossible to imagine fire being maintained without
fuel,? but you people say that earth does abide
without root or foundation.” © “ Certainly it does,”
said Pharnaces, “ in occupying the proper and natural
place that belongs to it, the middle, for this is the
place about which all weights in their natural in-
clination press against one another and towards
which they move and converge from every direction,
whereas all the upper space, even if it receive some-
thing earthy which has been forcibly hurled up into
it, straightway extrudes it into our region or rather
lets it go where its proper inclination causes it natur-
ally to descend.” @
7. At this—for I wished Lucius to have time to
collect his thoughts—I called to Theon. “ Which of
In Timaeum, 211 ς (ii, p. 231. 27-28 [Diehl])= Kern, Orphi-
corum Fragmenta, 168. 29-30 (p. 202). The phrase pila καὶ
βάσις is applied to the earth itself in a different sense by
** Timaeus Locrus ” (97 £). For the ascription to Xenophanes
of the notion that the earth ἐπ᾽ ἄπειρον ἐρρίζωται cf. Xeno-
phanes, frag. A 47 (i, pp. 125-126 [Diels- Kranz)).
¢ =8.V.F. ii, p. 195, frag. 646. This is the doctrine of
proper place and natural motion, originally Aristotelian and
ascribed to Aristotle in De Defectu Oraculorum, 424 8 but
adopted also by the Stoics (cf. S.V.F. ii, p. 162. 14-19; p.
169. 8-11; p. 175. 16-35; p. 178. 12-15); it should not be
confused, however, as Raingeard confuses it, with the Stoic
doctrine that the universe itself is in the middle of the void
(De Defectu Oraculorum, 425 p-r, De Stoicorum Repug-
nantiis, 1054 c-D).
61
(923) ‘
9
4
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
ΝΜ
»Μ {{ / » ~ ~ «
ἔφην “᾿ὦ Θέων εἴρηκε τῶν τραγικῶν ὡς
ἰατροὶ
\ a / / / })
πικρὰν πικροῖς κλύζουσι φαρμάκοις χολήν;
ἀποκριναμένου δὲ τοῦ Θέωνος ὅτι Σοφοκλῆς, “᾿ καὶ
/ +) φ (Α εἴ > > / > / /
δοτέον ᾿᾿ εἶπον “ ὑπ᾽ ἀνάγκης ἐκείνοις. φιλοσόφων
> » > / ἋἋ | / / > ’ὔ
δ᾽ οὐκ ἀκουστέον ἂν τὰ παράδοξα παραδόξοις ἀμύ-
/ \ / \ \ /
νεσθαι βούλωνται Kal μαχόμενοι πρὸς τὰ θαυμάσια
τῶν δογμάτων ἀτοπώτερα καὶ θαυμασιώτερα πλάτ-
τωσιν, ὥσπερ οὗτοι τὴν ἐπὶ τὸ μέσον φορὰν εἰσ-
/ - / / κι ” 5, ἐμὰ A
ἄγουσιν. % τί παράδοξον οὐκ ἔνεστιν; οὐχὶ τὴν
γῆν σφαῖραν εἶναι τηλικαῦτα βάθη καὶ ὕψη καὶ
ἀνωμαλίας ἔχουσαν; οὐκ ἀντίποδας οἰκεῖν ὥσπερ
θρῖπας" ἢ γαλεώτας τραπέντας" ἄνω τὰ κάτω τῇ γῇ
, 3 elRA > > \ \ \ > \
προσισχομένους;) ἡμᾶς δ᾽ αὐτοὺς μὴ πρὸς ὀρθὰς
/ > \ / > / > /
βεβηκότας ἀλλὰ πλαγίους ἐπιμένειν ἀπονεύοντας
1 Diibner ; θρίπας -E, B.
* Basiliensis ; τραπέντα -E, B.
-Anon., Aldine, R.J. 94 (implied by version of Xylander) ;
προϊσχομένους -E, B.
« Sophocles, frag. 770 (Nauck?). The verse is quoted with
variations at De Cohibenda Ira, 463 ¥, and De Tranquillitate
Animi, 468 B.
» Cf. Aristotle’s remark, De Caelo, 294 a 20-21: τὸ δὲ τὰς
περὶ τούτου λύσεις μὴ μᾶλλον ἀτόπους εἶναι δοκεῖν τῆς ἀπορίας,
θαυμάσειεν ἄν τις.
¢ This objection to the Peripatetic and Stoic theory that
the sphericity of the earth is a necessary consequence of the
natural motion of earth “‘ downwards ”’ to the centre of the
universe (Aristotle, De Caelo, 297 a 8- 23; Strabo, i. 1. 20,
62
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 923-924
the tragic poets was it, Theon,” I asked, “ who said
that physicians
With bitter drugs the bitter bile purge ? ἢ"
Theon replied that it was Sophocles.” “ Yes,” I said,
“and we have of necessity to allow them this pro-
cedure ; but to philosophers one should not listen if
they desire to repulse paradoxes with paradoxes and
in struggling against opinions that are amazing fabri-
cate others that are more amazing and outlandish,” as
these people do in introducing their ἡ motion to the
centre.’ What paradox is not involved in this doctrine ἢ
Not the one that the earth is a sphere although it
contains such great depths and heights and irregu-
larities ἢ 5 Not that people live on the opposite hemi-
sphere clinging to the earth like wood-worms or geckos
turned bottomside up ἢ @—and that we ourselves in
standing remain not at right angles to the earth but
at an oblique angle, leaning from the perpendicular
chap. 11; Adrastus in Theon of Smyrna, p. 122. 1-16 [Hiller])
was often answered (cf. Dicaearchus in Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii.
65. 162; Adrastus in Theon of Smyrna, pp. 124. 7-127. 23,
using arguments from Archimedes, Eratosthenes, and Dicae-
archus ; Cleomedes, i. 56 [p. 102. 9-20 Ziegler] ; Alexander
in Simplicius, De Caelo, p. 546. 15-23; Alexander, De Miz-
tione, p. 237. 5-15 [Bruns]). Plutarch, who defends Plato for
constructing the spherical earth of molecules that are cubes
on the ground that no material object can be a perfect sphere
(Quaest. Plat. 1004 B-c), probably did not intend this or the
subsequent paradoxes to be taken too seriously. Lamprias
is simply riding Pharnaces as hard as he can, using any argu-
ment, good or bad, to make him appear ridiculous.
¢ Cf. Lucretius, i. 1052- 1067 in his argument against the
Stoic ‘‘ motion to the centre.” Plutarch mentions the anti-
podes in connection with the Stoics in De Stoicorum Repug-
nantiis, 1050 5. In De Herodoti Malignitate, 869 c it is said
that *‘ some ”’ say that there are antipodes.
63
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
σ ¢ /
(924) ὥσπερ οἱ μεθύοντες; οὐ μύδρους χιλιοταλάντους
ὃ \ 10 ~ ~ / a ᾽ /
va βάθους τῆς γῆς φερομένους, ὅταν ἐξίκωνται
\ ~
πρὸς TO μέσον, ἵστασθαι μηδενὸς ἀπαντῶντος μηδ᾽
¢ / 5 Ἁ Cf / / 1 ἢ, /
ὑπερείδοντος εἰ δὲ ῥύμῃ κάτω φερόμενοι' TO μέσον
> /
B ὑπερβάλλοιεν αὖθις ὀπίσω στρέφεσθαι καὶ ava-
/ > ~ / ~
κάμπτειν ἀφ᾽ αὑτῶν;" οὐ τμήματα δοκῶν ἀποπρησ-
θ / 3 ~ ΄ « 7 \ / = \
ἔνταῦ τῆς γῆς ἑκατέρωθεν μὴ φέρεσθαι κάτω διὰ
ey ite: \ , \ \ A ”
παντὸς" ἀλλὰ προσπίπτοντα πρὸς τὴν γῆν ἔξωθεν
” 5 = \ > / \ \
εἴσω" διωθεῖσθαι καὶ ἀποκρύπτεσθαι περὶ τὸ
/ a 5 Ce A 7ὔ “ὃ / /
μέσον; ov ῥεῦμα λάβρον ὕδατος κάτω φερόμενον,
> \ \ / ” ~ “ >’ x /
εἰ πρὸς TO μέσον ἔλθοι σημεῖον ὅπερ αὐτοὶ λέγουσιν
> -.
ἀσώματον, ἵστασθαι περικρεμαννύμενον" (7) κύκλῳ
C περιπολεῖν,͵ ἄπαυστον αἰώραν καὶ ἀκατάπαυστον
>] 7 ϑ \ \ ~ v / /
αἰωρούμενον; οὐδὲ yap ψευδῶς ἔνια τούτων βιά-
5) ~ 2 /
σαιτο av Tis αὑτὸν" els τὸ δυνατὸν τῇ ἐπινοίᾳ
1 Xylander : φερομένου -E, B.
2 Bernardakis ; ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν -E, B.
3 Ἢ. C.; ἀποπρισθέντα -E, B.
4 Bernardakis ; διαπαντός -E, B.
δ. Bernardakis (ἔσω -Wyttenbach, Emperius ; ef. Xylander’s
“ pertrudi intro ’’) ; ἴσως -E, B.
6. Emperius ; περικεραννύμενον -E, B.
7 Emperius : κύκλῳ περὶ πόλιν -E 3 κύκλῳ περὶ πόλλον -B.
8 Wyttenbach ; αὐτὸν -Εἰ, B.
« Cf. Aristotle, De Caelo, 296 Ὁ 18-21 and 297 Ὁ 17-21:
the courses of bodies falling to the earth form equal angles
with the horizontal plane at the point of contact and are not
parallel. So, Lamprias argues, men standing upright on
the earth would not be parallel to one another but all in con-
verging on the centre would deviate from the “ absolute ”’
perpendicular.
>’ Probably not aeroliths, as Raingeard supposes, but
64
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 924
like drunken men?* Not that incandescent masses
of forty tons ὃ falling through the depth of the earth
stop when they arrive at the centre, though nothing
encounter or support them ; and, if in their down-
ward motion the impetus should carry them past the
centre, they swing back again and return of them-
selves? Not that pieces of meteors burnt out on
either side of the earth do not move downwards
continually but falling upon the surface of the earth
force their way into it from the outside and conceal
themselves about the centre ἢ © Not that a turbulent
stream of water, if in flowing downwards it should
reach the middle point, which they themselves call
incorporeal,? stops suspended (or) moves round about
it, oscillating in an incessant and perpetual see-saw ἢ ¢
Some of these a man could not even mistakenly force
incandescent boulders such as are thrown up by volcanoes ;
for μύδροι in this sense ef. [Aristotle], De Mundo, 395 Ὁ 22-28 ;
Strabo, vi. 2.8, chap. 2743. vi.-2. 10, chap. 2753 xii. 4. 11,
chap. 628. For the falling of great boulders within the earth
cf. Lucretius, vi. 536-550, and Seneca, Nat. Quaest. vi. 22.2;
but Plutarch probably had in mind a subterranean geo-
graphy such as that of Phaedo, 111 Ὁ ff., of which the next
sentence but one contains an explicit reminiscence.
¢ For the text and interpretation of this sentence cf. Class.
Phil. xlvi (1951), pp. 139-140.
4 Cf. 926 B infra. According to the Stoics the limits of
bodies are incorporeal and therefore in the strict sense non-
existent (De Communibus Notitiis, 1080 ©; cf. 1081 B and
S.V.F. ii, p. 159, frag. 488), since only the corporeal exists
(S.V.F. ii, p. 115, frag. 320 and p. 117, frag. 329). Only
corporeal existence, moreover, can produce an effect or be
affected (De Communibus Notitiis, 1073 π, cf. S.V.F. ii, p.
118, frag. 336 and p. 123, frag. 363). How then can the
incorporeal centre have any effect upon corporeal entities ?
ε Cf. Plato, Phaedo, 111 E—112 π, which is certainly the
source of Plutarch’s figure, and Aristotle’s criticism of Plato’s
account in Meteorology, 355 b 32—356 a 19.
VOL. XII D 65
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
924 aA A , > » 1 , \2
(924) καταστῆσαι. τοῦτο yap ἐστι τἄνω' κάτω Kal
/ / > ~ ~
πάντα τραπέμπαλιν᾽" εἶναι, τῶν ἄχρι τοῦ μέσου
/ ~ 5» \ / Ss /
κάτω τῶν δ᾽ ὑπὸ TO μέσον αὖ πάλιν ἄνω γιγνο-
/ σ 5 ” / ~ ~ \ /
μένων. ὥστ᾽, εἴ Tis συμπαθείᾳ τῆς γῆς TO μέσον
n~ »” / \ \ > / 7 \
αὐτῆς ἔχων σταίη περὶ τὸν ὀμφαλόν, ἅμα καὶ τὴν
\ \ / 7
κεφαλὴν ἄνω καὶ τοὺς πόδας ἄνω ἔχειν τὸν αὐτόν"
5 /
Kav pev* διασκάπτῃ τὸν ἐπέκεινα τόπον, ἀνακύπτον
> κι \ 7 » δ 5 \ , »
αὐτοῦ τὸ (KaTw ἀνων" εἶναι καὶ κάτω ἄνωθεν
σ \ > / > \ \ /
ἕλκεσθαι τὸν ἀνασκαπτόμενον" εἰ δὲ δὴ τούτῳ τις
5 \ ~ \ > / Ψ /
ἀντιβεβηκὼς νοοῖτο, τοὺς ἀμφοτέρων ἅμα πόδας
\ /
ἄνω γίγνεσθαι καὶ λέγεσθαι.
/ / \ /
8. Τοιούτων μέντοι καὶ τοσούτων παραδοξολο-
κ“ 6 » \ Ad δ 7 LAAG θ ~
Ὁ γιῶν᾽ od pa Δία πήραν' ἀλλὰ θαυματοποιοῦ τινος
/
ἀποσκευὴν Kal πυλαίαν κατανωτισάμενοι καὶ παρέλ-
ery \ , 8 " \ /
κοντες ἑτέρους φασὶ γελοιάζειν᾽ ἄνω τὴν σελήνην,
~ > / U / ᾽
γῆν οὖσαν, ἐνιδρύοντας" οὐχ ὅπου τὸ μέσον ἐστί.
> ~ ~ >] \ > 7
καίτοι γ᾽ εἰ πᾶν σῶμα ἐμβριθὲς εἰς ταὐτὸ συννεύει
1 Jackson, who would have reconstituted the words as an
hexameter : τἄνω {πάντα κάτω Kal πάντα τραπέμπαλιν εἶναι (cf.
Prickard’s 1911 translation, p. 54); τὰ ἄνω -E, B.
2 Wyttenbach ; κἂν -E, B.
3 Bernardakis (cf. Meineke, Philologus, xiv, p. 5 on 936 "Ὁ
infra) Η τραπέντα πάλιν Ἢ,
Leonicus ; κἂν μὴ -E, Β.
H.C. ; τὸ vac. 8-E, 7-B.
E ; παραδόξων λογιῶν -B.
Turnebus ; πεῖραν -Εἰ, B.
Turnebus ; πελάζειν -E, B.
Kaltwasser ; ἐνιδρύοντες -E, B.
-
oon ὅ᾽ ὧν
« Of, Phaedo, 112 © 1-3. By introducing the conventional
phrase ὑπὸ τὸ μέσον, which really begs the question, Lamprias
makes the notion appear to be a ridiculous self-contradiction.
ὑ That συμπαθείᾳ τῆς γῆς, which has given rise to many
66
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 924
himself to conceive as possible. For this amounts
to ‘ upside down ᾿ and ‘ all things topsy-turvy,’ every-
thing as far as the centre being ‘ down’ and every-
thing under the centre in turn being ‘up.’% The
result is that, if a man should so coalesce with the
earth ὃ that its centre is at his navel, the same person
at the same time has his head up and his feet up too.
Moreover, if he dig through the further side, his
(bottom) in emerging is (up), and the man digging
himself ‘up’ is pulling himself ‘down’ from ‘above’ ¢;
and, if someone should then be imagined to have
gone in the opposite direction to this man, the feet
of both of them at the same time turn out to be ‘up’
and are so called.
8. Nevertheless, though of tall tales of such a kind
and number they have shouldered and lugged in—
not a wallet-full, by heaven, but some juggler’s pack
and hotchpotch, still they say ? that others are play-
ing the buffoon by placing the moon, though it is
earth, on high and not where the centre is. Yet if
all heavy body converges to the same point and is
conjectures, need mean no more than this is proved by Doz.
Graeci, p. 317 Ὁ 14-16: τῆς τε τῶν ὄντων συμπαθείας Kal τῆς
τῶν σωμάτων ἀλληλουχίας. For the figure used here cf. Aris-
totle, De Caelo, 285 a 27-b 5, and Simplicius, De Caelo, p. 389.
8-24 and p. 391. 33 ff. The most famous later parallel is the
position of Lucifer in Dante’s Inferno, xxxiv. 76-120.
¢ i.e. his feet emerge first ; and they, his bottom part, are
“up.” In digging himself “ up ”’ relatively to the surface
through which he emerges, he is with reference to himself
pulling himself not “up” to a position above his head but
“down” to a position below his feet. The paradox rests
upon the assumption that head and feet are respectively
“absolute up” and “‘ absolute down ἢ for man (cf. Aristotle,
De Incessu Animal. 705 a 26—706 b 16, and Parva Nat.
468 a 1-12).
¢ =S.V.F. ii, p. 195, frag. 646.
67
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(924) καὶ “πρὸς τὸ αὑτοῦ" μέσον ἀντερείδει πᾶσι τοῖς
μορίοις, οὐχ ὡς μέσον οὖσα τοῦ παντὸς ἡ γῆ μᾶλ-
λον ἢ ὡς ὅλον οἰκειώσεται μέρη αὑτῆς" ὄντα τὰ
βάρη καὶ τεκμήριον {τὸ κατωφερὲς)" ἔσται τῶν
BE ῥεπόντων οὐ τῇ (γῆν τῆς μεσότητος πρὸς τὸν
κόσμον ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὴν γῆν κοινωνίας τινὸς καὶ
συμφυΐας τοῖς ᾿ἀπωσμένοις αὐτῆς εἶτα πάλιν κατα-
φερομένοις. ὡς γὰρ ὁ ἥλιος εἰς ἑαυτὸν ἐπιστρέφει
τὰ μέρη ἐξ ὧν συνέστηκε, καὶ ἡ γῆ τὸν λίθον
ὥσπερ (αὐτῇ προσήκοντα δέχεται κατωφερῆ᾽
πρὸς οἰκεῖον. ὅθεν ἑνοῦται τῷ χρόνῳ καὶ συμ-
᾿ Bernardakis (implied in versions of Xylander and
Kepler) ; αὐτοῦ -E, B.
wee. (implied in versions of Xylander and Kepler) ;
αὐτῆς -E,
85. H.C. (cf. S.V.F. ii, p. 175. 34); τεκμήριον vac. 12-E,
14-B.
4 Von Arnim; γῇ in place of τῆς of E, B -Madvig.
5 H.C. ; ὥσπερ vac. 4-E, 8-B (at end of line).
6. Wyttenbach ; καὶ φέρει -E, B.
7 H.C. (πρὸς τὸ οἰκεῖον -Emperius), cf. οἰκείᾳ ῥοπῇ Kata-
φερόμενον (923 F supra); πρὸς ἐκεῖνον -E,
α Lamprias refers directly to the words of Pharnaces at
923 E-F supra. Cf. De Stoicorum Repugnantiis, 1055 Ai εἰ
γὰρ αὐτός γε νεύειν ἐπὶ τὸ αὑτοῦ μέσον ἀεὶ πέφυκε καὶ τὰ μέρη
πρὸς τοῦτο κατατείνειν πανταχόθεν.
> That τῶν ῥεπόντων can stand alone in this sense, pace
Adler (Diss. Phil. Vind. x, p. 96), is proved by Aristotle, De
Caelo, 312 Ὁ 94.
¢ Aristotle (De Caelo, 296 b 9-25) asserted that heavy,
4.€. earthy, objects move to the centre of the universe and so
only ‘ accidentally "ἢ to the centre of the earth. The Stoics
distinguished the cosmos as ὅλον from τὸ πᾶν, which is the
cosmos plus the infinite void encompassing it (S.V./*. ii, p.
167, frags, 522-524), putting the cosmos in the centre of the
πᾶν and explaining this as the result of the motion of all
things to the centre of the latter (S.V.F. ii, pp. 174-175,
frags. 552-554; cf. note d on 923 F supra) but stating that
68
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 924
compressed in all its parts upon its own centre,? it
is no more as centre of the sum of things than as
a whole that the earth would appropriate to herself
the heavy bodies that are parts of herself ; and (the
downward tendency) of falling bodies” proves not
that the (earth) is in the centre of the cosmos but
that those bodies which when thrust away from the
earth fall back to her again have some affinity and
cohesion with her.° For as the sun attracts to itself
the parts of which it consists ὦ so the earth too accepts
as (her) own the stone’ that has properly a down-
ward tendency, and consequently every such thing
within the cosmos those things that have weight, 7.e. water
and earth, move naturally down, 1.6. to the centre (δ. V.F. ii,
p. 175. 16-35, frag. 555). Nevertheless, Chrysippus’s own
words could be used to show that the natural motion to the
centre must belong to the parts of the universe qua parts of
the whole and not because of their own nature (cf. De Stoi-
corum Repugnantiis, 1054 —e—1055 c); and with the very
word οἰκειώσεται Lamprias turns against the Stoics their own
doctrine of οἰκείωσις (cf. De Stoicorum Repugnantiis, 1038 B
=S2V.F'. li, p. 43, frag. 179).
4 According to Reinhardt (Kosmos und Sympathie, pp.
173-177) the source of Plutarch’s argument must be Posi-
donius ; but none of the passages cited contains any parallel
to this statement concerning the sun, for references to the
attractive power of the sun over the other planets (Reinhardt,
op. cit. p. 58, n. 23 cf. R. M. Jones, Class. Phil. xxvii [1932],
pp. 122 ff.) are irrelevant. There may rather have been a
connection between this notion and the doctrine of Cleanthes
referred to in De Communibus Notitiis, 1075 p=S.V.F. i,
p. 114, frag. 510.
¢ This is not a reference to aeroliths as Raingeard and
Kronenberg suppose nor to the imaginary stone in inter-
cosmic space (De Defectu Oraculorum, 425 c) as Adler be-
lieves, but to any γεῶδές τι ὑπὸ βίας avappidev, in the words of
Pharnaces (923 F supra); cf. Aristotle’s use of ὁ λίθος in the
statement of his principle of natural motion (Hth. Nic. 1103 a
19-22).
69
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(924 / \ ee a , > δέ
φύεται πρὸς αὐτὴν τῶν τοιούτων ἕκαστον. εἰ δέ
΄σ a a >
τι τυγχάνει σῶμα TH γῇ μὴ προσνενεμημένον ἀπ
ἀρχῆς, μηδ᾽ ἀπεσπασμένον ἀλλά που" καθ᾽ αὑτὸ
’ὔ ” 0. " \ / ¢ A μ᾿). > “-“
F σύστασιν ἔσχεν ἰδίαν καὶ φύσιν ὡς φαῖεν ἂν ἐκεῖνοι
> A
τὴν σελήνην, TL κωλύει χωρὶς εἶναι καὶ μένειν περὶ
αὑτὸ" τοῖς αὑτοῦ" πεπιεσμένον μέρεσι καὶ συμ-
, « a >
πεπεδημένον; οὔτε yap ἡ γῆ μέσον οὖσα δείκνυται
~ \ ~ ~ ~
τοῦ παντὸς ἥ TE πρὸς τὴν γῆν τῶν ἐνταῦθα συν-
A \ / e
έρεισις" καὶ σύστασις ὑφηγεῖται τὸν τρόπον ᾧ
? - 7 / > /
μένειν τὰ ἐκεῖ συμπεσόντα πρὸς τὴν σελήνην εἰκός
>? « \ / \ / \ / /
ἐστιν. ὃ δὲ πάντα τὰ γεώδη καὶ βαρέα συνελαύνων
>’ \ ~
εἰς μίαν χώραν Kal μέρη ποιῶν ἑνὸς σώματος, OVX
~ A / \ > /
ὁρῶ διὰ τί τοῖς κούφοις τὴν αὐτὴν ἀνάγκην οὐκ
IA ’
ἀνταποδίδωσιν ἀλλ᾽ ἐᾷ χωρὶς εἶναι συστάσεις
/ \ /
πυρὸς τοσαύτας καὶ οὐ πάντας εἰς ταὐτὸ" συνάγων
~ ” A \ ~ \
τοὺς ἀστέρας σαφῶς οἴεται δεῖν καὶ σῶμα κοινὸν
εἶναι τῶν ἀνωφερῶν" καὶ φλογοειδῶν ἁπάντων.
5 7 >. ΄ὔ /
925 9. ᾿Αλλ᾽ ἥλιον μὲν ἀπλέτους μυριάδας ἀπέχειν
~ ~ 4 εν / >
Ths ἄνω περιφορᾶς hate’? εἶπον “ ὦ φίλε ᾿Απολλω-
Aldine, Basiliensis ; ἀπαρχῆς -E, B.
Stephanus (1624); τοῦ -E, B.
Wyttenbach (implied in Kepler’s version) ; αὐτὸ -E, B.
4 Wyttenbach (implied in versions of Xylander, Amyot,
and Kepler) ; αὐτοῦ -E, B.
5 Wyttenbach ; συναίρεσις -E, B.
6 Wyttenbach (implied in versions of Amyot and Kepler) ;
τοῦτο -, B.
7 E, B; καὶ φῶς -Adler after Wyttenbach; πάντας . - -
σαφῶς deleted as marginal note by Sandbach (Cambridge
Philological Society, 1943).
8 Turnebus, Xylander ; ἀναφορῶν -E, B.
own
4 The men referred to in 924 p, ἑτέρους. . . ἄνω τὴν σελήνην,
γῆν οὖσαν, evidpvovtas, whom the Stoics attack and among
70
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 924-925
ultimately unites and coheres with her. If there is
a body, however, that was not originally allotted to
the earth or detached from it but has somewhere
independently a constitution and nature of its own,
as those men® would say of the moon, what is to
hinder it from being permanently separate in its own
place, compressed and bound together by its own
parts? For it has not been proved that the earth
is the centre of the sum of things,’ and the way in
which things in our region press together and con-
centrate upon the earth suggests how in all prob-
ability things in that region converge upon the moon
and remain there. The man who drives together
into a single region all earthy and heavy things and
makes them part of a single body—I do not see for
what reason he does not apply the same compulsion
to light objects in their turn but allows so many
separate concentrations of fire and, since he does not
collect all the stars together, clearly does not think
that there must also be a body common to all things
that are fiery and have an upward tendency.
9. Now,” said I, “my dear Apollonides, you
mathematicians ° say that the sun is an immense
distance from the upper circumference and that above
whom are Lamprias and Lucius themselves and “ our
comrade ” (921 F).
> i.e. even if it is the centre of our cosmos; ef. De Defectu
Oraculorum, 425 a-E, where concerning the possibility of a
multiplicity of universes in τὸ πᾶν Plutarch points out that
even on the hypothesis of natural motion and proper place
up, down, and centre would apply separately within each
cosmos, there could be no centre of τὸ πᾶν, and the laws of
motion in any one universe could not affect objects in any
other or hypothetical objects in intercosmic space.
¢ This is implied by the second person plural addressed
to Apollonides, cf. 925 B infra and 920 τ. 921 c supra.
71
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(925) νίδη καὶ Dwoddpov ἐπ᾽ αὐτῷ καὶ UridBovra’ καὶ
τοὺς ἄλλους πλάνητας ὑφιεμένους τε τῶν ἀπλανῶν
\ \ > / > / / /
Kal πρὸς ἀλλήλους ev διαστάσεσι μεγάλαις φέρεσθαι
τοῖς δὲ βαρέσι" καὶ γεώδεσιν οὐδεμίαν οἴεσθε τὸν
κόσμον εὐρυχωρίαν παρέχειν ἐν ἑαυτῷ καὶ διά-
~ ~ , ~
στασιν. ὁρᾶτε ὅτι γελοῖόν ἐστιν εἰ γῆν οὐ φήσομεν
εἶναι τὴν σελήνην ὅτι. τῆς κάτω χώρας ἀφέστηκεν
Β ἄστρον δὲ φήσομεν ὁρῶντες ἀπωσμένην τῆς ἄνω
περιφορᾶς μυριάσι σταδίων τοσαύταις ὥσπερ <eis)*
υθόν τινα καταδεδυκυῖαν. τῶν μέν γ᾽ ἄστρων
κατωτέρω τοσοῦτόν ἐστιν ὅσον οὐκ ἄν τις εἴποι
, Z 349959 , ePass \ \
μέτρον" ἀλλ ἐπιλείπουσιν ὑμᾶς" τοὺς “μαθηματικοὺς
ἐκλογιζομένους οἱ ἀριθμοί, τῆς δὲ γῆς τρόπον τινὰ
ψαύει καὶ περιφερομένη πλησίον
“ ε , "» aN 6
ἅρματος ws πέρι χνοίη ἑλίσσεται
φησὶν ᾿Εμπεδοκλῆς
ἥ τε παρ᾽ ἄκρην
΄ > ΄ 7
ζνύσσαν ἐλαυνομένη).
οὐδὲ γὰρ τὴν σκιὰν αὐτῆς ὑπερβάλλει πολλάκις ἐπὶ
μικρὸν αἰρομένην" τῷ παμμέγεθες εἶναι τὸ φωτίζον
ἀλλ᾽ οὕτως ἔοικεν ἐν χρῷ καὶ σχεδὸν ἐν ἀγκάλαις
τῆς γῆς περιπολεῖν ὥστ᾽ ἀντιφράττεσθαι πρὸς τὸν
Ο ἥλιον ὑπ᾽ αὐτῆς μὴ ὑπεραίρουσα τὸν σκιερὸν καὶ
χθόνιον καὶ νυκτερινὸν᾽ τοῦτον τόπον ὃς γῆς κλῆρός
1 E, B; for the form see note on 941 c infra.
2 Basiliensis ; ; βαθέσι -F, B.
3 Wyttenbach (implied in versions of Xylander and
Amyot), ef. 943 D: eis βυθὸν . . . καταδυομένας.
4 Ἔ, B®; dow... μέτρῳ -Β!. 5. Xylander; ἡμᾶς -E, B.
β Panzerbieter ; - ἅρματος ὥσπερ ἴχνος GieNiepeeas -E, B.
1 Diels ; ἥτε περὶ ἄκραν vac. 18-E, 26-B.
72
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 925
the sun Venus and Mercury and the other planets @
revolve lower than the fixed stars and at great in-
tervals from one another ; but you think that in the
cosmos there is provided no scope and extension for
heavy and earthy objects. You see that it is ridicu-
lous for us to deny that the moon is earth because she
stands apart from the nether region and yet to call
her a star although we see her removed so many
thousands of miles from the upper circumference as
if plunged (into) a pit. So far beneath the stars is
she that the distance cannot be expressed, but you
mathematicians in trying to calculate it run short
of numbers; she practically grazes the earth and
revolving close to it
Whirls like a chariot’s axle-box about,
Empedocles says,”
That skims <the post in passing).
Frequently she does not even surmount the earth’s
hadow, though it extends but a little way because
the illuminating body is very large ; but she seems
to revolve so close, almost within arm’s reach of the
earth, as to be screened by it from the sun unless she
rises above this shadowy, terrestrial, and nocturnal
place which is earth’s estate. Therefore we must
2 For the order of the planets cf. Dreyer, History of the
Planetary Systems, pp. 168-170, and Boyancé, Etudes sur
le Songe de Scipion, pp. 59-65; the order here given is not
the one adopted by most of the astronomers of Plutarch’s
time, by the later Stoics, or in all probability by Posidonius.
“ Empedocles, frag. B 46 (i, p. 331 [Diels-Kranz]).
8 -Anon., Aldine, R.J. 94, and implied in versions of
Amyot and Kepler ; αἰρομένη -E, B
/
9. νυκτερίνον -B ; νυκτέριον -E.
73
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(925) ἐστι. διὸ λεκτέον οἶμαι θαρροῦντας ἐ ἐν τοῖς (τῆς)
γῆς ὅροις εἶναι τὴν σελήνην ὑπὸ τῶν ἄκρων αὐτῆς
ἐπιπροσθουμένην.
10. Σκόπει δὲ τοὺς ἄλλους ἀφεὶς ἀπλανεῖς καὶ
πλάνητας ἃ δείκνυσιν ᾿Ἀρίσταρχος ἐν τῷ ἸΤερὶ με-
γεθῶν καὶ ἀποστημάτων ὅτι ‘To τοῦ ἡλίου ἀπό-
στημα τοῦ ἀποστήματος τῆς σελήνης ᾿ ὃ ἀφέστηκεν
D ἡμῶν ᾿ πλέον μὲν ἢ ὀκτωκαιδεκαπλάσιον ἔλαττον δ᾽
ἢ εἰκοσαπλάσιόν ἐστι. καίτοι ὁ τὴν σελήνην ἐπὶ
μήκιστον αἴρων ἀπέχειν" φησὶν ἡ ἡμῶν. ἕξ καὶ πεντη-
κονταπλάσιον τῆς ἐκ τοῦ κέντρου τῆς γῆς. αὕτη"
δ᾽ ἐστὶ τεσσάρων μυριάδων καὶ κατὰ τοὺς μέσως
ἀναμετροῦντας, καὶ ἀπὸ ταύτης “συλλογιζομένοις
ἀπέχει ὁ ἥλιος τῆς σελήνης πλέον ἢ ἢ τετρακισχιλίας
τριάκοντα μυριάδας. οὕτως ἀπῴκισται τοῦ ἡλίου
διὰ βάρος καὶ τοσοῦτο τῇ γῇ προσκεχώρηκεν ὥστε,
εἰ τοῖς τόποις τὰς οὐσίας διαιρετέον, ἡ γῆς μοῖρα
καὶ χώρα" προσκαλεῖται σελήνην καὶ τοῖς περὶ γῆν
E πράγμασι καὶ σώμασιν ἐπίδικός ἐστι κατ᾽ ἀγχι-
στείαν καὶ γειτνίασιν. καὶ οὐδέν, οἶμαι, πλημμε-
λοῦμεν ὅτι τοῖς ἄνω προσαγορευομένοις βάθος
τοσοῦτο καὶ διάστημα διδόντες ἀπολείπομέν τινα
ἢ
1 Aldine, Basiliensis ; ἐν τοῖς γῆς -Εἰ ; ἐν τοῖς γῆς -Β.
5. B; ἀπέχει -E.
3. Β ; αὐτὴ -E.
4 Turnebus (cf. 925 c: τόπον ὃς γῆς κλῆρος) : ὥρα -Εὶ, B.
α This is Proposition 7 of Aristarchus’s treatise, the full
title of which is On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and
Moon. ‘The treatise is edited and translated by Sir Thomas
Heath in his Aristarchus of Samos, pp. 352 ff.
Ὁ This was not the highest estimate hitherto given, nor
have I been able to identify its author. Cf. on this matter and
the subsequent calculations in this passage Class. Phil. xlvi
74
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 925
boldly declare, I think, that the moon is within the
confines of (the) earth inasmuch as she is occulted
by its extremities.
10. Dismiss the fixed stars and the cther planets
and consider the demonstrations of Aristarchus in
his treatise, On Szzes and Distances, that ‘ the distance
of the sun is more than 18 times and less than 20
times the distance of the moon,’ that is its distance
from us.“ According to the highest estimate, how-
ever, the moon’s distance from us is said to be 56
times the radius of the earth.2 Even according to
the mean calculations this radius is 40,000 stades ;
and, if we reckon from this, the sun is more than
40,300,000 stades distant from the moon. She has
migrated so far from the sun on account of her weight
and has moved so close to the earth that, if pro-
perties © are to be determined by locations, the lot,
I mean the position, of earth lays an action against
the moon and she is legally assignable by right of
propinquity and kinship to the chattels real and
personal of earth. We do not err at all, I think, if
granting such altitude and extension to the things
called ᾿ upper ’ we leave what is “ down below ’ also
(1951), pp. 140-141. No attempt is made to give equivalents
for stades in calculations, for it is uncertain what stade is
meant in any one place. Schiaparelli assumes everywhere
the Olympic stade of 185 metres (Scritti sulla storia della
astronomia antica, i, p. 333, n. 3 and p. 342, n. 1); Heath
argues that Eratosthenes used a stade of 157.5 metres and
Ptolemy the royal stade of 210 metres (Aristarchus of Samos,
pp. 339 and 346) ; and Raingeard (p. 83 on 925 p 6) assumes
without argument that Plutarch used the Attic stade of 177.6
metres.
¢ There is a play on the meaning of τὰς οὐσίας. ‘* sub-
stances,” as “‘ property’ or “‘ estates’? and as “ the real
nature of things.”
75
(925)
926
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
\ ~ / \ \ ἤ a > \
Kal τῷ κάτω περιδρομὴν καὶ πλάτος ὅσον ἐστὶν
ἀπὸ γῆς ἐπὶ σελήνην᾽ οὔτε γὰρ ὁ τὴν ἄκραν ἐπι-
φάνειαν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ μόνην ἄνω τἄλλα δὲ κάτω
προσαγορεύων ἅπαντα μέτριός ἐστιν ov?” ὁ τῇ γῇ
μᾶλλον δ᾽ ὁ τῷ κέντρῳ τὸ κάτω περιγράφων
ἀνεκτός, ἀλλὰ κἀκείνῃ τι καὶ ταύτῃ διάστημα
δοτέον ἐπιχωροῦντος τοῦ κόσμου διὰ μέγεθος.
πρὸς δὲ τὸν ἀξιοῦντα πᾶν εὐθὺς ἄνω καὶ μετέωρον
εἶναι τὸ ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ἕτερος ἀντηχεῖ πάλιν εὐθὺς
ae κάτω TO ἀπὸ τῆς ἀπλανοῦς περιφορᾶς.
Ὅλως δὲ πῶς λέγεται καὶ τίνος ἡ γῆ μέση
κεῖσθαι; τὸ γὰρ πᾶν ἄπειρόν ἐστι, τῷ δ᾽ ἀπείρῳ
μήτ᾽ ἀρχὴν ἔχοντι μήτε πέρας οὐ προσήκει. μέσον
ἔχειν: πέρας γάρ τι καὶ τὸ μέσον, ἡ δ᾽ ἀπειρία
περάτων στέρησις. ὁ δὲ μὴ τοῦ παντὸς ἀλλὰ τοῦ
κόσμου μέσην εἶναι τὴν γῆν ἀποφαινόμενος ἡδύς
/
ἐστιν εἰ μὴ Kal τὸν κόσμον αὐτὸν ἐνέχεσθαι Tats
- “- \ A
αὐταῖς ἀπορίαις νομίζει: TO yap πᾶν οὐδὲ τούτῳ"
/ 5 > / > > > / \ > / / >
μέσον ἀπέλιπεν, ἀλλ ἀνέστιος καὶ ἀνίδρυτός ἐστιν
ἐν ἀπείρῳ κενῷ φερόμενος. πρὸς οὐδὲν οἰκεῖον <n),
/
et° ἄλλην τινὰ τοῦ μένειν εὑράμενος αἰτίαν' ἕστηκεν
οὐ κατὰ τὴν τοῦ τόπου φύσιν, ὅμοια καὶ περὶ γῆς
\ \ / > / \ / ς « /
Kal περὶ σελήνης εἰκάζειν τινὶ πάρεστιν ὡς ἑτέρᾳ
1 Bernardakis after Madvig’s καὶ ἐκείνῃ Kal; καὶ κινητικο
vac. 2-H, B.
2 Madvig ; τὸ δέον -E, B.
8 Wyttenbach ; κεῖται -E, B.
4 Stephanus (1624) ; : τοῦτο -E, B.
5. Turnebus ; μέσην -E, B.
Implied by versions of Xylander and Kepler; εἰ ἄλλην
-E, B; ἢ ἄλλην -Turnebus.
7 E>; αἰτίαν εὑράμενος -B.
4 Of. De Defectu Oraculorum, 424 Ὁ, where καθ᾽ ods δ᾽
76
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 925-926
some room to move about in and so much latitude
as there is from earth to moon. For as he is im-
moderate who calls only the outermost surface of
the heaven ‘ up ’ and all else ‘ down,’ so is he intoler-
able who restricts ‘ down’ to the earth or rather to
the centre ; but both there and here some extension
must be granted since the magnitude of the universe
permits it. The claim that everything away from
the earth is zpso facto‘ up ’ and ‘ on high ’ is answered
by a counter-claim that what is away from the circuit
of the fixed stars is zpso facto ‘ down.’
11. After all, in what sense is earth situated in the
middle and in the middle of what ? The sum of things
is infinite ; and the infinite, having neither beginning
nor limit, cannot properly have a middle, for the
middle isa kind of limit too but infinity is a negation
of limits. He who asserts that the earth is in the
middle not of the sum of things but of the cosmos is
naive if he supposes that the cosmos itself is not also
involved in the very same difficulties.* In fact, in the
sum of things no middle has been left for the cosmos
either, but it is without hearth and habitation,? moving
in infinite void to nothing of its own; (or), if it has
come to rest because it has found some other reason
for abiding, not because of the nature of its location,°
similar inferences are permissible in the cases of
both earth and moon, that the former is stationary
ἔστιν (scil. τὸ κενόν) refers to the Stoics (for whose distinction
between the πᾶν and the κόσμος see note ὁ on 924 E supra), and
De Stoicorum Repugnantiis, 1054 B-p, where as here Plutarch
uses against the Stoics a weapon taken from their own
arsenal.
» Cf. Gracchi, ix. 5. 828 Ὁ : ἄοικοι καὶ ἀνίδρυτοι.
¢ Cf. S.V.F. ii, pp. 174-175, frags. 552 and.553; De
Stoicorum Repugnantiis, 1054 r—1055 B.
oF
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(926) τινὶ ψυχῇ καὶ φύσει μᾶλλον (ἢ τοπικῇ) διαφορᾷ"
τῆς μὲν ἀτρεμούσης ἐνταῦθα “τῆς δ᾽ ἐκεῖ ᾿ φερομένης.
ἄνευ δὲ τούτων ὅρα μὴ μέγα τι λέληθεν αὐτούς:
εἰ γὰρ ὅτι ἂν καὶ ὁπωσοῦν" ἐκτὸς γένηται τοῦ
κέντρου τῆς γῆς ἄνω ἐστίν, οὐδέν ἐστι τοῦ κόσμου
κάτω μέρος ἀλλ᾽ ἄνω καὶ ἡ γῆ καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ γῆς καὶ
Β πᾶν ἁπλῶς σῶμα τῷ" κέντρῳ περιεστηκὸς ἢ περι-
κείμενον ἄνω γίγνεται. κάτω δὲ μόνον [ὃν] ἕν, τὸ
ἀσώματον σημεῖον ἐκεῖνο ὃ πρὸς πᾶσαν ἀντικεῖσθαι
τὴν τοῦ κόσμου φύσιν ἀναγκαῖον εἴ γε δὴ τὸ κάτω
πρὸς τὸ ἄνω κατὰ φύσιν ἀντίκειται. καὶ οὐ τοῦτο
μόνον τὸ ἄτοπον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν αἰτίαν ἀπόλλυσι τὰ
βάρη δι᾿ ἣν δεῦρο καταρρέπει καὶ φέρεται" σῶμα
μὲν γὰρ οὐδέν ἐστι κάτω πρὸς ὃ κινεῖται, τὸ δ᾽
ἀσώματον οὔτ᾽ εἰκὸς οὔτε βούλονται τοσαὕτην ἔχειν
δύναμιν ὥστε πάντα κατατείνειν ἐφ᾽ ἑαυτὸ καὶ περὶ
αὑτὸ" συνέχειν. ἀλλ᾽ ὅλως ἄλογον εὑρίσκεται καὶ
μαχόμενον τοῖς πράγμασι τὸ ἄνω τὸν κόσμον ὅλον
εἶναι τὸ δὲ κάτω μηδὲν ἀλλ᾽ ἢ πέρας ἀσώματον καὶ
ἀδιάστατον ἐκεῖνο δ᾽ εὔλογον, ὡς λέγομεν ἡμεῖς,
τῷ τ᾽ ἄνω χώραν καὶ τῷ κάτω πολλὴν καὶ πλάτος
ἔχουσαν διῃρῆσθαι.
Ο 14. Οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ θέντες, εἰ βούλει, παρὰ φύσιν
ΕΠ Ὁ alter Wyttenbach’s μᾶλλον ἢ φυσικῇ Kal τοπικῇ
διαφορᾷ and Bernardakis’s μᾶλλον (ἢ τόπου) διαφορᾷ (cf. De
Defectu Oraculorum, 424 £: οὐ τοπικῶς ἀλλὰ σωματικῶς an
De Stoicorum Repugnantiis, 10548: φύσει... οὐ τῆς οὐσίας
... ἀλλὰ Tis... χώρας) :- μᾶλλον vac. 7-E, 9-B διαφοραὶ
2 Madvig : δὲ καὶ -E, B.
Diibner ; ὁπωσοῦν καὶ ὅτι av -E, B.
4 Bernardakis (9) ; τὸ -E, B.
5 Deleted by Madvig.
6 E; περὶ αὐτὸ -B. ? Emperius ; ὅμως -E, B.
ω
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 926
here and the latter is in motion there by reason of a
different soul or nature rather (than) a difference
(of location). Besides this, consider whether they ¢
have not overlooked an important point. If anything
in any way at all off the centre of the earth is ‘ up,’
no part of the cosmos is ‘down’; but it turns out
that the earth and the things on the earth and
absolutely all body surrounding or enclosing the
centre are ἡ up’ and only one thing is ‘ down,’ that
incorporeal point ® which must be in opposition to
the entire nature of the cosmos, if in fact ‘ down’ and
‘up’ are natural opposites.° This, moreover, does
not exhaust the absurdity. The cause of the descent
of heavy objects and of their motion to this region is
also abolished, for there is no body that is ‘ down’
towards which they are in motion and it is neither
likely nor in accordance with the intention of these
men that the incorporeal should have so much in-
fluence as to attract all these objects and keep them
together around itself.“ On the contrary, it proves
to be entirely unreasonable and inconsistent with the
facts for the whole cosmos to be ‘ up’ and nothing
but an incorporeal and unextended limit to be
‘down’; but that statement of ours is reasonable,
that ample space and broad has been divided between
“up ’ and ‘ down.’
12. All the same, let us assume, if you please, that
2 The Stoies.
ὃ Cf. SaViF. ii, p. 169. 9-11, frag. Bie st τῆς γῆς περὶ
τὸ μέσον σημεῖον. τοῦ κόσμου κειμένης, ὃ δὴ τοῦ παντός ἐστι κάτω,
ἄνω δὲ τὸ ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸ κύκλῳ πάντῃ.
& Cf, SeoVePa di; Ρ. 176, frag. 556: τὸ ἄνω καὶ τὸ κάτω οὐ
κατὰ σχέσιν. .. φύσει γὰρ διάφορα ταῦτα.
4 See note don 924 B supra, and cf. De Defectu Oraculorum,
424 © against Aristotle.
79
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(926) ἐ εν οὐρανῷ τοῖς γεώδεσι τὰς κινήσεις ὑπάρχειν
ἀτρέμα, μὴ τραγικῶς, ἀλλὰ πράως σκοπῶμεν ὅτι
τοῦτο τὴν σελήνην οὐ δείκνυσι γῆν μὴ οὖσαν ἀλλὰ
γῆν ὅπου μὴ πέφυκεν. οὖσαν, ἐπεὶ καὶ τὸ πῦρ τὸ
Αἰτναῖον ὑπὸ γῆν παρὰ φύσιν ἐ ἐστὶν ἀλλὰ πῦρ ἐστι
καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα τοῖς ἀσκοῖς περιληφθέν ἐστι μὲν
ἀνωφερὲς φύσει καὶ κοῦφον ἥκει δ᾽ ὅπου μὴ πέ-
φυκεν ὑπ᾽ ἀνάγκης. αὐτὴ δ᾽ ἣ ψυχή, πρὸς Atos ’
εἶπον" “᾿ ov παρὰ φύσιν τῷ σώματι συνεῖρκται βρα-
δεῖ ταχεῖα καὶ ψυχρῷ πυρώδης, ὥσπερ ὑμεῖς φατε,
καὶ ἀόρατος αἰσθητῷ; διὰ τοῦτ᾽ οὖν σώματι ψυχὴν
μὴ λέγωμεν; Kev etvar® μηδὲ νοῦν," χρῆμα θεῖον,
D [ὑπὸ βρίθους ἢ πάχους |," οὐρανόν τε πάντα καὶ γῆν
καὶ θάλασσαν ἐν ταὐτῷ περιπολοῦντα καὶ διυπτά-
μενον," εἰς σάρκας ἥκειν καὶ νεῦρα καὶ “μυελοὺς
(ὑπὸ βρίθους καὶ πάχους)" καὶ ΄παθέων μυρίων μετὰ
ὑγρότητος; ὁ δὲ Ζεὺς ὑ ὑμῖν" οὗτος οὐ τῇ μὲν αὑτοῦ"
φύσει χρώμενος ἕν ἐστι μέγα πῦρ καὶ συνεχές, νυνὶ
6°" ὑφεῖται καὶ κέκαμπται καὶ διεσχημάτισται, πᾶν
χρῆμα" γεγονὼς καὶ γιγνόμενος ἐν ταῖς μεταβολαῖς;
ΒΕ ; εἶπεν -B.
E ; λέγομεν -B.
Van Herwerden; εἶναι -E, Β.
4 Madvig ; μηδὲν οὐ -Εἰ, B.
5{ |] H.C. (see. note 7 znfra).
§ Wyttenbach ; διϊστάμενον -E,
7 I have transposed this phrase hither ; ; E and B have it
between θεῖον and οὐρανόν above.
8 Xylander ; ἡμῖν -E,
® E, B*; adrod -B1.
E; ἔνεστι -B.
11 νυνὶ δὲ -B; vuvide -E.
12 -Anon., Aldine, R.J. 943; χρῶμα -E, B.
α (f.928 8 infra. Plutarch probably has in mind inflated
80
on
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 926
the motions of earthy objects in the heaven are con-
trary to nature; and then let us calmly observe
without any histrionics and quite dispassionately that
this indicates not that the moon is not earth but that
she is earth in an ‘ unnatural’ location. For the fire
of Aetna too is below earth ‘ unnaturally,’ but it is
fire ; and the air confined in skins,“ though by nature
it is light and has an upward tendency, has been con-
strained to occupy an ‘ unnatural’ location. As to
the soul herself,”’ I said, ““ by Zeus, is her confinement
in the body not contrary to nature, swift as she is and
fiery, as you say,’ and invisible in a sluggish, cold,
and sensible vehicle ? Shall we then on this account
deny that there is soul (in) body or that mind, a
divine thing, though it traverses instantaneously in
its flight all heaven and earth and sea,’ has passed
into flesh and sinew and marrow under the influence
of weight and density and countless qualities that
attend liquefaction ?¢ This Zeus of yours too, is it
not true that, while in his own nature he is single, a
great and continuous fire, at present he is slackened
and subdued and transformed, having become and
continuing to become everything in the course of
skins used for floats ; cf. Aristotle, Physics, 217 a 2-3, 255 Ὁ
26, De Caelo, 311 b 9-13.
> Of. S.V.F. ii, p. 217, frag. 773: of μὲν yap Στωϊκοὶ πνεῦμα
λέγουσιν αὐτὴν ἔνθερμον Kai διάπυρον.
¢ For this commonplace of the flight of the mind through
the universe cf. R. M. Jones, Class. Phil. xxi (1926), pp. 97-
113;
@ This is a reference to the Stoic notion that the embodi-
ment of soul was a process of condensation or liquefaction.
Cf. De Stoicorum Repugnantiis, 1053 B-c (=S.V.F. ii, frag.
605) and for the qualities that would attend liquefaction
S.V.F. ii, p. 155. 34: γῆς τε καὶ ὕδατος, παχυμερῶν καὶ βαρέων
καὶ ἀτόνων ὄντων.
81
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(926) ὥσθ᾽ ὅρα καὶ σκόπει, δαιμόνιε, μὴ μεθιστὰς Kat
EK ἀπάγων ἕκαστον ὅπου πέφυκεν εἶναι διάλυσίν τινα
κόσμου φιλοσοφῇς καὶ τὸ νεῖκος ἐπάγῃς τὸ Ἔμπε-
δοκλέους τοῖς πράγμασι μᾶλλον δὲ τοὺς παλαιοὺς
κινῆς Τιτᾶνας ἐπὶ τὴν φύσιν καὶ Γίγαντας καὶ τὴν
μυθικὴν ἐκείνην καὶ φοβερὰν ἀκοσμίαν καὶ πλημ-
μέλειαν ἐπιδεῖν ποθῇς χωρὶς τὸ βαρὺ πᾶν καὶ χωρὶς
(Geis πᾶν" τὸ κοῦφον.
ἔνθ᾽ οὔτ᾽ ἠελίοιο διείδεται" ἀγλαὸν εἶδος"
2 \ \ LENE] ” / / 4 > \ /
οὐδὲ μὲν οὐδ᾽ αἴης λάσιον μένος" οὐδὲ θάλασσα
σ 3 ~ > ~ / cal
ὥς φησιν ᾿Εμπεδοκλῆς" οὐ γῆ θερμότητος μετεῖχεν,
F οὐχ ὕδωρ πνεύματος, οὐκ ἄνω τι τῶν βαρέων, οὐ
κάτω Tu τῶν κούφων, GAN ἄκρατοι καὶ ἄστοργοι
1 H.C., combining {πᾶνν of Turnebus with Diels’s insertion
of θεὶς after ποθῇς above : χωρὶς vac. 7-E, 3-B.
2 Simplicius (In Arist. Physic. Comment. p. 1183. 30
[Diels]) ; δεδίττεται -E, B.
8 E, B; ὠκέα γυῖα -Simplicius, loc. cit. (cf. exegetical note).
Bergk : γένος -E, B.
Stephanus ; τί -E, B.
6 Stephanus : τί -E, B.
a
* =8.V.F., ii, p. 308, frag. 1045. Zeus “in Ins owe
nature ”’ is the state of the universe in the ecpyrosis, while
“at present ’’ he is the universe in the state of diacosmesis ;
cf. De Placitis, 881 r—882 a (=Aétius, i. 7. 833=S.V.F. ii,
frag. 1027), Diogenes Laertius, vii. 137 (=S.V.F. ii, frag.
526), De Stoicorum Repugnantiis, 1052 c (=S.V.F. ii, frags.
1068 and 604), De Communibus Notitiis 1075 a-c (=S.V.F.
ii, frag. 1049), and S.V.F. ii, frags. 1052, 1053, and 1056.
» The Strife of Empedocles is connected with the mythical
war of the Giants by Proclus, Jn Platonis Parmenidem Com-
ment. p. 849, 13-15 (ed. Cousin, Paris, 1864)=p. 659 (ed.
Stallbaum).
ὁ Empedocles, frag. B 27 (i, pp. 323. 11-324. 4 [Diels-
Kranz]|), where the ὠκέα γυῖα given by Simplicius is adopted
82
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 926
his mutations?“ So look out and reflect, good sir,
lest in rearranging and removing each thing to its
‘natural’ location you contrive a dissolution of the
cosmos and bring upon things the ‘ Strife ’ of Em-
pedocles—or rather lest you arouse against nature
the ancient Titans and Giants ἢ and long to look upon
that legendary and dreadful disorder and discord
(when you have separated) all that is heavy and (all)
that is light.
The sun’s bright aspect is not there descried,
No, nor the shaggy might of earth, nor sea
as Empedocles says. Earth had no part in heat,
water no part in air; there was not anything heavy
above or anything light below ; but the principles of
all things ὦ were untempered and unamiable ’ and
instead of Plutarch’s ἀγλαὸν εἶδος. Bignone, however, who
prints the lines given by Plutarch as frag. 26 a and those given
by Simplicius as frag. 27, is probably right in taking this to
be one of the lines which were repeated with a different ending
in two different parts of the poem (Empedocle, studio critico,
pp. 220 ff., 421, 599 ff.). Certainly Plutarch represents his
quotation as describing the period when Strife has completely
separated the four roots, whereas Simplicius says that his
comes from the description of the Sphere, when all were
thoroughly intermingled.
4 j.e, the four ‘‘ roots,”’ earth, air, fire, and water, for the
separation of which by Strife cf. Empedocles, frags. B 17.
8-10 and B 26. 6-9 (i, p. 316. 2-4 and p. 323. 4-7 [Diels-
Kranz]).
¢ From this Mullach manufactured for Empedocles the
verse that he numbered 174 (Frag. Phil. Graec.i, p. 5). Stein
took only ἄκρατοι καὶ ἄστοργοι to be a quotation. The word
dotopyos appears nowhere in the fragments of Empedocles
(though στοργή does in frag. B 109 [i, p. 351. 22, Diels-
Kranz]), whereas Plutarch uses it several times in other con-
nections (4matorius, 750 τι Quaest. Nat. 917 Ὁ, De Sollertia
Animalium, 970 B).
83
(926)
927
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
~ \
καὶ μονάδες at τῶν ὅλων ἀρχαὶ μὴ προσιέμεναι
σύγκρισιν ἑτέρου πρὸς ἕτερον μηδὲ κοινωνίαν ἀλλὰ
φεύγουσαι καὶ ἀποστρεφόμεναι. καὶ φερόμεναι φο-
ρὰς ἰδίας καὶ αὐθάδεις οὕτως εἶχον ὡς ἔχει πᾶν οὗ
θεὸς ἄπεστι κατὰ [lAdtwva, τουτέστιν ὡς ἔχει τὰ
σώματα νοῦ καὶ ψυχῆς ἀπολιπούσης, ἄχρι' οὗ τὸ
ἱμερτὸν ἧκεν ἐπὶ τὴν φύσιν ἐκ προνοίας, φιλότητος
> / AL +3 / ον « 3
ἐγγενομένης καὶ ᾿Αφροδίτης καὶ "ἔρωτος ὡς Ἔμ-
~ / \ / x «& / -
πεδοκλῆς λέγει καὶ Παρμενίδης καὶ ᾿Ησίοδος, ἵνα
\ / > / \ / > > > /
καὶ τόπους ἀμείψαντα καὶ δυνάμεις ἀπ᾽ ἀλλήλων
μεταλαβόντα καὶ τὰ μὲν κινήσεως τὰ δὲ μονῆς
ἀνάγκαις ἐνδεθέντα καὶ καταβιασθέντα πρὸς τὸ
βέλτιον ἐξ οὗ πέφυκεν ἐνδοῦναι καὶ μεταστῆναι
{τὰ σώματαν" ἁρμονίαν καὶ κοινωνίαν ἀπεργάσηται
τοῦ παντός.
13. Et μὲν γὰρ οὐδ᾽ ἄλλο τι τῶν τοῦ κόσμου
-“ \ 7 7 5 > Ὁ - /
μερῶν παρὰ φύσιν ἔσχεν ἀλλ᾽ ἕκαστον ἧ πέφυκε
κεῖται μηδεμιᾶς" μεθιδρύσεως μηδὲ μετακοσμήσεως
δεόμενον μηδ᾽ ἐν ἀρχῇ δεηθέν, ἀπορῶ τί τῆς προ-
νοίας ἔργον ἐστὶν ἢ τίνος γέγονε ποιητὴς καὶ πατὴρ
1 Bernardakis ; ἄχρις -E, B.
2 H.C. 3 μεταστῆναι vac. 7-E, 9-B.
3 Es μὴ δὲ μιᾶς -B.
« Of. Clara Millerd, On the Interpretation of Empedocles,
p. 54, and Cherniss, Aristotle’s Criticism of Presocratic
Philosophy, Ὁ. 175, n. 130. Plutarch’s circumstantial account
of the motion of the four “ roots ’’ during the complete domi-
nance of Strife is coloured by the passage of Plato to which
he refers.
ὑ Timaeus, 53 B; ef. De Defectu Oraculorum, 430 Ὁ, and
De An. Proc. in Timaeo, 1016 Ὁ.
© Of. Amatorius, 756 p-r, where Empedocles, frag. B 17.
20-21 (i, p. 317. 1-2 [Diels-Kranz]), and Parmenides, frag.
84
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 926-927
solitary, not accepting combination or association
with one another, but avoiding and shunning one
another and moving with their own peculiar and
arbitrary motions “ they were in the state in which,
according to Plato,? everything is from which God
is absent, that is to say in which bodies are when mind
or soul is wanting. So they were until desire came
over nature providentially, for Affection arose or
Aphrodite or Eros, as Empedocles says and Par-
menides and Hesiod,’ in order that by changing
position and interchanging functions and by being
constrained some to motion and some to rest and
compelled to give way and shift from the ᾿ natural ἡ
to the‘ better ’ (the bodies) might produce a universal
concord and community.
13. If not a single one of the parts of the cosmos
ever got into an ‘ unnatural ’ condition but each one
is ‘naturally’ situated, requiring no transposition
or rearrangement and having required none in the
beginning either, I cannot make out what use there
is of providence ὁ or of what Zeus, ‘the master-
B 18 (i, p. 243. 16 [Diels-Kranz]) are quoted, and Hesiod,
Theogony, 120 is referred to; and cf. Aristotle, Metaphysics,
984 b 23—985 a 10. With Plutarch’s ἐκ προνοίας contrast
Aristotle’s criticism of Empedocles (Metaphysics, 1000 b 12-
17) and cf. Empedocles, frags. B 17. 29 and B 30 (i, p. 317.
10 and p. 325. 10-12 [Diels-Kranz]). By ἐκ προνοίας here
Plutarch prepares the way for his use in the next paragraph
of the Stoic doctrine of providence against the Stoic doctrine
of natural place.
4 On the importance of providence in Stoic doctrine and
its ubiquity in Stoic writings cf. De Stoicorum Repugnantiis,
1050 ἈΞ πὶ [ΞΞ 3 LP 1 frae937), Τ0 51: Ὁ (=S.ViF eM, frag:
1115); De Communibus Notitiis, 1075 πὶ (=S.V-.F. ii, frag.
1126), 1077 p-e (=S.V.F. ii, frag. 1064) ; Cicero, De Natura
Deorum, iii. 92 (=S.V.F. ii, frag. 1107) ; Diogenes Laertius,
vii. 138-139 (=S.V.F. ii, frag. 634).
85
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(927) δημιουργὸς ὁ Ζεὺς 6 ἀριστοτέχνας. οὐ yap* ἐν
στρατοπέδῳ τακτικῶν ὄφελος, εἴπερ εἰδείη τῶν
στρατιωτῶν ἕκαστος ἀφ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ τάξιν τε καὶ χώραν
καὶ καιρὸν οὗ δεῖ λαβεῖν καὶ διαφυλάσσειν οὐδὲ
κηπουρῶν οὐδ᾽ οἰκοδόμων, εἰ πῇ μὲν αὐτὸ τὸ ὕδωρ
ad’ αὑτοῦ" πέφυκεν ἐπιέναι" τοῖς δεομένοις καὶ κατ-
άρδειν ἐπιρρέον πῇ δὲ πλίνθοι καὶ ξύλα καὶ λίθοι
ταῖς κατὰ φύσιν χρώμενα ῥοπαῖς" καὶ νεύσεσιν ἐξ
ἑαυτῶν καταλαμβάνειν τὴν προσήκουσαν ἁρμο-
νίαν καὶ χώραν. εἰ δ᾽ οὗτος μὲν ἄντικρυς ἀναιρεῖ
\ / ¢ ,ὔ ~ ~ ϑι ΣΡ / ~ »”
Ο τὴν πρόνοιαν 6 λόγος τῷ θεῷ δ᾽ ἡ τάξις τῶν ὄντων
προσήκει καὶ {τὸν διαιρεῖν, τί θαυμαστὸν οὕτως"
/ \ / \ /, δ > “ \
τετάχθαι καὶ διηρμόσθαι τὴν φύσιν ws ἐνταῦθα μὲν
πῦρ ἐκεῖ δ᾽ ἄστρα καὶ πάλιν ἐνταῦθα μὲν γῆν᾽ ἄνω
\ / ς “- / ~ \ ,
δὲ σελήνην ἱδρῦσθαι, βεβαιοτέρῳ τοῦ Kata φύσιν
~ \ / ~ “- .8 ς ”
τῷ κατὰ λόγον δεσμῷ περιληφθεῖσαν;" ws, εἴ ye
πάντα δεῖ ταῖς κατὰ φύσιν ῥοπαῖς χρῆσθαι καὶ
φέρεσθαι καθ᾽ 6° πέφυκε, μήθ᾽" ἥλιος κυκλοφο-
/ / / \ ~ 7 > /
ρείσθω μήτε Φωσφόρος μηδὲ τῶν ἄλλων ἀστέρων
μηδείς: ἄνω γὰρ οὐ κύκλῳ τὰ κοῦφα καὶ πυροειδῆ
1B; υ γὰρ -E.
2. Β; am αὐτοῦ -E.
_ § Emperius : ἐπεῖναι -E, B (cf. the same mistake in Pom-
pey, Xxxii. 636 B).
4 Turnebus (cf. Adv. Coloten, 1122 c: ῥοπῆς . . . καὶ vev-
σεως) : τροπαῖς -E, B.
5 Diibner.
6 EF; οὕτω -B.
7 Ἐς ἐνταῦθα γῆν -F,
8 Wyttenbach ; δεσμωτηρίῳ ληφθεῖσαν -E, B.
® Stephanus (1624); καθὸ -E, B.
10 Bernardakis ; μὴδ᾽ -E, B.
86
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 927
craftsman ’* is maker and father-creator.2. In an
army, certainly, tacticians are useless if each one of
the soldiers should know of himself his post and posi-
tion and the moment when he must take and keep
them. Gardeners and builders are useless too if
here water all of itself“ naturally ’ moves to the things
that require it and irrigates them with its stream,
and there bricks and timbers and stones by following
their ‘ natural’ inclinations and tendencies assume
of themselves their appropriate position and arrange-
ment. If, however, this notion eliminates providence
forthwith and if the arrangement of existing things
pertains to God and (the) distributing of them too,°
what wonder is there that nature has been so mar-
shalled and disposed that here in our region there
is fire but the stars are yonder and again ‘that earth
is here but the moon is established on high, held fast
by the bonds of reason which are firmer than the
bonds of nature’? For, if all things really must
follow their ‘ natural’ inclinations and move with
their ἡ natural ’ motions, you must order the sun not
to revolve and Venus too and every other star as well,
for light and fiery bodies move ἡ naturally ’ upwards
# Plutarch ascribes to Pindar this epithet of Zeus in Quaest.
Conviv. 618 B, De Sera Numinis Vindicta, 550 a, De Com-
munibus Notitiis, 1065 ©, and in Praecepta Gerendae Rei-
publicae, 807 c uses it of the statesman ; cf. Pindar, frag. 48,
Bowra=57, Bergk and Schroeder=66, Turyn.
> This terminology is more Platonic than Stoic: ef.
Quaest. Conviv. 720 B-c, De An. Proc. in Timaeo, 1017 a;
ef. Timaeus, 28 c and contrast δ. V.F. ii, frag. 323 a.
¢ Cf. Aristotle, Metaphysics, 1075 a 11-15, and Diogenes
Laerisus;-viier 131 (= S. VF; Arag= θη (eds). δη-
μιουργὸς ὧν τῆς διακοσμήσεως.
4 Wyttenbach’s correction is assured by Timaeus, 41 B 4-6,
of which this is meant to be an echo.
87
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(927) κινεῖσθαι πέφυκεν. εἰ δὲ τοιαύτην ἐξαλλαγὴν ἡ
φύσις ἔχει παρὰ τὸν τόπον ὥστ᾽ ἐνταῦθα μὲν ἄνω
φαίνεσθαι' φερόμενον τὸ πῦρ ὅταν δ᾽ εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν
παραγένηται τῇ δίνῃ συμπεριστρέφεσθαι, τί θαυ-
μαστὸν εἰ καὶ τοῖς βαρέσι καὶ γεώδεσιν ἐκεῖ γενο-
, 2 , ¢ , > ” 7
D μένοις" συμβέβηκεν ὡσαύτως εἰς ἄλλο κινήσεως
εἶδος ὑπὸ τοῦ περιέχοντος ἐκνενικῆσθαι; οὐ γὰρ
δὴ ~ \ 3 ~ \ » \ > A
ἡ τῶν μὲν ἐλαφρῶν τὴν ἄνω φορὰν ἀφαιρεῖσθαι
τῷ οὐρανῷ κατὰ φύσιν ἐστὶ τῶν δὲ βαρέων καὶ
/ ¢ / >’ / ~ > > oy 3 >
κάτω ῥεπόντων od δύναται κρατεῖν, ἀλλ᾽ (H>* ποτ
ἐκεῖνα δυνάμει καὶ ταῦτα μετακοσμήσας ἐχρήσατο
τῇ φύσει αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τὸ βέλτιον.
14. Οὐ μὴν ἀλλ᾽ εἴ γε δεῖ τὰς καταδεδουλωμένας
ἕξεις (καὶ δόξας ἀφέντας ἤδη τὸ φαινόμενον
> ~ / ᾽ \ ” 7 / > \ >
ἀδεῶς λέγειν, οὐδὲν ἔοικεν ὅλου μέρος αὐτὸ καθ
« \ / av / a“ / 9. , ΝΜ ΘΒ «A
ἑαυτὸ τάξιν ἢ θέσιν ἢ κίνησιν ἰδίαν ἔχειν ἣν" av τις
ἁπλῶς κατὰ φύσιν προσαγορεύσειεν. ἀλλ᾽ ὅταν
e av
E ἕκαστον, οὗ χάριν γέγονε καὶ πρὸς ὃ πέφυκεν ἢ
πεποίηται, τούτῳ παρέχῃ" χρησίμως καὶ οἰκείως
κινούμενον ἑαυτὸ καὶ πάσχον ἢ ποιοῦν 7 διακεί-
μενον ὡς ἐκείνῳ πρὸς σωτηρίαν 7) κάλλος ἢ δύναμιν
E ; φέρεσθαι -B.
Wyttenbach : EKYEVOHEVOLS -E, B.
Emperius ; ἀλλ vac. 2 ποτέ Fs ἀλλ᾽ vac. 2 ποτε -Β.
Xylander (cf. Numa, xxii. 74D: ἕξιν τε Kal γνώμην) 3
ἕξεις vac. 8 δόξας -E; ἕξεις vac. 5-7 (at end of line) δόξας -Β.
5 Basiliensis ; 7 Ἔ, B.
6 -Anon., Aldine, R.J. 94; παρέχειν -E, B; παρέχει
-Basiliensis.
o nw
-
4 The Stoics held that the heavenly bodies consist of fire,
which, though they call it αἰθήρ, is not a “‘ fifth essence ”’ like
Aristotle’ s (cf. Diogenes Laertius, vii. 137=S.V.F. ii, frag.
88
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 927
and not in a circle.“ If, however, nature includes
such variation in accordance with location that fire,
though it is seen to move upwards here, as soon as
it has reached the heavens revolves along with their
rotation, what wonder is there that the same thing
has happened to heavy and earthy bodies that have
got there and that they too have been reduced by
the environment to a different kind of motion ? For
it certainly cannot be that heaven ἡ naturally ’ de-
prives light objects of their upward motion but is
unable to master objects that are heavy and have a
downward inclination ; on the contrary, by (what-
ever) influence it rearranged the former it rearranged
the latter too and employed the nature of both of
them for the better.
14. What is more, if we are finally to throw off the
habits (and) opinions that have held our minds in
thrall and fearlessly to say what really appears to
be the case, no part of a whole all by itself seems to
have any order, position, or motion of its own which
could be called unconditionally ‘ natural.’® On the
contrary, each and every such part, whenever its
motion is usefully and properly accommodated to
that for the sake of which the part has come to be
and which is the purpose of its growth or production,
and whenever it acts or is affected or disposed so that
it contributes to the preservation or beauty or function
580; S.V.F. ii, frag. 682). In De Stoicorum Repugnantiis,
1053 © Plutarch quotes Chrysippus to the effect that τὸ πῦρ
ἀβαρὲς ov ἀνωφερὲς εἶναι (=S.V.F. ii, frag. 434). In accor-
dance with this, he here argues, the Stoics are not justified in
explaining the circular motion of the heavenly bodies as
** natural ’’ in the way that Aristotle did.
Ὁ Cf. Plutarch, frag. vii. 15 (Bernardakis, vol. vii, p. 31.
6 ff.=Olympiodorus, /n Phaedonem, p. 157. 22-25 [Norvin]).
89
(927)
F
928
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
ἐπιτήδειόν ἐστι, τότε δοκεῖ τὴν κατὰ φύσιν χώραν
ἔχειν καὶ κίνησιν καὶ διάθεσιν. ὁ γοῦν ἄνθρωπος,
ὡς εἴ TU τῶν ὄντων ἕτερον κατὰ φύσιν γεγονώς,
ἄνω μὲν ἔχει. τὰ" ἐμβριθῆ καὶ γεώδη μάλιστα περὶ
τὴν κεφαλὴν ἐν δὲ τοῖς μέσοις τὰ θερμὰ καὶ πυρώδη"
τῶν δ᾽ ὀδόντων οἱ μὲν ἄνωθεν οἱ δὲ κάτωθεν ἐκ-
φύονται" καὶ οὐδέτεροι παρὰ φύσιν ἔχουσιν, οὐδὲ
τοῦ πυρὸς τὸ μὲν ἄνω περὶ τὰ ὄμματα ἀποστίλβον
κατὰ φύσιν ἐστὶ τὸ δ᾽ ἐν κοιλίᾳ καὶ καρδίᾳ παρὰ
φύσιν ἀλλ᾽ ἕκαστον οἰκείως καὶ χρησίμως τέτακται.
ναὶ μὴν κηρύκων τε λιθορρίνων χελύων" τε
\ \ b] / / a Le ὃ An
Kal παντὸς ὀστρέου φύσιν, ws φησιν ὁ ᾿Εμπεδοκλῆς,
καταμανθάνων
” | Pe / \ ¢ ¥, 5 /
ἔνθ᾽ ὄψει χθόνα χρωτὸς ὑπέρτατα" ναιετάουσαν᾽
καὶ οὐ πιέζει τὸ λιθῶδες οὐδὲ καταθλίβει τὴν ἕξιν
ἐπικείμενον οὐδέ γε πάλιν τὸ θερμὸν ὑπὸ κουφό-
τητος εἰς τὴν ἄνω χώραν ἀποπτάμενον οἴχεται
ἔμικται δέ πως πρὸς ἄλληλα καὶ συντέτακται
μ μι \ « 7 /
κατὰ τὴν ἑκάστου φύσιν.
“4 @) > \ ” \ \ / ” \
σπερ εἰκὸς ἔχειν Kal TOV κόσμον, εἴ ye δὴ
ζῷόν ἐστι, πολλαχοῦ γῆν ἔχοντα πολλαχοῦ δὲ πῦρ
1 Wyttenbach (implied by versions of Amyot and Kepler) ;
emt -E, B. 2 E; τὸν -B.
SE; e ivoore -B.
4 Xylander (cf. Quaest. Conviv. 618 B); χελωνῶν -E, B.
5 Β : ὑπέρταυτα -E.
“ The two lines here quoted and the line that preceded
them are quoted together in support of the same contention
in Quaest. Conviv. 618 8n=Empedocles, frag. B 76 (i, p. 339.
9-11 [Diels-Kranz]).
ὃ For ἕξις Ξε “ἡ the bodily constitution ” cf. Quaest. Conviv.
625 a-B, 680 p, 681 £; Amatorius, 764 ¢c.
90
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 927-928
of that thing, then, I believe, it has its ‘ natural’
position and motion and disposition. In man, at any
rate, who is the result of ‘ natural’ process if any
being is, the heavy and earthy parts are above,
chiefly in the region of the head, and the hot and
fiery parts are in the middle regions ; some of the
teeth grow from above and some from below, and
neither set is ‘ contrary to nature’; and it cannot
be said that the fire which flashes in the eyes above
is ‘natural’ whereas that in the bowels and heart
is ‘ contrary to nature, but each has been assigned
its proper and useful station. Observe, as Empedocles
says,” the nature of
Tritons and tortoises with hides of stone
and of all testaceans,
Thouw’lt see earth there established over flesh ;
and the stony matter does not oppress or crush the
constitution ἢ on which it is superimposed, nor on
the other hand does the heat by reason of lightness
fly off to the upper region and escape, but they have
been somehow intermingled and organically com-
bined in accordance with the nature of each.
15. Such is probably the case with the cosmos too,
if it really is a living being °: in many places it has
¢ In Adv. Coloten, 1115 B Strato’s denial of this is cited as
an example of his opposition to Plato; and in De An. Proc.
in Timaeo, 1014 c-p Plutarch, speaking of the creation of the
world by the Platonic demiurge, says τὸ κάλλιστον ἀπεργασά-
μενος καὶ τελειότατον. . . ζῷον, thereby referring to such
passages as Timaeus, 30 B-p, 32 c-p, 68 π, 69 B-c. Still,
Platonic though it is, this assumption is one which his Stoic
adversaries would grant (cf. Diogenes Laertius, vii. 139 and
142-143 [=S.V.F. ii, frags. 634 and 633]); and Plutarch
believes that in granting it they are committed to the implica-
tion that the moon despite its location can consist of earth.
91
(928)
B
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
\ “ \ ~ » > > / >
Kal ὕδωρ Kal πνεῦμα οὐκ ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἀποτεθλιμ-
/ > \ / / > \ \
μένον ἀλλὰ λόγῳ διακεκοσμημένον. οὐδὲ yap
> \ >? - ~ / / > ¢ \ /
ὀφθαλμὸς ἐνταῦθα τοῦ σώματός ἐστιν ὑπὸ κουφό-
> \ 9.9 Cc / ~ / > ~
τητος ἐκπιεσθεὶς οὐδ᾽ ἡ καρδία τῷ βάρει ὀλισθοῦσα
/ ᾿] \ ~ > rae / Ss Ὁ
πέπτωκεν εἰς τὸ στῆθος, ἀλλ᾽ ὅτι βέλτιον ἦν οὕτως
ἑκάτερον τετάχθαι. μὴ τοίνυν μηδὲ τῶν τοῦ κό-
σμου μερῶν νομίζωμεν μήτε γῆν ἐνταῦθα κεῖσθαι
συμπεσοῦσαν διὰ βάρος μήτε τὸν ἥλιον, ὡς ᾧετο
Μητρόδωρος ὁ Χῖος, εἰς τὴν ἄνω χώραν ἀσκοῦ
/ «ς \ / >? A 7 \
δίκην ὑπὸ κουφότητος ἐκτεθλῖφθαι μήτε τοὺς
»Μ > / σ > ~ “Ὁ ~
ἄλλους ἀστέρας, ὥσπερ ἐν ζυγῷ σταθμοῦ" διαφορᾷ
ῥέψαντας," ἐν οἷς εἰσι γεγονέναι τόποις" ἀλλὰ τοῦ
κατὰ λόγον κρατοῦντος οὗ μὲν ὥσπερ ὄμματα
φωσφόρα τῷ προσώπῳ τοῦ παντὸς ἐνδεδεμένοι
περιπολοῦσιν, ἥλιος δὲ καρδίας ἔχων δύναμιν
ὥσπερ αἷμα καὶ πνεῦμα διαπέμπει καὶ διασκεδάν-
νυσιν ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ θερμότητα καὶ φῶς, γῇ δὲ καὶ
/ ~ \ / ΞΕ / Ψ /
θαλάσσῃ χρῆται κατὰ φύσιν ὃ κόσμος ὅσα κοιλίᾳ
\ / ~ / 25ve / \ \ ~
καὶ κύστει ζῷον. σελήνη δ᾽ ἡλίου μεταξὺ καὶ γῆς
ὥσπερ καρδίας καὶ κοιλίας ἧπαρ ἢ τι μαλθακὸν
1 Emperius ; μήτε -E, B.
2 E; ζυγωσταθμοῦ -B.
3B; ῥέψαντος -E.
@ Of. Aristotle, De Caelo, 277 Ὁ 1-2: οὐδὲ Bia (seil. φέρεται
αὐτῶν τὸ μὲν ἄνω τὸ δὲ κάτω) ὥσπερ τινές φασι TH ἐκθλίψει, and
Cherniss, Aristotle's Criticism of Presocratic Philosophy,
p. 191, n. 196.
ὃ For this Atomist, who is not to be confused with the
Epicurean, Metrodorus of Lampsacus, or with the Anaxa-
gorean, cf. Diels-Kranz, Frag. der Vorsok.® ii, pp. 231-234 ;
the present passage should be added to that collection, from
which it is missing. According to De Placitis, 889 B (=
Aétius, ii. 15. 6 [Dowx. Graeci, p. 345 a 7T-12]) Metrodorus con-
92
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 928
earth and in many fire and water and breath as the
result not of forcible expulsion® but of rational
arrangement. After all, the eye has its present
position in the body not because it was extruded
thither as a result of its lightness, and the heart is
in the chest not because its heaviness has caused it
to slip and fall thither but because it was better that
each of them should be so located. Let us not then
believe with regard to the parts of the cosmos either
that earth is situated here because its weight has
caused it to subside or that the sun, as Metrodorus of
Chios ὃ once thought, was extruded into the upper
region like an inflated skin by reason of its lightness
or that the other stars got into their present positions
because they tipped the balance, as it were, at
different weights. On the contrary, the rational
principle is in control; and that is why the stars
revolve fixed like “ radiant eyes ’ “ in the countenance
of the universe, the sun in the heart’s capacity trans-
mits and disperses out of himself heat and light as
it were blood and breath, and earth and sea ἡ natur-
ally ° serve the cosmos to the ends that bowels and
bladder do an animal. The moon, situate between
sun and earth as the liver or another of the soft
sidered the sun to be farthest from the earth, the moon below
it, and lower than the moon the planets and fixed stars. For
the explanation of the sun’s position here ascribed to Metro-
dorus see note a supra and cf. Simplicius, De Caelo, p. 712.
27-29.
¢ In De Fortuna, 98 8 the phrase is quoted as Plafo’s ; it
comes from Timaeus, 45 Β (τῶν δὲ ὀργάνων πρῶτον μὲν dwoddpa
συνετεκτήναντο ὄμματα, τοιᾷδε ἐνδήσαντες αἰτίᾳ), and Plutarch’s
τῷ προσώπῳ τοῦ παντὸς ἐνδεδεμένοι was suggested by this in
conjunction with the preceding lines (45 a: . .. ὑποθέντες
αὐτόσε TO πρόσωπον, ὄργανα ἐνέδησαν τούτῳ), though Plato is
there speaking of the human face and eyes.
93
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(928) ἄλλο σπλάγχνον ἐγκειμένη τήν τ᾿ ἄνωθεν ἀλέαν
ἐνταῦθα διαπέμπει καὶ τὰς ἐντεῦθεν ἀναθυμιάσεις
πέψει τινὶ καὶ καθάρσει λεπτύνουσα περὶ ἑαυτὴν
5 / 5 \ \ φ Μ \ ~ >] ΄-“
ἀναδίδωσιν" εἰ δὲ καὶ πρὸς ἄλλα τὸ γεῶδες αὐτῆς
καὶ στερέμνιον ἔχει τινὰ πρόσφορον χρείαν, ἄδηλον
ἡμῖν. ἐν παντὶ δὲ κρατεῖ τὸ βέλτιον τοῦ κατ-
ηναγκασμένου." τί γὰρ οὕτως" λάβωμεν ἐξ ὧν
ἐκεῖνοι λέγουσι τὸ εἰκός; λέγουσί ye TOU αἰθέρος
D τὸ μὲν αὐγοειδὲς καὶ λεπτὸν ὑπὸ μανότητος οὐρανὸν
γεγονέναι τὸ δὲ πυκνωθὲν καὶ συνειληθὲν ἄστρα,
/ \
τούτων δὲ TO νωθρότατον εἶναι τὴν σελήνην καὶ
~ >
θολερώτατον. ἀλλ᾽ ὅμως ὁρᾶν πάρεστιν οὐκ ἀπο-
/ 4 ~ (Ag \ An LAA’ ”
κεκριμένην΄ τοῦ αἰθέρος τὴν σελήνην a ετι
1 Wyttenbach (though Xylander had already proposed
τοῦ κατηναγκασμένου) : 5 κρατεῖται βέλτιον τοῦτο κατηναγκασμένον
-Ε, B. 3 BE; οὕτω -B. 3.H.C.; de -E, B.
4 Basiliensis ; ἀποκεκριμένου -E : ἀποκεκρυμμένου -B.
2 i.e. the spleen. For the purpose of liver and spleen ef.
Aristotle, De Part. Animal. 670 a 20-29, 670 b 4-17, 673 b
25-28: and for the close connection of liver and spleen 669 b
15—670 a 2.
> Eustathius, dd Iliadem, 695. 12 ff. says that according
to the Stoics the “ golden rope ”’ of Iliad, viii. 19 is ὁ ἥλιος
eis ὃν κάτωθεν ὥσπερ εἰς καρδίαν ἀποχεῖται ἀναδιδομένη ἡ τῶν
ὑγρῶν ἀναθυμίασις. Starting from this K. Reinhardt (Kosmos
und Sympathie, pp. 332 ff.) argued that Posidonius was
Plutarch’s source for the analogy between the parts of the
cosmos and the organs of the body; but Reinhardt’s con-
tention is refuted by R. M. Jones, Class. Phil. xxvii (1932),
pp. 121-128. Passages which equate sun and heart are fairly
frequent, ¢.g. Theon of Smyrna, pp. 187. 13-188. 7 (Hiller) ;
Proclus, In Timaeum, 171 c-p (ii, p. 104. 20-21 and 28-29,
Diehl); Macrobius, Somn. Scip. i. 20. 6-7 (pp. 564-565,
Eyssenhardt) ; Chalcidius, Jn Platonis Timaeum, ὃ 100 (p.
170, Wrobel); ‘‘ Anon. Christ.”’, Hermippus, pp. 17. 15-18. 11
(Kroll-Viereck) with astrological ascriptions of different
bodily organs to the seven planets. An entirely different
04
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 928
viscera“ is between heart and bowels, transmits
hither the warmth from above and sends upwards
the exhalations from our region, refining them in
herself by a kind of concoction and purification.’ It
is not clear to us whether her earthiness and solidity
have any use suitable to other ends also. Neverthe-
less, in everything the better has control of the
necessary.° Well, what probability can we thus con-
ceive in the statements of the Stoics ? They say that
the luminous and tenuous part of the ether by reason
of its subtility became sky and the part which was
condensed or compressed became stars, and that of
these the most sluggish and turbid is the moon.?
Yet all the same anyone can see that the moon has
not been separated from the ether but that there is
analogy between the various human faculties and the seven
planets is mentioned by Proclus, In Timaewm, 348 a-p (iii,
p- 355. 7-18, Diehl), and Numenius in Macrobius, Somn.
Scip. i. 12. 14-15 (p. 533, Eyssenhardt); and I know no
parallel to Plutarch’s further analogy of earth and moon
with bowels and liver or spleen. In the pseudo-Hippocratic
Περὶ ἑβδομάδων the moon because of its central position in the
cosmos appears to have been equated with the diaphragm
(cf. Roscher, Die hippokratische Schrift von der Siebenzahl,
p. 5. 45 ff., pp. 10-11, p. 123). In the section of Porphyry’s
‘Introduction to Ptolemy’s Apotelesmatica”’’ published by
F. Cumont in Mélanges Bidez, i, pp. 155-156, the source of
which Cumont contends must have been Antiochus of Athens,
the moon is said to have the spleen as its special province,
while the heart is assigned to the sun; but there the liver is
the province of Jupiter.
¢ Cf. Plato, Timaeus, 48 a: vod δὲ ἀνάγκης ἄρχοντος τῷ
πείθειν αὐτὴν τῶν γιγνομένων τὰ πλεῖστα ἐπὶ τὸ βέλτιστον ἄγειν
κτλ. For the term τὸ κατηναγκασμένον cf. δ'. V.F. ii, frag. 916.
¢ =S8.V.F-. ii, frag. 668; cf. Cleomedes, ii. 3. 99 (pp. 178.
26-180. 8, Ziegler) and contrast ii. 4. 100 (p. 182. 8-10). On
the Stoic “ ether ᾽ cf. Diogenes Laertius, vii. 187 (=S.V.F.
ii, frag. 580) and note g on 922 B supra.
Q5
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(928) ato μὲν' τῷ περὶ αὑτὴν" ἐμφερομένην πολὺν"
δ᾽ ὑφ᾽ ἑαυτὴν ἔχουσαν ἐ ἐν ᾧ" (λέγουσιν αὐτοὶ τοὺς
mwywvias) δινεῖσθαι καὶ κομήτας. οὕτως οὐ ταῖς
ῥοπαῖς σεσήκωται κατὰ βάρος καὶ κουφότητα τῶν
σωμάτων ἕκαστον ἀλλ᾽ ἑτέρῳ λόγῳ κεκόσμηται.
16. Λεχθέντων δὲ τούτων κἀμοῦ τῷ Λευκίῳ τὸν
Η λόγον παραδιδόντος, ἐπὶ τὰς ἀποδείξεις βαδίζοντος
τοῦ δόγματος, ᾿Αριστοτέλης μειδιάσας “ μαρτύρο-
μαι a εἶπεν ἢ ὅτι τὴν πᾶσαν ἀντιλογίαν πεποίησαι
πρὸς τοὺς αὐτὴν μὲν ἡμίπυρον εἶναι τὴν σελήνην
ὑποτιθεμένους κοινῇ δὲ τῶν σωμάτων τὰ μὲν ἄνω
τὰ δὲ κάτω ῥέπειν ἐξ ἑαυτῶν φάσκοντας. εἰ δ᾽ ἔστι
τις ὁ λέγων κύκλῳ τε κινεῖσθαι κατὰ φύσιν τὰ
ἄστρα καὶ πολὺ παρηλλαγμένης οὐσίας εἶναι τῶν
Ε τεττάρων, οὐδ᾽ ἀπὸ τύχης ἦλθεν ἐπὶ μνήμην ὑμῖν,"
ὥστ᾽ ἐμέ γεῖ πραγμάτων ἀπηλλάχ θαι." καὶ ζὑπο-
λαβὼν 6)* Λεύκιος “ {(. . ΟΝ ὠγαθὲ ’᾿ εἶπεν “᾿ ἀλλὰ
τἄλλα μὲν ἴσως ἄστρα καὶ τὸν ὅλον οὐρανὸν εἴς
τινα φύσιν καθαρὰν καὶ εἰλικρινῆ καὶ τῆς κατὰ
πάθος ἀπηλλαγμένην μεταβολῆς τιθεμένοις ὑμῖν"
1 Benseler : ἐν -E, B.
2 Bernardakis ; αὐτὴν -E, B.
3 Madvig ; πολλὴν Ἔ, Β.
4 Madvig : ἔχουσαν ἀνέμων -E, B.
5 H.C. (ef. Class. Phil. xlvi [1951], pp. 141 f.); vac. 25-E,
26-B. 6. Amyot; ἡμῖν -E,
7 Turnebus ; τε i: B.
8 H.C. : καὶ vac. 8-E (at end of line), 9-B.
9 λεύκιος vac. 9-K, 11-B.
10 Turnebus ; ἡμῖν -E, B.
2 The lexica give ‘ weigh ” or “‘ balance ” as the meaning
of σεσήκωται., but the logic of the passage here shows that the
word must be connected with σηκός, not with σήκωμα (ef.
Hesychius : ἀποσηκώσας and σάκωσε). Amyot’s “ situez et
96
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 928
still a large amount of it about her in which she
moves and much of it beneath her in which (they
themselves assert that the bearded stars) and comets
whirl. So it is not the inclinations consequent upon
weight and lightness that have circumscribed the
precincts 4 of each of the bodies, but their arrange-
ment is the result of a different principle.”
16. With these remarks I was about to yield the
floor to Lucius,” since the proofs of our position were
next in order ; but Aristotle smiled and said: “‘ The
company is my witness that you have directed your
entire refutation against those who suppose that the
moon is for her part semi-igneous and yet assert of
all bodies in common that of themselves they incline
either upwards or downwards. Whether there is
anyone, however, who says 5 that the stars move
naturally in a circle and are of a substance far superior
to the four substances here @ did not even accidentally
come to your notice, so that I at any rate have been
spared trouble.”’ And Lucius (broke in and) said :
“. . . good friend, probably one would not for the
moment quarrel with you and your friends, despite
the countless difficulties involved, when you ascribe
to the other stars and the whole heaven a nature pure
and undefiled and free from qualitative change and
colloquez ’’ and Kepler’s “ἢ quasi obvallata sunt ’’ render the
sense correctly.
ὃ ΤΆ was ostensibly in order to give Lucius time to collect
his thoughts that Lamprias began the “ remarks ”’ which he
has just concluded after ten paragraphs (see 923 F supra).
¢ This is Aristotle, of course: De Caelo, 269 a 2-18, 270 a
12-35; ef. [Aristotle|, De Mundo, 392 a 5-9 and De Placitis,
887 p= Aétius, ii. 7. 5 (Dow. Graeci, p. 336).
4 | have added this word in the translation in order to make
it clear that ‘“‘ the four’ are the four sublunar substances,
earth, water, air, and fire.
VOU. ΧΙ E O7
(928)
929
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
\ 7 » 1 > a Ay 3 ,
καὶ κύκλον ayovoav’ du οὗ καὶ ἀτελευτήτου περι-
φορᾶς (οἷόν τε φύσιν ἔχειν)" οὐκ av τις ἔν γε τῷ
νῦν διαμάχοιτο καίτοι μυρίων οὐσῶν ἀποριῶν: ὅταν
δὲ καταβαίνων ὃ λόγος οὗτος" θίγῃ τῆς σελήνης,
> Ms ᾽7ὔ \ > / > > ~ \ \ /
οὐκέτι φυλάττει τὴν ἀπάθειαν ἐν αὐτῇ καὶ TO κάλλος
» ,ὔ ~ / > > σ \ ΝΜ 3
ἐκείνου τοῦ σώματος ἀλλ᾽ ἵνα τὰς ἄλλας ἀνω-
/ \ \ > ~ » \ ~ \
μαλίας Kat διαφορὰς ἀφῶμεν αὐτὸ τοῦτο TO δια-
φαινόμενον πρόσωπον πάθει τινὶ τῆς οὐσίας ἢ
ἀναμίξει πως ἑτέρας ἐπιγέγονε. πάσχει δέ τι καὶ
\ / > / \ \ > \ /
TO μιγνύμενον: ἀποβάλλει yap τὸ εἰλικρινὲς βίᾳ
τοῦ χείρονος ἀναπιμπλάμενον. αὐτῆς δὲ νώθειαν
καὶ τάχους ἀμβλύτητα καὶ τὸ θερμὸν ἀδρανὲς καὶ
ἀμαυρόν, (@)* κατὰ τὸν “lwva
μέλας οὐ πεπαίνεται βότρυς,
>) / / \ > / > ων \ /
εἰς τί θησόμεθα πλὴν ἀσθένειαν αὐτῆς Kat πάθος,
(εἰ πάθους)" ἀιδίῳ σώματι καὶ ὀλυμπίῳ μέτεστιν;
“ / Ss / > / ~ \ Ss /
ὅλως yap, ὦ φίλε ᾿Αριστότελες, γῆ μὲν οὖσα πάγ-
καλόν τι χρῆμα καὶ σεμνὸν ἀναφαίνεται καὶ κεκο-
σμημένον' ὡς δ᾽ ἄστρον ἢ φῶς ἢ ἤ τι σῶμα θεῖον καὶ
οὐράνιον δέδια μὴ ἄμορφος ἢ καὶ ἀπρεπὴς καὶ
καταισχύνουσα τὴν καλὴν ἐπωνυμίαν, εἴ γε τῶν ἐν
Η. Ὁ. (ef. Class. Phil. xlvi [1951], p. 142); ἄγουσι -E, B.
H. C.; vac. 17-E, 15-B.
Wyttenbach ; οὕτω -E, B.
Basiliensis ; ἀμαυρὸν, κατὰ -Εὶ : ἀμαυρὸν καὶ κατὰ -Β.
5 Diibner ; ΠΩ ἀϊδίῳ νν ithout lacuna -H, 6.3... »Deest
aliquid ’”? -Xylander ; (εἰ πάθη) -Turnebus, V ulcobius ; (εἰ
πάθος) -Reiske, Wyttenbach.
PrP ὦ ἢ "
or Or Aétius, ii. 30. 6 (Dow. Graeci, p. 362 b ἐπ 4): ᾽Αρισ-
τοτέλης μὴ εἶναι αὐτῆς (scil. σελήνης) ἀκήρατον τὸ σύγκριμα διὰ
τὰ πρόσγεια ἀερώματα τοῦ αἰθέρος, ὃν προσαγορεύει σῶμα πέμ-
98
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 928-929
moving in a circle whereby (it is possible to have the
nature) of endless revolution too; but let this doc-
trine descend and touch the moon, and in her it no
longer preserves the impassivity and beauty of that
body. Not to mention her other irregularities and
divergencies, this very face which she displays is the
result of some alteration of her substance or of
the admixture somehow of another substance.“ That
which is subjected to mixture, however, is the subject
of some affection too, for it loses its purity, since it is
perforce infected by what is inferior to it. The moon’s
sluggishness and slackness of speed and the feeble-
ness and faintness of her heat (which), in the words
of Ion,
ripes not the grape to duskiness, ?
to what shall we ascribe them except to her weakness
and alteration, (if) an eternal and celestial ὁ body
can have any part in (alteration) ? The fact is in
brief, my dear Aristotle, that regarded as earth the
moon has the aspect of a very beautiful, august, and
elegant object ; but as a star or luminary or a divine
and heavenly body she is, I am afraid, misshapen,
ugly, and a disgrace to the noble title, if it is true
atov. In fact in De Gen. Animal. 761 Ὁ 22 Aristotle does
say that the moon shares in the fourth body, /.¢. fire.
» At Quaest. Conviv. 658 c Plutarch quotes the whole line,
Ion, frag. 57 (Nauck?).
¢ For the epithet ὀλύμπιος used of the moon cf. 935 c infra
and De Defectu Oraculorum, 416 £: of δ᾽ ὀλυμπίαν γῆν (5611.
σελήνην) . . . προσεῖπον, and for the meaning attached to it
cf. the etymology in the pseudo-Plutarchian De Vita et
Poesi Homeri, 8, 95 [vii, p. 380. 17-20, Bernardakis] ;
Pseudo-Plutarch in Stobaeus, Helogae, i. 22 (i, p. 198. 10 ff.,
Wachsmuth); [Aristotle], De Mundo, 400 a 6-9; Eustathius,
In Iliadem, 38. 38.
99
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(929) οὐρανῷ τοσούτων τὸ πλῆθος ὄντων μόνη φωτὸς
ἀλλοτρίου δεομένη περίεισι' κατὰ Ἰ]αρμενίδην
> \2 , \ δι ἂς ᾽ ,
B Qlvel TATTTALVOVOA προς αυγας ἠελίοιο.
ε \ ive of teen > ΞΕ , Ξ \ ὭΣ.
ὁ μὲν οὖν ἑταῖρος ἐν τῇ διατριβῇ τοῦτο δὴ τὸ ᾿Ανα-
ξαγόρειον ἀποδεικνὺς ὡς ᾿ ἥλιος ἐντίθησι τῇ σελήνῃ
\
τὸ Aappov ηὐδοκίμησεν᾽ ἐγὼ δὲ ταῦτα “μὲν οὐκ
ἐρῶ ἃ παρ᾽ ὑμῶν ἢ μεθ᾽ ὑμῶν ἔμαθον ἑκὼν δὲν
πρὸς τὰ λοιπὰ βαδιοῦμαι. φωτίζεσθαι τοίνυν τὴν
, > ¢ “ 4 0 7, > , A
σελήνην οὐχ ws vedov* ἢ κρύσταλλον ἐλλάμψει καὶ
διαφαύσει τοῦ ἡλίου πιθανόν ἐστιν οὐδ᾽" αὖ κατὰ
/ / \ \ [2 c ~
σύλλαμψίν τινα Kal συναυγασμὸν ὥσπερ αἱ δᾷδες
αὐξομένου τοῦ φωτός. οὕτως" γὰρ οὐδὲν ἧττον ἐν
πὶ) ~ >
νουμηνίαις ἢ διχομηνίαις ἔσται πανσέληνος ἡμῖν, εἰ
C μὴ στέγει μηδ᾽ ἀντιφράττει. τὸν ἥλιον ἀλλὰ διίησιν'
ὑπὸ μανότητος 7 κατὰ σύγκρασιν ἐκλάμπεις καὶ
συνεξάπτει περὶ αὑτὴν τὸ φῶς. οὐ γὰρ ἔστιν"
1 EK, B?; περίεστι - Β΄.
2 -Anon., Aldine, R.J. 94; ἀεὶ -E, B.
3 Xylander ; ἔχων δὲ τοῦτο -E; ἔχων δὲ -B.
δ
4 Basiliensis ; ὕελλον - Εἰ ; ὕελον -B.
5 Bernardakis ; οὔτ᾽ -Εἰ, Β. 6 Τὶ: οὕτω -Β.
7 Madvig (implied by versions of Amyot and Kepler) ;
δίεισιν -E, B.
8. Sandbach (citing Appian, ot 56: τὴν ἑστίαν ... €k-
λάμψαι πῦρ μέγα) ; ᾿εἰσλάμπει -F,
9 Sandbach ; αὐτὴν -E, B.
10 Bernardakis ; γάρ ἐστιν -EK, B.
«Αἱ Adv. Coloten 1116 a Plutarch quotes Parmenides as
having called the moon ἀλλότριον φῶς (= Parmenides, frag.
B 14 [i, Ὁ». 243. 19, Diels-Kranz]) ; οὐ Empedocles, frag. B 45
(i, p. 331. 9 [Diels-Kranz]).
ὃ =Parmenides, frag. B 15 (i, p. 244. 3 [Diels-Kranz]),
quoted also at Quaest. Rom. 282 B.
¢ See note a on p. 48 supra.
100
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 929
that of all the host in heaven she alone goes about
in need of alien light,” as Parmenides says
Fixing her glance forever on the sun.?
Our comrade in his discourse © won approval by his
demonstration of this very proposition of Anaxagoras’s
that “ the sun imparts to the moon her brilliance ᾿ ὦ:
for my part, I shall not speak about these matters
that I learned from you or in your company but shall
gladly proceed to what remains. Well then, it is
plausible that the moon is illuminated not by the
sun’s irradiating and shining through her in the
manner of glass ὁ or ice 7 nor again as the result of
some sort of concentration of brilliance or aggrega-
tion of rays, the light increasing as in the case of
torches.2 Were that true, we should see the moon
at the full on the first of the month no less than in the
middle of the month, if she does not conceal and
obstruct the sun but because of her subtility lets his
light through or as a result of combining with it
flashes forth and joins in kindling the light in herself.”
Certainly her deviations or aversions* cannot be
4 = Anaxagoras, frag. Β 18 (ii, p. 41. 5-7 [Diels- Kranz]).
ΘΟ Aétius, ii. 25. an (Doz. Graeci, p. 356 Ὁ 21)=Ion of
Chios, frag. A 7 (i, p . 33-34 iii Keeney
7 See note ¢ on oe Ὁ τ σοῖς
9 Cf. De Placitis, 891 r= Aétius, ii. 29. 4 (Dox. Graeci,
p. 360 a 3-8 and Ὁ 5-11).
» The latter was the theory of Posidonius as Plutarch
indicates in 929 Ὁ infra; cf. Cleomedes, ii. 4. 101 (pp. 182.
20-184. 3 [Ziegler]) and ii. 4. 104-105 (pp. 188. 5-190. 16).
? τοι. the various deflections of the moon in latitude and
the varying portion of the lunar hemisphere turned away from
the sun as the moon revolves in her orbit. For these two
variations in the explanation of the lunar phases cf. Cleo-
medes, ii. 4. 100 (pp. 180. 26-182. 7 [Ziegler]), and Geminus,
ix. 5-12 (p. 126. 5 ff. [Manitius]).
101
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(929) ἐκκλίσεις οὐδ᾽ ἀποστροφὰς αὐτῆς, ὥσπερ ὅταν ἢ
διχότομος καὶ ἀμφίκυρτος ἢ μηνοειδής, αἰτιᾶσθαι
\ \ / > \ \ / \ /
περὶ τὴν σύνοδον ἀλλὰ κατὰ στάθμην, φησὶ Anpo-
κριτος, ἱσταμένη τοῦ φωτίζοντος ὑπολαμβάνει καὶ
σ
δέχεται τὸν ἥλιον, ὥστ᾽ αὐτήν τε φαίνεσθαι καὶ
/ 5 ~ , εἶ Ss «ς \ ~ -“ ~
διαφαίνειν ἐκεῖνον εἰκὸς ἦν. ἡ δὲ πολλοῦ δεῖ τοῦτο
ποιεῖν: αὐτή τε γὰρ ἀδηλός ἐστι τηνικαῦτα κἀκεῖνον
3 / \ ᾽ / /
ἀπέκρυψε καὶ ἠφάνισε πολλάκις
> , 1 Pen ve
ἀπεσκέδασεν' δέ οἱ αὐγάς
ὥς φησιν ᾿Εμπεδοκλῆς
Ὁ ἔστ᾽ aiav καθύπερθεν, ἀπεσκνίφωσε δὲ γαίης
τόσσον ὅσον T εὖρος γλαυκώπιδος ἔπλετο μήνης"
καθάπερ εἰς νύκτα καὶ σκότος οὐκ εἰς ἄστρον
“ , 4 A \ > , a \ ,
ἕτερόζφν τιλ τοῦ φωτὸς ἐμπεσόντος. ὃ δὲ λέγει
/ ¢ ς \ / ΄-“ 7 5
Ποσειδώνιος, ὡς ὑπὸ βάθους τῆς σελήνης οὐ πε-
~ ~ \ ~ « / ~ ~
ραιοῦται dv αὐτῆς" τὸ τοῦ ἡλίου φῶς πρὸς ἡμᾶς,
~ \ oA
ἐλέγχεται καταφανῶς. ὃ yap ἀὴρ ἄπλετος ὧν καὶ
βάθος ἔχων πολλαπλάσιον τῆς σελήνης ὅλος" ἐξ-
~ / A A
ηλιοῦται καὶ καταλάμπεται Tats avyais. ἀπολεί-
/ \ a ?> / > / \
E πεται τοίνυν τὸ τοῦ ’EumedoxXéous, ἀνακλάσει τινὶ
τοῦ ἡλίου πρὸς τὴν σελήνην γίγνεσθαι τὸν ἐνταῦθα
1 Xylander ; ἀπεσκεύασε -E, B.
2 B; ὡς φησὶν -E.
3 Ἐξ; ἔπλετο γλαυκώπιδος μήνης -B.-
4 Papabasileios ; ἕτερο vac. 2-E, 4-B.
5 Bs; διαυτῆς -E.
6 E; ὅλως -B.
α — Democritus, frag. A 89 a (ii, p. 105. 32-34 [Diels-
Kranz]). For the meaning of κατὰ στάθμην cf. De Placitis,
102
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 929
alleged as the cause of her invisibility when she is in
conjunction, as they are when she is at the half and
gibbous or crescent; then, rather, © standing in a
straight line with her illuminant,’ says Democritus,
“she sustains and receives the sun,’ 5 so that it would
be reasonable for her to be visible and to let him shine
through. Far from doing this, however, she is at that
time invisible herself and often has concealed and
obliterated him.
His beams she put to flight,
as Empedocles says,
From heaven above as far as to the earth,
Whereof such breadth as had the bright-eyed moon
She cast in shade,?
just as if the light had fallen into night and darkness
and not upon (an)other star. As for the explanation
of Posidonius that the profundity of the moon pre-
vents the light of the sun from passing through her
to us,° this is obviously refuted by the fact that the
air, though it is boundless and has many times the
profundity of the moon, is in its entirety illuminated
and filled with sunshine by the rays. There remains
then the theory of Empedocles that the moonlight
which we see comes from the moon’s reflection of
883 a, 884 c. The words ὑπολαμβάνει καὶ δέχεται have a sexual
meaning here; cf. 944 © infra, De Iside, 372 τὺ Amatorius,
770 a, and Roscher, Uber Selene und Verwandtes, pp. 76 ff.
ὃ =Empedocles, frag. B 42 (i, p. 330. 11-13 [Diels-Kranz]).
¢ See note h on 929 c supra. In Cleomedes, ii. 4. 105
(p. 190. 4-16 [Ziegler]) the refutation given by Plutarch here
is answered or anticipated by the statement that the air does
not have βάθος as the moon does, and from what follows it
appears that by the βάθος of the moon Posidonius must have
meant not mere spatial depth but a certain density as well.
103
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(929) φωτισμὸν ἀπ᾽ αὐτῆς. ὅθεν οὐδὲ θερμὸν οὐδὲ Aap-
πρὸν ἀφικνεῖται πρὸς ἡμᾶς, ὥσπερ ἦν εἰκὸς ἐξάψεως
καὶ μίξεως {τῶν φώτων γεγενημένης. ἀλλ᾽ οἷον
αἵ τε φωναὶ κατὰ τὰς ἀνακλάσεις ἀμαυροτέραν"
ἀναφαίνουσι τὴν ἠχὼ τοῦ φθέγματος αἵ τε πληγαὶ
τῶν ἀφαλλομένων βελῶν μαλακώτεραι προσπί-
πτουσιν
ἃ >» \3 , ’ 7, rate |
ὡς αὐγὴ" τύψασα σεληναίης κύκλον εὐρὺν
ἀσθενῆ καὶ ἀμυδρὰν ἀνάρροιαν ἴσχει πρὸς ἡμᾶς,
διὰ τὴν κλάσιν ἐκλυομένης τῆς δυνάμεως.
“Ὑπολαβὼν δ᾽ ὁ Σύλλας “ ἀμέλει ταῦτ᾽
F s “co” \ , A. Sans , ,ὕ
εἶπεν “᾿ ἔχει τινὰς πιθανότητας. ὃ δ᾽ ἰσχυρότατόν
ἐστι τῶν ἀντιπιπτόντων πότερον ἔτυχέ τινος παρα-
μυθίας 7 παρῆλθεν ἡμῶν τὸν ἑταῖρον; ᾿᾿ “ τί τοῦτο᾽᾽᾿
μέ ce / 2) ¢ / coon \ \ \ /
ἔφη “᾿ λέγεις ;᾿᾿ ὁ Λεύκιος “ ἢ τὸ πρὸς τὴν διχότομον
> / ”) {{ / \ = 3. ¢ / Φ.
ἀπορούμενον; πάνυ μὲν οὖν ᾿᾿ 6 Σύλλας εἶπεν"
᾿ ἔχει γάρ τινα λόγον τὸ πάσης ἐν ἴσαις γωνίαις
γιγνομένης ἀνακλάσεως, ὅταν ἡ σελήνη διχότομος
᾽»
1 Bernardakis ; vac. 4-E, 2-B. 2 Ὁ ; ἀμαυρωτέραν -B.
3 Xylander : αὐτὴ -E, B
¢ At 937 8 infra and De Pythiae Oraculis, 404 τὸ it is said
that in being reflected from the moon the sun’s rays lose their
heat entirely (cf. Macrobius, Somn. Scip. i. 19. 12-13 [p. 560.
30 ff., Eyssenhardt]). Just above, however, at 929 a Plutarch
ascribed to the moonlight a “‘ feeble ’’ heat, and so he does in
Quaest. Nat. 918 a (ef. Aristotle, De Part. Animal. 680 a 33-
34; [Aristotle], Problemata, 942 a 24-26; Theophrastus,
De Causis Plant. iv. 14. 3). Kepler (Somnium sive Astro-
nomia Lunaris, note 200) asserts that he had felt the heat
from the rays of the full moon concentrated in a concave
parabolic mirror; but the first real evidence of the moon’s
heat was obtained by Melloni in 1846 by means of the newly
invented thermopile. Cf. R. Pixis, Kepler als Geograph,
p. 135; S. Giinther, Vergleichende Mond- und Erdkunde,
104
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 929
the sun. That is why there is neither warmth @ nor
brilliance in it when it reaches us, as we should expect
there to be if there had been a kindling or mixture
of (the) lights (of sun and moon).’ To the contrary,
just as voices when they are reflected produce an
echo which is fainter than the original sound and the
impact of missiles after a ricochet is weaker,
Thus, haying struck the moon’s broad disk, the ray °
comes to us in a refluence weak and faint because the
deflection slackens its force.”
17. Sulla then broke in and said: ‘“ No doubt this
position has its plausible aspects ; but what tells most
strongly on the other side, did our comrade @ explain
that away or did he fail to notice it?”’ “‘ What’s.
that ἢ ᾿ said Lucius, “ or do you mean the difficulty
with respect to the half-moon?” “ Exactly,” said
Sulla, “‘ for there is some reason in the contention
that, since all reflection occurs at equal angles,’ when-
p- 82, n.3; Nasmyth-Carpenter, The Moon (London, 1885),.
. 184.
ἀν I have added the words “‘ sun and moon ”’ in the trans-
lation to make explicit the meaning of (7dv) φώτων. For the
theory referred to see note h on 929 c supra.
¢ =Empedocles, frag. B 43 (i, p. 330. 20 [Diels-Kranz]).
4 See 929 8 and note a on p. 48 supra.
¢ This expression is intended to have the same sense as
πρὸς ἴσας γίγνεσθαι γωνίας ἀνάκλασιν πᾶσαν (930 a infra), and
both of them mean (pace Raingeard, p. 100, and Kepler in
note 28 to his translation) “ἡ the angle of reflection is always
equal to the angle of incidence.” Cf. [Euclid], Catoptrica a’
(Euclid, Opera Omnia, vii, p. 286. 21-22 [Heiberg]) with
@lympiodorus, Jn Meteor. p. 212. 7=Hero Alexandrinus,
Qpera, ii. 1, p. 368. 5 (Nix-Schmidt) and [Ptolemy], De
Speculis, ii=Hero Alexandrinus, Opera, iis Πρ. 990. 19-13
A Nix-Schmidt) ; and contrast the more precise formulation
of Philoponus, Jn Meteor. p, 27, 34-35, --~
᾿ ᾿ 105
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
= 1 ~ ~ ι΄
(929) οὖσα μεσουρανῇ, μὴ φέρεσθαι τὸ φῶς ἐπὶ γῆς ἀπ᾽
> ~ > ~ ~
930 αὐτῆς ἀλλ᾽ ὀλισθαίνειν ἐπέκεινα τῆς γῆς. ὃ yap
7 aa ~ ~ - ~
ἥλιος ἐπὶ τοῦ ὁρίζοντος ὧν ἅπτεται TH ἀκτῖνι τῆς
λ / " ὃ \ \ | θ - \ ” 2 > \ /
σελήνης" διὸ καὶ κλασθεῖσα πρὸς ἴσας" ἐπὶ θάτερον
> - “
ἐκπεσεῖται πέρας καὶ οὐκ ἀφήσει δεῦρο τὴν αὐγὴν
Ἅ ὃ \ LA ᾿ LAA ” ~
ἢ διαστροφὴ μεγάλη καὶ παράλλαξις ἔσται τῆς
/ “ 3 / / > }}) ce > \ \ 4999
γωνίας, ὅπερ ἀδύνατόν ἐστιν. ἀλλὰ νὴ Δί
Ξ «ς / {{ \ a 3 > / 2) \ /
εἶπεν ὁ Λεύκιος “᾿ καὶ τοῦτ᾽ ἐρρήθη. Kal πρός ye
Μενέλαον ἀποβλέψας ἐν τῷ διαλέγεσθαι τὸν μαθη-
ματικόν, “᾿ αἰσχύνομαι μὲν ᾿᾿ ἔφη “᾿ σοῦ παρόντος,
> 7, ᾿ 7 , > ἜΣ \ “
ὦ φίλε Μενέλαε, θέσιν ἀναιρεῖν μαθηματικὴν ὥσπερ
θεμέλιον τοῖς κατοπτρικοῖς ὑποκειμένην πράγμασιν
ἀνάγκη δ᾽ εἰπεῖν ὅτι τὸ πρὸς ἴσας γίγνεσθαι"
γωνίας ἀνάκλασιν πᾶσαν οὔτε φαινόμενον αὐτόθεν
Β οὔθ᾽ ὁμολογούμενόν ἐστιν ἀλλὰ διαβάλλεται μὲν ἐπὶ
τῶν κυρτῶν κατόπτρων, ὅταν ἐμφάσεις ποιῇ μεί-
ζονας ἑαυτῶν πρὸς ἕν τὸ τῆς ὄψεως σημεῖον,
διαβάλλεται δὲ τοῖς διπτύχοις κατόπτροις, ὧν ἐπι-
1 Wyttenbach ; διχοτομοῦσα -K, B.
* Benseler (cf. Cleomedes, p. 186. 18 [Ziegler]) : toa -E, B.
3 Wyttenbach ; εἶπεν -E, B.
4 -Anon., Aldine, R.J. 94; τείνεσθαι -E, B.
« Kepler in note 19 to his translation points out that this
is true only if μεσουρανῇ “15 in mid-heaven ”’ refers not to the
meridian but to the great circle at right-angles to the ecliptic.
>» Cleomedes, ii. 4. 103 (p. 186. 7-14 [Ziegler]) introduces
as σχεδὸν γνώριμον his summary of this argument against the
theory that moonlight is merely reflected sunlight.
© See note 6 on 929 F supra,
4 It has been suggested that οὔθ᾽ ὁμολογούμενον is a direct
denial of ὡμολογημένον ἐστὶ παρὰ πᾶσιν at the beginning of
Hero’s demonstration (Schmidt in Hero Alexandrinus, Opera
fed. Nix-Schmidt], ii. 1, p. 314. However that may be, the
law is assumed in Proposition XIX of Euclid’s Optics, where
106
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 929-930
ever the moon at the half is in mid-heaven the light
cannot move earthwards from her but must glance
off beyond the earth. The ray that then touches the
moon comes from the sun on the horizon “ and there-
fore, being reflected at equal angles, would be pro-
duced to the point on the opposite horizon and would
not shed its light upon us, or else there would be
great distortion and aberration of the angle, which
is impossible.” ® “ Yes, by Heaven,” said Lucius,
“ there was talk of this too’; and, looking at Mene-
laus the mathematician as he spoke, he said: “ In
your presence, my dear Menelaus, I am ashamed to
confute a mathematical proposition, the foundation,
as it were, on which rests the subject of catoptrics.
Yet it must be said that the proposition, ἡ all reflec-
tion occurs at equal angles, ° is neither self-evident
nor an admitted fact.’ It is refuted in the case of
convex © mirrors when the point of incidence of the
visual ray produces images that are magnified in one
respect ; and it is refuted by folding mirrors, either
it is said to have been stated in the Catoptrics (Euclid, Opera
Omnia, vii, p. 30. 1-3 [Heiberg|) ; and a demonstration of it
is ascribed to Archimedes (Scholia in Catoptrica, 7 = Euclid,
Opera Omnia, vii, p. 348. 17-22 [Heiberg]; cf. Lejeune, Jsis,
xxxvili [1947], pp. 51 ff.). It is assumed by Aristotle in
Meteorology, iii. 3-5 and possibly also by Plato (cf. Cornford,
Plato’s Cosmology, pp. 154 f. on Timaeus, 46 8); cf. also
Lucretius, iv. 322-323 and [Aristotle], Problemata, 901 b 21-
22 and 915 b 30-35. Proposition XIX of Euclid’s Opties,
referred to above, is supposed to be part of the ‘‘ Dioptries ”’
of Euclid which Plutarch cites at Non Posse Suaviter Vivi,
1093 π (cf. Schmidt, op. cit. p. 304).
* i.e. cylindrical, not spherical, convex mirrors ; ef. Class.
Phil. xlvi (1951), pp. 142-143 for the construction and mean-
ing of this sentence.
7 For such mirrors cf. [Ptolemy], De Speculis, xii= Hero
Alexandrinus, Opera, 11. 1, p. 342. 7 ff.
107
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(930) κλιθέντων' πρὸς ἄλληλα Kal γωνίας ἐντὸς γενομένης
ἑκάτερον τῶν ἐπιπέδων διττὴν" ἔμφασιν ἀποδίδωσι
καὶ ποιεῖ τέτταρας εἰκόνας ἀφ᾽ ἑνὸς προσώπου,
δύο μὲν ἀντιστρόφους (ev) τοῖς ἔξωθεν. [ἀριστεροῖς }?
μέρεσι δύο δὲ «δεξιοφανεῖς ἀμαυρὰς ἐν βάθει τῶν
Ο κατόπτρων. ὧν. τῆς γενέσεως τὴν αἰτίαν Πλάτων
ἀποδίδωσιν. εἴρηκε γὰρ ὅτι τοῦ κατόπτρου ἔνθεν
καὶ ἔνθεν ὕψος λαβόντος ὑπαλλάττουσιν αἱ ὄψεις
τὴν ἀνάκλασιν ἀπὸ τῶν ἑτέρων ἐπὶ θάτερα μετα-
πίπτουσαι. εἴπερ οὖν τῶν ὄψεων εὐθὺ" πρὸς ἡμᾶς
(ai μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν ἐπιπέδων)" ἀνατρέχουσιν at δ᾽ ἐπὶ
θάτερα μέρη τῶν κατόπτρων ὀλισθαίνουσαι πάλιν
ἐκεῖθεν ἀναφέρονται πρὸς ἡμᾶς, οὐ δυνατόν ἐστιν
ἐν ἴσαις γωνίαις γίγνεσθαι πάσας ἀνακλάσεις, ὥστ᾽"
ζένιοι μὲν τοῖς μαθηματικοῖς)" ὁμόσε χωροῦντες
ἀξιοῦσιν αὐτοῖς τοῖς ἀπὸ τῆς σελήνης ἐ ἐπὶ γῆν φερο-
D μένοις ῥεύμασι"" τὴν ἰσότητα τῶν γωνιῶν ἀναιρεῖν,
πολλῷ τοῦτ᾽ ἐκείνου πιθανώτερον εἶναι νομίζοντες.
οὐ μὴν ἀλλ᾽ εἰ δεῖ τοῦτο χαρίζεσθαι τῇ πολλὰ δὴ
1 Turnebus ; ὡς ἐπικριθέντων -E, B.
2 Turnebus ; διττῆς -E, B.
3 Emperius ; τοῖς ἔξωθεν ἀριστεροῖς -E, B. For ἀριστεροῖς
Schmidt (Heronis Alexandrini Opera, ii. 1, pi i305, nap)
suggests σαφεστέρας, Raingeard ἐναργεστέρας. but it was more
probably merely a gloss by someone who misunderstood
δεξιοφανεῖς. as Amyot, Wyttenbach, and Prickard misunder-
stood it.
4 Turnebus ; between κατόπτρων and ὧν E and B repeat
from above ὅταν ἐμφάσεις ποιῇ . . . διαβάλλεται δέ, after
which E has a space of 13 letters and B of 10.
5 H.C. (ef. Timaeus, 46 B 7: ὅταν μεταπέσῃ . . . φῶς, 1.6.
it is the visual ray that shifts) ; μεταπίπτουσαν -E, B.
: Papabasileios ; ; εὐθὺς -E, B.
7H. C.; vac. 20-E, 15-B; (ai μὲν ἐκ τῶν ἔξωθεν) -Adler,
Zwei Beitrage, p. 8.
108
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 930
plane of which, when they have been inclined to each
other and have formed an inner angle, exhibits a
double image, so that four likenesses of a single object
are produced, two reversed on the outer surfaces
and two dim ones not reversed in the depth of the
mirrors. The reason for the production of these
images Plato explains,” for he has said that when the
mirror is elevated on both sides the visual rays inter-
change their reflection because they shift from one
side to the other. So, if of the visual rays (some)
revert straight to us (from the plane surfaces) while
others glance off to the opposite sides of the mirrors
and thence return to us again, it is not possible that
all reflections occur at equal angles.’ Consequently
(some people) take direct issue (with the mathe-
maticians) and maintain that they confute the
equality of the angles of incidence and reflection by
the very streams of light that flow from the moon
upon the earth, for they deem this fact to be much
more credible than that theory. Nevertheless, sup-
pose that this ὁ must be conceded as a favour to
¢ Plutarch means Timaeus, 46 B-c, where Plato, however,
describes a concave, cylindrical mirror, not a folding plane
mirror. Plutarch apparently mistook the words ἔνθεν καὶ
ἔνθεν ὕψη λαβοῦσα, by which Plato describes the horizontal
curvature of the mirror, to mean that the two planes of a
folding mirror were raised to form an angle at the hinge
which joined them.
δ See note 6 on 929 F supra.
° 2,6. the * theory ” that the angle of reflection is always
equal to the angle of incidence.
8 -Anon., Aldine, R.J. 94; ὅσας -E, B.
° H.C. (ef. Class. Phil. xlvi [1951], p. 143); no lacuna
indicated in E, B.
10 B; ῥήμασι -E.
109
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(930) φίλῃ γεωμετρίᾳ καὶ δοῦναι, πρῶτον μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν
ἠκριβωμένων ταῖς λειότησι συμπίπτειν ἐσόπτρων
εἰκός ἐστιν ἡ δὲ σελήνη πολλὰς ἀνωμαλίας ἔχει καὶ
τραχύτητας ὥστε τὰς αὐγὰς ἀπὸ σώματος μεγάλου
/ Ψ > / > / \
προσφερομένας ὕψεσιν ἀξιολόγοις, ἀντιλάμψεις καὶ
/ > > > / / > ~ /
διαδόσεις ἀπ᾿ ἀλλήλων λαμβάνουσιν, ἀνακλᾶσθαί
τε παντοδαπῶς καὶ περιπλέκεσθαι καὶ συνάπτειν
αὐτὴν ἑαυτῇ τὴν ἀνταύγειαν οἷον ἀπὸ πολλῶν φερο-
E μένην πρὸς ἡμᾶς κατόπτρων. ἔπειτα κἂν πρὸς
αὐτῇ τῇ σελήνῃ τὰς ἀντανακλάσεις ἐν ἴσαις γωνίαις
ποιῶμεν, οὐκ ἀδύνατον φερομένας ἐν διαστήματι
/
τοσούτῳ Tas αὐγὰς κλάσεις ἴσχειν καὶ περιολισθή-
σεις, ὡς συγχεῖσθαι' καὶ κάμπτειν" τὸ φῶς. ἔνιοι
δὲ καὶ δεικνύουσι γράφοντες ὃ ὅτι πολλὰ τῶν φώτων
ἐπὶ γῆν ἀφίησι κατὰ γραμμὴν ἀπὸ τῆς ἐκκεκλι-
μένης" ὑποταθεῖσαν' σκευωρεῖσθαι δ᾽ ἅμα λέγοντι
διάγραμμα, καὶ ταῦτα πρὸς πολλούς, οὐκ ἐνῆν.
\ > Ὁ d+) ἐκ ce / ~ \ /
To δ᾽ ὅλον ᾿᾿ ἔφη “ θαυμάζω πῶς τὴν διχό-
τομον ἐφ᾽ ἡμᾶς κινοῦσιν ἐμπίπτουσαν μετὰ τῆς
ἀμφικύρτου καὶ τῆς μηνοειδοῦς. εἰ γὰρ αἰθέριον
F ὄγκον ἢ πύρινον ὄντα τὸν τῆς σελήνης ἐφώτιζεν ὁ
1 Wyttenbach : συγκεῖσθαι -E, B.
2 Emperius 3 λάμπειν -E, B.
3 H.C. ; ὑπὸ τὴν κεκλιμένην -K, B.
4 Turnebus ; ὑποταθείσης -E, B.
« With these words Plutarch means to refer to the effects
of refraction ; cf. De Placitis, 894 c= Aétius, iii. 5. 5 (Dow.
Graeci, p. 372. 21-26) ; Cleomedes, ii. 6. 124-125 (p. 224. 8-28
[Ziegler]) ; : Alexander, In Meteor. p. 148. 7-10.
> Cf. the argument given by Cleomedes, ii. 4. 103 (pp. 186.
14-1 88. 7 [Ziegler]) and especially : ὅτι δ᾽ ἀπὸ παντὸς τοῦ κύκλου
αὐτῆς he Alar ἡ γῆ, γνώριμον. εὐθέως γὰρ ἅμα τῷ τὴν πρώτην
ἴτυν ἀνασχεῖν ἐκ τοῦ ὁρίζοντος φωτίζει τὴν γῆν, τούτων τῶν μερῶν
110
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 930
geometry, the dearly beloved! In the first place,
it is likely to occur only in mirrors that have been
polished to exact smoothness ; but the moon is very
uneven and rugged, with the result that the rays
from a large body striking against considerable
heights which receive reflections and diffusions of
light from one another are multifariously reflected
and intertwined and the refulgence itself combines
with itself, coming to us, as it were, from many
mirrors. In the second place, even if we assume that
the reflections on the surface of the moon occur at
equal angles, it is not impossible that the rays as they
travel through such a great interval get fractured
and deflected “ so as to be blurred and to bend their
light. Some people even give a geometrical demon-
stration that the moon sheds many of her beams upon
the earth along a line extended from the surface that
is bent away from us? ; but I could not construct a
geometrical diagram while talking, and talking to
many people too.
18. Speaking generally,” he said, “ I marvel that
they adduce against us the moon's shining upon the
earth at the half and at the gibbous and the crescent
phases too.° After all, if the mass of the moon that
is illuminated by the sun were ethereal or fiery, the
αὐτῆς περικλινῶν ὄντων Kal πρὸς τὸν οὐρανόν, ἀλλ᾽ οὐχί, μὰ Δία,
πρὸς τὴν γῆν ὁρώντων. For ἡ ἐκκεκλιμένη cf. Hippocrates, Art.
98 (iv, p. 168. 18 [Littré]).
© i.e. the moon at the half, gibbous, and crescent phases
presents such a great difficulty for the Stoics themselves that
it is strange for them to adduce these phenomena as refutation
of the theory that the moon shines by reflected light. Wytten-
bach’s conjecture, ἐκπίπτουσαν for ἐμπίπτουσαν, approved by
Purser and apparently adopted by Prickard in his translation
of 1918, betrays a misapprehension of the meaning of the
LEXE.
11]
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(930) ἥλιος, οὐκ ἂν ἀπέλειπεν αὐτῇ σκιερὸν ἀεὶ καὶ
991
ἀλαμπὲς ἡμισφαίριον πρὸς αἴσθησιν ἀλλ᾽, εἰ καὶ
κατὰ μικρὸν ἔψαυε περιιών," ὅλην" ἀναπίμπλασθαι
καὶ δι᾿ ὅλης τρέπεσθαι" τῷ φωτὶ πανταχόσε χω-
ροῦντι δι᾽ εὐπετείας ἦν προσῆκον. ὅπου “γὰρ οἶνος
ὕδατος "θιγὼν κατὰ" πέρας καὶ σταγὼν αἵματος εἰς
ὑγρὸν ἐμπεσόντος ἀνέχρωσε πᾶν ἅμα" {τῷ ψαύειν)"
φοινιχθὲν αὐτὸν δὲ τὸν ἀέρα λέγουσιν οὐκ ἀπορ-
poats’ τισιν οὐδ᾽ ἀκτῖσι μεμιγμέναις ἀλλὰ τροπῇ
καὶ μεταβολῇ κατὰ νύξιν ἢ ψαῦσιν ἀπὸ τοῦ φωτὸς
ἐξηλιοῦσθαι," πῶς ἄστρον ἄστρου καὶ φῶς φωτὸς
ἁψάμενον οἴονται μὴ κεράννυσθαιδ μηδὲ σύγχυσιν
ποιεῖν δι᾿ ὅλου" καὶ μεταβολὴν ἀλλ᾽ ἐκεῖνα φωτίζειν
μόνον ὧν ἅπτεται κατὰ τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν; ὃν γὰρ
ὁ ἥλιος περιιὼν κύκλον ἄγει καὶ περιστρέφει περὶ
τὴν σελήνην, νῦν μὲν ἐπιπίπτοντα τῷ διορίζοντι τὸ
ὁρατὸν αὐτῆς καὶ τὸ ἀόρατον νῦν δ᾽ ἀνιστάμενον
-Anon., Aldine, R.J. 945 περὶ év-E, B; περιών -Stepha-
nus (1624) after Leonicus.
2 Stephanus (1624) ; πολλὴν -E, B.
8 Turnebus ; 3 τρέφεσθαι -E, B.
4 B; ara πέρας -E (at beginning of line).
5 Turnebus ; 3 αἷμα - -Ε,
6 Adler; vac. 8-E, 7- B.
? Bernardakis ; ι΄ ee -K, B.
8 ἢ ; ἐξηλλοιοῦσθαι -B.
9. E>; κεραννῖσθαι -B.
10 E,; διόλου -Β.
11 FE; πρὸς -B.
* For ἀπέλειπεν cf. 931 c infra. The dative with the verb
is unobjectionable, cf. e.g. [Reg. et Imp. Apophthegm.] 178 Ὁ,
195 F.
> For κατὰ πέρας cf. De Communibus N otitis, 1080 τ
(=S.V.F. ii, frag. 487): ψαύειν κατὰ πέρας τὰ σώματα. ..
λέγουσι oa 8. VF. Ds ἌΡΗΝ 433 cited in note d on 930 F infra,
112
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 930-931
sun would not leave her“ a hemisphere that to our
perception is ever in shadow and unilluminated ; on
the contrary, if as he revolves he grazed her ever so
slightly, she should be saturated in her entirety and
altered through and through by the light proceeding
easily in all directions. Since wine that just touches
water at its surface ὃ or a drop of blood fallen into
liquid at the moment (of contact) stains all the liquid
red,° and since they say that the air itself is filled
with sunshine not by having any effluences or rays
commingled with it but by an alteration and change
that results from impact or contact of the light,¢ how
do they imagine that a star can come in contact with
a star or light with light and instead of blending and
producing a thorough mixture and change merely
illuminate those portions of the surface which it
touches ?& In fact, the circle which the sun in its
revolution describes and causes to turn about the
moon now coinciding with the circle that divides her
visible and invisible parts and now standing at right
The “ emendations ᾿ of Emperius and Papabasileios are con-
sequently ill-advised.
¢ Cf. De Communibus Notitiis, 1078 Ὁ-Ὲ (=S.V.F. ii, frag.
480) and S.V.F. ii, frags. 473, 477, 479.
4 Cf. S.V.F. ii, frag. 433 (Galen, In Hippocr. Epidem. vi
Comment. iv, vol. xvii, B, p. 161 [Kiihn], especially : τοῖς ἄνω
πέρασιν αὐτοῦ (scil. τοῦ ἀέρος) προσπιπτούσης τῆς ἡλιακῆς αὐγῆς
ὅλος ἀλλοιοῦταί τε καὶ μεταβάλλεται συνεχὴς ὧν ἑαυτῷ). Cf. also
note a on 922 E supra.
ὁ Cf. Cleomedes, ii. 4. 101 (p. 182. 20 ff. [Ziegler]) for the
doctrine of Posidonius, which Plutarch here turns against
him and the Stoics generally : τρίτη ἐστὶν αἵρεσις ἡ λέγουσα
κιρνᾶσθαι αὐτῆς (scil. τῆς σελήνης) τὸ φῶς € ἔκ τε τοῦ οἰκείου καὶ
τοῦ “ἡλιακοῦ φωτὸς καὶ τοιοῦτον γίνεσθαι οὐκ ἀπαθοῦς μενούσης
αὐτῆς Baa ἀλλοιουμένης ὑπὸ τοῦ ἡλιακοῦ φωτὸς καὶ κατὰ
τοιαύτην τὴν κρᾶσιν ἴδιον ἰσχούσης τὸ φῶς... .. Cf. thid. 104
(p. 188. 4-7).
113
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(931) πρὸς ὀρθὰς ὥστε τέμνειν ἐκεῖνον ὑπ᾽ ἐκείνου τε
τέμνεσθαι, ἄλλαις κλίσεσι καὶ σχέσεσι τοῦ λαμπροῦ
πρὸς τὸ σκιερὸν ἀμφικύρτους καὶ μηνοειδεῖς" ἀπο-
διδόντα μορφὰς ἐν αὐτῇ, παντὸς μᾶλλον ἐπιδείκνυ-
σιν οὐ σύγκρασιν ἀλλ᾽ ἐπαφὴν οὐδὲ σύλλαμψιν
Β ἀλλὰ περίλαμψιν αὐτῆς ὄντα τὸν φωτισμόν. ἐπεὶ
δ᾽ οὐκ αὐτὴ φωτίζεται μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ δεῦρο τῆς
αὐγῆς ἀναπέμπει τὸ εἴδωλον, ἔτι καὶ μᾶλλον ¢ ἰσχυ-
ρίσασθαι τῷ λόγῳ περὶ τῆς οὐσίας δίδωσιν. αἱ
γὰρ ἀνακλάσεις γίγνονται πρὸς οὐδὲν ἀραιὸν οὐδὲ
λεπτομερές, οὐδ᾽ ἔστι φῶς ἀπὸ φωτὸς" ἢ πῦρ ἀπὸ
πυρὸς ἀφαλλόμενον [ἢ] νοῆσαι ῥᾷδιον, ἀλλὰ δεῖ τὸ
ποιῆσον ἀντιτυπίαν τινὰ καὶ κλάσιν ἐμβριθὲς εἶναι
καὶ πυκνὸν ἵνα πρὸς αὐτὸ πληγὴ καὶ ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ
φορὰ γένηται. τὸν γοῦν αὐτὸν ἥλιον ὁ μὲν ἀὴρ
ιΐησιν οὐ παρέχων ἀνακοπὰς οὐδ᾽ ἀντερείδων ἀπὸ
δὲ ξύλων καὶ λίθων καὶ ἱματίων εἰς φῶς τιθεμένων
C πολλὰς ἀντιλάμψεις καὶ περιλάμψεις ἀποδίδωσιν.
οὕτω δὲ καὶ τὴν γῆν ὁρῶμεν ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ φωτιζο-
μένην᾽ οὐ γὰρ εἰς βάθος ὥσπερ ὕδωρ οὐδὲ δι᾿ ὅλης
ὥσπερ ἀὴρ διίησι τὴν αὐγήν, ἀλλ᾽ οἷος τὴν σελήνην
περιστείχει κύκλος αὐτοῦ" Kal. ὅσον ὑποτέμνεται
μέρος ἐκείνης τοιοῦτος ἕτερος περίεισι τὴν γῆν καὶ
τοσοῦτον" φωτίζων ἀεὶ καὶ ἀπολείπων ἕτερον ἀφώ-
Β ; νοειδεῖς -E (at top of page).
-Anon., Aldine, R.J. 94; ἐπιδεικνύουσιν -E, B.
E ; ἀποφωτός -B.
Deleted by Wyttenbach.
5 -Anon., Aldine, R.J.94; αὐτῶν -E, B ; αὐτὴν -Turnebus,
Vulcobius.
8 EK; τοσοῦτο -B.
ιωΦ ὦ we μ
« Cf. Cleomedes, ii. 5. 109-111 (pp. 196. 28-200. 23
[Ziegler]).
114
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 931
angles to it so as to intersect it and be intersected by
it, by different inclinations and relations of the bright
part to the dark producing in her the gibbous and
crescent phases,” conclusively demonstrates that her
illumination is the result not of combination but of
contact, not of a concentration of light within her
but of light shining upon her from without. In that
she is not only illuminated herself, however, but also
transmits to us the semblance of her illumination.
she gives us all the more confidence in our theory of
her substance. There are no reflections from any-
thing rarefied or tenuous in texture, and it is not easy
even to imagine light rebounding from light or fire
from fire ; but whatever is to cause a repercussion
or a reflection must be compact and solid,? in order
that it may stop a blow and repel it.“ At any rate,
the same sunlight that the air lets pass without im-
pediment or Eee is widely reflected and diffused
from wood and stone and clothing exposed to its rays.
The earth too we see iret by the sun in this
fashion. It does not let the light penetrate its depths
as water does or pervade it through and through as
air does; but such as is the circle of the sun that
moves around the moon and so great as is the part
of her that it intercepts, just such a circle in turn
moves around the earth, always illuminating just so
much and leaving another part unilluminated,? for
ὃ Here ἐμβριθές is used as the opposite of λεπτομερές (ef.
Liddell and Scott, s.v. ἐμβρίθεια ii) as πυκνόν is of ἀραιόν.
Pfs Cleomedes, li. 4. 101-102 (p. 184, 9-18 [Ziegler]).
Cleomedes, assuming that the moon is μανόν, uses this as an
argument against reflection; Plutarch, having established
the necessity of reflection, uses the argument to support the
contention that the moon is earthy.
4 Of. Cleomedes, ii. 5. 108 (p. 194. 20 ff. [Ziegler]).
115
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(9351) τιστον᾽ ἡμισφαιρίου γὰρ ὀλίγῳ δοκεῖ μεῖζον εἶναι
τὸ περιλαμπόμενον ἑκατέρας. δότε δή μοι γεω-
μετρικῶς εἰπεῖν πρὸς ἀναλογίαν ὡς εἰ, τριῶν ὄντων
οἷς τὸ ἀφ᾽ ἡλίου φῶς πλησιάζει, “γῆς σελήνης ἀ ἀέρος,
ὁρῶμεν οὐχ ὡς ὁ ἀὴρ μᾶλλον 1 ὴ ὡς ἢ γῆ φωτιζο-
μένην τὴν σελήνην, ἀνάγκη φύσιν ἔχειν ὁμοίαν ἃ
ταὐτὰ πάσχειν ὑπὸ ταὐτοῦ πέφυκεν.
D 19. Ἐπεὶ δὲ πάντες ἐπήνεσαν τὸν Λεύκιον, “‘ εὖ
γ᾽ )»)» ΜΝ ce
ἔφην “᾿ ὅτι καλῷ λόγῳ καλὴν ἀναλογίαν προσ-
ἐθῃκας: οὐ γὰρ ἀποστερητέον σε τῶν ἰδίων.᾽ ᾿ κἀ-
κεῖνος ἐπιμειδιάσας “᾿ οὐκοῦν ᾿ ἔφη “καὶ δεύτερον
ἀναλογίᾳ -“προσχρηστέον, ὅπως μὴ (τῷ»" ταὐτὰ
πάσχειν ὑπὸ ταὐτοῦ μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ τῷ ταὐτὰ
ποιεῖν ταὐτὸν ἀποδείξωμεν τῇ γῇ τὴν ᾿σελήνην
προσεοικυῖαν. ὅτι μὲν γὰρ οὐδὲν οὕτως τῶν περὶ
τὸν ἥλιον γιγνομένων ὅμοιόν ἐστιν ὡς ἔκλειψις
ἡλίου δύσει δότε μοι, ταύτης ἔναγχος τῆς" συνόδου
E μνησθέντες ἣ πολλὰ μὲν ἄστρα πολλαχόθεν τοῦ
οὐρανοῦ διέφηνεν εὐθὺς ἐκ μεσημβρίας ἀρξαμένη
κρᾶσιν ΟῚ οἵαν τὸ λυκαυγὲς τῷ ἀέρι παρέσχεν: εἰ δὲ
μή, Θέων'᾽ ἡμῖν οὗτος {τὸν " Mipveppov ἐπάξει καὶ
1 δὲ -Wyttenbach. * Basiliensis ; lacking in E, B.
3B; lacking in E. 4 Basiliensis ; θεῶν -E, B.
5 Stephanus (1624) ; Μώμνερμον -Basiliensis ; ἐργομίμναμον
-K, B.
2 Cf. Cleomedes, ii. 5. 109 (p. 198. 6-9 [Ziegler]).
>» I have tried to preserve the contorted form in which
Plutarch expresses the point that the moon, since it is affected
by sunlight as the earth is and not as air is, must have the
consistency of earth and not of air.
© Concerning this eclipse see the Introduction, ὃ 3 supra
on the date of the dialogue.
4 For λυκαυγές see 941 vd infra and Lucian, Vera Hist. ii
12. Prickard takes the κρᾶσις to refer to the degree of heat ;
116
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 931
the illuminated portion of either body appears to be
slightly greater than a hemisphere.* Give me leave
then to put it in geometrical fashion in terms of a
proportion. Given three things approached by the
light from the sun: earth, moon air ; if we see that
the moon is illuminated not as the air is rather than
as the earth, the things upon which the same agent
produces the same effects must be of a similar
ΤΠ ΠΕ ΤΡ
19. When all had applauded Lucius, I said : “ Con-
gratulations upon having added to an elegant account
an elegant proportion, for you must not be defrauded
of what belongs to you.” He smiled thereat and
said: “‘ Well then proportion must be used a second
time, in order that we may prove the moon to be like
the earth not only because the effects of the same
agent are the same on both but also because the
effects of both on the same patient are the same.
Now, grant me that nothing that happens to the sun
is so like its setting as a solar eclipse. You will if you
call to mind this conjunction recently which, beginning
just after noonday, made many stars shine out from
rmaany parts of the sky ὁ and tempered the air in the
manner of twilight.? If you do not recall it, Theon
here will cite us Mimnermus’ and Cydias’ and
Raingeard, like Amyot and Wyttenbach, takes it to refer to
colour or light. Either is possible, but I think a reference to
colour the more probable; for κρᾶσις used of colour ef.
Quaest. Conviv. 647 c.
¢ Cf. Anthologia Lyrica Graeca, ed. Diehl’, i. 1, pp. 50-57,
and Edmonds, Elegy and Iambus, i, pp. 82-103 ; Mimnermus
is mentioned in the pseudo-Plutarchean De Musica, chap. 8,
LSS ae:
7 Cf. Plato, Charmides, 155 Ὁ: Edmonds, Lyra Graeca,
11, p. 68; Wilamowitz, Textgeschichte der griechischen
Lyriker, Ὁ. 40, n. 1.
117
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(931) τὸν Κυδίαν καὶ τὸν ᾿Αρχίλοχον πρὸς δὲ τούτοις TOV
Στησίχορον καὶ τὸν [Πίνδαρον ἐν ταῖς ἐκλείψεσιν
ὀλοφυρομένους ᾿ ἄστρον' “φανερώτατον “κλεπτό-
μενον ᾿ καί μέσῳ ἄματι" νύκτα γινομένην ᾿ καὶ τὴν
F ἀκτῖνα τοῦ ἡλίου ‘ σκότους" ἀτραπὸν (eooupevav) 4
φάσκοντας ἐπὶ πᾶσι δὲ τὸν Ὅμηρον “νυκτὶ καὶ
ζόφῳ τὰ πρόσωπα᾽ κατέχεσθαι τῶν ἀνθρώπων᾽
λέγοντα καὶ ᾿ τὸν ἥλιον ἐξαπολωλέναι τοῦ οὐρανοῦ
περὶ τὴν σελήνην καὶ (αἰνιττόμενον ὡς τοῦτο
γίγνεσθαι πέφυκε" τοῦ μὲν φθίνοντος μηνὸς τοῦ δ᾽
ἱσταμένου. τὰ λοιπὰ δ᾽ οἶμαι ταῖς μαθηματικαῖς
ἀκριβείαις εἰς τὸν (σαφῆ λόγον) ἐξῆχθαι καὶ βέ-
βαιον ὡς ἥ γε νύξ ἐστι σκιὰ γῆς ἡ δὲ ἔκλειψις τοῦ
ἡλίου σκιὰ σελήνης ὅταν ἡ ὄψις ἐν αὐτῇ γένηται.
δυόμενος γὰρ ὑπὸ τῆς γῆς ἀντιφράττεται πρὸς τὴν
ὄψιν ἐκλιπὼν δ᾽ ὑπὸ τῆς σελήνης: ἀμφότεραι δ᾽
992 εἰσὶν ἐπισκοτήσεις, ἀλλ᾽ ἡ μὲν δυτικὴ τῆς γῆς ἡ δ᾽
ἐκλειπτικὴ τῆς σελήνης τῇ σκιᾷ καταλαμβανούσης
1 Bergk ; τὸν -Εἰ, B. 2 Leonicus ; ἅμα τὴν -E, B.
3B; σκότος -E. 4 Adler; vac. 16 -E, B.
5 Xylander ; πρῶτα -E, B.
6 H.C. (cf. De Vita et Poesi Homeri, § 4 [vii, p. 332. 9,
Bernardakis]) ; vac. 14-E, 12-B.
7 H.C. (ef. Class. Phil. xlvi [1951], pp. 143 f.)3 vaei
7-E, 9-B.
« Cf. Archilochus, frag. 74 (Anthologia Lyrica Graeca, ed.
Diehl,4.;3,4p, Sas Edmonds, Elegy and Tambus, ii, p. 134).
ae Ot Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 12, § 54: “ quo in metu fuisse
Stesichori et Pindari vatum sublimia ora palam est deliquio
solis.”’
¢ =Pindar, Paean, ix. 2-3: ἄστρον ὑπέρτατον ἐν ἁμέρᾳ κλε-
πτόμενον.
a Peele Stesichorus, cf. Bergk, Poetae Lyrici Graeci',
iii, p. 229 (frag. 73), and Edmonds, Elegy and Iambus, i, p.
102, τὶ: ae
118
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 931-932
Archilochus 5 and Stesichorus besides and Pindar,?
who during eclipses bewail ‘ the brightest star bereft’ ¢
and ΄ at midday night falling ᾿ ὦ and say that the beam
of the sun ‘ (is sped) the path of shade ὁ ; and to
crown all he will cite Homer, who says ‘ the faces
of men are covered with night and gloom ’* and‘ the
sun has perished out of heaven ’’ speaking with refer-
ence to the moon and (hinting that) this naturally
occurs
When waning month to waxing month gives way.”
For the rest, I think that it has been reduced by the
precision of mathematics to the (clear) and certain
(formula) that night is the shadow of earth? and the
eclipse of the sun is the shadow of the moon’ when-
ever the visual ray encounters it. The fact is that
in setting the sun is screened from our vision by the
earth and in eclipse by the moon ; both are cases of
occultation, but the yespertine is occultation by the
earth and the ecliptic by the moon with her shadow
4 Cf. Pindar, Paean, ix. 5: ἐπίσκοτον ἀτραπὸν ἐσσυμένα.
For the genitive σκότους cf. De Audiendis Poetis, 36 ©, and
De Latenter Vivendo, 1130 8.
f Adapted from Odyssey, xx. 351-352.
9 Odyssey, xx. 356-357.
2 Odyssey, xix. 307. For this interpretation of the Homeric
lines cf. De Vita et Poesi Homeri, chap. 108 (vii, p. 388. 15 ff.
[Bernardakis]), and Heraclitus, Quaestiones Homericae, ὃ 75
(pp. 98. 20-99. 18 [Oelmann)).
? Cf. De Primo Frigido, 953 a and Plat. Quaest. 1006 F,
where on Timaeus, 40 c Plutarch quotes Empedocles to this
effect. Aristotle refers to the definition, Topics, 146 b 28 and
Meteorology, 345 b 7-8.
i Cf. the lines of Empedocles quoted at 929 c-p supra. In
De Placitis, 890 r= Aétius, ii. 24. 1 this explanation of solar
eclipses is ascribed to Thales—quite unhistorically, as the
subsequent entries show.
119
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(932) ) τὴν ὄψιν. ἐκ δὲ τούτων εὐθεώρητον τὸ γιγνόμενον.
εἰ γὰρ ὅμοιον τὸ πάθος, ὅμοια τὰ ποιοῦντα' τῷ
γὰρ αὐτῷ ταὐτὰ συμβαίνειν ὑπὸ τῶν αὐτῶν ἀναγ-
καῖόν ἐστιν. εἰ δ᾽ οὐχ οὕτως" τὸ περὶ τὰς ἐκλείψεις
σκότος βύθιόν ἐστιν οὐδ᾽ ὁμοίως τῇ νυκτὶ “πιέζει
τὸν ἀέρα, μὴ θαυμάζωμεν" οὐσία μὲν γὰρ ἡ αὐτὴ
τοῦ τὴν νύκτα ποιοῦντος καὶ τοῦ τὴν ἔκλειψιν σώ-
ματος μέγεθος δ᾽ οὐκ ἴσον, ἀλλ᾽ Αἰγυπτίους μὲν
ἑβδομηκοστόδυον οἶμαι φάναι μόριον εἶναι τὴν σε-
Β λήνην ᾿Αναξαγόραν δ᾽ ὅση Πελοπόννησος ᾿Αρί-
σταρχος δὲ {τὴν διάμετρον τῆς γῆς πρὸς" τὴν
διάμετρον τῆς σελήνης λόγον ἔ ἔχουσαν ἀποδείκνυσιν
ὃς ἐλάττων μὲν ἢ ἑξήκοντα πρὸς δεκαεννέαἶ μείζων
δ᾽ ἢ ὡς" ἑκατὸν ὀκτὼ πρὸς τεσσαράκοντα τρί
ἐστίν. ὅθεν ἡ μὲν γῆ παντάπασι τῆς ὄψεως τὸν
ἥλιον ἀφαιρεῖται διὰ μέγεθος (μεγάλη γὰρ ἡ ἐπι-
πρόσθησις καὶ χρόνον ἔχουσα τὸν τῆς νυκτός), ἡ
δὲ σελήνη κἂν ὅλον ποτὲ κρύψῃ τὸν ἥλιον, οὐκ ἔχει
χρόνον οὐδὲ πλάτος ἡ ἔκλειψις ἀλλὰ περιφαίνεταί
τις αὐγὴ περὶ τὴν ἴτυν οὐκ ἐῶσα βαθεῖαν “γενέσθαι
τὴν σκιὰν καὶ ἄκρατον. ᾿Αριστοτέλης δ᾽ ὁ παλαιὸς
C αἰτίαν τοῦ πλεονάκις τὴν σελήνην ἐκλείπουσαν ἢ
E ; οὕτω -Β.
{τῆς γῆς) -Turnebus, Vulcobius.
Β ; Πελοπόνησος -E.
Bernardakis (cf. Aristarchus, p. 408. 21 [Heath]).
Turnebus (cf. Stephanus [1624]); δέ, καὶ ἐννέα -E, B
Aldine, Basiliensis. 6 Bernardakis ; δέ πως -E, B.
em ON μὰ
σι
9
« Cf. Cleomedes, ii. 3. 94-95 (p. 172. 6-10 [Ziegler]) and
ii. 4. 106 (p. 192. 16-24); Geminus, x (pp. 130. 11-132. 12
[ Manitius]).
> I know of no other reference to such an estimate.
¢ According to Hippolytus, Refut. i. 8. 6-10 (=Doz.
Graeci, p, 562=Anaxagoras, frag, A 42 [ii, p. 16. 16-31,
120
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 932
intercepting the visual τὰν. What follows from this
is easy to perceive. If the effect is similar, the agents
are similar, for it must be the same agents that cause
the same things to happen to the same subject. Nor
should we marvel if the darkness of eclipses is not so
deep or so oppressive of the air as night is. The reason
is that the body which produces night and that which
produces the eclipse while the same in substance are
not equal in size. In fact the Egyptians, I think, say
that the moon is one seventy-second part (of the
earth), and Anaxagoras that it is the size of the
Peloponnesus ©; and Aristarchus demonstrates that
the ratio of (the earth’s diameter to) the diameter
of the moon is smaller than 60 to 19 and greater than
108 to 43.4 Consequently the earth because of its
size removes the sun from sight entirely, for the
obstruction is large and its duration is that of the
night. Even if the moon, however, does sometimes
cover the sun entirely, the eclipse does not have
duration or extension ; but a kind of light is visible
about the rim which keeps the shadow from being
profound and absolute.’ The ancient Aristotle gives
this as a reason besides some others why the moon
Diels-Kranz|), Anaxagoras said that the sun exceeds the
Peloponnesus in size (cf. Aétius, ii. 21. 3 and Diogenes
Laertius, ii. 8). The statement here concerning the moon is
missing from Diels-Kranz.
4 This is Proposition 17 of Aristarchus’s essay, “‘ On the
Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon ” (cf. Heath’s edi-
tion and translation in his Aristarchus of Samos, pp. 351 ff.).
Although Plutarch does not say that this contradicts Stoic
doctrine, the older, orthodox Stoics held that the moon as
well as the sun is larger than the earth (De Placitis, 891 c=
Aétius, ii. 26. 1=S.V.F. ii, frag. 666; cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist.
ii. 11 [8]. 49).
¢ Cf. Cleomedes, ii. 4. 105 (p. 190. 17-26).
121
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(932) τὸν ἥλιον καθορᾶσθαι πρὸς ἄλλαις τισὶ Kal ταύτην
3 / [χὰ \ > / / > /
ἀποδίδωσιν" ἥλιον yap ἐκλείπειν σελήνης ἀντιφράξει
1 κ᾿ \
σελήνην δὲ (γῆς, πολλῷ μείζονος οὔσης.) δὲ
Ποσειδώνιος ὁρισάμενος οὕτως" ᾿ τόδε τὸ πάθος
ἔκλειψίς ἐστιν ἡλίου" σύνοδος σκιᾶς σελήνης οἷς"
[τὴν ἔκλειψιν }" (ἂν γῆς μέρεσι κατασκιάζῃ")" ἐκεί-
νοις γὰρ μόνοις ἔκλειψίς, ἐστιν ὧν ἂν ἡ σκιὰ τῆς
σελήνης καταλαβοῦσα τὴν ὄψιν ἀντιφράξῃ" πρὸς
τὸν ἥλιον ᾿" ὁμολογῶν δὴ" σκιὰν τῆς σε; ἤνης
φέρεσθαι πρὸς ἡμᾶς, οὐκ οἶδ᾽ ὅτι λέγειν ἑαυτῷ
καταλέλοιπεν. ἄστρου δὲ σκιὰν ἀδύνατον γενέσθαι"
τὸ γὰρ ἀφώτιστον σκιὰ λέγεται τὸ δὲ φῶς οὐ ποιεῖ"
σκιὰν ἀλλ᾽ ἀναιρεῖν πέφυκεν.
D 20. ᾿Αλλὰ 67) Tee ἔφη ᾿ “μετὰ τοῦτο τῶν τε-
κμηρίων ἐλέχθη; Kayo “τὴν αὐτὴν ᾿᾿ ἔφην
665 9 / ς / ” }) 4," > ~ ”) >
ἐλάμβανεν ἡ σελήνη ἔκλειψιν. ὀρθῶς ᾿᾿ εἶπεν
ἂν. / 9 > \ \ / e ΄ 10
ὑπέμνησας." ἀλλὰ δὴ πότερον ὡς πεπεισμένων
ὑμῶν καὶ τιθέντων ἐκλείπειν τὴν σελήνην ὑπὸ τοῦ
σκιάσματος ἁλισκομένην ἤδη τρέπωμαι" πρὸς τὸν
1 Adler; σελήνην δὲ vac, 28-E (in two lines), 9ὅ-Β.
2 EE; ys -B.
3 Excised by Prickard (1911).
4 H.C.; vac. 22-K, 11-B.
5 Anon., Aldine, R.J. 94; ἀντιφράξαι -E, B.
ps Fa Ge 3 δὲ -E, B; ye -Wyttenbach.
i ποιεῖν - -Β.
8 E; τί δὴ -Β.
9. Β; ὑπόμνησας -E.
10. FE ; πεποιημένων -B.
11 Wyttenbach ; τρέπονται -E, B.
« = Aristotle, frag. 210 (Rose). The reference is not to
De Caelo, 293 b 20-25, for in that passage Aristotle gives not
his own opinion but that of some Pythagoreans (cf. Cherniss,
122
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 932
is observed in eclipse more frequently than the sun,
saying that the sun is eclipsed by interposition of the
moon but the moon (by that of the earth, which is |
much larger).? Posidonius gave this definition : “ The
following condition is an eclipse of the sun, conjunc-
tion of the moon’s shadow with whatever (parts of
the earth it may obscure), for there is an eclipse only
for those whose visual ray the shadow of the moon
intercepts and screens from the sun ὃ ;—since he
concedes then that a shadow of the moon falls upon
us, he has left himself nothing to say that I can see.
Of a star there can be no shadow, for shadow means
the unlighted and light does not produce shadow but
naturally destroys it.°
20. Well now,” he said, “ which of the proofs came
after this?” And I replied, “ That the moon is
subject to the same eclipse.”’ “ Thank you,” he said,
“for reminding me; but now shall I assume that
you have been persuaded and do hold the moon to
be eclipsed by being caught in the shadow and so
Aristotle's Criticism of Presocratic Philosophy, pp. 198-199,
and Aétius, ii. 29. 4 cited there). For the terminology σελήνης
or γῆς ἀντίφραξις cf. Aristotle, Anal. Post. 90 a 15-18, and
with the whole passage cf. Pseudo-Alexander, Problem. 2. 46
(quoted by Rose, Aristoteles Pseudepigraphus, § 194, p. 222),
and Philoponus, Jn Meteor. p. 15. 21-23.
ὃ Cf. Cleomedes, ii. 3. 94-95 (p. 172. 6-17 [Ziegler]) and
98 (p. 178. 13-24), ii. 4. 106 (p. 192. 14-20).
¢ Posidonius ranked the moon as a “star’”’: ef. Arius
Didymus, Epitome, frag. 32 (Dox. Graeci, p. 466. 18-21), and
Edelstein, 4.J.P. lvii (1936), p. 297. For the theory that the
light of the moon is a product of her own proper light and
the solar light which produces an alteration in her cf. Cleo-
medes, ii. 4. 101 (pp. 182. 20-184. 3 [Ziegler]) and 104 (p. 188.
5-27), the latter of which indicates how the present contention
of Plutarch could have been answered from the point of view
of Posidonius.
123
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(932) λόγον ἢ βούλεσθε μελέτην ποιήσωμαι καὶ ἀπό-
δειξιν ὑμῖν τῶν ἐπιχειρημάτων ἕκαστον ἀπαριθ-
7 ,.9 ce \ Lt 39 Ss ¢ / ce /
μήσας; νὴ Δί εἶπεν ὁ Θέων “ τούτοις
ἐμμελέτησον. ἐγὼ δὲ καὶ πειθοῦς τινος δέομαι
ταύτῃ μόνον ἀκηκοὼς ὡς ἐπὶ μίαν [μὲν] εὐθεῖαν
EK τῶν τριῶν σωμάτων γιγνομένων, γῆς καὶ ἡλίου
καὶ σελήνης, at ἐκλείψεις, συντυγχάνουσιν" ἡ γὰρ
γῆ τῆς σελήνης ἢ πάλιν ἡ σελήνη τῆς γῆς ἀφαι-
ρεῖται τὸν ἥλιον: ἐκλείπει γὰρ οὗτος μὲν σελήνης
σελήνη δὲ γῆς ἐν μέσῳ τῶν τριῶν ἱσταμένης: ὧν
γίγνεται τὸ μὲν ἐν συνόδῳ τὸ δ᾽ ἐν διχομηνίᾳ.᾽
ΧΕ 7, ” ra \ , ᾿ΕΝ, τὶ ΄,
καὶ ὁ Λεύκιος ἔφη “ σχεδὸν μέντοι' τῶν λεγομένων
κυριώτατα ταῦτ᾽ ἐστί. πρόσλαβε" δὲ πρῶτον, εἰ
βούλει, τὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ σχήματος τῆς σκιᾶς λόγον.
ἔστι γὰρ κῶνος" ἅτε δὴ μεγάλου πυρὸς ἢ φωτὸς
“ 9 / a“ \ /
σφαιροειδοῦς ἐλάττονα σφαιροειδῆ δὲ περιβάλλοντος
ὄγκον. ὅθεν ἐν ταῖς ἐκλείψεσι τῆς σελήνης αἱ περι-
γραφαὶ τῶν μελαινομένων πρὸς τὰ λαμπρὰ τὰς
ἀποτομὰς περιφερεῖς ἴσχουσιν: ἃς γὰρ ἂν στρογ-
F γύλον στρογγύλῳ προσμῖξαν ἢ δέξηται τομὰς ἢ
παράσχῃ, πανταχόσε χωροῦσαι δι᾽ ὁμοιότητα, γίγ-
νονται κυκλοτερεῖς. δεύτερον οἶμαί σε γιγνώσκειν
1 BE, B1; ποιήσωμεν -B?.
2 Aldine, Basiliensis ; ὑμῶν -E, B.
3 Deleted by Wyttenbach.
4B; μέν τι -E.
-Anon., Aldine, R.J. 94, Wyttenbach ; πρόλαβε -E, B.
6 Xylander ; κοινός -Εἰ, B.
7 H.C. 3; μὴ -E, Β : καὶ -Aldine, Basiliensis.
* The argument that the moon is earthy, which at the
beginning of chap. 19 (931 Ὁ) Lucius stated in the form of a
proportion.
» Cf. Cleomedes, ii. 6. 115 (p. 208. 9-12 [Ziegler]) for the
124
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 932
turn straightway to my argument,® or do you prefer
that I give you a lecture and demonstration in which
each of the arguments is ennumerated?” “ By
heaven,” said Theon, “ do give these gentlemen a
lecture. As for me, I want some persuasion as well,
since I have only heard it put this way : when the
three bodies, earth and sun and moon, get into a
straight line, eclipses take place because the earth
deprives the moon or the moon, on the other hand,
deprives the earth of the sun, the sun being eclipsed
when the moon and the moon when the earth takes
the middle position of the three, the former of which
cases occurs at conjunction and the latter at the
middle of the month.”’® Whereupon Lucius said,
“ Those are roughly the main points, though, of what
is said on the subject. Add thereto first, if you will,
the argument from the shape of the shadow. It is
a cone, as is natural when a large fire or light that is
spherical circumfuses a smaller but spherical mass.°
This is the reason why in eclipses of the moon the
darkened parts are outlined against the bright in
segments that are curved,’ for whenever two round
bodies come into contact the lines by which either
intersects the other turn out to be circular since they
have everywhere a uniform tendency.’ Secondly,
eclipse of the moon and ii. 4. 106 (p. 192. 14-20) for the
eclipse of the sun; cf. also Theon of Smyrna, p. 193. 23 ff.
and p. 197. 22 ff. (Hiller) ; Geminus, viii. 14 (p. 104. 23 ff.
[ Manitius]).
¢ See notes a and 6 on 923 B supra.
4 Cf. Cleomedes, ii. 6. 118 (Ὁ. 214. 2-12 [Ziegler]) ; Aris-
totle, De Caelo, 297 b 23-30.
¢ i.e. the intersecting lines are always ares of a circle
because the degree of curvature of each of the two surfaces
is at every point similar. For this interpretation cf. Class.
Phil. xlvi (1951), p. 144.
E25
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
a / \ >’ / ~ / \ \
(932) ὅτι σελήνης μὲν ἐκλείπει πρῶτα μέρη τὰ πρὸς
3 / « / \ \ \ / A > ς
ἀπηλιώτην ἡλίου δὲ τὰ πρὸς δύσιν, κινεῖται δ᾽ ἡ
μὲν σκιὰ τῆς γῆς ἐπὶ τὴν ἑσπέραν ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνα-
C λ ~ nA ὃ \ \ λ "4 > / .] A \ >
933 τολῶν nALos ὃε καὶ σελήνη τοὐναντίον ἐπὶ τὰς aVa-
τολάς. ταῦτα γὰρ ἰδεῖν τε παρέχει τῇ αἰσθήσει τὰ
φαινόμενα κἀκ λόγων οὐ πάνυ Ti μακρῶν μαθεῖν
~ ΄ >
ἔστιν. ἐκ δὲ τούτων ἡ αἰτία βεβαιοῦται τῆς ἐκ-
/ ’ \ \ “ \ > /
λείψεως. ἐπεὶ yap ἥλιος μὲν ἐκλείπει καταλαμ-
~ ~ ~ \
Bavopevos σελήνη δ᾽ ἀπαντῶσα τῷ ποιοῦντι τὴν
» ΕΝ ἝΞ > > ἐ , ε ν 9
ἔκλειψιν, εἰκότως μᾶλλον δ᾽ ἀναγκαίως ὁ μὲν
ὄπισθεν ἁλίσκεται πρῶτον ἡ δ᾽ ἔμπροσθεν: ἄρχεται
γὰρ ἐκεῖθεν ἡ ἐπιπρόσθησις ὅθεν πρῶτον [per]?
> / \ > ~ > / > > / \
ἐπιβάλλει τὸ ἐπιπροσθοῦν᾽ ἐπιβάλλει δ᾽ ἐκείνῳ μὲν
ἀφ᾽ ἑσπέρας 7 σελήνη πρὸς αὐτὸν ἁμιλλωμένη
ταύτῃ δ᾽ ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνατολῶν <1) σκιὰ τῆς γῆς)" ὡς
”
πρὸς τοὐναντίον ὑποφερομένη. τρίτον τοίνυν ἔτι
Β τὸ τοῦ χρόνου λάβε καὶ τὸ τοῦ μεγέθους τῶν
ἐκλείψεων αὐτῆς. ὑψηλὴ μὲν ἐκλείπουσα καὶ ἀπό-
γειος ὀλίγον ἀποκρύπτεται" χρόνον πρόσγειος δὲ
καὶ ταπεινὴ αὐτὸ τοῦτο παθοῦσα σφόδρα πιέζεται
\
καὶ βραδέως ἐκ τῆς σκιᾶς ἄπεισι, καίτοι ταπεινὴ
μὲν οὖσα τοῖς μεγίστοις χρῆται κινήμασιν ὑψηλὴ
δὲ τοῖς ἐλαχίστοις. ἀλλὰ τὸ αἴτιον ἐν τῇ σκιᾷ τῆς
διαφορᾶς ἐστιν: εὐρυτάτη γὰρ οὖσα περὶ τὴν βάσιν,
~ >
ὥσπερ οἱ κῶνοι, συστελλομένη τε κατὰ μικρὸν εἰς
/ ὦ
ὀξὺ τῇ κορυφῇ καὶ λεπτὸν ἀπολήγει πέρας. ὅθεν
ἡ σελήνη ταπεινὴ μὲν ἐμπεσοῦσα τοῖς μεγίστοις
1 Ἐς τοι - Β. 5. Wyttenbach ; τὸ μὲν -Εἰ, B.
3 Deleted by Wyttenbach. 4 Adler; no lacuna -F, B.
5 E; omitted by B. 6 FE, B?; ἀπολείπεται -B?.
? E, B; ταὐτὸ τοῦτο -Benseler (‘‘ le mesme ” -Amyot).
« Cf. Class. Phil. xlvi (1951), p. 144; Cleomedes, ii. 6. 116
126
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 932-933
I think that you are aware that of the moon the east-
ward parts are first eclipsed and of the sun the west-
ward parts and that, while the shadow of the earth
moves from east to west, the sun and the moon move
contrariwise towards the east.” This is made visible
to sense-perception by the phenomena and needs no
very lengthy explanations to be understood, and these
phenomena confirm the cause of the eclipse. Since
the sun is eclipsed by being overtaken and the moon
by encountering that which produces the eclipse, it
is reasonable or rather it is necessary that the sun
be caught first from behind and the moon from the
front, for the obstruction begins from that point
which the intercepting body first assails. The sun
is assailed from the west by the moon that is striving
after him, and she is assailed from the east (by the
earth’s shadow) that is sweeping down as it were in
the opposite direction. Thirdly, moreover, consider
the matter of the duration and the magnitude of
lunar eclipses. If the moon is eclipsed when she is
high and far from the earth, she is concealed for a
little time ; but, if this very thing happens to her
when she is low and near the earth, she is strongly
curbed and is slow to get out of the shadow, although
when she is low her exertions of motion are greatest
and when she is high they are least. The reason for
the difference lies in the shadow, which being broadest
at the base, as cones are, and gradually contracting
terminates at the vertex in a sharp and fine tip. Con-
sequently the moon, if she has met the shadow when
(p. 210. 6-19 [Ziegier]), 117 (p. 212. 1-12) on the lunar
eclipse; ii. 5. 113-114 (p. 204. 27 ff.) on the solar eclipse ;
Geminus, xii. 5-13 (pp. 138-140 [ Manitius]) on the eastward
motion of sun and moon.
127
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
/ / err? 2 A \ ~ \
(933) λαμβάνεται κύκλοις ὑπ᾽ αὐτῆς καὶ διαπερᾷ τὸ
ὁ βύθιον καὶ σκοτωδέστατον ἄνω δ᾽ οἷον ἐν τενάγει
διὰ λεπτότητα τοῦ σκιεροῦ χρανθεῖσα ταχέως ἀπαλ-
/
λάττεται. παρίημι δ᾽ ὅσα χωρὶς ἰδίᾳ πρὸς τὰς
, 1 \ , νΥ Up τ). sila
φάσεις" Kat διαφορήσεις ἐλέχθη (καὶ yap ἐκεῖναι
μέχρι γε τοῦ ἐνδεχομένου προσίενται τὴν αἰτίαν),
5 3
ἀλλ᾽ ἐπανάγω πρὸς τὸν ὑποκείμενον λόγον ἀρχὴν
Uj ~ ~
ἔχοντα τὴν αἴσθησιν. ὁρῶμεν yap ὅτι πῦρ ἐκ τόπου
A , \ , A v.29
σκιεροῦ διαφαίνεται καὶ διαλάμπει μᾶλλον εἴτε
/ ~
παχύτητι" τοῦ σκοτώδους ἀέρος, οὐ δεχομένου τὰς
3
ἀπορρεύσεις" καὶ διαχύσεις ἀλλὰ συνέχοντος ἐν
ταὐτῷ τὴν οὐσίαν καὶ σφίγγοντος, εἴτε τῆς αἰσθή-
σεως τοῦτο πάθος ἐστίν, ὡς τὰ θερμὰ παρὰ τὰ
1 W. L. Bevan; βάσεις -E, B.
2 Leonicus ; em -Εἰ, B.
3 Basiliensis ; ταχύτητι -E ; ταχυτῆτι -B.
4 Τὴ; ἀπορεύσεις -B.
2 Of. De Communibus Notitiis, 1080 B: αὐταὶ yap δήπουθεν
ai TOV κωνικῶν τμημάτων ἐπιφάνειαι κύκλοι εἰσίν.
ὃ Cf. Cleomedes, ii. 6. 119 (pp. 214. 13-216. 8 [Ziegler]) ;
for the observation that the planets appear to move most
swiftly when they are nearest to the earth and most slowly
when they are farthest away cf. Cleomedes, ii. 5. 112-114
(pp. 202. 26-206. 27), and Theon of Smyrna, p. 135. 6-11 and
p. 157. 2-12 (Hiller). Plutarch’s language, however, implies
that the moon makes a conscious exertion to accelerate her
motion when she is near the earth, and in the myth at 944 a
infra it is stated that she increases her speed in order to
escape the shadow of the earth. Kepler in note 51 to his
translation declares that, contrary to what Lucius here says,
perigee eclipses even when central are briefer than apogee
eclipses ; and Prickard (Plutarch on the Face of the Moon
[1911], p. 11) says that “ ceteris paribus an eclipse of a distant
moon should be longer by about one fifteenth.” Prof.
Neugebauer informs me that, using the Ptolemaic figures for
the apparent diameter of the moon and of the earth’s shadow
128
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 933
she is low, is involved by it in its largest circles 7 and
traverses its deep and darkest part ; but above as it
were in shallow water by reason of the fineness of the
shadow she is just grazed and quickly gets clean
away.” I pass over all that was said besides with
particular reference to the phases and variations,°¢
for these too, in so far as is possible,’ admit the cause
alleged ; and instead 1 revert to the argument before
us ὁ which has its basis in the evidence of the senses.
We see that from a shadowy place fire glows and
shines forth more intensely,’ whether because the
dark air being dense does not admit its efluences and
diffusions but confines and concentrates the substance
in a single place or because this is an affection of our
senses that as hot things appear to be hotter in com-
and the classical figures given by Geminus for the velocity,
the maximum totality in apogee should be 4; 3, 232 and
in perigee 3-;.20, OB.
¢ Probably a reference to such matters as are discussed by
Geminus, ix (pp. 124-130 [Manitius]). With τὰς φάσεις καὶ
διαφορήσεις cf. “ἡ species diversitatesque Lunae,’’ Martianus
Capella, viii. 871 (p. 459. 15-16 [Dick]).
4 It is impossible to give an exhaustive and accurately
scientific explanation of physical phenomena, for they are
involved in the indeterminateness of matter. Cf. Aristotle,
Anal. Post. 87 a 31-37 and Metaphysics, 995 a 14-17, 1078
a 9-13 (cf. Zeller, Die Philosophie der Griechen, ii. 2, p. 166,
n. 3); and for Plato’s more extreme attitude cf. especially
Timaeus, 29 B-c, Philebus, 56 and 59. Plutarch appears to
have Philebus, 56 c in mind at Quaest. Conviv. 744 E-F, where
he makes astronomy “ attendant upon ”’ geometry, as he has
Philebus, 66 a-8 in mind at 720 c (ef. R. M. Jones, Class.
Phil. vii [1912], pp. 76 f.). For the notion of the necessary
lack of accuracy of the “ physical sciences ”’ cf. further Plat.
Quaest. 1001 & ff. and Quaest. Conviv. 699 B.
4 Cf. note a on 932 p supra.
7 Cf. Cleomedes, ii. 3. 99 (p. 180. 11-13 [Ziegler]) and
ii. 6. 120-121 (p. 218. 2-3).
VOL. ΧΠἼΠ F 129
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(933) ψυχρὰ θερμότερα Kal Tas ἡδονὰς παρὰ τοὺς πόνους
/ “ \ \ ’ A \
σφοδροτέρας οὕτω τὰ λαμπρὰ φαίνεσθαι παρὰ τὰ
σκοτεινὰ φανερά, τοῖς διαφόροις πάθεσιν ἀντεπι-
/ \ / ” \ /
Ὁ τείνοντα τὴν φαντασίαν. ἔοικε δὲ πιθανώτερον
εἶναι τὸ πρότερον. ἐν γὰρ ἡλίῳ πᾶσα πυρὸς φύσις
> / \ \ > / > \ ~ wv
οὐ μόνον τὸ λαμπρὸν ἀπόλλυσιν ἀλλὰ τῷ εἴκειν
/ / \ > / / \ «
γίγνεται δύσεργος καὶ ἀμβλυτέρα- σκίδνησι γὰρ ἡ
θερμότης καὶ διαχεῖ" τὴν δύναμιν. εἴπερ οὖν ἡ
/ \ ” ~ \ > ~ ΝΜ
σελήνη πυρὸς εἴληχε βληχροῦ καὶ ἀδρανοῦς ἄστρον
> / “ > \ / OA Ων
οὖσα θολερώτερον, ὥσπερ αὐτοὶ λέγουσιν, οὐδὲν ὧν
πάσχουσα φαίνεται νῦν ἀλλὰ τἀναντία πάντα πά-
~ /
axe αὐτὴν προσῆκόν ἐστι, φαίνεσθαι μὲν ὅτε κρύ-
E πτεται κρύπτεσθαι δ᾽ ὁπηνίκα φαίνεται, τουτέστι
κρύπτεσθαι μὲν τὸν ἄλλον χρόνον ὑπὸ τοῦ περι-
ἔχοντος αἰθέρος ἀμαυρουμένην ἐκλάμπειν δὲ καὶ
/ ~ 3 “ ~ \ / \
γίγνεσθαι καταφανῆ dv ἕξ μηνῶν καὶ πάλιν διὰ
πέντε τῇ σκιᾷ τῆς γῆς ὑποδυομένην. αἱ γὰρ πέντε
καὶ ἑξήκοντα καὶ τετρακόσιαι περίοδοι τῶν ἐκ-
λειπτικῶν πανσελήνων τὰς τέσσαρας καὶ τετρα-
/ ¢ / ” \ > ees /
κοσίας ἑξαμήνους ἔχουσι τὰς δ᾽ ἄλλας πενταμήνους.
ἔδει τοίνυν διὰ τοσούτων χρόνων φαίνεσθαι τὴν
σελήνην ἐν τῇ σκιᾷ λαμπρυνομένην, ἡ δ᾽ ἐν {τῇ
ARE \ > , «ον \ A >
σκιᾷ)" μὲν ἐκλείπει καὶ ἀπόλλυσι τὸ φῶς avadap-
1 Bernardakis (cf. 939 c 2 infra); διαχέει -E, B.
2 Wyttenbach after Turnebus and Vulcobius; vac. 5-E,
4-B ; (adrH) (?)-H. Ὁ.
« Cf. Quomodo Adul. ab Amico Internose. 57 c, De Hero-
doti Malignitate, 863 kr.
130
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 933
parison with cold and pleasures more intense in
comparison with pains so bright things appear con-
spicuous when compared with dark, their appearance
being intensified by contrast to the different im-
pressions.” The former explanation seems to be the
more plausible, for in sunlight fire of every kind not
only loses its brilliance but by giving way becomes in-
effective and less keen, the reason being that the heat
of the sun disperses and dissipates its potency.’ If,
then, as the Stoics themselves assert,° the moon,
being a rather turbid star, has a faint and feeble fire
of her own, she ought to have none of the things
happen to her that now obviously do but the very
opposite ; she ought to be revealed when she is
hidden and hidden whenever she is now revealed,
that is hidden all the rest of the time when she is
bedimmed by the cireumambient ether ὦ but shining
forth and becoming brilliantly clear at intervals of
six months or again at intervals of five when she sinks
under the shadow of the earth, since of 465 ecliptic
full moons 404 occur in cycles of six months and the
rest in cycles of five months.’ It ought to have been
at such intervals of time then that the moon is re-
vealed resplendent in the shadow, whereas in (the
shadow) she is eclipsed and loses her light but regains
» Cf. Aristotle, De Caelo, 305 a 9-13; [Alexander], De
Anima Libri Mantissa, p. 128. 2-7 (Bruns), and the explana-
tion of the moon’s phases ascribed to Antiphon in De Placitis,
891 p= Aétius, ii. 28. 4 (Dox. Graeci, p. 358).
¢ See 928 pb supra with note d there and 935 B infra.
Reference to the present passage is omitted in S.V.F.
“ αἰθήρ is here used in the Stoic sense as in 922 B and 928
c-D supra.
¢ For this period of 465 ecliptic full moons cf. Class. Phil.
xlvi (1951), p. 145.
131
(933)
F
934 ἐ
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
βάνει δ᾽ αὖθις ὃ ὅταν ἐκφύγῃ τὴν σκιὰν καὶ φαίνεταί
γε πολλάκις ἡμέρας ὡς πάντα μᾶλλον ἢ πύρινον
οὖσα σῶμα καὶ ἀστεροειδές.᾽
21. Εἰπόντος δὲ τοῦτο τοῦ Λευκίου, συνεξέδρα-
μον ἅμα πως τῷ (λέγειν)" 6 τε Φαρνάκης καὶ ὁ
᾿Απολλωνίδης. εἶτα τοῦ ᾿Απολλωνίδου παρέντος"
ὁ Φαρνάκης εἶπεν ὅτι τοῦτο καὶ μάλιστα τὴν σε-
λήνην δείκνυσιν ἄστρον ἢ πῦρ οὖσαν: οὐ γάρ ἐστι
παντελῶς ἄδηλος ἐν ταῖς ἐκλείψεσιν ἀλλὰ διαφαίνει
\ / > / \ \ σ΄ ” / Ψ
τινὰ χρόαν ἀνθρακώδη καὶ βλοσυρὰν ἥτις ἴδιός ἐστιν
αὐτῆς. ὁ δ᾽ ᾿Απολλωνίδης ἐνέστη περὶ τῆς σκιᾶς"
ἀεὶ γὰρ οὕτως ὀνομάζειν τοὺς" μαθηματικοὺς τὸν
ἀλαμπῆ τόπον σκιάν' τε μὴ δέχεσθαι τὸν οὐρανόν.
ἐγὼ dé | τοῦτο μὲν᾽ ᾿ ἔφην © πρὸς τοὔνομα μᾶλλον
ἐριστικῶς ἢ πρὸς τὸ πρᾶγμα φυσικῶς καὶ μαθη-
ματικῶς ἐνισταμένου"" τὸν γὰρ ἀντιφραττόμενον
ὑπὸ τῆς γῆς τόπον εἰ μὴ σκιάν τις ἐθέλοι καλεῖν
ἀλλ᾽ ἀφεγγὲς χωρίον, ὅμως ἀναγκαῖον ἐν αὐτῷ τὴν
σελήνην γενομένην (ἐπισκοτεῖσθαι τοῦ ἡλιακοῦ
\ / 6 \ “ 2) ” {{ "“ /
φωτὸς atepopevnv.)»® καὶ ὅλως ᾿ ἔφην “ εὔηθές
ἐστιν ἐκεῖ μὴ φάναι τῆς γῆς ἐξικνεῖσθαι τὴν σκιὰν
1 H.C.; vac. 6-E, 5-B.
2 Wyttenbach after Xylander’s version ; παρόντος -E, B.
3 οὕτως vac. 2 ὀναμάζειν τοὺς -Εἰὶ ; οὕτως ὀνομάζειν vac. 5
τοὺς -B; lacuna suppressed by Kepler and Wyttenbach.
4 Aldine, Basiliensis ; τόπον vac. 4-E, 6-B σκιάν (the lacuna
in E is immediately under that after οὕτως in the line above).
5 Wyttenbach after Xylander’s version ; ἐνισταμένους -E,
‘6 H.C. (cf. Cleomedes, p. 192. 21-22 [Ziegler]); vac. 38-E,
39-B.
* For this argument cf. Cleomedes, ii. 4. 103 (p. 182. 10-16
[Ziegler]).
=8S.V.F. ii, frag. 672. Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 9. 42
132
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 933-934
it again as soon as she escapes the shadow ® and is
revealed often even by day, which implies that she
is anything but a fiery and star-like body.”’
21. When Lucius said this, almost while <he was
speaking) Pharnaces and Apollonides sprang forth
together. Then, Apollonides having yielded, Phar-
naces said that this very point above all proves the
moon to be a star or fire, since she is not entirely
invisible in her eclipses but displays a colour smoulder-
ing and grim which is peculiar to her.’ Apollonides
raised an objection concerning the ᾿᾿ shadow ” on the
ground that scientists always give this name to the
region that is without light and the heaven does not
admit shadow.° “ This,” I said, “is the objection
of one who speaks captiously to the name rather than
like a natural scientist and mathematician to the
fact. If one refuses to call the region screened by
the earth © shadow ’ and insists upon calling it ἡ light-
less space,’ nevertheless when the moon gets into it
she must (be obscured since she is deprived of the
solar light). Speaking generally too, it is silly,” I
said, “ to deny that the shadow of the earth reaches
(ὁ deficiens et in defectu tamen conspicua ’’); Olympiodorus,
In Meteor. p. 67. 36-37 ; Philoponus, In Meteor. pp. 30. 37—
31. 1 and p. 106. 9-13. The moon is seldom invisible to the
naked eye even in total eclipses (cf. Dyson and Woolley,
Eclipses of the Sun and Moon, p. 30; C. A. Young, Manual
of Astronomy [1902], § 287; Boll, s.v. “* Finsternisse,” R.E.
vi. 2344); and the apparent colour of the moon in total
eclipse was as late as the 16th century adduced as evidence
that the moon had light of its own, a notion entertained as
possible even by W. Herschel (cf. Pixis, Kepler als Geograph,
pp:..132-133).
¢ For a Stoic this follows from the definition of οὐρανός as
ἔσχατον αἰθέρος and πύρινον (cf. S.V.F. i, p. 33, frags. 115 and
116; S.V.F. ii, frag. 580 [p. 180. 10-12]).
133
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(934) (ὁπόθεν Kat)’ ἡ σκιὰ τῆς σελήνης ἐπιπίπτουσα TH
» \ , 2 \ \ = ” cei
ὄψει καὶ (dunKovaa)* πρὸς τὴν γῆν ἔκλειψιν ἡλίου
a3 \ \ , 4 ΄, , \ \
Β ποιεῖ. πρὸς σὲ δέ, ὦ Φαρνάκη, τρέψομαι. τὸ yap
ἀνθρακῶδες ἐκεῖνο καὶ διακαὲς χρῶμα τῆς σελήνης
ὃ φὴς ἴδιον αὐτῆς εἶναι σώματός ἐστι πυκνότητα
\ 7, ” γῶν \ γΩ 7 A > a
καὶ βάθος ἔχοντος: οὐδὲν yap ἐθέλει τοῖς ἀραιοῖς
ε / \ 950. " > / »Q> »
ὑπόλειμμα φλογὸς οὐδ᾽ ἴχνος ἐμμένειν οὐδ᾽ ἔστιν
ἀνθρακογένεσις οὗ μὴ στερέμνιον σῶμα δεξάμενον
διὰ βάθους τὴν πύρωσιν καὶ σῷζον, ὥς που καὶ
Ὅμηρος εἴρηκεν
» \ ’ \ \ »Μ 5 / 4 εἶ
αυταὰαρ E€7TTEL πυρος ἄνθος ΑἸΤΕΙΤΤΑΤΟ TAVOATO δὲ
φλὸξ
ἀνθρακιὴν στορέσας. .
e \ Μ ” ᾿] ~ > \ ~
ὁ yap ἀνθραξ ἔοικεν οὐ πῦρ ἀλλὰ σῶμα πεπυρω-
μένον εἶναι καὶ πεπονθὸς ὑπὸ πυρός, στερεῷ καὶ
ῥίζαν ἔχοντι προσμένοντος ὄγκῳ καὶ προσδιατρίβον-
C τος, at δὲ φλόγες ἀραιᾶς εἰσιν ἔξαψις καὶ ῥεύματα
΄ δε Ψ \ > > / > /
τροφῆς Kat ὕλης, ταχὺ du ἀσθένειαν ἀναλυομένης,
ὥστ᾽ οὐδὲν ἂν ὑπῆρχε τοῦ" γεώδη καὶ πυκνὴν εἶναι
τὴν σελήνην ἕτερον οὕτως ἐναργὲς τεκμήριον εἴπερ
Purser (implied by Amyot’s version) ; vac. 10- Εἰ, 9-B.
Turnebus ; vac. 6-E, 9-B.
-Anon., Aldine, R.J. 94; ποιεῖν -E, B.
Xylander ; ἀρχαίοις -E, B.
5 Wyttenbach ; οὐ μὴν -E, B (for the same scribal error cf.
Aristotle, Politics, 1301 b 27). 6 Xylander ; σόλων -K, B.
7 E ; στορέσασα -B. 8 EK; omitted by B.
» On” μὰ
«ΟἹ 922 κ-βὶ supra. With ἀνθρακογένεσις, “ἡ incandes-
cence,” Raingeard compares ἀνθρακοποιΐα in Gregory of
Nyssa, 111. 937 a.
134
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 934
that point (from which on its part) the shadow of
the moon by impinging upon the sight and (extend-
ing) to the earth produces an eclipse of the sun.
Now I shall turn to you, Pharnaces. That smoulder-
ing and glowing colour of the moon which you say
is peculiar to her is characteristic of a body that is
compact and a solid, for no remnant or trace of flame
will remain in tenuous things nor is incandescence
possible unless there is a hard body that has been
ignited through and through and sustains the igni-
tion. So Homer too has somewhere said :
But when fire’s bloom had flown and flame had ceased
He smoothed the embers. . . .2
The reason probably is that what is igneous ¢ is not
fire but body that has been ignited and subjected
to the action of fire, which adheres to a solid and
stable mass and continues to occupy itself with it,
whereas flames are the kindling and flux of tenuous
nourishment or matter which because of its feeble-
ness is swiftly dissolved. Consequently there would
be no other proof of the moon’s earthy and compact
nature so manifest as the smouldering colour, if it
ὃ Tliad, ix. 212-213 in our texts read :
αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ κατὰ πῦρ ἐκάη Kal φλὸξ ἐμαράνθη,
ἀνθρακιὴν στορέσας ὀβελοὺς ἐφύπερθε τάνυσσε,
but the first line as Plutarch gives it was known to Aristarchus,
who rejected it (cf. Ludwich, Aristarchs Homerische Text-
kritik, i, Ὁ. 302; Eustathius, 4d Iliadem, 748. 41; Scholia
Graeca in Homeri Iliadem, ed. Dindorf, i, p. 312).
¢ Purser has pointed out (Hermathena, xvi [1911], p. 316)
that avOpaé may mean all degrees of burning coal from com-
plete incandescence to ashes and that fire’s need of solid
matter to work upon was often used as an argument against
the Stoic conflagration of the world: cf. Philo, De Aeter-
nitate Mundi, §§ 86-88 (vi, pp. 99. 14-100. 10 [Cohn-Reiter]).
135
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(934) αὐτῆς ἴδιον ἦν ὡς χρῶμα τὸ ἀνθρακῶδες. ἀλλ’
οὐκ ἔστιν, ὦ φίλε Φαρνάκη: πολλὰς yap* ἐκλεί-
,ὔ ~
movoa χρόας apeiBe® καὶ διαιροῦσιν αὐτὰς οὕτως
ε
οὗ μαθηματικοὶ κατὰ χρόνον καὶ ὥραν ἀφορίζοντες.
a“ > > « ,ὔ » / ,ὔ - ~
av ad ἑσπέρας ἐκλείπῃ φαίνεται μέλαινα δεινῶς
ἄχρι τρίτης ὥρας καὶ ἡμισείας: ἂν δὲ μέση, τοῦτο
δὴ τὸ ἐπιφοινίσσον ἵησι [καὶ πῦρ]; καὶ πυρωπόν᾽"
» \ > «ς / σ \ ες ͵ὔ > / \
ἀπὸ δ᾽ ἑβδόμης ὥρας Kal ἡμισείας ἀνίσταται TO
327 \ , yO 5 \ “ 7, 8 ΄
D ἐρύθημα: καὶ τέλος ἤδη" πρὸς ἕω λαμβάνει" χρόαν
κυανοειδῇ καὶ χαροπὴν ἀφ᾽ ἧς δὴ καὶ μάλιστα
“γλαυκῶπιν αὐτὴν οἱ ποιηταὶ καὶ ᾿Εμπεδοκλῆς
ἀνακαλοῦνται. τοσαύτας οὖν χρόας ἐν τῇ σκιᾷ τὴν
σελήνην λαμβάνουσαν ὁρῶντες οὐκ ὀρθῶς ἐπὶ
μόνον καταφέρονται τὸ ἀνθρακῶδες 6 μάλιστα
/ v > / » ~ > \ ΄΄
φήσαι τις ἂν ἀλλότριον αὐτῆς εἶναι καὶ μᾶλλον
ὑπόμιγμα καὶ λεῖμμα τοῦ φωτὸς διὰ τῆς σκιᾶς
1 Turnebus : τὰς -E, B.
2 Diibner (implied by Xylander’s and Amyot’s versions) ;
ἐκλειπούσας -E, B.
aw yttenbach (implied by. Amyot’s version) ; ἀμείβειν -E,
4 Excised by Emperius.
5B ; ἤδη -E. § Stephanus (1624) ; λαμβάνειν -E, B.
« Cf. Aemilius Paulus, 17 (264 8), Nicias, 23 (538 ©) and
for a description and explanation of the phenomenon cf. Sir
John Herschel, Outlines of Astronomy, §§ 421-424, and
JoeB. Schmidt, Der Mond (Leipzig, 1836), p. 35. Astrology
assigned special significance to the various colours of the
moon in total eclipse: ef. Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum
Graecorum, vii (Brussels, 1908), p. 131. 6 ff.; Ptolemy,
Apotelesmatica, ii. 14. 4-5 (pp. 101-102 [Boll-Boer]) and ii.
10. 1-2 (pp. 91-92); and Boll in R.E. vi. 2350 assumes that
by μαθηματικοίὶ in the present passage Plutarch means “ astro-
logers ’’ (but see 937 F infra). Neither there nor in his article,
‘* Antike Beobachtungen farbiger Sterne,”’ does Boll mention
136
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 934
really were her own. But it is not so, my dear Phar-
naces, for as she is eclipsed she exhibits many changes
of colour which scientists have distinguished as
follows, delimiting them according to time or hour.“
If the eclipse occurs between eventide and half after
the third hour, she appears terribly black; if at
midnight, then she gives off this reddish and fiery
colour; from half after the seventh hour a blush
arises ὃ on her face; and finally, if she is eclipsed
when dawn is already near, she takes on a bluish
or azure © hue, from which especially it is that the
poets and Empedocles give her the epithet ἡ bright-
eyed.’% Now, when one sees the moon take on so
many hues in the shadow, it is a mistake to settle
upon the smouldering colour alone, the very one that
might especially be called alien to her and rather an
admixture or remnant of the light shining round
about through the shadow, while the black or earthy
any classification of the colours according to the time of the
eclipse, however, nor does Gundel, s.v. “ Mond” in RE.
xvi. 1. 101-102. Geminus’s calendar for the different phases
of the moon (ix. 14-15 [pp. 128-130, Manitius]) has no con-
nection with this matter and so is not, as Adler supposes
(Diss. Phil. Vind. x, p. 157), an indication that Plutarch’s
source in the present passage was Posidonius.
> This, pace Prickard, must be the meaning of ἀνίσταται
here ; cf. ἀνιστάμενος in Pompey, 34 (637 Ὁ) and ἀναστάντος in
Appian, B.C. i. 56 (ii, p. 61. 7 [Mendelssohn-Viereck]).
¢ In Marius, 11 (411 Ὁ) χαροπότης is used of the eye-colour
of the Teutons and Cimbrians, and in De Iside, 352 τ the
colour of the flax-flower is said to resemble τῇ περιεχούσῃ τὸν
κόσμον αἰθερίῳ χαροπότητι.
@ See 929 p supra and note ὁ there; but Diels (Hermes,
xv [1880], p. 176) because of ἀνακαλοῦνται thought that
Plutarch must here have had in mind a verse of Empedocles
that ended with the invocation, γλαυκῶπι Σελήνη. Cf. also
Euripides, frag. 1009 (Nauck?).
137
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(934) περιλάμποντος ἴδιον δὲ TO μέλαν Kal γεῶδες. ὅπου
δὲ πορφυρίσιν ἐνταῦθα καὶ φοινικίσι λίμναις τε καὶ
ποταμοῖς δεχομένοις ἥλιον ἐπίσκια χωρία γειτ-
νιῶντα συγχρώζεται καὶ περιλάμπεται διὰ τὰς
ἀνακλάσεις ἀποδιδόντα πολλοὺς καὶ διαφόρους
ἀπαυγασμούς, τί θαυμαστὸν εἰ ῥεῦμα πολὺ σκιᾶς
ἐμβάλλον ὥσπερ εἰς πέλαγος οὐράνιον οὐ σταθεροῦ
φωτὸς οὐδ᾽ ἠρεμοῦντος ἀλλὰ μυρίοις ἄστροις περι-
ελαυνομένου' μίξεις τε παντοδαπὰς καὶ μεταβολὰς
λαμβάνοντος ἄλλην ἄλλοτε χρόαν ἐκματτόμενον ἀπὸ
τῆς σελήνης. ἐνταῦθ᾽ ἀποδίδωσιν; ἄστρον μὲν γὰρ
ἢ πῦρ οὐκ ἂν ἐν σκιᾷ διαφανείη μέλαν 7 ἢ γλαυκὸν
ἢ κυανοειδές, ὄρεσι δὲ καὶ πεδίοις καὶ θαλάσσαις
F πολλαὶ μὲν ἀφ᾽ ἡλίου μορφαὶ χρωμάτων ἐπιτρέ-
χουσι, καὶ σκιαῖς καὶ ὁμίχλαις οἵας φαρμάκοις
γραφικοῖς μιγνύμενον ἐπάγει βαφὰς τὸ λαμπρόν.
ὧν τὰ μὲν τῆς θαλάττης ἐπικεχείρηκεν ἃ ἁμωσγέπως
ἐξονομάζειν ᾿ Ὅμηρος * ἰοειδέα ᾿ καλῶν. καὶ ‘ οἴνοπα
πόντον αὖθις δὲ ‘ ΠΌΡΡΩ ΣΝ κῦμα᾽ ᾿γλαυκήν᾽
Tt ἄλλως ‘ θάλασσαν κα ᾿ λευκὴν γαλήνην ᾿ τὰς
δὲ περὶ τὴν γῆν raat τῶν ἄλλοτ᾽ ἄλλως ἐπι-
αινομένων χρωμάτων παρῆκεν ὡς ἀπείρους τὸ
πλῆθος οὔσας. τὴν δὲ σελήνην οὐκ εἰκὸς ὥσπερ"
τὴν θάλασσαν μίαν ἔχειν ἐπιφάνειαν ἀλλ᾽ ἐοικέναι
μάλιστα τῇ γῇ τὴν φύσιν ἣν ἐμυθολόγει Σωκράτης
ΗΕ
-
1 E; ἐλαυνομένου -B.
2 E; omitted in B.
α Kepler remarks on this sentence (note 56): ‘‘ Ecce
Plutarchum meae sententiae proxime accedentem, nisi quod
non dicit, a quo lucente sit illud lumen, num ab aethere, an
a Sole ipso, per refractionem ejus radiorum.”’
» Cf. the similar but more elaborate description in De
138
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 934
colour should be called her own.” Since here on earth
places near lakes and rivers open to the sun take on
the colour and brilliance of the purple and red awnings
that shade them, by reason of the reflections giving
off many various effulgences, what wonder if a great
flood of shade debouching as it were into a heavenly
sea of light, not calm or at rest but undergoing all
sorts of combinations and alterations as it is churned
about by countless stars, takes from the moon at
different times the stain of different hues and pre-
sents them to our sight?’ A star or fire could
not in shadow shine out black or glaucous or bluish ;
but over mountains, plains, and sea flit many kinds
of colours from the sun, and blended with the shadows
and mists his brilliance ὁ induces such tints as bril-
liance does when blended with a painter’s pigments.
Those of the sea Homer has endeavoured somehow
or other to designate, using the terms ᾿ violet 4 and
‘ wine-dark deep ’° and again ‘ purple swell ’’ and
elsewhere ‘ glaucous sea’ 5 and ‘ white calm ᾿ ἢ ; but
he passed over as being an endless multitude the
variations of the colours that appear differently at
different times about the land. It is likely, however,
that the moon has not a single plane surface like the
sea but closely resembles in constitution the earth
that the ancient Socrates made the subject of a myth,’
Genio Socratis, 590 c ff., where the stars are islands moving in
a celestial sea, and also De Sera Numinis Vindicta, 563 §-Fr.
¢ For λαμπρόν. “ brilliance,” as a colour cf. Plato, Timaeus,
8 a; Theophrastus calls it τὸ πυρῶδες λευκόν (De Sensibus,
86 [ Dow. Graeci, p. 525. 23)). @ e.g. Iliad, xi. 298.
¢ e.g. Iliad, i. 350. t e.g. Iliad, i. 481-482.
9 Only in Jliad, xvi. 34 (cf. Scholia Graeca in Homeri
Iliadem, ed. Diidorf, ii, p. 92).
n Odyssey, x. 94. ? Plato, Phaedo, 110 B ff.
6
§
139
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
935 ὁ παλαιὸς εἴτε δὴ ταύτην αἰνιττόμενος εἴτε δὴ
ἄλλην τινὰ διηγούμενος" οὐ γὰρ ἄπιστον οὐδὲ θαυ-
μαστὸν εἰ μηδὲν ἔχουσα διεφθορὸς (ἐν) ἑαυτῇ μηδ᾽
ἰλυῶδες ἀλλὰ φῶς τε καρπουμένη καθαρὸν ἐξ οὐ-
ρανοῦ καὶ θερμότητος οὐ διακαοῦς οὐδὲ μανικοῦ
\ > \ “Ὁ \ > ~ \ \ /
πυρὸς ἀλλὰ νοτεροῦ" καὶ ἀβλαβοῦς Kat κατὰ φύσιν
ἔχοντος οὖσα πλήρης κάλλη τε θαυμαστὰ κέκτηται
τόπων ὄρη τε φλογοειδῆ καὶ ζώνας ἁλουργοὺς"
ἔχει, χρυσόν τε καὶ ἄργυρον οὐκ ἐν βάθει διεσπαρ-
/ > \ \ A / > ~ ἢ “Ἃ
μένον ἀλλὰ πρὸς τοῖς πεδίοις ἐξανθοῦντα πολὺν ἢ
πρὸς ὕψεσι λείοις περιφαινόμενον. εἰ δὲ τούτων
Β ὄψις ἀφικνεῖται διὰ τῆς σκιᾶς ἄλλοτ᾽ ἄλλη πρὸς
ἡμᾶς ἐξαλλαγῇ καὶ διαφορᾷ τινι τοῦ περιέχοντος,
τό γε μὴν τίμιον οὐκ ἀπόλλυσι τῆς δόξης οὐδὲ τὸ
θεῖον ἡ σελήνη, (γ)ῆ τις" (ζὀλυμπία καὶ" ἱερὰ πρὸς
ἀνθρώπων νομιζομένη μᾶλλον ἢ ἢ πῦρ θολερὸν ὥ ὥσπερ
οἱ Στωικοὶ λέγουσι καὶ τρυγῶδες. πῦρ μέν γε
παρὰ Μήδοις καὶ ᾿Ασσυρίοις βαρβαρικὰς ἔχει
τιμάς, ot φόβῳ τὰ βλάπτοντα θεραπεύουσι πρὸ τῶν
σεμνῶν ἀφοσιούμενοι, τὸ δὲ γῆς ὄνομα παντί που
φίλον “ἕλληνι καὶ τίμιον καὶ πατρῷον ἡμῖν ὥσπερ
Ο ἄλλον τινὰ θεὸν" σέβεσθαι. πολλοῦ δὲ δέομεν᾽"
1 Emperius ; omitted without lacuna - Εἰ, B.
2 voepod ὃ -H. C. 3 E; ἁλουργὰς -B.
4 Bernardakis (cf. Brutus, 42 [1004 a]; Pompey, 19 [628
Ὁ]: Fabius Max. 5 [176 £]) ; περιφερόμενον -E,
5 Emperius ; ἥτις -E, B.
6. Bernardakis (cf. 935 c infra and De Defectu Oraculorum,
416 ©); vac. 9-E, 13-B. ? Turnebus ; ἢ μᾶλλον -E, B.
8 Β : θεῶν -E. ® Basiliensis ; δεῖ o¢ μὲν - ὸ ; δεῖ of μὲν -B.
α “This one,’ ταύτην, means the earth, not the moon, as
most translators since Wyttenbach have thought; ‘‘ some
other,” ἄλλην twa, means “some other earth,’’ which is
exactly what Lamprias believes the moon to be. So Lamprias
140
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 935
whether he really was speaking in riddles about this
earth or was giving a description of some other.* It
is in fact not incredible or wonderful that the moon,
if she has nothing corrupted or slimy (in) her but
garners pure light from heaven and is filled with
warmth, which is fire not glowing or raging but
moist ὃ and harmless and in its natural state, has got
open regions of marvellous beauty and mountains
flaming bright and has zones of royal purple with
gold and silver not scattered in her depths but burst-
ing forth in abundance on the plains or openly visible
on the smooth heights.¢ If through the shadow
there comes to us a glimpse of these, different at
different times because of some variation and differ-
ence of the atmosphere, the honourable repute of
the moon is surely not impaired nor is her divinity
because she is held by men to be a (celestial and)
holy earth rather than, as the Stoics say, a fire turbid
and dreggish.? Fire, to be sure, is given barbaric
honours among the Medes and Assyrians, who from
fear by way of propitiation worship the maleficent
forces rather than the reverend ; but to every Greek,
of course, the name of earth is dear and honourable,
and it is our ancestral tradition to revere her like any
other god. As men we are far from thinking that the
means that what Socrates said must be considered as a riddle
if he was really talking about our earth but can be taken as
straightforward description if he was referring to “‘ some
other earth,”’ 1.2. the moon.
ὃ Or, if vorepod is a scribal error for νοεροῦ, “‘ intellectual ”’ ;
cf. Class. Phil. xlvi (1951), p. 145.
¢ The details of this description were suggested by Phaedo,
110 c—111 c, to which Plutarch has referred above.
Δ See 928 p and 933 bp supra. ‘The present passage is not
listed in S.V.F.
141
(935)
D
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
»Μ Ἁ ’ὔ ~ εν > / Μ
ἄνθρωποι τὴν σελήνην, γῆν οὖσαν ὀλυμπίαν, ἄψυχον
« A ~ a
ἡγεῖσθαι σῶμα καὶ ἄνουν καὶ ἄμοιρον ὧν θεοῖς
3 ~ ~ >
ἀπάρχεσθαι προσήκει νόμῳ τε τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀμοιβὰς
τίνοντας καὶ κατὰ φύσιν σεβομένους τὸ κρεῖττον
ἀρετῇ καὶ δυνάμει καὶ τιμιώτερον. ὥστε μηδὲν
>7 κι P| ee ἢ \ \
οἰώμεθα πλημμελεῖν γῆν᾽' αὐτὴν θέμενοι τὸ δὲ
~ >
φαινόμενον τουτὶ πρόσωπον αὐτῆς, ὥσπερ ἡ παρ
ἡμῖν ἔχει γῆ κόλπους τινὰς μεγάλους, οὕτως
> / > / / / \ 6,
ἐκείνην ἀνεπτύχθαι βάθεσι μεγάλοις καὶ ῥήξεσιν
ὕδωρ ἢ ζοφερὸν ἀέρα περιέχουσιν ὧν ἐντὸς οὐ
- ~ >
Kabinow οὐδ᾽ ἐπιψαύει τὸ τοῦ ἡλίου φῶς ἀλλ
ἐκλείπει καὶ διεσπασμένην ἐνταῦθα τὴν ἀνάκλασιν
ἀποδίδωσιν.
a ; ὦ Ὁ
22. “Ὑπολαβὼν δ᾽ ὁ ᾿Απολλωνίδης “ εἶτ᾽, ὦ πρὸς
> - ” ” “e ~ / A > a
αὐτῆς ᾿ ἔφη “ris σελήνης, δυνατὸν εἶναι δοκεῖ
£. = 1 , > \
ὑμῖν ῥηγμάτων τινῶν ἢ φαράγγων εἶναι σκιὰς
> A 5 ~ ~ \ \ »Μ ἋἋ \
κἀκεῖθεν ἀφικνεῖσθαι δεῦρο πρὸς τὴν ὄψιν, ἢ TO
συμβαῖνον οὐ λογίζεσθε κἀγὼ τουτὶ εἴπω; ἀκού-
~ /
οιτε δὴ καίπερ οὐκ ἀγνοοῦντες. ἡ μὲν διάμετρος
~ / / / yA A /
τῆς σελήνης δυοκαίδεκα δακτύλους ἔχει TO φαινό-
μενον ἐν τοῖς μέσοις ἀποστήμασι μέγεθος. τῶν
δὲ μελάνων καὶ σκιερῶν ἕκαστον ἡμιδακτυλίου
- ~ / - a>!
φαίνεται μεῖζον ὥστε τῆς διαμέτρου μεῖζον ἢ
>
εἰκοστοτέταρτον εἶναι. καὶ μήν, εἰ μόνων ὑπο-
~ /
θοίμεθα τὴν περίμετρον τῆς σελήνης τρισμυρίων
σταδίων μυρίων δὲ τὴν διάμετρον, κατὰ τὸ ὑπο-
“" /
κείμενον οὐκ ἔλαττον ἂν εἴη" πεντακοσίων σταδίων
1 Basiliensis ; τὴν -E, B.
2 Turnebus ; ἀκούοιτε δὲ -E, B (but B has this phrase after
καίπερ οὐκ ἀγνοοῦντες).
8 Turnebus ; εἶναι -Εἰ, B.
142
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 935
moon, because she is a celestial “ earth, is a body
without soul and mind and without share in the first-
fruits that it beseems us to offer to the gods, according
to custom requiting them for the goods we have
received and naturally revering what is better and
more honourable in virtue and power. Consequently
let us not think it an offence to suppose that she is
earth and that for this which appears to be her face,
just as our earth has certain great gulfs, so that earth
yawns with great depths and clefts which contain
water or murky air; the interior of these the light
of the sun does not plumb or even touch, but it fails
and the reflection which it sends back here is dis-
continuous.’ ®
22. Here Apollonides broke in. “ Then by the
moon herself,” he said, “do you people think it
possible that any clefts and chasms cast shadows
which from the moon reach our sight here ; or do
you not reckon the consequence, and shall I tell you
what itis? Please listen then, though it is not any-
thing unknown to you. The diameter of the moon
measures twelve digits in apparent size at her mean
distance ©; and each of the black and shadowy spots
appears greater than half a digit and consequently
would be greater than one twenty-fourth of her
diameter. Well then, if we should suppose that the
circumference of the moon is only thirty thousand
stades and her diameter ten thousand, each of the
shadowy spots on her would in accordance with the
@ See note ὃ on 929 a supra.
ὃ For this “ discontinuousness ”’ of the reflection cf. 921 c
supra and especially Quaest. Conviv. 696 s-c.
¢ Cf. Cleomedes, ii. 3. 95 (p. 172. 25-27 [Ziegler]) ; on this
measurement of 12 digits cf. Heath, Aristarchus of Samos,
p- 23, n. 1:
143
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
> ’ ~ ~ ~ Ὁ “ \ ~
(935) ἐν αὐτῇ τῶν σκιερῶν ἕκαστον. ὅρα δὴ πρῶτον
\ > ~ ~
av ἢ δυνατὸν τῇ σελήνη τηλικαῦτα βάθη καὶ τηλι-
7 -
καύτας εἶναι τραχύτητας ὥστε σκιὰν ποιεῖν τοσ-
/ ~ > ~
avTnV, ἔπειτα πῶς οὖσαι τηλικαῦται TO μέγεθος
id > ¢ ΄ ᾿] ¢ ~ ” > \ / \
ὑφ᾽ ἡμῶν οὐχ ορῶνται. κἀγὼ μειδιάσας πρὸς
» A «ec Dy γ᾽ }}) »Μ .ὦ / ᾿] / 53 ’ὔ
αὑτον ἔφην “᾿ ὅτι τοιαύτην ἐξεύρηκας ἀπό-
δειξιν, ὦ 5 oie, δι᾿ ἧς κἀμὲ καὶ σαυτὸν
> ~ ~ 7
F ἀποδείξεις τῶν ᾿Αλωαδῶν᾽ ἐκείνων εἶναι μείζονας"
5 > “ / / ~ ς / > \ Δ,
οὐκ ἐν ἅπαντι μέντοι χρόνῳ τῆς ἡμέρας ἀλλὰ πρωΐ
(λ \ / X\3 ” \ \ ¢ ~ “
μάλιστα καὶ δείλης, (el)*® οἴει, τὰς σκιὰς ἡμῶν τοῦ
ς / ~ 5 / \ A ~
ἡλίου ποιοῦντος ἡλιβάτους, τὸν καλὸν τοῦτον
> /, / A e >] / \
αἰσθήσει παρέχειν συλλογισμὸν ὡς, εἰ μέγα TO
/ € / \ / > /
σκιαζόμενον, ὑπερμέγεθες TO σκιάζον. ἐν Λήμνῳ
\ » ἣ ¢€ ~ oo AWS ff / \ /
μὲν οὐδέτερος ἡμῶν εὖ οἶδ᾽ OTL γέγονε, τουτὶ μέντοι
τὸ θρυλούμενον" ἰαμβεῖον ἀμφότεροι πολλάκις ἀκη-
1 Diibner : ἀλλωάδων - Εἰ ; ἀλωάδων B.
5 Τὶ ; μείζονας εἶναι -B.
3. Emperius: δείλης. οἴει -, B; δείλης, (6s) οἴει -Purser.
4 Ἡ, C. (cf. Quaest. Conviv. 641 B, De Aud. Poetis, 17 r and
36 B, De Amic. Multitudine, 94 a, De Communibus Notitiis,
1078 c, De Stoicorum Repugnantiis, 1050 B) 3 τεθρυλλημένον
-E ; θρυλλούμενον -B.
4 Apollonides exaggerates for the sake of his point, for
500 stades is υἷ5. not 34; of 10,000; but he has guarded him-
self by saying that each of the spots is more than half a digit
and so more than τς of the diameter. On the other hand,
he intends his estimate of the moon’s size to err, if at all, on
the side of conservatism : ef. “ἡ only thirty thousand stades.”’
Such small figures, even as minima, are remarkable, however.
Cleomedes (ii. 1. 80-81 [pp. 146. 25-148. 3, Ziegler]) gives
144
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 935
assumption measure not less than five hundred stades.*
Consider now in the first place whether it is possible
for the moon to have depths and corrugations so great
as to cast such a large shadow ; in the second place
why, if they are of such great magnitude, we do not
see them.” Then 1 said to him with a smile : “ Con-
gratulations for having discovered such a demon-
stration, Apollonides. It would enable you to prove
that both you and 1 are taller than the famous sons
of Aloeus,® not at every time of day to be sure but
early in the morning particularly and in late after-
noon, <if), when the sun makes our shadows enor-
mous, you intend to supply sensation with this lovely
reasoning that, if the shadow cast is large, what casts
the shadow is immense. I am well aware that neither
of us has been in Lemnos; we have both, however,
40,000 stades as the lunar diameter, basing this upon the
assumption that the earth is twice as large as the moon and
has a circumference of 250,000 stades according to the
measurement of Eratosthenes and a diameter therefore of
‘“more than 80,000 stades.” Plutarch adopted the same
figure for the terrestrial diameter (see 925 p supra) but sup-
posed this and the terrestrial circumference to be three times
those of the moon (see 923 B supra and note ὦ there), figures
which should have given him more than 26,000 stades as the
lunar diameter. According to Hultsch, however, Posidonius
must have calculated the lunar diameter to be 12,000 stades
(cf. Abhand. K. Gesell. Wissensch. zu Géttingen, Phil.-Hist.
Kl., N.F. i, No. 5, p. 38), which by the usual approximation
would have given 36,000 stades for the lunar circumference ;
and Apollonides’ minimal estimate may have been based
upon these figures. For the common “ rough approxima-
tion ’’ 3-1 as the relation of circumference to diameter cf.
Archimedes, Arenarius, ii. 3 (Opera Omnia, ii, p. 234. 28-29
{Heiberg]}).
> Otus and Ephialtes: cf. De Evxilio, 602 p; Iliad, v. 385-
387; Odyssey, xi. 305-320 ; Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, i. 7. 4.
2-4,
145
(935)
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
KOG [LEV
"Abws καλύψει' πλευρὰ Anpvias Boos:
» / Ἁ ¢ \ ~ » ¢ uv /
ἐπιβάλλει yap ἡ σκιὰ τοῦ ὄρους, ws ἔοικε, χαλκέῳ
τινὶ βοϊδίῳ, μῆκος ἀποτείνουσα διὰ τῆς θαλάττης
> » γ 6 / / > > >] \
οὐκ ἔλαττον ἑπτακοσίων σταδίων. <add’ od χρὴ
δήπουθεν ἑπτακοσίων σταδίων)" τὸ κατασκιάζον
“ > \ \ ολὺν ¢ , ε A
ὕψος εἶναι διὰ τὴν αἰτίαν ὅτι πολλαπλασίους at τοῦ
φωτὸς ἀποστάσεις τῶν σωμάτων τὰς σκιὰς ποιοῦσι.
δεῦρο δὴ θεῶ καὶ τῆς σελήνης ὅτε πάμμηνός ἐστι
καὶ μάλιστα τὴν ἰδέαν ἔναρθρον τοῦ προσώπου
βαθύτητι τῆς σκιᾶς ἀποδίδωσι τὸ μέγιστον ἀπ-
ἔχοντα διάστημα τὸν ἥλιον" ἡ γὰρ ἀπόστασις τοῦ
φωτὸς αὐτὴ τὴν σκιὰν μεγάλην οὐ τὰ μεγέθη τῶν
ὑπὲρ τὴν σελήνην ἀνωμαλιῶν πεποίηκε. καὶ μὴν
οὐδὲ τῶν Op@v* τὰς ὑπεροχὰς ἐῶσι μεθ᾽ ἡμέραν" αἱ
περιαυγαὶ τοῦ ἡλίου καθορᾶσθαι, τὰ μέντοι βαθέα
καὶ κοῖλα φαίνεται καὶ σκιώδη πόρρωθεν. οὐδὲν
Ss a is
οὖν ἄτοπον εἰ Kal τῆς σελήνης τὴν ἀντίλαμψιν" καὶ
τὸν ἐπιφωτισμὸν οὐκ ἔστι καθορᾶν ἀκριβῶς αἱ δὲ
1 EF, B; καλύπτει -Van Herwerden.
2 Aldine, Basiliensis ; πλευρᾶς Ἔν, lads πλευρὰς -B*.
° H.C. after Purser’s (od χρὴ δὲ ἑπτακοσίων σταδίων) ; no
lacuna in E or B; lacuna indicated in Xylander’s version ;
“(Αἴ non ideo tantam faciemus illam) altitudinem,”’ ete.
-Kepler.
4B; ὁρῶν -E.
5 Stephanus (1624) ; μεθημέραν -E, B.
6 Apelt ; ἀντίληψιν -E,
« The verse, which comes from an unidentified tragedy of
Sophocles, is elsewhere quoted with καλύπτει or σκιάζει and
with πλευρά or νῶτα (cf. Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag.*, p. 299,
frag. 708). For the shadow of Athos cast upon Lemnos ef.
146
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 935-936
often heard this line that is on everyone's lips :
Athos will veil the Lemnian heifer’s flank. ¢
The point of this apparently is that the shadow of the
mountain, extending not less than seven hundred
stades over the sea,? falls upon a little bronze heifer ;
{but it is not necessary, I presume.) that what casts
the shadow be (seven hundred stades) high, for the
reason that shadows are made many times the size
of the objects that cast them by the remoteness of
the light from the objects.“ Come then, observe that,
when the moon is at the full and because of the
shadow’s depth exhibits most articulately the appear-
ance of the face, the sun is at his maximum distance
from her. The reason is that the remoteness of the
light alone and not the magnitude of the irregularities
on the surface of the moon has made the shadow
large. Besides, even in the case of mountains the
dazzling beams of the sun prevent their crags from
being discerned in broad daylight, although their
depths and hollows and shadowy parts are visible
from afar. So it is not at all strange that in the case
of the moon too it is not possible to discern accurately
the reflection and illumination, whereas the juxta-
Pliny, Nat. Hist. iv. 12 (23)..73; Apollonius Rhodius, i.
601-604; Proclus, In Timaeum, 56 B (i, p. 181. 12 ff. [Diehl]).
ὃ Proclus (loc. cit.) says that this is the distance of Lemnos
from Athos, Plutarch rather that it is the length of the shadow
cast by the mountain. According to Eustathius (4d Jliadem,
980. 45 ff.), Athos is 300 stades distant from Lemnos, accord-
ing to Pliny (loc. cit.) 87 Roman miles (unless this is a scribal
error for XXX XVII). The actual distance is said to be about
50 miles ; and Athos, which is 6350 feet high, could cast a
shadow for almost 100 miles over open sea.
¢ In this Plutarch is guilty either of an error or of an
intentional sophism ; cf. Class. Phil. xlvi (1951), p. 145.
147
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(936) τῶν σκιερῶν παραθέσεις mapa τὰ λαμπρὰ τῇ δια-
φορᾷ τὴν ὄψιν οὐ λανθάνουσιν.
23. ᾿Αλλ᾽ ἐκεῖνο μᾶλλον ᾿᾿ ἔφην “ ἐλέγχειν δοκεῖ
~ iv 4 .
τὴν λεγομένην ἀνάκλασιν ἀπὸ τῆς σελήνης, ὅτι τοὺς
A A ~ ’ὔ
ἐν ταῖς ἀνακλωμέναις αὐγαῖς ἑστῶτας οὐ μόνον
7 \ ti « ~ 5 \ \ A
συμβαίνει τὸ φωτιζόμενον ὁρᾶν ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ φω-
τίζον. ὅταν γὰρ αὐγῆς ἀφ᾽ ὕδατος πρὸς τοῖχον
ε / » 5 , ~ ~ / \
C ἁλλομένης ὄψις ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ πεφωτισμένῳ κατὰ
΄' /
τὴν ἀνάκλασιν τόπῳ γένηται, TA τρία καθορᾷ, τὴν
~ \
τ᾽ ἀνακλωμένην αὐγὴν καὶ τὸ ποιοῦν ὕδωρ τὴν
3119 \ \ ¢ Be ἢ 27? a \ σι τ
ἀνάκλασιν καὶ τὸν ἥλιον αὐτὸν ἀφ᾽ οὗ τὸ φῶς τῷ
ὕδατι προσπῖπτον ἀνακέκλασται. τούτων δ᾽ ὁμο-
λογουμένων καὶ φαινομένων κελεύουσι τοὺς ava-
~ ~ 7
κλάσει φωτίζεσθαι τὴν γῆν ὑπὸ τῆς σελήνης
ἀξιοῦντας ἐπιδεικνύναι νύκτωρ ἐμφαινόμενον τῇ
/ \ “ a » / ~ Ὁ »
σελήνῃ τὸν ἥλιον ὥσπερ ἐμφαίνεται τῷ ὕδατι μεθ᾽
ἡμέραν' ὅταν ἀνάκλασις ἀπ᾽" αὐτοῦ γένηται" μὴ
φαινομένου δὲ τούτου κατ᾽ ἄλλον οἴονται “τρόπον
οὐκ ἀνακλάσει γίγνεσθαι τὸν φωτισμόν: εἰ δὲ μὴ
~ εἶ ~ Ss \ / +”) ers / > ”
D τοῦτο, μηδὲ γῆν εἶναι τὴν σελήνην. τί οὖν
\ » A / >”) « > /
ἔφη ᾿" ᾿ πρὸς αὐτοὺς λεκτέον ὃ Ἀπολλωνίδης.
“κοινὰ γὰρ ἔοικε καὶ πρὸς ἡμᾶς εἶναι τὰ τῆς
1 E3 μεθημέραν -Β.
2 Wyttenbach (implied by version of Kepler) ; ὑπ᾽ -E, B.
α i.e. the image of the sun in the water or the reflecting
surface.
δ i.e. by the Stoics; cf. e.g. the argument of Cleomedes
(ii. 4. 101- 102 [p. 184. 4 ff., Ziegler]) against the explanation
of the moon’s light as reflection. The following argument in
this passage is printed by von Arnim, S.V./’. ii, p. 199 as
frag. 675 of Chrysippus.
ὁ For the idiom, κοινὸν καὶ πρός twa εἶναι, ef. Lucullus,
148
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 936
positions of the shadowy and brilliant parts by reason
of the contrast do not escape our sight.
23. There is this, however,” I said, “‘ which seems
to be a stronger objection to the alleged reflection
from the moon. It happens that those who have
placed themselves in the path of reflected rays see not
only the object illuminated but also what illuminates
it. For example, if when a ray of light rebounds from
water to a wall the eye is situated in the place that
is itself illuminated by the reflection, the eye discerns
all three things, the reflected ray and the water that
causes the reflection and the sun itself,? the source
of the light which has been reflected by impinging
upon the water. On the basis of these admitted and
apparent facts those who maintain that the moon
illuminates the earth with reflected light are bidden
(by their adversaries) ὃ to point out in the moon at
night an appearance of the sun such as there is in
water by day whenever there is a reflection of the
sun from it. Since there is no such appearance, (these
adversaries) think that the illumination comes about
in another way and not by reflection and that, if
there is not reflection, neither is the moon an earth.”’
‘““ What response must be made to them then ? ” said
Apollonides, “‘ for the characteristics of reflection
seem to present us with a problem in common.” ¢
44. (521 a) and 45 (522 8). Apollonides is a geometer (cf.
920 τὶ and 925 s-B supra) who had expressed admiration for
Clearchus’s theory of reflection from the moon (cf. 921 Bsupra);
by καὶ πρὸς ἡμᾶς here he means that the objection just raised
to reflection from the moon constitutes a difficulty for the
theory which he has espoused as well as for that of Lamprias
and Lucius which he has just attacked. Lamprias in his
reply, however, contends that the physical characteristics
of the moon on his theory, the very characteristics to which
Apollonides has just objected (935 p-£), will explain why the
149
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(936) ἀνακλάσεως.᾽᾿ “ ἀμέλει τρόπον τινὰ ᾿ ἔφην ἐγὼ
᾿ κοινά, τρόπον δ᾽ ἄλλον οὐδὲ" κοινά. πρῶτον δ᾽
ὅρα τὰ τῆς εἰκόνος ὡς ἄνω ποταμῶν καὶ τραπέμ-
παλιν᾽ λαμβάνουσιν. ἐπὶ γῆς γάρ ἐστι καὶ κάτω
τὸ ὕδωρ ὑπὲρ γῆς δὲ σελήνη καὶ μετέωρος" ὅθεν
ἀντίστροφον αἱ κεκλασμέναι τὸ σχῆμα τῆς γωνίας
ποιοῦσι, τῆς μὲν ἄνω πρὸς τῇ σελήνῃ τῆς δὲ κάτω
πρὸς τῇ γῇ τὴν κορυφὴν ἐ ἐχούσης .; μὴ ἅπασαν οὖν
ἰδέαν κατόπτρου" μηδ᾽ ἐκ πάσης ἀποστάσεως
ὁμοίαν ἀνάκλασιν ποιεῖν ἀξιούτωσαν, ἐπεὶ μάχονται
πρὸς τὴν ἐνάργειαν." ot δὲ σῶμα μὴ λεπτὸν μηδὲ
λεῖον, ὥσπερ ἐστὶ τὸ ὕδωρ, ἀποφαίνοντες τὴν
σελήνην ἀλλ᾽ ἐμβριθὲς καὶ γεῶδες οὐκ οἶδ᾽ ὅπως
ἀπαιτοῦνται τοῦ ἡλίου τὴν ἔμφασιν ἐν αὐτῇ πρὸς
τὴν ὄψιν. οὐδὲ γὰρ τὸ γάλα τοὺς τοιούτους ἐσοπ-
τρισμοὺς ἀποδίδωσιν οὐδὲ ποιεῖ τῆς ὄψεως ἀνα-
κλάσεις διὰ τὴν ἀνωμαλίαν καὶ τραχύτητα τῶν
μορίων: πόθεν γε τὴν σελήνην δυνατόν ἐστιν ἀνα-
πέμπειν ἀφ᾽ ἑαυτῆς τὴν ὄψιν ὥσπερ ἀναπέμπει τὰ
λειότερα τῶν ἐσόπτρων;͵ καίτοι καὶ ταῦτα δή-
πουθεν, ἐὰν ἀμυχή τις ἢ ῥύπος ἢ τραχύτης κατα-
1B; οὐ -Ε..
Meineke (cf. 994 c supra); τραπὲν πάλιν -E, B.
Wyttenbach (after Mylander, s version) ; πάρεστι -E, B.
β
4 Es πρὸς τὴν κορυφὴν τῆ. γῇ ἐχούσης -B.
H.C. (of. e.g. Demetrius, 21 [898 B]: πᾶσαν ἰδέαν μάχης) :
κάτοπτρον -E, B; KaTOTTpwV ΓΕ mperius.
: Basiliensis ; ἐνέργειαν -K, B.
7 B; ἐσόπρων -E.
eo rm
objection does not really make the difficulty for his theory
that it would for that of Clearchus.
150
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 936
“In common in a way certainly,” said I, “ but in
another way not incommon either. In the first place
consider the matter of the image,” how topsy-turvy
and like ‘rivers flowing uphill δ they conceive it.
The fact is that the water is on earth and below, and
the moon above the earth and on high; and hence
the angles produced by the reflected rays are the
converse of each other, the one having its apex above
at the moon, the other below at the earth.” So they
must not demand that every kind of mirror or a
mirror at every distance produce a similar reflection,
since (in doing so) they are at variance with the mani-
fest facts. Those, on the other hand, who declare
that the moon is not a tenuous or a smooth body as
water is but a heavy and earthy one,? I do not under-
stand why it is required of them that the sun be
manifest to vision in her. For milk does not return
such mirrorings either or produce reflections of the
visual ray, and the reason is the irregularity and
roughness of its particles ° ; how in the world then
is it possible for the moon to cast the visual ray back
from herself in the way that the smoother mirrors
do? Yet even these, of course, are occluded if a
scratch or speck of dirt or roughness covers the point
α j,e, the reflected image, not “ the simile,” as Amyot and
Prickard interpret it.
ὃ For the proverbial expression ef. Hesychius, 8.0. ἄνω
ποταμῶν: Euripides, Medea, 410; Lucian, Dialogi Mor-
tuorum, 6. 2.
¢ As Kepler says in his note 64 ad loc., “ἡ ratio nihil ad
rem.”
4 j,e, those who hold the view of the moon’s nature that
Lamprias himself espouses.
ε Cf. Quaest. Conviv. 696 a; and observe that the phrase,
ἀνωμαλία καὶ τραχύτης. used here of milk is in 930 ἢ supra and
937 a infra applied to the moon.
151
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(936) λάβῃ τὸ σημεῖον [ἂν] ad’ οὗ πέφυκεν ἡ ὄψις
937
ἀνακλᾶσθαι," τυφλοῦται" καὶ βλέπεται μὲν αὐτὰ τὴν
δ᾽ ἀνταύγειαν οὐκ ἀποδίδωσιν. ὁ δ᾽ ἀξιῶν ἢ καὶ
\ »Μ © ~ > \ εἶ σ΄ a“ \ \ σ > >
τὴν ὄψιν ἡμῶν ἐπὶ τὸν ἥλιον ἢ μηδὲ τὸν ἥλιον ἐφ
¢ ~ > Na > > « ~ \ , ¢ / >
ἡμᾶς ἀνακλᾶν ἀφ᾽ ἑαυτῆς τὴν σελήνην ἡδύς ἐστι
τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν ἥλιον ἀξιῶν εἶναι φῶς δὲ τὴν ὄψιν
οὐρανὸν δὲ τὸν ἄνθρωπον. τοῦ μὲν γὰρ ἡλίου dv
εὐτονίαν καὶ λαμπρότητα πρὸς τῇ σελήνῃ γιγνο-
évnv μετὰ πληγῆς τὴν ἀνάκλασιν φέρεσθαι πρὸς
μένην μ ρ ρ
ς ΄- > / Ψ ¢ δ᾽ Μ > A \ S A Ἅ \
ἡμᾶς εἰκός ἐστιν, ἡ δ᾽ ὄψις ἀσθενὴς οὖσα Kat λεπτὴ
καὶ ὀλιγοστὴ τί θαυμαστὸν εἰ μήτε πληγὴν ἀνα-
κρουστικὴν ποιεῖ μήτ᾽ ἀφαλλομένη τηρεῖ τὴν
7 5 \ / \ 5 / ~
συνέχειαν ἀλλὰ θρύπτεται καὶ ἀπολείπει πλῆθος
οὐκ ἔχουσα φωτὸς ὥστε μὴ διασπᾶσθαι περὶ τὰς
ἀνωμαλίας καὶ τραχύτητας; ἀπὸ μὲν γὰρ ὕδατος
καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἐσόπτρων ἰσχύουσαν ἔτι τῆς ἀρχῆς
>] \ “δι > \ A iA “ \ > /
ἐγγὺς οὖσαν ἐπὶ τὸν ἥλιον ἅλλεσθαι τὴν ἀνάκλασιν
οὐκ ἀδύνατόν ἐστιν: ἀπὸ δὲ τῆς σελήνης, κἂν γίγ-
νωνταί τινες ὀλισθήσεις αὐτῆς, ἀσθενεῖς ἔσονται
καὶ ἀμυδραὶ καὶ προαπολείπουσαι διὰ τὸ μῆκος
τῆς ἀποστάσεως. καὶ γὰρ ἄλλως τὰ μὲν κοῖλα
1 Excised by Wyttenbach.
2 Bernardakis ; ἀνακλασθὲν -E, B.
3 Emperius ; τυποῦται -E, B.
4
Madvig (implied by version of Xylander) ; ἀφαλλομένης
-E, B.
@ For the phenomenon referred to ef. [Ptolemy], De
Speculis, vi=Hero Alexandrinus, Opera, ii. 1, p. 330. 4-22
(Nix-Schmidt). For τυφλόω meaning to deaden, muffle,
oeclude cf. De Defectu Oraculorum, 434 c, Quaest. Conviv.
721 5, De Hsu Carnium, 995 Fr.
152
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 936-937
from which the visual ray is naturally reflected, and
while the mirrors themselves are seen they do not
return the customary reflection.*; One who demands
that the moon either reflect our vision from herself
to the sun as well or else not reflect the sun from
herself to us either is naive, for he is demanding that
the eye be a sun, the vision light, and the human
being a heaven. Since the light of the sun because
of its intensity and brilliance arrives at the moon with
a shock, it is reasonable that its reflection should
reach to us; but the visual ray, since it is weak and
tenuous and many times slighter, what wonder if it
does not have an impact that produces recoil or if in
rebounding it does not maintain its continuity but is
dispersed and exhausted, not having light enough to
keep it from being scattered about the irregularities
and corrugations (of the moon)? From water, to be
sure, and from mirrors of other kinds it is not im-
possible for the reflection (of the visual ray) to re-
bound to the sun, since it is still strong because it is
near to its point of origin’ ; but from the moon, even
if the visual rays do in some cases glance off, they
will be weak and dim and prematurely exhausted
because of the magnitude of the distance. What
is more too, whereas mirrors that are concave make
® Plutarch has to explain how the image of the sun can be
seen in water and mirrors though it is not seen in the moon,
and he does so by stressing the proximity of the former to the
“ἢ point of origin.’’ This “* point of origin ’’ can only be our
eyes, so that he must be thinking of the visual ray as reflected
from water and mirrors to the sun and as failing to be re-
flected from the moon to the sun. The reading of the mss.,
ἐπὶ Tov ἥλιον, is necessary to the argument and all suggestions
for altering it are wrong.
° ze. the distance from the eye to the reflecting surface
of the moon.
153
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(937) τῶν ἐσόπτρων εὐτονωτέραν ποιεῖ τῆς προηγου-
μένης αὐγῆς τὴν ἀνακλωμένην ὥστε καὶ φλόγας
ἀναπέμπειν πολλάκις, τὰ δὲ κυρτὰ καὶ Ta’ σφαι-
B ροειδῆ τῷ μὴ πανταχόθεν ἀντερείδειν ἀσθενῆ καὶ
ἁμαυρὰν (αὐτὴν ἀναδίδωσιν.Σ ὁρᾶτε" δήπουθεν,
ὅταν ἴριδες δύο φανῶσι νέφους νέφος ἐ ἐμπεριέχοντος,
ἁμαυρὰ' ποιοῦσαν καὶ ἀσαφῆ τὰ χρώματα τὴν
περιέχουσαν: τὸ γὰρ ἐκτὸς νέφος ἀπωτέρω τῆς
ὄψεως κείμενον οὐκ εὔτονον οὐδ᾽ ἰσχυρὰν τὴν ἀνά-
κλασιν ἀποδίδωσι. καὶ τί δεῖ πλείονα λέγειν; ὅπου
γὰρ τὸ τοῦ ἡλίου φῶς ᾿ἀνακλώμενον ἀπὸ τῆς σε-
λήνης τὴν μὲν θερμότητα πᾶσαν ἀποβάλλει τῆς δὲ
λαμπρότητος αὐτοῦ λεπτὸν ἀφικνεῖται μόλις πρὸς
ἡμᾶς καὶ ἀδρανὲς λείψανον, tov’ τῆς ὄψεως τὸν
ἴσον φερομένης δίαυλον ἐνδέχεται μόριον ὁτιοῦν
C λειψάνου ἐξικέσθαι πρὸς τὸν ἥλιον ἀπὸ" τῆς σε-
λήνης; ἐγὼ μὲν οὐκ οἶμαι. σκοπεῖτε δ᾽ ᾿᾿ εἶπον
“Kal ὑμεῖς. εἰ ταὐτὰ πρὸς τὸ ὕδωρ καὶ τὴν σε-
λήνην ἐ ἔπασχεν 7) ὄψις, Ede” καὶ γῆς καὶ φυτῶν καὶ
ἀνθρώπων καὶ ἄστρων ἐμφάσεις ποιεῖν τὴν παν-
σέληνον, οἵας τὰ λοιπὰ ποιεῖται τῶν ἐσόπτρων.
εἰ δ᾽ οὐ γίγνονται πρὸς ταῦτα τῆς ὄψεως ἀνακλάσεις
E; καὶ σφαιροειδῆ -B.
Adler ; ἀμαυρὰν vac. 14-E, 18-B.
Turnebus ; ὁρᾶται -E, B.
AG (implied by versions of Xylander, Amyot, and
Kepler) ; _apavpay -E, B.
B; 7 που -E. 6 B2; τὴν ἴσην -E, Bt.
7 H.C. (implied by version of Amyot) ; λείψανον -E, B.
8 Wyttenbach (implied by versions of Amyot and Kepler) ;
ὑπὸ -E, B. ® Turnebus ; ὃ δὴ -E, B.
ὮὉ ὦ Nw μὲ
« For the concave burning-glass cf. [Euclid], Catoptrica,
Prop. 30 (Euclid, Opera Omnia, vii, pp. 340-342 [Heiberg]).
154
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 937
the ray of light more intense after reflection than it
was before so as often even to send off flames,” convex
and spherical mirrors? by not exerting counter-
pressure upon it from all points (give it off) weak and
faint. You observe, I presume, whenever two rain-
bows appear, as one cloud encloses another, that the
encompassing rainbow produces colours that are faint
and indistinct. The reason for this is that the outer
cloud, being situated further off from the eye, returns
a reflection that is not intense or strong.° Nay, what
need of further arguments ? When the light of the
sun by being reflected from the moon loses all its
heat ὦ and of its brilliance there barely reaches us a
slight and feeble remnant, is it really possible that
of the visual ray travelling the same double-course °
any fraction of a remnant should from the moon
arrive at the sun? For my part, I think not; and
do you too,’ I said, “ consider this. If the visual
ray were affected in the same way by water and by
the moon, the full moon ought to show such reflec-
tions of the earth and plants and human beings and
stars as all other mirrors do; but, if there occur no
reflections of the visual ray to these objects either
δ Not two kinds of mirrors, as Raingeard says ad loc., but
one, ** convex, 7.e. convex spherical,’’ for (1) spherical mirrors
that are concave are the burning-glasses in the preceding
category, and (2) convex mirrors that are not spherical would
not provide the obvious analogy with the moon that is wanted.
© On the double rainbow and the reason why the outer bow
is less distinct cf. Aristotle, Meteorology, 375 a 30-b 15.
Aristotle’s explanation, which Plutarch here adopts, is
attacked by Kepler in a long note on the present passage
(note 70). 4 See note a on 929 κὶ supra.
¢ The moon is thought of as the καμπτήρ or turning-post
in the stadium. The sun’s rays travel from sun to moon to
eye, and the visual ray would have to travel the same course
in reverse.
155
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(937) dv ἀσθένειαν αὐτῆς 7 τραχύτητα τῆς σελήνης, μηδὲ
wis τὸν ἥλιον a ἀπαιτῶμεν.
Ἡμεῖς μὲν οὖν ᾿᾿ ἔφην “᾿ ὅσα μὴ διαπέφευγε
ἵν» μνήμην τῶν ἐκεῖ λεχθέντων ἀπηγγέλκαμεν.
ὥρα δὲ καὶ Σύλλαν παρακαλεῖν, μᾶλλον δ᾽ ἀπαιτεῖν
τὴν διήγησιν, οἷον ἐπὶ ῥητοῖς ἀκροατὴν γεγενη-
μένον. ὥστε, εἰ δοκεῖ, καταπαύσαντες τὸν περί-
D πατον καὶ καθίσαντες ἐπὶ τῶν βάθρων ἑδραῖον
αὐτῷ παράσχωμεν ἀκροατήριον. i ἔδοξε δὴ ταῦτα,
καὶ καθισάντων ἡμῶν ὁ Θέων “ ἐγώ τοι, ὦ Λαμ-
πρία,᾽ εἶπεν “᾿ ἐπιθυμῶ μὲν οὐδενὸς ἧττον ὑμῶν
ἀκοῦσαι τὰ λεχθησόμενα, πρότερον δ᾽ ἂν ἡδέως
ἀκούσαιμι περὶ τῶν οἰκεῖν λεγομένων ἐπὶ τῆς
σελήνης, οὐκ εἰ κατοικοῦσί τινες ἀλλ᾽ εἰ δυνατὸν
ἐκεῖ κατοικεῖν. εἰ γὰρ οὐ δυνατόν, ἄλογον καὶ τὸ
γῆν εἶναι τὴν σελήνην᾽ δόξει γὰρ πρὸς οὐδὲν ἀλλὰ
μάτην γεγονέναι μήτε καρποὺς ἐκφέρουσα μήτ᾽
ἀνθρώποις τισὶν ἕδραν παρέχουσα καὶ γένεσιν καὶ
E δίαιταν, ὧν ἕνεκα καὶ ταύτην γεγονέναι φαμὲν κατὰ
Πλάτωνα ‘ tpofov* ἡμετέραν, ἡμέρας τε καὶ νυκτὸς
ἀτρεκῆ φύλακα καὶ δημιουργόν. ὁρᾷς δ᾽ ὅτι
1 Stephanus (1624), cf. Timaeus, 40 B; τροφὴν -E, Β.
* See 921 F, 929 B, 929 F supra.
> In De Placitis, 892 a=Aétius, ii. 30. 1 this notion is
ascribed to the Pythagoreans (and in the version of Stobaeus
specifically to Philolaiis). Diogenes Laertius, ii. 8 ascribes
it to Anaxagoras—if on the basis of frag. B 4 (ii, p. 34. 5 ff.
[Diels-Kranz]), wrongly ; and Cicero’s ascription of it to
Xenophanes (Acad. Prior. 11. xxxix. 123) is certainly an error
(despite Lactantius, Div. Inst. iii. 23. 12) but more probably
due to confusion with Xenocrates than, as is usually said, a
mistake for Anaxagoras (cf. J. S. Reid ad loc. ; Diels-Kranz,
Frag. der Vorsok.®, i, Ὁ. 125. 40; Diels, Dox. Graeci, Ὁ. 121,
n. 1). The ‘‘ moon-dwellers ’’ became characters of “* scien-
156
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 937
because of the weakness of the ray or the ruggedness
of the moon, let us not require that there be such
reflection to the sun either.
24. So we for our part,” said I, “ have now re-
ported as much of that conversation? as has not
slipped our mind; and it is high time to summon
Sulla or rather to demand his narrative as the agreed
condition upon which he was admitted as a listener.
So, if it is agreeable, let us stop our promenade and
sit down upon the benches, that we may provide him
with a settled audience.” To this then they agreed ;
and, when we had sat down, Theon said: “ Though,
as you know, Lamprias, I am as eager as any of you
to hear what is going to be said, I should like before
that to hear about the beings that are said to dwell
on the moon ’—not whether any really do inhabit it
but whether habitation there is possible. If it is not
possible, the assertion that the moon is an earth is
itself absurd, for she would then appear to have come
into existence vainly and to no purpose, neither
bringing forth fruit nor providing for men of some
kind an origin, an abode, and a means of life, the
purposes for which this earth of ours came into being,
as we say with Plato, ᾿ our nurse, strict guardian and
artificer of day and night.’ 5 You see that there is
tific fiction ’’ at least as early as Herodorus of Heraclea (cf.
Athenaeus, ii. 57 f).
© Timaeus, 40 B-c. Though ἀτρεκῆ does not appear there,
it is introduced into the passage by Plutarch at 938 πὶ infra
and at Plat. Quaest. 1006 ©, which indicates that he meant
it as part of the quotation. Since there appears to be no other
reference to the words τροφὸν ἡμετέραν in Plutarch’s extant
works, one cannot be sure that τροφήν here is not his own
misquotation rather than a scribal error. (The phrase,
τροφαῖς ζῴων, in De Superstitione, 171 a is probably not part
of the adaptation of the Timaeus-passage there.)
157
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA ©
(937) πολλὰ λέγεται καὶ σὺν γέλωτι Kal μετὰ σπουδῆς
περὶ τούτων. τοῖς μὲν γὰρ ὑπὸ τὴν σελήνην οἰκοῦ-
“ ,ὔ e wee. ae , "
σιν ὥσπερ Tavrahous ὑπὲρ κεφαλῆς ἐπικρέμασθαί
φασι τοὺς δ᾽ οἰκοῦντας αὖ πάλιν ἐπ᾽ αὐτῆς, ὥσπερ
F ᾿Ιξίονας ἐνδεδεμένους ῥύμῃ τοσζαύτῃ, τῆς κατα-
φορᾶς κωλύειν τὴν κύκλῳ περιδίνησιν.)" καίτοι
μίαν οὐ κινεῖται κίνησιν ἀλλ᾽, ὥς που καὶ λέγεται,
~ ~ ~ ~ \
Tpiodtris ἐστιν, ἅμα μῆκος ἐπὶ τοῦ ζῳδιακοῦ Kat
πλάτος ἀντιφερομένη" καὶ βάθος: ὧν τὴν μὲν περι-
\ \ 89 Ὁ \ > » 4 ~ > /
δρομὴν τὴν ὃ ἕλικα τὴν δ᾽ οὐκ οἶδα πῶς ἀνωμαλίαν
ὀνομάζουσιν οἱ μαθηματικοί, καίπερ οὐδεμίαν ὁ ὁμα-
λὴν οὐδὲ τεταγμένην ταῖς ἀποκαταστάσεσιν ὁρῶντες
ἔχουσαν. οὔκουν" εἰ λέων τις ἔπεσεν ὑπὸ ῥύμης
1 Stephanus (1624); ἐκ -E, Β.
2-H. C. (cf. Class. Phil. xlvi [1951], p. 155, τς 47); exxpé-
μασθαί -E,
AG, (cf. Class. Phil. xlvi [1951], p. 146); τόση vac.
43-E, 30-B.
«H.C. (cf. Class. Phil. xlvi [1951], p. 146); φερομένη -E ;
ἐπιφερομένη - -Β, Aldine, Basiliensis.
5 B; ἐχούσαις -E.
§ Stephanus (1624) ; οὐκ -E, B.
A Cf. the sarcastic remarks of Lucius in 923 c supra. For
the “stone of Tantalus ” cf. Nostoi, frag. x (=Athenaeus,
281 b-c); Pindar, Olympian, i. 57-58 and Isthmian, viii.
10-11; and Scholia in Olymp. i. 91 a, where reference is made
to the “ interpretation *’ that the stone which threatens Tan-
talus is the sun, this being his punishment for having declared
that the sun is an incandescent mass (cf. also scholiast on
Euripides, Orestes, 982-986).
» For the myth of Ixion on his wheel cf. Pindar, Pythian, ii.
21-48 and for Ixion used in a cosmological argument cf.
Aristotle, De Caelo, 284 a 34-35.
¢ An epithet of Hecate (cf. Athenaeus, vii. 325 a) applied
to the moon only after she had been identified with the moon-
goddess, after which her epithets had to be explained by
158
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 937
much talk about these things both in jest and seri-
ously. It is said that those who dwell under the moon
have her suspended overhead like the stone of Tan-
talus ἃ and on the other hand that those who dwell
upon her, fast bound like so many Ixions ἢ by such
great velocity, (are kept from falling by being
whirled round in a circle). Yet it is not with a single
motion that she moves; but she is, as somewhere
she is in fact called, the goddess of three ways,° for
she moves on the zodiac against the signs in longitude
and latitude and in depth at the same time. Of these
movements the mathematicians call the first ἡ revolu-
tion,’ the second ‘ spiral,’ and the third, I know not
why, ᾿ anomaly,’ although they see that she has no
motion at all that is uniform and fixed by regular
recurrences.? There is reason to wonder then not that
the velocity caused a lion to fall on the Peloponnesus ¢
reference to lunar phenomena. Cf. e.g. Cleomedes, ii. 5. 111 (p.
202. 5-10 [Ziegler]) on τριπρόσωπος. and Cornutus, Theologiae
Graecae Compend. 34 (p. 72. 7-15 [Lang]) on τρίμορφος. and
τριοδῖτις. The etymology here put into Theon’s mouth had
already been given by Varro in his De Lingua Latina, vii. 16.
For the moon as Hecate cf. notes 6 on 942 p and g on 944 c
infra.
4 For the text, terminology, and intention of these two
sentences cf. Class. Phil. xlvi (1951), pp. 146-147.
¢ Cf. Epimenides, frag. B 2 (i, p. 32. 22 ff. [Diels-Kranz]) ;
Anaxagoras, frag. A 77 (ii, p. 24. 25-26 and 28-30 [Diels-
Kranz]). It may be that Anaxagoras referred to this legend in
connection with his theory concerning the meteoric stone of
Aegospotami, the fall of which he is said to have “‘ predicted ”’
(Lysander, 12 [439 p-F]; Diogenes Laertius, ii. 10; Pliny,
Nat. Hist. ii. 58 [59], 149-150). Kepler (note 77) suggests
that the story of the lion falling from the sky may have arisen
from a confusion of Adwy (gen. pl. of Adas) and λέων or, as
Prickard puts it, between Ads and Xis. Diogenes Laertius
(viii. 72) quotes Timaeus to the effect that Heraclides Ponticus
spoke of the fall of a man from the moon, an incident which
159
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(937) εἰς Πελοπόννησον" ἄξιόν ἐστι θαυμάζειν ἀλλ᾽ ὅπως"
οὐ μυρί᾽ ὁρῶμεν ἀεὶ
, 575 A > \ , 3
πεσήματ᾽ ἀνδρῶν κἀπολακτισμοὺς βίων
HA Ω > / \ , 4
938 ἐκεῖθεν οἷον ἐκκυβιστώντων καὶ περιτραπέντων.
καὶ (μὴν)" γελοῖον περὶ μονῆς" τῶν ἐκεῖ διαπορεῖν
εἰ μὴ γένεσιν μηδὲ σύστασιν ἔχειν δύνανται. ” ὅπου
γὰρ Αἰγύπτιοι καὶ Τρωγλοδύται, οἷς ἡμέρας μιᾶς
ἀκαρὲς ἵσταται κατὰ “κορυφὴν ὁ ἥλιος ἐν τροπαῖς
εἶτ᾽ ἄπεισιν, ὀλίγον ἀπέχουσι τοῦ κατακεκαῦσθαι
ξηρότητι τοῦ “περιέχοντος, ἥπου τοὺς ἐπὶ τῆς σε-
λήνης εἰκός ἐστι δώδεκα θερείας ὑπομένειν ἔτους
ἑκάστου, κατὰ μῆνα τοῦ ἡλίου πρὸς κάθετον αὐτοῖς
ἐφισταμένου καὶ στηρίζοντος ὅταν ἢ πανσέληνος;
πνεύματά γε μὴν καὶ νέφη καὶ ὄμβρους, ὧν χωρὶς
Β οὔτε γένεσις φυτῶν ἐ ἔστιν οὔτε σωτηρία γενομένοις,
ἀμήχανον ἐκεῖ διανοηθῆναι συνιστάμενα διὰ θερμό-
τῆτα καὶ λεπτότητα τοῦ περιέχοντος" οὐδὲ γὰρ
ἐνταῦθα τῶν ὁρῶν τὰ ὑψηλὰ δέχεται τοὺς ἀγρίους
Cae / A > \ \ n ge
καὶ ἐναντίους χειμῶνας, ἀλλζὰ λεπτὸς ὦν" ἤδη
καὶ σάλον ἔχων ὑπὸ κουφότητος ὁ ἀὴρ ἐκφεύγει
τὴν σύστασιν ταύτην καὶ πύκνωσιν. εἰ μὴ νὴ Δία
φήσομεν ὥσπερ ἡ ᾿Αθηνᾷ τῷ ᾿Αχιλλεῖ νέκταρός τι
Β ; πελοπόνησον -E.
Turnebus : ὅμως -Ε, Β.
B (ef. De Curiositate, 517 ἘῚ ; υἵων -E.
Wyttenbach (cf. De Vitando Aere Alieno, 831 τὸ : περι-
τραπείς) ; περιτρεπόντων -E, B; περιρρεπόντων -Apelt (Jena,
1905). 5 Diibner ; καὶ vac. 1-E; καὶ yap -B
6 Basiliensis ; μόνης -F, B.
7 Wyttenbach ; δύναται -B; δυναται -E.
8 Bernardakis (cf. 939 B-c, 939 © infra); ἀλλ᾽ vac. 9-E,
10-Β.
Voss after Hirzel refers to a dialogue of his that may have
160
ιο © ND μ᾿
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 937-938
but how it is that we are not forever seeing count-
less
Men falling headlong and lives spurned away,?
tumbling off the moon, as it were, and turned head
over heels. It is moreover ridiculous to raise the
question how the inhabitants of the moon remain
there, if they cannot come to be or exist. Now, when
Egyptians and Troglodytes,® for whom the sun stands
in the zenith one moment of one day at the solstice
and then departs, are all but burnt to a cinder by the
dryness of the atmosphere, is it really likely that the
men on the moon endure twelve summers every year,
the sun standing fixed vertically above them each
month at the full moon ? Yet winds and clouds and
rains, without which plants can neither arise nor
having arisen be preserved, because of the heat and
tenuousness of the atmosphere cannot possibly be
imagined as forming there, for not even here on
earth do the lofty mountains admit fierce and con-
trary storms 5 but the air, (being tenuous) already
and having a rolling swell ὦ as a result of its lightness,
escapes this compaction and condensation. Other-
wise, by Heaven, we shall have to say that, as Athena
when Achilles was taking no food instilled into him
influenced Plutarch (Voss, De Heraclidis Pontici Vita et
Scriptis, p. 61).
@ Aeschylus, Supplices, 937; ef. De Curiositate, 517 F,
where also Plutarch gives βίων instead of Aeschylus’s
Lov.
: > i.e. Ethiopians: cf. Herodotus, iv. 183. 4; Strabo, ii.
5. 36 (c. 133).
¢ Cf. Aristotle, Meteorology, 340 b 36—341 a 4, 347 a 29-
35, and Alexander, Meteor. p. 16. 6-15, where lines 10-11
guarantee and explain the ἐναντίους in Plutarch’s text.
4 Cf. 939 πε infra and Plat. Quaest. 1005 Ε.
ΜΟΙ XAT G 161
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(938) Kat ἀμβροσίας ἐνέσταξε μὴ προσιεμένῳ τροφὴν
οὕτω τὴν σελήνην, ᾿Αθηνᾶν λεγομένην καὶ οὖσαν,
τρέφειν τοὺς ἄνδρας ἀμβροσίαν ἀνιεῖσαν' αὐτοῖς
ἐφημέριον, ὡς Φερεκύδης ὁ παλαιὸς οἴεται σιτεῖσθαι
σ αὐτοὺς {τοὺς )" θεούς. τὴν μὲν γὰρ ᾿Ινδικὴν ῥίζαν
ἥν φησι Μεγασθένης τοὺς (μήτ᾽ ἐσθίοντας)" μήτε
πίνοντας ἀλλ᾽ ἀστόμους" ὄντας ὑποτύφειν καὶ
θυμιᾶν καὶ τρέφεσθαι τῇ ὀσμῇ πόθεν ἄν τις ἐκεῖ
φυομένην λάβοι, μὴ βρεχομένης τῆς σελήνης; ‘
τρί Ταῦτα τοῦ Θέωνος εἰπόντος, ( ὑπέρευ. y
ἔφην “᾿ καὶ ἄριστα TH παιδιᾷ τοῦ λόγου τὰς "pos
(ἡμῶν καθῆκας, du») a Kal θάρσος ἡ ἡμῖν ἐγγίγνεται
πρὸς τὴν ἀπόκρισιν μὴ πάνυ TmuK pay" μηδ᾽ αὐστηρὰν
εὐθύνην προσδοκῶσι. καὶ γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς τῶν
σφόδρα πεπεισμένων τὰ τοιαῦτα διαφέρουσιν (οὐ-
δὲν)" ot σφόδρα δυσκολαίνοντες αὐτοῖς καὶ δια-
πιστοῦντες ἀλλὰ μὴ πράως τὸ δυνατὸν καὶ τὸ
ἐνδεχόμενον ἐθέλοντες ἐπισκοπεῖν. εὐθὺς οὖν τὸ
1 Emperius ; ἀνεῖσαν -F, B.
2 Wyttenbach : αὐτοὺς θεούς -E, B.
-Anon., Aldine, R.J. 94 (ef. Pliny, Nat. Hist. vii. 2. 25:
ἢ nullum illis cibum nullumque potum”’); τοὺς μήτε πίνοντας
-E, B.
4 Basiliensis, Anon., Aldine, R.J. 94; εὐστόμους -E, B
(cf. σύστομοι of both mss. in 940 B infra).
5H. C.; vac. 6-E, B ye.
6 H.C. (cf.. Amatorius, 753 3B, De Communibus Notitiis,
1062 Ff); vac. 15-E, 12-B a Ge ute ἀνῆκας, δι) ἃ -Wytten-
bach. 7 B®; μικρὰν KE, Β΄.
8 Diibner (τοιαῦτα (οὐδὲν) διαφέρουσιν οἱ -Wyttenbach after
Xylander’s version) : τοιαῦτα διαφέρουσιν, οἱ -E, B.
Cf. Iliad, xix. 340-356.
See 922 a supra and note c there.
= Pherecydes, frag. B 13 a (i, p. 51. 5-9 [Diels-Kranz]).
Megasthenes, frag. 34 (Frag. Hist. Graec. ii, pp. 425-427
aac 8
162
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 938
some nectar and ambrosia,” so the moon, which is
Athena in name and fact,’ nourishes her men by
sending up ambrosia for them day by day, the food
of (the) gods themselves as the ancient Pherecydes
believes.° For even the Indian root which according to
Megasthenes the Mouthless Men, who (neither eat)
nor drink, kindle and cause to smoulder and inhale
for their nourishment,’ how could it be supposed to
grow there if the moon is not moistened by rain ? ”
25. When Theon had so spoken, I said “ (Bravo),
you have most excellently ¢smoothed our) brows by
the sport of your speech, wherefore we have been
inspired with boldness to reply, since we anticipate
no very sharp or bitter scrutiny. It is, moreover,
a fact that there really is (no) difference between
those who in such matters are firm believers and those
who are violently annoyed by them and firmly dis-
believe and refuse to examine calmly what can be
and what might be.’ So, for example, in the first
[Miiller]}) ; ef. Strabo, ii. 1.9 (ce. 70) and xv. 1. 57 (ὁ. 71}:
Pliny, Nat. Hist. vii. 2.25. Aristotle (Parva Nat. 445 a 16-17)
mentions the belief of certain Pythagoreans that some
animals are nourished by odours; cf. the story told of
Democritus, frags. A 28 and 29 (ii, p. 89. 23 ff. [Diels-Kranz]),
and Lucian on the Selenites (Vera Hist. i. 23), a passage
which, however, looks like a parody of Herodotus, i. 202. 2.
¢ Strictly, the potential and the contingent ; but probably
Plutarch meant his phrase here to imply only “ the possible ”
in all its senses and intended no technical distinction between
δυνατόν and ἐνδεχόμενον. Certainly one cannot ascribe to him
the distinction drawn in the pseudo-Plutarchean De Fato,
570 e—571 £; n.b. that in De Stoicorum Repugnantiis, 1055
p-F he attacks the Chrysippean doctrine of δυνατόν. On
δυνατόν and ἐνδεχόμενον as used by Aristotle cf. Ross,
Aristotle’s Metaphysics, ii, p. 245 ad 1046 b 26, and Faust,
Der Méglichkeitsgedanke, i, pp. 175 ff.; for the attitude of
the Hellenistic philosophers, Faust, op. cit. i, pp. 209 ff.
163
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(938) πρῶτον οὐκ ἀναγκαῖόν ἐστιν, εἰ μὴ κατοικοῦσιν
Ὁ ἄνθρωποι τὴν σελήνην, μάτην γεγονέναι καὶ πρὸς
μηδέν. οὐδὲ γὰρ τήνδε τὴν γῆν δι᾽ ὅλης ἐνεργὸν
οὐδὲ προσοικουμένην ὁρῶμεν, ἀλλὰ μικρὸν αὐτῆς
μέρος ὥσπερ ἄκροις τισὶν ἢ χερρονήσοις" ἀνέχουσιν
ἐκ βυθοῦ γόνιμόν ἐστι ζῴων καὶ φυτῶν τῶν δ᾽
ἄλλων τὰ μὲν ἔρημα καὶ ἄκαρπα χειμῶσι καὶ
αὐχμοῖς τὰ δὲ πλεῖστα κατὰ τῆς μεγάλης δέδυκε
θαλάσσης. ἀλλὰ σὺ τὸν ᾿Αρίσταρχον ἀγαπῶν ἀεὶ
καὶ θαυμάζων οὐκ ἀκούεις Κράτητος ἀναγιγνώ-
σκοντος
᾿᾽Ὥκεανός, ὅσπερ γένεσις πάντεσσι τέτυκται
> , γῶν A / > 3 A ¢ 4
ἀνδράσιν ἠδὲ θεοῖς, πλείστην ἐπὶ" γαῖαν inow.
> \ ~ A / ~ / \ \
ἀλλὰ πολλοῦ δεῖ μάτην ταῦτα γεγονέναι" Kal yap
E ἀναθυμιάσεις ἡ θάλασσα μαλακὰς ἀνίησι, καὶ τῶν
πνευμάτων τὰ ἥδιστα θέρους ἀκμάζοντος ἐκ τῆς
ἀοικήτου καὶ κατεψυγμένης αἱ χιόνες ἀτρέμα δια-
τηκόμεναι χαλῶσι καὶ διασπείρουσιν. ᾿ ἡμέρας τε
\ \ ᾽ 4 c > \ ) > / ‘ / )
καὶ νυκτὸς ᾿ ἕστηκεν ᾿ ἀτρεκὴς ᾿ ἐν μέσῳ ᾿ φύλαξ
1 E ; χεροννήσοις -B.
2 ἀναγινώσκοντος -E : ἀναγινώσκων -B.
3 πλείστην (δ᾽) ἐπὶ -Leaf ad Iliad. xiv. 246,
4 Wyttenbach (1831); tow -E, B.
¢ For the uninhabitability of the arctic and torrid zones
cf. besides De Iside, 367 pv Strabo, ii. 3. 1 (c. 96) and Cleo-
medes, i. 2. 12 (p. 22. 11-14 [Ziegler]) ; and for the connection
of this theory with the notion that the greatest part of the
outer ocean is in the torrid zone cf. Cleomedes, i. 6. 33 (p. 60.
21-24). This was not the opinion of Posidonius (Cleomedes,
ibid. and i. 6. 31-32 [p. 58. 4-25]); it was the geography
of Cleanthes, which Crates cout to impose upon Homer
(cf, Geminus, xvi. 21 ff. [Ρ. 172. 11 ff., Manitius]; Kroll,
R.E. xi. 1637 s.v. “* Krates”’; Susemihl, Geschichte der griech.
164
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 938
place, if the moon is not inhabited by men, it is not
necessary that she have come to be in vain and to
no purpose, for we see that this earth of ours is not
productive and inhabited throughout its whole extent
either but only a small part of it is fruitful of animals
and plants on the peaks, as it were, and peninsulas
rising out of the deep, while of the rest some parts
are desert and fruitless with winter-storms and
summer-droughts and the most are sunk in the great
sea. You, however, because of your constant fond-
ness and admiration for Aristarchus, give no heed
to the text that Crates read :
Ocean, that is the universal source
Of men and gods, spreads over most of earth.?
Yet it is by no means for nothing that these parts
have come to be. The sea gives off gentle exhala-
tions, and the most pleasant winds when summer is
at its height are released and dispersed from the
uninhabited and frozen region by the snows that are
gradually melting there.? ‘A strict guardian and
artificer of day and night ’ has according to Plato °
Jitteratur in der Alexandrinerzeit, ii, pp. 5 ff.). Since the
first line quoted by Plutarch is Jliad, xiv. 246 of our text of
Homer (with ὠκεανοῦ instead of ὠκεανός) but the second line
does not occur, the latter was probably an interpolation made
by Crates to support his “‘ interpretation ᾿"᾿ of Homer’s geo-
graphy ; for Crates’ textual alterations and for the contro-
versy between him and Aristarchus cf. Susemihl, op. cit. i,
p. 457 and ii, p. 7, n. 33; Kroll, loc. cit. 1640; Christ-
Schmid-Stahlin®, ii. 1, Ὁ. 270; Mette, Sphairopoiia. pp. 60 ff.
ὃ Cf. Theophrastus, De Ventis, ii, § 11, and Aristotle,
Meteorology, 364 a 5-13. For ἡ ἀοίκητος without a noun=
‘the uninhabited world ” cf. Adv. Coloten, 1115 a.
¢ Lamprias retorts upon Theon an adaptation of his own
quotation of Timaeus, 40 B-c; ef. 937 © supra and note ὁ
there.
165
(938)
939
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
κατὰ Πλάτωνα ‘Kat δημιουργός. οὐδὲν οὖν
κωλύει καὶ τὴν σελήνην ζῴων μὲν ἔρημον εἶναι
παρέχειν δ᾽ ἀνακλάσεις Te’ τῷ φωτὶ περὶ αὑτὴν"
διαχεομένῳ καὶ συρροὴν ταῖς τῶν ἀστέρων αὐγαῖς
ἐν αὑτῇ" καὶ σύγκρασιν, ἡ συνεκπέττει τε τὰς ἀπὸ
τῆς γῆς ἀναθυμιάσεις ἅμα τε καὶ τοῦ ἡλίου: τὸ
ἔμπυρον ἄγαν καὶ σκληρὸν ἀνίησι" Kat mov’ τι
\ ~ / / »Μ
καὶ παλαιᾷ φήμῃ διδόντες Ἄρτεμιν αὐτὴν" νομι-
σθῆναι φήσομεν ὡς παρθένον καὶ ἄγονον ἄλλαις" δὲ
βοηθητικὴν καὶ ὠφέλιμον. ἔπειτα" τῶν γ᾽ εἰρη-
μένων οὐδέν, ὦ φίλε" Θέων, ἀδύνατον δείκνυσι τὴν
λεγομένην ἐ ἐπ᾽ αὐτῆς οἴκησιν" ἢ τε γὰρ δίνη πολλὴν
ἔχουσα πραότητα καὶ γαλήνην ἐπιλεαίνει τὸν ἀέρα
καὶ διανέμει" συγκατακοσμούμενον ὥστε μηδὲν
εἶναι δέος ἐκπεσεῖν καὶ ἀποσφαλῆναι τοὺς ἐκεῖ
βεβηκότας." εἰ δὲ μηδ᾽ ἁπλῆ," καὶ τὸ ποικίλον
τοῦτο τῆς φορᾶς καὶ πεπλανημένον οὐκ ἀνωμαλίας
2Q\ es > \ hi Sf ἢ 15
οὐδὲ ταραχῆς ἐστιν ἀλλὰ θαυμαστὴν ἐπιδείκνυνται
τάξιν ἐν τούτοις καὶ πορείαν οἱ ἀστρολόγοι, κύκλοις
τισὶ περὶ κύκλους ἑτέρους ἐξελιττομένοις συνάγοντες
αὐτὴν οἱ μὲν ἀτρεμοῦσαν οἱ δὲ λείως καὶ ὁμαλῶς
1 E; omitted by B.
2 H.C. ; avrqv -E, B
5. Ἢ {9 avr τῇ. B.
4B; omitted by E.
5 Wyttenbach; 70 #\w -E, B.
6 Wyttenbach ; ἀφίησι -E, B.
ῷ Wyttenbach ; καὶ πολύ -E, B
8 B; avr vac. 4-E.
9 H.C. (ἄλλοις -W yttenbach) ; ἄλλως -E, B.
10 Hutten ; ἐπεὶ -E,
1 Xylander ; ὠφελεῖν Bs B.
12 Wyttenbach ; διαμένει δ τὰ Β.
166
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 938-939
been stationed in the centre. Nothing then prevents
the moon too, while destitute of living beings, from
providing reflections for the light that is diffused
about her and for the rays of the stars a point of con-
fluence in herself and a blending whereby she digests
the exhalations from the earth and at the same time
slackens the excessive torridity and harshness of the
sun.?. Moreover, conceding a point perhaps to
ancient tradition also, we shall say that she was held
to be Artemis on the ground that she is a virgin and
sterile but is helpful and beneficial to other females.?
In the second place, my dear Theon, nothing that
has been said proves impossible the alleged inhabita-
tion of the moon. As to the rotation, since it is very
gentle and serene, it smooths the air and distributes
it in settled order, so that there is no danger of falling
and slipping off for those who stand there. And if
it is not simple either,° even this complication and
variation of the motion is not attributable to irregu-
larity or confusion ; but in them astronomers demon-
strate a marvellous order and progression, making
her revolve with circles that unroll about other circles,
some assuming that she is herself motionless and
others that she retrogresses smoothly and regularly
2 Cf. 928 c supra.
ὃ For moon= Artemis cf. 922 a supra and note ὁ there; for
the virgin goddess of childbirth cf. besides the references
there Plato, Theaetetus, 149 8, and Cornutus, 34 (p. 73. 18 ff.
[Lang].
¢ This refers to 937 F supra. For the use of ἁπλῆ “* simple ”
in this context cf. Cleomedes, i. 4. 19 (p. 34. 20 [Ziegler]) and
Theon of Smyrna, p. 150. 21-23 (Hiller).
13 'Turnebus ; βεβιωκότας -E, B.
14, H.C. - εἰ δέει px de αὐτὴ -E, B.
15 Basiliensis ; ἐπιδείκνυται -E, B.
167
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(939) ἀεὶ τάχεσι Tots αὐτοῖς ἀνθυποφερομένην: αὗται yap
at τῶν κύκλων ἐπιβάσεις καὶ περιαγωγαὶ καὶ
σχέσεις πρὸς ἀλλήλους καὶ πρὸς ἡμᾶς τὰ φαινόμενα
τῆς κινήσεως. ὕψη καὶ βάθη καὶ τὰς κατὰ πλάτος
Β παραλλάξεις ἅμα ταῖς κατὰ μῆκος αὐτῆς περιόδοις
ἐμμελέστατα συμπεραίνουσι." τὴν δὲ πολλὴν θερ-
μότητα καὶ “συνεχῆ πύρωσιν ὑφ᾽ ἡλίου παύσῃ"
φοβούμενος ἂν πρῶτον μὲν ἀντιθῆς" ταῖς δώδεκα“
θεριναῖς πανσελήνοις τὰς συνόδους ὑποθῇ" δὲ τὸ
συνεχὲς τῆς μεταβολῆς ταῖς ὑπερβολαῖς χρόνον οὐκ
ἐχούσαις πολὺν ἐμποιεῖν κρᾶσιν οἰκείαν καὶ τὸ
ἄγαν ἑκατέρας ἀφαιρεῖν. διὰ μέσου * δὴν τούτων, ὡς
εἰκός, ὥραν ἔαρι προσφορωτάτην"" ἔχουσιν. ἔπειτα
πρὸς μὲν ἡμᾶς καθίησι δι᾿ ἀέρος θολεροῦ καὶ συν-
C επερείδοντος"" θερμότητα ταῖς ἀναθυμιάσεσι τρεφο-
μένην, ἐκεῖ δὲ λεπτὸς ὧν καὶ διαυγὴς 6 ἀὴρ σκίδνησι
καὶ διαχεῖ τὴν αὐγὴν ὑπέκκαυμα καὶ σῶμα μηδὲν
Basiliensis ; συμπαραινοῦσι -E, B.
Basiliensis ; ἡλίου οὐ παύσῃ -E, B.
E; ἀντιθεὶς -B.
Kepler (implied by Amy ot’ s version); ἕνδεκα -Ἐ, B.
Adler ; θεριναῖς συνόδοις τὰς πανσελήνους -Ε,
Η. Ο. : εἴση -E, B, Aldine; εἶτα - -Basiliensis. |
E; ἐχούσας -B ; ee -Basiliensis.
Bernardakis ; ἀμέσου -F,
H.C.; δὲ -Ε, B. 1° Basiliensis ; προσφορωτάτων -E, B.
11 Diibner; συνεπερείδων τὴν -E, Bs; συνεπερείδοντος τὴν
-Emperius.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
¢ An example of the former hypothesis is Aristotle’s theory
that each planet is fixed in a sphere revolving within counter-
acting spheres that cancel the special motions of the superior
planet (cf. Metaphysics, 1073 Ὁ 38—1074 a 14 and De Caelo,
289 Ὁ 30—290 a7); an example of the latter is Plato’s theory
of freely moving planets (cf. Timaeus, 40 c-p, Laws, 822 a-c ;
Cornford, Plato’s Cosmology, pp. 79-93). Theon of Smyrna
168
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 939
with ever constant velocity,“ for these superpositions
of the circles and their rotations and relations to one
another and to us combine most harmoniously to
produce the apparent variations of her motion in
altitude and the deviations in latitude at the same
time as her revolutions in longitude.’ As to the great
heat and continual scorching of the sun, you will cease
to fear it, if first of all you set the conjunctions over
against the twelve summery full-moons ° and suppose ᾿
that the continuousness of the change produces in
the extremes, which do not last a long time, a suit-
able tempering and removes the excess from either.
Between these then, as is likely, they have a season
most nearly approaching spring. In the second place,
upon us the sun sends, through air which is turbid and
which exerts a concomitant pressure, heat that is
nourished by the exhalations, whereas there the air
being tenuous and translucent scatters and diffuses the
sun’s light, which has no tinder or body to sustain it.?
(p. 175. 1-4 [Hiller]) observes that the difference between
these two kinds of astronomical model is immaterial in
‘saving the phenomena.” On the whole passage cf.
Eudemus in Theon of Smyrna, p. 200. 13 ff. (Hiller).
ὃ Norlind (Hranos, xxv [1927], pp. 275-277) argues from
the terms used here and in 937 τὶ supra that Plutarch has in
mind the theory of epicycles which Hipparchus proposed for
the moon and which is described by Ptolemy, Syntazis, iv (i,
pp. 265 ff. and especially pp. 301. 16-302, 11 [Heiberg]). The
evidence of the terminology is not exact enough to make this
thesis convincing (cf. Class. Phil. xlvi [1951], pp. 146-147).
¢ Cf. 938 a supra: “ twelve summers every year.
¢ For the ‘“ pressure” of the air and the ὑπέκκαυμα ef.
Aristotle, Meteorology, 341 b 6-25, and Alexander, Meteor.
p- 20. 11 ff. Praechter (Hierokles der Stoiker, Ὁ. 109) refers
to Seneca, Nat. Quaest. iv b 10 in support of his thesis that
the material in this chapter of the De Facie is from a Stoic
source.
169
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(939) ἔχουσαν. ὕλην δὲ καὶ καρποὺς αὐτοῦ μὲν ὄμβροι
/ e. fox ‘U1 ¢ ” \ ΄ >
τρέφουσιν, ἑτέρωθι δὲ; ὥσπερ ἄνω περὶ Θήβας παρ
« - \ / » »” [2 > \ \
ὑμῖν Kat Συήνην οὐκ ὄμβριον ὕδωρ ἀλλὰ ynyeves
ἡ yh πίνουσα Kal χρωμένη πνεύμασι Kat δρόσοις
οὐκ ἂν ἐθελήσειεν, οἶμαι, τῇ πλεῖστον ὑομένῃ πο-
λυκαρπίᾳ" συμφέρεσθαι" dV ἀρετήν τινα καὶ κρᾶσιν.
\ > > \ \ ~ / -νοῦ s a \ FRG /
τὰ δ᾽ αὐτὰ φυτὰ τῷ γένει παρ᾽ ἡμῖν μὲν ἐὰν σφόδρα
πιεσθῇ χειμῶσιν" ἐκφέρει πολὺν καὶ καλὸν καρπὸν
Ὁ ἐν δὲ Λιβύῃ" καὶ παρ᾽ ὑμῖν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ δύσριγα
κομιδῇ καὶ δειλὰ πρὸς χειμῶνάς ἐστι.. τῆς δὲ
Γεδρωσίας" καὶ Γρωγλοδύτιδος" ἣ καθήκει πρὸς τὸν
> \ > / \ / \ > / /
ὠκεανὸν ἀφόρου διὰ ξηρότητα καὶ adévdpov παντά-
πασιν οὔσης, ἐν τῇ παρακειμένῃ καὶ περικεχυμένῃ
θαλάττῃ θαυμαστὰ μεγέθη φυτῶν τρέφεται καὶ
κατὰ βυθοῦ τέθηλεν ὧν τὰ μὲν ἐλαίας τὰ δὲ δάφνας
1 Wyttenbach after Xylander’s version ; αὐτοὶ. . . ἑτέρως
-E, B.
2 Stephanus (1624); 7 ye -Εἰ, B.
3 Aldine, Basiliensis ; πολυκαρπία -E, B (probably meant
for dative, since neither ms. uses iota subscript).
4 Leonicus (implied by version of Xylander) ; συμφαίνεσθαι
B; συμφύρεσθαι -Stephanus.
Bernardakis ; εἰ -E, B. .
ἘΠ, B; χιόσιν -E*.
ἘΠῚ ween "ΒῚ
B; γε δροσίας -E.
ΒΕ ; τρωγλοδίτιδος -B.
-
oOo 2 ᾽ Ne
α Tamprias is addressing Theon primarily ; but Menelaiis
also was from Egypt, though we know only Alexandria as
his residence.
ὃ Theophrastus (ist. Plant. viii. 6. 6) says that in Egypt,
Babylon, and Bactria, where rain is absent or scarce, dews
170
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 939
The fruits of tree and field here in our region are
nourished by rains; but elsewhere, as up in your
home “ around Thebes and Syene, the land drinking
water that springs from earth instead of rain-water
and enjoying breezes and dews? would refuse, I
think, to adapt itself ¢ to the fruitfulness that attends
the most abundant rainfall, and that because of a
certain excellence and temperament that it has.
Plants of the same kind, which in our region if sharply
nipped by winter bear good fruit in abundance, in
Libya and in your home in Egypt are very sensitive
to cold and afraid of winter.? And, while Gedrosia
and Ethiopia which comes down to the ocean is barren
and entirely treeless because of the aridity, in the
adjacent and surrounding sea there grow and thrive
down in the deep plants of great magnitude, some
of which are called olives, some laurels, and some
nourish the crops (cf. also Hist. Plant. iv. 3. 7). Plutarch’s
statement here that the water drunk by the land in Egypt is
ynyeves may have been inspired by Plato’s remark in Timaeus,
22 πὶ 2-4; for the theory that the flood of Nile was caused by
water springing from the earth cf. Oenopides, frag. 11 (i,
p. 394. 39 ff. [Diels-Kranz]; cf. Seneca, Nat. Quaest. iv a 2.
26) and the opinion mentioned without an author by Seneca,
Nat. Quaest. vi. 8.3. Praechter (Hierokles, Ὁ. 110) holds that
Plutarch here reflects Posidonius’s theory as reconstructed by
Oder (Philologus, Suppl. vii [1898], pp. 299 ff. and 312 f.).
¢ For this meaning of συμφέρεσθαί τινι cf. Quomodo Quis
Sent. Prof. Virt. 79 a, De Cohibenda Ira, 461 a, De Sollertia
Animalium, 960 ©, Timoleon, 15 (242 £), Wyttenbach’s
Animadversiones in Plutarchi Opera Moralia (Leipzig,
1820), i, p. 461; the phrase cannot mean “ to be compared
with,” as it has been regularly translated here.
@ That the same species of plant varies with the nature of
the soil, the atmosphere, and the cultivation is frequently
stated by Theophrastus (cf. e.g. Hist. Plant. vi. 6. 3-5-8) ;
cf. with ἐὰν σφόδρα πιεσθῇ χειμῶσιν in this passage Theo-
phrastus, De Causis Plant. ii. 1. 2-4.
171
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(939) ra δ᾽ Ἴσιδος τρίχας καλοῦσιν. οἱ δ᾽ ἀνακαμψέρω-
τες οὗτοι προσαγορευόμενοι τῆς γῆς ἐξαιρεθέντες
οὐ μόνον ζῶσι κρεμάμενοι χρόνον ὅσον βούλεταί
τις ἀλλὰ βλαστάνουσιν {. . .). omretperau δὲ τὰ
μὲν πρὸς χειμῶνος τὰ δὲ θέρους ἀκμάζοντος ὥσπερ
σήσαμον καὶ μελίνη. τὸ" δὲ θύμον ἢ ἢ τὸ κενταύριον,
E av εἰς ἀγαθὴν καὶ πίονα σπαρῇ χώραν καὶ βρέχηται
καὶ ἄρδηται, τῆς κατὰ φύσιν ἐξίσταται ποιότητος
καὶ ἀποβάλλει τὴν δύναμιν αὐχμῷ δὲ χαίρει καὶ
πρὸς τὸ οἰκεῖον ἐπιδίδωσιν. ἔνια δ᾽ ὥς φασιν οὐδὲ
τὰς δρόσους ἀνέχεται, καθάπερ τὰ πλεῖστα τῶν
᾿Αραβικῶν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐξαμαυροῦται διαινόμενα' καὶ
φθείρεται, τί δὴ θαυμαστόν ἐστιν εἰ γίγνονται περὶ
τὴν σελήνην ῥίζαι καὶ σπέρματα καὶ ὗλαι μηδὲν
ὑετῶν δεόμεναι" pnoe’ χιόνων ἀλλὰ πρὸς αν
ἀέρα καὶ λεπτὸν εὐφυῶς ἔχουσαι; πῶς δ᾽ οὐκ
εἰκὸς ἀνιέναι τε πνεύματα θαλπόμενα τῇ vedo
F καὶ τῷ σάλῳ τῆς περιφορᾶς αὔρας τε παρομαρτεῖν
ἀτρέμα καὶ δρόσους καὶ ὑγρότητας ἐλαφρὰς περι-
χεούσας καὶ διασπειρομένας ἐπαρκεῖν τοῖς βλα-
στάνουσιν, αὐτὴν" δὲ τῇ κράσει μὴ πυρώδη μηδ᾽
αὐχμηρὰν ἀλλὰ μαλακὴν καὶ ὑδροποιὸν εἶναι; ξη-
ρότητος μὲν γὰρ οὐδὲν ἀφικνεῖται πάθος am’ αὐτῆς
1 Vac. 21-E, 20-Β.
2 E; τὸν -B.
3 Paton: of δὲ -E, B, Aldine; τὰ δὲ -Basiliensis; εἰ δὲ
-Stephanus (1624).
4 Wyttenbach (after the version of Xylander) ; ; λειαινόμενα
-E, B.
ὃ -Anon., Aldine, R.J. 94 : τί δὲ -E, B.
6 Bernardakis ; δεόμενα -Ε,, Β.
7 Bernardakis ; μήτε -ὸ, B.
8 [Leonicus, Stephanus (1624) ; πρόσθερον -E, B.
® Wyttenbach ; αὐτῆ (i.e. αὐτῇ) -E, B
172
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 939
tresses of Isis“; and the plants here called ° love-
restorers ’ when lifted out of the earth and hung up
not only live as long as you wish but sprout? ¢. . .).
Some plants are sown towards winter, and some at
the height of summer as sesame and millet.° Thyme
or centaury, if sown in good, rich soil and wetted and
watered, departs from its natural quality and loses
its strength, whereas drought delights it and causes
it to reach its proper stature 7; and some plants, as
they say, cannot stand even dew, as is true of the
majority of Arabian plants, but are blighted and
destroyed by being moistened. What wonder then
if on the moon there grow roots and seeds and trees
that have no need of rain nor yet of snow but are
naturally adapted to a summery and rarefied air ἢ
And why is it unlikely that winds arise warmed by
the moon and that breezes steadily accompany the
rolling swell of her revolution and by scattering off
and diffusing dews and light moisture suffice for the
vegetation and that she herself is not fiery or dry in
temperament but soft and humidifying ? After all, no
influence of dryness comes to us from her but much of
¢ On these plants that grew in the sea cf. Theophrastus,
Hist. Plant. iv. 7. 1 ff.; Eratosthenes in Strabo, xvi. 3. 6
(ec. 766); Pliny, Nat. Hist. xiii. 25. 50-52 (140-142). In
Quaest, Nat. 911 ¥ Plutarch refers to the plants that are said
to grow in the *“‘ Red Sea,”’ but there he states that they are
nurtured by the rivers which bring down mud and that these
plants consequently grow only near to the shore.
® Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxiv. 17. 102 (167).
¢ Cf. Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. viii. 1. 1 and 4; 2.6;
and 3. 2.
4 Cf. Theophrastus, De Causis Plant. iii. 1. 3-6.
¢ For the notion that dew injures some plants cf. possibly
Theophrastus, De Causis Plant. vi. 18. 10; but he holds that
desert vegetation is nourished by dew in default of rain (Hist.
Plant. iv. 8. 7 and viii. 6. 6).
18
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(939) πρὸς ἡμᾶς ὑγρότητος δὲ πολλὰ καὶ θηλύτητος,
αὐξήσεις φυτῶν, σήψεις κρεῶν, τροπαὶ καὶ ἀνέσεις
οἴνων, μαλακότητες ξύλων, εὐτοκίαι γυναικῶν. δέ-
940 δοικα δ᾽ ἡσυχάζοντα Φαρνάκην αὖθις ἐρεθίζειν καὶ
κινεῖν, ὠκεανοῦ Te’ πλημμύρας, ὡς λέγουσιν αὐτοί,
καὶ πορθμῶν ἐπιδόσεις διαχεομένων καὶ nee
μένων ὑπὸ τῆς σελήνης τῷ ἀνυγραίνεσθαι παρα-
τιθέμενος. διὸ πρὸς σὲ τρέψομαι μᾶλλον, ὦ φίλε
Θέων: λέγεις γὰρ ἡμῖν, ἐξηγούμενος ταυτὶ" τὰ
᾿Αλκμᾶνος
(οἷα Διὸς" θυγάτηρ “Epoa* τρέφει καὶ Σελάνας
(δίας),
ὅτι νῦν τὸν ἀέρα καλεῖ Δία καί φησιν αὐτὸν ὑπὸ
τῆς σελήνης καθυγραινόμενον εἰς δρόσους τρέ-
πεσθαι. κινδυνεύει γάρ, ὦ ἑταῖρε, πρὸς τὸν ἥλιον
ἀντιπαθῆ φύσιν ἔχειν εἴγε μὴ μόνον ὅσα πυκνοῦν
Β καὶ ξηραίνειν ἐκεῖνος αὐτὴ μαλάσσειν καὶ διαχεῖν
πέφυκεν ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν ἀπ᾽ ἐκείνου θερμότητα καθ-
υγραίνειν καὶ καταψύχειν προσπίπτουσαν αὐτῇ καὶ
1 Basiliensis ; ὥστε καὶ ἀνοιγαὶ -E, B.
2 Bernardakis ; ταύτη -E, B.
3 Xylander (cf. Quaest. Nat. 918 a, Quaest. Conviv. 659 B) ;
vac. 6-E, 12-B.
4 Xylander; ἔργα -Εἰ, B.
5 Wyttenbach (cf. mss. of 918 a); καὶ LeAdvas without
lacuna -F, B.
6. Wyttenbach ; καλεῖ καὶ Δία -F, B.
«ΟἽ. De Vita et Poesi Homeri, B, 202 (vii, p. 450. 14-20
[Bernardakis]) ; Aristotle, Hist. Animal. 582 a 34-b 3.
δ On the liquefying action of the moon and the passage in
general cf. Quaest. Conviv. iii. 10 (657 F ff.) ; De Iside, 367 Ὁ ;
Cicero, De Nat. Deorum, ii. 19. 50 (with Mayor’s note ad
loc.); Pliny, Nat. Hist. 11. 101 (223). On the growth of
114.
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 939-940
moistness and femininity “: the growth of plants, the
decay of meats, the souring and flattening of wine,
the softening of timbers, the easy delivery of women.?
Now that Pharnaces is quiet I am afraid of provoking
and arousing him again if I cite, in the words of his
own school, the flood-tides of Ocean and the swelling
of the straits when they are increased and poured
abroad by the liquefying action of the moon.* There-
fore I shall rather turn to you, my dear Theon, for
when you expound these words of Aleman’s,
«Such as) are nourished by Dew, daughter (of Zeus) and
of (divine) Selene,?
you tell us that at this point he calls the air “ Zeus ’
and says that it is liquefied by the moon and turns
to dew-drops.’ It is in fact probable, my friend, that
the moon’s nature is contrary to that of the sun, if
of herself she not only naturally softens and dissolves
all that he condenses and dries but liquefies and cools
even the heat that he casts upon her and imbues her
plants cf. also De Iside, 353 τ and Athenaeus, iii. 74 c¢; on
softening of timbers Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. v. 1.3; on
easy delivery S.V.F. ii, frag. 748. For further literature cf.
Boll, Sternglaube und Sterndeutung® (1926), pp. 122-125.
¢ =S.V.F. ii, frag. 679. Cf. also Cicero, De Divinatione,
ii. 34 (with Pease’s note ad loc.) and De Nat. Deorum, ii. 7.
19; Seneca, De Provid. i. 4; Cleomedes, ii. 1. 86 (p. 156.
15-16 [Ziegler]) and ii. 3. 98 (p. 178. 4-5); Strabo, iii. 5. 8
(ce. 173 f.) and i. 3. 11 (ec. 54-55). In De Placitis, 897 B-c
(= Aétius, iii. 17. 3 and 9) theories that the moon influences
the tides are attributed to Pytheas and to Seleucus.
¢ Aleman, frag. 43 (Diehl) =48 (Bergk*). In both Quaest.
Conviv. 659 B and Quaest. Nat. 918 a Plutarch quotes the
line as an explanation of the origin of dew, Cf. Macrobius,
Sat. vii. 16. 31-32.
¢ Of. Vergil, Georgics, iii. 337 ; Roscher, Selene und Ver-
wandtes, p. 50, n. 900.
175
(940)
«
C
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
συμμιγνυμένην. οἵ τε δὴ τὴν σελήνην ἔμπυρον
σῶμα καὶ διακαὲς εἶναι νομίζοντες ἁμαρτάνουσιν,
οἵ τε τοῖς ἐκεῖ ζῴοις ὃ ὅσα τοῖς ἐνταῦθα πρὸς γένεσιν
καὶ τροφὴν καὶ δίαιταν ἀξιοῦντες ὑπάρχειν ἐοίκασιν
ἀθεάτοις" τῶν περὶ τὴν φύσιν" ἀνωμαλιῶν, ἐν αἷς
μείζονας ἔστι καὶ πλείονας" πρὸς ἄλληλα τῶν ζῴων
ἢ πρὸς τὰ μὴ ζῷα διαφορὰς καὶ ἀνομοιότητας
εὑρεῖν. καὶ “ἄστομοι᾽ μὲν ἄνθρωποι καὶ ὀσμαῖς
τρεφόμενοι μὴ ἔστωσαν, οἵ" Με(γασθένει γ᾽ εἶναι
δοκοῦσι. τὴν δ᾽ ἄλιμον' ns” ἡμῖν αὐτὸς ἐξηγεῖτο
δύναμιν ἠνίξατο μὲν ᾿Ησίοδος εἰπὼν
οὐδ᾽ ὅσον ἐν μαλάχῃ ae καὶ ἀσφοδέλῳ μέγ᾽
ὄνειαρ
ἔργῳ. δ᾽ ἐμφανῆ παρέσχεν ᾿Επιμενίδης διδάξας ὅτι
μικρῷ παντάπασιν ἡ φύσις ὑπεκκαύματι ζωπυρεῖ
καὶ συνέχει τὸ ζῷον, ἂν ὅσον ἐλαίας μέγεθος λάβῃ,
μηδεμιᾶς ἔτι τροφῆς δεόμενον. τοὺς δ᾽ ἐπὶ τῆς
σελήνης, εἴπερ εἰσίν, εὐσταλεῖς εἶναι τοῖς σώμασι
καὶ διαρκεῖς ὑπὸ τῶν τυχόντων τρέφεσθαι πιθανόν
ἐστι. καὶ γὰρ αὐτὴν τὴν σελήνην ὥσπερ τὸν ἥλιον,
Stephanus (1624); δὲ -E, B.
Xylander ; ἐοίκασι καὶ θεαταῖς -E, B.
E ; περὶ φύσιν -B. 4B; πλέονας -E.
-Anon., Aldine, R.J. 94 (cf. 938 ὁ supra); σύστομοι -E,
B, Aldine, Basiliensis.
6 Wyttenbach; εἰ -E, B.
7H. C. after Adler’s (καὶ Meyac@éver) : μὴ vac. 8-E, 9-B μὴ.
8 Adler (1933) ; τήν τε dupovos -E, B
® H.C. (for the final os in ἀμμονος).
σι ὦ τὸ μὲ
« Of. Aristotle, Hist. Animal. 588 Ὁ 4 ff. and De Part.
Animal, 681 a 12-15.
>» See 938 ὁ supra and note ὦ there. On the text and im-
176
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 940
with. They err then who believe the moon to be a
fiery and glowing body ; and those who demand that
living beings there be equipped just as those here
are for generation, nourishment, and livelihood seem
blind to the diversities of nature, among which one
can discover more and greater differences and dis-
similarities between living beings than between them
and inanimate objects.? Let there not be mouthless
men nourished by odours who (Megasthenes) thinks
(do exist) ®; yet the Hungerbane,° the virtue of
which he was himself trying to explain to us, Hesiod
hinted at when he said
Nor what great profit mallow has and squill 4
and Epimenides made manifest in fact when he
showed that with a very little fuel nature kindles and
sustains the living creature, which needs no further
nourishment if it gets as much as the size of an olive.?
It is plausible that the men on the moon, if they do
exist, are slight of body and capable of being nourished
by whatever comes their way. After all, they say
that the moon herself, like the sun which is an
plication of this sentence cf. Class. Phil. xlvi (1951), pp. 147-
148.
¢ For ἡ ἄλιμος cf. Sept. Sap. 157 p-F ; [Plutarch], Comment.
in Hesiod. § 3 (vii, p. 51. 14 ff. [Bernardakis]); Pliny, Nat.
Hist. xxii. 22 (73); Porphyry, Vita Pythag. § 34 and De
Abstinentia, iv. 20 (p. 266. 5 ff. [Nauck]) ; Plato, Laws, 677 Ἐ
(where the word ἄλιμος itself does not occur, however).
4 Works and Days, 41.
4 Cf. Epimenides, frag. A 5 (i, pp. 30-31 [Diels-Kranz]),
where reference to this passage should be added.
7 Cf. Aristotle, De Gen. Animal. 761 Ὁ 21-23 for the sug-
gestion that animate beings of a kind unknown to us may
exist on the moon and [Philoponus], De Gen. Animal. p. 160.
16-20 for a description of these creatures that do not eat or
drink.
Wer
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(940)
~ »Μ 4 \ ~ ~ »” /
D ζῷον ὄντα πύρινον καὶ τῆς γῆς ὄντα πολλαπλάσιον,
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ͵ὕ
ἀπὸ τῶν ὑγρῶν φασι τῶν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς τρέφεσθαι
καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ἀστέρας ἀπείρους ὄντας: οὕτως
> \ \ \ ~ > / / ~ \
ἐλαφρὰ καὶ λιτὰ τῶν ἀναγκαίων φέρειν ζῷα τὸν
Μ / Φ / > > » ~
ἄνω τόπον ὑπολαμβάνουσιν. ἀλλ᾽ οὔτε ταῦτα
συνορῶμεν οὔθ᾽ ὅτι καὶ χώρα καὶ φύσις καὶ κρᾶσις
ἄλλη πρόσφορός ἐστιν αὐτοῖς. ὥσπερ οὖν, εἰ τῇ
θαλάττῃ μὴ δυναμένων ἡμῶν προσελθεῖν μηδ᾽
΄ o. \ \ / >] ro / >
ἅψασθαι μόνον δὲ τὴν. θέαν αὐτῆς πόρρωθεν ad-
ορώντων καὶ πυνθανομένων ὅτι πικρὸν καὶ ἄποτον
A c \ [2 » \ ” ,ὔ ς ~ A
Kal ἁλμυρὸν ὕδωρ ἐστὶν ἔλεγέ τις ws ζῷα πολλὰ
E καὶ μεγάλα καὶ παντοδαπὰ ταῖς μορφαῖς τρέφει
κατὰ βάθους καὶ θηρίων ἐστὶ πλήρης ὕδατι χρω-
μένων ὅσαπερ ἡμεῖς ἀέρι, μύθοις ἂν ὅμοια καὶ
.
τέρασιν ἐδόκει περαίνειν: οὕτως ἐοίκαμεν ἔχειν καὶ
/ ~ ~
ταὐτὸ πάσχειν' πρὸς τὴν σελήνην ἀπιστοῦντες ἐκεῖ
τινας ἀνθρώπους κατοικεῖν. ἐκείνους δ᾽ ἂν οἴομαι
ΡῈ / a ~
πολὺ μᾶλλον ἀποθαυμάσαι τὴν γῆν, ἀφορῶντας
οἷον ὑποστάθμην καὶ ἰλὺν τοῦ παντὸς ἐν ὑγροῖς
\ ς / \ / / 5 \ \
καὶ ὁμίχλαις καὶ νέφεσι διαφαινομένην ἀλαμπὲς καὶ
ταπεινὸν καὶ ἀκίνητον χωρίον, εἰ ζῷα φύει καὶ τρέ-
φει μετέχοντα κινήσεως ἀναπνοῆς θερμότητος. κἂν
F εἴ ποθεν αὐτοῖς ἐγγένοιτο τῶν ᾿Ομηρικῶν τούτων
ἀκοῦσαι
5 5 ey , ,ὔ ,
σμερδαλέ » EUPWEVTA, TA TE στύυγεοῦυσι θεοί TTEp
1 Wyttenbach (after the versions of Xylander and Amyot) ;
τούτοις ἀσκεῖν -E.; τούτους ἀσκεῖν -B.
« =§S.V.F. ii, frag. 677. Cf. De Stoicorum Repugnantiis,
1053 a (=S.V.F. ii, frag. 579); Aétius, ii. 17. 4: Strabo,
i. 1. 9 (c. 6); Cleomedes, i. 6. 33 (p. 60. 21-24 [Ziegler]).
178
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 940
animate being of fire many times as large as the
earth, is nourished by the moisture on the earth, as
are the rest of the stars too, though they are count-
less ; so light and frugal of requirements do they
conceive the creatures to be that inhabit the upper
region.” We have no comprehension of these beings,
however, nor of the fact that a different place and
nature and temperature are suitable to them. Just
as, assuming that we were unable to approach the
sea or touch it but only had a view of it from afar and
the information that it is bitter, unpotable, and salty
water, if someone said that it supports in its depths
many large animals of multifarious shapes and _ is
full of beasts that use water for all the ends that we
use air, his statements would seem to us like a tissue
of myths and marvels, such appears to be our relation
to the moon and our attitude towards her is apparently
the same when we disbelieve that any men dwell
there. Those men, I think, would be much more
amazed at the earth, when they look out at the sedi-
ment and dregs ὃ of the universe, as it were, obscurely
visible in moisture, mists, and clouds as a lightless,
low, and motionless spot, to think that it engenders
and nourishes animate beings which partake of
motion, breath, and warmth. If they should chance
to hear somewhere these Homeric words,
Dreadful and dank, which even gods abhor °
Plutarch, of course, uses Stoic doctrine here against the
Stoics.
® Zeno called earth ἐἰλύς and ὑποστάθμη (S.V.F. i, frags.
104 and 105); but, since the end of this chapter appears to
have been inspired by Plato’s Phaedo, 109 B-p, the phrase here
used was probably suggested to Plutarch by Plato’s use of
ὑποστάθμη there (109 c 2).
¢ Iliad, xx. 65.
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(940) καὶ
/ ΝΜ > > / 1 - >) ’ὔ ’ > > \
TOOOGOV ἔνερθ Atdew OOOV OUpaVvos €OT a7ro
/
γαίης,
ταῦτα φήσουσιν ἀτεχνῶς περὶ τοῦ χωρίου τούτου
λέγεσθαι καὶ τὸν “Αἰδὴν ἐνταῦθα" καὶ τὸν Τάρταρον
ἀπῳκίσθαιὑ" γῆν δὲ μίαν εἶναι τὴν σελήνην, ἴσον
ἐκείνων τῶν ἄνω καὶ τῶν κάτω τούτων ἀπέχουσαν."
26. "Ere δ᾽ ἐμοῦ" σχεδὸν λέγοντος ὁ Σύλλας ὑπο-
λαβὼν “ “ἐπίσχες " εἶπεν “᾿ ὦ Λαμπρία, καὶ παρα-
βαλοῦ τὸ θύριον τοῦ Adyou, μὴ λάθῃς τὸν μῦθον
ὥσπερ εἰς γῆν ἐξοκείλας καὶ συγχέῃς τὸ δρᾶμα τοὐ-
941 μὸν ἑτέραν ἔχον σκηνὴν καὶ διάθεσιν. ἐγὼ μὲν οὖν
ὑποκριτής εἰμι, πρότερον δ᾽ αὐτοῦ φράσω τὸν ποιη-
τὴν ἡμῖν" εἰ μή τι κωλύει" καθ᾽ “Ὅμηρον ἀρξάμενον᾽
(Ὁ / ~ 5 4 θ 8 > LAL ~
γυγίη τις νῆσος ἀπόπροθεν" εἰν ἁλὶ κεῖται
δρόμον ἡμερῶν πέντε Βρεττανίας ἀπέχουσα πλέοντι
πρὸς ἑσπέραν. ἕτεραι δὲ τρεῖς ἴσον ἐκείνης ἀφ-
εστῶσαι καὶ ἀλλήλων πρόκεινται μάλιστα κατὰ
δυσμὰς ἡλίου θερινάς, ὧν ἐν μιᾷ τὸν Κρόνον ot
, - ~ ¢ \ ~ /
βάρβαροι καθεῖρχθαι μυθολογοῦσιν ὑπὸ τοῦ Διός,
τὸν δ᾽ ὠγύγιον (Βριάρεων)" ἔχοντα φρουρὰν" τῶν
τε νήσων ἐκείνων καὶ τῆς θαλάττης, ἣν Κρόνιον
Bernardakis ; ’Atéao -F, B.
Written twice in B. 3 Es ἀποκεῖσθαι -B.
Bernardakis ; δέ μου -E, B.
E, B; ὑμῖν -Stephanus (1624).
E, B!; κωλύοι -B*. 7 E, B; ἀρξάμενος -Hutten,.
Stephanus (1624) ; ἀπόπροσθεν -E, B.
‘Le Géant Ogygius ou Briareus’’ -Amyot; τὸν δ᾽ ὡς
υἱὸν -E, B; τὸν δὲ Βριάρεων -Kaltwasser; τὸν δ᾽ "Oyvyov
-Apelt (1905).
180
ῳὠ ὦ ὦ σι ft τ Ff
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 940-941
and
Deep under Hell as far as Earth from Heaven, ?
these they would say are simply a description of this
place and Hell and Tartarus have been relegated
hither while the moon alone is earth, since it is equally
distant from those upper regions and these lower
ones.
26. Almost before I had finished, Sulla broke in.
“ Hold on, Lamprias,” he said, “ and put to the wicket
of your discourse ἢ lest you unwittingly run the myth
aground, as it were, and confound my drama, which
has a different setting and a different disposition.
Well, I am but the actor of the piece, but first I shall
say that its author began for our sake—if there be
no objection—with a quotation from Homer ° :
An isle, Ogygia, lies far out at sea,?
a run of five days off from Britain as you sail west-
ward ; and three other islands equally distant from
it and from one another lie out from it in the general
direction of the summer sunset. In one of these,
according to the tale told by the natives, Cronus is
confined by Zeus, and the antique (Briareus), holding
watch and ward over those islands and the sea that
@ Iliad, viii. 16.
> Of. De Sollertia Animalium, 965 B.
¢ On the text of this sentence cf. Class. Phil. xlvi (1951),
pp. 148-149.
4 Odyssey, vii. 244. On the geographical introduction to
the myth see the Introduction, § 5, and especially Hamilton,
Class. Quart. xxviii (1934), pp. 15-26, who points out the
parallel between Plutarch’s geographical scheme and Plato’s
location of Atlantis in Timaeus, 24 E—25 a.
10 Kaltwasser (implied by Amyot’s version); φρουρὸν -E, B.
181
(941)
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
, > 7, / 1 \ \
ἢ Τέλαγος ὀνομάζουσι, παρακατῳκίσθαι. ΤΩΣ δὲ
μεγάλην ἤπειρον, ὑφ᾽ ἧς ἡ μεγάλη περιέχεται
κύκλῳ θάλαττα, τῶν μὲν ἄλλων ἔλαττον ἀπέχειν"
τῆς δ᾽ ᾿Ωγυγίας περὶ πεντακισχιλίους σταδίους
κωπήρεσι πλοίοις κομιζομένῳ: βραδύπορον γὰρ
εἶναι καὶ πηλῶδες ὑπὸ πλήθους ῥευμάτων τὸ πέ-
λαγος. τὰ δὲ ῥεύματα τὴν μεγάλην ἐξιέναι γῆν
καὶ γίγνεσθαι προσχώσεις" ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν καὶ βαρεῖαν
εἶναι καὶ γεώδη τὴν θάλατταν, ἣ᾽ καὶ πεπηγέναι
δόξαν ἔσχε. τῆς δ᾽ ἠπείρου τὰ πρὸς τῇ θαλάττῃ
κατοικεῖν “EAAnvas περὶ κόλπον οὐκ ἐλάττονα τῆς
Μαιώτιδος, οὗ τὸ στόμα τῷ στόματι τοῦ Κασπίου
πελάγους μάλιστα κατ᾽ εὐθεῖαν κεῖσθαι, καλεῖν δὲ
καὶ νομίζειν ἐκείνους ἠπειρώτας μὲν αὑτοὺς" {νη-
1 Apelt (1905) and implied by Amyot’s version; παρακάτω
κεῖσθαι -E, B. 2 Basiliensis ; ἀπέχει -E, B
8 Diibner ; προχώσεις -E, B.
4 FE, B; 4-Wyttenbach. 5 E; κινεῖσθαι -Β.
6 Dibner (implied by Amyot’s version) ; αὐτοὺς -E, B.
« Cf. De Defectu Oraculorum, 420 4 avd n the text Class.
Phil. xlvi (1951), p. 149. For Briareus as a guard set by -
Zeus over Cronus and the ‘Titans cf. Hesiod, Theogony, 729-
735 and Apollodorus, i. 7 (=i. 2.1). The pillars of Heracles
are said to have had the older name Βριάρεω στῆλαι (cf. Aelian,
Var. Hist. v. 3= Aristotle, frag. 678) and before that Κρόνου
στῆλαι (cf. Charax, frag. 16= Frag. Hist. Graec. iii, Ὁ. 640) ;
cf. also Clearchus, frag. 56 (Frag. Hist. Graec. ii, p. 320) and
Parthenius, frag. 21 (Diehl) =frag. 31 (Martin).
ὃ Cf. Timaeus 24 πὶ 5—25 a5.
¢ Plutarch’s language really implies that the way is so
long—not just that it takes a long time—because the sea is
hard to traverse !
4 Of. Strabo, i. 4. 2 (c. 63): ἦν (i.e. Θούλην) φησι ἸΠυθέας
. . . ἐγγὺς εἶναι τῆς πεπηγυίας θαλάττης, and Pliny, Nat. Hist.
iv. 16 (104): “a Tyle unius diei navigatione mare concretum
a nonnullis Cronium appellatur ”’ (7.6. that for Apollonius
182
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 941
they call the Cronian main, has been settled close
beside him.“ The great mainland, by which the great
ocean is encircled,? while not so far from the other
islands, is about five thousand stades from Ogygia,
the voyage being made by oar, for the main is slow
to traverse and muddy as a result of the multitud:
of streams.° The streams are discharged by the greay
land-mass and produce alluvial deposits, thus giving
density and earthiness to the sea, which has been
thought actually to be congealed.? On the coast of
the mainland Greeks dwell about a gulf which is not
smaller than the Maeotis ὁ and the mouth of which
lies roughly on the same parallel as the mouth of the
Caspian sea.’ These people consider and call them-
selves continentals (and the) inhabitants of this land
Rhodius fiv. 327, 509, 546] the Adriatic is the Cronian sea) ;
cf. Tacitus, Agricola, § 10 and Germania, § 45. Plutarch
denies that the sea is really congealed as it is reputed to be
and explains its nature in imitation of Plato (Timaeus, 25 Ὁ
3-6, Critias, 108 © 6—109 a 2); but, since he cannot adduce
as the cause of the muddy shallows the “ settling of the island,
Atlantis, under the sea,”’ he falls back upon alluvial deposits
from the rivers on the great continent, a notion familiar from
many sources (cf. De Exilio, 602 p with Thucydides, ii. 102.
6; Aristotle, Meteorology, 351 Ὁ 28-32; Herodotus, ii. 10;
Strabo, i. 2. 29-30 [cc. 36-37]). For the “ congealed sea ’ > of.
further K. Miillenhoff, Deutsche Altertumskunde, i (1890), pp.
410-425; E. Janssens, Hist. ancienne dela mer du Nord?(1946),
pp. 20-22; J.-O: Thomson, Hist. of Ancient Geography, pp.
148-149, 241, and 54-55 (on Avienus, Ora Maritima, 117-129).
¢ The Sea of Azoy, the size of which Herodotus had greatly
exaggerated (iv. 86); Strabo reduced its perimeter to 9000
stades (ii. 5. 23 [e. 125]).
7 The Caspian was thought to be a gulf of the outer ocean
from the time of Alexander until Ptolemy corrected the error
(Alexander, chap. 44; Strabo, xi. 6. 1 [c. 507]), though
Herodotus (i. 202-203) and Aristotle ( Meteorology, 354 a 3-4)
had known that it was connected with no other sea,
183
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(941) σιώτας δὲ τοὺς ταύτην τὴν γῆν κατοικοῦντας,
ὡς καὶ κύκλῳ περίρρυτον οὖσαν ὑπὸ τῆς θαλάσσης.
οἴεσθαι δὲ τοῖς Κρόνου λαοῖς ἀναμιχθέντας ὕστερον
τοὺς μεθ᾽ “Ηρακλέους παραγενομένους καὶ ὑπο-
λειφθέντας ἤδη σβεννύμενον τὸ ᾿Ἑλληνικὸν ἐ ἐκεῖ καὶ
κρατούμενον γλώττῃ τε βαρβαρικῇ καὶ νόμοις καὶ
διαίταις οἷον ἀναζωπυρῆσαι πάλιν ἰσχυρὸν καὶ πολὺ
γενόμενον. διὸ τιμὰς ἔχειν πρώτας τὸν Ἡρακλέα
δευτέρας δὲ τὸν Κρόνον. ὅταν οὖν" ὁ τοῦ Κρόνου
ἀστήρ, ὃν Φαίνοντα μὲν ἡμεῖς ἐκείνους δὲ Νυ-
κτοῦρον ἔφη καλεῖν, εἰς Tatpov παραγένηται δι᾽
ἐτῶν τριάκοντα, παρασκευασαμένους ἐν χρόνῳ
Ὁ πολλῷ τὰ περὶ τὴν θυσίαν καὶ τὸν ἀζπόστολον
θεωροὺς ἱκανοὺς)" ἐκπέμπειν κλήρῳ λαχόντας ἐν
πλοίοις τοσούτοις θεραπείαν τε πολλὴν καὶ παρα-
σκευὴν᾽ ἀναγκαίαν μέλλουσι πλεῖν πέλαγος τοσοῦ-
τον εἰρεσίᾳ καὶ χρόνον ἐπὶ ξένης βιοτεύειν πολὺν
> ͵ 5 > 7, > = 6 ,
ἐμβαλλομένους. ἀναχθέντας οὖν χρῆσθαι" τύχαις,
e ees ” » \ \ / >
ὡς εἰκός, ἄλλους ἄλλαις. τοὺς δὲ διασωθέντας ἐκ
τῆς θαλάττης πρῶτον μὲν ἐπὶ τὰς προκειμένας
/ > / > ¢ ot ee / / \
νήσους οἰκουμένας δ᾽ ὑφ᾽ Ἑλλήνων Katioxew καὶ
* νησιώτας δὲ -Basiliensis ; νησιώτας δὲ τοὺς -Wyttenbach ;
lacking in E and B w ithout sign of lacuna.
E; ὅταν δὲ -B. 3 H.C. ; τὸν a vac. 23-E, 16-B.
B; vac. 5 σκευὴν -E.
Wyttenbach ; ἐμβάλλομεν ods -K, B.
Xylander ; οὐ χρὴ -E, B.
aon ὦ 19
“ Maivwy as the name of the planet Saturn occurs in De
An. Proc. in Timaeo, 1029 B (acc.: Daivwva); Aétius, ii. 15. 4
(where mss. vary between Φαίνωνα and Φαίνοντα, cf. Diels,
Dow. Graeci, p. 344 ad loc.) ; [Aristotle], De Mundo, 392 a 23
(Φαίνοντος) ; cf. Cicero, De Natura Deorum, ii. 20. 52. There
is a similar variation in the ss. as between Στίλβοντα and
Στίλβωνα (cf. Diels, Dow. Graeci, p. 345 on Aétius, ii. 15. 4),
184
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 941
(islanders) because the sea flows around it on all
sides; and they believe that with the peoples of
Cronus there mingled at a later time those who
arrived in the train of Heracles and were left behind
by him and that these latter so to speak rekindled
again to a strong, high flame the Hellenic spark there
which was already being quenched and overcome by
the tongue, the laws, and the manners of the bar-
barians. Therefore Heracles has the highest honours
and Cronus the second. Now when at intervals of
thirty years the star of Cronus, which we call ᾿ Splen-
dent '* but. they, our author said, call ᾿ Night-
watchman, enters the sign of the Bull,? they, having
spent a long time in preparation for the sacrifice and
the (expedition), choose by lot and send forth (a
sufficient number of envoys) in a correspondingly
sufficient number of ships, putting aboard a large
retinue and the provisions necessary for men who are
going to cross so much sea by oar and live such a long
time in a foreign land. Now when they have put to
sea the several voyagers meet with various fortunes
as one might expect; but those who survive the
voyage first put in at the outlying islands, which are
inhabited by Greeks,® and see the sun pass out of
though at 925 a supra the mss. of De Facie agree on Στίλ-
βοντα.
ὃ Taurus is the sign of the moon’s exaltation (cf. Ptolemy,
Tetrabiblos, i. 20 [p. 44. 2, Boll-Boer] ; Porphyry, De Antro
Nymph. 18), and it is for this reason that the expedition be-
gins when Saturn enters this sign. For the “ thirty years ”’ ef.
Aétius, ii. 32. 1 (Dox. Graeci, p. 363) : Cleomedes, i. 3. 16-17
(p. 30. 18-21 [Ziegler]); Cicero, De Natura Deorum, ii. 20. 52.
‘ These islands lie out westward or north-westward from
Ogygia, cf. 941 a supra. It has not previously been said that
they are inhabited by Greeks: in fact, 941 B seems to imply
that Greeks live only on the mainland.
185
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(941) τὸν ἥλιον ὁρᾶν κρυπτόμενον ὥρας μιᾶς ἔλαττον ἐφ᾽
ἡμέρας τριάκοντα (καὶ νύκτα τοῦτ᾽ εἶναι, σκότος
ἔχουσαν ἐλαφρὸν καὶ λυκαυγὲς ἀπὸ δυσμῶν περι-
λαμπόμενον). ἐκεῖ δὲ διατρίψαντας ἡμέρας eve-
νήκοντα, μετὰ τιμῆς καὶ φιλοφροσύνης ἱεροὺς
E νομιζομένους καὶ προσαγορευομένους, ὑπὸ πνευ-
μάτων οἵ δεῖ περαιοῦσθαι. μηδ᾽ ἄλλους τινὰς
ἐνοικεῖν ἢ σφᾶς τ᾽ αὐτοὺς καὶ τοὺς πρὸ αὐτῶν
SR ΤΣ ἐξεῖναι μὲν γὰρ ἀποπλεῖν οἴκαδε
τοὺς τῷ θεῷ τὰ τρὶς δέκ᾽ ἔτη" συλλατρεύσαντας,
αἱρεῖσθαι δὲ τοὺς πλείστους ἐπιεικῶς αὐτόθι κατ-
οικεῖν τοὺς μὲν ὑπὸ συνηθείας τοὺς δ᾽ ὅτι πόνου
δίχα καὶ πραγμάτων ἀφθονα πάρεστι πάντα πρὸς
θυσίαις καὶ χορηγίαις ἢ περὶ λόγους τινὰς ἀεὶ καὶ
Ε φιλοσοφίαν διατρίβουσι. θαυμαστὴν γὰρ εἶναι τῆς
τε νήσου τὴν φύσιν καὶ τὴν πραότητα τοῦ περι-
ἔχοντος ἀέρος. ἐνίοις δὲ καὶ τὸ θεῖον ἐμποδὼν
γίγνεσθαι διανοηθεῖσιν ἀποπλεῖν ὥσπερ συνήθεσι
καὶ φίλοις ἐπιδεικνύμενον οὐκ ὄναρ μόνον οὐδὲ διὰ
συμβόλων, ἀλλὰ καὶ φανερῶς ἐντυγχάνειν πολλοὺς
ὄψεσι δαιμόνων καὶ φωναῖς. αὐτὸν μὲν γὰρ τὸν
Κρόνον ἐν ἄντρῳ βαθεῖ περιέχεσθαι πέτρας χρυ-
σοειδοῦς καθεύδοντα. τὸν γὰρ ὕπνον αὐτῷ με-
μηχανῆσθαι δεσμὸν ὑπὸ τοῦ Διός, ὄρνιθας δὲ τῆς
πέτρας κατὰ κορυφὴν εἰσπετομένους" ἀμβροσίαν
1 Ἢ ; ἐνενήκοντα καὶ μετὰ -Β.
2 Bernardakis ; ἤδη -Εἰ, B.
3 Bernardakis ; τῷ τρισκαιδεκάτῳ -E, B.
4 Turnebus ; οἱ -E, B.
5 Madvig ; ods πετομένους -K, B.
α | have tried to preserve the ambiguity | of Plutarch’s
language, though he probably meant to say “ less than an
186
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 941
sight for less than an hour over a period of thirty
days,*—and this is night, though it has a darkness
that is slight and twilight glimmering from the west.
There they spend ninety days regarded with honour
and friendliness as holy men and so addressed, and
then winds carry them across to their appointed goal.?
Nor do any others inhabit it but themselves and those
who have been dispatched before them, for, while
those who have served the god together for the stint
of thirty years are allowed to sail off home, most of
them usually choose to settle in the spot, some out
of habit and others because without toil or trouble
they have all things in abundance while they con-
stantly employ their time in sacrifices and celebra-
tions or with various discourse and philosophy, for
the nature of the island is marvellous as is the soft-
ness of the circumambient air. Some when they
intend to sail away are even hindered by the divinity
which presents itself to them as to intimates and
friends not in dreams only or by means of omens,
but many also come upon the visions and the voices
of spirits manifest. For Cronus himself sleeps con-
fined in a deep cave of rock that shines like gold—
the sleep that Zeus has contrived as a bond for him—,
and birds flying in over the summit of the rock bring
hour each day for thirty days ”’ (so Kepler understood, who
thought that the reference was to Greenland). For the length
of summer-days in Britain and in Thule cf. Cleomedes, i. 7.
37-38 (pp. 68. 6-70. 22 [Ziegler]) and Pytheas and Crates in
Geminus, vi. 9-21 (pp. 70-76 [Manitius]). Pliny, Nat. Hist.
iv. 16 (104) says that in Thule at the summer solstice there is
no night at all, 1.6. while the sun is in Cancer; but he adds
here, what he had before (ii. 75 [186-187]) ascribed to Pytheas,
that some think that in Thule there is a continuous day of
six months’ duration.
ὃ Cf. Class. Phil. xlvi (1951), p. 149 and note 91.
187
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(941) ἐπιφέρειν αὐτῷ, καὶ τὴν νῆσον εὐωδίᾳ κατέχεσθαι
942 πᾶσαν ὥσπερ ἐκ πηγῆς σκιδναμένῃ τῆς πέτρας.
τοὺς δὲ δαίμονας ἐκείνους περιέπειν καὶ , θεραπεύειν
τὸν Κρόνον, ἑταίρους αὐτῷ γενομένους ὅτε δὴ θεῶν
καὶ ἀνθρώπων ἐβασίλευσε,' καὶ πολλὰ μὲν ap’
ἑαυτῶν μαντικοὺς ὄντας προλέγειν τὰ δὲ μέγιστα
καὶ περὶ τῶν μεγίστων ὡς ὀνείρατα τοῦ Κρόνου
κατιόντας ἐξαγγέλλειν"" ὅσα γὰρ ὁ Ζεὺς προδια-
νοεῖται" ταῦτ᾽ ὀνειροπολεῖν τὸν Κρόνον, εἶναι δ᾽
ἀνάτασιν τὰ τιτανικὰ πάθη καὶ κινήματα τῆς
ψυχῆς <ews) ἂν" αὐτῷ πάλιν ἀνάπαυσιν" ὁ ὕπνος
(καταστήσῃ)" καὶ γένηται τὸ βασιλικὸν καὶ θεῖον
Β αὐτὸ καθ᾽ ἑαυτὸ καθαρὸν καὶ ἀκήρατον. ἐνταῦθα
δὴ κομισθείς, ὡς ἔλεγεν, ὁ E€vos καὶ θεραπεύων
τὸν θεὸν ἐπὶ σχολῆς ἀστρολογίας μὲν ἐφ᾽ ὅσον
{γεν " γεωμετρήσαντι πορρωτάτω προελθεῖν δυνατόν
1 FE, B; ἐβασίλευε -Emperius.
2 E; ἐξαγγέλειν -B.
2 Us προσδιανοεῖται -Β.
4. Ὁ: : ἀνάστασιν “ἘΝ B.
5 After prices 5 ψυχῆς (ἕως av) ev; ψυχῆς ἐν -E, B.
C.; Ἢ παντάπασιν -
7 H.C. : ὁ ὕπνος vac. 10- E, 13- B.
8 H.C.; ὅσον vac. 2-F, 3-B.
2 For the sleep of Cronus as his bonds and for the spirits
who are his servitors cf. De Defectu Oraculorum, 420 a. For
the sleeping Cronus cf. also Kern, Orphicorum Fragmenta,
frags. 149 and 155; in these “᾿ Orphic”’ or Neo-Platonic
passages, however, Cronus prophesies, furnishes Zeus with
plans, or thinks the world order before Zeus is aware of it
(cf. Damascius, Dub. et Sol. 305 v-306 r [ii, pp. 136. 19-137. 8,
Ruelle] and Proclus, In Cratylum, p. 53. 29 ff. [Pasquali]),
which is the opposite of what Plutarch’s words imply. Be-
cause of Tertullian, De Anima, 46. 10 (f. 156) J. H. Waszink
(Tertullian, De Anima, p. 496) thinks it certain that the
ultimate source of the story was one of Aristotle’s lost
188
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 941-942
ambrosia to him, and all the island is suffused with
fragrance scattered from the rock as from a fountain ;
and those spirits mentioned before tend and serve
Cronus, having been his comrades what time he ruled
as king over gods and men. Many things they do
foretell of themselves, for they are oracular ; but
the prophecies that are greatest and of the greatest
matters they come down and report as dreams of
Cronus, for all that Zeus premeditates Cronus sees
in his dreams ” and the titanic affections and motions
of his soul make him rigidly tense (until) sleep
(restores) his repose once more and the royal and
divine element is all by itself, pure and unalloyed.?
Here then the stranger ° was conveyed, as he said,
and while he served the god became at his leisure
acquainted with astronomy, in which he made as
much progress as one can by practising geometry,
dialogues. Pohlenz (1... xi. 2013. s.v. “ Kronos ’’) sup-
poses that Plutarch’s source was Posidonius and that Posi-
donius was inspired by Nordic legend !
The feature of the birds that bring Cronus ambrosia appears
to have been adapted from the story of Zeus’s nectar; cf.
Sept. Sap. 156 τ and Odyssey, xii. 63-65.
Besides J. H. Waszink (Tertullian, De Anima, p. 496) see
the same author’s articles in Vigiliae Christianae, i (1947),
pp. 137-149 (especially pp. 145-149) and in Mélanges Henri
Grégoire, ii (1950), pp. 639-653 (especially pp. 651-653).
Waszink mistakenly believes that in Plutarch’s story “ἡ special
demons convey to Zeus [the thoughts that arise in Cronus’s
dreams] who makes use of them for his government of the uni-
verse,’ and consequently he overlooks the important difference
between Plutarch’s version and the “ἡ Orphic”’ passages that
I have pointed out in this note.
» Cf. Class. Phil. xlvi (1951), pp. 149-150.
° This is the first mention of “‘ the stranger,’’ unless he
was referred to in the lost beginning of the dialogue. Hitherto
he has merely been implied by the indirect discourse and τὸν
ποιητήν in 941 a supra; cf. the reference in note c there.
189
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
> > / ” ,ὔ \ ~ »Μ ~
(942) ἐστιν ἐμπειρίαν ἔσχε φιλοσοφίας δὲ τῆς ἄλλης τῷ
κι. /
φυσικῷ χρώμενος. ἐπιθυμίαν δέ twa καὶ πόθον
~ / ul
ἔχων γενέσθαι τῆς μεγάλης νήσου θεατής (ovTws"
γὰρ ὡς ἔοικε τὴν παρ᾽ ἡμῖν οἰκουμένην ὀνομά-
> \2 \ , 5 - >
Covow), ἐπειδὴ" τὰ τριάκοντ᾽ ἔτη διῆλθεν ἀφικο-
~ /
μένων τῶν διαδόχων οἴκοθεν ἀσπασάμενος" τοὺς
/ > / \ \ »Μ /
φίλους ἐξέπλευσε, τὰ μὲν ἄλλα κατεσκευασμένος
> ma 4 > / \ \ » 5 ~ > /
εὐσταλῶς" ἐφόδιον δὲ συχνὸν Ev” χρυσοῖς ἐκπώμασι
κομίζων. ἃ μὲν οὖν ἔπαθε καὶ ὅσους ἀνθρώπους
~ A / ᾽
C διῆλθεν, ἱεροῖς τε γράμμασιν ἐντυγχάνων ev τελε-
ταῖς τε πάσαις τελούμενος, οὐ μιᾶς ἡμέρας ἔργον
. \ A ¢ , A ¢ A > / Ss /
ἐστὶ διελθεῖν ws ἐκεῖνος ἡμῖν ἀπήγγελλεν εὖ μάλα
καὶ Kal? ἕκαστον ἀπομνημονεύων, ὅσα δ᾽ οἰκεῖα
~ ~ / -
τῆς ἐνεστώσης διατριβῆς ἐστιν ἀκούσατε. πλεῖστον
\ >) / / ¥ “ ᾿ >
yap ev Καρχηδόνι χρόνον διέτριψεν ἅτε δὴ παρ
- ~ / /
ἡμῖν μεγάλας ἔχοντος {τοῦ Κρόνου τιμάς, καί
“fy? ¢€ / / > / / «ς \
τινας ὅθ᾽ ἡ προτέρα πόλις ἀπώλλυτο διφθέρας ἱερὰς
¢ / / \ / \
ὑπεκκομισθείσας κρύφα καὶ διαλαθούσας πολὺν
χρόνον ἐν γῇ κειμένας ἐξεῦρεν" τῶν τε φαινο-
μένων θεῶν ἔφη χρῆναι καί μοι παρεκελεύετο τιμᾶν
/ ~
διαφερόντως τὴν σελήνην ws τοῦ βίου κυριωτάτην
Meas ay
Madyvig:: ere). δὲ ἫΝ B.
E ; ἀσπασαμένους -B.
-Anon., Aldine, R.J. 94; εὐσταθῶς -E, B.
E ; omitted in B.
E ; τε omitted in B.
Emperius; μεγάλας ἔχοντος καὶ τινάς -E, B, Aldine ;
μεγάλης ἔχοντος καὶ τιμάς -Basiliensis ; μεγάλάς ἔχοντος {τοῦ
Κρόνου) τιμάς: καὶ -Wyttenbach.
8 Adler; ἐξευρεῖν -E, B; ἐξευρών -Basiliensis.
sy nn fF ὦ WS μὲ
α φιλοσοφίας... χρώμενος is highly condensed ; it must
190
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 942
and with the rest of philosophy by dealing with so
much of it as is possible for the natural philosopher.?
Since he had a strange desire and longing to observe
the Great Island (for so, it seems, they call our part
of the world), when the thirty years had elapsed, the
relief-party having arrived from home, he saluted
his friends and sailed away, lightly equipped for the
rest but carrying a large viaticum in golden beakers.
Well, all his experiences and all the men whom he
visited, encountering sacred writings and being
initiated in all rites—to recount all this as he reported
it to us, relating it thoroughly and in detail, is not a
task for a single day ; but listen to so much as is
pertinent to the present discussion. He spent a great
deal of time in Carthage inasmuch as (Cronus) re-
ceives great (honour) in our country,’ and he dis-
covered certain sacred parchments that had been
secretly spirited off to safety when the earlier city
was being destroyed and had lain unnoticed in the
ground for a long time.° Among the visible gods 4
he said that one should especially honour the moon,
and so he kept exhorting me to do, inasmuch as she
be construed : φιλοσοφίας δὲ τῆς ἄλλης (ἐμπειρίαν ἔσχε),
χρώμενος (αὐτῇ ἐφ᾽ ὅσον) τῷ φυσικῷ (δυνατόν ἐστιν). For the
distinction between ἀστρολογία and φυσική here referred to cf.
Geminus’s quotation of Posidonius in Simplicius, Physica,
pp. 291. 23-292. 9 (Diels).
ὃ For the special position of Cronus at Carthage cf. De
Superstitione, 171 c, De Sera Numinis Vindicta, 552 a;
Diodorus, v. 66. 5.
¢ Nothing in the subsequent account supports the fre-
quently expressed notion that the myth is supposed to have
been discovered in these parchments, and 945 p infra ex-
pressly invalidates any such assumption.
4 Cf. Timaeus, 40 ἢ (τὰ περὶ θεῶν ὁρατῶν). 41 A (ὅσοι περι-
πολοῦσιν φανερῶς. .. θεοί): Epinomis, 985 D (τοὺς ὄντως
ἡμῖν φανεροὺς ὄντας θεούς).
191
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(942) οὖσαν (καὶ τοῦ θανάτου, τῶν “Atdov λειμώνων"
ἐχομένην.
27. Θαυμάζοντος δ᾽ ἐμοῦ" ταῦτα καὶ δεομένου
D σαφέστερον ἀκοῦσαι ᾿πολλὰ᾿᾿ εἶπεν" ᾿ ὦ Σύλλα
περὶ θεῶν οὐ πάντα δὲ καλῶς λέγεται παρ᾽ ἽἙλλη-
σιν. οἷον εὐθὺς ὀρθῶς Δήμητραν" καὶ Κόρην ὀνο-
μάζοντες οὐκ ὀρθῶς ὁμοῦ καὶ περὶ τὸν αὐτὸν
ἀμφοτέρας εἶναι τόπον νομίζουσιν: ἡ μὲν γὰρ ἐν γῇ
καὶ κυρία τῶν περὶ γῆν ἐστιν ἡ δ᾽ ἐν σελήνῃ καὶ
τῶν περὶ σελήνην." Κόρη τε καὶ Φερσεφόνη"
κέκληται. τὸ μὲν ὡς φωσφόρος" οὖσα Κόρη δ᾽ ὅτι
καὶ τοῦ ὄμματος ἐν ᾧ τὸ εἴδωλον ἀντιλάμπει τοῦ
βλέποντος ὥσπερ τὸ ἡλίου φέγγος ἐνορᾶται τῇ
σελήνῃ κόρην προσαγορεύομεν. τοῖς τε περὶ τὴν
E πλάνην καὶ τὴν ζήτησιν αὐτῶν λεγομένοις ἔνεστιν
1 H.C. (cf. 942 τ, 943 c infra; De Genio Socratis, 591
A-C); οὖσαν vac. 31-E, 24-B.
2 Bernardakis ; δέ μου -E, B.
8 Stephanus (1624) ; εἰπεῖν -E, B, Aldine, Basiliensis.
4 KE, Β (so mss. at De Iside, 367 c, De su Carn. 994 a, Adv.
Coloten, 1119 ©; cf. Allen and Sikes, The Homeric Hymns,
note on the title of Hymn [1].
5 Es περὶ τὴν σελήνην -B.
6 Diibner (cf. 943 B infra) ; περσεφόνη -E, B.
7 E; φοσφόρος -B.
« Here Sulla begins to quote the stranger directly and
continues his direct quotation to the end of the myth in 945 p.
» For identification of Persephoné and the moon cf. Epi-
charmus, frag. B 54 (i, p. 207. 9-11 [Diels-Kranz]=Ennius
in Varro, De Lingua Latina, v.68); Porphyry, De Antro
Nymph. 18; lamblichus in John Laurentius Lydus, De
Mensibus, iv. 149 ; Martianus Capella, ii. 161-162. Plutarch
in De Iside, 372 τὸ notices the identification of Isis and the
meon and in 361 & that of Isis and Persephassa (cf. note ¢
on 922 a supra for Athena). ‘The Pythagoreans are said to
have called the planets ‘‘ the hounds of Persephoné ”’ (Por-
192
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 942
is sovereign over life (and death), bordering as she
does (upon the meads of Hades).
27. When I expressed surprise at this and asked
for a clearer account, he said@: ᾿ Many assertions
about the gods, Sulla, are current among the Greeks,
but not all of them are right. So, for example,
although they give the right names to Demeter and
Cora, they are wrong in believing that both are
together in the same region. The fact is that the
former is in the region of earth and is sovereign over
terrestrial things, and the latter is in the moon and
mistress of lunar things. She has been called both
Cora and Phersephoné,’ the latter as being a bearer
of light ὁ and Cora because that is what we call the
part of the eye in which is reflected the likeness of
him who looks into it ὦ as the light of the sun is seen
in the moon. The tales told of the wandering and
the quest of these goddesses contain the truth
phyry, Vita Pythag. 41=Aristotle, frag. 196; Clement,
Stromat. v. 50 [676 p, 244 s]); and Plutarch in De Defectu
Oraculorum, 416 © refers to some who call the moon χθονίας
ὁμοῦ καὶ οὐρανίας κλῆρον “Exarns (cf. De Iside, 368 ©). Cf.
further, Roscher, Uber Selene und Verwandtes, pp. 119 ff.
¢ Cf. for the ancient etymologies of Φερσεφόνη Brauninger,
R.E. xix. 1. 946-947, and Roscher, Lexicon, ii. 1288; there
seems to be no ancient parallel to the one given here, to which
Plutarch does not refer in De /side, 377 ὃ. where he mentions
the etymology proposed by Cleanthes. In the Orphic Hymn
to Persephoné (xxix. 9= Orphica, rec. E. Abel, p. 74. 9) the
epithet, daecdopos, is used of the goddess but not by way of
etymology (cf. line 16); nor is she expressly identified with
the moon, although she is called φαεσφόρος, ayAadpopde, . . «
εὐφεγγές, κερόεσσα.
4 Cf. [Plato], Alcibiades I, 133 a. The word κόρη means
** girl,” “ἢ maiden,” for which reason it was used of such god-
desses as Athena and Persephoné, and also “ doll,’? whence
like Latin ‘‘ pupilla ᾿ it came to mean the pupil of the eye;
cf. English “ the baby in the eye.”’
VOR, ΧΠ H 193
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(942) (ἠνιγμένον. TO" ἀληθές: ἀλλήλων γὰρ ἐφίενται
χωρὶς οὖσαι καὶ συμπλέκονται περὶ τὴν σκιὰν πολ-
λάκις. τὸ δὲ νῦν" μὲν ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ φωτὶ νῦν δ᾽ ἐν
σκότῳ καὶ νυκτὶ γενέσθαι περὶ τὴν Κόρην ψεῦδος
μὲν οὐκ ἔστιν, τοῦ δὲ χρόνουΣ" τῷ ἀριθμῷ πλάνην
παρέσχηκεν. οὐ γὰρ ἕξ μῆνας ἀλλὰ παρ᾽ ἐξ μῆνας
ὁρῶμεν αὐτὴν ὑπὸ τῆς γῆς ὥσπερ ὑπὸ τῆς μητρὸς
τῇ σκιᾷ λαμβανομένην ὀλιγάκις δὲ τοῦτο διὰ πέντε
F μηνῶν πάσχουσαν, * ἐπεὶ τόν γ᾽ “Αἰδην ἀπολιπεῖν
ἀδύνατόν ἐστιν αὐτὴν τοῦ “Αἰδου πέρζας)" οὖσαν,
ὥσπερ καὶ “Ὅμηρος ἐπικρυψάμενος οὐ φαύλως
τοῦτ᾽ εἶπεν
ἀλλ᾽ εἰς ᾿Ηλύσιον πεδίον καὶ πείρατα γαίης"
a a b]
ὅπου yap ἡ σκιὰ τῆς γῆς ἐπινεμομένη παύεται
~ ~ ~ \ 2 ~
τοῦτο τέρμα THs γῆς ἔθετο Kal πέρας. εἰς δὲ τοῦτο
~ \ > \ 9.9 3 / ΝΜ « \
φαῦλος μὲν οὐδεὶς οὐδ᾽ ἀκάθαρτος ἄνεισιν, ot δὲ
1 Η.(.; ἔνεστιν vac. ἤ-Εὶ ; ἔνεστι vac. 9-B.
2 Basiliensis ; ὃ δὲ νῦν -E, B.
3 Raingeard ; οὐδὲ χρόνου -K, B; ὁ δὲ χρόνος -Anon.,
Aldine, R.J. 94.
4 Wyttenbach ; παροῦσαν -E, B; παθοῦσαν -Kaltwasser.
® Stephanus (1624) ; ézi-E (at end of line with 2 or 3 letter-
spaces possibly vacant after it), B (no lacuna).
ὁ 'Turnebus ; περ οὖσαν -E, B.
« i.e. the wandering of Demeter in search of Persephoné
after the abduction of the latter by Hades: cf. e.g. the
Homeric Hymn 11 to Demeter and Apollodorus, Bibliotheca,
i. 5. In the myth, however, Demeter was the wanderer; but
the earth, which she is here supposed to represent, is stationary.
In the myth Persephoné is in darkness when she is separated
from her mother and with Hades, whereas Plutarch’s inter-
pretation requires that Persephoné, the moon, be in darkness
and night when she is in the embrace of her mother, the earth.
» Cf. 933 πὶ supra and De Genio Socratis, 591 c: σελήνη
. φεύγει τὴν Στύγα μικρὸν ὑπερφέρουσα λαμβάνεται δ᾽ ἅπαξ ἐν
104
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 942
(spoken covertly),¢ for they long for each other when
they are apart and they often embrace in the shadow.
The statement concerning Cora that now she is in
the light of heaven and now in darkness and night
is not false but has given rise to error in the com-
putation of the time, for not throughout six months
but every six months we see her being wrapped in
shadow by the earth as it were by her mother, and
infrequently we see this happen to her at intervals
of five months,” for she cannot abandon Hades since
she is the boundary of Hades, as Homer too has
rather well put it in veiled terms :
But to Elysium’s plain, the bourne of earth. °
Where the range of the earth’s shadow ends, this he
set as the term and boundary of the earth.? To this
point rises no one who is evil or unclean, but the good
μέτροις δευτέροις ἑκατὸν ἑβδομήκοντα ἑπτά (177 days=one-half
of a lunar year, 6 synodic months).
© Odyssey, iv. 563 but with ἀλλά σ᾽ és instead of ἀλλ᾽ εἰς.
4 Of. Stobaeus, Eclogag, i. 49 (i, p. 448. 5-16 [Wachsmuth])
=frag. 146 β (vii, p. 176 [Bernardakis]), where Odyssey, iv.
563-564 is taken to indicate that the region of the moon is the
seat of righteous souls after death (cf. Eustathius, dd Odys-
seam, 1509. 18). There Ἠλύσιον πεδίον is said to mean the
surface of the moon lighted by the sun (cf. 944 c infra) and
πείρατα γαίης the end of the earth’s shadow which often
touches the moon; but there is no mention of Hades, Perse-
phoné, or Demeter. In the present passage Plutarch does
not say why his interpretation of Homer’s line justifies him
in calling the moon τοῦ “Acdov πέρας. but the rest of the myth
makes it certain that Hades is the region between earth and
moon (cf. 943 c infra). This agrees with the myth of De
Genio Socratis, where (591 a-c) this region is “‘ the portion o.
Persephoné ’’ and the earth’s shadow is “* Styx ’’ and “ the
road to Hades’ and where (590 r) Hades and Earth are
clearly identical (cf. Heinze, Xenokrates, p. 185; R. M.
Jones, The Platonism of Plutarch, p. 57 and n. 147). Prob-
ably then Plutarch here thought that, if Homer could be
195
(942)
943 €
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
χρηστοὶ μετὰ τὴν τελευτὴν κομισθέντες αὐτόθι
\
ῥᾷστον μὲν οὕτως" βίον οὐ μὴν μακάριον οὐδὲ θεῖον
iden ἄχρι τοῦ δευτέρου θανάτου διατελοῦσι.
Tis δ᾽ οὗτός ἐστιν, ὦ Σύλλα; μὴ περὶ τούτων
/ \ > \ ~ 4 Μ
Lon, μέλλω yap αὐτὸς διηγεῖσθαι. τὸν ἄνθρωπον
¢ \ / \ > ~ >? πω \ / 3
ot πολλοὶ σύνθετον μὲν ὀρθῶς ἐκ δυεῖν" δὲ μόνον
σύνθετον οὐκ ὀρθῶς ἡγοῦνται. μόριον γὰρ εἶναί
πως ψυχῆς οἴονται τὸν νοῦν, οὐδὲν ἧττον ἐκείνων
ἁμαρτάνοντες οἷς ἡ ψυχὴ δοκεῖ μόριον εἶναι τοῦ
σώματος: νοῦς γὰρ ψυχῆς ὅσῳ ψυχὴ σώματος
ἄμεινόν ἐστι καὶ θειότερον. ποιεῖ δ᾽ ἡ μὲν ψυχῆς
(Kal σώματος μῖξις τὸ ἄλογον καὶ τὸ παθητικὸν ἡ ἡ
δὲ νοῦ καὶ ψυχῆς" σύνοδος λόγον, ὧν τὸ μὲν ἡδονῆς
> \ \ ~ ~
ἀρχὴ Kal πόνου TO δ᾽ ἀρετῆς Kal κακίας. τριῶν
1 E; οὕτω -B.
2 Bernardakis ; δυοῖν -Εἰ, B.
3B; μόνων -E.
4
Bernardakis (cf. 943 p infra) ; ἡ μὲν ψυχῆς σύνοδος -E, B ;
‘et fait ceste composition de l’'ame avec l’entendement la
raison, et avec le corps la passion . . .”’ -Amyot.
shown to have set the boundary of earth at the moon, it
follows that he understood the moon to be the boundary of
Hades. In De Genio Socratis, 591 8 the moon is expressly
made the boundary between ‘‘ the portion of Persephoné,”’
which is Hades, and the region which extends from moon to
sun. Nevertheless, in 944 c infra the Elysian plain is said
to be the part of the moon that is turned to heaven, 1.6. away
from the earth; and, though this,does not explicitly con-
tradict the present passage, it might still seem to eit the
notion ascribed to Iamblichus by John Laurentius Lydus
(De Mensibus, iv. 149 [p. 167. 24 ff.]) : Sea τὸν ὑπὲρ σελήνης
ἄχρις ἡλίου χῶρον τῷ “Ady διδούς, παρ᾽ ᾧ φησὶ καὶ τὰς ἐκκεκαθαρ-
μένας ἑστάναι ψυχάς, καὶ αὐτὸν μὲν elva τὸν Πλούτωνα, Τ]ερσε-
φόνην δὲ τὴν σελήνην.
α Cf. Odyssey, iv. 565: τῇ περ ῥηίστη βιοτὴ πέλει ἀνθρώποισιν.
ὃ In Quaest. Rom. 282 a Plutarch cites Castor (οὐ 966 Ε)
196
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 942-943
are conveyed thither after death and there continue
to lead a life most easy to be sure? though not
blesséd or divine until their second death.?
28. And what is this, Sulla? Do not ask about
these things, for I am going to give a full explanation
myself. Most people rightly hold man to be com-
posite but wrongly hold him to be composed of only
two parts. The reason is that they suppose mind
to be somehow part of soul, thus erring no less than
those who believe soul to be part of body, for in the
same degree as soul is superior to body so is mind
better and more divine than soul. The result of soul
<and body commingled is the irrational or the affective
factor, whereas of mind and soul) the conjunction
produces reason ; and of these the former is source
of pleasure and pain, the latter of virtue and vice.°
for the notion that after death souls dwell on the moon, for
which cf. in general P. Capelle, De luna stellis lacteo orbe
animarum sedibus (Halis Saxonum, 1917), pp. 1-18 and v.06.
Iamblichus, Vit. Pyth. 18. 82; Varro in Augustine, De Civ.
Det, vii. Ὁ (i, p. 282. 14-17 [Dombart]); S.V.F. ii, frag.
814.
¢ Cf. De Virtute Morali, 441 p—442 a, De Genio Socratis,
591 p-r. The ultimate source of Plutarch’s conception of the
relation of mind, soul, and body is such passages of Plato as
Timaeus, 30 B, 41-42, 90 a; Laws, 961 p-£, Phaedrus, 247 ς
(cf. Thévenaz, L’ Ame du monde... chez Plutarque, pp.
70-73). Plutarch himself ascribes the twofold division, soul
and body, to οὗ πολλοί and so cannot intend a reference to any
philosophical school ; by those who make soul a μόριον τοῦ
σώματος he might mean Stoics (cf. De Stoicorum Repug-
nantiis, 1052 ¥ ff., De Communibus Notitiis, 1083 c ff.) but
might equally well mean Epicureans or materialists gener-
ally. Against Adler’s argument (Diss. Phil. Vind. x, pp.
171-172) that the first of the two notions rejected is Platonic
and the second Stoic, so that Plutarch’s source must have
been Posidonius, cf. Pohlenz, Phil. Woch. xxxii (1912), Ὁ. 653,
and R. M. Jones, The Platonism of Plutarch, p. 55.
197
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
\ / / \ \ A e ΄- \ \
(943) δὲ τούτων συμπαγέντων TO μὲν σῶμα ἡ γῆ τὴν δὲ
ψυχὴν ἡ σελήνη τὸν δὲ νοῦν ὁ ἥλιος παρέσχεν εἰς
\ , > / 1e¢ > A\2 =
τὴν γένεσιν <tavOpwm7w)' ὥσπερ avd (TH) TH σε-
A / \ / «Δ δ᾽ 3 7 / «
ἤνῃ τὸ φέγγος. ὃν δ᾽ ἀποθνήσκομεν θάνατον, ὁ
\ > a / ~ \ » « > Δ >
μὲν ἐκ τριῶν δύο ποιεῖ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ὁ δ᾽ ἕν ἐκ
Β δυεῖν, καὶ ὁ μέν ἐστιν ἐν τῇ {γῆ τῆς Δήμητρος
\ ~ / \ / 5 3 ~ A \
{((διὸ τελευτᾶν λέγεται τὸν Bidov® αὐτῇ τελεῖν καὶ
\ \ > A / ᾿ ’ \
τοὺς νεκροὺς ᾿Αθηναῖοι Δημητρείους ὠνόμαζον τὸ
παλαιόν) (ὃ )" δ᾽ ἐν τῇ σελήνῃ τῆς Φερσεφόνης,
καὶ σύνοικός ἐστι τῆς μὲν χθόνιος ὁ “Ἑρμῆς τῆς δ᾽
4 1 ἢ }» , > δ 8 \ \ \ \ ῃ
οὐράνιος. λύει δ᾽ αὕτη" μὲν ταχὺ καὶ μετὰ βίας
\ \ > \ ~ / ε \ / /
τὴν ψυχὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος ἡ δὲ Φερσεφόνη πράως
καὶ χρόνῳ πολλῷ τὸν νοῦν ἀπὸ τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ διὰ
τοῦτο μονογενὴς κέκληται" μόνον" γὰρ γίγνεται τὸ
, > ᾽ , € \10 ae
βέλτιστον τἀνθρώπου διακρινόμενον {ὑπ᾽ αὐτῆς.
C συντυγχάνει δ᾽ οὕτως κατὰ φύσιν ἑκάτερον: πᾶσαν
Bernardakis ; γένεσιν vac. 7-E, 11-B.
Raingeard ; ὥς περ αὖ -E; ὥς περ οὖν -B.
Bernardakis ; δυοῖν -E, B.
Madvig : ἐν τῇ τῆς -E, B.
Η. C.; Δήμητρος vac. 20-E, 26-B ἐν.
Kaltwasser ; τὸ παλαιὸν δὲ ἐν -E, B.
ΕΠ. B; περσεφόνης -E?.
Bernardakis ; αὐτὴ -F, B.
Stephanus (1624) ; μόνη -E, B; possibly μόνῃ (ef. L and
S, s.v. povos, B IV).
10 Stephanus (1624) ; διακρινόμενον αὐτῆς -E, B.
oo nan ovr ὁ N fF
« Cf. De Genio Socratis, 591 8, where motion and genera-
tion are linked by Mind in the sun and generation and de-
struction by Nature in the moon.
» For a ‘‘ mortal soul” or “ mortal part ” of the soul ef.
Plato, Timaeus, 42 Ὁ, 61 c, 69 c-b.
198
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 943
In the composition of these three factors earth
furnishes the body, the moon the soul, and the sun
furnishes mind (to man) for the purpose of his genera-
tion * even as it furnishes light to the moon herself.
As to the death we die, one death reduces man from
three factors to two and another reduces him from
two to one ®; and the former takes place in the
<earth) that belongs to Demeter <((wherefore “ to
make an end ”’ is called) “ to render (one’s life) to
her’ and Athenians used in olden times to call the
dead “᾿ Demetrians ’’),° (the latter) in the moon that
belongs to Phersephoné, and associated with the
former is Hermes the terrestrial, with the latter
Hermes the celestial.¢ While the goddess here °
dissociates the soul from the body swiftly and
violently, Phersephoné gently and by slow degrees
detaches the mind from the soul and has therefore
been called “ single-born ” because the best part
of man is “ born single ’’ when separated off (by) her.’
Each of the two separations naturally occurs in this
CxCf Class. Phit-sxivi- (1951), p. Fo.
4 Cf. De Iside, 367 Ὁ-Ὲ. Hermes appears in the myth
of Persephoné as early as Homeric Hymn IT, 377 ff. and is
connected with Hecaté in the fragment of Theopompus in
Porphyry, De Abstinentia, ii. 16. Cf. also Quaest. Graec.
296 τ and Halliday’s note ad loc.
¢ 7,6. on earth, Demeter, which is why Plutarch refers to
her with αὕτη. though she is the former of the two mentioned.
7 μονογενής, Which appears as an epithet of Hecaté and
Persephoné (cf. Hesiod, Theogony, 426; Orphic Hymns,
xxix. 1-2 [Abel]; Apollonius Rhodius, iii. 847), means
““unique’”’: cf. Timaeus, 31 B and 92 c, to which Plutarch
refers in De Defectu Oraculorum, 423 a and c, where he inter-
prets the word to mean “ only born.’ Here, however, he
probably takes the final element in an active sense such as
it has in Καλλιγένεια, an epithet of Demeter, the moon, and
the earth.
199
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
/ Μ \ \ A / >? A
(943) ψυχήν, ἄνουν τε Kal σὺν VW, σώματος ἐκπεσοῦσαν
ς , Δ} TT, mz \ a \ ,
εἱμαρμένον ἐστὶν (ev) τῷ μεταξὺ γῆς Kat σελήνης
/ 2 ~
χωρίῳ" πλανηθῆναι χρόνον οὐκ ἴσον, ἀλλ᾽ at μὲν
Μ \ > / / ~ > / /
ἄδικοι καὶ ἀκόλαστοι δίκας τῶν ἀδικημάτων τί-
\ > > A LA > ~ \ >
νουσι Tas δ᾽ ἐπιεικεῖς ὅσον ἀφαγνεῦσαι Kal ἀπο-
~ \ 3 > \ ~ / a > a4
πνεῦσαι {τοὺς ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος ὥσπερ ἀτμοῦ
~ \ ~ ~
πονηροῦ μιασμοὺς ἐν τῷ πραοτάτῳ TOD ἀέρος, ὃν
΄“-“ 7 “ A
λειμῶνας “Avdov καλοῦσι, δεῖ γίγνεσθαι χρόνον τινὰ
/ ᾿ ?
τεταγμένον. (εἶθ᾽ 5 οἷον ἐξ ἀποδημίας ἀνακομι-
,ὔ aA > / , A ” 6
Copevar φυγαδικῆς εἰς πατρίδα γεύονται χαρᾶς οἵαν
¢ / / Ψ \ /
ot τελούμενοι μάλιστα θορύβῳ καὶ πτοήσει συγ-
1 Wyttenbach ; ἐστὶ τῷ μεταξὺ -Ε, B.
2 E, B; χώρῳ -Papabasileios.
3 Emperius ; ἀποπνεῦσαι ἀπὸ -E, Β.
4 Emperius ; αἰτίου -E, B.
5 Basiliensis (εἶτα) ; omitted by Εἰ, B.
6 Editors after οἷαν (sic) of Basiliensis ; οἷον -E, B.
α This may mean only ‘“‘ whether the soul has been obedient
to reason in life or has not but ὅλη κατέδυ εἰς σῶμα. as De
Genio Socratis, 591 Ὁ-Ὲ puts it; but at 945 B infra Plutarch
speaks of souls which ἄνευ vod assume bodies and live on
earth, and by ἄνουν here he may intend to refer to the separa-
tion of such souls from their bodies. He cannot mean, as
Raingeard supposes, souls whose minds have immediately
passed to the sun, for he has just said that the separation of
mind from soul takes place at the second death on the moon
and neither here nor in 944 ¥ infra does he allow for any
exception in the sense of the doctrine of the Hermetic Tractate,
x. 16, where νοῦς is separated from ψυχή at the moment when
200 Γ
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 943
fashion : All soul, whether without mind or with it,@
when it has issued from the body ἢ is destined to
wander (in) the region between earth and moon but
not for an equal time. Unjust and licentious souls
pay penalties for their offences ; but the good souls
must in the gentlest part of the air, which they call
“the meads of Hades,” ὁ pass a certain set time
sufficient to purge and blow away (the) pollutions
contracted from the body as from an evil odour.4
(Then), as if brought home from banishment abroad,
they savour joy most like that of initiates, which
attended by glad expectation is mingled with con-
the soul leaves the body (cf. Scott, Hermetica, ii, p. 265). In
De Genio Socratis, 591 p—592 pd Plutarch makes νοῦς and
ψυχή not really two different substances as here in the De
Facie but considers ψυχή to be a degeneration of νοῦς.
e.Cf De Sera Numinis Vindicta, 563 Ἑ : ἐπεὶ yap ἐξέπεσε
τὸ φρονοῦν τοῦ σώματος ..
¢ For the location of Hades cf. De Iside, 382 © and the
etymology in De Latenter Vivendo, 1130 a (ef. Plato, Gorgias,
493 8 and Phaedo, 80 bp); for the identification of Hades with
the dark air cf. [Plutarch], De Vita et Poesi Homeri, § 97;
Philodemus, De Pietate, c. 13 (Dox. Graeci, p. 547 b); Cor-
nutus, 6. 5 and c. 35; Heraclitus, Quaestiones Homericae,
8 41. Reference to a mead (λειμών) or meads in the under-
world is common: cf. Odyssey, xi. 539, 573 and xxiv. 13-14;
Kern, Orphicorum Fragmenta, 32 f 6 and 222; Plato,
Gorgias, 524 a, Republic, 614 © and 616 B. The Neo-
Platonists argued that the λειμών in these Platonic passages
is meant to be located in the atmosphere under the moon :
Proclus, In Rem Publicam, ii, pp. 132. 20-133. 15 (Kroll) ;
Olympiodorus, /n Gorgiam, p. 237. 10-13 (Norvin); Hermias,
In Phaedrum, p. 161. 3-9 (Couvreur).
@ Cf. De Antro Nymph. 88. 11-12 (p. 64. 24-25 [Nauck]) :
Proclus, In Timaeum, iii, p. 331. 6-9 (Diehl) ; and in general
on the pollution of the soul by association with the body
Plato, Phaedo, 81 s-c. Plutarch in a different context uses the
words: . . . ὅταν ἀτμοὶ πονηροί. . . ταῖς THs ψυχῆς. . . ava-
κραθῶσι περιόδοις (De Tuenda Sanitate, 129 c).
201
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(943) κεκραμένην' μετ᾽ ἐλπίδος ἡδείας" ἔχουσι: πολλὰς
D γὰρ ἐξωθεῖ καὶ ἀποκυματίζει γλιχομένας ἤδη τῆς
σελήνης ἐνίας δὲ καὶ τῶν ἐκεῖ περικάτωΣΝ τρεπο-
μένας οἷον εἰς βυθὸν αὖθις ὁρῶσι καταδυομένας .
αἴ Ὁ ἄνω γενόμεναι καὶ βεβαίως ἱδρυθεῖσαι᾽ πρῶ-
τον μὲν ὥσπερ οἱ νικηφόροι περιίασιν" ἀναδούμεναιΐ
στεφάνοις πτερῶν εὐσταθείας λεγομένοις ὅτι τῆς
ψυχῆς τὸ ἄλογον καὶ τὸ παθητικὸν εὐήνιον ἐπιεικῶς
τῷ λόγῳ καὶ κεκοσμημένον ἐν τῷ βίῳ παρέσχοντο.
δεύτερον, ἀκτῖνι τὴν ὄψιν ἐοικυῖαιΣ περὶ δὲ τὴν
φύσιν" ἄνω κουφιζομένην ὥσπερ ἐνταῦθα τῷ περὶ
τὴν σελήνην αἰθέρι, καὶ τόνον ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ" καὶ δύνα-
Madvig ; συγκεκραμένη -Ε, B.
Xylander in his version ; ἰδίας -Εἰ, B.
Madvig ; περὶ κάτω -E, B
E ; καταγινομένας -B.
Wyttenbach ; ἑδρύθησαν -E, B.
Wyttenbach ; περιίστασιν -E : περιιστᾶσιν -B.
Hutten ; ἀναδούμενοι -E, B.
Wyttenbach ; ἐοικέναι -E, B.
9. Sandbach (who, however, reads πυρὶ for περὶ after
Wyttenbach) ; περὶ δὲ τὴν ψυχὴν -E, B.
10 Wyttenbach ; ad’ αὑτοῦ -E,
ort ὅδ᾽. σι αὶ © DS μὸ
α For life on earth as the soul’s exile from its proper home
cf. De Exilio, 607 c-e ; and for the comparison with initiates
and what follows in this vein a few lines below cf. fragment
VI (vii, p. 23. 4-17 [Bernardakis]).
> Cf. De Genio Socratis, 591 c, and Plato’s Phaedrus, 248
A-B, especially ai δὲ δὴ ἄλλαι γλιχόμεναι μὲν ἅπασαι τοῦ ἄνω
ἕπονται, ἀδυνατοῦσαι δέ, ὑποβρύχιαι συμπεριφέρονται κτλ.
¢ For life as an athletic contest and the soul as athlete cf.
De Sera Numinis Vindicta, 561 a, De Genio Socratis, 593 Ὁ-Ὲ
and 593 r—594 a. The conception is Platonic (cf. Republic,
621 c-p, Phaedrus, 256 8); and it is irrelevant to cite oriental
notions of life as a combat and immortality as a triumph as
Soury does (La Démonologie de Plutarque, p. 189, n. 1) after
202
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 943
fusion and excitement.* For many, even as they are
in the act of clinging to the moon, she thrusts off and
sweeps away ; and some of those souls too that are
on the moon they see turning upside down as if sink-
ing again into the deep.? Those that have got up,
however, and have found a firm footing first go about
like victors crowned with wreaths of feathers called
wreaths of steadfastness,° because in life they had
made the irrational or affective element of the soul
orderly and tolerably tractable to reason 7%; secondly,
in appearance resembling a ray of light but in respect
of their nature, which in the upper region is buoyant
as it is here in ours, resembling the ether about the
moon,’ they get from it both tension and strength
Cumont. Soury follows Raingeard in misconstruing στεφάνοις
. . . λεγομένοις and supposing that πτερῶν εὐσταθείας is an
‘expression mystique” (op. cit. pp. 189 and 191-192).
εὐσταθείας does not depend upon πτερῶν or vice versa; and
Plutarch has simply woven the “ feathers of the soul,’” which
appear throughout the myth of the Phaedrus, into a wreath
that is given to the souls of the good for their steadfastness,
just as the victorious souls in Phaedrus, 256 8 become ὑπό-
πτεροι because in life they were ἐγκρατεῖς αὑτῶν καὶ κόσμιοι.
@ Of. De Genio Socratis, 592 a, and Plato’s Phaedrus, 247 B
(n.b. εὐήνια ὄντα ῥᾳδίως πορεύεται).
ὁ αἰθήρ for Plato was simply the uppermost and purest air
(cf. Timaeus, 58 Ὁ. Phaedo, 109 8 and 111 8); but here the
word is probably used under Stoic influence, for which see
note d on 928 p and note g on 922 B supra and ef. [Plato],
Aziochus, 366 ἃ (ἡ ψυχὴ συναλγοῦσα τὸν οὐράνιον ποθεῖ καὶ
σύμφυλον αἰθέρα). ‘These last sentences of chapter 28 show
several definitely Stoic traits, especially the conception of
κε tension,’’ nourishment of the soul by the exhalations, and
the use of the quotation from Heraclitus. It has long been
customary to compare with this passage Cicero, Tusc. Disp.
i. 19, 43, and Sextus Empiricus, ddv. Math. ix. 71-73 (ef.
Heinze, NXenokrates, pp. 126-128; K. Reinhardt, Kosmos
und Sympathie, pp. 308-313 and p. 323; ἢ. M. Jones,
Class. Phil. xxvii [1932], pp. 113 ff.).
203
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
\ 8,
(943) μιν οἷον τὰ στομούμενα βαφὴν ἴσχουσι: TO yap
> \ ” \ / Ξ. \ ,
E ἀραιὸν ἔτι καὶ διακεχυμένον ῥώννυται καὶ γίγνεται
\ \ \ σ >. ly \ ~ 4 >
σταθερὸν καὶ διαυγὲς ὥσθ᾽ ὑπὸ τῆς τυχούσης ava-
~ /
θυμιάσεως τρέφεσθαι, καὶ καλῶς Ἡράκλειτος
εἶπεν ὅτι αἵ ψυχαὶ ὀσμῶνται καθ᾽ “Αιδην.
~ an ~ / Α
29. ᾿Εφορῶσι δὲ πρῶτον μὲν αὐτῆς σελήνης τὸ
᾿ \ \ 7 \ \ / » c An
μέγεθος Kat τὸ κάλλος καὶ τὴν φύσιν οὐχ ἁπλῆν
59.9 Μ 5 9 τ »” / \ ~
οὐδ᾽ ἄμικτον ἀλλ᾽ οἷον ἄστρου σύγκραμα καὶ γῆς
2» ~ / \ δ
οὖσαν: ὡς γὰρ ἡ γῆ πνεύματι μεμιγμένη καὶ ὑγρό-
a ~ \
{τητι μαλακὴ γέγονε Kal TO αἷμα TH σαρκὶ παρ-
/ \ ” > / “ 2 ~ 9)...
ἔχει τὴν αἴσθησιν ἐγκεκραμένον οὕτως" τῷ αἰθέρι
/ \ 7] > / A /
λέγουσι τὴν σελήνην ἀνακεκραμένην διὰ βάθους
“ Ἐν > \ , ¢ S45 Ὁ
ἅμα μὲν ἔμψυχον εἶναι καὶ γόνιμον ἅμα δ᾽ ἰσόρροπον
» Ἁ \ \ A / ~ ,
F ἔχειν τὴν πρὸς τὸ βαρὺ συμμετρίαν τῆς κουφότητος.
͵ ΄-
καὶ γὰρ αὐτὸν οὕτως" τὸν κόσμον ἐκ τῶν ἄνω καὶ
AL Pri , ΄ / / >
TOV κάτω φύσει φερομένων συνηρμοσμένον ἀπηλ-
λάχθαι παντάπασι τῆς κατὰ τόπον κινήσεως. ταῦτα
1 Papabasileios ; ὕγρω vac. 5 -Εἰ, B.
2 E; οὕτω -B.
3 Ἢ. οὕτω -B.
4 Stephanus (1624); ἐν τῶ ἄνω καὶ τῶ -E, B.
* For the Stoic doctrine of τόνος ef. De Stoicorum Repug-
nantiis, 1054 a-s, De Communibus Notitiis, 1085 c-p, and
S.V.F. ii, frags. 447 and 448. The metaphor of “ temper-
ing’ was also commonly used by the Stoies in connection
with the soul: ef. S.V.F. ii, frags. 804-806.
» Frag. 98 (i, p. 173. 3 [Diels-Kranz]). For the nourish-
ment of disembodied souls cf. the passages of Cicero and
204
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 943
as edged instruments get a temper,” for what laxness
and diffuseness they still have is strengthened and
becomes firm and translucent. In consequence they
are nourished by any exhalation that reaches them,
and Heraclitus was right in saying: “‘ Souls employ
the sense of smell in Hades.”’ ὃ
29. First they behold the moon as she is in her-
self ©: her magnitude and beauty and nature, which
is not simple and unmixed but a blend as it were of
star and earth. Just as the earth has become soft
by having been mixed with breath and moist{ure)
and as blood gives rise to sense-perception in the
flesh with which it is commingled,’ so the moon, they
say,’ because it has been permeated through and
through by ether is at once animated and fertile
and at the same time has the proportion of lightness
to heaviness in equipoise. In fact it is in this way
too, they say, that the universe itself has entirely
escaped local motion, because it has been constructed
out of the things that naturally move upwards and
those that naturally move downwards.‘ This was
Sextus cited in note e, p. 203. Here the argument of Lamprias
in 940 c-p supra is incorporated into the myth, which thereby
appears to substantiate the argument.
© Plutarch certainly wrote αὐτῆς σελήνης (or perhaps αὐτῆς
τῆς σελήνης) under the influence of Plato’s “ἢ true earth,’’ αὐτὴ
ἡ γῆ. in Phaedo, 109 B 7, 110 B 6 (cf. 935 a supra and 944 B
infra).
4 Cf. Aristotle, De Part. Animal. 656 8 19-21 and 25-26,
666 a 16-17; and Plato, Timaeus, 77 © on the connection of
the blood-vessels with τὸ τῶν αἰσθήσεων πάθος.
ἐ Not “Ὑ the demons * who told the stranger the story, as
Raingeard says, but the human authors of the theory men-
tioned in the next sentence ; cf. Class. Phil. xlvi (1951), pp.
151-152.
i Cf. S.V.F. ii, frag. 555 and Class. Phil. xlvi (1951), p.
Psi αἰ. 105;
205
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(943) δὲ καὶ Ξενοκράτης ἔοικεν ἐννοῆσαι θείῳ τινὶ λο-
γισμῷ τὴν ἀρχὴν λαβὼν παρὰ Πλάτωνος. ᾿]λάτων
γάρ ἐστιν 6 καὶ τῶν ἀστέρων ἕκαστον ἐκ γῆς καὶ
πυρὸς συνηρμόσθαι διὰ τῶν {δυεῖν μεταξὺ φύσεων
> ~
ἀναλογίᾳ δεθεισῶν" ἀποφηνάμενος: οὐδὲν" yap εἰς
αἴσθησιν ἐξικνεῖσθαι ᾧ μή τι γῆς ἐμμέμικται καὶ
φωτός. ὁ δὲ Ξενοκράτης τὰ μὲν ἄστρα καὶ τὸν
944 ἥλιον ἐκ πυρός φησι καὶ τοῦ πρώτου πυκνοῦ συγ-
a \ \ / > “ / ~
κεῖσθαι τὴν δὲ σελήνην ἐκ τοῦ δευτέρου πυκνοῦ
\ ~ 2307 3" ἢ \ \ ~ > A \
καὶ τοῦ ἰδίου ἀέρος τὴν δὲ γῆν ἐξ ὕδατος [καὶ
35. 4 \ ~ / ~ ~ “ \ /
ἀέρος" Kat τοῦ τρίτου τῶν πυκνῶν: ὅλως δὲ μήτε
τὸ πυκνὸν αὐτὸ καθ᾽ αὑτὸ μήτε τὸ μανὸν εἶναι
ψυχῆς δεκτικόν. καὶ ταῦτα μὲν περὶ οὐσίας σε-
λήνης. εὖρος δὲ καὶ μέγεθος οὐχ ὅσον οἱ γεωμέτραι
/ > \ A / > / ~
λέγουσιν ἀλλὰ μεῖζον πολλάκις ἐστί. καταμετρεῖ
~ ~ ζω ς ~
δὲ τὴν σκιὰν τῆς γῆς ὀλιγάκις τοῖς ἑαυτῆς" με-
/
γέθεσιν οὐχ ὑπὸ σμικρότητος, ἀλλὰ θερμζ(ότερον)"
- x
ἐπείγει τὴν κίνησιν ὅπως ταχὺ διεκπερᾷ TOV σκο-
τώδη τόπον ὑπεκφέρουσα {τὰςΣ τῶν ἀγαθῶν ζψυ-
cok 7 \ , “Whey. \
yas)’ σπευδούσας Kat βοώσας: οὐκέτι γὰρ
΄ - / ~ \ \
efaxovovow ἐν TH σκιᾷ γενόμεναι τῆς περὶ TOV
1 Purser ; διὰ τῶν vac. 4-1, 5-B.
2 Leonicus (cf. Plato, Timaeus, 31 c, 32 B-c; Plutarch, De
An. Proc. 1016 r—1017 a); δοθεισῶν -E, B.
3 -Anon., Aldine, R.J.94 (cf. Plato, Timaeus, 31 B); οὐδένα
-E, B.
4 Excised by H. C.; καὶ ἀέρος -E καὶ πυρὸς -B.
5 E.; ἑαυτοῦ -B.
206
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 943-944
also the conception of Xenocrates who, taking his
start from Plato, seems“ to have reached it by a
kind of superhuman reasoning. Plato is the one who
declared that each of the stars as well was constructed
of earth and fire bound together in a proportion by
means of the (two) intermediate natures, for nothing,
as he said, attains perceptibility that does not contain
an admixture of earth and light’; but Xenocrates
says that the stars and the sun are composed of fire
and the first density, the moon of the second density
and air that is proper to her, and the earth of water
[and air] and the third kind of density and that in
general neither density all by itself nor subtility is
receptive of soul.© So much for the moon’s substance.
As to her breadth or magnitude, it is not what the
geometers say but many times greater. She measures
off the earth’s shadow with few of her own magnitudes
not because it is small but she more ardently hastens
her motion in order that she may quickly pass through
the gloomy place bearing away (the souls) of the
good which cry out and urge her on because when
they are in the shadow they no longer catch the sound
¢ The Greek does not imply, as Adler supposes, that
Plutarch had any doubt about what Xenocrates had said (cf.
R. M. Jones, The Platonism of Plutarch, p. 55).
» Timaeus, 40 a and 31 s—32 c; ef. [Plato], Epinomis,
981 p-E; Plutarch, De Fortuna Romanorum, 316 Ἐ-Ὲ.
Timaeus, 31 8 strictly requires γῆς. . . καὶ πυρός here; but
according to Timaeus, 45 B and 58 c φῶς is the species of fire
that produces visibility.
© Xenocrates, frag. 56 (Heinze) ; for text and implications
ef. Class. Phil. xlvi (1951), p. 152.
6 Von Arnim; θερμ vac. 7 ἐπείγει -E.; θερμότητος ἐπείγει
-Β ; θερμοτάτην ἐπείγει -Anon., Aldine, R.J. 94.
7 Reiske; ὑπεκφέρουσα τῶν ἀγαθῶν σπευδούσας -F, B;
ὑπεκφέρουσα ψυχὰς τῶν ἀγαθῶν σπευδούσας -Basiliensis.
207
(944
)
Β
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
> \ c / “ \ \ / c ~
οὐρανὸν ἁρμονίας. ἅμα δὲ καὶ κάτωθεν at τῶν
κολαζομένων ψυχαὶ τηνικαῦτα διὰ τῆς σκιᾶς ὀδυρό-
ΛΝ 1.15 , ὔ \ \
μεναι <Kal)’ ἀλαλάζουσαι προσφέρονται. διὸ καὶ
κροτεῖν ἐν ταῖς ἐκλείψεσιν εἰώθασιν οἱ πλεῖστοι
χαλκώματα καὶ ψόφον ποιεῖν καὶ πάταγον ἐπὶ τὰς
2, γῶν Bin S TIA \ \ ͵ ,
ψυχάς," ἐκφοβεῖ δ᾽ αὐτὰς καὶ τὸ καλούμενον πρόσ-
ὠπον ὅταν ἐγγὺς γένωνται BrAooupov® τι καὶ φρι-
“ e / ” > > ~ > > a
κῶδες ὁρώμενον. ἔστι δ᾽ οὐ τοιοῦτον, ἀλλ᾽ ὥσπερ
ἡ παρ᾽ ἡμῖν ἔχει γῆ κόλπους βαθεῖς καὶ μεγάλους,
ἕνα μὲν ἐνταῦθα διὰ στηλῶν Ἡρακλείων ἀναχεό-
6 " \ Cn 2am ” δὲ \ Kid, \
μενον €LOW προς μας ἔξω € TOV ασπίιον και
τοὺς περὶ τὴν ᾿ρυθρὰν θάλατταν, οὕτως" βάθη
ταῦτα τῆς σελήνης ἐστὶ καὶ κοιλώματα. καλοῦσι
δ᾽ αὐτῶν τὸ μὲν μέγιστον ᾿κάτης μυχόν, ὅπου καὶ
/ / € \ \ a - a“ ”
δίκας διδόασιν at ψυχαὶ καὶ λαμβάνουσιν ὧν av ἤδη
γεγενημέναι δαίμονες ἢ πάθωσιν ἢ δράσωσι, τὰ δὲ
1 Basiliensis ; ὀδυρόμεναι, ἀλαλάζουσαι -Εὶ, B.
5. Basiliensis ; φυλάς -E, B.
8 Stephanus (1624) ; βλοσσυρόν -K, B.
4 E 3 οὕτω -
α Plutarch here gives a “ἧ mythical correction’ of the
astronomical calculations in 923 a-B and 932 B supra (on the
text and the Pare Oran of this *‘ correction ᾽ cf. Class. Phil.
xlvi [1951], pp. 152-153) and also a mythical explanation of
the acceleration of which he had spoken in 933 8 supra. With
this account of the effect of the lunar eclipse upon the dis-
embodied souls cf. De Genio Socratis, 591 ὁ and for the har-
mony in the heavens cf. 590 c-p there, De Musica, 1147,
Plato’s Republic, 617 8, Aristotle’s De Caelo, 290 b 12—291
a 28.
» Cf. Aemilius Paulus, 17 (264 8); Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii.
12. 9 (54); Tacitus, Annals, i. 28; Juvenal, vi. 442-443.
The purpose of the custom is here made to fit the myth ; in
208
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 944
of the harmony of heaven.? At the same time too
with wails (and) cries the souls of the chastised then
approach through the shadow from below. That is
why most people have the custom of beating brasses
during eclipses and of raising a din and clatter against
the souls,? which are frightened off also by the so-
called face when they get near it, for it has a grim
and horrible aspect.’ It is no such thing, however ;
but just as our earth contains gulfs that are deep and
extensive,’ one here pouring in towards us through
the Pillars of Heracles and outside the Caspian and
the Red Sea with its gulfs,’ so those features are
depths and hollows of the moon. The largest of them
is called’ “‘ Hecaté’s Recess,’ % where the souls
suffer and exact penalties for whatever they have
endured or committed after having already become
De Genio Socratis, 591 c the moon herself flashes and bellows
to frighten away the impure souls.
¢ Cf. Epigenes in Clement, Stromat. v. 49 (=Kern, Or-
phicorum Fragmenta, frag. 33): Γοργόνιον τὴν σελήνην διὰ τὸ
ἐν αὐτῇ πρόσωπον. Cf. the notion that the face in the moon is
that of the Sibyl (De Pythiae Oraculis, 398 c-p; De Sera
Numinis Vindicta, 566 Ὁ).
4 Cf. Plato, Phaedo, 109 8.
¢ For the Caspian see note f on 941 c supra. By “ Red
Sea’ Plutarch means what we call the Indian Ocean plus
the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea; in Quaest. Conviv. 733 B
he cites Agatharchidas who wrote an extensive work on the
* Red Sea ”’ (cf. Photius, Bibliotheca, cod. 250 [pp. 441 ff.,
Bekker}).
f Cf. Class. Phil. xlvi (1951), p. 151 on 943 ἘΣ
9 For Hecaté and the moon see notes ¢ on 937 F and 6 on
942 p supra; cf. Sophocles, frag. 492 (Nauck?) and Kern,
Orphicorum Fragmenta, frag. 204. For Hecaté’s association
with a cave cf. Homeric Hymn IT, 24-25, and Roscher, Uber
Selene und Verwandtes, pp. 46-48. Plutarch himself
associates μυχός with the “ punishments in Hades” (De
Superstitione, 167 a).
209
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(944) δύο μακρὰ {τὰς II[vAas).* περαιοῦνται yap at
ψυχαὶ δι᾿ αὐτῶν viv μὲν εἰς Ta πρὸς οὐρανὸν τῆς
, A \ , > \ \ A > , 3
σελήνης viv δὲ πάλιν εἰς τὰ πρὸς γῆν. ὀνομάζεται
ὃ \ \ \ \ > \ ~ λ / "HA ,ὔ
ἐ τὰ μὲν πρὸς οὐρανὸν τῆς σελήνης ύσιον
πεδίον' τὰ δ᾽ ἐνταῦθα Φερσεφόνης οἶκος" ἀντίχθονος.
80. Οὐκ ἀεὶ δὲ διατρίβουσιν ἐπ’ αὐτῆς" οἱ δαί-
> \ , 7 A 7 >
μονες ἀλλὰ χρηστηρίων᾽' δεῦρο κατίασιν ἐπιμελη-
D σόμενοι καὶ ταῖς ἀνωτάτω" συμπάρεισι καὶ συνορ-
γιάζουσι τῶν τελετῶν κολασταί τε γίγνονται καὶ
7 3 / \ ~ ” /
φύλακες ἀδικημάτων Kal σωτῆρες ἔν τε πολέμοις
\ \ ὔ 9 / a > vn \
καὶ κατὰ θάλατταν ἐπιλάμπουσιν. ὅτι δ᾽ av μὴ
x \ x , >\\>2 ¢ > 39 ΚΑΘ ΚΑ \
καλῶς περὶ ταῦτα πράξωσιν ἀλλ᾽ ὑπ᾽ ὀργῆς" ἢ πρὸς
+ 7] an“ / Q7 / , ~ \
ἄδικον χάριν ἢ φθόνῳ δίκην τίνουσιν: ὠθοῦνται yap
1 Leonicus ; τὰς δὲ δύο μακράς -K, B.
2 H.C.; no lacuna indicated in Εἰ or B.
3 H.C. ; ὀνομάζεσθαι -Ἐ, B.
4B; παιδίον -E.
5 After von Arnim (who read οἶκον because he kept ὀνομά-
ζεσθαι supra); οὐκ -B, B.
6 Bernardakis (cf. De Tuenda Sanitate, 128 B: διατρίβειν
ἐπ᾽ ἀκτῆς) ; αὐτὴν -E, B; αὐτῇ -Wyttenbach.
7 Basiliensis ; ypnornpiw -K, B.
8 B; avwraras -E.
® -Anon., Aldine, R.J. 94; ὑπὲρ γῆς -E, Β.
“ This has been called inconsistent with the preceding
statement in chapter 28 that only pure or purified souls attain
the moon. Even the pure souls that reach the moon, how-
ever, still have the affective soul as well as mind; and
Plutarch has already said in chapter 28 (942 F) that the life
which they lead on the moon is οὐ μακάριον οὐδὲ θεῖον.
210
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 944
Spirits“; and the two long ones are called ¢“ the
Gates "’),? for through them pass the souls now to
the side of the moon that faces heaven and now back
to the side that faces earth.° The side of the moon
towards heaven is named “ Elysian plain,’’? the
hither side “ House of counter-terrestrial Pherse-
phoné.”’ δ
30. Yet not forever do the Spirits tarry upon the
moon ; they descend hither to take charge of oracles,
they attend and participate in the highest of the
mystic rituals, they act as warders against misdeeds
and chastisers of them, and they flash forth as
saviours manifest in war and on the sea.’ For any
act that they perform in these matters not fairly but
inspired by wrath or for an unjust end or out of
envy they are penalized, for they are cast out upon
> Cf. Class. Phil. xlvi (1951), p. 153.
¢ They pass to the outer side on their way to the “ἡ second
death “* (944 & ff. infra) and to the hither side on their way
to rebirth in bodies (945 c infra). In Amatorius, 766 Β the
place to which souls come to be reborn in the body is called
ot Σελήνης καὶ ᾿Αφροδίτης λειμῶνες.
4 See 942 F supra and note d there.
¢ Plutarch uses ἀντίχθων in the usual Pythagorean sense
in De An. Proc. in Timaeo, 1028 8 (cf. De Placitis, 891 F,
895.c, 895 E= Aétius, ii. 29. 4; ili. 9.25 ili. 11.3). Identi-
fication of the moon with the counter-earth is ascribed to
certain ‘“ Pythagoreans”’ (but cf. Cherniss, Aristotle’s
Criticism of Plato and the Academy, i, p. 562) by Simplicius,
De Caelo, p. 512. 17-20 (ef. Asclepius, Metaph. p. 35. 24-27 ;
Scholia in Aristotelem, 505 a 1 [Brandis]).
1 Cf. De Defectu Oraculorum, 417 s-B and De Genio
Socratis, 591 c; R. M. Jones, The Platonism of Plutarch,
pp. 29, 59, and 55-56. Iamblichus, Vit. Pyth. vi. 30 (p. 18. 4
[Deubner]) says that some people considered Pythagoras to
be such a Spirit from the moon. In the last clause of the
sentence above Plutarch refers to the Dioscuri: cf. Lysander,
14 (439 c); De Defectu Oraculorum, 426 c.
211
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(944) αὖθις ἐπὶ γῆν συνειργνύμενοι' σώμασιν ἀνθρω-
πίνοις. ἐκ δὲ τῶν βελτιόνων ἐκείνων οἵ τε περὶ
τὸν Κρόνον ὄντες ἔφασαν αὑτοὺς" εἶναι καὶ πρό-
> A , ΜΠ ἡ , 3 , ”
τερον ἐν τῇ Κρήτῃ τοὺς ᾿Ιδαίους Δακτύλους ἔν τε
E Φρυγίᾳ τοὺς Κορύβαντας γενέσθαι καὶ τοὺς περὶ
Βοιωτίαν ἐν Οὐδώρᾳ' Τροφωνιάδας καὶ μυρίους
ἄλλους πολλαχόθι τῆς οἰκουμένης ὧ ὧν ἱερὰ καὶ τιμαὶ
καὶ προσηγορίαι διαμένουσιν αἱ δὲ δυνάμεις ἔνευον"
εἰς ἕτερον τόπον τῆς ἀρίστης ἐξαλλαγῆς τυγχανόν-
των. τυγχάνουσι δ᾽ οἱ μὲν πρότερον οἱ δ᾽ ὕστερον,
ὅταν ὁ νοῦς ἀποκριθῇ τῆς ψυχῆς. ἀποκρίνεται δ᾽
ἔρωτι τῆς περὶ τὸν ἥλιον εἰκόνος, δι᾿ ἧς ἐπιλάμπει
τὸ ἐφετὸν καὶ καλὸν καὶ θεῖον καὶ μακάριον οὗ
πᾶσα φύσις, ἄλλη δ᾽ ἄλλως, ὀρέγεται. καὶ γὰρ
αὐτὴν τὴν σελήνην ἔρωτι τοῦ ἡλίου περιπολεῖν δεῖ"
-Anon., Aldine, R.J. 94 ; συρρηγνύμενοι -E, B.
2 Bernardakis (implied in the versions of Xylander and
Kepler) ; αὐτοὺς -E, B.
3 Aldine, Basiliensis ; ἰδίους -E, B.
4 FE, B; οὐδώσᾳ -Aldine ; Λεβαδίᾳ -Basiliensis.
Apelt : ἐνίων -Εἰ, B.
Apelt ; περιπεριπολεῖν ἀεὶ -E : περιπολεῖν ἀεὶ -B.
59 σι
* Cf. 926 c supra (ἡ ψυχήν .. . τῷ σώματι συνεῖρκται). De
An. Proc. in Timaeo, 1023 c (τῷ σώματι συνειργμένη 861]. ἡ
ψυχή) : for the ἡ misbehaviour ᾿" of Spirits cf. De Defectu
Oraculorui: 417 85, 417 Ἐ-Ὲ, De Iside, 361 «a ff., where the
punishment of these Spirits is mentioned in 361 c (ef. De
Defectu Oraculorum, 415 c).
» i.e. not those who for misdeeds are cast out upon earth
again. The attendants of Cronus are the δαίμονες of 942 a
supra. Cf. Porphyry’s account of good and evil spirits in
De Abstinentia, ii. 38-39.
¢ Of. Numa, 15 (70 c-p); [Plutarch], De Fluviis, xiii. 3
(vii, p. 305. 4-12 [Bernardakis]) ; Strabo, x. 3. 22 (ας. 473) ;
Pausanias, ν. 7. 6-10; Diodorus, v. 64. 3-7.
212
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 944
earth again confined in human bodies.* To the
former class of better Spirits ® the attendants of
Cronos said that they belong themselves as did afore-
time the Idaean Dactyls° in Crete and the Corybants ἡ
in Phrygia as well as the Boeotian Trophoniads in
Udora° and thousands of others in many parts of the
world whose rites, honours, and titles persist but
whose powers tended to another place as_ they
achieved the ultimate alteration. They achieve it,
some sooner and some later, once the mind has been
separated from the soul.’ It is separated by love for
the image in the sun through which shines forth
manifest the desirable and fair and divine and blessed
towards which all nature in one way or another
yearns,’ for it must be out of love for the sun that
the moon herself goes her rounds and gets into con-
4 Cf. Schwenn, R.F. xi. 2 (1922), 1441-1446, and Lobeck,
Aglaophamos, pp. 1139-1155.
ὁ This place seems to be mentioned nowhere else : but,
since Plutarch here refers to inactive oracles from which the
Spirits have departed, the change to Λεβαδείᾳ cannot be
right, for in De Defectu Oraculorum, 411 Ἐ-π Lebadeia is said
to be the only remaining active oracle in Boeotia where there
are many others now silent or even deserted.
7 Cf. 943 B supra.
9 Plato’s Republic, 507-509 is Plutarch’s main inspiration.
It is a passage which he echoes or cites many times (¢.g. De
Tside, 372 a, De E, 393 v, De Defectu Oraculorum, 413 c and
433 Ὁ-π, Ad Principem Inerud. 780 F and 781 ¥F, Plat. Quaest.
1006 r—1007 a); and his references to it show that “ the
image in the sun,” τῆς περὶ τὸν ἥλιον εἰκόνος, here means the
visible likeness of the good which the sun manifests and not,
as Kepler suggests, the reflection of the sun seen in the moon
as inamirror. The last part of the sentence with the notion
that all nature strives towards the good and the term ἐφετόν
itself are drawn from Aristotle (Physics, 192 a 16-19 and the
whole of Physics A, 9 and Metaphysics A, 7); ef. De Iside,
372 e-F and Amatorius, 770 B.
213
(944)
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
καὶ συγγίγνεσθαι ὀρεγομένην ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ τὸ γονι-
μώτατον "(δέχεσθαι)" λείπεται δ᾽ ἡ τῆς ψυχῆς
F φύσις ἐπὶ τῆς σελήνης" οἷον ἴχνη τινὰ βίου καὶ
945
ὀνείρατα διαφυλάττουσα, καὶ περὶ ταύτης ὀρθῶς
ἡγοῦ λελέχθαι τὸ
\ > 5 νυν » > / Λ
ψυχὴ δ᾽ ἠύτ᾽ ὄνειρος ἀποπταμένη πεπότηται.
οὐδὲ γὰρ εὐθὺς οὐδὲ τοῦ σώματος ἀπαλλαγεῖσα
τοῦτο πέπονθεν ἀλλ᾽ ὕστερον ὅταν ἔρημος καὶ μόνη
τοῦ νοῦ ἀπαλλαττομένη γένηται. καὶ “Opnpos
ὧν εἶπε πάντων μάλιστα δὴ κατὰ θεὸν εἰπεῖν ἔοικε
περὶ τῶν καθ᾽ “Αιδουΐ
τὸν δὲ μετ᾽ εἰσενόησα βίην ᾿Ηρακληείην,'
εἴδωλον: αὐτὸς δὲ μετ᾽ ἀθανάτοισι θεοῖσιν.
> 7 A 7 hee > ee ἸᾺ 9O\
αὐτός TE yap ἕκαστος ἡμῶν οὐ θυμός" ἐστιν οὐδὲ
/ 9.9 > / / ᾽ \ / 5.»
φόβος οὐδ᾽ ἐπιθυμία καθάπερ οὐδὲ σάρκες οὐδ
¢ , 2. \> 76 , \ ἘΞ “
ὑνρότητες ἀλλ᾽ ὧ" διανοούμεθα καὶ φρονοῦμεν, 7
+ Wyttenbach (cf. 945 c infra: ἡ σελήνη. . . δεχομένη
. .. and 929 ὁ supra: δέχεται τὸν ἥλιον) ; no lacuna -E, B.
2 H.C. (cf. 944 B-c supra); τὴν σελήνην -E, Β ; τῇ σελήνῃ
-Wyttenbach.
3 Kaltwasser and Wyttenbach after Amyot’s version ;
καθόλου -Ἐὶ, B.
4 mss. of Homer and editors ; ἡρακλείην -E, B.
5 -Anon., Aldine, R.J. 945; ev@upds -E, B, Basiliensis.
6 Leonicus ; ὃ -Εἰ, B.
« The specific nature of this fertilization is described in
945 c infra; the conception of the sun as an image of god
is connected with a reference to its fructifying force in De FP,
393 Ὁ. For sexual language used of the moon and sun see
the references in note a on 929 ὁ supra.
ὃ Odyssey, xi. 222.
© Odyssey, xi. 601-602. Similar interpretations of this
914.
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 944-945
junction with him in her yearning (to receive) from
him what is most fructifying.* The substance of the
soul is left upon the moon and retains certain vestiges
and dreams of life as it were ; it is this that you must
properly take to be the subject of the statement
Soul like a dream has taken wing and sped,”
for it is not straightway nor once it has been released
from the body that it reaches this state but later
when, divorced from the mind, it is deserted and
alone. Above all else that Homer said his words
concerning those in Hades appear to have been
divinely inspired
Thereafter marked I mighty Heracles—
His shade; but he is with the deathless gods. . . .°
In fact the self of each of us is not anger or fear or
desire just as it is not bits of flesh or fluids either but
is that with which we reason and understand ?; and
passage are common among the Neo-Pythagoreans and
Neo-Platonists: ef. especially [Plutarch], De Vita et Poesi
Homeri, chap. 123; Plotinus, Enn.i. 1.12; iv. 3.27 and 32;
vi. 4. 16; Proclus, Jn Rem Publicam, i, Ὁ. 120. 22 ff. and p.
172. 9 ff. (Kroll); Cumont, Rev. de Philologie, xliv (1920),
pp. 237-240, who contends that the doctrine itself arose in
Alexandria where Aristarchus became acquainted with it.
4 Cf. De Sera Numinis Vindicta, 564 c and Adv. Coloten,
1119 a. For the νοῦς as the true self cf. Aristotle, Eth. Nic.
1166 a 16-17 and 22-23, 1168 b 35, 1169 a 2, 1178 a 2-7.
Plato usually speaks of the ψυχή without further qualification
as the true self (e.g. Laws, 959 a, Phaedo, 115 c [ef. the
Pseudo-Platonic Alcibiades I, 130 a-c and Awiochus, 365 £}),
although such passages as Republic, 430 r—431 a, 588 c—
589 B, 611 c-E can be taken to imply that he meant the
rational soul only (cf. Plotinus’s use of the last passage in Enn.
i. 1. 12). Cf. also Cicero, De Republica, vi. 26 (‘‘ mens
cuiusque is est quisque ᾽) and Marcus Aurelius, ii. 2 with
Farquharson’s note ad loc.
215
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(945) = ψυχὴ τυπουμένη μὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ νοῦ τυποῦσα δὲ
τὸ σῶμα καὶ περιπτύσσουσα' πανταχόθεν ἐκμάτ-
τεται τὸ εἶδος ὥστε κἂν πολὺν χρόνον χωρὶς ἑκα-
~ /
τέρου γένηται" διατηροῦσα τὴν ὁμοιότητα καὶ TOV
, 3 ” > a > 7 7, Der Ae
τύπον" εἴδωλον ὀρθῶς ὀνομάζεται. τούτων δ᾽ ἡ
σελήνη, καθάπερ εἴρηται, στοιχεῖόν ἐστιν: ἀναλύον-
ται γὰρ εἰς ταύτην ὥσπερ εἰς τὴν γῆν τὰ σώματα
\
τῶν νεκρῶν, ταχὺ μὲν αἱ σώφρονες μετὰ σχολῆς
ἀπράγμονα καὶ φιλόσοφον στέρξασαι βίον (ἀφεθεῖ-
σαι γὰρ ὑπὸ τοῦ νοῦ καὶ πρὸς οὐδὲν ἔτι χρώμεναι
τοῖς πάθεσιν ἀπομαραίνονται). τῶν δὲ φιλοτίμων
nw an 4
B καὶ πρακτικῶν ἐρωτικῶν τε περὶ σώματα Kat θυ-
a ἔν A ~ /
μοειδῶν at μὲν οἷον ἐν ὕπνῳ Tats τοῦ βίου μνημο-
/ / ς
σύναις ὀνείρασι χρώμεναι διαφέρονται καθάπερ ἡ
τοῦ ᾿Ενδυμίωνος. ἐπεὶ δ᾽ αὐτὰς τὸ ἄστατον καὶ
Vrs Wer Wee ΔῈ αν σι , \
τὸ ἐμπαθὲς" ἐξίστησι καὶ ἀφέλκει τῆς σελήνης πρὸς
1 EF; περιπτύσσου -B.
2B; .. . χωρὶς ἑκατέρου γένηται πολὺν χρόνον -Ἐ).
-Anon., Aldine, R.J. 94 ; τόπον -E, B.
4 Kepler, Wyttenbach after Amyot’s version; ἀπαθὲς -Εἰ, B.
@ Of. De Sera Numinis Vindicta, 564 a, where the souls
are described as τύπον ἐχούσας ἀνθρωποειδῆ. and [Plutarch],
De Vita et Poesi Homeri, chap. 123 (εἴδωλον ὅπερ ἦν ἀπο-
πεπλασμένον [2] τοῦ σώματος): Porphyry in Stobaeus, 1.
xlix. 55 (=i, p. 429. 16-22 [Wachsmuth]). The notion that
the soul after death retains the pare of the body was
common (cf. Lucian, Vera Hist. ii. 12), although Alexander
Polyhistor in Diogenes Laertius, viii. 31 gave it as Pytha-
gorean doctrine (but cf. Antisthenes, frag. 33 [Mullach]).
With the special point of the present passage that the body
is given its form by the imprint of the soul, which has itself
been moulded by the mind, cf. Proclus, τ" Rem Publicam,
ii, pp. 327. 21-328. 15 (Kroll); Plotinus, iv. 3. 9. 20-23 and
10. 35-42; Macrobius, Somn. Scip. 1. xiv. 0B: Sextus, P.H.
i. 85. In Laws, 959 a-p Plato calls the body “ an attendant
semblance of the self’’ and uses the word εἴδωλα of corpses.
216
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 945
the soul receives the impression of its shape through
being moulded by the mind and moulding in turn and
enfolding the body on all sides, so that, even if it be
separated from either one for a long time, since it
preserves the likeness and the imprint it is correctly
called an image.” Of these, as has been said,’ the
moon is the element, for they are resolved into it °
as the bodies of the dead are resolved into earth.
This happens quickly to the temperate souls who
had been fond of a leisurely, unmeddlesome, and
philosophical life, for abandoned by the mind and
no longer exercising the passions for anything they
wither quietly away. Of the ambitious and the
active, the irascible and those who are enamoured
of the body, however, some pass their time ὦ as it
were in sleep with the memories of their lives for
dreams as did the soul of Endymion’ ; but, when
they are excited by restlessness and emotion and
drawn away from the moon to another birth, she
The notion that soul encompasses body instead of being
contained by it comes ultimately from Plato, Timaeus, 34 B.
> 2,9. 943 A supra.
¢ For later Neo-Platonic opinions concerning the dis-
solution of the lower soul see Proclus, Jn Timaeum, iii, Ὁ. 234.
9 ff. (Diehl) and cf. Plotinus, Enn. iv. 7. 14 (. . . ἀφειμένον
δὲ τὸ χεῖρον οὐδὲ αὐτὸ ἀπολεῖσθαι ἕως av 7 ὅθεν ἔχει τὴν ἀρχήν).
4 The expression correlative to ai μέν is ἐπεὶ δ᾽ αὐτάς. an
the contrast between ἐπεὶ δ᾽ αὐτὰς... ἐξίστησι and the
present clause requires that διαφέρονται mean “ pass their
time ’’ rather than ὁ toss about,” “* be distraught,” the mean-
ing that it has in De Genio Socratis, 591 Ὁ.
¢ There seems to be no other reference to Endymion’s
dreams ; but Plutarch may here have been influenced by
the story that Endymion’s endless sleep was a punishment
for his passion for Hera (cf. Scholia in Apollonium Rhodium
Vetera, iv. 57-58 [p. 265, Wendel]) and Scholia in Theocritum
Vetera, iii. 49-51 Ὁ [p. 1383, Wendel]).
Ai BF
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(945) ἄλλην γένεσιν, οὐκ ἐᾷ (νεύειν ἐπὶ γῆν)" ἀλλ᾽ ava-
a \ , 2 \ \ Ων 29>
καλεῖται καὶ καταθέλγει." μικρὸν yap οὐδὲν οὐδ
ἥσυχον οὐδ᾽ ὁμολογούμενον ἔργον ἐστὶν ὅταν ἄνευ
νοῦ τῷ παθητικῷ σώματος ἐπιλάβωνται. Τιτυοὶ
\ \ ~ “ \ \ \
de καὶ Tuddves 6 te Δελφοὺς κατασχὼν καὶ συν-
ταράξας τὸ χρηστήριον ὕβρει καὶ βίᾳ Πύθων" ἐξ
ἐκείνων ἄρα τῶν ψυχῶν ἦσαν, ἐρήμων λόγου" καὶ
τύφῳ πλανηθέντι τῷ παθητικῷ χρησαμένων, χρόνῳ
A > / / 5 > «ς \ 4B ¢ / \
δὲ κἀκείνας κατεδέξατο" εἰς αὑτὴν" ἡ σελήνη Kal
C κατεκόσμησεν. εἶτα τὸν νοῦν αὖθις ἐπισπείραντος
τοῦ ἡλίου τῷ ζωτικῷ δεχομένη νέας ποιεῖ ψυχάς,
ἡ δὲ γῆ τρίτον σῶμα παρέσχεν. οὐδὲν γὰρ αὕτη
δίδωσι μετὰ θάνατον ὅσα λαμβάνει πρὸς γένεσιν
(ἀποδιδοῦσα, ἥλιος δὲ λαμβάνει μὲν οὐδὲν ἀπο-
1 H.C. (cf. De Sera Numinis Vindicta, 566 a; Frag V1.
2[VII, p. 22. 9, Bernardakis]) ; οὐκ ἐᾷ vac. 12-K, 9-B.
2 EK, B*; ἀναθέλγει -B!.
3 Kaltwasser (cf. Introduction, note 6, p. 12 supra); Tudayv
-K, B.
4 Kaltwasser (implied by Kepler’s version) ; ἔρημοι λόγῳ
ΞΕ B. 5 Leonicus ; κατέδειξεν -E,
6 B?; αὐτὴν, -E, Β΄.
7 H.C.; no lacuna indicated in E or B; δίδωσιν {τοῖς
ἄλλοις δυσί, ἀλλ᾽ ἀποδίδωσι) μετὰ θάνατον κτλ. -Wyttenbach.
« Of. De Sera Numinis Vindicta, 565 v-£, 566 a; Plato,
Phaedo, 81 B-£, 108 a-B.
> Cf. Odyssey, xi. 576-581; Pindar, Pythian, iv. 90;
Eustathius, Comment. ad Odysseam, 1581. 54 ff.
¢ Of. especially De Iside, chaps. 27 and 30.
4 [lv@wv and 'Τιτυός are named together by Plutarch in
Pelopidas, 16 (286 c); cf. Strabo, ix. 3. 12 (ec. 422-423) and
Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, i. 4. 1. 3-5 (22-23).
¢ For the play on Tudayv-ridos cf. Plato, Phaedrus, 230 a,
218
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 945
forbids them (to sink towards earth) * and keeps
conjuring them back and binding them with charms,
for it is no slight, quiet, or harmonious business when
with the affective faculty apart from reason they seize
upon a body. Creatures like Tityus ὃ and Typho °
and the Python? that with insolence and violence
occupied Delphi and confounded the oracle belonged
to this class of souls, void of reason and subject to
the affective element gone astray through delusion ° ;
but even these in time the moon took back to herself
and reduced to order. ‘Then when the sun with his
vital force has again sowed mind in her she receives
it and produces new souls, and earth in the third place
furnishes body.’ In fact, the earth gives nothing (in
giving back) after death all that she takes for genera-
tion, and the sun takes nothing but takes back the
which is quoted by Plutarch in Adv. Coloten, 1119 B; and
of. also Marcus Aurelius, ii. 17 (. . . τὰ δὲ τῆς ψυχῆς ὄνειρος
καὶ τῦφος . .
f Cf. 943 4 ‘and 944 E-F supra. In the latter passage dpeyo-
μένην ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ τὸ γονιμώτατον (δέχεσθαι) (cf. De H, 393 D
[τὸ περὶ αὐτὴν γόνιμον] and Aqua an Ignis, 958 Ἐ [τοῦ πυρὸς
. οἷον τὸ ζωτικὸν ἐνεργαζομένου]) shows that τῷ ζωτικῷ
here is to be construed with the preceding words rather than
with those that follow (so Reinhardt, Kosmos und Sympathie,
pp. 320, 329). On Reinhardt’s treatment of this passage in
general and his attempt to derive it from Posidonius (op. cit.
pp. 329 ff.) cf. R. M. Jones, Class. Phil. xxvii (1932), pp.
118-120, 129-131, 134-135; η.. Timaeus, 41-42 where the
demiurge is said to have sowed (ἔσπειρεν) in the earth, the
moon, and the other planets the souls that he had fashioned
himself, 1.6. the minds (cf. 41 £, 42 9). and the interpretation
of Timaeus Locrus, 99 p-£, according to which. this means
that the souls are brought to earth from the various planets
(cf. also ἢ. M. Jones, The Platonism of Plutarch, pp. 49-51,
and especially Porphyry in Proclus, In Timaeum, i, Ὁ. 147.
6-13 [n.b. . . . εἰς τὸ τῆς σελήνης σῶμα σπείρεσθαί φησιν .. «|
and p. 165. 16-23 [Diehl]).
219
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(945) λαμβάνει δὲ τὸν νοῦν διδούς, σελήνη δὲ καὶ Aap-
βάνει καὶ δίδωσι καὶ συντίθησι καὶ διαιρεῖ [καὶ]
κατ᾽ ἄλλην καὶ ἄλλην δύναμιν, ὧν Εἰλείθυια" μὲν ἣ
/ ” x, a - A \ ~
συντίθησιν "Άρτεμις δ᾽ ἣ διαιρεῖ καλεῖται. Kal τριῶν
Μοιρῶν ἡ μὲν "Άτροπος περὶ τὸν ἥλιον ἱδρυμένη
τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐνδίδωσι τῆς γενέσεως, ἡ δὲ Κλωθὼ περὶ
τὴν σελήνην φερομένη συνδεῖ καὶ μίγνυσιν, ἐσχάτη
δὲ συνεφάπτεται περὶ γῆν ἡ Λάχεσις ἡ πλεῖστον
τύχης μέτεστι. τὸ γὰρ ἄψυχον ἄκυρον αὐτὸ καὶ
\ ¢ 3 »” ¢ \ ~ 5 \ \ 3
παθητὸν ὑπ᾽ ἄλλων, ὁ δὲ νοῦς ἀπαθὴς καὶ αὐτο-
D κράτωρ, μικτὸν δὲ καὶ μέσον ἡ ψυχὴ καθάπερ ἡ
σελήνη τῶν ἄνω καὶ κάτω σύμμιγμα καὶ μετα-
κέρασμα" ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ γέγονε, τοῦτον ἄρα πρὸς
“ ” \ / a ” ~ \ /
ἥλιον ἔχουσα τὸν λόγον ὃν ἔχει γῆ πρὸς σελή-
νὴν.᾿
καὶ -E, B; omitted by Basiliensis.
E ; εἰλήθυια -B.
Wyttenbach after the versions of Xylander and Amyot ;
μέγα κέρας -E, B.
on μ
α Of. Quaest. Conviv. 658 F: ὅθεν οἶμαι καὶ τὴν "Αρτεμιν
Λοχείαν καὶ Εἰλείθυιαν, οὐκ οὖσαν ἑτέραν ἢ τὴν σελήνην, ὠνομά -
σθαι. Here, however, Artemis and Ilithyia are supposed to
be names for two contrary faculties of the moon. In 938 F
supra the identification of the moon with Artemis because
she is ‘‘ sterile but is helpful and beneficial to other females ”’
implies that Artemis /s Ilithyia, as she is in Plato’s Theaetetus,
149 5 (ef. Cornutus, p. 73, 7-18 [Lang]). Artemis was
associated with easy, painless death, however (cf. Odyssey,
xi. 172-173; xviii. 202); and Plutarch probably connects
this notion with the gentleness of the death on the moon (ef.
943 5 supra). L.A. Post has suggested that he may also have
220
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 945
mind that he gives, whereas the moon both takes and
gives and joins together and divides asunder in virtue
of her different powers, of which the one that joins
together is called Ilithyia and that which divides
asunder Artemis.? Of the three Fates too Atropos
enthroned in the sun initiates generation, Clotho in
motion on the moon mingles and binds together, and
finally upon the earth Lachesis too puts her hand to
the task, she who has the largest share in chance.?
For the inanimate is itself powerless and susceptible
to alien agents, and the mind is impassible and sove-
reign ; but the soul is a mixed and intermediate
thing, even as the moon has been created by god a
compound and blend of the things above and below
and therefore stands to the sun in the relation of
earth to moon.’
intended ἀρταμεῖν as an etymology of “Aprews. Llithyia and
Artemis are sometimes sisters (ef. Diodorus Siculus, v. 72. 5),
but then they have the same function.
® In De Genio Socratis, 591 8 Atropos is situated in the
invisible, Clotho in the sun, and Lachesis in the moon. ‘The
order there is the same as it is here and different from that
in the De Fato (568 πὶ. where in interpretation of Republic,
617 c Clotho is highest, Lachesis lowest, and Atropos inter-
mediate. Both orders differ from that of Xenocrates (frag. 5
[Heinze]), which was Atropos (intelligible and supra-
celestial), Lachesis (opinable and celestial), Clotho (sensible
and sublunar). The order of De Facie and De Genio Socratis
is that of Plato’s Laws, 960 c, where Lachesis, Clotho, and
Atropos are named in ascending order as the epithet of
Atropos, Τρίτη σώτειρα. shows; here in the De Facie it is the
passage of the Republic, however, that Plutarch has in mind,
for his συνεφάπτεται is an echo of Plato’s ἐφαπτομένην and
ἐφάπτεσθαι there. Cf. H. Dorrie, Hermes, Ixxxii (1954), pp.
331-342 (especially pp. 337-339), who discusses the relation of
these passages to the pre-history of the Neoplatonic doctrine
of hypostases and argues that in writing them Plutarch was
inspired by Xenocrates.
221
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
}}) ‘
(945) Ταῦτ᾽ ᾿᾿ εἶπεν ὁ Σύλλας “ ἐγὼ μὲν ἤκουσα τοῦ
/ / > / > € ~ /
ξένου διεξιόντος ἐκείνῳ δ᾽ of τοῦ Κρόνου κατευ-
\ \ / ε ” , / >? /
vaorat καὶ θεράποντες, ὡς ἔλεγεν αὐτός, ἐξήγ-
γειλαν. ὑμῖν δ᾽, ὦ Λαμπρία, χρῆσθαι τῷ λόγῳ
πάρεστιν 7) βούλεσθε.
222
THE FACE ON THE MOON, 945
This,” said Sulla, “1 heard the stranger relate ;
and he had the account, as he said himself, from the
chamberlains and servitors of Cronus. You and your
companions, Lamprias, may make what you will of
the tale.”’ 4
« Cf. De Sera Numinis Vindicta, 561 8, De Genio Socratis,
589 Fr; Plato’s Phaedo, 114 p, Meno, 86 8, Gorgias, 527 a,
Phaedrus, 246 a.
223
{»}5] aia ΘΝ a κὸν ς .
τῶν al
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ON, (LEE, PREN CIR EE
Or ΘΟ ΙΡ
(DE PRIMO FRIGIDO)
VOL. ΧΙ 1
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Tain ab χουν oe VOR eae
᾿ - ἐὰν ΤΡ Ν «4 f a
J os
TIVIOU“IAT AHT We
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τον i
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a el
INTRODUCTION
Tuis little essay, or open letter to Favorinus, is not
written in a controversial spirit, though a few sharp
comments are made from time to time. Having
established (chapters 5-7) that an element of Cold
really exists, Plutarch proceeds to consider what that
element may be. Since fire is obviously excluded,
can it be air, as the Stoics believe (8-12), or water,
as Empedocles, and an early Peripatetic, Strato, hold
(13-16) ? Or, indeed, may it be earth itself (17-22) ἢ
This latter opinion is apparently put forward by
Plutarch as an original contribution to theoretical
physics and there is no reason to believe it is not his.
The essay closes, however, with a recommendation
to scepticism,” so that our author may not have re-
garded his attempted proof as cogent, as indeed it is
not.
The work was probably written in Delphi (cf. 953
c-p and £) after a.p. 107 (949 E, note) and addressed
to the young philosopher Favorinus,? the great lover
of Aristotle (Mor. 734 F), who is also a speaker in
Symposiacs, viii. 10. Though Favorinus was in all
« See J. Schriter, Plutarchs Stellung zur Skepsis (Greifs-
wald, 1911), pp. 23 and 40. He compares other reeommenda-
tions to the suspension of judgement, such as Mor. 480 r—
431 a. Cf. also Hartman, De Plutarcho, pp. 253 f.
> For the details see Ziegler’s article on Plutarch in Pauly-
Wissowa, RE, col. 675.
227
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
likelihood some twenty years younger than Plutarch,
the two men dedicated several works to each other.*
In the present essay it is, perhaps, odd that of the
three quotations from Aristotle one is a rebuke (950
B), one is apparently a partial miscitation (948 a, note),
while the third is of no importance. No doubt it is in
virtue of Favorinus’ youth that his idol is treated so
lightly, and that the sceptical note is sounded so
firmly at the end. The young Peripatetic was also
quoted by Plutarch (for partial refutation) in Mor.
271 c; but Plutarch (if Tarn ἢ and others are right)
became much more favourable to Peripatetics later
in his life (e.g. in the Life of Alexander).
Bernardakis’s text of this work is one of his most
unsatisfactory ; even for an editio minor it is careless
and confused to a deplorable extent. Nor are the
means of correcting and supplementing it at hand,
the fifth Teubner volume being still, one fears, in
the remote future. Then, too, the only photographs
available were those of E and B, which are not likely
to add much to our knowledge.* Consequently the
only course that seemed prudent was to return to
α Lamprias cat. 132: Plutarch’s Letter to Favorinus on
Friendship (or The Use of Friends); Galen, de Opt. Doctr.
(i. 41 K): Favorinus’s Plutarch, or On the Academic Dis-
position. See also Suidas, s.v. Φαβωρῖνος.
> Alexander the Great, ii. 298 f.
© See the recent brisk controversy as to their relationship :
Manton, Class. Quart. xliii (1949), pp. 97-104; Hubert,
Rhein. Mus. xciii (1950), pp. 330-336 ; Einarson and De Lacy,
Class. Phil. xlvi (1951), p. 110, n. 56; Flaceliere, ed. Plutarch,
Amatorius, pp. 35 ff. The evidence in this essay, for what it
may be worth, seems to make it unlikely that B was here
copied from either E or an immediate descendant; they both
appear to go back to a common ancestor, perhaps through
several intermediaries: see, é.g.,951 a, B,D, 953 Ε.- See now
Cherniss supra, pp. 27, note a; 31, 32.
228
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD
Wyttenbach wherever there was a reasonable doubt.
Bernardakis has been tacitly corrected (or altered,
whichever it may be) in a good many places. This
has been done consistently when both E and B
agree with Wyttenbach’s and Hutten’s silence ; Ber-
nardakis’s silence, unfortunately, appears to have no
significance.
The work is no. 90 in the catalogue of Lamprias.
229
(945) ΠΡ ΘΥΤΕΣ ree ee
F 1. “Eove tts ἄρα τοῦ ψυχροῦ δύναμις, ὦ Φαβω-
ρῖνε, πρώτη καὶ οὐσία, καθάπερ τοῦ θερμοῦ τὸ
πῦρ, ἧς παρουσίᾳ τινὶ καὶ μετοχῇ γίνεται τῶν
ἄλλων € ἕκαστον ψυχρόν" ἣ μᾶλλον ἡ 7) ψυχρότης στέ-
ρησίς ἐστι θερμότητος, ὥσπερ τοῦ φωτὸς τὸ σκότος
λέγουσι καὶ Tis κινήσεως τὴν στάσιν; ἐπεὶ καὶ
τὸ ψυχρὸν ἔοικε στάσιμον εἶναι, κινητικὸν δὲ τὸ
946 θερμόν: at τε τῶν θερμῶν καταψύξεις οὐδεμιᾶς
παρουσίᾳ γίνονται δυνάμεως, ἀλλ᾽ ἐκστάσει θερμό-
τητος: ἅμα γὰρ ἀπιοῦσ᾽ ὅλη" φαίνεται καὶ ψύχεται
τὸ ὑπολειπόμενον: ὁ γὰρ ἀτμός, ὃν τὰ ζέοντα τῶν
ὑδάτων μεθίησιν, ἀπιόντι τῷ θερμῷ συνεκπίπτει"
διὸ καὶ μειοῖ τὸ πλῆθος ἡ 7) περίψυξις ἐ ἐκκρίνουσα τὸ
edge ἑτέρου μηδενὸς ἐ ἐπεισιόντος.
Ἢ πρῶτον μὲν ἂν τις ὑπίδοιτο τοῦ λόγου τού-
του τὸ πολλὰς τῶν ἐμφανῶν ἀναιρεῖν δυνάμεων, ὡς
οὐ ποιότητας οὐδ᾽ ἕξεις. ἕξεων. δὲ καὶ ποιοτήτων
στερήσεις οὔσας, βαρύτητα μὲν κουφότητος καὶ
σκληρότητα μαλακότητος, τὸ μέλαν δὲ τοῦ λευκοῦ
Β καὶ τὸ πικρὸν τοῦ γλυκέος, καὶ ὧν ἕκαστον ἑκάστῳ
πέφυκεν ἀντικεῖσθαι κατὰ δύναμιν, οὐχ ὡς ἕξει
στέρησις" ἔπειθ᾽ ὅτι πᾶσα στέρησις ἀργόν ἐστι καὶ
1 πρώτως Meziriacus : πρώτου.
τ ὅλη Meziriacus : πολλὴ: Wyttenbach writes ἅμα γὰρ
ἀπιούσῃ πολλῇ.
3 οὔσας added by Hartman,
230
ON “THE PRINCIPLE OF COED
1. Is there, then, Favorinus,” an active principle or
substance of Cold (as fire is of Heat) through the
presence of which and through participation in which
everything else becomes cold ? Or is coldness rather
a negation of warmth, as they say darkness is of light
and rest of motion ? Cold, indeed, seems to have the
quality of being stationary, as heat has that of motion;
while the cooling off of hot things is not caused by the
presence of any force,’ but merely by the displace-
ment of heat, for it can be seen to depart completely
at the same time as the remainder cools off. The
steam, for example, which boiling water emits, is
expelled in company with the departing heat ; that
is why the amount becomes less by cooling off; for
this removes the heat and nothing else takes its place.
2. First of all, must we not be wary of one point in
this argument ? It eliminates many obvious forces
by considering them not to be qualities or properties,
but merely the negation of qualities or properties,
weight being the negation of lightness and hardness
that of softness, black that of white, and bitter that
of sweet, and so in any other case where there is a
natural opposition of forces rather than a relation
of positive and negative. Another point is that all
negation is inert and unproductive: blindness, for
2 See the introduction to this essay.
> As, for instance, the force of fire.
to
O9
μι
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(946) ἄπρακτον, ὡς τυφλότης καὶ κωφότης καὶ σιωπὴ
καὶ θάνατος; ἐκστάσεις γάρ εἰσιν εἰδῶν καὶ ἀν-
αιρέσεις οὐσιῶν, οὐ φύσεις τινὲς οὐδ᾽ οὐσίαι Kal?
ἑαυτάς: ἡ δὲ ψυχρότης οὐκ ἐλάττονα τῆς θερμότητος
ἐγγινομένη τοῖς σώμασι πάθη καὶ μεταβολὰς ἐν-
εργάζεσθαι πέφυκε: καὶ γὰρ πήγνυται πολλὰ τῷ
ψυχρῷ καὶ συγκρίνεται καὶ πυκνοῦται: καὶ τὸ στά-
Ο σιμον αὐτῷ καὶ δυσκίνητον οὐκ ἀργόν ἐστιν, ἀλλ᾽
>? \ \ / « \ tw 4 \ \
ἐμβριθὲς Kat βέβαιον, ὑπὸ ῥώμης συνερειστικὸν καὶ
συνεκτικὸν ἐχούσης τόνον. ὅθεν ἡ μὲν στέρησις
ἔκλειψις γίνεται καὶ ὑποχώρησις τῆς ἀντικειμένης
δυνά j ὲ πολλὰ πολλῆς αὐτοῖς θερμό
υνάμεως, ψύχεται δὲ πολλὰ πολλῆς αὐτοῖς θερμό-
Uj ~
τητος ἐνυπαρχούσης᾽ ἔνια δὲ καὶ μᾶλλον ἡ ψυ-
χρότης, ἂν λάβῃ θερμότερα, πήγνυσι καὶ συνάγει,
καθάπερ τὸν βαπτόμενον σίδηρον" οἱ δὲ Στωικοὶ καὶ
τὸ πνεῦμα λέγουσιν ἐν τοῖς σώμασι τῶν βρεφῶν τῇ
, A \ , > , 1
περιψύξει στομοῦσθαι καὶ μεταβάλλον ἐκ φύσεως
/ / 3 \ ~ \ > /
γίνεσθαι ψυχήν: ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν ἀμφισβητήσιμον,
ἑτέρων δὲ πολλῶν τὴν ψυχρότητα φαινομένην δη-
μιουργὸν οὐκ ἄξιον ἡγεῖσθαι στέρησιν.
” / \ > / / \ ~
ἢ 3. Ἔτι στέρησις μὲν οὐδεμία δέχεται τὸ μᾶλλον
καὶ τὸ ἧττον, οὐδ᾽ ἂν εἴποι τις ἕτερον ἑτέρου μᾶλ-
λον πεπηρῶσθαι τῶν μὴ βλεπόντων ἢ σιωπᾶν τῶν
μὴ φθεγγομένων ἢ τεθνάναι τῶν μὴ ζώντων. ἐν δὲ
τοῖς ψυχροῖς πολὺ τὸ μᾶλλον καὶ τὸ ἧττον ἔνεστι
καὶ τὸ λίαν καὶ τὸ μὴ λίαν καὶ ὅλως ἐπιτάσεις καὶ
1 φύσεως] ψύξεως van Herwerden from Mor. 1052 F.
« As steam is condensed and oil becomes viscous.
> The verb is ambiguous: ‘* become cold ” or “ dry ”
perhaps “᾿ congealed.”’
232
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 946
example, and deafness, silence or death. Here you
have the defection of a definite form and the annihila-
tion of a reality, not something that is in itself a part
of nature or reality. It is the nature of coldness,
however, to produce affects and alterations in bodies
that it enters no less than those caused by heat.
Many objects can be frozen solid, or become con-
densed or made viscous, by cold.* Moreover, the
property whereby coldness promotes rest and resists
motion is not inert, but acts by pressure and resis-
tance, being constrictive and preservative because of
its strength. This explains how, though negation is a
disappearance and departure of the contrary force,
many things may yet become ὃ cold while all the time
containing within themselves considerable warmth.
There are even some objects which cold solidifies and
consolidates the more readily the hotter they are:
steel, for example, plungedin water. The Stoics ° also
affirm that in the bodies of infant children the breath is
tempered by cooling and, from being a physical sub-
stance, becomes a soul. This, however, is debatable ;
yet since there are many other effects which may be
seen to be produced through the agency of cold, we
are not justified in regarding it as a negation.
3. Besides, a negation does not permit degrees of
less or more. Surely nobody will affirm that one blind
man is blinder than another, or one dumb man more
silent than another, or one corpse deader than its
fellow ; but among cold things there is a wide range
of deviation from much to little, from very cold to not
very, and, generally speaking, in degrees of intensity
¢ Cf. Mor. 1052 ἘΠ: von Arnim, S.V.F. ii, pp. 134, 222 ;
and see Hartman’s explanation, De Plutarcho, p. 566. Von
Arnim thinks that the next five chapters also contain Stoic
material.
233
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
σ A ~
(946) ἀνέσεις, ὥσπερ ἐν τοῖς θερμοῖς, διὰ τὸ τὴν ὕλην
lon ~ ’ ~
πῇ μὲν σφόδρα πῇ δ᾽ ἠρέμα πάσχουσαν ὑπὸ τῶν
ἐναντίων δυνάμεων ἕτερα μᾶλλον ἑτέρων καὶ θερ-
μότερα καὶ ψυχρότερα παρέχειν ἐξ ἑαυτῆς. καὶ
, A
yap ἕξεως μὲν οὐκ ἔστι μῖξις πρὸς στέρησιν οὐδ᾽
ΝΥ ΄
E ἀναδέχεται δύναμις οὐδεμία τὴν ἀντικειμένην αὐτῇ
στέρησιν ἐπιοῦσαν" οὐδὲ ποιεῖ κοινωνὸν ἀλλ᾽ ἀντεξ-
ίσταται: θερμὰ δ᾽ ἐστὶν ἄχρι οὗ κεραννύμενα ψυχροῖς
ὑπομένει, καθάπερ μέλανα λευκοῖς καὶ βαρέσιν ὀξέα
\ / » / ,ὔ ~ ͵ὔ
καὶ γλυκέσιν αὐστηρά, παρέχοντα τῇ κοινωνίᾳ
ταύτῃ καὶ ἁρμονίᾳ χρωμάτων τε καὶ φθόγγων καὶ
7 \ Μ - \ \
φαρμάκων καὶ ὄψων προσφιλεῖς πολλὰς Kat φιλ-
ανθρώπους γενέσεις.
ι \ \ \ ,ὔ \ “ > /
Η μὲν yap κατὰ στέρησιν καὶ ἕξιν ἀντίθεσις
πολεμικὴ καὶ ἀσύμβατός ἐστιν, οὐσίαν θατέρου τὴν
θατέρου φθορὰν ἔχοντος: τῇ δὲ κατὰ τὰς ἐναντίας
/ ~ / \ \ « /
F δυνάμεις καιροῦ τυχούσῃ πολλὰ μὲν αἱ τέχναι
“ A > ¢ / ” a“ »
χρῶνται, πλεῖστα δ᾽ ἡ φύσις ἔν τε ταῖς ἄλλαις
γενέσεσι καὶ ταῖς περὶ τὸν ἀέρα τροπαῖς, καὶ ὅσα
διακοσμῶν καὶ βραβεύων ὁ θεὸς ἁρμονικὸς καλεῖται
καὶ μουσικός, οὐ βαρύτητας συναρμόττων καὶ ὀξύ-
> \ \ \ / / « ~
τητας οὐδὲ λευκὰ καὶ μέλανα συμφώνως ὁμιλοῦντα
2 5 7 Ψ \ \ ~ / \
παρέχων ἀλλήλοις, ἀλλὰ τὴν τῆς θερμότητος καὶ
ψυχρότητος ἐν κόσμῳ κοινωνίαν καὶ διαφοράν, ὅπως
συνοίσονταί τε μετρίως καὶ διοίσονται πάλιν, ἐπι-
τροπεύων καὶ τὸ ἄγαν ἑκατέρας ἀφαιρῶν εἰς τὸ
δέον ἀμφοτέρας καθίστησι.
947 4. Καὶ μὴν ψυχροῦ μὲν αἴσθησις ἔστιν, ὥσπερ
1 +6 added by Meziriacus.
2 ἐπιοῦσαν Madvig: ἐμποιοῦσαν.
O2
“Θ᾽
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 946-947
and remission, just as there is in hot things. This
occurs because the matter involved is in different cases
acted upon by the opposing forces with more or less
intensity ; it thus exhibits degrees of one or the other,
and so of hot and cold. There is, in fact, no such
thing as a blending of positive qualities with negative
ones, nor may any positive force accept the assault
of the negation that corresponds to it or take it into
partnership ; instead it gives place to it. Now hot
things do admit a blending with cold up to a point,
just as do black with white, high notes with low, sweet
tastes with sour; and this harmonious association
of colours and sounds, drugs and sauces, produces
many combinations that are pleasant and grateful
to the senses.
For the opposition of a negation to a positive
quality is an irreconcilable hostility, since the exist-
ence of the one is the annihilation of the other. The
other opposition, however, of positive forces, if it
occurs in due measure, is often operative in the arts,
and very often indeed in various phenomena of
nature, especially in connexion with the weather
and the seasons and those matters from which the
god derives his title of harmonizer and musician,
because he organizes and regulates them. He does
not receive these names merely for bringing sounds
of high and low pitch, or black and white colours, into
harmonious fellowship, but because he has authority
over the association and disunion of heat and cold in
the universe, to see that they observe due measure
in their combination and separation, and because, by
eliminating the excess of either, he brings both into
proper order.
4, Furthermore, we find that cold can be perceived
235
(947)
Ge
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
\ ~ / > #1)? 6 \ ” 9 > \
καὶ θερμοῦ: στέρησις δ᾽ οὔθ᾽ ὁρατὸν οὔτ᾽ ἀκουστὸν
»“Ω» ς \ ” a Μ > / /
οὔθ᾽ ἁπτὸν οὔτε ταῖς ἄλλαις αἰσθήσεσι γνωστόν.
οὐσίας γάρ τινος αἴσθησις ἦν: ὅπου δ᾽ οὐσία μὴ
φαίνεται, νοεῖται στέρησις, οὐσίας ἀπόφασις οὖσα,
/ Μ / \ ~ \ .
καθάπερ ὄψεως τυφλότης καὶ φωνῆς σιωπὴ καὶ
σώματος ἐρημία καὶ κενόν. οὔτε γὰρ κενοῦ bv
x - " ” > ee A \ / /
ἁφῆς αἴσθησις ἔστιν, ἀλλ᾽ ὅπου "μὴ γίνεται σώματος
ἁφή, κενοῦ γίνεται νόησις" οὔτε σιγῆς ἀκούομεν,
ἀλλά, κἂν μηδενὸς ἀκούωμεν, σιγὴν νοοῦμεν" ὡς
δ᾽ αὔτως καὶ τυφλῶν καὶ γυμνῶν' οὐκ αἴσθησις
” 5 > > / > / 2 ‘4 ”
ἔστιν ἀλλ᾽ αἰσθήσεως ἀποφάσει" νόησις. ἔδει
/ \ / ~ ” > > a A
τοίνυν μὴ γίνεσθαι ψυχρῶν αἴσθησιν, ἀλλ᾽ ὅπου τὸ
θερμὸν ἐπιλείπει νοεῖσθαι τὸ ψυχρόν, εἴπερ ἦν
~ “4
θερμοῦ στέρησις" εἰ δ᾽, ὥσπερ TO θερμὸν ἀλέᾳ καὶ
~ /
διακρίσει τῆς σαρκός, οὕτω συγκρίσει καὶ πυ-
κνώσει τὸ ψυχρὸν αἰσθητόν ἐστι, δῆλον ὅτι καὶ
\
ψυχρότητος ἰδία τις ἔστιν ἀρχὴ Kal πηγὴ καθάπερ
7
θερμότητος.
ee Dr , ? A Pe A ¢ . ὦ
Ere τοίνυν ἕν τι καὶ ἁπλοῦν ἡ περὶ ἕκαστον
> , ¢ ς» > 7 ͵ \ \
εἶδος στέρησις, at δ᾽ οὐσίαι πλείονας διαφορὰς καὶ
δυνάμεις ἔχουσι: μονοειδὲς γὰρ ἡ σιωπὴ ποικίλον
δ᾽ ἡ φωνή, νῦν μὲν ἐνοχλοῦσα νῦν δὲ τέρπουσα
τὴν αἴσθησιν. ἔχει δὲ τοιαύτας καὶ τὰ χρώματα
\ \ oe / > ἔν + > Μ \
Kal TA σχήματα διαφοράς, ev αἷς ἄλλοτ᾽ ἄλλως τὸν
προστυγχάνοντα διατίθησι" τὸ δ᾽ ἀναφὲς καὶ ἄχρω-
\ ΄“ Μ 3 » / > 3
στον καὶ ὅλως ἄποιον οὐκ ἔχει διαφοράν, ἀλλ
ὅμοιόν ἐστιν.
6. *Ap’ οὖν ἔοικε τοῖς στερητικοῖς τούτοις τὸ
1 After γυμνῶν the mss. add καὶ ἀνόπλων : deleted by
WICGPR
236
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 947
as well as heat ; but mere negation cannot be seen or
heard or touched or recognized by the other senses.
Perception, in fact, must be of something existent ;
but where nothing existent is observed, privation may
be inferred, being the negation of existence, as blind-
ness is of sight, silence of sound, void and emptiness
-of matter. We cannot perceive a void by touch; but
where no matter can be touched, void is inferred.
Nor can we hear silence ; yet, even though we hear
nothing, we infer silence. Nor, in the same way, is
sense active when things are unseen or bare 7; there
is, rather, inference from the negation of Mea Ue rn
If, therefore, cold were a privation of warmth,
ought not to be able to feel it, but only to ee i
from the deficiency in warmth ἢ but if cold is per-
ceived by the contraction and ΘΟ ΔΕ πέση of our
flesh (just as heat is by the warming and loosening
of it), clearly there is some special first principle and
source of coldness, just as there is of heat.
5. And yet another point : privation of any sort is
something simple and uncomplicated, whereas sub-
stances have many differences and powers. Silence,
for example, is of only one kind, while sound varies,
sometimes annoying, at other times delighting, the
perception. Both colours and figures show the same
variation, for they produce different effects on dif-
ferent occasions when they meet the eye; but that
which cannot be touched and is without colour or any
quality whatever, admits no difference, but is always
the same.
6. Is cold, then, so like this sort of privation that
As, when a hill has been stripped of timber, you cannot
see the Etees-
2 ἀποφάσει Nylander: ἀπόφασις.
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(947) ψυχρόν, ὥστε μὴ ποιεῖν ἐν τοῖς πάθεσι διαφοράν;
ἢ τοὐναντίον ἡδοναί τε μεγάλαι καὶ ὠφέλιμοι τοῖς
͵ὕὔ 5 \ ~ c / A ’ὔ /
σώμασιν ἀπὸ ψυχρῶν ὑπάρχουσι Kat βλάβαι πάλιν
νεανικαὶ καὶ πόνοι καὶ βαρύτητες, ὑφ᾽ ὧν οὐκ ἀεὶ
4, \ > Ψ \ \ 5 A /
φεύγει Kat ἀπολείπει τὸ θερμὸν ἀλλὰ πολλάκις
ἐγκαταλαμβανόμενον ἀνθίσταται καὶ μάχεται, τῇ
~ /
μάχῃ δ᾽ αὐτῶν ὄνομα φρίκη Kat τρόμος, ἡττωμένῳ
δὲ τῷ θερμῷ τὸ πήγνυσθαι καὶ ναρκᾶν ἐπιγίνεται,
~ \ ~ ~ / / \ > /,
D κρατοῦν δὲ τοῦ ψυχροῦ διάχυσιν παρέχει καὶ ἀλέαν
~ ͵ 5» [ὦ ~ [2 ΄“ ΚΕ / ᾽}ὔ
τῷ σώματι μεθ᾽ ἡδονῆς, ὅπερ “Ὅμηρος ἰαίνεσθαι
/ 5 \ ~ / \ ~ \ /
κέκληκεν; ἀλλὰ ταῦτά ye παντὶ δῆλα: καὶ τούτοις
οὐχ ἥκιστα τοῖς πάθεσιν ἐνδείκνυται τὸ ψυχρόν,
ὅτι πρὸς τὸ θερμὸν ὡς οὐσία πρὸς οὐσίαν ἢ πάθος
πρὸς πάθος οὐχ ὡς ἀπόφασις ἀντίκειται καὶ στέ-
>) \ / / > ~ ~ \ 5 7
pyois, οὐδὲ φθορά τίς ἐστι τοῦ θερμοῦ καὶ ἀναί-
Ty 5 1 7 \ 7 n \ \
ρεσις ἀλλ᾽ ὑπαρκτὴ᾽ φύσις καὶ δύναμις. ἢ καὶ TOV
χειμῶνα τῶν ὡρῶν καὶ τὰ βόρεια τῶν πνευμάτων
ἐξέλωμεν, ὡς στερήσεις ὄντα τῶν θερμῶν καὶ
/ » / » 5 \ , »
E νοτίων, ἰδίαν δ᾽ ἀρχὴν οὐκ ἔχοντα.
~ >
7. Kat μὴν τεττάρων ye τῶν πρώτων ὄντων ἐν
τῷ παντὶ σωμάτων, ἃ διὰ πλῆθος καὶ ἁπλότητα
καὶ δύναμιν οἱ πλεῖστοι στοιχεῖα τῶν ἄλλων ὑπο-
τίθενται καὶ ἀρχάς, πυρὸς καὶ ὕδατος καὶ ἀέρος
καὶ γῆς, ἀναγκαῖόν ἐστι καὶ ποιότητας εἶναι τὰς
πρώτας καὶ ἁπλᾶς τοσαύτας. τίνες οὖν εἰσιν αὗ-
ται πλὴν θερμότης καὶ ψυχρότης καὶ ξηρότης
1 ὑπαρκτὴ W. C. H. after Madvig: φθαρτικὴ.
@ See, e.g., Odyssey, vi. 156; Iliad, xxiii. 598, 600; and
cf. Mor. 454 νυ, 735 F.
238
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 947
it produces no effects that differ ? Or is the contrary
true: Do not great and useful pleasures accrue to
our bodies from the presence of cold, as well as mighty
detriments and pains and depressions, before which
the heat does not always depart and quit the field ?
Often, rather, though cut off within, it makes a stand
and gives battle. This struggle of hot and cold is
called shivering or shaking ; and if heat is overcome,
freezing and torpor set in; but if cold is defeated,
there is diffused through the body a relaxed and
pleasantly warm sensation which Homer “ calls “ to
be aglow.” Surely these facts are obvious to every-
one ; and it is chiefly by these effects that cold is
shown to be in opposition to heat, not as a negation
or privation, but as one substance or one state ὃ to
another : it is not a mere destruction or abolition of
heat, but a positive substance or force. Otherwise
we might just as well exclude winter from the list
of seasons or the northerly blasts from that of winds,
on the pretext that they are only a deficiency of hot
weather or southerly gales and have no proper origin
of their own.
7. Furthermore, given four primary bodies in the
universe © which, because of their quantity, sim-
plicity, and potentiality, most judges regard as being
the elements or first principles of everything else—
I mean fire, water, air, and earth—the number of
primary, simple qualities must be the same. And
what should these be but warmth and cold, dryness
» Heat, for example, may be said to be a “‘ state”’ or con-
dition of metal.
¢ See Diels-Kranz, Frag. der Vorsok.*, i, pp. 315 ff., Em-
pedocles, frag. B 17. The doctrine is clearly stated by, for
example, Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 10. The author of the Epinomis
(981 c) adds a fifth element, aether (cf. 951 pv infra).
239
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(947) καὶ ὑγρότης, αἷς" τὰ στοιχεῖα πάσχειν ἅπαντα καὶ
ποιεῖν πέφυκεν; ὡς δὲ τῶν ἐν γραμματικῇ στοι-
χείων βραχύτητές εἰσι καὶ μακρότητες, τῶν δ᾽ ἐν
F μουσικῇ βαρύτητες καὶ ὀξύτητες, οὐ θάτερα τῶν
ἑτέρων στέρησις, οὕτως ἐν τοῖς φυσικοῖς σώμασιν
ἀντιστοιχίαν" ὑποληπτέον ὑγρῶν πρὸς ξηρὰ καὶ
ψυχρῶν πρὸς θερμά, τὸ κατὰ λόγον ἅμα καὶ τὰ
φαινόμενα διαφυλάττοντας" ἢ, καθάπερ ᾿Αναξι-
μένης ὁ παλαιὸς ᾧετο, μήτε τὸ ψυχρὸν ἐν οὐσίᾳ
μήτε τὸ θερμὸν ἀπολείπωμεν, ἀλλὰ πάθη κοινὰ τῆς
ὕλης ἐπιγινόμενα ταῖς μεταβολαῖς; τὸ γὰρ συστελ-
λόμενον αὐτῆς καὶ πυκνούμενον ψυχρὸν εἶναί φησι,
τὸ δ᾽ ἀραιὸν καὶ τὸ χαλαρόν. (οὕτω πως ὀνομάσας"
τῷ ῥήματι), θερμόν. ὅθεν οὐκ ἀπεικότως λέγεσθαι
τὸ καὶ θερμὰ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἐκ τοῦ στόματος καὶ
948 ψυχρὰ μεθιέναι" ψύχεται γὰρ ἡ πνοὴ πιεσθεῖσα καὶ
πυκνωθεῖσα τοῖς χείλεσιν, ἀνειμένου δὲ τοῦ στό-
ματος ἐκπίπτουσα γίνεται θερμὸν ὑπὸ _pavernros.
τοῦτο μὲν οὖν ἀγνόημα ποιεῖται τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ὁ
᾿Αριστοτέλης" ἀνειμένου γὰρ τοῦ στόματος ἐκ-
πνεῖσθαι τὸ θερμὸν ἐξ ἡμῶν αὐτῶν, ὅταν δὲ συ-
στρέψαντες τὰ χείλη φυσήσωμεν, οὐ τὸν ἐξ ἡμῶν,
ἀλλὰ τὸν ἀέρα τὸν πρὸ τοῦ στόματος ὠθεῖσθαι
ψυχρὸν ὄντα καὶ προσεμπίπτειν.
- αἷς] ἃς Post, deleting καὶ after ἅπαντα.
: ἀντιστοιχίαν Meziriacus : ἀντιστοιχείων.
3 καὶ after ὀνομάσας deleted by Hartman.
α Post translates his emendation: ‘‘ by which all things
are qualified through the natural action of the elements,”’
pointing out that elements have nothing but size, shape, and
motion. Fire causes heat, but its atoms are not themselves
hot.
240
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 947-948
and moisture, which by their very nature cause all
the elements to act and be acted upon? Just as in
grammar we have elements long and short and in
music elements high and low in pitch—and in neither
case is one element merely a negation of the other—
so also in physical bodies we must assume an ele-
mentary opposition of wet to dry and cold to hot, and
in this way we shall be faithful both to logic and to
experience. Or are we, as old Anaximenes? main-
tained, to leave neither hot nor cold in the realm of
being, but to treat them as states belonging equally
to any matter and occurring as a result of changes
within it? He affirms, in fact, that anything which
undergoes contraction and condensation of matter
is cold, while anything that suffers rarefaction and
distention—this comes close to his own phrasing—is
hot. So there is no contradiction in the remark that
the man blew both hot and cold,° for breath grows
cold when it is compressed and condensed by the lips ;
but when it is expelled from the mouth left slack, it
becomes hot through rarefaction. Aristotle,’ how-
ever, holds that in this Anaximenes was mistaken :
when the mouth is slack, what is exhaled is warm air
from our own bodies; but when we compress the
lips and blow, it is not air from ourselves, but the cold
air in front of the mouth that is propelled forward and
makes contact.
® Diels-Kranz, Frag. der Vorsok.®, i, p. 953 cf. Diller,
Hermes, Ixvii, pp. 35 f.
¢ See Aesop’s Fables (no. 60 in Chambry’s Budé edition,
vol. i, pp. 131 ff.), where the satyr renounces friendship with
the man because the latter blows both hot and cold through
the same mouth.
4 Probably (cf. the note on 950 B infra) Problemata, xxxiv.
7 (964 a 10 ff.) ; contrast Plato, Timaeus, 79 a-c.
241
(948)
B
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
8. Ed δ᾽ ἀπολειπτέον οὐσίαν ψυχροῦ Kai θερμοῦ,
~ -“
προάγωμεν ἐπὶ τὸ ἑξῆς τὸν λόγον, ἥτις ἐστὶν οὐσία
καὶ ἀρχὴ καὶ φύσις ψυχρότητος, ζητοῦντες" ot μὲν
οὖν, τῶν σκαληνῶν καὶ τριγωνοειδῶν σχηματισμῶν
ἐν τοῖς σώμασι κειμένων, τὸ ῥιγοῦν καὶ τρέμειν
καὶ φρίττειν καὶ ὅσα συγγενῆ τοῖς πάθεσι τούτοις
ὑπὸ τραχύτητος ἐγγίνεσθαι λέγοντες, εἰ καὶ τοῖς
κατὰ μέρος διαμαρτάνουσι, τὴν γοῦν ἀρχὴν ὅθεν δεῖ
λαμβάνουσι: δεῖ γὰρ ὥσπερ ἀφ᾽ ἑστίας τῆς τῶν
ὅλων οὐσίας ἄρχεσθαι τὴν ζήτησιν. ᾧ καὶ μάλιστα
δόξειεν ἂν ἰατροῦ καὶ γεωργοῦ καὶ αὐλητοῦ δια-
/ ¢ / > / \ \ > A \
φέρειν ὁ φιλόσοφος. ἐκείνοις μὲν yap ἐξαρκεῖ τὰ
ἔσχατα τῶν αἰτίων θεωρῆσαι: τὸ γὰρ ἐγγυτάτω
τοῦ πάθους αἴτιον ἂν συνοφθῇ, πυρετοῦ μὲν ἔντασις"
BD / > / 5” nA r A > 9
ἢ παρέμπτωσις, ἐρυσίβης δ᾽ ἥλιοι πυριφλεγεῖς ἐπ
ὄμβρῳ, βαρύτητος δὲ κλίσις αὐλῶν καὶ συναγωγὴ
πρὸς ἀλλήλους, ἱκανόν ἐστι τῷ τεχνίτῃ πρὸς τὸ
οἰκεῖον ἔργον. τῷ δὲ φυσικῷ θεωρίας ἕνεκα με-
τιόντι τἀληθὲς ἡ τῶν ἐσχάτων γνῶσις οὐ τέλος
2 \ > > > \ a > \ \ ~ \ > /
ἐστὶν ἀλλ᾽ ἀρχὴ τῆς ἐπὶ τὰ πρῶτα Kal ἀνωτάτω
7 ὃ \ \ IIA / > θ ~ \ / 3
πορείας. διὸ καὶ [lAdtwv ὀρθῶς καὶ Δημόκριτος
\ ~
αἰτίαν θερμότητος Kat βαρύτητος ζητοῦντες οὐ
a \
κατέπαυσαν ἐν γῇ Kal πυρὶ τὸν λόγον ἀλλ᾽ ἐπὶ τὰς
1 κειμένων] σειομένων Sandbach.
2 ἔντασις] ἔνστασις Turnebus from Galen.
3 Δημόκριτος] Ξενοκράτης Wyttenbach.
° Cf. Plato, Timaeus, 53 c, 54 B-c.
Ὁ Or, perhaps, “* with Hestia,” as the first principle of the
cosmos (see, for example, Ritter, on Plato, Phaedrus, 247 a,
pp. 123-124 of his edition). This passage is somewhat obscurely
quoted below in 954 r. There were already three different
242
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 948
8. Perhaps we should now leave the question
whether heat and cold are substances ; if so, let us
advance the argument to the next point and inquire
what sort of substance coldness has, and what is its
first principle and nature. Now those who affirm
that there are certain uneven, triangular formations
in our bodies“ and that shivering and trembling,
shuddering and the like manifestations, proceed from
this rough irregularity, even if they are wrong in the
particulars, at least derive the first principle from
the proper place ; for the investigation should begin,
as it were from the very hearth,’ from the substance
of all things. This is, it would seem, the great differ-
ence between a philosopher and a physician or a
farmer or a flute-player; for the latter are content
to examine the causes most remote from the first
cause, since as soon as the most immediate cause of
an effect is grasped—that fever is brought about by
exertion or an overflow of blood, that rusting of grain
is caused by days of blazing sun after a rain, that a
low note is produced by the angle and construction
of the pipes—that is enough to enable a technician
to do his proper job. But when the natural philo-
sopher sets out to find the truth as a matter of specu-
lative knowledge, the discovery of immediate causes
is not the end, but the beginning of his journey to
the first and highest causes. This is the reason why
Plato and Democritus, when they were inquiring
into the causes of heat and heaviness, were right not
to stop their investigation with earth and fire, but
interpretations known to the scholiast on Plato, Huthyphro,
3 a (p. 2, ed. Greene).
¢ Wyttenbach suggested “ἡ Xenocrates”’ for ‘‘ Demo-
critus ’’ in this passage, which may be right, though his pro-
posal is not considered by either Mullach or Heinze.
243
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(948) νοητὰς ἀναφέροντες ἀρχὰς τὰ arses μέχρι τῶν
ἐλαχίστων ὥσπερ σπερμάτων προῆ
9. Οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ αἰσθητὰ ner: προανα-
Ξ 7, , > > e 9 ᾿Ξ \
κινῆσαι βέλτιόν ἐστιν, ev ois ᾿Εμπεδοκλῆς τε καὶ
/ \ ¢ \ \ > / / ~
D Στράτων καὶ ot Στωικοὶ τὰς οὐσίας τίθενται τῶν
δυνάμεων, οὗ μὲν Στωικοὶ τῷ ἀέρι τὸ πρώτως ψυ-
\ > / > ~ \ \ /
xpov ἀποδιδόντες, Ἐμπεδοκλῆς δὲ καὶ Στράτων
τῷ ὕδατι: τὴν δὲ γῆν ἴσως ἂν ἕτερος φανείη ψυ-
χρότητος οὐσίαν ὑποτιθέμενος. πρότερον δὲ τὰ
ἐκείνων σκοπῶμεν.
3 \ \ ~ \ Ld \ ’ >’ A
Ἐπεὶ τὸ πῦρ θερμὸν ἅμα καὶ λαμπρόν ἐστι, δεῖ
τὴν ἀντικειμένην τῷ πυρὶ φύσιν ψυχράν τ᾽ εἶναι
καὶ σκοτεινήν" ἀντίκειται γὰρ ὡς τῷ "λαμπρῷ τὸ
ζοφερόν, οὕτω τῷ θερμῷ τὸ ψυχρόν" ἔστι γὰρ ὡς
ὄψεως τὸ σκοτεινόν, οὕτω τὸ ψυχρὸν ἁφῆς συγ-
χυτικόν: ἡ δὲ θερμότης διαχεῖ τὴν αἴσθησιν τοῦ
ἁπτομένου καθάπερ ἡ λαμπρότης τοῦ ὁρῶντος. τὸ
E ἄρα πρώτως σκοτεινὸν ἐν τῇ φύσει πρώτως καὶ
ψυχρόν ἐστιν. ὅτι δ᾽ ἀὴρ τὸ πρώτως σκοτεινόν
> τὰ \ \ \ / »» \ \
ἐστιν, οὐδὲ τοὺς ποιητὰς λέληθεν: ἀέρα yap TO
σκότος καλοῦσιν"
ae
ἀὴρ yap παρὰ νηυσὶ βαθὺς" ἦν, οὐδὲ σελήνη
οὐρανόθεν προύφαινε.᾽ .
\ /
και πάλιν
ce
9' ε / “. A : ee s 992
NHEpa εσσαμέενοι πασαν φοιτῶσιν ΕἼ AlaV.
1 mss. of Homer have περὶ and βαθεῖ".
2 καὶ πάλιν. .. αἷαν are omitted by most mss. and are
unknown to Wyttenbach.
¢ Of. Diels-Kranz, Frag. der Vorsok.*, i, p. 319, frag. B 21,
part of which is quoted below in 949 r.
244:
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 948
to go on carrying back sensible phenomena to rational
origins until they reached, as it were, the minimum
number of seeds.
9. Nevertheless it is better for us first to attack
things perceptible to the senses, in which Empedocles “
and Strato ὃ and the Stoics ὁ locate the substances
that underlie the qualities, the Stoics ascribing the
primordially cold to the air, Empedocles and Strato
to water ; and someone else may, perhaps, be found
to affirm that earth is the original substance of cold-
ness.?. But let us examine Stoic doctrine before the
others.
Since fire is not only warm but bright, the opposite
natural entity (they say) must be both cold and dark :
as gloomy is the opposite of bright, so is cold of hot.
Besides, as darkness confounds the sight, so cold
confuses the sense of touch. Heat, on the other hand,
transmits the sensation of touching, as brightness
does that of seeing. It follows, then, that in nature
the primordially dark is also the primordially cold ;
and that it is air which is primordially dark does not,
in fact, escape the notice of the poets since they use
the term “ air’”’ for “ darkness ”’ :
Thick air lay all about the ships, nor could
The moon shine forth from heaven. ¢
And another instance :
So clad in air they visit all the earth.’
δ See Fritz Wehrli, Die Schule des Aristoteles, Part V,
frag. 49.
¢ Of. Mor. 952 c, 1053 πὸ: von Arnim, S.V.F. ii, pp. 140 f.
@ As Plutarch himself; see below, 952 ὁ ff. (chapters 17-22).
¢ Homer, Odyssey, ix. 144-145. Words for “ air’ in Homer
often mean “ mist” or “ fog.”
7 Hesiod, Works and Days, 255.
245
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(948) καὶ πάλιν
‘ > / > 77 \ / \ > ~
αὐτίκα δ᾽ ἠέρα μὲν σκέδασεν καὶ ἀπῶσεν
ὁμίχλην,
ἠέλιος δ᾽ ἐπέλαμψε, μάχη δ᾽ ἐπὶ πᾶσα φαάνθη.᾽᾽
\ \ ce / ) \ > / 35» ~
καὶ yap “‘ κνέφας ᾿᾿ tov ἀφώτιστον ἀέρα καλοῦσι,
/ «ς ΝΜ / ΝΜ , &f / >?) «
κενόν, ὡς ἔοικε, φάους ὄντα: καὶ “᾿ νέφος ᾿᾿ ὁ συμ-
\ \ \ 28 > / \ /
F πεσὼν καὶ πυκνωθεὶς ἀὴρ ἀποφάσει φωτὸς KéKAn-
ται: κνηκὶς δὲ καὶ ἀχλὺς καὶ ὁμίχλη καὶ ὅσα τοῦ
φωτὸς οὐ παρέχει τῇ αἰσθήσει δίοψιν ἀέρος εἰσὶ
/ \ \ > \ > ~ \ Μ σ
διαφοραί: καὶ τὸ ἀειδὲς αὐτοῦ καὶ ἄχρωστον “Αιδης
καὶ ᾿Αχέρων ἐπίκλησιν ἔσχεν. ὥσπερ οὖν αὐγῆς
ἐπιλιπούσης σκοτεινὸς ἀήρ, οὕτω θερμοῦ μεταστάν-
\ > / =i \ ΝΜ 3 9 /
Tos TO ἀπολειπόμενον ἀὴρ ψυχρὸς ἄλλο δ᾽ οὐδέν
ἐστι: διὸ καὶ Τάρταρος οὕτως" ὑπὸ ψυχρότητος
κέκληται: δηλοῖ δὲ καὶ ᾿Ησίοδος εἰπὼν “᾿Τάρ-
ταρον ἠερόεντα ᾿᾿" καὶ τὸ ῥιγοῦντα πάλλεσθαι καὶ
τρέμειν “᾿ ταρταρίζειν.᾽᾿ ταῦτα μὲν οὖν τοιοῦτον
ἔχει λόγον.
10. ᾿Επεὶ δ᾽ ἡ φθορὰ μεταβολή τίς ἐστι τῶν
949 φθειρομένων εἰς τοὐναντίον ἑκάστῳ, σκοπῶμεν εἰ
καλῶς εἴρηται τὸ “᾿ πυρὸς θάνατος ἀέρος γένεσις.᾽
θνήσκει γὰρ καὶ πῦρ ὥσπερ ζῷον, ἢ βίᾳ σβεννύ-
μενον ἢ du αὑτοῦ μαραινόμενον. ἡ μὲν οὖν σβέσις
ἐμφανεστέραν ποιεῖ τὴν εἰς ἀέρα μεταβολὴν αὐτοῦ"
1 κνηκὶς Meziriacus from 951 B: καλεῖται.
2 οὕτως Emperius: οὗτος.
3 τάρταρον] Mss. of Hesiod have Taprapa 7’.
@ Homer, /liad, xvii. 649-650.
» Plutarch’s etymologies here are no more scientific or
convincing than those to be found in his Roman Questions,
L.C.L. vol. iv, pp. 6-171.
246
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 948-949
And another :
The air at once he scattered and dispelled the mist ;
The sun shone forth and all the battle came in view. ?
They also call the lightless air knephas, being as it
were, kenon phaous “ void of light’; and collected
and condensed air has been termed nephos “ cloud ”’
because it is a negation of light.’ Flecks in the sky
and mist and fog and anything else that does not
provide a transparent medium for light to reach our
senses are merely variations of air ; and its invisible
and colourless part is called Hades and Acheron.* In
the same way, then, as air is dark when light is gone,
so when heat departs the residue is cold air and
nothing else. And this is the reason why it has been
termed Tartarus because of its coldness. Hesiod 4
makes this obvious when he writes “ murky Tar-
tarus’’; and to shake and shiver with cold is to
‘“‘ tartarize.’’® Such, then, is the reason for these
names.
10. Since corruption, in each case, is a change of
the things that are corrupted into their opposites,
let us see whether the saying holds good that “ the
death of fire is the birth of air.’ Fire, indeed,
perishes like a living creature,’ being either ex-
tinguished by main force or dying out of itself. Now
if it is extinguished, that makes the change of fire
¢ ** Invisible’; cf. 953 a below and Plato, Cratylus,
403 A ff.; Phaedo, 81 c-p and contrast Mor. 942 τ supra:
3 colourless; ᾿ achroston, Acheron. Cf. L. Parmentier, ** Re-
cherches sur le traité d’Isis et d’Osiris de Plut.,”” Mém. Acad.
Belg. ii. 2 (1912/13), pp. 71 ff.
@ Theogony, 119; contrast Plato, Phaedo, 112 α ff.
¢ Cf. Servius on Vergil, Aen. vi. 577.
f Diels-Kranz, Frag. der Vorsok.*, i, Ὁ. 168, Heraclitus,
frag. 76 (frag. 25, ed. Bywater, p. 11). Cf. Mor, 392 c-p.
9 Cf. Mor. 281 ¥F, 702 E-F; 703 B.
947
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
\ \ ¢ \ 5 > \ τι ἀ \ [2 \
(949) Kal yap O καπνος GEPOS EOTLV εἶδος και ἢ κατα
ΠΠ᾿δαρον “ ἀέρα' κνισᾶντι λακτίζοισα καπνῷ ᾿᾿
\ al ὦ / 2 \ > \ \ a
λιγνὺς καὶ ἀναθυμίασις. οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ φθινούσης
3 / \ > a »Μ a > \ ~ J
ἀτροφίᾳ φλογὸς ἰδεῖν ἔστιν, ὥσπερ ἐπὶ TOV λύχνων,
\ »Μ ; > ~ oP / 2 \ \ > /
TO ἄκρον εἰς ἀέρα γνοφώδη" Kat Codepov ἀποχεό-
μενον ὃ ἱκανῶς δὲ καὶ ὁ τῶν μετὰ λουτρὸν ἢ πυρίαν
περιχεαμένων' ψυχρὸν ἀνιὼν ἀτμὸς ἐνδείκνυται
τὴν εἰς ἀέρα τοῦ θερμοῦ φθειρομένου μεταβολήν,
Β ὡς φύσει πρὸς τὸ πῦρ ἀντικείμενον" ᾧ τὸ πρώτως
τὸν ἀέρα σκοτεινὸν εἶναι καὶ ψυχρὸν ἠκολούθει.
11. Kai μὴν ἁπάντων γε τῶν γινομένων ὑπὸ
ψυχρότητος ἐ ἐν τοῖς σώμασι σφοδρότατον καὶ βιαιό-
τατον ἡ πῆξις οὖσα, πάθος μέν ἐστιν ὕδατος, ἔ ἔργον
δ᾽ ἀέρος" αὐτὸ μὲν γὰρ καθ᾽ ἑαυτὸ τὸ ὕδωρ εὐδιά-
χύυτον καὶ ἀπαγὲς καὶ ἀσύστατόν ἐστιν, ἐντείνεται
δὲ καὶ συνάγεται τῷ ἀέρι σφιγγόμενον ὑπὸ ψυχρό-
τῆτος" διὸ καὶ λέλεκται
ce
5» \ / M4 PA » /
εἰ δὲ νότος βορέην προκαλέσσεται, αὐτικα
νίψιει.
~ \ / / Ὁ“ \ ¢ /
TOU yap νότου καθάπερ ὕλην τὴν ὑγρότητα παρα-
σ / ¢ / 3. e ἣ \ ΝΜ \
σκευάσαντος, ὁ βόρειος ἀὴρ ὑπολαβὼν ἔπηξε. καὶ
~~ /
δῆλόν ἐστι “μάλιστα περὶ τὰς χιόνας" ἀέρα γὰρ
μεθεῖσαι καὶ προαναπνεύσασαι λεπτὸν καὶ , ψυχρὸν
οὕτω ῥέουσιν. ᾿Αριστοτέλης δὲ καὶ τὰς ἀκόνας τοῦ
μολίβδου τήκεσθαί φησι καὶ ῥεῖν ὑπὸ κρύους καὶ
1 Plutarch’s mss. have ἀέρος κνίσσ᾽ ἀντιλακτίζουσα. mss. of
Pindar read αἰθέρα.
2 γνοφῶδες ? W. C. H.; Kronenberg deleted the preceding
Kal.
3 ἀποχεόμενον the Basel edition of 1525: ἀποχεομένων :
ἀπερχόμενον Kronenberg.
ὁ περιχεαμένων] other mss. have περιεχομένων and περι-
χεομένων.
248
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 949
into air more conspicuous. Smoke, in fact, is a form
of air, as is reek and exhalation, which, to quote
Pindar,?
Stabs at the air with unctuous smoke.
Nevertheless, even when fire goes out for lack of
nourishment, one may see, as for instance in the case
of lamps, the apex of the flame passing off into murky,
dusky air. Moreover, the vapour ascending from our
bodies when, after a bath or sweat, cold water is
poured on them, sufficiently illustrates the change
of heat, as it perishes, into the air; and this implies
that it is the natural opposite of fire. From this the
Stoics drew the conclusion that air was primordially
dark and cold.
11. Moreover, freezing, which is the most extreme
and violent effect of cold in bodies, is a condition
of water, but a function of air. For water of itself is
fluid, uncongealed and not cohesive ; but when it is
compressed by air because of its cold state, it becomes
taut and compact. This is the reason for the saying ?
If Southwind challenges North, instantly snow will appear.
For after the Southwind has collected the moisture
as raw material, the Boreal air takes over and con-
geals it. This is particularly evident in snowfields :
when they have discharged a preliminary exhalation
of air that is thin and cold, they melt. Aristotle 4
also declares that whetstones of lead will melt and
become fluid in the wintertime through excess of cold
@ Asth:.iv. 112.
’ Included without authority among Callimachus’s frag-
ments (787 =anon. 384) by Schneider, but rejected by Pfeiffer.
¢ Cf. Mor. 691 ¥ and Hubert’s references ad loc.
4 Frag. 212, ed. Rose and cf. Mor. 695 νυ.
249
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(949) χειμῶνος, ὕδατος μὲν οὐ; πλησιάζοντος αὐταῖς. ὁ δ᾽
ἀήρ, ὡς ἔοικε, συνελαύνων τὰ σώματα τῇ ψυχρότητι
καταθραύει καὶ ῥήγνυσιν.
12. Ἔστι τοίνυν τὰ μὲν ἀποσπασθέντα τῆς πηγῆς
ὕδατα μᾶλλον πήγνυται" μᾶλλον γὰρ ὁ ἀὴρ ἐπικρα-
τεῖ τοῦ ἐλάττονος. ἂν δέ τις ψυχρὸν ἐκ φρέατος
ὕδωρ λαβὼν ἐν ἀγγείῳ καὶ καθεὶς αὖθις εἰς τὸ
φρέαρ ὥστε μὴ ψαύειν τοῦ ὕδατος τὸ ἀγγεῖον ἀλλ᾽
D ἐν τῷ ἀέρι κρέμασθαι, περιμείνῃ χρόνον οὐ πολύν,
ἔσται ψυχρότερον τὸ ὕδωρ. @ μάλιστα δηλοῦται
τὸ μὴ τοῦ ὕδατος εἶναι τὴν πρώτην αἰτίαν τῆς
ψυχρότητος ἀλλὰ τοῦ ἀέρος. τῶν γε μὴν pape
ποταμῶν οὐδεὶς πήγνυται διὰ βάθους" οὐ γὰρ κα
ίησιν εἰς ὅλον 6 ἀήρ, ἀλλ᾽ ὅσα τῇ ψυχρότητι περι-
λαμβάνει ψαύων καὶ πλησιάζων, ταῦθ᾽ ἵστησιν"
ὅθεν ot βάρβαροι διαβαίνουσι πεζῇ, προβαλόντες
ἀλώπεκας" ἂν γὰρ μὴ πολὺς ἀλλ᾽ ἐπιπόλαιος ὁ
πάγος 7, αἰσθανόμεναι τῷ ψόφῳ τοῦ ὑπορρέοντος
ἀναστρέφουσιν. ἔνιοι δὲ καὶ θηρεύουσιν ἰχθῦς,
E ὕδατι θερμῷ τοῦ πάγου παραλύοντες καὶ χαλῶντες
τό γε τὴν ὁρμιὰν δεξόμενον." οὕτως οὐδὲν ὑπὸ
τοῦ ψυχροῦ τὸ ἐν βάθει πέπονθε. καίτοι τῶν ἄνω
τοσαύτη γίνεται μεταβολὴ διὰ τὴν πῆξιν, ὥστε
συντρίβειν τὰ πλοῖα τὸ ὕδωρ ἀποβιαζόμενον εἰς
ἑαυτὸ καὶ συνθλιβόμενον, ὡς ἱστοροῦσιν ot νῦν
1 μὲν οὐ Post: μόνου.
2 to ye . . . δεξόμενον Wyttenbach ; τότε. . . δεξαμένων.
α There is here probably a confusion of lead and tin, for
both of which the term stannum is used in Latin. ‘Tin is re-
duced to powder by severe cold, owing to transformation to
its allotrope. In [Aristotle], De Mir. Ausc. 50 (p. 257, L.C.L.)
the more nearly correct statement appears that tin melts in
250
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 949
when no water is anywhere near them; it seems
probable that the air with its coldness forces the
bodies together until it crushes and breaks them.”
12. Furthermore, portions of water will freeze
sooner than the spring from which they are drawn,
for the air more readily masters the smaller amount.
If you will draw from a well cold water in a jar ὃ and
let it down again into the well in such a way that the
jar does not touch the water, but is suspended in the
air, and if you wait a short time, you will find that the
water has become colder.’ This is very good evidence
that the First Cause of coldness is not water but air.
Certainly, none of the great rivers freezes through
its entire depth; for the air does not penetrate down
into the whole, but merely renders stationary as
much as, by contact and proximity, it includes within
the range of its coldness. And this is the reason why
barbarians ὦ do not cross frozen rivers until they have
tried them out with foxes : if the ice is not thick, but
merely superficial, the foxes perceive this by the
sound of the current running underneath and return
to the bank. Some even catch fish by weakening and
softening the ice with hot water—enough of the ice,
at least, to admit their lines ; so the cold has no effect
atadepth. Yet the water near the surface undergoes
so great a change through freezing that ships are
crushed by it when it is forced in on itself and squeezed
tight, as those relate who recently passed the winter
severe cold. This note is due to the suggestion of O. T. Benfey
of Haverford College.
Ὁ Presumably Plutarch is thinking of a jar of porous
earthenware, such as are commonly used to cool water in
the Near East. ¢ Cf. Mor. 690 8-Ἐ.
4 The Thracians, according to 968 F ff. infra; cf. also Pliny,
Nat. Hist. viii. 103; Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 24; xiv. 26.
251
(949)
F
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
7 >? ~
μετὰ τοῦ Καίσαρος ἐπὶ τοῦ "lotpov διαχειμάσαντες.
> \ > \ \ \ \ « ~ a ς \
od μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ TO περὶ ἡμᾶς συμβαῖνον ἱκανὴν
μαρτυρίαν δίδωσι: μετὰ γὰρ τὰ λουτρὰ καὶ τὰς ἐξ-
ιδρώσεις περιψυχόμεθα μᾶλλον, τοῖς σώμασιν ἀνει-
μένοις καὶ διακεχυμένοις πολλὴν ψυχρότητα μετὰ
τοῦ ἀέρος καταδεχόμενοι. τὸ δ᾽ αὐτὸ τοῦτο καὶ τὸ
ὕδωρ πάσχει: ψύχεται γάρ, ἂν προθερμανθῇ, μᾶλ-
λον, εὐπαθέστερον τῷ ἀέρι γενόμενον" οἵ τε τὰ
ζέοντα τῶν ὑδάτων ἀναρύτοντες" καὶ μετεωρίζοντες
οὐδὲν ἄλλο δήπου ποιοῦσιν ἢ πρὸς ἀέρα πολὺν
ἀνακεραννύουσιν. ὁ μὲν οὖν τῷ ἀέρι τὴν πρώτην
ἀποδιδοὺς τῆς ψυχρότητος δύναμιν, ὦ Φαβωρῖνε,
λόγος ἐν τοιαύταις ἐστὶ πιθανότησιν.
13. Ὃ δὲ τῷ ὕδατι λαμβάνει μὲν καὶ αὐτὸς ἀρχὰς
ὁμοίως, οὕτω πως τοῦ ᾿᾿μπεδοκλέους λέγοντος
cas F \ 1.3 ¢ 4 \ θ \ e Lis.
ἠέλιον μὲν λαμπρὸν" opa* Kai θερμὸν ἁπάντῃ,
A > 5 - / / ¢ / ᾽)
ὄμβρον δ᾽ ἐν πᾶσι δνοφόεντά τε ῥιγαλέον Te ’’:
~ \ ~ \ \ ¢ ~ A a \ /
τῷ yap θερμῷ τὸ ψυχρὸν ws τῷ λαμπρῷ τὸ μέλαν
ἀντιτάξας συλλογίσασθαι δέδωκεν, ὅτι τῆς αὐτῆς
\ \ - “-“
οὐσίας ἐστὶ τὸ μέλαν καὶ τὸ ψυχρόν, ὡς τῆς αὐτῆς
’ U > ~
τὸ λαμπρὸν καὶ τὸ θερμόν. ὅτι δ᾽ οὐ τοῦ ἀέρος
\ / 5 \ ~ μ΄ / 2 ¢ ” >
τὸ μέλαν ἀλλὰ τοῦ ὕδατός ἐστιν, ἡ αἴσθησις ἐπι-
A ~ \ ¢ ~ ΡΟ
μαρτυρεῖ, τῷ μὲν ἀέρι μηδενὸς ὡς ἁπλῶς εἰπεῖν
μελαινομένου τῷ δ᾽ ὕδατι πάντων. ἂν γὰρ τὸ λευ-
/ 2 / ” > “ ae Ie / > /
κότατον ἐμβάλῃς ἔριον εἰς ὕδωρ ἢ ἱμάτιον, avadat-
1 of re Wyttenbach : ὁπότε.
2 ἀναρύτοντες ‘Turnebus : ἀνορύττοντες.
3 λαμπρὸν] λευκὸν Aristotle.
4 Spa] ὁρᾶν Aristotle and Simplicius.
-... .
α Probably the reference is to Trajan and the Second
252
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 949-950
with Caesar“ on the Danube. Nevertheless, what
happens in our own case is ample testimony : after
warm baths and sweats we are cooler, since our bodies
are relaxed and porous, so that we take in a good deal
of cold along with the air.’ The same thing happens
to water, too: it freezes faster when it has first been
heated, thus becoming more susceptible to air ; and
those who draw off boiling water and suspend it in
the air do this, surely, only to secure the admixture
of great quantities of air.’ So now, Favorinus, the
argument that attributes the primal force of cold to
the air depends on such plausibilities as these.
13. But the argument which attributes it to water
finds in the same way facts to support it; Empedo-
cles © says something like this :
Behold the sun, everywhere bright and warm ;
And then the rain, to all men dark and cold.
By thus setting cold against hot, as he does dark
against bright, he has given us to understand that
dark and cold belong to the same substance, as do
also bright and hot. And our senses bear witness
that darkness is an attribute of water, not of air, since
nothing, to put it simply, is blackened by air and
everything is by water.“ For if you throw the whitest
wool or the whitest garment into water, it will come
Dacian War (a4.p. 105-107). Plutarch’s intimate friend,
Sosius Senecio, is known to have taken part in it.
ὑ Cf. Mor. 690 c-p.
¢ Diels-Kranz, Frag. der Vorsok.*, i, p. 319, frag. B 21,
lines 3 and 5. Plutarch apparently used a version different
from those known to Aristotle and Simplicius. The evidence
is complicated and may be consulted in Diels-Kranz. On
Empedocles’ meaning see Cherniss, Aristotle's Criticism of
the Presocratics, p. 110.
4“ Cf. Mor. 364 πὶ
253
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
/ \ / / a“ « Ἁ /
(950) νεται μέλαν και διαμένει, μέχρι ἂν ὑπο θερμότητος
ἐξικμασθῇ τὸ ὑγρὸν ἤ τισι στρέβλαις καὶ βάρεσιν
ἐκπιεσθῇ: τῆς τε γῆς ὕδατι ῥαινομένης, διαμελαί-
νουσιν ot καταλαμβανόμενοι ταῖς σταγόσι τόποι,
τῶν ἄλλων ὁμοίων μενόντων. αὐτοῦ μὲν οὖν τοῦ
ὕδατος σκοτεινότατον ὑπὸ πλήθους φαίνεται τὸ
Β βαθύτατον, οἷς δ᾽ ἀὴρ πλησιάζει, ταῦτα περιλάμ-
\ ΄ - ἌΥΝ ς ~ \
πεται Kal διαγελᾷ. τῶν δ᾽ ἄλλων ὑγρῶν διαφανὲς
μάλιστα τοὔλαιόν ἐστι, πλείστῳ χρώμενον ἀέρι:
7 \ / Ὁ / ai > /
τούτου δὲ τεκμήριον ἡ κουφότης, du ἣν ἐπιπολάζει
πᾶσιν ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀέρος ἀναφερόμενον. ποιεῖ δὲ Kal’
γαλήνην ἐν τῇ θαλάττῃ τοῖς κύμασιν ἐπιρραινό-
μενον, οὐ διὰ τὴν λειότητα τῶν ἀνέμων ἀπολισθα-
/ ¢e > / ” > \ \ \
νόντων, ws ᾿Αριστοτέλης ἔλεγεν: ἀλλὰ παντὶ μὲν
ὑγρῷ τὸ κῦμα διαχεῖται πληττόμενον, ἰδίως δὲ τοὔ-
λαιον αὐγὴν καὶ καταφάνειαν ἐν βυθῷ παρέχει,
7 - 3 4 “. ς ~ > \ /
διαστελλομένων τῷ ἀέρι τῶν ὑγρῶν: οὐ yap μόνον
, ~ A / > ἈΝ \ /
ἐπιπολῆς τοῖς" διανυκτερεύουσιν ἀλλὰ Kal κάτω
Ο τοῖς σπογγοθήραις διαφυσώμενον ἐκ τοῦ στόματος
» ~ / / > / , ~ ΑΝ
ἐν τῇ θαλάττῃ φέγγος ἐνδίδωσιν. οὐ μᾶλλον οὖν
~ ~ av ~ ζ.
τῷ ἀέρι τοῦ μέλανος 7) τῷ ὕδατι μέτεστιν, ἧττον δὲ
τοῦ ψυχροῦ. τὸ γοῦν ἔλαιον, ἀέρος πλείστου τῶν
ὑγρῶν μετέχον, ἥκιστα ψυχρόν ἐστι καὶ πήγνυται
μαλακῶς: ὁ γὰρ ἀὴρ ἐγκεκραμένος οὐκ ἐᾷ σκληρὰν
γενέσθαι τὴν πῆξιν" βελόνας δὲ καὶ πόρπας σιδηρᾶς
καὶ τὰ λεπτὰ" τῶν ἔργων οὐχ ὕδατι βάπτουσιν
> > ᾽ / \ »Μ / (4 ~
ἀλλ᾽ ἐλαίῳ, τὴν ἄγαν ψυχρότητα φοβούμενοι τοῦ
1 τὴν after καὶ deleted by Diibner.
* τοῖς] missing in nearly all mss.
254
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 950
out black and it will remain black until the moisture
is evaporated by heat or is squeezed out by some sort
of wringing or pressure. When a patch of ground is
sprinkled, the spots which are covered by the drops
turn black, but the rest remains as it was. In fact,
of water itself the deepest looks the darkest because
there is so much of it, while those parts that lie near
the air flash and sparkle *; and of the other liquids
oil is the most transparent, as containing the most
air. A proof of this is its lightness, by reason of which
it maintains itself on the surface of all other things,
buoyed up by the air.’ If it is sprinkled upon the
waves, it will calm the sea, not because it is so smooth
that the winds slip off it, as Aristotle ὁ affirmed ; but
because the waves are dissipated when they are
struck by any moist substance. But it is peculiar to
oil that it provides light and sight at the bottom since
the moist elements are interspersed with air ; it is,
in fact, not only on the surface that it provides light
for those who pass the night at sea; it does so also
for sponge-divers ὦ below the surface when it is blown
out of their mouths. Air, therefore, has no greater
proportion of darkness than water has, and it has
less cold. Certainly oil, which has more air than any
other moist substance, is least cold; and when it
freezes, it forms a soft jelly : the air that is intermixed
does not permit it to freeze hard. They dip needles,
iron clasps, and all delicate artifacts in oil rather than
in water, fearing that the water’s excessive frigidity
« Cf.-952 Ὁ infra. » Cf. Mor. 090 Β. 702 B.
© Problemata, 961 a 23 ff., though this work is surely not
by Aristotle in the form in which it has come down to us.
4 Cf. 981 © infra; Oppian, Hal. v. 638 ff.
3 λεπτὰ Madvig: λοιπὰ.
255
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(950) ὕδατος ὡς διαστρέφουσαν. ἀπὸ τούτων yap δικαιό-
τερόν ἐστιν ἐξετάζεσθαι τὸν λόγον οὐκ ἀπὸ τῶν
χρωμάτων: ἐπεὶ καὶ χιὼν καὶ χάλαζα καὶ κρύσταλ-
λος ἅμα λαμπρότατα γίνεται καὶ ψυχρότατα: καὶ
D πάλιν πίττα θερμότερόν ἐστι μέλιτος καὶ σκοτω-
δέστερον.
14. Ὅμως δὲ θαυμάζω τῶν ἀξιούντων τὸν ἀέρα
ψυχρὸν εἶναι διὰ τὸ καὶ σκοτεινόν, εἰ μὴ συνορῶσιν
ἑτέρους ἀξιοῦντας θερμὸν εἶναι διὰ τὸ καὶ κοῦφον.
οὐ γὰρ οὕτω τῷ ψυχρῷ τὸ σκοτεινὸν ὡς τὸ βαρὺ
καὶ στάσιμον οἰκεῖόν ἐστι καὶ συγγενές: πολλὰ γὰρ
ἄμοιρα θερμότητος ὄντα μετέχει λαμπηδόνος, ἐλα-
φρὸν δὲ καὶ κοῦφον καὶ ἀνωφερὲς οὐδέν ἐστι τῶν
~ 2 \ \ A / / A > By 3 /
ψυχρῶν. ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ νέφη, μέχρι μὲν ἀέρος οὐσίᾳ
μᾶλλον προσήκει, μετεωρίζεται: μεταβαλόντα δ᾽ εἰς
€ \ > \ > Zz \ \ ~ ’ ‘ a“
E ὑγρὸν εὐθὺς ὀλισθάνει καὶ τὸ κοῦφον οὐχ ἧττον ἢ
\ \ 5» / / > / A
τὸ θερμὸν ἀποβάλλει, ψυχρότητος ἐγγινομένης" καὶ
9 / [72 / ~ | / / 5» 7
τοὐναντίον ὅταν θερμότης ἐπέλθῃ, πάλιν ἀναστρέφει
τὴν κίνησιν, ἅμα τῷ μεταβαλεῖν εἰς ἀέρα τῆς
οὐσίας ἄνω φερομένης.
Καὶ μὴν οὐδὲ τὸ τῆς φθορᾶς ἀληθές ἐστιν: οὐ γὰρ
εἰς τοὐναντίον ἀλλ᾽ ὑπὸ τοῦ ἐναντίου φθείρεται τῶν
ἀπολλυμένων ἕκαστον, ὥσπερ τὸ πῦρ ὑπὸ τοῦ
iv, 3 \ ay \ \ a7 ες \ » /
ὕδατος εἰς TOV ἀέρα. TO yap ὕδωρ ὁ μὲν Αἰσχύλος
>] \ ~ 5 > 53 ~ >
εἰ καὶ τραγικῶς ἀλλ᾽ ἀληθῶς εἶπε
“παύσυβριν' δίκην πυρός ’’:
Ὅμηρος δὲ τῷ ποταμῷ τὸν Ἥφαιστον καὶ τῷ
"Ποσειδῶνι τὸν ᾿Απόλλωνα κατὰ τὴν μάχην φυ-
F σικῶς μᾶλλον ἢ μυθικῶς ἀντέταξεν. ὁ δ᾽ ᾿Αρχί-
256
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 950
may distort them. It is, in fact, fairer to judge the
argument by this evidence than by that of colour,
since snow and hail and ice are at their brightest when
they are coldest. Moreover, pitch is both hotter and
darker than honey.
14. I am surprised, nevertheless, when those who
maintain that the air is cold because it is dark do not
perceive that others think it must be hot because it
is light. For darkness is not so closely connected and
akin to cold as heaviness and stability are; many
things, in fact, which have no heat are bright, but
nothing cold is buoyant, light, and soaring. Why,
the very clouds, as long as they are akin to the sub-
stance of air, float aloft ; but as soon as they change to
moisture, they fall at once and lose their lightness no
less than their warmth as coldness grows within them.
Contrariwise, when heat supervenes, they reverse
the movement again, for their substance begins to
soar as soon as it has changed to air.
Nor is the argument from destruction true either ;
for when anything is destroyed, it does not perish by
becoming its opposite, though it does perish by the
action of its opposite, as fire, for instance, is changed
by water into air. For of water Aeschylus* speaks
in tragic style, but accurately, as
The riot-quelling justicer of fire.
And when Homer ὃ matched Hephaestus against the
river and Apollo against Poseidon in the battle, he
did it rather as a philosopher than as a poet. And
@ Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. pp. 107-108, frag. 360.
> Tliad, xxi. 330-383 ; 435-469. The river is the Xanthus.
1 παύσυβριν Bernardakis: παῦε ὕδωρ.
VOL. XII K 257
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(950) Aoxos ἐπὶ τῆς τἀναντία φρονούσης od κακῶς εἶπε
ce ~ \ Ὁ“ > /
TH μὲν ὕδωρ ἐφόρει
/ / > / \ ~ })
δολοφρονέουσα χειρί, τἠτέρῃ δὲ πῦρ.
b] \ / ~ ¢ / / s \
ev δὲ Πέρσαις τῶν ἱκετευμάτων μέγιστον ἦν Kal
> > ~
ἀπαραίτητον, εἰ πῦρ λαβὼν ὁ ἱκετεύων Kal ἐν πο-
ταμῷ βεβηκὼς ἀπειλοίη μὴ τυχὼν τὸ πῦρ εἰς τὸ
/ e -
ὕδωρ ἀφήσειν: ἐτύγχανε μὲν γὰρ ὧν ἐδεῖτο, τυχὼν
>
δ᾽ ἐκολάζετο διὰ τὴν ἀπειλὴν ὡς παρὰ νόμον Kal
κατὰ τῆς φύσεως γενομένην. καὶ τοῦτο δὴ τὸ πρό-
χειρον ἅπασι “ πῦρ ὕδατι μιγνύναι ᾿᾿ TO παροιμια-
ζόμενον ev’ τοῖς ἀδυνάτοις, μαρτυρεῖν ἔοικεν ὅτι τῷ
\ \ Ὁ“ / / > \ ¢ \ / /
πυρὶ TO ὕδωρ πολέμιόν ἐστι καὶ ὑπὸ τούτου φθεί-
951 ρεται καὶ κολάζεται σβεννύμενον, οὐχ ὑπὸ τοῦ
5
ἀέρος ὃς τοὐναντίον" ὑπολαμβάνει τὴν οὐσίαν av-
“ \ / / > \ Ψ 8 >
τοῦ Kal δέχεται μεταβάλλοντος. εἰ yap ἅπαν εἰς
Δ / \ / > / > / / ~
ὃ μεταβάλλει τὸ φθειρόμενον ἐναντίον ἐστί, τί μᾶλ-
~ ~ \ -
λον τῷ ἀέρι τὸ πῦρ ἢ τὸ ὕδωρ ἐναντίον φανεῖται;
/ \ > “ / > \ ~
μεταβάλλει yap εἰς ὕδωρ συνιστάμενος εἰς δὲ πῦρ
διακρινόμενος: ὥσπερ αὖ πάλιν τὸ ὕδωρ διακρίσει
μὲν εἰς ἀέρα φθείρεται συγκρίσει δ᾽ εἰς γῆν, ὡς
μὲν ἐγὼ νομίζω δι᾽ οἰκειότητα τὴν πρὸς ἀμφότερα
καὶ συγγένειαν, οὐχ ὡς ἐναντίον ἑκατέρῳ καὶ πο-
~ /
λέμιον. ἐκεῖνοι δέ, ὁποτέρως ἂν εἴπωσι, TO ἐπι-
Β χείρημα διαφθείρουσι. πήγνυσθαί γε μὴν ὑπὸ τοῦ
1 ἐν] ἐπὶ van Herwerden ; Hartman would delete τὸ παροι-
pualopevov ἐν τοῖς ἀδυνάτοις.
2 ὃς τοὐναντίον Post: τίον ὡς, τεῖνον ws or a lacuna in the Mss.
3 ἅπαν Bernardakis: αἰτία.
® Diehl, Anthologia Lyrica Graeca, i. 237, frag. 86;
Edmonds, Elegy and lambus (L.C.L.), ii, p. 146, frag. 93 ;
258
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 950-951
Archilochus ὦ expressed himself well on a woman
who was of two minds :
With guileful thoughts she bore
In one hand water, in the other fire.
Among the Persians it was the most compelling plea
to gain an end, one which would admit no refusal, if
the suppliant took fire, stood in a river, and threatened
that if he lost his suit, he would drop the fire into the
water. Now he got what he asked, but though he
did so, he was punished for the threat, on the ground
that it was contrary to law and against nature. Again,
the familiar proverb that is on everyone’s lips,® “ to
mix fire with water,’ as an example of the impossible,
seems to bear witness that water is hostile to fire,
which is destroyed by it and so is punished by being
extinguished ὁ ; it is not so affected by air, which, on
the contrary, supports fire and welcomes it in its
changed form. For if anything into which the thing
destroyed changes is its opposite, why will fire, any
more than water, seem opposite to air? For air
changes into water by condensation, and into fire by
rarefaction just as,on the other hand, water vanishes
into air by rarefaction, but into earth by condensation.
Now these processes take place, in my opinion, not
because these elements are contrary or hostile to one
another, but because they are in close affinity and rela-
tionship. But my opponents,’ whichever way they
state their case, ruin their proof. Certainly it is per-
quoted again in Mor. 1070 a, Life of Demetrius, 35
(905 πε).
> But, curiously enough, not to be found in the Paroemio-
graphi Graeci, as edited by Leutsch and Schneidewin.
¢ Of. the quotation from Aeschylus supra, 950 kr.
4 Presumably those who, in 950 p supra, claim that air is
cold because it is dark.
259
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
\
(951) ἀέρος φάναι to’ ὕδωρ ἀλογώτατόν ἐστιν, αὐτὸν τὸν
~ ~ \
ἀέρα μηδαμοῦ πηγνύμενον ὁρῶντας. νέφη yap καὶ
> / \ / > / + eae | > \
ὀμίχλαι καὶ κνηκίδες οὐ πήξεις εἰσὶν ἀλλὰ ov-
στάσεις καὶ παχύτητες ἀέρος διεροῦ Kal ἀτμώδους"
« ες. \ \ 2. fy / \ /
ὁ δ᾽ ἄνικμος Kai ξηρὸς οὐδ᾽ ἄχρι ταύτης τὴν κατά-
~ ΄ ” ~
ψυξιν ἐνδέχεται τῆς μεταβολῆς. ἔστι yap a τῶν
> ~ > / / ᾽ \ / 9.9 > /
ὁρῶν οὐ λαμβάνει νέφος οὐδὲ δρόσον οὐδ᾽ ὀμίχλην,
7
εἰς καθαρὸν ἀέρα καὶ ἄμοιρον ὑγρότητος ἐξικνού-
A - ΄ «
μενα τοῖς ἄκροις: ᾧ μάλιστα δῆλόν ἐστιν ὡς ἡ
κάτω πύκνωσις καὶ σύστασις τῷ ἀέρι συμμεμειγ-
μένον ὑγρὸν καὶ ψυχρὸν ἐνδίδωσι.
- - /
15. Ta δὲ κάτω τῶν μεγάλων ποταμῶν οὐ πή-
γνυται κατὰ λόγον. τὰ γὰρ ἄνω παγέντα τὴν ἀνα-
> / On 2 Ἃ5. 15 , \
θυμίασιν οὐ διίησιν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐγκαθειργνυμένη Kat
Ο ἀποστρεφομένη θερμότητα παρέχει τοῖς διὰ βάθους
ὑγροῖς" ἀπόδειξις δὲ τούτου τὸ λυομένου τοῦ πάγου
/ > ~ ~
πάλιν ἀτμὸν πολὺν ἐκ τῶν ὑγρῶν ἀναφέρεσθαι.
\ \ ~ ~
διὸ καὶ τὰ TOV ζῴων σώματα χειμῶνός ἐστι θερ-
/ ~ A ~
μότερα TH συνέχειν TO θερμὸν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ὑπὸ τῆς
Ui /
ἔξωθεν ψυχρότητος εἴσω συνελαυνόμενον.
ς > 3 /
At δ᾽ avaptces Kal μετεωρίσεις οὐ μόνον τὸ
θε \ ἕ - ARRLEY 3 ΧᾺ ὦ τ ae
ρμὸν ἐξαιροῦσι τῶν ὑδάτων ἀλλὰ καὶ TO ψυχρόν
“ σ \ /
ὅθεν ἥκιστα τὰς χιόνας Kal TO συνθλιβόμενον ὑγρὸν
3 > b) ~ ς / ~ ~
ἀπ᾿ αὐτῶν ot σφόδρα ψυχροῦ δεόμενοι κινοῦσιν"
> \ \ “-
ἐκστατικὸν γὰρ ἀμφοῖν ἡ κίνησις.
“O δ᾽ ᾿ >/ > \ Ἰλλ᾽ “ὃ ¢ /
τι δ᾽ οὐκ ἀέρος ἐστὶν ἀλλ᾽ ὕδατος ἡ τοιαύτη
/ “ A > ~ ~
δύναμις, οὕτως ἄν Tis ἐξ ὑπαρχῆς ἐπέλθοι. πρῶτον
1 τὸ added by Benseler.
2 dunow Wyttenbach : διίεσιν.
260
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 951
fectly absurd for them to say that water is frozen by air
when they have never seen air itself freezing. For
clouds, mists, and flecks in the sky are not congela-
tions, but condensations and thickenings of air that is
moist and vaporous. But waterless, dry air never
admits loss of heat to the point where such a change
might occur. There are, in fact, mountains which do
not know clouds or dew or mist because their peaks
reach a region of pure air that has no humidity at all.
From this fact it is especially obvious that it is the
condensation and density below that contribute to air
the cold, moist element that is found in combination
with it.
15. It is reasonable that the lower portion of large
rivers should not freeze ; for the upper portion, being
frozen, does not transmit the exhalation which is,
accordingly, shut in and turned back, and so provides
heat for the deep waters. A demonstration of this
is the fact that when the ice melts again a great
quantity of vapour rises from the waters. This is also
the reason why the bodies of animals are warmer in
the winter, because the heat is driven inwards by the
cold from without and they keep it within them.
Now drawing off water and suspending it in the
air * not only takes away its warmth, but its coldness
also; those, therefore, who want a very cold drink
take care not to disturb the snowpacks ἢ or the wet
matter that is formed from them by compression,
for movement expels both heat and cold.
That such a function of cold belongs not to air, but
to water, may be demonstrated as follows from a fresh
2 Cf. 949 τ supra; Mor. 690 B-E.
δ Cf. Mor. 691 c—692 a for snow packed in chaff and the
like.
261
(951)
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
μὲν οὐκ εἰκός ἐστιν ἀέρα, τῷ αἰθέρι γειτνιῶντα Kal
ψαύοντα τῆς περιφορᾶς καὶ ψαυόμενον οὐσίας" πυ-
/ \ > / ” 4 »Μ \ Μ
ρώδους, τὴν ἐναντίαν ἔχειν δύναμιν: οὔτε γὰρ ἄλλως
δυνατὸν ἁπτόμενα καὶ συνεχῆ τοῖς πέρασιν ὄντα
/ / \ / ¢ > > / > \ /
δύο σώματα μὴ πάσχειν ὑπ᾽ ἀλλήλων, εἰ δὲ πά-
σχειν, μὴ ἀναπίμπλασθαι τῆς τοῦ κρείττονος δυνά-
1 ἴα 2 ” \ , ” , > a
pews TO ἡἧττον"- οὔτε τὴν φύσιν ἔχει λόγον ἐφεξῆς
τῷ φθείροντι τάξαι τὸ φθειρόμενον, ὥσπερ οὐ κοινω-
νίας οὖσαν οὐδ᾽ ἁρμονίας ἀλλὰ “πολέμου καὶ μάχης
δημιουργόν. χρῆται μὲν γὰρ ἐναντίοις εἰς τὰ ὅλα
~ >
πράγμασι": χρῆται δ᾽ οὐκ ἀκράτοις οὐδ᾽ ἀντιτύποις,
> > > / / \ / > > A
ἀλλ᾽ ἐναλλάξ τινα θέσιν καὶ τάξιν οὐκ ἀναιρετικὴν
ἀλλὰ κοινωνικὴν dv ἑτέρων καὶ συνεργὸν ἐν μέσῳ
/ 4m \ / ” ἌΡ Se τ
παραπλεκομένην᾽ ἔχουσι" καὶ ταύτην εἴληφεν ὁ ἀήρ,
ὑποκεχυμένος τῷ πυρὶ πρὸ τοῦ ὕδατος καὶ διαδιδοὺς
ἐπ᾽ ἀμφότερα καὶ συνάγων, οὔτε θερμὸς ὧν αὐτὸς
οὔτε ψυχρὸς ἀλλὰ ψυχροῦ καὶ θερμοῦ μετακέρασμα
καὶ κοινώνημα, μειγνυμένων ἐν αὐτῷ μῖξιν ἀβλαβῆ
~ ~ >
καὶ μαλακῶς avietcav® καὶ δεχομένην Tas ἐναντίας
ἀκρότητας.
” ~ \ > aN » ᾽
16. ἔπειτα πανταχοῦ μὲν ἐστιν ἀὴρ ἴσος, οὐ
~ \ \ σ > \ ~ > \
πανταχοῦ δὲ χειμὼν ὅμοιος οὐδὲ ψῦχος. ἀλλὰ
ταῦτα μὲν τὰ μέρη ψυχρὰ καὶ κάθυγρα, ταῦτα δὲ
ξηρὰ καὶ θερμὰ τῆς οἰκουμένης οὐ κατὰ τύχην,
ἀλλὰ τῷ μίαν οὐσίαν ψυχρότητος καὶ ὑγρότητος
1 οὐσίας Xylander : οὔσης.
2 δύο. .. ἧττον are omitted in most mss.
3 χρῆται μὲν. . . πράγμασι are omitted in most Mss., in B
also, but not in E.
4 παραπλεκομένην E and most Mss. : παραπεπλεγμένην B.
5 ἁνιεῖσαν Turnebus: ἐνιεῖσαν.
262
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 951
start. In the first place, it is improbable that air,
which lies adjacent to the aether α and touches and is
touched by the revolving fiery substance, should have
a force that is contrary to that of aether. For one
thing, it is impossible for two substances whose boun-
daries touch and are contiguous not to be acted upon
by each other—and if acted upon, for the weaker not
to be contaminated by the force that resides in the
stronger. Nor is it reasonable to suppose that Nature
has placed side by side destroyer and victim, as though
she were the author of strife and dissension, not of
union and harmony. She does, indeed, make use of
opposites to constitute the universe ; yet she does
not employ them without a tempering element, or
where they will collide. She disposes them rather
so that a space is skipped and an inserted strip duly
assigned whereby they will not destroy one another,
but may enjoy communication and co-operation. And
this strip is occupied by air, suffused as it is through
a space under the fire ὃ between it and water. It
makes distribution both ways and receives contribu-
tions from both, being itself neither hot nor cold, but
a blending and union of the two. When these are so
fused, they meet without injury and the fused matter
sends forth or takes to itself the opposing extremes °
without violence.
16. Then, too, air is everywhere equal, though
neither winter nor cold is identical everywhere. It
is no accident that some parts of the world are cold
and damp, while others are hot and dry; it is due
to the existence of a single substance that includes
2 On the difference between aer and aether see the lucid
discussion of Guthrie, The Greeks and their Gods, pp. 207 f.
ὃ That is, the aether. See also Cherniss, op. cit. p. 126.
¢ Heat and cold.
263
(951)
F
952
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
εἷναι. Λιβύης μὲν yap ἔνθερμος ἡ πολλὴ καὶ av-
υδρος, Σκυθίαν δὲ καὶ Θράκην καὶ Ilovrov οἱ πε-
πλανημένοι λίμνας τε μεγάλας ἔχειν καὶ ποταμοῖς
διαρρεῖσθαι βαθέσι καὶ πολλοῖς ἱστοροῦσιν: αὐτῶν
τε τῶν ἐν μέσῳ τόπων τὰ παράλιμνα καὶ ἑλώδη
ψῦχος ἔχει μάλιστα διὰ τὰς ἀπὸ τῶν ὑγρῶν ἀνα-
θυμιάσεις" [Ποσειδώνιος δὲ τῆς ψυχρότητος αἰτίαν
εἰπὼν τὸ πρόσφατον εἶναι τὸν ἕλειον ἀέρα καὶ
νοτερὸν οὐκ ἔλυσε τὸ πιθανόν, ἀλλὰ πιθανώτερον
ἐποίησεν" οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἐφαίνετο τοῦ ἀέρος. ὁ ἡ πρόσφατος
ἀεὶ ψυχρότερος, εἰ μὴ τὸ ψυχρὸν ἐ ἐν τοῖς ὑγροῖς τὴν
γένεσιν εἶχε. βέλτιον οὖν “Ὅμηρος
“ αὔρη δ᾽ ἐκ ποταμοῦ ψυχρὴ πνέει ἠῶθι' po,”
τὴν πηγὴν τῆς ψυχρότητος ἔδειξεν.
"Ett τοίνυν "ἢ μὲν αἴσθησις πολλάκις ἡμᾶς ἐξ-
απατᾷ, ὅταν ἱματίων ἢ ἐρίων ψυχρῶν θιγγάνωμεν,
οἰομένους ὑγρῶν θιγγάνειν διὰ τὸ κοινὴν ἀμφοτέροις
οὐσίαν ὑπάρχειν καὶ τὰς φύσεις συγγενεῖς" εἶναι
καὶ οἰκείας. ἐν δὲ τοῖς δυσχειμέροις κλίμασι πολλὰ
ῥηγνύει τὸ ψῦχος ἀγγεῖα καὶ χαλκᾶ καὶ κεραμεᾶ:
κενὸν δ᾽ οὐδὲν ἀλλὰ πάνταἥ πλήρη, βιαζομένου τῇ
ψυχρότητι τοῦ ὕδατος. καίτοι φησὶ Θεόφραστος
τὸν ἀέρα ῥηγνύναι τὰ ἀγγεῖα τῷ ὑγρῷ καθάπερ
Β ἥλῳ᾽ χρώμενον: ὅρα δὲ μὴ τοῦτο κομψῶς μᾶλλον
1 πνέει ἠῶθι] omitted in most mss., which also write πρός.
2 συγγενεῖς Kronenberg: σύνεγγυς.
8 πάντα] omitted in most mss.
4 ἥλῳ Turnebus : ἡλίῳ.
4 Plutarch may be thinking of the old kingdom of Pontus,
which included tracts south, east, and north of the Black Sea.
> The fragment has not yet been numbered in L. Edel-
264
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 951-952
coldness and wetness in one. The greater part of
Africa is hot and without water; while those who
have travelled through Scythia, Thrace, and Pontus 4
report that these regions have great lakes or marshes
and are traversed by many deep rivers. As for the
regions that lie between, those that are near lakes
and marshes are especially cold because of the ex-
halations from the water. Posidonius,? then, in
affirming that the freshness and moistness of marsh
air is the reason for the cold, has done nothing to
disturb the plausibility of the argument; he has,
rather, made it more plausible. For fresh air would
not always seem colder if cold did not take its origin
from moisture. So Homer ° spoke more truly when
he affirmed
The river-air blows chill before the dawn,
thereby indicating the source of coldness.
Our senses, moreover, often deceive us and we
imagine, when we touch cold garments or cold wool,
that we are touching moist objects : this is because
wet and cold have a common substance and their
natures have a close affinity and relationship. In very
cold climates the low temperature often breaks
vessels whether they are of bronze or of clay—not,
of course, when they are empty, but only when they
are full and the water exerts pressure by means of
its coldness. Theophrastus,’ to be sure, declares that
the air breaks these vessels, using the liquid as a
spike. But take care 5 that there isn’t more wit than
stein’s forthcoming collection ; for the literature see 4.J.P.
lvii (1936), p. 301 and n. 61. © Odyssey, v. 469.
4 The fragment is apparently omitted by Wimmer.
¢ This seems to be addressed to Favorinus’s Peripatetic
sympathies.
265
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
“ iA AG » / 4 ” \ \ / /
(952) ἢ GAnUws εἰρημενον 7° ἔδει yap τὰ πιττὴς γεμοντα
μᾶλλον ῥήγνυσθαι ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀέρος καὶ τὰ γάλακτος.
> VA” ” arse ? ¢ “ \ b \
Αλλ᾽ ἔοικε TO ὕδωρ ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ ψυχρὸν εἶναι καὶ
πρώτως: ἀντίκειται γὰρ τῇ ψυχρότητι πρὸς τὴν
θερμότητα τοῦ πυρός, ὥσπερ τῇ ὑγρότητι πρὸς τὴν
ξηρότητα καὶ τῇ βαρύτητι πρὸς τὴν κουφότητα.
καὶ ὅλως τὸ μὲν πῦρ διαστατικόν ἐστι καὶ διαι-
ρετικόν, τὸ δ᾽ ὕδωρ κολλητικὸν καὶ σχετικόν, τῇ
ὑγρότητι συνέχον καὶ πῆττον᾽ ἧ καὶ παρέσχεν ᾿Ἐμ-
πεδοκλῆς ὑπόνοιαν, ὡς τὸ μὲν πῦρ “νεῖκος οὐ-
/ +) ce / 2) ᾿ ἐξέ / +) \ € \
λόμενον,᾽᾿ “᾿ σχεδύνην ᾿᾿ δὲ “ diddtyta’’ τὸ ὑγρὸν
C ἑκάστοτε προσαγορεύων: ἐπεὶ τροφὴ μὲν πυρὸς τὸ
μεταβάλλον εἰς πῦρ, μεταβάλλει δὲ τὸ συγγενὲς
καὶ οἰκεῖον, τὸ δ᾽ ἐναντίον δυσμετάβλητον, ὡς τὸ
ὕδωρ: καὶ αὐτὸ μὲν ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν ἀκαυστόν ἐστιν,
“ \ \ / \ \ / ϑ'
ὕλην δὲ καὶ πόαν νοτερὰν καὶ ξύλα βεβρεγμένα
~ / \ λ / \ \ > rv A
δυσκαῆ παρέχει, καὶ φλόγα Codepav καὶ ἀμβλεῖαν
3 “- -
ὑπὸ χλωρότητος ἀναδίδωσι τῷ ψυχρῷ μαχόμενον
πρὸς τὸ θερμὸν ὡς φύσει πολέμιον.
Σκόπει δὴ καὶ ταῦτα παραβάλλων ἐκείνοις.
ἐπειδὴ yap’ Χρύσιππος οἰόμενος τὸν ἀέρα πρώτως
ψυχρὸν εἶναι, διότι καὶ σκοτεινόν, ἐμνήσθη μόνον
~ / > / \ “ ~ > / a” \
τῶν πλέον ἀφεστάναι TO ὕδωρ τοῦ αἰθέρος ἢ τὸν
ἀέρα λεγόντων, καὶ πρὸς αὐτούς τι βουλόμενος
> “- {{ “ \ ” a> ΝΜ cc \ \ ion \
εἰπεῖν, “᾿ οὕτω μὲν av,’ ἔφη, “᾿ καὶ τὴν γῆν ψυχρὰν
εἶναι πρώτως λέγοιμεν, ὅτι τοῦ αἰθέρος ἀφέστηκε
1 ἐπειδὴ γὰρ Wyttenbach: ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ.
2 That is, than those full of water.
» Diels-Kranz, Frag. der Vorsok.®, i, Ὁ. 318, frag. B 19.
Plutarch seems to have mistaken Empedocles’ meaning,
though some would invoke frag. B 34. In general, while
266
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 952
truth in such a remark! For if it were so, vessels full
of pitch or of milk would more readily be broken by
the air.*
Water, however, seems to be cold of itself, and
primordially so. It is the antithesis, in its coldness,
to the heat of fire, just as in its wetness to the dryness
of fire, and in its heaviness to the other’s lightness.
To sum up: fire is of a disintegrating and separative
nature, while water is adhesive and retentive, holding
and gluing together by means of its moistness.
Empedocles ὃ alluded to this, when, as often as he
mentioned them, he termed Fire a “ Destructive
Strife’ and Water “ Tenacious Love.” For the
nourishment of fire is that which can be changed
into fire and only things that have affinity and a
close relationship to it can be so changed; while
its opposites, like water, are not easily changed to
fire. Water itself is practically incombustible, and it
renders matter such as damp grass and moist timber
very hard to consume ; the greenness in them pro-
duces a dusky, dull flame because, by dint of cold, it
struggles against heat as against its natural enemy.
17. Now you must pursue the subject by comparing
these arguments with those of my opponents. For
Chrysippus,° thinking that the air is primordially
cold because it is also dark, merely mentioned those
who affirm that water is at a greater distance from the
aether ὦ than is air; and, wishing to make them some
answer, he said, “ If so, we might as well declare that
even earth is primordially cold because it is at the
Plutarch is said to have written ten books on Empedocles
(Lamprias catalogue no. 43), he does not seek the difficult
poet’s meaning very carefully.
¢ Von Arnim, S.V./F’. ii, p. 140; cf. Mor. 1053 x.
@ See 951 ἢ supra.
267
(952)
Dw
F
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
πλεῖστον, ws ἀδόκιμόν τινα παντελῶς τοῦτον καὶ
ἄτοπον ἀπορρίψας τὸν λόγον, ἐγώ μοι δοκῶ μηδὲ
τὴν γῆν ἄμοιρον εἰκότων καὶ πιθανῶν ἀποφαίνειν,"
ποιησάμενος ἀρχὴν ᾧ μάλιστα Χρύσιππος ὑ ὑπὲρ τοῦ
ἀέρος κέχρηται. τί δὲ τοῦτ᾽ ἐστί; τὸ σκοτεινὸν
ὄντα πρώτως εἶναι καὶ ψυχρὸν πρώτως. εἰ γὰρ
δύο λαβὼν οὗτος ἀντιθέσεις δυνάμεων οἴεται τῇ
ἑτέρᾳ καὶ τὴν ἑτέραν ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἕπεσθαι, μυρίαι
δήπουθέν εἰσιν ἀντιτάξεις καὶ ἀντιπάθειαι πρὸς τὸν
αἰθέρα" τῆς γῆς, αἷς καὶ ταύτην ἄν τις ἀκολουθεῖν
ἀξιώσειεν. οὐ “γὰρ ὡς βαρεῖα πρὸς κοῦφον καὶ
καταρρεπὴς πρὸς ἀνωφερὲς ἀντίκειται μόνον, οὐδ᾽
ὡς πυκνὴ πρὸς ἀραιὸν οὐδ᾽ ὡς βραδεῖα καὶ στά-
σιμος πρὸς ὀξύρροπον καὶ κινητικόν, ἀλλ᾽ ὡς
βαρυτάτη πρὸς κουφότατον καὶ πυκνοτάτη πρὸς
ἀραιότατον, καὶ τέλος ὡς ἀκίνητος ἐξ ἑ ἑαυτῆς πρὸς
αὐτοκίνητον καὶ τὴν μέσην χώραν ἐπέχουσα πρὸς
ἀεὶ κυκλοφορούμενον. οὐκ ἄτοπον οὖν τηλικαύταις
καὶ τοσαύταις ἀντιτάξεσι καὶ τὴν τῆς ψυχρότητος
καὶ θερμότητος ἕπεσθαι. ναί, ἀλλὰ τὸ πῦρ λαμπρόν
ἐστιν. οὔτι pens σκοτεινὸν ἡ γῆ; σκοτεινότατον
μὲν οὖν ἁπάντων καὶ ἀφεγγέστατον. ἀέρι μέν γε
μετοχὴ φωτός ἐστι πρώτῳ, καὶ τάχιστα τρέπεται
καὶ ἀναπλησθεὶς διανέμει πανταχοῦ τὴν λαμπρό-
THTA, σῶμα παρέχων τῆς αὐγῆς ἑαυτόν: 6 γὰρ ἥλιος
ἀνίσχων, ὥς τις εἶπε τῶν διθυραμβοποιῶν,
ce
Ya a9 ole > A , 5 Dey ”
εὐθὺς ἀνέπλησεν ἀεροβατᾶν μεγαᾶν OLKOV GVEULWY *
ἀποφανεῖν Hatzidakis.
εἶναι καὶ ψυχρὸν πρώτως added by Patzig.
αἰθέρα Leonicus : ἀέρα.
4 οὔτι μὴν] the text is that of E: B and other mss. have
several lacunae.
268
onw
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 952
greatest distance from the aether ’’—tossing off this
argument as if it were utterly inadmissible and absurd.
But I have a mind to maintain the thesis that earth
too is not destitute of probable and convincing argu-
ments, and 1 shall start with the one that Chrysippus
has found most serviceable for air. And what is this?
Why, that it is primordially dark and cold. For if he
takes these two pairs of opposing forces and assumes
_ that one must of necessity accompany the other,
there are, surely, innumerable oppositions and anti-
pathies between the aether and the earth with which
one might suppose this to be consistent. For it
is not only opposed as heavy to light and as moving
by gravity downwards, not upwards, or as dense
to rare or as slow and stable to mobile and active,
but as heaviest to lightest and as densest to rarest
and, finally, as immovable of itself to self-moving,
and as occupying the central position in the universe
to revolving forever around a centre. Itis not absurd,
then, if oppositions so numerous and important carry
with them the opposition of cold and heat as well.
“Yes,” Chrysippus may say, “ but fire is bright.”
Is not the earth, then, dark ? Why, it is the darkest
and most unilluminated of all things. Certainly air
is first of all to participate in light; it is instantly
altered and when it is saturated, it distributes
illumination everywhere, lending itself to light as a
body in which to reside. For when the sun arises,
as one of the dithyrambic writers 7 has said,
It straightway fills the mighty home of the air-borne winds.
* Diehl, Anthologia Lyrica Graeca, ii. 302; Edmonds,
Lyra Graeca (L.C.L.), iii, Ὁ. 460 (adespota no. 95).
5 ye] yap Meziriacus.
269
(952)
953
B
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
> τς \ \ / \ /, - , ~
ἐκ τούτου δὲ καὶ λίμνῃ καὶ θαλάττῃ μοῖραν αὐγῆς
κατιὼν ἐνίησι καὶ βυθοὶ ποταμῶν διαγελῶσιν, ὅσον
- € ~ ~
ἀέρος ἐξικνεῖται πρὸς αὐτούς. μόνη δ᾽ ἡ γῆ τῶν
>
σωμάτων ἀεὶ ἀφώτιστός ἐστι Kal ἄτρωτος ὑφ
e / \ / ~ / A LA δ᾽ ¢ >
ἡλίου καὶ σελήνης τῷ φωτίζοντι, θάλπεται δ᾽ ὑπ
Stn \ , ’ ὟΝ Oe , 1
αὐτῶν καὶ παρέχει χλιαίνειν ἐπ᾽ ὀλίγον βάθος
~ ~ /
ἐνδυομένῳ τῷ θερμῷ: τὸ δὲ λαμπρὸν od παρίησιν
«ε \ ’ὔ 5 > > ~ / \
ὑπὸ στερεότητος ἀλλ᾽ ἐπιπολῆς περιφωτίζεται, τὰ
vif \ ” \ , Oe a. > , r
δ᾽ ἐντὸς ὄρφνη καὶ χάος καὶ ᾿Αίδης ὀνομάζεται-"
, ~ Ss ”
καὶ TO ἔρεβος τοῦτ᾽ ἦν apa, TO χθόνιον καὶ ἔγγαιον
σκότος. τὴν δὲ νύκτα ποιηταὶ μὲν ἐκ γῆς γεγονέναι
μυθολογοῦσι, μαθηματικοὶ δὲ σκιὰν γῆς οὖσαν ἀπο-
δεικνύουσιν ἀντιφραττούσης πρὸς τὸν ἥλιον: ὃ γὰρ
ἀὴρ ἀναπίμπλαται σκότους ὑπὸ γῆς ὡς φωτὸς ὑφ᾽
ἡλίου: καὶ τὸ ἀφώτιστον αὐτοῦ μῆκός ἐστι νυκτός,
ὅσον ἡ σκιὰ τῆς γῆς ἐπινέμεται. διὸ τῷ μὲν ἐκτὸς
ἀέρι καὶ νυκτὸς οὔσης ἀνθρωποί τε χρῶνται καὶ
θηρία πολλὰ νομὰς ποιούμενα διὰ σκότους, ἁμωσ-
γέπως ἴχνη φωτὸς καὶ ἀπορροὰς αὐγῆς ἐνδιεσπαρ-
μένας ἔχοντος" ὁ δ᾽ οἰκουρὸς καὶ ὑπωρόφιος, ἅτε
δὴ τῆς γῆς πανταχόθεν περιεχούσης, κομιδῇ τυφλός
> \ 5 / > \ \ \ / A
ἐστι καὶ ἀφώτιστος. ἀλλὰ μὴν καὶ δέρματα καὶ
κέρατα ζῴων ὅλα μὲν οὐ διίησιν αὐγὴν ὑπὸ στερεό-
τητος, ὅταν δὲ πρισθῆ καὶ καταξεσθῇ, γίνεται δια-
φανῆ, παραμιχθέντος αὐτοῖς τοῦ ἀέρος. οἶμαι δὲ
1 βάθος Wyttenbach : κάρος or φάρος.
« Cf. Aeschylus, Prometheus, 90, and 950 8 supra.
» The Invisible Place, according to the etymology adopted
above in 948 F.
270
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 952-953
Next the air, moving downward, infuses a part of its
brightness into the lakes and the sea, and the depths
of the rivers flash brightly, to the extent that air
is able to penetrate them. Of all bodies only the
earth remains constantly without light, impenetrable
to the illumination of sun or moon ; yet it is warmed
by them and permits the heat to sink in and warm
it up to a slight depth. But because it is solid, earth
does not give passage to light, but is encircled by
light on its surface only, while the inner parts are
called Darkness and Chaos and Hades °—so that
Erebus © turns out to be the subterranean and interior
darkness. Then, too, the poets tell us that Night
was born of Earth ὦ and mathematicians demonstrate
that night is the shadow of Earth blocking the light
of the sun. The air, indeed, is saturated with dark-
ness by the earth, just as it is with light by the sun.
The unlighted portion of the air is the area of night,
amounting to the space occupied by the earth’s
shadow. This is the reason why men make use of the
air out of doors even when it is night, as well as many
beasts which do their pasturing in the darkness, since
it retains some vestiges of light and dispersed glim-
merings of radiance ; but the house-bound man who
is under a roof is utterly blind and without light
inasmuch as there the earth envelops him from all
directions. Whole skins, furthermore, and horns of
animals do not let light pass through them because
of their solidity ; yet if sections are sawed off and
polished, they become translucent when once the
air has been mixed with them. It is also my opinion
© Hesiod, Theogony, 125. The original meaning of Erebus
is actually “‘ darkness ”’.
4 Cf. Diels-Kranz, Frag. der Vorsok.*, i, Ὁ. 331, Em-
pedocles, frag. B 48; cf. Mor. 1006 Fr.
271
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(953) καὶ μέλαιναν ἑκάστοτε τὴν γῆν ὑπὸ τῶν ποιητῶν
~ \ \ ~ \ \ > / σ
καλεῖσθαι διὰ τὸ σκοτῶδες καὶ τὸ ἀφώτιστον: ὥστε
καὶ τὴν πολυτίμητον ἀντίθεσιν τοῦ σκοτεινοῦ πρὸς
τὸ λαμπρὸν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς μᾶλλον ἢ τοῦ ἀέρος ὑπ-
άρχειν.
@ 18. "AAV αὕτη μὲν ἀπήρτηται τοῦ ζητουμένου"
\ A / A ~ ~ y+ \
πολλὰ yap δέδεικται ψυχρὰ τῶν λαμπρῶν ὄντα Kat
θερμὰ τῶν ἀμαυρῶν καὶ σκοτεινῶν. ἐκεῖναι δὲ
»
συγγενέστεραι δυνάμεις ψυχρότητός εἰσι, τὸ ἐμ-
\ \ , \ \ 1, > , -
βριθὲς τὸ μόνιμον τὸ πυκνὸν τὸ ἀμετάβλητον: ὧν
SY \ , ~ ~ \ ~ av [7 ~
ἀέρι μὲν οὐδεμιᾶς, γῇ δὲ μᾶλλον ἢ ὕδατι πασῶν
μέτεστι. καὶ μὴν ἐν τοῖς μάλιστα τὸ ψυχρὸν αἰσθη-
τῶς σκληρόν ἐστι καὶ σκληροποιὸν καὶ ἀντίτυπον.
> ~ \ \ ς ~ /, € \ εὔ͵
ἰχθῦς μὲν γὰρ ἱστορεῖ Θεόφραστος ὑπὸ ῥίγους πε-
πηγότας, ἂν ἀφεθῶσιν ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν, κατάγνυσθαι
\ ἢ ε axel A ΄,
καὶ συντρίβεσθαι δίκην ὑελῶν' ἢ κεραμεῶν σωμά-
Ὁ των. ἐν δὲ Δελφοῖς αὐτὸς ἤκουες ὅτι τῶν εἰς τὸν
\ > / ~ A / 2
Ilapvacov ἀναβάντων βοηθῆσαι ταῖς Θυιάσιν,
ἀπειλημμέναις ὑπὸ πνεύματος χαλεποῦ καὶ χιόνος,
΄ Ψ /, \ \ 4 A \ 7
οὕτως ἐγένοντο διὰ TOV πάγον σκληραὶ Kal ξυλώδεις
ες 4 ς \ / / A
at χλαμύδες, ws καὶ θραύεσθαι διατεινομένας καὶ
ἃ} A ~ ~
ῥήγνυσθαι. ποιεῖ δὲ καὶ νεῦρα δυσκαμπῆ καὶ
γλῶτταν ἄναυδον ἀκινησίᾳ καὶ σκληρότητι τὸ ἄγαν
ψῦχος, ἐκπηγνύον τὰ" ὑγρὰ καὶ μαλακὰ τοῦ σώ-
ματος.
1. ὑελῶν van Herwerden : ὑέλων.
2 Θυιάσιν Bernardakis : θυάσιν. 3 τὰ] most mss. have καὶ.
272
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 953
that the earth is called black by the poets,” whenever
they have occasion to do so, because of its murky and
lightless characteristics. The result, then, of these
considerations is that the much-prized antithesis of
light and darkness belongs to earth rather than to air.
18. This, however, has no relevance to the question
under discussion ; for it has been shown that there
are many cold objects which are bright and many
hot which are dull and dark. Yet there are qualities
more closely connected that belong to coldness :
heaviness, stability, solidity, and resistance to change.
Air has no part at allin them, while earth has a greater
share in all of them than water has. Cold, moreover,
is perceptibly one of the hardest of things and it
makes things hard and unyielding. Theophrastus,?
for instance, tells us that when frozen fish are dropped
on the ground, they are broken and smashed to bits
just like objects of glass or earthenware. And at
Delphi you yourself heard, in the case of those who
climbed Parnassus to rescue the Thyiades ὁ when
they were trapped by a fierce gale and snowstorm,
that their capes were frozen so stiff and wooden that
when they were opened out, they broke and split
apart. Excessive cold, because of its hardness and
immobility, also stiffens the muscles and renders the
tongue speechless, for it congeals the moist and
tender parts of the body.
* e.g. Homer, Jliad, ii. 699 ; Aleman, 36 (Edmonds, Lyra
Graeca, i, p. 76; Diehl, Anthologia Lyrica Graeca, ii. 27) ;
Sappho, 38 (Edmonds, op. cit. i, p. 208).
® Frag. 184 Wimmer.
¢ The Thyiades were Attic women, devotees of Dionysus,
who went every other year to Delphi to join in the midwinter
festival. (See Guthrie, The Greeks and their Gods, p. 178.)
The rites must have involved considerable discomfort and
even risk, as Dodds says (edition of Euripides, Bacchae, p. xi).
273
(953)
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
19. Ὧν βλεπομένων, σκόπει TO γινόμενον οὕτω.
πᾶσα δήπου δύναμις, ἂν περιγένηται, πέφυκε μετα-
\
βάλλειν καὶ τρέπειν εἰς ἑαυτὴν TO νικώμενον" TO
~ ~ \ >
μὲν yap ὑπὸ θερμοῦ κρατηθὲν ἐκπυροῦται, τὸ ὃ
~ /
ὑπὸ πνεύματος ἐξαεροῦται, TO δ᾽ εἰς ὕδωρ ἐμπεσόν,
ἂν μὴ διαφύγῃ, καθυγραίνεται συνδιαχεόμενον.
3 / \ \ \ / ~ / >
ἀνάγκη δὴ Kal Ta ψυχόμενα κομιδῇ μεταβάλλειν εἰς
\ / / ” “(ἘΠ \ / ~
τὸ πρώτως ψυχρόν" ἔστι δ᾽ ὑπερβολὴ ψύξεως πῆξις,
- > ᾽ > / ~ \ / i
πῆξις δ᾽ εἰς ἀλλοίωσιν τελευτᾷ καὶ λίθωσιν, ὅταν,
/ ~ ~ / > ~ \ \
παντάπασι τοῦ ψυχροῦ κρατήσαντος, ἐκπαγῇ μὲν TO
ς \ >] ~ \ \ / “ ε \ > /
ὑγρὸν ἐκθλιβῇ δὲ τὸ θερμόν. ὅθεν ἡ μὲν ev βάθει
γῆ πάγος ἐστὶν ὡς εἰπεῖν καὶ κρύσταλλος ἅπασα"
τὸ γὰρ ψυχρὸν ἄκρατον οἰκουρεῖ καὶ ἀμάλακτον
ἀπεωσμένον ἐκεῖ τοῦ αἰθέρος ἀπωτάτω: ταυτὶ δὲ
> ~ \ \
τὰ ἐμφανῆ, κρημνοὺς καὶ σκοπέλους Kal πέτρας,
> ~ \ ¢ \ ~ \ ” ~ ? /
Ἐμπεδοκλῆς μὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ πυρὸς οἴεται τοῦ ev βάθει
τῆς γῆς ἑστάναι καὶ ἀνέχεσθαι διερειδόμενα φλεγ-
~ A
μαίνοντος: ἐμφαίνεται δὲ μᾶλλον, ὅσων τὸ θερμὸν
ἐξεθλίβη καὶ διέπτατο, πάντα ταῦτα παντάπασιν
ὑπὸ τῆς ψυχρότητος παγῆναι: διὸ καὶ πάγοι κα-
λοῦνται. καὶ τὰ ἄκρα πολλῶν ἐπιμελανθέντα, 7
τὸ θερμὸν ἐξέπεσε, πυρικαύστοις ἰδεῖν προσέοικε"
7 \ \ \ \ \ ~ \ So
πήγνυσι yap TO ψυχρὸν τὰ μὲν μᾶλλον τὰ δ᾽ ἧττον,
954 μάλιστα δ᾽ οἷς πρώτως ἐνυπάρχειν πέφυκεν. ὥσπερ
1 ἐπιμελανθέντα Emperius : ἐπιμελανθέντων.
α See 951 ἢ above.
» Diels-Kranz, Frag. der Vorsok.*, i, p. 296, frag. A 69 ;
cf. Mor. 691 8 and Hubert’s references ad loc,
¢ Crags and rocks are called pagoi (as the Areo-pagus,
274
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 953-954
19. In view of these considerations, regard the
facts in the following light : every force, presumably,
whenever it prevails, by a law of nature changes and
turns into itself whatever it overcomes. What is
mastered by heat is reduced to flames, what is
mastered by wind turns to air; and anything that
falls into the water, unless it gets out quickly, dis-
solves and liquefies. It follows, then, that whatever
is completely frozen must turn into primordial cold.
Now freezing is extreme refrigeration that terminates
in a complete alteration and petrifaction when, since
the cold has obtained complete mastery, the moist
elements are frozen solid and the heat is squeezed
out. This is the reason why the earth at its bottom-
most point is practically all solid frost and ice. For
there undiluted and unmitigated cold abides at bay,
thrust back to the point farthest removed from the
flaming aether.? As for these features that are
visible, cliffs and crags and rocks, Empedocles ὃ thinks
that they have been fixed in place and are upheld by
resting on the fire that burns in the depths of the
earth ; but the indications are rather that all these
things from which the heat was squeezed out and
evaporated were completely frozen by the cold ; and
for this reason they are called pagoi.“ So also the
peaks @ of many of them have a black crust where the
heat has been expelled and have the appearance of
debris from a conflagration. For the cold freezes
substances to a varying degree, but hardest those of
which it is naturally a primary constituent. Thus, if
‘* Mars Hill,’’ at Athens), which Plutarch correctly connects
with the verb meaning “ freeze ’’ or “ solidify ’’ and uses to
confute Empedocles.
4 Plutarch is speaking of volcanoes like Aetna with a lava
bed on top.
275
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
- / > ~
(954) yap, εἰ θερμοῦ τὸ κουφίζειν, θερμότατόν ἐστι τὸ
> ~
κουφότατον: εἰ δ᾽ ὑγροῦ τὸ μαλάσσειν, ὑγρότατον
\ ~
τὸ μαλακώτατον: οὕτως, εἰ Kal ψυχροῦ τὸ πηγ-
νύειν, ἀνάγκη καὶ ψυχρότατον εἶναι τὸ μάλιστα
, - ς ἧς \ \ , , ,
πεπηγός, οἷον ἡ γῆ" TO δὲ ψυχρότατον φύσει δήπου
καὶ πρώτως ψυχρόν: ὥστε πρώτως καὶ φύσει
ψυχρὸν ἡ γῆ. τοῦτο δ᾽ ἀμέλει καὶ τῇ αἰσθήσει
~ / » \ A \ 7 ᾽ὔ \
δῆλόν ἐστι" Kal yap πηλὸς ὕδατος ψυχρότερον καὶ
~ ~ ~ « aA
TO πῦρ γῆν ἐπιφοροῦντες ἀφανίζουσιν: ot δὲ χαλκεῖς
~ /
τῷ πυρουμένῳ καὶ ἀνατηκομένῳ σιδήρῳ μάρμαρον
\ , , 1 \ \ ε"
Β καὶ λατύπην παραπάσσουσι, τὴν πολλὴν ῥύσιν
5 / \ “4 / \ \ \ ~
ἐφιστάντες Kal καταψύχοντες" ψύχει δὲ Kal TA TOV
ἀθλητῶν ἡ κόνις σώματα Kal κατασβέννυσι τοὺς
ἱδρῶτας.
20. Ἢ δὲ καθ᾽ ἕκαστον ἐνιαυτὸν ἡμᾶς μετά-
γουσα καὶ μετοικίζουσα χρεία τί βούλεται, χει-
μῶνος μὲν ἀπωτάτω φεύγουσα τῆς γῆς εἰς μετέωρα
καὶ ἀπόγεια, θέρους δὲ πάλιν ἀντεχομένη τῶν κάτω
καὶ ὑποδυομένη καὶ διώκουσα προσφόρους" κατα-
φυγάς, τιθεμένη δίαιταν ἐν ἀγκάλαις γῆς ἀγαπητῶς;
ἄρ᾽ οὐχὶ ταῦτα ποιοῦμεν ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν ὑπὸ ψυχρό-
τητος ὁδηγούμενοι τῇ αἰσθήσει καὶ τὸ πρώτως
φύσει ψυχρὸν ἐπιγινώσκοντες; at γοῦν παράλιοι
χειμῶνος δίαιται τρόπον τινὰ γῆς φυγαί εἰσιν, ὡς
5 \ 5 / \ / 5» / \ >
C ἀνυστὸν ἀπολειπόντων διὰ κρύος αὐτήν, τὸν ὃ
” Dy VF. \ / A »Μ
ἔναλον ἀέρα καὶ πελάγιον θερμὸν ὄντα περιβαλ-
λομένων"- εἶτ᾽ αὖθις ἐν θέρει τὸν γηγενῆ καὶ χερ-
"» nw »”
σαῖον ὑπὸ καύματος ποθοῦμεν, οὐκ αὐτὸν ὄντα
276
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 954
it is the nature of heat to lighten, the lightest object
will have most heat, and if it is the nature of humidity
to soften, the softest will have the most humidity ;
so, if it is also true that the nature of cold is to harden,
then it must also follow that the hardest object will
have the most cold—that is to say, just as the earth
has. But what is coldest by nature is surely also
primarily cold, so that the earth is in fact cold both
primordially and naturally ; and, of course, this is
obvious even to the senses. Mud, in fact, is a colder
thing than water; and men extinguish a fire by
dumping earth upon it. Blacksmiths, when their iron
becomes fiery and begins to melt, sprinkle on it marble
chips and gypsum to check and cool it off before it
melts too much. It is also true that dust cools the
bodies of athletes and dries up their sweat.
20. And what is the meaning of our demand for
a yearly change of habitation ? In winter we retreat
to the loftiest parts of our houses, those farthest from
the earth, while in summer we require the lower parts,
submerging ourselves and going in quest of comfor-
table retreats, as we make the best of a life in the
embrace of mother earth. Since we do this, are we
not guided to the earth by our perception of its cold-
ness? Do we not acknowledge it as the natural seat
of primordial cold? And surely our living by the sea
in the winter is, in a way, an escape from the earth,
since we abandon the land as far as possible because
of the frost and wrap ourselves in salt sea air because
it is warm. Then again, in the summer by reason of
the heat, we long for the earth-born, upland air, not
1 περιπάσσουσι van Herwerden.
2 προσφόρους] mpocyeious Patzig.
3 περιβαλλομένων Wyttenbach : περιβάλλομεν.
217
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
954) ψυχρὸν ἀλλὰ τοῦ φύσει ψυχροῦ Kal πρώτως ἀπο-
| ρ
/ \ / « A ~~ 5 ~ /
βλαστάνοντα Kai βεβαμμένον ὑπὸ τῆς ev γῇ δυνά-
μεως ὥσπερ βαφῇ σίδηρον. καὶ γὰρ τῶν ῥυτῶν
ὑδάτων τὰ πετραῖα καὶ ὀρεινὰ ψυχρότατα καὶ τῶν
φρεατιαίων τὰ κοιλότατα: τούτοις μὲν γὰρ οὐκέτι
/ \ 7 »Μ « 3, ψ{᾽ , nw | >
μείγνυται διὰ βάθους ἔξωθεν ὁ ἀήρ, ἐκεῖνα δ᾽ ἐκ-
πίπτει διὰ τῆς γῆς ἀμίκτου καὶ καθαρᾶς, ὡς τὸ
~ τ,
D περὶ Ταίναρον, ὃ δὴ Στυγὸς ὕδωρ καλοῦσιν, ἐκ
/ / / [7 / σ
πέτρας γλίσχρως συλλειβόμενον οὕτω ψυχρόν, ὥστε
\ 5 an »” / 9 = \ y+ a
μηδὲν ἀγγεῖον ἄλλο μόνην δ᾽ ὁπλὴν ὄνου στέγειν"
\ > Μ / \ 474
τὰ δ᾽ ἄλλα διακόπτει Kal ῥήγνυσιν.
21. "Ere γε μὴν τῶν ἰατρῶν ἀκούομεν, ὡς πᾶσα
~ ~ / 7 \ / 4 \ \
γῆ τῷ γένει στύφειν καὶ ψύχειν πέφυκε: καὶ πολλὰ
τῶν μεταλλευομένων καταριθμοῦσι στυπτικὴν αὐ-
ΡῈ ’ὔ
τοῖς παρέχοντα καὶ σχετικὴν εἰς τὰς φαρμακείας
A ~ \
δύναμιν: Kal yap τὸ στοιχεῖον αὐτῆς οὐ τμητικὸν
» \ \ » ἢ \ 2 5» > ” 9 /
οὐδὲ κινητικὸν οὐδὲ λεπτὸν" οὐδ᾽ ἔχον ὀξύτητας
» \ \ >} 3 » / 4 > >
οὐδὲ μαλθακὸν οὐδ᾽ εὐπερίχυτον γέγονεν, ἀλλ
ε ~ ες « 4 A / “ , ’ὔἢ
E ἑδραῖον ὡς 6 κύβος καὶ συνερειστικόν. ὅθεν αὐτὴ
- ” \ \ / a Ss 4
τε βρῖθος ἔσχε, Kal τὸ ψυχρόν, ὅπερ ἦν δύναμις
αὐτῆς, τῷ πυκνοῦν καὶ συνωθεῖν καὶ ἀποθλίβειν τὰ
\
ὑγρὰ φρίκας Kal τρόμους διὰ τὴν ἀνωμαλίαν ἐνερ-
γάζεται τοῖς σώμασιν" ἂν δ᾽ ἐπικρατήσῃ παντάπασι,
τοῦ θερμοῦ φυγόντος ἢ σβεσθέντος, ἔστησε τὴν
ἕξιν ἐκπαγεῖσαν καὶ νεκρωθεῖσαν. ὅθεν οὐδὲ
καίεται γῆ τὸ παράπαν ἢ καίεται γλίσχρως καὶ
1 τὸ περὶ Ταίναρον Wyttenbach: περιττοτέρων or περὶ τὸ
Ταίναρον (τὸ περὶ Νώνακριν Emperius).
2 λεπτὸν Turnebus: λεῖπον or λίπον.
278
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 954
because it is itself chilly, but because it has sprung
from the naturally and primordially cold and has been
imbued with its earthy power, as steel is tempered
by being plunged in water.? And of flowing waters,
also, the coldest are those that fall from rocks or
mountains, and of well waters the deepest are the
coldest ; the air from outside does not, in the case
of these wells, affect the water, so deep are they,
while any such streams burst forth through pure un-
mixed earth, like the one at Taenarum,? which they
call the water of Styx: it flows from the rock in a
trickle, but so cold that no vessel except an ass’s hoof
can contain it—all others it bursts and breaks apart.
21. We are, further, informed by physicians that
generically earth is by nature astringent and cold,
and they enumerate many metals that provide a
styptic, staying effect for medicinal use. The element
of earth is not sharp or mobile or slender or prickly
or soft or ductile, but solid and compact like a cube.¢
This is how it came to have weight ; and the cold,
which is its true power, by thickening, compressing,
and squeezing out the humidity of bodies, induces
shivering and shaking through its inequality ?; and
if it becomes complete master and expels or ex-
tinguishes all the heat, it fixes the body in a frozen
and corpselike condition. This is the reason why
earth does not burn at all, or burns only grudgingly
« Cf. Mor. 433 a and 946 ὁ supra.
ὃ Plutarch knew that the mouth of Hades was at Taenarum
(Pindar, Pythian, iv. 44) and transferred the Styx to that
place. For its water see Frazer on Pausanias, vill. 18. 4.
According to Antigonus, Hist. Mirab. 158 (ed. Keller) no
receptacle except one of horn can contain the water ; he adds,
“ΑἹ! that taste of it die.”
¢ Cf. Mor. 288 © and Plato, Timaeus, 55 Ὁ-Ἑ.
4 Cf. 948 B supra.
279
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(954) μόγις. ἀὴρ μὲν yap ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ πολλάκις φλόγας
ἀναδίδωσι καὶ pet’ καὶ διαστράπτει πυρούμενος""
τῷ δ᾽ ὑγρῷ τροφῇ χρῆται τὸ θερμόν: οὐ γὰρ τὸ
στερεὸν ἀλλὰ τὸ νοτερὸν τοῦ ξύλου καυστόν ἐστιν"
> , 3 \ 7 \ \ \ \
F ἐξικμασθέντος" δὲ τούτου, TO στερεὸν καὶ ξηρὸν
ἀπολείπεται τέφρα γενόμενον. οἱ δὲ καὶ τοῦτο
/ 4 > a“ \
φιλοτιμούμενοι μεταβάλλον ἀποδεῖξαι καὶ KaTava-
λισκόμενον ἀναδεύοντες πολλάκις ἐλαίῳ καὶ στέατι
φύροντες οὐδὲν περαίνουσιν, ἀλλ᾽ ὅταν ἐκκαῇ τὸ
λιπαρόν, περίεστι πάντως καὶ διαμένει τὸ γεῶδες"
ὅθεν οὐ κατὰ χώραν μόνον ἐξ ἕδρας ἀκίνητον οὖσαν
? \ > \ \ > > / 5 / « /
αὐτὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ κατ᾽ οὐσίαν ἀμετάβλητον, ᾿στίαν,
id \4 ¢¢ / 5 ~ ” +) / 5
ἅτε δὴ “᾿ μένουσαν ἐν θεῶν οἴκῳ, κάλλιστα" προσ-
nyopevoay οἱ παλαιοΐ, διὰ τὴν στάσιν καὶ πῆξιν" ἧς
« / / > ς 3 / ¢ \
ἡ ψυχρότης δεσμός ἐστιν, ws ᾿Αρχέλαος 6 φυσικὸς
Φ ~ \ ’ὔ,
εἶπεν, οὐδενὸς χαλῶντος αὐτὴν οὐδὲ μαλάττοντος,
/
ate θερομένην καὶ ἀλεαινομένην οὐσίαν."
955 Οἱ δὲ πνεύματος μὲν αἰσθάνεσθαι ψυχροῦ καὶ
~ 4. , ~
ὕδατος, γῆς δ᾽ ἧττον οἰόμενοι, τὴν ἔγγιστα γῆν
~ /
ὁρῶσιν ἀέρων καὶ ὑδάτων καὶ ἡλίου καὶ θερμότη-
/ /
Tos ἀνάπλεων σύμμιγμα Kal συμφόρημα yeyern-
~ \ \ 5» /
μένην: καὶ οὐδὲν διαφέρουσι τῶν μὴ Tov αἰθέρα
1 ῥεῖ] ζεῖ Emperius.
ιαστράπτει πυρούμενος Bernardakis: διαστραπτόμενος or
ἀστράπτει πυρούμενος.
8. ἐξικμασθέντος Turnebus : ἰκμασθέντος.
4 “Ἑστίαν, ἅτε δὴ Turnebus: ἔστιν ὅτε δὲ.
5 κάλλιστα Post (who also suggests ἰσαίτατα) : κλίτα : δικαιό-
τατα W.C. H.
6 οὐσίαν Post and Sandbach: οὖσαν (deleted by Wytten-
bach ; ἠρεμοῦσαν Crénert).
280
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 954-955
and with difficulty. Air, on the other hand, often
shoots forth flames from itself and, turning into fire,
makes streams and flashes of lightning. Heat feeds
on moisture,” for it is not the solid part of wood,
but the damp part, that is combustible ; and when
this is distilled, the solid, dry part remains behind,
reduced to ashes.2. Those who emulously strive to
prove that this too is changed and consumed, sprink-
ling it, perhaps, with oil or kneading it with suet and
setting it alight, accomplish nothing ; for when the
oily part is consumed, the earthy remains as a per-
manent residue, do what they may. Not only, there-
fore, because the earth is physically immovable from
its station, but also because it is unalterable in es-
sence, it was quite appropriately called Hestia ° by
the ancients—in as much as she “ remains in the home
of the gods ’’—because of its stationary and compact
nature ; and coldness is what binds it together, as
Archelaiis ὁ the natural philosopher declared, since
nothing can relax or soften it, as a substance that is
subject to heating or warming might be loosened.
As for those who suppose that they feel cold air and
water, but are less sensible of earth’s coldness, what
they perceive is that portion of earth which is closest
to them and has come to be a medley, a congeries,
abounding in air and water, sun and heat. There is
no difference between such people and those who
2 Cf. Mor. 649 5, 687 a, 696 B; Aristotle, Metaphysics, A
3 (983 b 23 ff.) : Pseudo-Aristotle, Problemata, 949 Ὁ 29.
® Cf. Mor. 696 zB.
¢ Cf. Plato, Phaedrus, 247 a and 948 B supra with the note.
For earth as Hestia see also Dio Chrys. xxxvi. 46 (L.C.L.) with
Crosby’s note; Dion. Hal. ii. 66.3; Ovid, Fasti, vi. 267 ;
Koster, Mnemosyne, Suppl. iii (1951), p. 7, n. 6.
@ Diels-Kranz, Frag. der Vorsok.*, ii, p. 48.
281
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(955) φύσει καὶ πρώτως θερμὸν ἀλλὰ τὸ ζέον ὕδωρ ἢ
τὸν διάπυρον σίδηρον ἀποφαινομένων, ὅτι τούτων
μὲν ἅπτονται Kat προσθιγγάνουσι,͵ τοῦ δὲ πρώτου
“- \ > / \ ” > ς ~ >
καθαροῦ καὶ οὐρανίου πυρὸς αἴσθησιν bu ἁφῆς οὐ
λαμβάνουσιν, ὥσπερ οὐδ᾽ οὗτοι τῆς ἐν βάθει γῆς,
ἣν μάλιστα γῆν ἄν τις νοήσειεν αὐτὴν καθ᾽ αὑτὴν
ἀποκεκριμένην τῶν ἄλλων. δεῖγμα δ᾽ αὐτῆς ἐστι
> ~ \ \ / \ \ > / \
Β κἀνταῦθα περὶ τὰς πέτρας: πολὺ yap ἐκ βάθους Kai
ὦ ey > , 7 2 , € an
οὐ pad.ov ἀνασχέσθαι προσβάλλουσι κρύος. ot δὲ
ψυχροτέρου ποτοῦ δεόμενοι χάλικας ἐμβάλλουσιν
εἰς τὸ ὕδωρ: γίνεται γὰρ οὐλότερον καὶ στομοῦται
παρὰ τὴν ἀπὸ τῶν λίθων ψυχρότητα, πρόσφατον
καὶ ἄκρατον ἀναφερομένην.
22. Τοὺς οὖν πάλαι σοφοὺς καὶ λογίους ἄμικτα
θέσθαι τὰ ἐπίγεια καὶ τὰ οὐράνια χρὴ νομίζειν, οὐ
τοῖς τόποις ὥσπερ ἐπὶ ζυγοῦ πρὸς τὰ κάτω καὶ
ἄνω βλέποντας, ἀλλὰ τῇ διαφορᾷ τῶν δυνάμεων
τὰ μὲν θερμὰ καὶ λαμπρὰ καὶ ταχέα καὶ κοῦφα τῇ
> ig \ > / / / \ \
ἀθανάτῳ καὶ ἀιδίῳ φύσει προσνέμοντας, τὰ δὲ
\ \ \ \ / ~ \ > /
σκοτεινὰ καὶ ψυχρὰ Kat Ppadea φθιτῶν καὶ ἐνέρων
οὐκ εὐδαίμονα κλῆρον ἀποφαίνοντας." ἐπεὶ καὶ τὸ
Ο σῶμα τοῦ ζῴου, μέχρι μὲν ἔμπνουν ἐστὶ καὶ θαλερόν,
ὡς οἱ ποιηταὶ λέγουσι, θερμότητι χρῆται καὶ ζωῇ:
γενόμενον δὲ τούτων ἔρημον καὶ ἀπολειφθὲν ἐν
μόνῃ τῇ τῆς γῆς μοίρᾳ ψυχρότης εὐθὺς ἴσχει καὶ
1 προσθιγγάνουσι Meziriacus : προστυγχάνουσι.
2 προσβάλλουσι ‘Turnebus : προβάλλουσι.
3 ἀποφαίνοντας B, as Kronenberg had conjectured: ἀπο-
φήναντας.
282
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 955
declare that the aether 7 is not naturally and prim-
ordially hot, but rather that scalding water or red
hot iron are—because they can feel and touch these,
but are unable to touch and feel the primordially
pure and heavenly fire. Nor likewise are these
persons able to touch and feel the earth at its bottom-
most, which is what we particularly mean by earth—
earth set off alone by itself, without admixture of any
other element. But we can see a sample of such
earthiness in that statement about the cliffs ὃ that
display from deep down so intense a cold that it can
scarcely be endured. Then, too, those who want a
colder drink throw pebbles into the water,’ which
becomes thicker and denser through the coldness that
streams upward, fresh and undiluted, from the stones.
22. We must, therefore, believe that the reason
why ancient learned men held that there is no com-
merce between earthly and celestial things was not
that they distinguished up and down by relative
position, as we do in the case of scales; but rather
it was the difference in powers that led them to assign
such things as are hot and bright, swift and buoyant,
to the eternal and imperishable part of nature, while
darkness and cold and slowness they considered the
unhappy heritage of transitory and submerged beings.
Then too, the body of a living creature, as long as it
breathes and flourishes, does, as the poets say, enjoy
both warmth and life 2; but when these forsake it
and it is abandoned in the realm of earth alone,
immediately frigidity and congelation seize upon it.
@ Cf. 951 D supra.
> Cf. 954 c-D supra.
¢ Cf. Mor. 690 r—691 c.
4 Perhaps some such passage as Homer, /liad, xxii. 363 is
meant.
283
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
jos, ὡς ev παντὶ μᾶλλον ἢ τῷ γεώδει κατὰ φύσιν
(955) κρύος, ὡς ἐν παντὶ μᾶλλον ἢ τῷ γ
ερμότητος ἐνυπαρχούσης.
23. Ταῦτ᾽, ὦ Φαβωρῖνε, τοῖς εἰρημένοις ὑφ᾽ ἑτέ-
ρων παράβαλλε: κἂν μήτε λείπηται τῇ πιθανότητι
μήθ᾽ ὑπερέχη πολύ, χαίρειν ἔα τὰς δόξας, τὸ ἐπ-
έχειν ἐν τοῖς ἀδήλοις τοῦ συγκατατίθεσθαι φιλο-
σοφώτερον ἡγούμενος.
@ See the introduction to this essay.
284
THE PRINCIPLE OF COLD, 955
since warmth naturally resides in anything else rather
than in the earthy.
23. Compare these statements, Favorinus, with the
pronouncements of others; and if these notions of
mine are neither less probable nor much more plaus-
ible than those of others, say farewell to dogma, being
convinced as you are that it is more philosophic to
suspend judgement when the truth is obscure than
to take sides.”
285
a ; 7 ἘΝ Ri on
(9554 apeiat age mn
iit iw δἰμίϊτοι
ebrtiGnd 16
+ Bee than ἴσθι
MELLEIIER BIR AOR AW, AoDe
iS MORES Us Ets
(AQUANE AN IGNIS UTILIOR)
INTRODUCTION
THERE seems to be no reason to discuss this little work
in detail, since F. H. Sandbach α has shown con-
clusively that it cannot be genuine. Still more might
be added to his proofs, sound and thorough as they
are ; but this is not the place to slay the slain. It is
the more to be regretted that Ziegler, in the article
on Plutarch in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopddie, has
not had access to Sandbach’s work,’ though he does
refer to Xylander’s athetesis, only to reject it, and
might have mentioned Meziriacus’ as well.
Sandbach well observes: “ΤῸ write an exercise
on the comparative utility of fire and water may
seem so difficult to us moderns who do not have such
tasks as part of our education, that we do not recog-
nize how badly the topic is here handled. . . . While
it is possible that Plutarch wrote this work as a parody,
or when a schoolboy, or under some strange circum-
stances, yet . . . the most probable view is that a
miserable sophistical exercise on the subject Whether
fire or water is more useful was fathered on the author
of a diversion entitled Whether land- or water-animals
are more intelligent, just as the Consolatio ad Apollonium
@ Class. Quart. xxxiii (1939), pp. 198-202. G. Kowolski,
De Plut. scriptorum iuvenilium colore rhetorico, Cracow,
1918, pp. 258 ff., also denied the authenticity.
» This is very puzzling since Ziegler later (936) cites the
same article as authoritative on rhythmical matters.
288
IS FIRE OR WATER MORE USEFUL?
was ascribed to the author of a consolation addressed
to his wife, or the Lives of the Ten Orators to the author
of some more famous biographies.”’
The text is extremely bad, as may be seen by
examining Wegehaupt’s topheavy ® apparatus in
Χάριτες fiir Friedrich Leo (Berlin, Weidmann, 1911),
pp. 158-169. It is possible, to be sure, that part at
least of the difficulty of the text is due to the author.
Less emendation than that admitted here might not
seriously damage what is irreparable nonsense in any
case. Some attempt has been made to reproduce the
childish style of the original.
The work is no. 206 in the catalogue of Lamprias.?
¢ Wegehaupt collated some 34 mss. for his edition, all of
which he cites separately.
> The new Teubner edition of this and the following essays
appeared while this volume was in proof, so that only the most
necessary changes and corrections could be made. In this
essay (since Wegehaupt’s edition was already available) they
have not been so plentiful as in the subsequent ones, for which
Hubert has now provided the first truly critical edition that
these works have ever had.
VOL. XII L 289
(955) ΠΕΡΙ TOY TOTEPON YAQP H ILYP
XPHZIMOTEPON
D 1. “ἤΑριστον μὲν ὕδωρ, 6 δὲ χρυσὸς αἰθόμενον
πῦρ᾽᾿
σ e
E φησὶν ὁ Ilivdapos: ὥσθ᾽ οὗτος μὲν δευτέραν ἄντι-
A \ / ” A \ Ace /
κρυς τῷ πυρὶ χώραν ἔδωκε: συμφωνεῖ δὲ καὶ “Hai-
οδος εἰπὼν
cc \ / / / +)
ἤτοι μὲν πρώτιστα χάος γένετο
A / \ > / A \ Ad ~
tots πλείστοις γὰρ ὠνομακέναι δοκεῖ TO ὕδωρ τοῦ-
\ ~
τον TOV τρόπον παρὰ τὴν χύσιν. ἀλλὰ TO μὲν τῶν
ςε ~
μαρτύρων ἑκατέροις" ἴσον: ἐπεὶ Kal TO πῦρ εἰσιν οἱ
~ \ > e
τοῦ παντὸς ἀρχὴν ἀποφαινόμενοι Kal οἷον σπέρμα
~ ~ ~ \
τοῦτ᾽ ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ Te πάντα ποιεῖν Kal εἰς ἑαυτὸ
> / \ \ > 3 > / \
ἐκλαμβάνειν κατὰ τὴν ἐκπύρωσιν. ἀφέμενοι δὲ
~ ~ /
τῶν ἀνδρῶν, σκεψώμεθα τοὺς εἰς ἑκάτερον λόγους
πῇ μᾶλλον ἄγουσιν ἡμᾶς.
> > κ᾿ « ἡ
2. *Ap’ οὖν οὐ χρησιμώτερον ἐκεῖνο, οὗ πάντοτε
΄σ >
F καὶ διηνεκῶς δεόμεθα καὶ πλείστου, καθάπερ ἐργα-
“- « / σ
λεῖον καὶ ὄργανον καὶ νὴ Δία φίλος ὁ πάσης ὥρας
~ ¢ \
. καὶ παντὸς καιροῦ παρὼν ἕτοιμος; καὶ μὴν TO μὲν
1 ἑκατέροις Bernardakis : ἑκάτερος or -ov.
« Olympians, i. 1. ὑ Theogony, 116.
290
WHETHER ΨΚ ΘΕ WATER
IS MORE USEFUL
i. Water is best, but gold is a flaming fire,
says Pindar.* He, therefore, bluntly assigns the
second place to fire ; and Hesiod ἢ agrees with him
in the words
And first of all came Chaos into being ;
for most people believe that this is his name for water
because it flows (chysis).° Yet the balance of wit-
nesses on both sides seems to be equal. There are,
in fact, some ὦ who state that fire is the first principle
of the universe and, like a seed, creates everything out
of itself and receives all things into itself when the
conflagration occurs.’ Ignoring the authors, let us
examine the arguments on both sides and see where
they will lead us.
2. Is not that element the more useful of which
most of all, everywhere, invariably, we stand in need
as a household tool and, I swear, a friend, ready to
help us at any time, in any emergency? Yet fire is
¢ Etymologizing (as in Mor. 948 E-F supra) chaos from
chysis, ** diffusion of liquid.”
Δ The Stoics: cf., ¢.g., von Arnim, S.V.F. i, p. 27 (Zeno,
frag. 98); cf. Mor. 1053 a-B; 1067 4; 1077 ἘΣ
€ On the Universal Conflagration of the Stoics see von
Arnim, op. cit. ii, pp. 183 ff.; on that of Heraclitus, Cher-
niss, Aristotle’s Criticism of the Presocratics, p. 29, n. 108.
291
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
~ , / / ” » σ΄ \ /
(955) πῦρ οὐ πάντοτε χρήσιμον, ἔστι δ᾽ ὅτε καὶ βαρυνό-
A > / ~ » σ / Α
μεθα καὶ ἀποσπώμεθα: τοῦ δ᾽ ὕδατος χρεία καὶ
~ / ~
χειμῶνος καὶ θέρους καὶ νοσοῦσι Kal ὑγιαίνουσι,
956 \ \ θ᾽ ¢ 7, \ > ” ee P
νυκτὸς Kal μεθ᾽ ἡμέραν: καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ὅτ᾽ ἄνθρωπος
" A > / \ > /, ae 5 / Ψ
οὐ δεῖται. ἀμέλει τοὺς ἀποθανόντας “᾿ ἀλίβαντας
». ξ = ~ «ce / > det / 4 /
καλοῦσιν ὡς ἐνδεεῖς “᾿ λιβάδος,᾽᾽ τουτέστιν ὑγρό-
\ ~ ~ ~
τητος, καὶ παρὰ τοῦτο στερουμένους τοῦ ζῆν. Kal
Μ \ \ - λλά 1 an δ᾽ 5 Yd 5
ἄνευ [LEV πυρὸς ἣν πολλάκις, υδατος οὐδέποτ
» ” \ 19 5 = we, = ͵
ἄνθρωπος. ἔτι δὲ τὸ ἐξ ἀρχῆς καὶ ἅμα τῇ πρώτῃ
.. .. > ~
καταβολῇ τῶν ἀνθρώπων χρησιμώτερον τοῦ ὕστερον
~ \ \ la -
εὑρεθέντος: δῆλον γὰρ ὡς τὸ μὲν ὄντως" ἀναγκαῖον
ε , ” \ \ , in 7 ἜΣ
ἡ φύσις ἔδωκε: τὸ δὲ περιουσίᾳ τῆς χρήσεως τύχη
/ - >
Kal μηχανή Tis εὗρεν. ὕδωρ μὲν οὖν οὐκ ἔστιν
» ~ 9.55 , “ 3 θ 7 50 / ¢ x A /
εἰπεῖν ὅτ᾽ οὐκ ἦν ἀνθρώποις οὐδέ τις εὑρετὴς λέγε-
~ an“ ε \
ται θεῶν ἢ ἡρώων: σχεδὸν yap γενομένων εὐθὺς
~ ~ ~ ¢ \
B ὑπῆρχε Kal τὸ γεγενῆσθαι παρεῖχεν. ἡ δὲ πυρὸς
Ρ. > , / \ , οἷ ip Bh
χρῆσις ἐχθές, φασί, καὶ πρῴην ὑπὸ Ipounféws
. . . βίος πυρός, οὐκ ἄνευ δ᾽ ὕδατος ἦν. καὶ τὸ
~ 4:
μὲν πλάσμα τοῦτο μὴ εἶναι ποιητικὸν ἀποδείκνυσιν
ε 5 [ wn / ” \ > 7 / \
ὁ καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς Bios: ἔστι yap ἀνθρώπων γένη τινὰ
χωρὶς πυρὸς ποιούμενα τὴν δίαιταν, ἄοικα καὶ
» / \ c / \ / > ¢ 4
ἀνέστια καὶ ὑπαίθρια: καὶ Διογένης δ᾽ 6 κύων
κι “4
ἥκιστα προσεχρῆτο πυρί, ὥστε καὶ πολύποδα
καταπιὼν ὠμόν, “᾿ οὕτως ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν;,᾽ εἶπεν, “ὦ
πολλάκις Post with one Ms.: πολλά (πάλαι van Herwerden).
ὄντως Meziriacus ; οὕτως.
τύχη Leonicus: μάχη (τέχνη Wyttenbach).
Lacuna after Ilpounféws, indicated by Reiske, variously
-» ὦ wo "
292
IS FIRE OR WATER MORE USEFUL? 955-956
not always useful ; sometimes, indeed, we find it too
much and interrupt our use of it. But water is used
both winter and summer, sick and well, night and
day: there is no time when a man does not need it.
That, of course, is the reason why the dead are called
alibantes, meaning that they are without libas, “ mois-
ture,’ 7 and for lack of that deprived of life. Man
has often existed without fire, but without water
never. Besides, that which, from the beginning,
was coincidental with the inception of man is more
useful than that which was discovered later ; for it
is obvious that Nature bestowed the one as vitally
necessary, while the other was brought to light by
luck or contrivance for a superfluous use. Now, none
may tell of a time when water was unknown to man,
nor is any god or hero said to be its discoverer ; it
was, in fact, at hand instantly when man appeared
and was itself the cause of his appearance. But the
use of fire, they say,? was discovered only a day or
two ago by Prometheus ; (consequently all our pre-
ceding life was deprived of) fire, though it was not
without water. And that this is no poetic fiction is
proved by present modes of living; for there are
certain races of man who live without fire, with no
house or hearth, under the open sky. And Diogenes ¢
the Cynic reduced the use of fire to a minimum, so
that he even swallowed a squid raw, remarking,
“ Thus, gentlemen, do I risk my life for you.” But
* Cf. Mor. 736 a; Galen, De Temperament. i. 3 (i, p. 522 K.).
> As, 6.5.. Aeschylus, Prometheus, 254. The following
words in lozenge brackets are conjecturally supplied.
¢ This anecdote is told with rather more point and relevance
in 995 c-p infra.
supplied. The required sense is given by Post’s supplement
(ἐδόθη ὥστ᾽ ἐστερημένος ἡμῖν ἦν πᾶς ὁ τέως).
208
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
Μ) / Μ
(956) ἄνδρες, παραβάλλομαι.᾽᾽ χωρὶς δ᾽ ὕδατος οὔτε
/ ~
καλόν τις ἐνόμισε ζῆν οὔτε δυνατόν.
K \ / ἣ ~ \ ~ > θ / >
8. Kai τί μικρολογοῦμαι τὴν τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐπ-
΄ ” ~ >
ερχόμενος φύσιν; πολλῶν yap ὄντων, μᾶλλον ὃ
Ο ἀπείρων γενῶν, τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων σχεδὸν μόνον
οἷδε πυρὸς χρῆσιν, τὰ δὲ λοιπὰ ἀπύροις χρῆται
διαίταις καὶ τροφαῖς, καὶ βίος αὐτοῖς νεμομένοις,
«ς ~ lal
ἱπταμένοις, ἕρπουσιν, ἀπὸ ῥιζῶν Kal καρπῶν Kat
~ ”
σαρκῶν ἄνευ πυρός: ὕδατος δὲ χωρὶς οὐκ ἔναλον
> p Reed} > \ A 99.9 >] / \ \ \
οὐδὲν" οὐδὲ xEpoatov οὐδ᾽ αἰθέριον: Kal yap τὰ
~ Φ \
σαρκοβόρα τῶν ζῴων, ὧν ἔνιά φησι μὴ πίνειν
᾿Αριστοτέλης, τῷ γ᾽ ἐντὸς" ὑγρῷ χρώμενα διαζῇ.
τοῦτ᾽ οὖν χρησιμώτερον, οὗ μηδεμία ζωῆς φύσις
ἄνευ ἵσταται καὶ διαμένει.
/ > \ ~ / Lee af? t
4. Metiwpev ἀπὸ τῶν χρωμένων ἐπὶ ταῦθ᾽ οἷς
“ \ >
χρώμεθα, φυτὰ Kal καρπούς. τούτων ἃ μὲν οὐδ
“ “Ἠ / Δ > 7 \ > /
ὅλως θερμοῦ μετείληφεν, ἃ δ᾽ ἥκιστα καὶ ἀδήλως:
ἡ δ᾽ ὑγρὰ φύσις βλαστάνοντα πάντα παρέχεται,
D αὐξανόμενα καὶ καρποφοροῦντα- καὶ τί με δεῖ κατ-
A λ 4 Uo \ oo» \ \ r \
αριθμεῖσθαι μέλι' καὶ οἶνον Kat ἔλαιον καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ
~ >
ὅσα τρυγῶμεν καὶ ἀμέλγομεν καὶ βλίττομεν" ἐν
΄- ,ὔ ~ Ss
φανερῷ κείμενα, ὅπου γε Kal ὁ πυρός, δοκῶν εἶναι
~ ~ ~ ~ \ / \ /
τῆς ξηρᾶς τροφῆς, μεταβολῇ καὶ σήψει καὶ διαχύσει
τοῦ ὑγροῦ γίνεται;
\ \ \ rt Δ / /
5. Καὶ μὴν καὶ χρησιμώτερον ὃ μηδέποτε BAd-
1 γὰρ ὄντων Meziriacus : παρόντων.
2 οὐδὲν added by Bernardakis.
3. γ᾽ ἐντὸς Amyot: ὄντως or ὄντων.
4 μέλι Wegehaupt: μὲν.
> βλίττομεν Wyttenbach, confirmed by one ms. : βλέπομεν.
204
IS FIRE OR WATER MORE USEFUL? 956
without water no one ever thought it good, or even
possible, to live.
3. And why do I split hairs by discussing merely
human nature? For though there are many, or
rather countless, sorts of creatures, man is practically
the only one that knows the use of fire, while all the
others live and feed without it : they subsist, whether
they range abroad or fly or crawl, upon roots or pro-
duce or flesh, all without fire ; but without water no
creature of the sea or land or air ever existed. For
even flesh-eating animals, some of which Aristotle 4
says do not drink, nevertheless keep alive by using
the fluids in the flesh. That element, therefore,
without which no living nature can subsist or endure
is the more useful.
4. Let us pass from the people who use fire to the
things that we use, namely plants and produce,? of
which some are completely devoid of heat, while
others have an infinitesimal and uncertain amount.
Moisture, however, is the element in nature that
makes them all burgeon, growing and bearing fruit.
And why should I enumerate honey and wine and
oil and all the rest that come to us from the vintage,
the milking of herds, or taking off of honey—and it
is obvious where they belong “—when even wheat
itself, though it is classed as a dry food, moves into
the category of liquids by alteration, fermentation,
and deliquescence ? ὦ
5. Moreover, what is never detrimental is more
* Historia Animal. viii. 3 (601 b).
> ΚΕ This must be one of the most remarkable transitions
in literature ’’ (Sandbach, op. cit. p. 200).
° That is, they must be classed as liquids.
4 Cf. 968 a infra: here, however, the author seems to be
talking about beer.
295
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
a \ > ee: ee , €..N94€
(956) πτει. πῦρ μὲν οὖν ῥέον' ὀλεθριώτατον, ἡ δ᾽ ὕδατος
/ \ \ A ᾽ /
ύσις οὐδέποτε βλαβερά. καὶ μὴν δυεῖν ὠφελιμώ-
τερον τὸ εὐτελέστερον καὶ χωρίς τινος παρασκευῆς
τὴν ἐξ αὑτοῦ παρέχον ὠφέλειαν: ἡ μὲν οὖν ἀπὸ
aA “- \ ~
E τοῦ πυρὸς χορηγίας δεῖται Kat ὕλης: διὰ τοῦτο
μετέχουσιν αὐτοῦ πλέον πλούσιοι πενήτων, βασιλεῖς
> ~ \ > “ \ a 3 ” /
ἰδιωτῶν: τὸ δ᾽ ὕδωρ Kat τοῦτ᾽ ἔχει φιλάνθρωπον,
\ / A > /
τὴν ἰσότητα, TO ὅμοιον: οὐ δεῖται yap ὀργάνων
29. > / > / > \ > /
οὐδ ἐργαλείων, ἀπροσδεές, αὐτοτελὲς ἀγαθόν.
6. "Ere μήν, ὃ ὁ πολλαπλασιαζόμενον" τὴν ὠφέλειαν
ἀπόλλυσιν, ἀχρηστότερον" τοιοῦτον δὲ τὸ πῦρ, οἷον
θηρίον παμφάγον καὶ δαπανῶν τῶν παρακειμένων,
καὶ μεθόδῳ καὶ τέχνῃ μᾶλλον καὶ μετριότητι ἢ" τῇ
αὑτοῦ φύσει ὠφέλιμον: τὸ δ᾽ ὕδωρ οὐδέποτε φοβε-
οόν. καὶ μὴν δυεῖν τὸ μετὰ τοῦ ἑτέρου χρησιμώ-
τερον: πῦρ μὲν οὖν οὐκ ἐπιδέχεται τὸ ὑγρὸν οὐδὲ
΄ ~ /
Ε τῆ δι’ αὐτοῦ κοινωνίᾳ χρήσιμον, ὕδωρ δ᾽ ἐστὶ
\ ~ ~
μετὰ πυρὸς ὠφέλιμον: τὰ γοῦν θερμὰ τῶν ὑδάτων
ἀκέσιμα καὶ πρὸς θεραπείαν εὐδιάθετα. καὶ πῦρ
\ ¢ \ , ΝΜ “ “ > e \
μὲν ὑγρὸν οὐκ ἄν τις εὕροι, ὕδωρ δ᾽ ws ψυχρὸν
οὕτω καὶ θερμὸν ὠφέλιμον ἀνθρώπῳ.
vy ~
Kai μήν, τεττάρων ὄντων τῶν στοιχείων, TO
ὕδωρ ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ πέμπτον, ὡς ἂν τις εἴποι, πεποίηκε
957 στοιχεῖον τὴν θάλασσαν, οὐδὲν ἧττον ἐκείνων ὠφέ-
- U ~
λιμον τῶν τ᾽ ἄλλων ἕνεκεν Kal μάλιστα THs ἐπι-
> = »
μιξίας: ἄγριον οὖν ἡμῶν ὄντα καὶ ἀσύμβολον τὸν
βίον τοῦτο τὸ στοιχεῖον συνῆψε καὶ τέλειον ἐποίησε,
διορθούμενον ταῖς παρ᾽ ἀλλήλων ἐπικουρίαις καὶ
1 ῥέον Meziriacus and one Ms. : ῥᾷδιον or ῥᾷον.
2 πολλαπλασιαζόμενον Leonicus : πολυπλασιαζόμενον.
8 ἢ added by Leonicus.
296
IS FIRE OR WATER MORE USEFUL? 956-957
useful. Now fire, when it forms a stream, is most
destructive ; but the nature of water is never harmful.
Then again, of two elements that is more beneficial
which is cheaper and provides its help without any
preparation. Now the use of fire requires a supply
of fuel, for which reason rich people have more of
it than poor, and kings than private persons ; but
water has another merit in service to man, that of
equality, with no discrimination. For it needs no
tools or implements, being a self-sufficient, self-
fulfilling good.
6. Then too, that which by multiplication destroys
its own contribution is the less useful. Such a thing
is fire which, like an all-devouring beast, consumes
everything near, so that it is useful rather by skilful
handling and craft and moderation in use than by
its own nature; but water is never dangerous.
Further, of two things the one which may be joined
with its fellow is more useful. Now fire does not admit
moisture and is of no use when in conjunction with
it; but water is of service when combined with fire,
for hot water is healing and well adapted to medicinal
purposes. A watery fire you will never see; but
water is as useful to mankind when hot as when cold.
7. Furthermore, though there are but four ele-
ments,” water provides from itself a fifth, so to say,
the sea, one no less beneficial than the others, especi-
ally for commerce among other things. This element,
therefore, when our life was savage and unsociable,
linked it together and made it complete, redressing
defects by mutual assistance and exchange and so
« Cf. Mor. 948 p above; in 729 B the sea is called the
** naturally hostile element.” Α
4 εὐδιάθετα Wyttenbach : εὐαίσθητα or ἀναίσθητα.
207
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(957) ἀντιδόσεσι, κοινωνίαν δ᾽ ἐργαζόμενον καὶ φιλίαν.
Ἡράκλειτος μὲν οὖν, “᾿ εἰ μὴ ἥλιος,᾽᾽ φησίν, “ ἦν,
εὐφρόνη ἂν ἦν ᾿᾿. ἔστι δ᾽ εἰπεῖν, ὡς, εἰ μὴ θάλαττα
ἦν, πάντων av’ ἀγριώτατον ζῷον καὶ ἐνδεέστατον"
6 ἄνθρωπος ἦν. νυνὶ δὲ τοῦτο μὲν παρ᾽ ᾿Ινδῶν ap-
πελον τοῖς “EXAnow, ἐκ δὲ τῆς ᾿Ελλάδος καρπῶν
χρῆσιν τοῖς ἐπέκεινα τῆς" θαλάσσης ἔδωκεν, ἐκ Φοι-
Β νίκης δὲ γράμματα μνημόσυνα λήθης ἐκόμισεν,
καὶ" ἄοινον καὶ ἄκαρπον καὶ ἀπαίδευτον ἐκώλυσεν
εἶναι τὸ πλεῖστον ἀνθρώπων γένος. πῶς οὖν οὐ
χρησιμώτερον ὕδωρ στοιχείῳ" περιττεῦον;
8. Ti’ πρὸς τοὐναντίον ἄν τις ἐντεῦθεν ἔχων
λέγοι; διότι τέτταρα μὲν στοιχεῖα θεῷ καθάπερ
τεχνίτῃ πρὸς τὴν τῶν ὅλων ἐργασίαν ὑποκείμενα,
τούτων δ᾽ αὖ πάλιν ev’ ἀλλήλοις διαφορὰ ἁπλῆν"
γῆ μὲν καὶ ὕδωρ ὑποβέβληται “δίκην ὕλης ποιού-
μενα καὶ πλαττόμενα καὶ “μετέχοντα κόσμου καὶ
τάξεως καὶ τοῦ φύειν γε καὶ γεννᾶν, ὅσον ἂν
μεταλάβῃ παρ᾽ ἑτέρων, πνεύματος καὶ πυρὸς"
C ποιούντων καὶ δημιουργούντων καὶ κείμενα νεκρὰ
τέως ἐπὶ τὴν γένεσιν ἀνιστάντων" τῶν δὲ δυεῖν
τούτων αὖθις τὸ πῦρ ἄρχει καὶ ἡγεμονεύει. δῆλον
δ᾽ ἐκ τῆς ἐπαγωγῆς" γῆ τε γὰρ ἄνευ θερμῆς οὐσίας
1 ἂν added by Bernardakis.
2 ἐνδεέστατον Meziriacus : ἀναιδέστατος or -ov.
3 τῆς Xylander: ὁ τῆς. 4 καὶ added by Diibner.
5 (ἐνὶ) στοιχείῳ ὃ W.C. Η. 8 τῇ Post: 7.
7 ἐν added by van Herwerden.
8 ἁπλῇ Post: πλὴν. ® ye Reiske: ye φασί.
10 πνεύματος Kai πυρὸς Reiske: πνεῦμα μὲν καὶ πῦρ.
α Diels-Kranz, Frag. der Vorsok. i. 173, frag. B 99. In
Mor. 98 ca fuller and more appropriate version is given; but
see now H. Frankel, Wege und Formen, p. 270 and n. 1.
298
IS FIRE OR WATER MORE USEFUL? 957
bringing about co-operation and friendship. Now
Heraclitus 4 declares, “‘ If there were no sun, it would
be perpetual night ”’; in the same way we may say
that if there were no sea, man would be the most
savage and destitute of all creatures. But as it is,
the sea brought the Greeks the vine from India, from
Greece transmitted the use of grain across the sea,
from Phoenicia imported letters as a memorial
against forgetfulness,” thus preventing the greater
part of mankind from being wineless, grainless, and
unlettered. How, then, should water not be more
useful when it has the advantage over fire of one more
element ? ¢
8. What could anyone find to say on the other side
from this point on? This, that God, the master work-
man, had as material four elements from which to
construct the universe. Among these, again, there
is a simple mutual distinction, namely, that earth
and water are a foundation at the bottom of the
universe, being, like raw material, the substance of
which things are constructed and moulded, having
just so much form and organization, and indeed of
capacity for growth and procreation, as is imparted
to them by the other elements, air and fire, which
are makers and artisans and rouse them, lying lifeless
as they were until then, to the act of creation. Be-
tween these two, again, fire and air, there is the dis-
tinction that fire assumes the rule and leadership.
This is clear by induction’: earth without warmth
> Cf. Euripides, frag. 578 (p. 542 Nauck).
¢ For this delightful absurdity see Sandbach, op. cit. p.
199, n. 4.
4 Possibly ; but the argument hardly demonstrates this.
The text is corrupt and a different solution than that adopted
here is proposed by ΝΜ, Adler (Wien. Stud. xxxi. 308).
299
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(957) ἄγονος Kat ἄκαρπος: τὸ δὲ πῦρ κρατῆσαν' καὶ
διακέαν" παρίστησιν εἰς τὴν γένεσιν ὀργῶσαν"" οὐ-
δεμίαν γὰρ αἰτίαν εὕροι τις ἄν, du’ ἣν ἄγονοι πέτραι
καὶ τὰ κατεσκληκότα τῶν ὁρῶν πλὴν᾽ ὅτι πυρὸς
οὐδ᾽ ὅλως ἢ ὀλίγον μετέσχηκε.
9. Τὸ δ᾽ ὅλον τοσοῦτον ἀπέχει πρὸς σωτηρίαν
ἢ ἑτέρων γένεσιν τὸ ὕδωρ αὐτοτελὲς εἶναι, ὥστε
καὶ αὐτῷ φθορὰ πυρὸς ἔνδεια: συνέχει γὰρ ἡ θερ-
μότης ἕκαστον ἐν τῷ εἶναι καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς ἰδίας οὐσίας
1) φυλάττει καθάπερ καὶ τἄλλα καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ: ἀπ-
έχοντος δὲ καὶ ἐνδεήσαντος σήπεται καὶ θάνατος
ὕδατι καὶ ὄλεθρος ἐπίλειψις θερμότητος. ἀμέλει τὰ
λιμναῖα καὶ ὅσα στάσιμα τῶν ὑδάτων καί τιν᾽"
ἀδιεξόδοις ἐγκαθήμενα κοιλότησι μοχθηρὰ καὶ τὲ:
λευτῶντα σήπεται τῷ κινήσεως ἥκιστα μετέχειν, ἣ
τὸ θερμὸν ἐν ἑκάστοις ῥιπίζουσα τηρεῖ. διόπερ" τὰ
μάλιστα φερόμενα καὶ ῥέοντα τῶν ὑδάτων, διὰ τὴν
κίνησιν συνεχομένης τῆς θερμότητος, οὕτω καὶ
προσαγορεύομεν, ζῆν λέγοντες. πῶς τοίνυν δυεῖν
οὐκ ὠφελιμώτερον, ὃ τῷ ἑτέρῳ τὴν αἰτίαν τοῦ
εἶναι παρέσχηκε, καθάπερ τὸ πῦρ τῷ ὕδατι; καὶ
E μήν, οὗ παντάπασιν ἀπαλλαγέντος φθείρεται τὸ
ζῷον, τοῦτ᾽ ὠφελιμώτερον" δῆλον γὰρ ws" οὗ
στερούμενον οὐκ ἔστιν εἶναι, τοῦτο καὶ τὴν αἰτίαν
παρέσχηκεν, ὅτ᾽ ἦν. ὑγρότης μὲν οὖν καὶ τοῖς
τεθνηκόσι πάρεστι καὶ οὐκ ἐξήρηται παντάπασιν"
ἐπεὶ οὐκ ἂν ἐσήπετο τὰ νεκρὰ τῶν σωμάτων, τῆς
1 κρατῆσαν W.C. Η. (after κεκρατηκὸς Post) : expaos, edxpaes,
expuev. 2 διακέαν Post: διαχέαν (or τῶν, τον), διαχυθὲν.
8. ὀργῶσαν Reiske and one ms. : ὀργῶντα, ἐργῶντα. ἐνεργῶντα,
and the like (Paton would add πάντα : “* swell to bring forth
all things ”’). 4 πλὴν Naber: πᾶσιν or ἢ.
5 Some mss. have τινὰ ἐν.
300
IS FIRE OR WATER MORE USEFUL? 957
is barren and unfruitful, but fire, when it takes
possession and inflames, causes it to swell to the
point of generation ; and it is impossible to find any
other reason why rocks and the bare bones of moun-
tains are barren except that they have either no part
at all, or very little share, in fire.
9. And, in general, water is.so far from being self-
sufficient for the preservation or generation of other
things that the want of fire is water’s destruction.
For heat maintains everything in its proper being and
keeps it in its proper substance, water itself as well
as everything else. When fire withdraws and fails,
water putrefies : the dearth of heat is the death and
destruction of water. It is, of course, marsh waters
and such as are stagnant, some too that have drained
into depressions with no outlet, that are bad % and
finally putrefy ὃ because they have very little motion,
which preserves everything by stirring up its heat.
This is the reason why we commonly say that those
waters are “living” which have most motion and
the strongest current; the heat is maintained by
their motion. How, then, should that not be the more
useful of two things which has provided what is
necessary for the other’s existence, as fire does for
water? And surely that is the more useful, the lack
of which, if it be entirely taken away, causes the
living creature to die. For it is obvious that anything
without which a creature cannot live must have been
a necessary cause of its existence, while it did exist.
Now even corpses have moisture which does not
entirely vanish ; otherwise dead bodies would not
α That is, “‘ salt,’ as, for example, the Dead Sea.
> Cf. Mor. 1129 p, 725 Ὁ : Athenaeus, 46 b-c.
iat διόπερ Wyttenbach : περὶ. 7 ws Wegehaupt: ὡς τὸ.
301
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(957) σήψεως εἰς ὑγρὸν οὐκ' οὔσης ἐκ ξηροῦ μεταβολῆς,
μᾶλλον δ᾽ ὑγρῶν ἐν σαρκὶ φθορᾶς. θάνατος δ᾽ οὐκ
ἄλλο τι πλὴν ἔκλειψις θερμοῦ παντελής" ψυχρότατοι
τοίνυν οἱ νεκροί: καὶ τὰς ἀκμάς, εἴ τις ἐπιχειροίη,"
τῶν ξυρῶν" ἀπαμβλύνουσι δι᾿ ὑπερβολὴν ψυχρότη-
F tos. καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ δὲ τῷ ζῴῳ τὰ ἥκιστα μετέχοντα
πυρὸς ἀναισθητότατα," καθάπερ ὀστᾶ καὶ τρίχες
καὶ τὰ πόρρωθεν ἀφεστῶτα τῆς καρδίας: σχεδὸν
γὰρ" μείζων" ἐκ τῆς τοῦ πυρὸς γίνεται παρουσίας
διαφορά. φυτὰ μὲν γὰρ καὶ καρποὺς οὐχ ἡ ὑγρότης
5 / > > « 3 / \
ἀναδίδωσιν ἀλλ᾽ ἡ θερμὴ ὑγρότης" ἀμέλει τὰ
ψυχρὰ τῶν ὑδάτων “ἧττον 7 οὐδ᾽ ὅλως γόνιμα.
καΐτοι ff εἰ TH αὑτοῦ φύσει τὸ ὕδωρ καρποφόρον,
958 δεῖ" πάντοτε καὶ καθ᾽ αὑτὸ ἀναφέρειν καρπούς: τὸ
δὲ τοὐναντίον καὶ βλαβερόν ἐ ἐστιν.
> A \ \ \ «
10; Az’ ἄλλης ἀρχῆς. πρὸς μὲν ΤΡ eee
πυρὸς χρῆσιν ὕδατος οὐ προσδεόμεθα, ἀλλὰ τοὐ-
ναντίον ἐμποδὼν γίνεται: κατασβέννυσι γὰρ καὶ
διαφθείρει. ὕδατος δὲ τοῖς πλείστοις χρῆσις οὐκ
ἔστιν ἄνευ πυρός: θερμανθὲν γὰρ ὠφελιμώτερον,
σ΄ Ἁ ’, \ \ / ε
οὕτω δὲ βλαβερόν. καὶ τὴν θάλατταν ἡ θερμότης
ὠφελιμωτέραν ἐποίησεν, ὡς μᾶλλον κατάθερμον"
~ ¢ / ’ \ > yy 9 ~ ~ ΕῚ \
TOV ὑδάτων ἐπεὶ κατ᾽ ἄλλο γε τῶν λοιπῶν οὐδὲν
διέφερε. ὥστε δυεῖν ἄμεινον 6 ἀφ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ παρ-
ἔχεται χρείαν, τοῦ ἑτέρου μὴ προσδεόμενον. ἔτι
1 οὐκ added by Kronenberg.
2 ἐπιχειροίη) ἐπικείροι Bernardakis.
3 ξυρῶν Stephanus: ξηρῶν.
4 ἀναισθητότατα Reiske: -orepa.
5 yap W.C.H.: yap ἡ πρὸς τὰ.
6 μείζων W.C.H.: μείζω τῶν. Post would keep the text
here and just above, adding φυτῶν, καρπῶν or the like.
1 δεῖ] ἔδει Leonicus.
302
IS FIRE OR WATER MORE USEFUL? 957-958
putrefy, since putrefaction is not a change from dry
to moist, but rather a corruption of the moisture in
flesh. Death, then, is nothing but the total disappear-
ance of heat and so dead men are extremely cold ;
if you attack them with a razor-blade, you will blunt
the edge of it through excess of cold. In the living
creature itself, too, the parts that have the least heat
are the least sensitive, like bones and hair and the
parts that are a long way from the heart. And, in
general, the presence of fire makes a greater differ-
ence * than that of moisture; for it is not mere
moisture that produces plants and fruits, but warm
moisture ; cold water, of course, is either less pro-
ductive or not productive at all. Yet if by its own
nature water were fruitful, it would always bear fruit
by itself ὃ ; but on the contrary it is even harmful.
10. To begin again: for the use of fire as fire we
do not need water; on the contrary, it would be in
our way since it extinguishes and destroys it. But
in most circumstances it is impossible to use water
without fire. When water is heated, it is more useful ;
otherwise it is harmful. And it is heat which has
made the sea more beneficial, its waters being warmer,
since it differs from other waters in no other respect. °¢
So that of two things, that is better which of itself
lends us its use without need of the other. Besides,
2 Or adopting Schultz’s (Hermes, xlvi. 632) emendation :
“the difference between living and non-living comes from
the presence of fire’; but the text is hopelessly corrupt.
ὃ That is, without heat.
¢ This sentence was transferred here from the following
chapter by Wegehaupt.
8 κατάθερμον W.C. H.: καταθέρει and the like.
9 addo W.C.H.: atro.
303
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(958) ὕδωρ μὲν μοναχῶς ὠφέλιμον. κατὰ θίξιν λουσα-
μένοις" ἢ ναψαμένοις ," τὸ δὲ πῦρ διὰ πάσης αἰσθή-
σεως: καὶ γὰρ διὰ τῆς ἁφῆς καὶ πόρρωθεν ὁρώμενον,
ὥστε προσεῖναι τοῖς ἄλλοις τῆς χρείας αὐτοῦ καὶ
B τὸ πολυποίκιλον .ὃ
11. Τὸ γὰρ λέγειν ὡς ἔστι ποθ᾽ ὁ ἄνθρωπος
» \ ” 4 29> ὦ , , ε
ἄνευ πυρὸς ἄτοπον᾽ οὐδ᾽ ὅλως δύναται γενέσθαι o
» \ > - piesa | , / / \
ἄνθρωπος. διαφοραὶ δ᾽ εἰσὶν ἐν γένει καθάπερ καὶ
>] Μ \ ¢€ \ / \ ~ »”
ἐν ἄλλοις. καὶ οἱ μὴ προσδεόμενοι δὲ τοῦ ἔξωθεν
A ~ /
πυρὸς οὐχ ὡς ἀπροσδεεῖς τοῦτο πάσχουσιν, ἀλλὰ
περιουσίᾳ καὶ πλεονασμῷ τοῦ ἐν αὑτοῖς θερμοῦ:
τοῦτο ῥητέον καὶ περὶ τῶν ἄλλων ζῴων, ὅσα μὴ
πυρὸς δεῖται" ὥστε καὶ κατὰ τοῦθ᾽ ὑπερέχειν τὴν
τοῦ πυρὸς χρείαν, ὡς εἰκός. τὸ μὲν ὕδωρ οὐδέποτε
τοιοῦτον, ὥστε μὴ δεῖσθαι τῶν ἐκτός, τὸ δὲ πῦρ
Ο ὑπ᾽ ἀρετῆς πολλῆς καὶ αὔταρκες. ὡς οὖν στρα-
τηγὸς ἀμείνων ὃ παρασκευάσας τὴν πόλιν μὴ
΄' ~ / 7 A
δεῖσθαι τῶν ἔξωθεν συμμάχων, οὕτω καὶ στοιχεῖον
τὸ τῆς ἔξωθεν ἐπικουρίας" πολλάκις μὴ δεόμενον
ὑπερέχον.
/ 5 > > / / Μ \
Καίτοι γ᾽ εἰς τοὐναντίον λάβοι τις av, TO χρησι-
μώτερον εἶναι τοῦτο, ᾧ χρώμεθα μόνοιΐ καὶ μάλιστα
A 7 > ~ “A / 9 A /
τὸ βέλτιον ἐκ λογισμοῦ λαβεῖν δυνάμενοι" ἐπεὶ τί
λόγου χρησιμώτερον ἢ μᾶλλον ἀνθρώποις λυσι-
, 5 > > / γα το ΓΑ ΡῈ;
τελέστερον; ἀλλ᾽ οὐ πάρεστι τοῖς ἀλόγοις. τί οὖν;
~ a » ~ ~
διὰ τοῦθ᾽ ἧττον ὠφέλιμον τὸ" ἐκ τῆς προνοίας τοῦ
βελτίονος εὑρεθέν;
1 λουσαμένοις) γευσαμένοις Wyttenbach.
2 νιψαμένοις one MS. Only: ἁψαμένοις.
3 τὸ πολυποίκιλον W.C. H.: τὴν πολυτέλειαν.
4 ἄτοπον added by Bernardakis.
5 πυρὸς δεῖται Wyttenbach : προσδεῖται.
304
IS FIRE OR WATER MORE USEFUL? 958
water is solely beneficial to the touch, when you wash
or bathe in it ; but fire is profitable to all the senses.
It can, in fact, both be touched and seen from a
distance, so that in addition to its other uses, there
is also its variegated character.
11.¢ For to say that man ever exists without fire
is absurd, nor can he exist at all without it; but
there are differences in kind as in other things. As
for men who have no need of fire from without, they
have this experience not because they do not need it,
but because their own heat more than suffices. This
must be predicated also of other animals which do
not need fire.? So that in this respect, too, the use
of fire is probably superior. Water is never in such
a condition as to need no external support, but fire
is self-sufficient because of its great excellence. As,
then, a general is better who manages the affairs of
his city so that it needs no allies from without, so
also an element is superior which does not often need
external assistance.
Yet, to take the opposite point of view, that is more
useful which we alone make great use of, since by
the powers of our reason we are able to choose what
is better. For what is more useful and more profitable
to man than reason? But brute beasts do not have
it. What then? Is what has been discovered by the
foresight of our better part for this reason less useful ?
2 The order of the sentences in this chapter, in addition to
its many other corruptions, has been badly disturbed.
® This clause was transferred here by the editor from
958 c infra at the end of the paragraph.
8 ἐπικουρίας W.C.H.: ἐπικουρίας παρέχον (dittography with
ὑπερέχον below).
7 μόνοι an anonymous corrector: μόνῳ (μόνοι of Reiske).
8 τὸ added by W.C. H.
305
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
᾿Επεὶ δὲ κατὰ τοῦτο τοῦ λόγου γεγόναμεν,
τί wt TO βίῳ λυσιτελέστερον; τέχνας δὲ πάσας
καὶ ἀνεῦρε τὸ πῦρ καὶ σῴζει: διὸ καὶ τὸν “Hdavotov
ἀρχηγὸν αὐτῶν ποιοῦσι. καὶ μὴν ὀλίγου χρόνου
καὶ βίου τοῖς ἀνθρώποις δεδομένου, ὁ μὲν ᾿Αρίστων
φησὶν ὅτι 6 ὕπνος οἷον τελώνης τὸ ἥμισυ ἀφαιρεῖ
τούτου: ἐγὼ δ᾽ ἂν εἴποιμ᾽ ὅτι σκότος" ἐγρηγορέναι"
ἂν εἴη" διὰ νυκτός, ἀλλ᾽ οὐδὲν ἦν" ὄφελος τῆς ἐγρη-
γόρσεως, εἰ μὴ τὸ πῦρ τὰ τῆς ἡμέρας Ἰὰς παρεῖχεν
ἀγαθά, καὶ τὴν ἡμέρας καὶ νυκτὸς ἐξήρει διαφοράν.
εἰ τοίνυν τοῦ ζῆν οὐδὲν ἀνθρώποις λυσιτελέστερον
καὶ τοῦτο πολλαπλασιάζει τὸ πῦρ, πῶς οὐκ ἂν εἴη
πάντων ὠφελιμώτατον;
18. Καὶ μήν, οὗ πλεῖστον" ἑκάστη" τῶν αἰσθή-
σεων μετείληφεν, οὐκ ἂν εἴη λυσιτελέστατον; οὐχ
ὁρᾷς οὖν, ὡς τῇ μὲν ὑγρᾷ φύσει οὐδεμία τῶν
αἰσθήσεων κατ᾽ αὐτὴν προσχρῆται χωρὶς πνεύματος
ἢ πυρὸς ἐγκεκραμένου, τοῦ δὲ πυρὸς ἅπασα μὲν
αἴσθησις, οἷον τὸ ζωτικὸν ἐνεργαζομένου, μετεί-
ληφεν, ἐξαιρέτως δ᾽ ἡ ὄψις, ἥτις ὀξυτάτη τῶν διὰ
σώματός ἐστιν αἰσθήσεων, πυρὸς ἔξαμμα οὖσα καὶ
ὅτι θεῶν πίστιν παρέσχηκεν; ἔτι τε, ἧ Πλάτων
φησί, δυνάμεθα κατασχηματίζειν πρὸς τὰς τῶν ἐν
οὐρανῷ κινήσεις τὴν ψυχὴν διὰ τῆς ὄψεως.
1 ἐγρηγορέναι ANONYMOUS : ἐγρήγορεν.
2. ἂν εἴη Post: ἀεὶ. 3 ἦν added by Adler.
4 πλεῖστον Bernardakis : πλείστου.
5 ἑκάστη Emperius: κρᾶσις τῆς.
α Von Arnim, S.V.F. i, p. 90, frag. 403; ef. Aristotle,
Nicomachean Ethics, i. 13. 12 (1102 b 7).
®’ A very corrupt passage. Adler’s reconstruction (Wien.
Stud. xxxi. 308), with additions by Post, has been followed.
¢ Cf. Plato, Phaedrus, 250 Ὁ ; ef. Mor. 654 D-£, 681 E.
306
IS FIRE OR WATER MORE USEFUL ? 958
12. And since we have arrived at this point in our
argument : What is more profitable to life than Art ?
And it was fire that discovered and still preserves all
the arts. That is why they make Hephaestus the
first of artificers. Man has been granted but a little
time to live and, as Ariston % says, sleep, like a tax-
collector, takes away half of that. But I would rather
say that it is a question of darkness; for although
a man might stay awake all night, yet no good would
come of his wakefulness if fire did not give him the
benefits of day and remove the difference between
day and night.’ If, then, there is nothing more
advantageous to man than life and life is many times
increased by fire, how should fire not be the most
useful of all things ?
13. And, to be sure, will not that be the most
advantageous of which each of the senses has the
greatest proportion? Do you not perceive, then,
that there is no one of the senses which uses moisture
by itself without an admixture of air or fire ; and that
every sense partakes of fire inasmuch as it supplies
the vital energy; and especially that sight, the
keenest of the physical senses,° is an ignited mass
of fire @ and is that which has made us ee ein the
gods? And further, through sight, as Plato’ says,
we are able to conform our souls to the movements
of the celestial bodies.
¢ Cf. von Arnim, S.V.F. ii, pp. 196, 199; but Post
believes the words may mean “ a chain of fire’ linking the
eye with its object.
¢ It is the visible heavens and their fire that make us
believe by ‘‘ declaring the glory ”’ of the celestial gods. See
A.S. Pease, “ Caeli Enarrant,” Harvard Theological Review,
xxxiv (1941), pp. 163-200.
7 Timaeus, 47 a-B.
307
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(MUTIAMIVA AIT 02 |
INTRODUCTION
Tuere can be little doubt that Plutarch composed
this pleasant work from commentariu (ὑπομνήμ «ταὶ
derived not merely from Aristotle (mentioned specifi-
cally in 965 p and quoted often), but also from various
other compendia, the remains of which are to be
seen in Aelian’s and Pliny’s natural histories and
elsewhere.” In fact, if one reads Plutarch and Aelian
and Pliny side by side, one may acquire the impres-
sion that they had before them substantially the
same sources, and that these were numerous. Where-
@ On the sources see Ziegler’s article ‘‘ Plutarchos”’ in
Pauly-Wissowa, col. 738, and, of the authorities he cites,
particularly Wellmann’s papers in Hermes, xxvi, xxvii, and
li, and Max Schuster, Untersuchungen zu Plutarchs De
Sollertia Animalium (Diss. Munich, 1917). There is also
an amusing work of Philo, surviving only in an Armenian
version, which is most conveniently accessible in Aucher’s
Latin translation in vol. 8 of the Bibliotheca Sacra edition
(Schwickert, Leipzig, 1830): De Ratione quam habere etiam
Bruta Animalia dicebat Alexander. In the first part of this
work Alexander presents the arguments for animal intelli-
gence, which Philo himself attempts to refute in a somewhat
summary fashion at the end. The occasional parallels with
Plutarch will be cited as Philo, with Aucher’s section and
page numbers. Antigonus of Carystus, Historia Mirabiliwm,
will be cited from O. Keller’s edition of the Naturalium
Rerum Scriptores Graeci (Teubner, 1877) and Aelian’s De
Natura Animalium from ἢ. Hercher’s Teubner (not Didot)
edition.
311
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
as Pliny and Aelian appear to adopt nearly every-
thing their authorities may have offered (for they
were writing factual commentaries), Plutarch, as
always, selects. It is possible, in some cases, that
Plutarch’s mss. (which are not good and also contain
lacunae) may have been interpolated from Aelian’s ;
and the reverse is likewise possible. This is a very
difficult matter, but the hope may be entertained
that some main sources of Plutarch and Aelian, if not
of Pliny, and the as yet unassessed evidence of Philo,
may eventually be disentangled for substantial sec-
tions, though this is not the place to attempt such a
feat.
The title is not well chosen, since the victory is
awarded to neither side. The real point of the dia-
logue seems to be, in its second as well as its first
part, that all animals of whatever provenance are
intelligent.¢ The occasionally bantering tone may
serve to indicate that we have before us something
of a school exercise from Plutarch’s own academy,
with perhaps the first draft of the second part com-
posed by pupils.” Note the carefully established
details : the contest will take place at a fixed time
(960 Β. 963 B) before their fellow-pupils and a specially
appointed judge (965 c-r). More or less elaborate
preparation has been made by the contestants (960 B,
975 p).° Because of the occasion the school has been
granted a holiday.
@ Schuster thinks, rather, that Plutarch’s chief aim is to
make clear a moral and juridical relationship between man
and beasts.
» See Schuster, pp. 57 ff. Aristotimus and Phaedimus
were doubtless actual pupils of Plutarch.
¢ Plutarch lays special emphasis on preparation: Mor.
80 pv, 652 B.
312
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS
In the first part (chapters 1-8), the author demon-
strates through the authoritarian voice of his own
father that the Stoics, in so far as they affirm the
irrationality of animals, contradict their own tenets.
The second part proves that animals of all kinds are
rational (chapters 9-36) ; the last small section, while
refusing to award first honours in the debate, appears
to contain Plutarch’s exhortation to his pupils to
continue the fight against the Stoics. For an excel-
lent summary with sympathetic comments see E. R.
Dodds, Greece and Rome, ii (1932/3), pp. 104-105.
D’ Agostino % and others have shown that there is
little originality in Plutarch’s animal psychology, while
not denying our author considerable vivacity in
presentation. While it is true that whole sections, like
Q76 a-p, are drawn from the identical source that
Aelian (De Natura Animalium, viii. 4-6) used, yet one
has only to compare the use these authors have made
of precisely the same material to recognize the great
superiority of Plutarch. The principal sources have
been disputed ὃ: Chrysippus, Theophrastus, Hag-
non, Alexander of Myndus,’ Juba, Xenocrates have
all been suggested, but there can be little doubt (as
@ V.D’ Agostino, Archivo Italiano di Psicologia, xi (1933),
pp. 21 ff., a useful summarizing article.
> Hirzel, Der Dialog, ii, Ὁ. 179, n. 1. All of Hirzel’s dis-
cussion is worth reading, though there are occasional slips,
as when he affirms (p. 173, n. 2) that the story in 969 & f.
goes back to Plutarch’s own experience. This is quite unlikely
in view of Aelian’s version of the same story ; nor has Aelian
drawn from Plutarch as some, including Wyttenbach, have
thought.
¢ For the difficulty and danger involved in identifying the
sources exactly see the lists of authorities furnished by Pliny
in his first book. Alexander of Myndus, for example, does
not appear at all as a source for books 8-11.
313
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
with De Tranquillitate* and many other works) that
a considerable variety of sources has been utilized.
Now that Schlapfer ὃ has demonstrated that Plutarch
had himself read and meditated upon great sections
of classical poetry, critics may perhaps be more
willing to allow our author first-hand familiarity with
a wider range of prose, and works of reference as
well.
It is by no means impossible that the work is in-
complete in our mss.; there are, at least, several
demonstrable lacunae and it is possible that it was
considerably longer and may even have justified its
title when it left Plutarch’s hands.
As for the date of the dialogue, the terminus post
quem is A.D. 70 (not 79, as it cannot be certainly
inferred from 974 a that Vespasian was then dead) ;
it is probably a work of Plutarch’s youth, preceding
in any case the Lives and the Symposiacs. It may
well date from Plutarch’s anti-Stoic period which
produced the De Facie, the De Communibus Notitis,
and the other anti-Chrysippean polemics. It has
much in common with the Gryllus and the fragments
of De Esu Carnium and some correspondence with
the Amatorius.© It may, in fact, have been written
during nearly the same period as that in which the
elder Pliny (whose preface is dated a.p. 77) was
compiling his own Natural History.
2 See the introduction in the Loeb edition.
> Plutarch und die klassischen Dichter, Ziirich, 1950,
especially pp. 59-60.
¢ But allowance must be made for exaggerated and
partially false premises in Hartman, De Plutarcho, p. 567. A
modified chronological scheme of Plutarch’s writings has
lately been proposed by T. Sinko (Polish Acad. Cracow,
1947), but it is too complicated to be examined here.
314
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS
The citations in D’Arcy Thompson’s Oxford trans-
lation of Aristotle’s Historia Animalium® are somewhat
inaccurate and inconsistent, being, as he says, “* com-
piled at various times and at long intervals during
many years.’’ Nevertheless the work is of great
value and it may be hoped that the notes in this
edition that rely on it (and these are many) have
been adequately sifted. Also to be constantly and
gratefully consulted are Thompson's 4 Glossary of
Greek Fishes (Oxford, 1947) and A Glossary of Greek
Birds (2nd edition, Oxford, 1936). There will be
many references to Thompson's Aristotle ; but if the
creature in question is a bird or a fish, it is to be
understood that supplementary and often corrective
material is to be found in the Glossaries. There is,
further, a tribute of admiration due to A. W. Mair’s
L.C.L. edition of Oppian, with its exhaustive notes.?
Rackham (L.C.L. Pliny, vol. III, books viii-xi) is very
interesting on the text, but has almost completely
denied himself the privilege of citing parallel passages.
The debunking of many of Plutarch’s stories, if
such a task is necessary, has been pleasantly done
in the leisurely course of Bergen Evans’ The Natural
History of Nonsense (New York, 1946). It should be
added, however, that modern scientific speculation
is approaching somewhat closer to one of Plutarch’s
main tenets, if one may judge from such a work as
W. C. Allee’s Coéperation Among Animals (New York,
1951: a revision of his earlier The Social Life of
α The Loeb edition of A. L. Peck is still awaited at this
date of writing. It should be noted that quotations from
the ninth book, in particular, are liable to peculiar suspicion
and may not proceed from the great naturalist himself.
ὃ Even the extremely hostile review in Phil. Woch. 11 (1951),
pp. 1569 ff., exempts the notes from censure.
315
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
Animals) ; and on the thesis of animal intelligence
see Evans himself, p. 173, and the authorities cited
there, note 1.
Both the translation and the notes of this and the
following essays have benefited immeasurably from
an exhaustive criticism generously given them by
Professor Alfred C. Andrews of the University of
Miami, Florida. He has in fact supplied a number of
valuable notes and also the Appendix, a classified
zoological index. It must be understood, however,
that any errors remaining are to be attributed solely
to the editor.*
The dialogue is no. 147 in the catalogue of Lam-
prias. According to this document Plutarch wrote
another work (no. 135) on the same subject: Do
Beasts Possess Reason? But no. 127, Περὶ ζῴων
ἀλόγων ποιητικός. is probably the same as our
Gryllus, the following dialogue in this edition.
ABBREVIATIONS USED IN CITING MopEerRN AUTHORS
Brands—J. P. J. M. Brands, Grieksche Diernamen,
Purmerend, 1935.
Cotte=J. Cotte, Porssons et animaux aquatiques au
temps de Pline, Paris, 1945.
Keller=Otto Keller, Die antike Tierwelt, Leipzig,
1909-1913.
Mair=A. W. Mair, Oppian, Colluthus, Tryphiodorus,
ΕΟ es
@ Since our text was formed and our translation and notes
composed a year or more before the appearance of the new
Teubner edition, almost no new references have been added
which are not purely textual. The curious reader is referred
to Hubert’s wealth of illustration to supplement our contribu-
tions.
316
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS
Saint-Denis=E. de Saint-Denis, Le Vocabulaire des
animaux marins en latin classique, Paris, 1947.
Schmid=Georg Schmid, “ Die Fische in Ovids
Halieuticon,” Philologus, Supplementband xi
(1907-1910), pp. 253-350.
Thompson, Aristotle=D’Arcy W. Thompson, The
Works of Aristotle, vol. IV, Historia animalium,
Oxford, 1910.
Thompson, Birds=D’Arcy W. Thompson, 4 Glossary
of Greek Birds, rev. ed., Oxford, 1936.
Thompson, Fishes= D’Arcy W. Thompson, 4 Glossary
of Greek Fishes, Oxford, 1947.
317
(959)
ΠΟΤΕΡΑ TON ZOION ®PONIMOTEPA,
TA ΧΕΡΣΑΙᾺ Ἢ TA ENYAPA
1. arroporaos. Tov Τυρταῖον 6 Λεωνίδας. ἐρω-
Β τηθεὶς ποῖόν τινα νομίζοι, δὴ ἀγαθὸν ποιητὴν ᾿ ᾿ ἔφη
νέων ψυχὰς κακκονῆν Ἔν ὡς TOLS νέοις διὰ τῶν
ἐπῶν ὁρμὴν ἐμποιοῦντα μετὰ θυμοῦ καὶ φιλοτιμίας
ἐν ταῖς μάχαις ἀφειδοῦσιν" αὑτῶν. δέδια δή, ὦ
φίλοι, μὴ καὶ τὸ τῆς κυνηγεσίας ἐγκώμιον ΕΝ
ἀνεγνωσμένον ἐπάρῃ τοῦ μετρίου πέρα τοὺς φιλο-
θήρους ἡμῖν νεανίσκους, ὥστε τἄλλα πάρεργα καὶ
τὸ μηδὲν ἡγεῖσθαι, πρὸς τοῦτο παντάπασι ῥυέντας"
ὅπου δοκῶ μοι καὶ αὐτὸς ἐκ νέας αὖθις ἀρχῆς παρ᾽
1 κακκονῆν van Herwerden after Meziriacus: κακύνειν or
καλλύνειν. 5. ἀφειδοῦσιν van Herwerden: ἀφειδοῦσαν.
α Plutarch’s father; on controversial points connected
with this identification see Ziegler in Pauly-Wissowa, s.v.
“*Plutarchos,”’ 642 ff.
» A friend of the household who appears in several of the
Symposiacs and in the Amatorius also ; he is not improbably
the L. Mestrius Soclarus of /nser. Gr. ix. 1. 61.
¢ A speaker also in De Defectu Oraculorum (cf. Mor.
412 ©). Of the other speakers in this dialogue, nothing
definite is known except what may be inferred from the
present work.
4 Cf. Mor. 235 ¥, where it is an anonymous saying; but
the Life of Cleomenes, ii (xxiii=805 Ὁ) also attributes it to
Leonidas.
¢ The authorship of this work has been endlessly disputed,
318
WHETHER LAND OR SEA ANIMALS
ARE CLEVERER
(The speakers in the dialogue are Autobulus,¢ Soclarus, Ὁ
Optatus, Aristotimus, Phaedimus, and Heracleon. °)
1. auTospuLus. When Leonidas was asked what sort
of a person he considered Tyrtaeus to be, he replied,
“A good poet to whet the souls of young men,” ὦ on
the ground that by means of verses the poet inspired
in young men keenness, accompanied by ardour and
ambition whereby they sacrificed themselves freely
in battle. And I am very much afraid, my friends,
that the Pracse of Hunting ὁ which was read aloud to
us yesterday may so immoderately inflame our young
men who like the sport that they will come to con-
sider all other occupations as of minor, or of no,
importance and concentrate on this.’ As a matter
of fact, I myself caught the old fever all over again
but present opinion (pace Sinko, Hos, xv, pp. 113 ff. and
Hubert, Woch. f. klass. Phil. xxviii, pp. 371 ff.) holds that
itis Plutarch himself who wrote it (Schuster, op. cit. pp. 8 ff.).
Bernardakis (vii, pp. 142-143) included this passage (959 B-p)
as a fragment of the lost work.
f ** There cannot be two passions more nearly resembling
each other than hunting and philosophy ” (Huxley, Hume,
Ῥ. 139), and see Shorey’s note on Plato, Republic, 432 8
(ΟῚ: ¢f., however,- Rep. 535 Ὁ. 549--a. - See-also
Isocrates, Areopagiticus, 43 f.; Xenophon, Cynegetica, i.
18; xii. 1. ff.; Cyr. viii. 1. 34-36; Pollux, preface to book
v; the proems of Grattius, Nemesianus, Arrian, etc.
319
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(959) ἡλικίαν ἐμπαθέστερος γεγονέναι καὶ ποθεῖν, ὥσπερ
ἡ Εὐριπίδου Φαίδρα, “ κυσὶ OwiEar βαλιαῖς ἐλά-
C φοις ἐγχριμπτόμενος ἐς οὕτως ἐθιγέ μου πυκνὰ καὶ
πιθανὰ τῶν ἐπιχειρημάτων ἐ ἐπάγων ὁ λόγος.
ΣΩΚΛΑΡΟΣ. ᾿Αληθῆ λέγεις, ὦ Αὐτόβουλε' καὶ
γὰρ ἐκεῖνος ἔδοξέ μοι τὸ ῥητορικὸν ἐγεῖραι διὰ
χρόνου, χαριζόμενος καὶ συνεαρίζων τοῖς μειρα-
κίοις" μάλιστα δ᾽ ἥσθην τοὺς μονομάχους αὐτοῦ
παραθέντος, ὡς οὐχ ἥκιστα τὴν θηρευτικὴν ἄξιον
ἐπαινεῖν, ὅτι τοῦ πεφυκότος ἐν ἡμῖν ἢ μεμαθηκότος
/ / > ~ \ > 7 \ rd
χαίρειν μάχαις ἀνδρῶν πρὸς ἀλλήλους διὰ σιδήρου
τὸ πολὺ δεῦρο τρέψασα καθαρὰν παρέχει θέαν, ἅμα
τέχνης καὶ τόλμης νοῦν ἐχούσης πρὸς ἀνόητον
ἰσχὺν καὶ βίαν ἀντιταττομένης καὶ ἐπαινούσης τὸ
Εὐριπίδειον
ἢ βραχύ τοι σθένος ἀνέρος. ἀλλὰ
D ποικιλίᾳ πραπίδων
δεινὰ μὲν! φῦλα πόντου
χθονίων τ᾽ ἀερίων τε
δάμναται παιδεύματα.
\ A
2. art. Kai μὴν ἐκεῖθεν, ὦ φίλε Σώκλαρε, φα-
σὶν ἥκειν ἐπ᾽ ἀνθρώπους τὴν ἀπάθειαν καὶ τὴν
ἀγριότητα γευσαμένην φόνου καὶ προεθισθεῖσαν € ἐν
ταῖς ἄγραις καὶ τοῖς κυνηγεσίοις αἷμα καὶ τραύ-
ματα ζῴων μὴ δυσχεραίνειν ἀλλὰ χαίρειν σφαττο-
/ Αἷς 78 s 2; f pet > > /
μένοις καὶ ἀποθνήσκουσιν. εἶθ᾽ ὥσπερ ἐν ᾿Αθήναις
1 δεινὰ μὲν Mor. 98 ©, from which several other corrections
have been introduced : δαμᾷ.
2 Cf. Hippolytus, 218 f. It follows from the fuller quota-
tion in Mor. 52 c that Plutarch’s text of Euripides inverted
the order of these lines as given in our mss, of the tragedian.
320
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 959
in spite of my years and longed, like Euripides’ 4
Phaedra,
To halloo the hounds and chase the dappled deer ;
so moved was I by the discourse as it brought its
solid and convincing arguments to bear.
soctarus. Exactly so, Autobulus. That reader
yesterday seems to have roused his rhetoric from its
long disuse ὃ to gratify the young men and share
their vernal mood.° I was particularly pleased with his
introduction of gladiators and his argument that it is
as good a reason as any to applaud hunting that after
diverting to itself most of our natural or acquired
pleasure in armed combats between human beings
it affords an innocent spectacle of skill and intelligent
courage pitted against witless force and violence. It
agrees with that passage of Euripides ὦ:
Slight is the strength of men ;
But through his mind’s resource
He subdues the dread
Tribes of the deep and races
Bred on earth and in the air.
2. auToBuLUS. Yet that is the very source, my
dear Soclarus, from which they say insensibility
spread among men and the sort of savagery that
learned the taste of slaughter on its hunting trips ὁ
and has grown accustomed to feel no repugnance for
the wounds and gore of beasts, but to take pleasure
in their violent death. The next step is like what
ὃ Presumably an autobiographical detail.
¢ The word is found only here, but may well be right if
Plutarch is in a poetical, as well as a playful, humour.
4 Frag. 27 from the Aeolus (so Stobaeus): Nauck, Trag.
Graec. Frag. pp. 370 f.; cf. Mor. 98 ©. The text is some-
what confused. ὁ Cf. Porphyry, De Abstinentia, iii. 20.
VOL. XII M 321
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
~ / ¢ ‘ ~ / Zz >
(959) πρῶτός τις ὑπὸ τῶν τριάκοντα συκοφάντης ἀπο-
θανὼν ἐπιτήδειος ἐλέχθη, καὶ δεύτερος ὁμοίως καὶ
τρίτος: ἐκ τούτου δὲ κατὰ μικρὸν ἤδη προϊόντες
ἥπτοντο τῶν ἐπιεικῶν καὶ τέλος οὐδὲ τῶν ἀρίστων"
EK ἀπέσχοντο πολιτῶν: οὕτως ὁ πρῶτος ἄρκτον ἀν-
ελὼν 7 ἢ λύκον εὐδοκίμησεν" 7 βοῦς t ἴσως" ἢ σῦς at-
τίαν ἔσχε προκειμένων ἱερῶν γευσάμενος ἐπιτήδειος
ἀποθανεῖν: ἔλαφοι δὲ τοὐντεῦθεν ἤδη καὶ λαγωοὶ
καὶ δορκάδες ἐσθιόμενοι προβάτων καὶ κυνῶν
ἐνιαχοῦ καὶ ἵππων κρέα προυξένησαν: “τιθασὸν
~ >]
δὲ χῆνα Kal περιστεράν, ἐφέστιον οἰκέτιν,᾽ TO
/ 2 » e ~ \ ” ~
Σοφοκλέους, οὐχ ws γαλαῖ καὶ αἴλουροι τροφῆς
LA \ / > > 5,..1Ὁ « ~ a ~
ἕνεκα διὰ λιμόν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐφ᾽ ἡδονῇ Kat ὄψῳ διασπῶν-
τες καὶ κατακόπτοντες ὅσον ἐστὶ τῇ φύσει φονικὸν
καὶ θηριῶδες ἔρρωσαν καὶ πρὸς οἶκτον ἀκαμπὲς"
ἀπειργάσαντο, τοῦ δ᾽ ἡμέρου τὸ πλεῖστον ἀπήμ-
F βλυναν: ὥσπερ αὖ πάλιν οἱ Πυθαγορικοὶ τὴν εἰς"
7
τὰ θηρία πραότητα μελέτην ἐποιήσαντο πρὸς τὸ
1 ἢ βοῦς tows W. C. H.: καὶ βοῦς τις.
2 70 Σοφοκλέους Emperius : τε Σοφοκλῆς.
* ἀκαμπὲς] ἀπαθὲς Porphyry.
4 cis W. C. H.: ampos.
@ See 998 B infra and cf. Miiller, Hist. Graec. Frag. i,
p. 269, Ephorus, frag. 125; it is not, however, accepted as
from Ephorus by Jacoby (cf. Sallust, Catiline, li. 28-31).
We must remember, during the following discussion, that
zoology used to be the handmaid of ethics.
» Cf. 993 B infra. The Age of Cronus, when beasts
were unharmed, is admirably described in Plato, Politicus,
270 c fff.
¢ “That is, they put grain on the altar to make the
animal volunteer, as it were, to die ’’ (Post); and the con-
sent of the victim was secured by pouring water on it to
make it shake its head. See Mor. 729 ¥F and the article
Ὁ Opfer ”’ in RA, xviii. 612.
322
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 959
happened at Athens?%: the first man put to death
by the Thirty was a certain informer who was said to
deserve it, and so was the second and the third ; but
after that they went on, step by step, until they were
laying hands on honest men and eventually did not
spare even the best of the citizens. Just so the first
man ὃ to kill a bear or a wolf won praise ; and perhaps
some cow or pig was condemned as suitable to slay
because it had tasted the sacred meal placed before
it.© So from that point, as they now went on to eat
the flesh of deer and hare and antelope, men were
introduced to the consumption of sheep and, in some
places, of dogs and horses.
The tame goose and the dove upon the hearth,
as Sophocles? says, were dismembered and carved
for food—not that hunger compelled men as it does
weasels and cats, but for pleasure and as an appetizer.’
Thus the brute 7 and the natural lust to kill in man
were fortified and rendered inflexible to pity, while
gentleness was, for the most part, deadened. It was
in this way, on the contrary, that the Pythagoreans,?
to inculcate humanity and compassion, made a
4 Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 314, frag. 782 ; Pearson,
vol. III, p. 68, frag. 866.
ε Of. 991 pv, 993 B, 995 c infra. ΟΥ̓“ as meat to go with
their bread ’’?; for fowl is not ordinarily an appetizer.
7 From this point to the end of chapter 5 (963 ¥F) the
greater part of the text is excerpted by Porphyry, De Absti-
nentia, iii. 20-24 (pp. 211-220, ed. Nauck). This indirect
transmission, with its not infrequent changes, omissions, and
variations, gives valuable evidence; but obvious errors on
either side have not been mentioned here.
9 Of. 964 τ, 993 a infra, and Mor. 86 v, 729 ©. ‘‘ The
practice is correctly stated ; the alleged motive is not. The
taboo on meat stemmed from belief in the transmigration of
souls ’’ (Andrews).
323
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
/ /
(959) φιλάνθρωπον καὶ φιλοίκτιρμον: ἡ yap συνήθεια
960 δεινὴ τοῖς κατὰ μικρὸν ἐνοικειουμένοις πάθεσι
/ A
πόρρω προαγαγεῖν τὸν ἄνθρωπον.
δ
᾿Αλλ᾽ οὐκ οἷδ᾽ ὅπως ἐν λόγοις γεγονότες λελή-
θαμεν οὔτε τῶν χθὲς ἡμῖν γεγονότων οὔτε τῶν
\
Taya δὴ γενησομένων σήμερον ἀπηρτημένοις. ἀπο-
φηνάμενοι' γὰρ ἐχθές, ὡς οἶσθα, μετέχειν ἁμωσ-
γέπως πάντα τὰ ζῷα διανοίας καὶ λογισμοῦ
παρέσχομεν οὐκ ἄμουσον οὐδ᾽ ἄχαριν τοῖς θηρα-
τικοῖς νεανίσκοις περὶ συνέσεως θηρίων ἐνάλων τε
\ ~ “ [2] 7 e ” /
καὶ πεζῶν ἅμιλλαν ἣν σήμερον, ws ἔοικε, βραβεύ-
aA » «
σομεν, av γε δὴ ταῖς προκλήσεσιν οἱ περὶ ᾿Αριστό-
B τιμον καὶ Φαίδιμον ἐμμείνωσιν: ἐκείνων γὰρ ὁ μὲν
τῆς γῆς ὡς διαφέροντα τῷ φρονεῖν ζῷα γεννώσης
A / ~
ἐπεδίδου τοῖς ἑταίροις συνήγορον ἑαυτόν, ὁ δὲ τῆς
θαλάττης.
~ > 7
saKA. ᾿Βμμενοῦσιν, ὦ Αὐτόβουλε, καὶ ὅσον ov-
πω πάρεισι: συντασσομένους γὰρ αὐτοὺς ἕωθεν
Ce? > > >? / \ = i ~ “ a
ἑώρων. ἀλλ᾽ εἰ βούλει, πρὸ τοῦ ἀγῶνος ὅσα Tots
ἐχθὲς λόγοις προσήκοντα λεχθῆναι καιρὸν οὐκ
ἔσχεν ἢ σὺν" οἴνῳ καὶ παρὰ πότον οὐ μετὰ σπουδῆς
> / \ ε \ > / > / /
ἐλέχθη πρὸς αὑτοὺς ἀναλάβωμεν. ἐδόκει yap τι
πραγματικῶς οἷον ἀντηχεῖν ἐκ τῆς Στοᾶς, ὡς τῷ
θνητῷ τὸ ἀθάνατον ἀντίκειται καὶ τῷ φθαρτῷ τὸ
ἄφθαρτον καὶ σώματί γε τὸ ἀσώματον: οὕτως ὑπ-
Ο ἀαρχοντι τῷ" λογικῷ χρῆναι τὸ ἄλογον ἀντικεῖσθαι
1 ἀπηρτημένοις Reiske: ἀπηρτημένοι. ἀποφηνάμενοι added
by Bernardakis after Wyttenbach.
2 ἐμμενοῦσιν W.C. Η. : ἐμμένουσιν.
3 σὺν] ἐν van Herwerden. 4 τῷ] ye τῷ Porphyry.
324
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 959-960
practice of kindness to animals ; for habituation has
a strange power to lead men onward by a gradual
familiarization of the feelings.
Well, we have somehow fallen unawares into a
discussion not unconnected with what we said yester-
day nor yet with the argument that is presently to
take place to-day. Yesterday, as you know, we
proposed the thesis that all animals partake in one
way or another of reason and understanding, and
thereby offered our young hunters a field of competi-
tion not lacking in either instruction or pleasure :
the question whether land or sea animals have
superior intelligence. This argument, it seems, we
shall to-day adjudicate if Aristotimus and Phaedimus
stand by their challenges ; for Aristotimus put him-
self at his comrades’ disposal to advocate the land as
producer of animals with superior intelligence, while
the other will be pleader for the sea.
soctarus. They'll stand by their word, Autobulus ;
they'll be here any minute now. Early this morning
I observed them both preparing for the fray. But,
if you like, before the contest begins, let us review
the discussion of whatever topics are germane to our
conversation of yesterday, but were not then dis-
cussed, either because no occasion offered, or, since
we were in our cups, were treated too lightly. I
thought, in fact, that I caught the reverberation of
a material objection from the Stoa%: just as the
immortal is opposed to the mortal and the imperish-
able to the perishable, and, of course, the incorporeal
to the corporeal ; just so, if there is rationality, the
irrational must exist as its opposite and counterpart.
« Cf.von Arnim, S.V.F. ii, pp. 49 ff., 172 ff. ; and Pohlenz,
B.P.W, xxiii (1903), col. 966, on Chrysippus, frag. 182.
325
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
\ > / \ A / > ~
(960) Kat ἀνθυπάρχειν καὶ μὴ μόνην ἐν τοσαῖσδε συζυ-
γίαις ἀτελῆ τήνδε λείπεσθαι καὶ πεπηρωμένην.
8. art. Τίς δέ, ὦ φίλε Σώκλαρε, τοῦτ᾽ ἠξίω-
»Μ - ~ ~
σεν, ὄντος ἐν τοῖς πράγμασι τοῦ λογικοῦ, μὴ εἶναι
\ Μ \ / > \ Μ > ~
τὸ ἄλογον; πολὺ γάρ ἐστι καὶ ἄφθονον ἐν πᾶσι
ἯΙ ps > 2 \ sav. 4) bess ,
τοῖς ψυχῆς ἀμοιροῦσι καὶ οὐδὲν' ἑτέρας δεόμεθα
\ \ \ > / > Ἁ ~ >) \ \
πρὸς τὸ λογικὸν ἀντιθέσεως, ἀλλὰ πᾶν εὐθὺς τὸ
~ A
ἄψυχον ws ἄλογον καὶ ἀνόητον ἀντίκειται τῷ μετὰ
~ / ” \ / 5 ᾿ 3 -
ψυχῆς λόγον ἔχοντι καὶ διάνοιαν. εἰ δέ τις ἀξιοῖ
μὴ κολοβὸν εἶναι τὴν φύσιν ἀλλὰ τὴν ἔμψυχον
/ ” \ \ \ \ > Μ “
φύσιν ἔχειν τὸ μὲν λογικὸν τὸ δ᾽ ἄλογον, ἕτερος
D ἀξιώσει τὴν ἔμψυχον φύσιν ἔχειν τὸ μὲν φανταστι-
κὸν τὸ δ᾽ ἀφαντασίωτον, καὶ τὸ μὲν αἰσθητικὸν τὸ
3 > / σ ἣ \ > / / \
δ᾽ ἀναίσθητον: ἵνα δὴ τὰς ἀντιζύγους ταύτας Kal
> / “ \ / \ > A 3 /,
ἀντιθέτους ἕξεις καὶ στερήσεις περὶ ταὐτὸν ἡ φύσις
- ¢
ἔχῃ γένος οἷον ἰσορροπούσας." εἰ δ᾽ ἄτοπος ὁ
~ ~ Pp) / \ \ > \ \ > >
ζητῶν τοῦ ἐμψύχου τὸ μὲν αἰσθητικὸν τὸ δ᾽ av-
>
αίσθητον εἶναι, Kal TO μὲν φαντασιούμενον TO ὃ
ἀφαντασίωτον, ὅτι πᾶν τὸ ἔμψυχον αἰσθητικὸν εὖ-
\ 4 \ \ / 0.9 4Φ
θὺς εἶναι καὶ φανταστικὸν πέφυκεν, οὐδ᾽ οὗτος
ἐπιεικῶς ἀπαιτήσει τὸ μὲν λογικὸν εἶναι τοῦ ἐμ-
/ \ > y \ 5 / /
ψύχου τὸ δ᾽ ἄλογον, πρὸς ἀνθρώπους διαλεγόμε-
\
vos μηδὲ ἕν οἰομένους αἰσθήσεως μετέχειν ὃ μὴ
\ / > <3 ~ “Ὁ \ ré \
Kal συνέσεως, μηδ᾽ εἶναι ζῷον ᾧ μὴ δόξα τις Kal
1 οὐδὲν Porphyry : οὐδ᾽ ἔτι.
* ἰσορροπούσας] ἰσορρόπους Porphyry, who adds ἀλλ᾽ ἄτοπον
τοῦτό γε.
α There seems to be a great deal more anti-Stoic polemic
326
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 960
This alone, among all these pairings, must not be
left incomplete and mutilated.
3. auTosuLus.* But who ever, my dear Soclarus,
maintained that, while rationality exists in the uni-
verse, there is nothing irrational? For there is a
plentiful abundance of the irrational in all things
that are not endowed with a soul ; we need no other
sort of counterpart for the rational : everything that
is soulless, since it has no reason or intelligence, is by
definition in opposition to that which, together with
a soul, possesses also reason and understanding. Yet
suppose someone were to maintain that nature must
not be left maimed, but that that part of nature
which is endowed with a soul should have its irrational
as well as its rational aspect, someone else is bound
to maintain that nature endowed with a soul must
have both an imaginative and an unimaginative part,
and both a sentient part and an insentient. They
want nature, they say, to have these counteractive
and contraposed positives and negatives of the
same kind counterbalanced, as it were. But if it is
ridiculous to require an antithesis of sentient and
insentient within the class of living things, or an
antithesis of imaginative and unimaginative, seeing
that it is the nature of every creature with a soul
to be sentient and imaginative from the hour of its
birth, so he, also, is unreasonable who demands a
division of the living into a rational and an irrational
part—and that, too, when he is arguing with men
who believe that nothing is endowed with sensation
which does not also partake of intelligence and that
there is no living thing which does not naturally
in the following speeches than von Arnim has admitted into
his compilation. See especially the notes on 961 c ff. infra.
327
(960)
ΗΕ
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
λογισμὸς ὥσπερ αἴσθησις καὶ ὁρμὴ κατὰ φύσιν
πάρεστιν. ἡ γὰρ φύσις, ἣν ἕνεκά του καὶ πρός τι
πάντα ποιεῖν ὀρθῶς λέγουσιν, οὐκ ἐπὶ ψιλῷ τῷ
πάσχον TU αἰσθάνεσθαι τὸ ζῷον αἰσθητικὸν ἐποίη-
> > » \ > / \ > \ ~
σεν: ἀλλ᾽ ὄντων μὲν οἰκείων πρὸς αὐτὸ πολλῶν
ὄντων δ᾽ ἀλλοτρίων, οὐδ᾽ ἀκαρὲς ἦν περιεῖναι μὴ
/ \ \ / A de / θ
μαθόντι τὰ μὲν φυλάττεσθαι τοῖς δὲ συμφέρεσθαι.
τὴν μὲν οὖν γνῶσιν ἀμφοῖν ὁμοίως ἡ αἴσθησις
~ / ~
ἑκάστῳ παρέχει: τὰς δ᾽ ἑπομένας τῇ αἰσθήσει τῶν
μὲν ὠφελίμων. λήψεις καὶ διώξεις, διακρούσεις δὲ
καὶ φυγὰς τῶν ὀλεθρίων καὶ λυπηρῶν οὐδεμία
F μηχανὴ παρεῖναι τοῖς μὴ λογίζεσθαί τι καὶ κρίνειν
961
\ / \ / / > > =
καὶ μνημονεύειν καὶ προσέχειν πεφυκόσιν: ἀλλ᾽ ὧν
5 /
av ἀφέλῃς παντάπασι προσδοκίαν μνήμην πρόθεσιν
παρασκευὴν τὸ ἐλπίζειν τὸ δεδοικέναι τὸ ἐπιθυμεῖν
\ > / ” > > / ” > \ > a
τὸ ἀσχάλλειν, οὔτ᾽ ὀμμάτων ὄφελος οὐδὲν αὐτοῖς
7 \
παρόντων οὔτ᾽ ὥτων: αἰσθήσεώς τε πάσης Kal
/
φαντασίας TO χρώμενον οὐκ ἐχούσης ἀπηλλάχθαι
βέλτιον ἢ πονεῖν καὶ λυπεῖσθαι καὶ ἀλγεῖν, ᾧ δια-
κρούσεται ταῦτα μὴ παρόντος.
/ / / ~ ~ / > \
Kaito. Στράτωνός ye τοῦ φυσικοῦ λόγος ἐστὶν
5 / ς 9.01.9 > / \ / +
ἀποδεικνύων ὡς οὐδ᾽ αἰσθάνεσθαι τὸ παράπαν ἄνευ
τοῦ νοεῖν ὑπάρχει: καὶ γὰρ γράμματα πολλάκις
ἐπιπορευομένους τῇ ὄψει καὶ λόγοι προσπίπτοντες
~ ~ ¢ ~
τῇ ἀκοῇ διαλανθάνουσιν ἡμᾶς καὶ διαφεύγουσι πρὸς
“ Ss > ~
ἑτέροις TOV νοῦν ἔχοντας" εἶτ᾽ αὖθις ἐπανῆλθε καὶ
1
πάσχον τι Reiske: πάσχοντι (πάσχειν καὶ Porphyry).
2 παρεῖναι added by Porphyry.
« Aristotle and Theophrastus passim ; ef. also Mor. 646 c,
698 8.
328
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 960-961
possess both opinion and reason, just as it has sensa-
tion and appetite. For nature, which, they ¢ rightly
say, does everything with some purpose and to some
end, did not create the sentient creature merely to
be sentient when something happens to it. No, for
there are in the world many things friendly to it,
many also hostile; and it could not survive for a
moment if it had not learned to give the one sort a
wide berth while freely mixing with the other. It
is, to be sure, sensation that enables each creature
to recognize both kinds ; but the acts of seizing or
pursuing that ensue upon the perception of what is
beneficial, as well as the eluding or fleeing of what is
destructive or painful, could by no means occur in
creatures naturally incapable of some sort of reason-
ing and judging, remembering and attending. Those
beings, then, which you deprive of all expectation,
memory, design, or preparation, and of all hopes,
fears, desires, or griefs—they will have no use for eyes
or ears either, even though they have them. Indeed,
it would be better to be rid of all sensation and
imagination that has nothing to make use of it,
rather than to know toil and distress and pain while
not possessing any means of averting them.
There is, in fact, a work of Strato,? the natural
philosopher, which proves that it is impossible to
have sensation at all without some action of the in-
telligence. Often, it is true, while we are busy
reading, the letters may fall on our eyes, or words
may fall on our ears, which escape our attention since
our minds are intent on other things ; but later the
mind recovers, shifts its course, and follows up every
> Frag. 112, ed. Wehrli (Die Schule des Aristoteles, v,
Ῥ. 34).
329
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(961) μεταθεῖ καὶ διώκει τῶν προειμένων' ἕκαστον ava-
λεγόμενος: ἧ καὶ λέλεκται
νοῦς ὁρῇ καὶ νοῦς ἀκούει, τἄλλα" κωφὰ καὶ τυφλά,
ὡς τοῦ περὶ τὰ ὄμματα καὶ ὦτα πάθους, ἂν μὴ
παρῇ τὸ φρονοῦν, αἴσθησιν οὐ ποιοῦντος. διὸ καὶ
Β Κλεομένης ὁ βασιλεύς, παρὰ πότον εὐδοκιμοῦντος
ἀκροάματος, ἐρωτηθεὶς εἰ μὴ φαίνεται σπουδαῖον,
ἐκέλευσεν ἐκείνους σκοπεῖν, αὐτὸς" γὰρ ἐν Iledo-
ποννήσῳ τὸν νοῦν ἔχειν. ὅθεν ἀνάγκη πᾶσιν, οἷς
τὸ αἰσθάνεσθαι, καὶ τὸ νοεῖν ὑπάρχειν, εἰ τῷ νοεῖν
αἰσθάνεσθαι πεφύκαμεν.
"Eotw δὲ μὴ δεῖσθαι τοῦ νοῦ τὴν αἴσθησιν πρὸς
τὸ αὑτῆς ἔργον: ἀλλ᾽ ὅταν γε τῷ ζῴῳ πρὸς τὸ
οἰκεῖον καὶ τἀλλότριον ἡ αἴσθησις ἐνεργασαμένη
διαφορὰν ἀπέλθῃ, τί τὸ μνημονεῦόν ἐστιν ἤδη καὶ
δεδιὸς τὰ λυποῦντα καὶ ποθοῦν τὰ ὠφέλιμα καί, μὴ
Ο παρόντων, ὅπως παρέσται μηχανώμενον ἐν αὐτοῖς
καὶ παρασκευαζόμενον ὁρμητήρια καὶ καταφυγὰς
καὶ θήρατρα πάλιν αὖ τοῖς ἁλωσομένοις" καὶ ἀπο-
δράσεις τῶν ἐπιτιθεμένων; καὶ ταυτί ye? κἀκεῖνοι
λέγοντες ἀποκναίουσιν, ἐν ταῖς εἰσαγωγαῖς ἑκά-
στοτε τὴν “᾿ πρόθεσιν ὁριζόμενοι “᾿ σημείωσιν
1 προειμένων Kronenberg : προϊεμένων (προειρημένων Por-
phyry : : παρειμένων Nauck).
ἢ τἄλλα Meziriacus : τὰ δ᾽ ἄλλα.
αὐτὸς Porphyry: αὐτὸν.
τοῖς ἁλοῦσιν Porphyry.
καὶ ταυτί γε]- καίτοι ye Porphyry.
σι - ὦ
* A frequently occurring quotation, attributed to Epi-
charmus in Mor. 336 B (Kaibel, Com. Graec. Frag. i, Ὁ. 137,
330
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 961
detail that had been neglected; and this is the
meaning of the saying 7:
Mind has sight and Mind has hearing ;
Everything else is deaf and blind,
indicating that the impact on eyes and ears brings
no perception if the understanding is not present.
For this reason also King Cleomenes, when a recital
made at a banquet was applauded and he was asked
if it did not seem excellent, replied that the others
must judge, for his mind was in the Peloponnesus.
So that, if we are so constituted that to have sensation
we must have understanding, then it must follow
that all creatures which have sensation can also
understand.
But let us grant that sensation needs no help of
intelligence to perform its own function ; neverthe-
less, when the perception that has caused an animal
to distinguish between what is friendly and what
is hostile is gone, what is it that from this time on
remembers the distinction, fears the painful, and
wants the beneficial ? And, if what it wants is not
there, what is there in animals that devises means of
acquiring it and providing lairs and hiding-places
—both traps for prey and places of refuge from
attackers ? And yet those very authors ὃ rasp our
ears by repeatedly defining in their Introductions °
‘purpose ”’ as “‘ an indication of intent to complete,”’
frag. 249; Diels, Frag. der Vorsok. i, Ὁ. 200, frag. 12); see
also Mor. 98 c and 975 8 infra. The fullest interpretation
is that of Schottlaender, Hermes, lxii, pp. 437 f.; and see
also Wehrli’s note, pp. 72 f.
» The Stoics again: von Arnim, S.V.F. iii, p. 41, Chry-
sippus, frag. 173 of the Lthica.
¢ Or “ elementary treatises’: titles used by Chrysippus
(von Arnim, op. cit. ii, pp. 6 f.; ili, p. 196).
331
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(961) ἐπιτελειώσεως,᾽᾽ τὴν δ᾽ “ ἐπιβολὴν᾽᾿᾿ “ ὁρμὴν πρὸ
ὁρμῆς, “᾿ παρασκευὴν ᾿ δὲ “᾿ πρᾶξιν πρὸ πρά-
}})ἢ ce 7 +) \ ce
ἕξεως, μνήμην ᾿᾿ δὲ κατάληψιν ἀξιώματος
παρεληλυθότος, οὗ τὸ παρὸν ἐξ αἰσθήσεως κατε-
λ 7 θ }) / \ > \ “ \ / >
ἠφθη.᾽ τούτων yap οὐδὲν 6 τι μὴ λογικόν ἐστι,
καὶ πάντα τοῖς ζῴοις ὑπάρχει πᾶσιν: ὥσπερ ἀμέλει
καὶ τὰ περὶ τὰς νοήσεις, ἃς ἐναποκειμένας μὲν
ΜΝ. / 2) ~ / \ cc / ΣΦ
D “ ἐννοίας ᾿᾿ καλοῦσι, κινουμένας δὲ “᾿ διανοήσεις.
τὰ δὲ πάθη σύμπαντα κοινῶς “᾿ κρίσεις φαύλας καὶ
δόξας ᾿ ὁμολογοῦντες εἶναι, θαυμαστὸν ὅτι δὴ
παρορῶσιν ἐν τοῖς θηρίοις ἔργα καὶ κινήματα
πολλὰ μὲν θυμῶν πολλὰ δὲ φόβων καὶ ναὶ pat Δία
φθόνων καὶ ζηλοτυπιῶν: αὐτοὶ δὲ καὶ κύνας ἁμαρ-
/ \ / » \ ΄ 3 >
TavovTas καὶ ἵππους κολάζουσιν, οὐ διὰ “κενῆς ἀλλ
ἐπὶ σωφρονισμῷ, λύπην δι᾿ ἀλγηδόνος ἐμποιοῦντες
αὐτοῖς, ἣν μετάνοιαν ὀνομάζομεν.
rf
“Ηδονῆς δὲ τῇ μὲν" δι’ ὥτων ὄνομα κήλησίς ἐστι
τῇ δὲ δι’ ὀμμάτων γοητεία" χρῶνται δ᾽ ἑκατέραις"
>]
ἐπὶ τὰ θηρία. κηλοῦνται μὲν γὰρ' ἔλαφοι καὶ
E ἵπποι σύριγξι καὶ αὐλοῖς καὶ τοὺς παγούρους ἐκ
τῶν χηραμῶν ἀνακαλοῦνται βιαζόμενοι ταῖς φώ-
τιγξι,, καὶ τὴν θρίσσαν ἀδόντων καὶ κροτούντων
1 ναὶ μὰ] νὴ Porphyry.
τῇ μὲν... τῇ δὲ Bernardakis: τῷ μὲν... τῷ δὲ (τῆς μὲν...
τῆς δὲ Porphyry).
3 ἑκατέραις Porphyry: ἑκατέροις.
4 μὲν yap Hirschig : μὲν.
5 βιαζόμενοι ταῖς φώτιγξι] μελιζόμενοι ταῖς σύριγξι Porphyry.
« That is, by sensation we apprehend the proposition
‘““ Socrates is snub-nosed,” by memory the proposition
“Socrates was snub-nosed.” ‘The literature on this com-
plicated subject has been collected and analysed in Class.
Rev. lxvi (1952), pp. 146 ἢ.
332
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 961
“ design’ as “‘ an impulse before an impulse,” “ pre-
paration ᾿ as “ an act before an act,” and “ memory ”’
as “‘ an apprehension of a proposition in the past tense
of which the present tense has been apprehended by
perception.” * For there is not one of these terms
that does not belong to logic; and the acts are all
present in all animals as, of course, are cognitions
which, while inactive, they call “ notions,’’ but when
they are once put into action, “ concepts.”” And
though they admit that emotions one and all are
“false judgements and seeming truths,” ὃ it is extra-
ordinary that they obviously fail to note many things
that animals do and many of their movements that
show anger or fear or, so help me, envy or jealousy.
They themselves punish dogs and horses that make
mistakes, not idly but to discipline them; they are
creating in them through pain a feeling of sorrow,
which we call repentance.
Now pleasure that is received through the ears is
a means of enchantment, while that which comes
through the eyes is a kind of magic: they use both
kinds against animals. For deer and horses © are
bewitched by pipes and flutes, and crabs ὦ are in-
voluntarily lured from their holes by lotus pipes @ ;
it is also reported that shad will rise to the surface
ὃ Cf.you: Arnim; op. cit. i, pp. 50 f. 5 iin, pp 9? fi see
also Mor. 449 c.
¢ Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. xii. 44, 46; Antigonus,
Hist. Mirab. 29.
4 Dolphins also are caught by music: Pliny, Nat. Hist.
MAST:
¢ As described in Athenaeus, 182 e (cf. 175e) ; cf. Aelian,
De Natura Animal, vi. 31. “ Better would be * Egyptian
flutes,’ as the term ἡ lotus’ is somewhat misleading. It is
probably the wood of the nettle-tree, Celtis australis, that is
indicated *’ (Andrews).
333
(961)
962
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
> / \ ..7 / ¢ > > 4
ἀναδύεσθαι καὶ προϊέναι λέγουσιν. ὁ δ᾽ ὦτος αὖ
πάλιν ἁλίσκεται γοητευόμενος, ὀρχουμένων ἐν ὄψει
μεθ᾽ ἡδονῆς ἅμα ῥυθμῷ γλιχόμενος τοὺς ὥμους
συνδιαστρέφειν."
Οἱ δὲ περὶ τούτων ἀβελτέρως λέγοντες μήθ᾽ ἥδε-
σθαι μήτε θυμοῦσθαι μήτε φοβεῖσθαι μήτε παρα-
σκευάζεσθαι μήτε μνημονεύειν, ἀλλ’ “ ὡσανεὶ
μνημονεύειν ᾿᾿ τὴν μέλιτταν καὶ “᾿ ὡσανεὶ παρα-
/ 33 \ / \ ce ¢ \ ~
σκευάζεσθαι᾿᾿ τὴν χελιδόνα καὶ “ ὡσανεὶ θυμοῦ-
}) \ / \ {{ « \ a }) \
σθαι τὸν λέοντα καὶ “ ὡσανεὶ φοβεῖσθαι᾿᾿᾿ τὴν
” > 5 , , a 7 rsa
ἔλαφον, οὐκ οἶδα τί χρήσονται Tots λέγουσι μήτε
/ / igh > J > / > ral f § ¢ \ δ ΕΣ] > \
βλέπειν μήτ᾽ ἀκούειν ἀλλ᾽ “ ὡσανεὶ βλέπειν ᾿᾿ αὐτὰ
ee gs «ς \ > / ᾽) \ A > 3» Κα ¢ \
Kal “᾿ ὡσανεὶ akovew, μηδὲ φωνεῖν ἀλλ᾽ “ ὡσανεὶ
A ”) 7, 7 a“ 3 2 OG Ce \ ~ }) ~
φωνεῖν,᾽᾿ μηδ᾽ ὅλως ζῆν ἀλλ᾽ “ ὡσανεὶ Civ”: ταῦτα
γὰρ ἐκείνων οὐ μᾶλλόν ἐστι λεγόμενα παρὰ τὴν
ἐνάργειαν, ὡς ἐγὼ πείθομαι.
4. ΣΩκλΛ. Kape τοίνυν, ὦ Αὐτόβουλε, ταῦτά γε
/ / ~ \ A > / ”
τίθει πειθόμενον: τῷ δὲ Tots ἀνθρωπίνοις ἤθεσι
καὶ βίοις καὶ πράξεσι καὶ διαίταις τὰ τῶν ζῴων
, ” \ > ele: ,
παρατιθέναι ἄλλην τε πολλὴν ἐνορῶν" φλαυρότητα
καὶ τῆς ἀρετῆς, πρὸς ἣν ὁ λόγος γέγονε, μηδέν᾽
1 συνδιαστρέφειν Hubert (ad Mor. 705 a): εὖ διαφέρειν
(συνδιαφέρειν) Kronenberg).
2 pyre ea. pyr Hirschig:: μηδὲ. - « pd.
3 ἐνορῶν Bernardakis from Porphyry: ἐν ὅλω.
* Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 32; Athenaeus, 328 f,
on the trichis, which is a kind of thrissa (cf. Athenaeus,
328 e); and see Mair on Oppian, Hal. i. 244 (L.C.L.).
» Cf. Mor. 52 5 (where the L.C.L., probably wrongly,
reads ‘“‘ the ape’’); 705 a; Athenaeus, 390 f; Aelian,
De Natura Animal. xv. 28; Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 68; Aris-
totle, Historia Animal. viii. 13 (597 B 22 ff.) and the other
334
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 961-962
and approach when there is singing and clapping.?
The horned owl,’ again, can be caught by the magic
of movement, as he strives to twist his shoulders in
delighted rhythm to the movements of men dancing
before him.
As for those who foolishly affirm that animals do
not feel pleasure or anger or fear or make prepara-
tions or remember, but that the bee “as it were’’ ©
remembers and the swallow “ as it were ” prepares her
nest and the lion “ as it were” grows angry and the
deer “as it were ᾿᾿ is frightened—I don’t know what
they will do about those who say that beasts do not
see or hear, but “ as it were ” hear and see ; that they
have no cry but “as it were’; nor do they live at all
but “as it were.” For these last statements (or so I
believe) are no more contrary to plain evidence than
those that they have made.
4. soctarus. Well, Autobulus, you may count me
also as one who believes your statements; yet on
comparing the ways of beasts with human customs
and lives, with human actions and manner of living,
I find not only many other defects in animals, but
this especially : they do not explicitly aim at virtue,?
for which purpose reason itself exists ; nor do they
references of Hubert at Mor. 705 a and Gulick on Athe-
naeus, 629 f. Contrast Aelian, De Natura Animal. i. 39, on
doves. Porphyry omits this sentence.
¢ A favourite expression of Aristotle’s ; but it is the Stoics
who are being reproved here (ef. von Arnim, S.V.F. ii, p.
240, Chrysippus, frag. 887). This seems to be the only
appearance of the word in Plutarch, unless Pohlenz is right
in conjecturing it at Mor. 600 τ, or Rasmus at 1054 c in
other Stoic quotations.
4 On animals possessing areté see Aelian’s preface to the
first book of De Natura Animal.; cf. also Mor. 986 τ
infra; al.
335
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(962) ) ἐμφανῆ! στοχασμὸν «αὐτῶν μηδὲ προκοπὴν μηδ᾽
ὄρεξιν, ἀπορῶ πῶς ἡ φύσις ἔδωκε τὴν ἀρχὴν av-
τοῖς," ἐπὶ τὸ τέλος ἐξ αν oer μὴ δυναμένοις.
> \ ~ \ 0.9 > A ? / εν
ΑΥΤ. ᾿Αλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν οὐδ᾽ αὐτοῖς ἐκείνοις, ὦ
a a > , ” s a \
Σώκλαρε, τοῖς ἀνδράσιν ἄτοπον εἶναι δοκεῖ: τὴν
γοῦν πρὸς τὰ ἔκγονα φιλοστοργίαν ἀρχὴν μὲν ἡμῖν
κοινωνίας καὶ δικαιοσύνης τιθέμενοι, πολλὴν δὲ
τοῖς ζῴοις καὶ ἰσχυρὰν ὁρῶντες παροῦσαν, οὔ
~ ~ ~ ᾽ὔ
Β φασιν αὐτοῖς οὐδ᾽ ἀξιοῦσι μετεῖναι δικαιοσύνης.
ἡμιόνοις δὲ τῶν γεννητικῶν μορίων οὐδὲν ἐνδεῖ:
καὶ γὰρ αἰδοῖα καὶ μήτρας καὶ τὸ χρῆσθαι μεθ᾽
ἡδονῆς τούτοις ἔχουσαι πρὸς τὸ τέλος οὐκ ἐξικνοῦν-
ται τῆς γενέσεως." σκόπει δ᾽ ἄλλως, μὴ καὶ κατα-
/ rd > \ ὃ \ \ /
γέλαστόν ἐστι τοὺς Σωκράτας Kat τοὺς Πλάτωνας
οὐδὲν ἐλαφροτέρᾳ κακίᾳ τοῦ τυχόντος ἀνδραπόδου
a / iA h es hI aA / ” ᾿ \
συνεῖναι φάσκειν, ἀλλ᾽ ὁμοίως ἄφρονας εἶναι Kal
ἀκολάστους καὶ ἀδίκους, εἶτα τῶν θηρίων αἰτιᾶσθαι
τὸ μὴ καθαρὸν" μηδ᾽ ἀπηκριβωμένον πρὸς ἀρετὴν
ὡς στέρησιν" οὐχὶ φαυλότητα λόγου καὶ ἀσθένειαν,
καὶ ταῦτα τὴν᾽ κακίαν ὁμολογοῦντας εἶναι λογικήν,
ἧς πᾶν θηρίον ἀναπέπλησται" καὶ γὰρ δειλίαν πολ-
λοῖς καὶ ἀκολασίαν ἀδικίαν τε καὶ κακόνοιαν"
eva > , 9 CRS One A \ \ \
ὁρῶμεν ἐνυπάρχουσαν." ὁ δ᾽ ἀξιῶν τὸ μὴ πεφυκὸς
ὀρθότητα λόγου δέχεσθαι μηδὲ λόγον δέχεσθαι"
-
‘é
1 ἐμφανῆ Porphyry: ἐμφήνη.
2 αὐτοῖς] τοῖς Porphyry.
> γενέσεως] γεννήσεως Hartman.
4 φάσκειν Porphyry: φάσκοντας.
5 καθαρὸν] καθάρειον Kronenberg.
8 ws στέρησιν Porphyry: ὥσπερ.
καὶ ταῦτα τὴν Porphyry: καὶ ταύτην.
8 κακόνοιαν Porphyry: κακοήθειαν.
ἐνυπάρχουσαν Meziriacus : ὑπάρχουσαν.
Ὁ μηδὲ λόγον δέχεσθαι added by Porphyry’s ss.
7
9
336
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 962
make any progress in virtue or have any bent for it ;
so that I fail to see how Nature can have given them
even elementary reason, seeing that they cannot
achieve its end.
AUTOBULUs. But neither does this, Soclarus, seem
absurd to those very opponents of ours; for while
they postulate that love of one’s offspring % is the
very foundation of our social life and administration
of justice, and observe that animals possess such love
in a very marked degree, yet they assert and hold
that animals have no part in justice. Now mules ὃ
are not deficient in organs; they have, in fact,
genitals and wombs and are able to use them with
pleasure, yet cannot attain the end of generation.
Consider another approach: is it not ridiculous to
keep affirming that men like Socrates and Plato ¢ are
involved in vice no less vicious than that of any slave
you please, that they are just as foolish and intemper-
ate and unjust, and at the same time to stigmatize
the alloyed and imprecise virtue of animals as absence
of reason rather than as its imperfection or weakness ?
And this, though they acknowledge that vice is
a fault of reason and that all animals are infected
with vice: many, in fact, we observe to be guilty of
cowardice and intemperance, injustice and malice.
He, then, who holds that what is not fitted by na-
ture to receive the perfection of reason does not even
4 See Mor. 495 c and the whole fragment, De Amore
Prolis (493 s—497 τὶ.
> Cf. Aristotle, De Generatione Animal. ii. 7 (746 Ὁ 15 ff.),
ii. 8 (747 a 23 ff.); for Aristotle’s criticism of Empedocles’
theory see H. Cherniss, Aristotle's Criticism of the Pre-
socratics, Ὁ. 143,n. 573. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 173, mentions
some cases of the fertility of mules, see also Cicero, De
Divinatione, i. 36; ii. 49; Herodotus, iii. 151 ff.
¢ Cf. Cicero, De Finibus, iv. 21.
oot
(96
)
-
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
) πρῶτον μὲν οὐδὲν διαφέρει τοῦ μήτε πίθηκον
αἴσχους φύσει μετέχειν μήτε χελώνην βραδυτῆτος
3 ~ a \ / » ᾿ \ /
ἀξιοῦντος, ὅτι μηδὲ κάλλους ἐπιδεκτικὰ μηδὲ τά-
χους ἐστίν: ἔπειτα τὴν διαφορὰν ἐμποδὼν οὖσαν οὐ
~ / ~
συνορᾷ: λόγος μὲν yap ἐγγίνεται φύσει, σπουδαῖος
\ / \ / ~ ’ / \ /
δὲ λόγος καὶ τέλειος ἐξ ἐπιμελείας καὶ διδασκαλίας"
~ ~ ~ ΡῈ Δ
διὸ; τοῦ λογικοῦ πᾶσι τοῖς ἐμψύχοις μέτεστιν. ἣν
\ ~ 5 / \ 3 » > yy
de ζητοῦσιν ὀρθότητα Kai σοφίαν οὐδ᾽ ἄνθρωπον
> A
εἰπεῖν κεκτημένον ἔχουσιν" ws γὰρ" ὄψεως ἔστι
\ ~~
πρὸς ὄψιν διαφορὰ καὶ πτήσεως πρὸς πτῆσιν (οὐ
/ ¢ >
yap ὁμοίως ἱέρακες βλέπουσι καὶ τέττιγες οὐδ
ἀετοὶ πέτονται καὶ πέρδικες), οὕτως οὐδὲ παντὶ
an ~ μὰ
λογικῷ μέτεστιν ὡσαύτως τῆς εὑρομένης" τὸ ἄκρον
9 / \ > 4 Ψ \ / / \
εὐστροφίας καὶ ὀξύτητος" ἐπεὶ δείγματά ye πολλὰ
κοινωνίας καὶ ἀνδρείας καὶ τοῦ πανούργου περὶ
Ss \
τοὺς πορισμοὺς καὶ τὰς οἰκονομίας, ὥσπερ ad καὶ
wn » 7 > y / > / »
τῶν ἐναντίων, ἀδικίας δειλίας ἀβελτερίας, ἔνεστιν
A a > ~
αὐτοῖς. καὶ μαρτυρεῖ TO νυνὶ πεποιηκὸς ἐν τοῖς
[7 A
νεανίσκοις τὴν ἅμιλλαν: ws yap οὔσης τινὸς δια-
~ ¢ - Ὁ
φορᾶς, οἱ μὲν τὰ χερσαῖά φασιν οἱ δὲ τὰ θαλάσσια
«
E μᾶλλον προῆχθαι φύσει πρὸς ἀρετήν: ὃ δὴ καὶ
~ / > / A σ
δῆλόν €O7Tl, παραβαλλομένων πελαργοῖς L7T7T WV
/ « \ \ / ¢ 3
ποτάαμιων (οἱ μὲν yap τρέφουσι TOUS TTATEPAS, οἱ ὃ
εἰ \ / > / \
ἀποκτιννύουσιν ἵνα τὰς μητέρας ὀχεύωσι) καὶ περι-
1 διὸ Porphyry: διὰ.
5 ἔχουσιν] Porphyry adds κἂν μυρίοι δὲ ὦσιν.
3 ὡς γὰρ Meziriacus : ὥσπερ.
ε / /
4 εὑρομένης) δεχομένης Porphyry.
2 Cf. Diogenes Laertius, vii. 54.
ὃ Cf. Cicero, De Natura Deorum, ii. 13. 34.
¢ Cf. 992 pv infra.
338
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 962
receive any reason at all is, in the first place, no
better than one who asserts that apes are not natur-
ally ugly or tortoises naturally slow for the reason
that they are not capable of possessing beauty or
speed. In the second place, he fails to observe the
distinction which is right before his eyes: mere
reason is implanted by nature, but real and perfect
reason “ is the product of care and education. And
this is why every living creature has the faculty of
reasoning ; but if what they seek is true reason and
wisdom, not even man may be said to possess it.?
For as one capacity for seeing or flying differs from
another (hawks and cicadas do not see alike, nor do
eagles and partridges fly alike), so also not every
reasoning creature has in the same way a mental
dexterity or acumen that has attained perfection.
For just as there are many examples in animals of
social instincts and bravery and ingenuity in ways
and means and in domestic arrangements, so, on
the other hand, there are many examples of the oppo-
site : injustice, cowardliness, stupidity.” And the very
factor which brought about our young men’s contest
to-day provides confirmation. It is on an assumption
of difference that the two sides assert, one that land
animals, the other that sea animals, are naturally
more advanced toward virtue. This is clear also if
you contrast hippopotamuses 4 with storks’: the
latter support their fathers, while the former kill
them / in order to consort with their mothers. The
4 Cf. Herodotus, ii. 71; Aristotle, Historia Animal. ii. 7
(502 a 9-15), though the latter passage may be interpolated.
Porphyry reads “* contrast river-horses with land-horses.”’
é Cf. Aristotle, op. cit. ix. 13 (615 b 23 ff.); Aelian, De
Natura Animal. iii. 23; Philo, 61 (p. 129).
7 And eat them: Aelian, De Natura Animal. vii. 19.
339
(962)
963
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
a / ¢ \ \ > V \ r ek \
στεραῖς περδίκων' οἱ μὲν γὰρ ἀφανίζουσι τὰ φὰ καὶ
διαφθείρουσι, τῆς θηλείας, ὃ ὅταν ἐπωάζῃ, μὴ προσ-
δεχομένης" τὴν ὀχείαν, οἱ δὲ καὶ διαδέχονται τὴν ἐπι-
μέλειαν, ἐν “μέρει θάλποντες τὰ φὰ καὶ “Ψωμίζουσι
πρότεροι τὰ νεόττια, καὶ τὴν θήλειαν, ἐὰν πλείονα
χρόνον Hele ates κόπτων ὁ ἄρρην εἰσελαύνει
πρὸς τὰ φὰ καὶ τοὺς νεοττούς. ὄνοις δὲ καὶ προ-
βάτοις ᾿Αντίπατρος. ἐγκαλῶν ὀλιγωρίαν καθαριότη-
τος οὐκ οἶδ᾽ ὅπως" παρεῖδε τὰς λύγκας" καὶ τὰς
χελιδόνας, ὧν αἱ μὲν ἐκτοπίζουσι παντάπασι κρύπ-
w 6 / \ 7, 4 eo.
Tovoa καὶ adavilovoa τὸ λυγκούριον,ἡ at δὲ χελι-
δόνες ἔξω στρεφομένους διδάσκουσι τοὺς νεοττοὺς
ἀφιέναι τὸ περίττωμα."
/ \ , / / 6 > / >
Καίτοι διὰ τί δένδρου δένδρον" od λέγομεν apa-
θέστερον, ὡς κυνὸς πρόβατον οὐδὲ λαχάνου λάχανον
> / ε ” / av / >
ἀνανδρότερον, ws ἔλαφον λέοντος; ἢ καθάπερ ev
τοῖς ἀκινήτοις ἕτερον ἑτέρου βραδύτερον οὐκ ἔστιν
οὐδὲ μικροφωνότερον ἐν τοῖς ἀναύδοις, οὕτως οὐδὲ
δειλότερον οὐδὲ νωθρότερον οὐδ᾽ ἀκρατέστερον,
@ 8 \ / ΄ 9. © ~ A 7 ”
οἷς" μὴ φύσει πᾶσιν" ἡ τοῦ φρονεῖν δύναμις ; ἄλλοις
1 So Porphyry: τὰς θηλείας, ὅταν ἐπωάζωσιν οὐ προσδεχο-
μένας.
οἶδ᾽ ὅπως Nauck: οἶδα πῶς (οἶδεν ὅπως Porphyry).
λύγκας Hercher: λύγγας.
λυγκούριον Nauck : λυγγούριον.
περίττωμα Porphyry : περίττευμα.
δένδρου δένδρον Benseler: δένδρον δένδρου.
δειλότερον Porphyry : δεινότερον.
οἷς] ὅπου Porphyry. ® πᾶσιν] πάρεστιν Reiske.
to
on on ᾿΄ῬῬὉ ὦ
« Of. Aristotle, Historia Animal. vi. 4 (562 Ὁ 17); Aelian,
De Natura Animal. iii. 45.
» Cf. Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 8 (613 b 27 ff.);
Aelian, De Natura Animal. iii. 16, and cf. iv. 1,163 of pea-
cocks in Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 161.
340
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 962-963
same is true if you compare doves α with partridges ὃ ;
for the partridge cock steals the eggs and destroys
them since the female will not τρεῖς with him
while she is sitting, whereas male doves assume a
part in the care of the nest, taking turns at keeping
the eggs warm and being ΤΉ: es the first to feed
the fledglings ; and if the female happens to be away
for too long a time, the male strikes her with his
beak and drives her back to her eggs or squabs. And
while Antipater © was reproaching asses and sheep
for their neglect of cleanliness, I don’t know how he
happened to overlook lynxes and swallows?; for
lynxes dispose of their excrement by concealing and
doing away with it, while swallows teach their nest-
lings to turn tail and void themselves outward.
Why, moreover, do we not say that one tree is less
intelligent than another, as a sheep is by compari-
son with a dog; or one vegetable more cowardly than
another, as a stag is by comparison with a lion? Is
the reason not that, just as it is impossible to call one
immovable object slower than another, or one dumb
thing more mute than another, so among all the crea-
tures to whom Nature has not given the faculty of
understanding, we cannot say that one is more coward-
ly or more slothful or more intemperate ? Whereas it
¢ Von Arnim, S.V.F. iii, p. 251, Antipater of Tarsus,
frag. 47. We know from Plutarch’s Aetia Physica, 38 that
Antipater wrote a book on animals. On the other hand,
Dyroff (Blatter f. d. Bay. Gymn. xxiii, 1897, p. 403) argued
for Antipater of Tyre; he believed, in fact, that the present
work was mainly directed against this Antipater. Schuster,
op. cit. p. 77, has shown this to be unlikely.
¢ Cf. Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 7 (612 b 30 f.); Plu-
tarch, Mor. 727 p-r; Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 92; Philo, 22
(p. 111).
341
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
> es »
(965) δ᾽ ἄλλως κατὰ τὸ μᾶλλον καὶ ἧττον παροῦσα τὰς
ὁρωμένας διαφορὰς πεποίηκεν.
5 > \ \ “ » >
5. saka. ᾿Αλλὰ θαυμαστὸν ὅσον ἄνθρωπος εὐ-
μαθείᾳ" καὶ ἀγχινοίᾳ καὶ τοῖς περὶ δικαιοσύνην καὶ
κοινωνίαν διαφέρει τῶν ζῴων.
x \ \ ale nen Ban \ A
ArT. Kat yap ἐκείνων, ὦ ἑταῖρε, πολλὰ τοῦτο
\ / \ / ~ > »Μ ἘΠ
μὲν μεγέθει καὶ ποδωκείᾳ τοῦτο δ᾽ ὄψεως ῥώμῃ
καὶ ἀκοῆς ἀκριβείᾳ πάντας ἀνθρώπους ἀπολέλοιπεν"
ἀλλ᾽ οὐ διὰ τοῦτο τυφλὸς" οὐδ᾽ ἀδύνατος οὐδ᾽
B ἄωτος" ὁ ἄνθρωπός ἐστιν: ἀλλὰ καὶ θέομεν εἰ καὶ
/ > / \ / > \ A
βραδύτερον ἐλάφων, καὶ βλέπομεν εἰ Kal χεῖρον
ἱεράκων": ἰσχύος τε καὶ μεγέθους ἡ φύσις ἡμᾶς οὐκ
ἀπεστέρησεν, καίτοι τὸ μηδὲν ἐν τούτοις πρὸς ἐλέ-
ῴφαντα καὶ κάμηλον ὄντας. οὐκοῦν ὁμοίως μηδὲ
τὰ θηρία λέγωμεν, εἰ νωθρότερον φρονεῖ καὶ κάκιον
διανοεῖται, μὴ διανοεῖσθαι μηδὲ φρονεῖν ὅλως μηδὲ
~ / > ΄ \ ~ \ /
κεκτῆσθαι λόγον, ἀσθενῆ δὲ κεκτῆσθαι καὶ θολερόν,
ὥσπερ ὀφθαλμὸν ἀμβλυώττοντα καὶ τεταραγμένον.
>? \ \ \ \ / > / \ /
et δὲ μὴ πολλὰ τοὺς νεανίσκους αὐτίκα δὴ μάλα
προσεδόκων τὸν μὲν ἐκ γῆς τὸν δ᾽ ἐκ θαλάττης
~ /
Ο ἐνταῦθα συνερανίσειν, φιλολόγους καὶ φιλογραμ-
μάτους ὄντας, οὐκ ἂν ἀπεσχόμην σοι" μυρία μὲν
εὐμαθείας μυρία δ᾽ εὐφυΐας παραδείγματα θηρίων
- ¢ - > ~
διηγούμενος, ὧν ἄμαις καὶ σκάφαις ἡμῖν ἐκ τῶν
1 εὐμαθείᾳ Porphyry: εὐηθείᾳ.
2 κωφὸς οὐδὲ τυφλὸς Porphyry.
οὐδ᾽ ἄωτος omitted by Porphyry.
4 θέομεν. . . βλέπομεν εἰ Kal χεῖρον ἱεράκων] added from
Porphyry ; the mss. of Plutarch have only χεῖρον ἱεράκων
or χειρῶν Kal ὀμμάτων.
5 συνερανιεῖν ?
® go. Bernardakis: σου.
342
[2
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 963
is the presence of understanding, of one kind in one
animal, of another kind in another, and in varying
degree, that has produced the observable differences.
5. socLarus. Yet it is astonishing how greatly man
surpasses the animals in his capacity for learning and
in sagacity and in the requirements of justice and
social life.
AuTosuLus. ‘There are in fact, my friend, many
animals which surpass all men, not only in bulk and
swiftness, but also in keen sight and sharp hearing ¢ ;
but for all that man is not blind or crippled or ear-
less. We can run, if less swiftly than deer; and
see, if less keenly than hawks; nor has Nature de-
prived us of strength and bulk even though, by
comparison with the elephant and the camel, we
amount to nothing in these matters.? In the same
way, then, let us not say of beasts that they are
completely lacking in intellect and understanding
and do not possess reason even though their under-
standing is less acute and their intellect inferior to
ours ; what we should say is that their intellect is
feeble and turbid, like a dim and clouded eye. And
if I did not expect that our young men, learned and
studious as they are, would very shortly present us
here, one with a large collection of examples drawn
from the land, the other with his from the sea, I
should not have denied myself the pleasure of giving
you countless examples of the docility and native
capacity of beasts—of which fair Rome ὁ has provided
us a reservoir from which to draw in pails and buckets,
@ Cf. Alexander of Aphrodisias, De Fato,27; Pliny, Nat.
Hast. viii. 10; x. 191.
ὃ Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 145, reports a singular deduction
from this theme; see also Seneca, De Beneficiis, ii. 29. 1.
¢ See, for example, 968 c, E infra.
343
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
3) βασιλικῶν ἀρύσασθαι θεάτρων ἡ ἡ καλὴ Ῥώμη παρ-
ἔσχηκε. ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἐκείνοις νεαρὰ καὶ ἄθικτα
πρὸς τὸν λόγον ἐγκαλλωπίσασθαι καταλείπωμεν.
Βούλομαι δὲ μικρόν τι μετὰ σοῦ σκέψασθαι καθ᾽
ἡσυχίαν. οἶμαι γὰρ ἰδίαν τινὰ μέρους ἑκάστου καὶ
δυνάμεως φαυλότητα καὶ πήρωσιν εἶναι καὶ νόσον,
ὥσπερ ὀφθαλμοῦ τυφλότητα καὶ σκέλους χωλότητα
καὶ ψελλότητα γλώσσης, ἄλλου δὲ μηδενός: οὐ γὰρ
ἔστι τυφλότης μὴ πεφυκότος ὁρᾶν οὐδὲ χωλότης
μὴ πεφυκότος βαδίζειν, ψελλόν τε τῶν ἀγλώσσων
uP τῶν ἀναύδων φύσει “τραυλὸν οὐδὲν ἂν προσείποις"
οὐκοῦν οὐδὲ παραπαῖον ἢ παραφρονοῦν ἢ μαινό-
μενον, ᾧ μὴ τὸ φρονεῖν Kal διανοεῖσθαι καὶ λογί-
ζεσθαι κατὰ φύσιν ὑ ὑπῆρχεν᾽ οὐ γὰρ ὁ ἔστιν ἐν πάθει
γενέσθαι μὴ “κεκτημένον δύναμιν ἧς τὸ πάθος ἢ
στέρησις ἢ πήρωσις ἢ τις ἄλλη κάκωσις ἦν." ἀλλὰ
μὴν ἐντετύχηκάς γε λυττώσαις κυσίν, ἐγὼ δὲ! καὶ
ἵπποις" ἔνιοι δέ φασι καὶ βοῦς μαίνεσθαι καὶ ἀλώ-
πεκας" ἀρκεῖ δὲ τὸ τῶν κυνῶν, ὃ ἀναμφισβήτητόν
ἐστι, καὶ μαρτυρεῖ λόγον ἔχειν καὶ διάνοιαν οὐ
φαύλην τὸ ζῷον, ἧς ταραττομένης καὶ συγχεομένης
ἡ λεγομένη λύττα καὶ μανία. πάθος ἐστίν: οὔτε γὰρ
ὄψιν ἀλλοιουμένην αὐτῶν" οὔτ᾽ ἀκοὴν ὁρῶμεν" ἀλλ᾽
ὥσπερ ἀνθρώπου μελαγχολῶντος 7 παρακόπτοντος
ὃ μὴ λέγων ἐξεστάναι καὶ διεφθορέναι τὸ φρονοῦν
καὶ λογιζόμενον καὶ μνημονεῦον ἄτοπός ἐστι (καὶ
γὰρ ἡ συνήθεια ταῦτά γε κατηγορεῖ τῶν παρα-
1 καὶ Porphyry: 7.
2 ἐν πάθει Porphyry: εὐπαθὲς.
3 ἦν] ἐστιν Porphyry.
4 ἐγὼ δὲ] ἔτι δὲ Porphyry. 5 αὐτοῖς Porphyry.
* So too, perhaps, wolves in Theocritus, iv. 11.
344
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 963
as it were, from the imperial spectacles. Let us
leave this subject, therefore, fresh and untouched
for them to exercise their art upon in discourse.
There is, however, one small matter which I should
like to discuss with you quietly. It is my opinion
that each part and faculty has its own particular
weakness or defect or ailment which appears in
nothing else, as blindness in the eye, lameness in the
leg, stuttering in the tongue. There can be no
blindness in an organ which was not created to see,
or lameness in a part which was not designed for
walking ; nor would you ever describe an animal
without a tongue as stuttering, or one voiceless by
nature as inarticulate. And in the same way you
would not call delirious or witless or mad anything
that was not endowed by Nature with reason or intelli-
gence or understanding ; for it is impossible to ail
where you have no faculty of which the ailment is
a deficiency or loss or some other kind of impair-
ment. Yet certainly you have encountered mad
dogs, and I have also known of mad horses; and
there are some who say that cattle and foxes also go
mad.? But dogs will do, since no one questions the
fact in their case, which provides evidence that the
creature possesses reason and a by no means despi-
cable intellectual faculty. What is called rabies and
‘madness is an ailment of that faculty when it becomes
disturbed and disordered. For we observe no de-
rangement either of the dogs’ sight or of their hear-
ing; yet, Just as when a human being suffers from
melancholy or insanity, anyone is absurd who does
not admit that it is the organ that thinks and reasons
and remembers which has been displaced or damaged
(we habitually say, in fact, of madmen that they “ are
345
(963)
964
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
/ \ > > ¢ A > > >
φρονούντων μὴ εἶναι παρ᾽ αὑτοῖς ἀλλ᾽ ἐκπεπτω-
κέναι τῶν λογισμῶν), οὕτως 6 τοὺς λυττῶντας
͵ὔ + / / > > a. “Ὁ ~
κύνας ἄλλο τι πεπονθέναι νομίζων ἀλλ οὐχὶ τῷ
φρονεῖν πεφυκότι' καὶ λογίζεσθαι καὶ μνημονεύειν
ἀναπεπλησμένους ταραχῆς καὶ παραπεπαικότας
ἀγνοεῖν τὰ φίλτατα πρόσωπα καὶ φεύγειν τὰς
συντρόφους διαίτας, ἢ παρορᾶν τὸ φαινόμενον
ἔοικεν ἢ συνορῶν" τὸ γινόμενον ἐξ αὐτοῦ φιλονει-
κεῖν πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν.
~ “-“ - ς
6. s0KA. ᾿Ορθῶς μοι δοκεῖς ὑπονοεῖν: οἱ γὰρ
ond ~ ~ /
ἀπὸ τῆς Στοᾶς καὶ τοῦ Ilepimdtov μάλιστα πρὸς
τοὐναντίον ἐντείνονται τῷ λόγῳ, τῆς δικαιοσύνης
ω >? \
τότ᾽ ἄν" γένεσιν οὐκ ἐχούσης, ἀλλὰ παντάπασιν
ἀσυστάτου καὶ ἀνυπάρκτου γινομένης, εἰ πᾶσι τοῖς
ζῴοις λόγου μέτεστι: γίνεται γὰρ ἢ τὸ ἀδικεῖν
ἀναγκαῖον ἡμῖν ἀφειδοῦσιν αὐτῶν, ἢ μὴ χρωμένοις"
τὸ ζῆν ἀδύνατον καὶ ἄπορον: καὶ τρόπον τινὰ
θηρίων βίον βιωσόμεθα, τὰς ἀπὸ τῶν θηρίων προ-
έμενοι χρείας. ἀφίημι γὰρ Νομάδων καὶ Tpwydo-
δυτῶν ἀνεξευρέτους ἀριθμῷ μυριάδας, οἵ τροφὴν
σάρκας ἄλλο δ᾽ οὐδὲν ἴσασιν: ἀλλ᾽ ἡμῖν τοῖς ἡμέ-
a ~ A ,
ρως καὶ φιλανθρώπως ζῆν δοκοῦσι ποῖον ἔργον
~ - / / >
ἀπολείπεται γῆς, ποῖον ἐν θαλάττῃ, τίς ἐναέριος"
’ /
τέχνη, Tis κόσμος διαίτης, ἂν ὡς προσήκει Aoyt-
- \ ¢ / ~ A ͵7] Ss > ~
κοῖς Kat ὁμοφύλοις πᾶσι Tots ζῴοις οὖσιν ἀβλαβῶς
ll
καὶ μετ᾽ εὐλαβείας προσφέρεσθαι μάθωμεν, ἔργον
ες > > U ~
ἐστὶν εἰπεῖν. οὐδὲν οὖν φάρμακον οὐδ᾽ ἴαμα τῆς
1 τοῦ φρονεῖν πεφυκότος... ἀναπεπλησμένου . . . παραπεπτω-
κότος (leg. παραπεπαικότος) Porphyry.
2 7 συνορῶν Porphyry : μὴ συνορῶν.
3 τότ᾽ av W.C. H. after Post (ἔτ᾽ av): ἑτέραν:
4 χρωμένοις Porphyry : χρωμένων αὐτοῖς.
5 evaepios Post: ἐν ὄρεσι (ἐναργὴς Porphyry).
346
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 963-964
not themselves,” but have “fallen out of their wits’’),
just so, whoever believes that rabid dogs have any
other ailment than an affliction of their natural organ
of judgement and reason and memory so that, when
this has become infected with disorder and insanity,
they no longer recognize beloved faces and shun
their natural haunts—such a man, I say, either must
be disregarding the evidence or, if he does take note
of the conclusion to which it leads, must be quarrel-
ling with the truth.”
6. socLtarus. Your inference seems quite justified.
For the Stoics ° and Peripatetics strenuously argue
on the other side, to the effect that justice could
not then come into existence, but would remain
completely without form or substance, if all the
beasts partake of reason. For ¢ either we are neces-
sarily unjust if we do not spare them; or, if we
do not take them for food, life becomes impracticable
or impossible ; in a sense we shall be living the life
of beasts once we give up the use of beasts.4 I omit
the numberless hosts of Nomads and Troglodytes who
know no other food but flesh. As for us who believe
our lives to be civilized and humane, it is hard
to say what pursuit on land or sea, what aerial art,’
what refinement of living, is left to us if we are to
learn to deal innocently and considerately with all
creatures, as we are bound to if they possess reason
and are of one stock with us. So we have no help or
* The Stoics again: cf. Galen, De Hippocratis et Platonis
Placitis, vy. 1 (p. 431 Kiihn).
®’ Von Arnim, S.V.F. iii, p. 90.
¢ From this point to the end of chapter 6 (964 c) the text
is quoted by Porphyry, De Abstinentia, i. 4-6 (pp. 88-89, ed.
Nauck): cf. the note on 959 F supra. 4 Cf. Mor. 86}.
¢ That is beasts, fish, and fowl in earth, sea, and air.
347
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(964) ἢ τὸν βίον ἀναιρούσης ἢ τὴν δικαιοσύνην ἀπορίας
ἔχομεν,᾽ ἂν μὴ τὸν ἀρχαῖον ὅρον καὶ νόμον φυλάτ-
τωμεν, ᾧ καθ᾽ “Holodov δ᾽ τὰς φύσεις διελὼν καὶ
θέμενος ἰδίᾳ τῶν γενῶν ἑκάτερον
ἰχθύσι μὲν καὶ θηρσὶ καὶ οἰωνοῖς πετεηνοῖς
” > / > \ > / ” > > -
ἔσθειν ἀλλήλους, ἐπεὶ οὐ δίκη ἔστι μετ᾽ αὐτοῖς,
ἀνθρώποισι δ᾽ ἔδωκε δίκην
πρὸς ἀλλήλους. οἷς δ᾽ οὐκ ἔστι τὸ δικαιοπραγεῖν
πρὸς ἡμᾶς, οὐδ᾽ ἡμῖν πρὸς ἐκεῖνα γίνεται τὸ
ἀδικεῖν: ὡς οἵ γε τοῦτον προέμενοι τὸν λόγον οὔτ᾽
C ~ ~ 4 LAA ” \ 5 n~ 4
᾿ εὐρεῖαν᾽ ἄλλην οὔτε λιτὴν" TH δικαιοσύνῃ παρεισελ-
θεῖν ὁδὸν ἀπολελοίπασι.
7. ΑΥΤ. Ταῦτα μέν, ὦ φίλε “ τἀπὸ καρδίας
ἐξείρηκας: οὐ μὴν δοτέον, ὥσπερ δυστοκούσαις
/ / ~ , > /
γυναιξί, περιάψασθαι tots φιλοσόφοις ὠκυτόκιον,
ἵνα ῥᾳδίως καὶ ἀταλαιπώρως τὸ δίκαιον ἡμῖν ἀπο-
τέκωσιν. οὐδὲ γὰρ αὐτοὶ τῷ ᾿Κπικούρῳ διδόα-
σιν ὑπὲρ τῶν μεγίστων σμικρὸν οὕτω πρᾶγμα
καὶ φαῦλον, ἄτομον παρεγκλῖναι μίαν ἐπὶ τοὐλά-
ιστον, ὅπως ἄστρα καὶ ζῷα κατὰ τύχην᾽ παρεισ-
/ \ \ > 3 ε ~ \ j > / / \
ἔλθῃ καὶ τὸ ἐφ᾽ ἡμῖν μὴ ἀπόληται" δεικνύναι δὲ
\ » “Ἃ / ~ / 7
τὸ ἄδηλον ἢ λαμβάνειν τι τῶν προδήλων κελεύουσι
»)}
1 ἔχομεν Diibner: οὐδὲν ἔχομεν.
2 ὁ] ὁ Ζεὺς Porphyry: omitted by most ss.
8 τὸ Porphyry: τι.
4 οὔτ᾽ εὐρεῖαν Porphyry: οὔτε χρείαν.
5 λιτὴν] λεπτὴν Porphyry.
6. καρδίας W.C. Η. : καρδίας τῶν ἀνδρῶν.
? κατὰ τύχην Sandbach: καὶ τύχη.
α Works and Days, 277-279; cf. Aelian, De Natura
Animal, vi. 50; Mair on Oppian, Hal. ii. 43.
348
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 964
cure for this dilemma which either deprives us of life
itself or of justice, unless we do preserve that ancient
limitation and law by which, according to Hesiod,’
he who distinguished the natural kinds and gave
each class its special domain :
To fish and beasts and winged birds allowed
Licence to eat each other, for no right
Exists among them; right, he gave to men
for dealing with each other. Those who know nothing
of right action toward us can receive no wrong from
us either.? For those who have rejected this argu-
ment have left no path, either broad or narrow, by
which justice may slip in.
7. auTopuLus. This, my friend, has been spoken
“from the heart.”’° We certainly must not allow
philosophers, as though they were women in difficult
labour, to put about their necks a charm for speedy
delivery so that they may bring justice to birth for
us easily and without hard labour. For they them-
selves do not concede to Epicurus,? for the sake of the
highest considerations, a thing so small and trifling as
the slightest deviation of a single atom—which would
permit the stars and living creatures to slip in by
chance and would preserve from destruction the
principle of free will. But, seeing that they bid him
demonstrate whatever is not obvious or take as his
starting-point something that is obvious, how are they
» This seems to have been Plutarch’s own attitude toward
the question, at least later on in life: see Life of Cato Maior,
v. 2 (339 a).
¢ Cf. Euripides, frag. 412 (Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag.
p. 486); quoted more completely in Wor. 63 a.
4 Usener, Epicurea, Ὁ. 351; see Bailey on Lucretius, ii.
216 ff.;: Mor. 1015 B-c.
349
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(964) πῶς" καὶ προσήκει τὸ περὶ τῶν ζῴων ὑποτίθεσθαι
πρὸς τὴν δικαιοσύνην, εἰ μήθ᾽ ὁμολογεῖται μήτ᾽
D ἄλλως ἀποδεικνύουσιν; ἔχει γὰρ ἑτέραν ὁδὸν ἐ ἐκεῖ
τὸ δίκαιον οὐ σφαλερὰν καὶ παράκρημνον οὕτω καὶ
διὰ τῶν ἐναργῶν ἀνατρεπομένων" a ἄγουσαν, ἀλλ᾽ ἥν,
Πλάτωνος ὑφηγουμένου, δείκνυσιν οὑμὸς υἱός, ὦ
Σώκλαρε, σὸς δ᾽ ἑταῖρος, τοῖς μὴ φιλομαχεῖν € ἕπε-
σθαι δὲ καὶ μανθάνειν βουλομένοις. ἐπεὶ τό γε μὴ
παντάπασι καθαρεύειν ἀδικίας τὸν ἄνθρωπον. οὕτω
τὰ ζῷα μεταχειριζόμενον ᾿᾿μπεδοκλῆς καὶ Ἣρά-
a - 5 \ /, / > P 4
κλειτος ws ἀληθὲς προσδέχονται, πολλάκις ὀδυρό-
~ \
μενοι Kat λοιδοροῦντες τὴν φύσιν, Ws ἀνάγκην Kal
/ Ss 3 \ \ \ > > \
E πόλεμον οὖσαν, ἀμιγὲς δὲ μηδὲν μηδ᾽ εἰλικρινὲς
” > \ \ AAG > / 3 ~
ἔχουσαν ἀλλὰ διὰ πολλῶν κἀδίκων" παθῶν περαινο-
\
μένην: ὅπου Kal τὴν γένεσιν αὐτὴν ἐξ ἀδικίας
συντυγχάνειν λέγουσι, τῷ θνητῷ συνερχομένου τοῦ
ἀθανάτου, καὶ τρέφεσθαι' τὸ γεννώμενον παρὰ
vow μέλεσι" τοῦ γεννήσαντος ἀποσπωμένοις.
Οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν ἄκρατα καὶ πικρὰ φαί-
νεται κατακόρως: ἑτέρα δ᾽ ἐστὶν ἐμμελὴς παρη-
γορία, μήτε τῶν ζῴων τὸν λόγον ἀφαιρουμένη καὶ
σῴζουσα χρωμένων αὐτοῖς ws’ προσήκει τὸ δίκαιον"
ἣν τῶν σοφῶν καὶ παλαιῶν εἰσαγόντων" συστᾶσα
/ 5 ᾿ / 2 / \ >) /
λαιμαργία μεθ᾽ ἡδυπαθείας ἐξέβαλε καὶ ἠφάνισεν,
1 κελεύουσι πῶς added by Sandbach after Usener.
2 ἀνατρεπομένων Meziriacus : ἀνατρεπόμενον.
3 κἀδίκων Leonicus: καὶ δικαίων.
4 τρέφεσθαι Meziriacus : τέρπεσθαι.
5 γεννώμενον Reiske : γενόμενον.
® μέλεσι] μέρεσι Emperius.
7 ws Meziriacus: πῶς. 8 εἰσαγαγόντων Emperius.
« That they are irrational.
» For this difficult and corrupt passage the admirable
350
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 964
in any position to make this statement about animals @
a basis of their own account of justice, when it is
neither generally accepted nor otherwise demon-
strated by them?? For justice has another way to
establish itself, a way which is neither so treacherous
nor so precipitous, nor is it a route lined with the
wreckage of obvious truths. It is the road which,
under the guidance of Plato,° my son and your com-
panion,@ Soclarus, points out to those who have no
love of wrangling, but are willing to be led and to
learn. For certain it is that Empedocles’ and Hera-
clitus 7 accept as true the charge that man is not
altogether innocent of injustice when he treats ani-
malsas he does; oftenand often do they lament and ex-
claim against Nature, declaring that she is “‘ Neces-
sity’ and “ War,’ that she contains nothing unmixed
and free from tarnish, that her progress is marked
by many unjust inflictions. As an instance, say, even
birth itself springs from injustice, since it is a union
of mortal with immortal, and the offspring is nourished
unnaturally on members torn from the parent.
These strictures, however, seem to be unpalatably
strong and bitter; for there is an alternative, an
inoffensive formula which does not, on the one hand,
deprive beasts of reason, yet does, on the other,
preserve the justice of those who make fit use of
them. When the wise men of old had introduced this,
gluttony joined luxury to cancel and annul it ; Pytha-
exposition and reconstruction of F. H. Sandbach (Class.
Quart. xxxv, p. 114) has been followed.
¢ Laws, 782 σι 4 Plutarch himself; cf. Mor. 734 π.
4 Diels-Kranz, Frag. der Vorsok. i, p. 366, frag. B 135;
and see Aristotle, Rhetoric, i. 13. 2 (1373 b 14).
7. Diels-Kranz, op. cit. i, p. 169, frag. B 80; Bywater,
frag. 62.
351
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(964) αὖθις δὲ Πυθαγόρας ἀνελάμβανε, διδάσκων ὠφελεῖ-
F σθαι μὴ ἀδικοῦντας: οὐ γὰρ ἀδικοῦσιν οἱ τὰ μὲν
ΝΜ \ \ -“ / \ >
ἄμικτα καὶ βλαβερὰ κομιδῇ κολάζοντες καὶ ἀπο-
κτιννύοντες, τὰ δ᾽ ἥμερα καὶ φιλάνθρωπα ποιούμενοι
τιθασὰ καὶ συνεργὰ χρείας, πρὸς ἣν ἕκαστον εὖ
πέφυκεν,
7 ” > > al \ / /
ἵππων ὄνων τ᾽ ὀχεῖα' Kal ταύρων γονάς,
e - δον δὲ
ὧν ὁ Αἰσχύλου Τ]ρομηθεὺς “ δοῦναι ᾿᾿ φησὶν ἡμῖν
965 ἀντίδουλα Kal πόνων ἐκδέκτορα-"
\ \ / / a ἢ \
κυσὶ δὲ χρώμενοι προφυλάττουσιν, αἶγάς τε Kat
Ἁ
οἷς ἀμελγομένας καὶ κειρομένας" νέμοντες. οὐ γὰρ
> A A ~ > \ / > / - 3 /
ἀναιρεῖται τὸ ζῆν οὐδὲ βίος ἀπόλλυται Tots ἀνθρώ-
υ 7 ~
ποις, av μὴ Aomddas ἰχθύων μηδ᾽ ἥπατα χηνῶν
~ 3. κῷ
ἔχωσι μηδὲ βοῦς μηδ᾽ ἐρίφους κατακόπτωσιν ἐπ
3 / > > ‘¢ > / \ /
εὐωχίᾳ, μηδ᾽ ἀλύοντες ἐν θεάτροις μηδὲ παίζοντες
~ \
ἐν θήραις τὰ μὲν ἀναγκάζωσι τολμᾶν ἄκοντα καὶ
/ \ \ > > » 0 / ὃ
μάχεσθαι, τὰ δὲ μηδ᾽ ἀμύνεσθαι πεφυκότα δια-
/
φθείρωσι. τὸν yap παίζοντα Kal τερπόμενον οἶμαι
A a“ ¢ a σ
συμπαίζουσι δεῖν χρῆσθαι καὶ ἱλαροῖς, οὐχ ὥσπερ
1 τ᾽ ὀχεῖα Mor. 98 c: τε ὀχείαν.
2 ἀμελγομένας καὶ κειρομένας Reiske: ἀμελγόμενα καὶ κειρό-
μενα.
«α Cf.959 τ supra; Mor. 129 ©; frag. xxxiv. 145 (vol. VII,
p. 169 Bernardakis).
» Cf., e.g., Plato, Republic, 352 x.
¢ From the Prometheus Unbound, frag. 194 (Nauck,
Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 65); quoted again in Mor. 98 c.
4 ** There are significant undercurrents here. Of the
animals domesticated by man, Plutarch first mentions only
the horse, the ass, and the ox, noting their employment as
352
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 964-965
goras,* however, reintroduced it, teaching us how to
profit without injustice. There is no injustice, surely,
in punishing and slaying animals that are anti-social
and merely injurious, while taming those that are
gentle and friendly to man and making them our
helpers in the tasks for which they are severally
fitted by nature ὃ:
Offspring of horse and ass and seed of bulls
which Aeschylus’ ° Prometheus says that he bestowed
on us
To serve us and relieve our labours ;
and thus we make use of dogs as sentinels and keep
herds of goats and sheep that are milked and shorn.¢
For living is not abolished nor life terminated when
a man has no more platters of fish or paté de foie gras
or mincemeat of beef or kids’ flesh for his banquets ὁ
—or when he no longer, idling in the theatre or
hunting for sport, compels some beasts against their
will to stand their ground and fight, while he destroys
others which have not the instinct to fight back even
in their own defence. For I think sport should be
joyful and between playmates who are merry on
servants of man, not as sources of food. Next come dogs,
then goats and sheep. The key factor is that in the early
period the cow, the sheep, and the goat were too valuable as
sources of milk and wool to be recklessly slaughtered for the
sake of their meat. The pig was the only large domestic
animal useful almost solely as a source of meat’’ (Andrews).
e ** Plutarch’s choice of examples of table luxury is apt.
The enthusiasm of many Greek epicures for fish scandalized
conservative philosophers. Paté de foie gras ranked high as
a delicacy, more especially in the Roman period ; the mince-
meat mentioned is surely the Roman isicia, dishes with
finely minced beef or pork as the usual basis, many recipes
for which appear in Apicius ”’ (Andrews).
VOL. XII N 353
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(965) 5 Biv ὄλεμει τὰ raided ζ Sv βατρά
ρια παίζοντα τῶν βατράχων
τοῖς λίθοις ἐφίεσθαι, τοὺς δὲ βατράχους μηκέτι
παίζοντας ἀλλ᾽ ἀληθῶς ἀποθνήσκειν, οὕτω κυνη-
γεῖν καὶ ἁλιεύειν, ὀδυνωμένοις τερπομένους καὶ
ἀποθνήσκουσι, τοῖς δ᾽ ἀπὸ σκύμνων καὶ νεοσσῶν
ἐλεεινῶς ἀγομένοις. οὐ γὰρ ot χρώμενοι ζῴοις
ἀδικοῦσιν, ἀλλ᾽ οἱ χρώμενοι βλαβερῶς καὶ ὀλιγώρως
καὶ μετ᾽ ὠμότητος.
8. ΣΩΚΛ. ‘Emioxes, ὦ Αὐτόβουλε, καὶ παρα-
βαλοῦ τὸ θυρίον' τῆς κατηγορίας" ἐγγὺς γὰρ οἵδε
προσιόντες πολλοὶ καὶ θηρατικοὶ πάντες, οὗς οὔτε
μεταθεῖναι ῥᾷάδιον οὔτε λυπεῖν ἀναγκαῖον.
ΑΥΤ. ᾿Ορθῶς παραινεῖς: ἀλλ᾽ Εὐβίοτον" μὲν εὖ
Ο οἷδα καὶ τὸν ἐμὸν ἀνεψιὸν ᾿Αρίστωνα, τούς τε
Διονυσίου παῖδας ἀπὸ Δελφῶν, Αἰακίδην καὶ
᾿Αριστότιμον τοῦτον, εἶτα Νίκανδρον τὸν Eddu-
δάμου, χερσαίας © δαήμονας * ἄγρας ὡς Ὅμηρος
ἔφη, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο πρὸς ᾿Αριστοτίμου" γενησο-
μένους" ὥσπερ αὖ πάλιν τούσδε τοὺς νησιώτας καὶ
παραλίους, ἩΗρακλέωνα τὸν Μεγαρόθεν καὶ Φιλό-
στρατον τὸν [ὐβοέα, “᾿ τοῖσι θαλάσσια ἔργα μέ-
unre,’ Φαίδιμος ἔχων περὶ αὑτὸν βαδίζει.
Τυδείδην δ᾽ οὐκ ἂν γνοίης ποτέροισι μετείη,
\ \ ¢ / ¢ / > ~ « ce
τουτονὶ TOV ἡμέτερον ἡλικιώτην ᾿Οπτᾶτον, ὃς “ πολ-
1 τὸ θυρίον added by Salmasius, cf. Mor. 940 νυ.
2 Βυβίοτον Hatzidakis and Crénert : εὐβίωτον.
3 Δελφῶν Leonicus: ἀδελφῶν.
4 δαήμονας Reiske: δαήμονα.
5 πρὸς ᾿Αριστοτίμου Pohlenz : ἀριστότιμον.
8 τοῖσι Reiske: τοῖσί τε.
“ Bion and Xenocrates were almost alone among the
eeks in expressing pity for animals.
Gr
354
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 965
both sides, not the sort of which Bion * spoke when
he remarked that boys throw stones at frogs for fun,
but the frogs don’t die for “ fun,’’ but in sober earnest.?
Just so, in hunting and fishing, men amuse them-
selves with the suffering and death of animals, even
tearing some of them piteously from their cubs and
nestlings. The fact is that it is not those who make
use of animals who do them wrong, but those who
use them harmfully and heedlessly and in cruel ways.
8. soctarus. Restrain yourself, Autobulus, and
turn off the flow of these accusations.“ I see a good
many gentlemen approaching who are all hunters ;
you will hardly convert them and you needn’t hurt
their feelings.
auTosuLus. Thanks for the warning. Eubiotus,
however, I know quite well and my cousin Ariston,
and Aeacides and Aristotimus here, the sons of Diony-
sius of Delphi, and Nicander, the son of Euthydamus,
all of them “ expert,’ as Homer @ expresses it, in the
chase by land—and for this reason they will be on
Aristotimus’ side. So too yonder comes Phaedimus
with the islanders and coast-dwellers about him,
Heracleon from Megara and the Euboean Philo-
stratus,
Whose hearts are on deeds of the sea. ἢ
And here is my contemporary Optatus: like Dio-
medes, it is
Hard to tell the side on which he ranges, f
ὃ See Hartman, De Plutarcho, p. 571; [Aristotle], Eud.
Eth. vii. 10. 21 (1243 a 20).
¢ Cf. Mor. 940 τ supra. Possibly a reference to the water-
clock used in the courts.
4 Odyssey, viii. 159.
¢ Cf. Homer, /liad, ii. 614; Odyssey, v. 67.
7 Homer, /liad, v. 85.
355
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(965) Aots μὲν ἐνάλου dpelov δὲ πολλοῖς" ἄγρας ἀκροθι-
νίοις ayAatoas’’ τὴν ᾿Αγροτέραν ἅμα θεὸν καὶ
Ὁ Δίατυνναν, ἐνταῦθα δῆλός ἐστι πρὸς ἡμᾶς βαδίζων,
ὡς μηδετέροις προσθήσων ἑαυτόν: ἢ φαύλως εἰ-
κάζομεν, ὦ φίλε ᾿Οπτᾶτε, κοινόν σε καὶ μέσον
ἔσεσθαι τῶν νεανίσκων βραβευτήν;
ΟΠΤΑΤΟΣ. Ilavu μὲν οὖν ὀρθῶς ὑπονοεῖς, ὦ
Αὐτόβουλε: πάλαι γὰρ ὁ Σόλωνος ἐκλέλοιπε νόμος,
τοὺς ἐν στάσει μηδετέρῳ μέρει προσγενομένους
κολάζων.
“-“ \ / \ ¢ - “ 3
ΑΥΤ. Δεῦρο δὴ καθίζου πρὸς ἡμᾶς ὅπως, εἰ
δεήσει μάρτυρος, μὴ τοῖς ᾿Αριστοτέλους πράγματα
E βιβλίοις παρέχωμεν, ἀλλὰ σοὶ δι᾿ ἐμπειρίαν ἕπό-
A / > ~ \ ~ > /
μενοι Tots λεγομένοις ἀληθῶς τὴν ψῆφον ἐπιφέ-
ρωμεν.
AL» > » / / / νοὶ ¢
saKaA. Elev, ὦ ἄνδρες νέοι, γέγονέ τις ὑμῖν ὁμο-
λογία περὶ τάξεως ;
ΦΑΙΔΙΜΟΣ. Leéyovev, ὦ Σώκλαρε, πολλὴν παρα-
σχοῦσα φιλονεικίαν: εἶτα κατ᾽ [ὐριπίδην
ὁ τῆς τύχης παῖς κλῆρος
2° aN 7 \ \ ~ / /
ἐπι TOUTW TAaAYELS TA χέρσαια TT POELOAYVEL δίκαια"
~ > /
τῶν ἐνάλων.
\ > Bvt, / \ \ ”
saKA. Καιρὸς οὖν, ὦ ᾿Αριστότιμε, σοὶ μὲν ἤδη
7 x - > > /
λέγειν, μιν ὃ ακουειν.
1 ὀρείου δὲ πολλοῖς Diibner: ὀρείου πολλάκις.
* προεισάγειν δικαιοῖ Hutten and Reiske.
* Verses of an unknown poet, as recognized by Hubert.
» Artemis ; on the combined cults see Farnell, Cults of
the Greek States, ii, pp. 425 ff.
“ Life of Solon, xx. 1 (89 a-n); Mor. 550 c, 823 τ:
Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, viii. 5. A fairly well
attested law, but ‘‘ the name of Solon is used as the collective
356
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 965
for “‘ with many a trophy from the sea, many likewise
from the chase on the mountain, he has glorified’ the
goddess ὃ who is at once the Huntress and Dictynna.
It is evident that he is coming to join us with no in-
tention of attaching himself to either side. Or am
I wrong, my dear Optatus, in supposing that you will
be an impartial and neutral umpire between the
young men ?
optatus. It is just as you suppose, Autobulus.
Solon’s ° law, which used to punish those who adhered
to neither side in a factious outbreak, has long since
fallen into disuse.
AUTOBULUS. Come over here, then, and take your
place beside us so that, if we need evidence, we shall
not have to disturb the tomes of Aristotle,’ but may
follow you as expert and return a true verdict on the
arguments.
soctarus. Well then, my young friends, have you
reached any agreement on procedure ἢ
PHAEDIMUs. We have, Soclarus, though it occa-
sioned considerable controversy; but at length, as
Euripides © has it,
The lot, the child of chance,
made arbiter, admits into court the case of the land
animals before that of creatures from the sea.
socLarus. ‘The time has come, then, Aristotimus,
for you to speak and us to hear.
term for the legislative activity of the past ’’ (Linforth, Solon
the Athenian, p. 283). The penalty was disfranchisement.
Lysias, xxxi, shows that this law was unknown in his time.
¢ The zoological works, such as the Natural History and
the Generation of Animals, which once extended to fifty
volumes (Pliny, Vat. Hist. viii. 44).
¢ Nauck, T’rag. Graec. Frag. p. 678, frag. 989 : ef. Mor.
644 D.
357
(965)
966
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
€ \ > A A /
9. apistoTimos. Ἢ μὲν ἀγορὰ τοῖς δικαζομέ-
vos . . | τὰ δὲ τὸν γόνον ἀναλίσκει περὶ τὰς
ἀποκυήσεις ἐπιτρέχοντα τοῖς θήλεσι.
Κεστρέως δὲ γένος, οὗς περαίας" καλοῦσιν, ἀπὸ
- / / ~ ¢ ~ « \ /
τῆς μύξης τρέφονται τῆς ἑαυτῶν: 6 δὲ πολύπους
αὑτὸν ἐσθίων κάθηται χειμῶνος
> > > P ” NN > ” /
ἐν τ᾽ ἀπύρῳ οἴκῳ καὶ ἐν ἤθεσι λευγαλέοισιν"
" ἍἋ / Ἃ ~
οὕτως ἀργὸς ἢ ἀναίσθητος ἢ γαστρίμαργος ἢ πᾶσι
/ ” / >] ὃ A \ A / 4 LA
τούτοις ἔνοχός ἐστι. διὸ καὶ ἅτων αὖ πάλιν
5» A ~ A > > / \ /
ἀπεῖπε νομοθετῶν, μᾶλλον δ᾽ ἀπεύξατο τοὺς νέους
{{ / / ” A - ᾽) Ἰδὲ \
θαλαττίου θήρας ἔρωτα λαβεῖν. οὐδὲν yap
5 ~ / > \ / / 999 a
ἀλκῆς γυμνάσιον οὐδὲ μελέτημα σοφίας οὐδ᾽ ὅσα
“ “' / ~ > -
πρὸς ἰσχὺν ἢ τάχος ἢ κινήσεις διαπονοῦσιν ἐνἣ τοῖς
κι a ~
πρὸς AdBpakas ἢ yoyypous ἢ σκάρους ἀγῶσιν:
a 5 ~ \ \ ΄- \ /
ὥσπερ ἐνταῦθα τὰ μὲν θυμοειδῆ τὸ φιλοκίνδυνον
καὶ τὸ ἀνδρεῖον ἀσκεῖ τῶν μαχομένων, τὰ δὲ παν-
οὔργα τὸ φροντιστικὸν καὶ συνετὸν τῶν ἐπιτιθε-
/ \ \ / \ «ες / \ /
μένων, τὰ δὲ ποδώκη TO ῥωμαλέον καὶ φιλόπονον
τῶν διωκόντων. καὶ ταῦτα τὸ κυνηγεῖν καλὸν
/ \ > c / > > > \ ” 7 /
πεποίηκε: TO δ᾽ ἁλιεύειν am’ οὐδενὸς ἔνδοξον: οὐδέ
1 Lacuna indicated by Leonicus.
2 περαίας Aristotle (Historia Animal. 591 a 24): παρδίας.
3 ἐν added by Hartman.
“ Here follows a long lacuna not indicated in the mss.,
the contents of which cannot even be conjectured.
» The milt is, of course, for the fertilization of the eggs, as
Aristotimus should have learned from Aristotle (60... Historia
Animal, vi. 13, 567 Ὁ 8 ff.)
¢ On this type cf. also Aristotle, Historia Animal. viii. 2
358
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 965-966
9. aristotimus. ‘The court is open for the liti-
gants ...% And there are some fish that waste
their milt by pursuing the female while she is laying
her eggs.”
There is also a type of mullet called the grayfish °
which feeds on its own slime 7; and the octopus sits
through the winter devouring himself,
In fireless home and domicile forlorn, ¢
so lazy or insensible or gluttonous, or guilty of all of
these charges, is he. So this also is the reason, again,
why Plato’ in his Laws enjoined, or rather prayed,
that his young men might not be seized by “a love
for sea hunting.” For there is no exercise in bravery
or training in skill or anything that contributes to
strength or fleetness or agility when men endure
toil in contests with bass or conger or parrot-fish ;
whereas, in the chase on land, brave animals give
play to the courageous and danger-loving qualities
of those matched against them, crafty animals sharpen
the wits and cunning of their attackers, while swift
ones train the strength and perseverance of their
pursuers. These are the qualities which have made
hunting a noble sport, whereas there is nothing
(591 a 23) and in Athenaeus, vii. 307 a, where variants of the
name occur. ‘“ The same name was applied to a type of
shark as well as to a type of mullet, an apt application in
both instances *’ (Andrews).
᾿ ἃ See Mair on Oppian, Hal. ii. 643 (cf. iii. 432 ff.). Pliny
(Nat. Hist. ix. 128, 131) tells the same story of the purplefish.
6 Hesiod, Works and Days, 524; cf. 978 F infra and the
note; Mor. 1059 ©; Aelian, De Natura Animal. i. 27, xiv.
26. See also Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. viii. 2
(591 a 5); Mair on Oppian, Hal. ii. 244; Lucilius, frag.
925 Warmington (L.C.L.).
7 Laws, 823 pD-£.
359
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(966) γε θεῶν τις ἠξίωσεν, ὦ ἑταῖρε, “᾿ yoyypoKtovos,
[ δι Ὁ / {{ Ἂ ᾽}) , \ ce
ὥσπερ ὁ Ἀπόλλων λυκοκτόνος, οὐδὲ “᾿ τριγλο-
βόλος, ὥσπερ “" ἐλαφηβόλος ᾿᾿ ἡ [Άρτεμις, λέγε-
σθαι. καὶ τί θαυμαστόν, ὅπου καὶ ἀνθρώπῳ σῦν
prev’ καὶ ἔλαφον καὶ νὴ Δία δορκάδα καὶ λαγωὸν
GN [ιν 7 ὍΝ , 7 \ \ a)
ἑλεῖν κάλλιον ἢ πρίασθαι; θύννον δὲ καὶ κολίαν
καὶ ἀμίαν σεμνότερόν ἐστιν ὀψωνεῖν ἢ αὐτὸν"
Β ἁλιεύειν. τὸ γὰρ ἀγεννὲς καὶ ἀμήχανον ὅλως καὶ
ἀπάνουργον αὐτῶν αἰσχρὰν καὶ ἀζηλον καὶ ἀν-
ελεύθερον τὴν ἄγραν πεποίηκε.
a « /
10. Καθόλου δέ, ἐπεὶ δι᾿ ὧν ot φιλόσοφοι δει-
κνύουσι TO” μετέχειν λόγου τὰ ζῷα, προθέσεις εἰσὶ
καὶ παρασκευαὶ καὶ μνῆμαι καὶ πάθη καὶ τέκνων
ἐπιμέλειαι καὶ χάριτες εὖ παθόντων καὶ μνησικα-
κίαι πρὸς τὸ λυπῆσαν, ἔτι δ᾽ εὑρέσεις τῶν ἀναγ-
Ξ a ~ /
καίων, ἐμφάσεις ἀρετῆς, οἷον ἀνδρείας κοινωνίας
ἐγκρατείας μεγαλοφροσύνης: σκοπῶμεν τὰ ἔναλα,
εἰ τούτων ἐκεῖνα μὲν οὐδὲν 7 πού τι παντελῶς
5 \ ” \ / , a LA 5A
ἁμαυρὸν αἴθυγμα καὶ δυσθέατον ἐνιδεῖν μάλα μόλις
τεκμαιρομένῳ δίδωσιν" ἐν δὲ τοῖς πεζοῖς καὶ γη-
C γενέσι λαμπρὰ καὶ ἐναργῆ καὶ βέβαια παραδείγ-
ματα τῶν εἰρημένων ἑκάστου λαμβάνειν ἔστι καὶ
θεᾶσθαι.
1 μὲν Reiske : μόνον.
2 κολίαν Andrews: κάραβον.
3 αὐτὸν follows ἐστιν in the mss.; transferred here by van
Herwerden.
: ; "αἰσχρὰν R eiske : αἰσχρὸν.
τὸ Reiske: τό τε.
« For Apollo’s connexion with wolves see Aelian, De
Natura Animal. x. 26; al.
ὃ On Artemis, *‘ The Lady of Wild Beasts ” (iad, xxi.
470), see Mnemosyne, 4th series, iv (1951), pp. 230 ff.
360
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 966
glorious about fishing. No, and there’s not a god,
my friend, who has allowed himself to be called
“ conger-killer,”’ as Apollo is “ wolf-slayer,” ? or “ sur-
mullet-slayer,’ as Artemis? is “ deer-slaying.” °
And what is surprising in this when it’s a more
glorious thing for a man to have caught a boar or
a stag or, so help me, a gazelle or a hare than to
have bought one? As for your tunny? and your
mackerel and your bonito! They’re more honour-
able to buy than to catch oneself. For their lack of
spirit or of any kind of resource or cunning has made
the sport dishonourable, unfashionable, and illiberal.
10. In general, then, the evidence by which the
philosophers demonstrate that beasts have their
share of reason is their possession of purpose ὁ and
preparation and memory and emotions and care for
their young 7 and gratitude for benefits and hostility
to what has hurt ‘them; to which may be added
their ability to find what they need and their mani-
festations of good qualities, such as courage 2 and
sociability and continence and magnanimity. Let
us ask ourselves if marine creatures exhibit any of
these traits, or perhaps some suggestion of them,
that is extremely faint and difficult to discern (the
observer only coming at long last to the opinion that
it may be descried) ; whereas in the case of terres-
trial and earth-born animals it is easy to find remark-
ably plain and unanswerable proofs of every one of
the points I have mentioned.
¢ This accusation is answered in 983 E-F infra.
4 See 980 a infra.
ἐ Of. 961 c supra.
7 See the essay De Amore Prolis, Mor. 493 4 ff. passim.
9 Plato, at least, held that, philosophically speaking, no
beast is brave: Laches, 196 p; Republic, 430 8.
361
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
= ΄- ΕΥ \
(966) Πρῶτον OUV ὅρα προθέσεις και παρασκευὰς
ταύρων ἐπὶ μάχῃ κονιομένων καὶ κάπρων θηγόντων
> / > / / ~ “ “Δ > / “
ὀδόντας: ἐλέφαντες δέ, τῆς ὕλης ἣν ὀρύττοντες ἢ
/ > / > \ \ > / /
κείροντες ἐσθίουσιν ἀμβλὺν τὸν ὀδόντα ποιούσης
ἀποτριβόμενον, τῷ ἑτέρῳ πρὸς ταῦτα χρῶνται, τὸν
> A
δ᾽ ἕτερον ἔπακμον ἀεὶ καὶ ὀξὺν ἐπὶ τὰς ἀμύνας
/ ¢ \ / 20 A /
φυλάττουσιν. ὁ δὲ λέων ἀεὶ βαδίζει συνεστραμ-
μένοις τοῖς ποσίν, ἐντὸς ἀποκρύπτων τοὺς ὄνυχας,
σ \ / \ > \ > Ψ \
iva μὴ τριβόμενοι τὴν ἀκμὴν ἀπαμβλύνωσι μηδὲ
D καταλείπωσιν εὐπορείαν τοῖς στιβεύουσιν: οὐ γὰρ
ῥᾳδίως ὄνυχος εὑρίσκεται λεοντείου σημεῖον, ἀλλὰ
μικροῖς" καὶ τυφλοῖς ἴχνεσιν ἐντυγχάνοντες ἀπο-
πλανῶνται καὶ διαμαρτάνουσιν. ὁ δ᾽ ἰχνεύμων
3 / ͵ ε >’ \ > /
ἀκηκόατε δήπουθεν ws οὐθὲν ἀπολείπει θωρα-
΄ ς / ~
κιζομένου πρὸς μάχην ὁπλίτου: τοσοῦτον ἰλύος
/ - ΄
περιβάλλεται καὶ περιπήγνυσι τῷ σώματι χιτῶνα
μέλλων ἐπιτίθεσθαι τῷ κροκοδείλῳ. τὰς δὲ χελι-
δόνων πρὸ τῆς τεκνοποιίας παρασκευὰς ὁρῶμεν, ὡς
> \ \ , ΑΞ ͵, ,
εὖ τὰ στερεὰ κάρφη προὔποβάλλονται δίκην θε-
μελίων, εἶτα περιπλάττουσι τὰ κουφότερα: κἂν
πηλοῦ τινος ἐχεκόλλου δεομένην αἴσθωνται τὴν
νεοττιάν, λίμνης ἢ θαλάττης ἐν χρῷ παραπετόμεναι
E ψαύουσι τοῖς πτίλοις ἐπιπολῆς, ὅσον νοτεραί, μὴ
Ξ | συνεστραμμένους [τοῖς ποσίν] W. C. Η. from Mor. 520 F.
2 μικροῖς) apavpots Kronenberg ; cf. Xen. Cyneg. vi. 21.
3 vorepd, μὴ βαρέα Reiske.
@ See Mair on Oppian, Cyn. ii. 57.
» Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 1; Philo, 51 (p. 125);
Homer, Jliad, xiii. 474 f.
¢ Of. Pliny, Nat. Hist, viii. 8; viii. 71 of the rhinoceros ;
362
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 966
In the first place, then, behold the purposeful
demonstrations and preparations of bulls 5 stirring
up dust when intent on battle, and wild boars whet-
ting their tusks. Since elephants’ tusks are blunted
by wear when, by digging or chopping, they fell the
trees that feed them, they use only one tusk for
this purpose and keep the other always pointed and
sharp for defence.“ Lions ὦ always walk with paws
clenched and claws retracted so that these may not
be dulled by wear at the point or leave a plain trail
for trackers ; for it is not easy to find any trace of a
lion’s claw ; on the contrary, any sign of a track that
is found is so slight and obscure that hunters lose the
trail and go astray. You have heard, I am sure, how
the ichneumon ὁ girds itself for battle as thoroughly
as any soldier putting on his armour, such a quantity
of mud does it don and plaster about its body when
it plans to attack the crocodile. Moreover, we see
house-martins 7 preparing for procreation : how well
they lay the solid twigs at the bottom to serve as a
foundation, then mould the lighter bits about them ;
and if they perceive that the nest needs a lump of
mud to glue it together, they skim over a pond or
lake, touching the water with only the tips of their
feathers to make them moist, yet not heavy with
Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 56; Antigonus, Hist.
Mirab. 102.
4 Cf. Mor. 520 τ: Aelian, De Natura Animal. ix. 30.
¢ See Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 6
(612 a 16 ff.), where, however, the animal’s opponent is the
asp. (So also Aelian, De Natura Animal. iii. 22; v. 48;
vi. 38.) But cf. 980 © infra; Aelian, De Natura ‘Animal.
vill. 25; x. 47; Nicander, Theriaca, 201.
7 Cf. Thompson on Aristotle, Historia ECU ix. 7 (612 b
ΟΕ Pliny, Nat.” Hist. x: 92 ; Philo, 22 (p: 110) 3, Yale
Class. Studies, xii. 139, on Anth. Pal. x. 4. 6.
363
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(966) βαρεῖαι γενέσθαι τῇ ὑγρότητι, συλλαβοῦσαι δὲ
κονιορτὸν οὕτως ἐξαλείφουσι' καὶ συνδέουσι τὰ χα-
λῶντα καὶ διολισθάνοντα: τῷ δὲ σχήματι τοὔργον
οὐ γωνιῶδες οὐδὲ πολύπλευρον, ἀλλ᾽ ὁμαλὸν ὡς
ἔνεστι μάλιστα καὶ σφαιροειδὲς ἀποτελοῦσι: καὶ γὰρ
μόνιμον καὶ χωρητικὸν τὸ τοιοῦτο καὶ τοῖς ἐπιβου-
λεύουσι θηρίοις ἔξωθεν ἀντιλήψεις οὐ πάνυ δίδωσι.
Ta 8 ἀράχνης. ἔργα, κοινὸν ἱστῶν γυναιξὶ καὶ
θήρας σαγηνευταῖς ἀρχέτυπον, οὐ καθ᾽ ἕν ἄν τις
θαυμάσειε" καὶ γὰρ ἡ τοῦ νήματος ἀκρίβεια καὶ τῆς
Ε ὑφῆς τὸ μὴ διεχὲς μηδὲ στημονῶδες ἀλλὰ λείου
συνέχειαν ὑμένος καὶ κόλλησιν ὑπό τινος ἀδήλως
παραμεμιγμένης γλισχρότητος ἀπειργασμένον, ἥ τε
βαφὴ τῆς χρόας ἐνάερον καὶ ἀχλυώδη ποιοῦσα τὴν
ἐπιφάνειαν ὑπὲρ τοῦ λαθεῖν, αὐτή τε μάλιστα πάν-
των ἡ τῆς μηχανῆς αὐτῆς ἡνιοχεία καὶ κυβέρνησις,
ὅταν ἐνσχεθῇ τι τῶν ἁλωσίμων, ὥσπερ δεινοῦ
σαγηνευτοῦ, ταχὺ συναιρεῖν εἰς ταὐτὸ" καὶ συνάγειν
967 τὸ θήρατρον αἰσθανομένης καὶ φρονούσης, τῇ καθ᾽
ἡμέραν ὄψει καὶ θέᾳ τοῦ γινομένου πιστὸν ἔσχε
τὸν λόγον. ἄλλως δ᾽ ἂν ἐδόκει μῦθος, ὥσπερ ἡμῖν
ἐδόκει τὸ τῶν ἐν Λιβύῃ κοράκων, οἵ ποτοῦ δεόμενοι
λίθους ἐμβάλλουσιν ἀναπληροῦντες καὶ ἀνάγοντες
τὸ ὕδωρ, μέχρι ἂν ἐν ἐφικτῷ γένηται: εἶτα μέντοι
4 ἐπαλείφουσι van Herw erden and some Mss.
2 ταὐτὸ Reiske: ταὐτὰ or ταῦτα.
ςς
α θηρία may be “ serpents ᾿᾿ here, or any wild beast, per-
haps, such as members of the cat family that relish a diet of
birds.
Ὁ For a collection of the loci communes dealing with
swallow, bee, ant, spider, etc., see Dickermann in Trans.
Am. Philol. Assoc. xlii (1911), pp. 123, ff.
364
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 966-967
dampness; then they scoop up dust and so smear
over and bind together any parts that begin to sag
or loosen. As for the shape of their work, it has no
angles nor many sides, but is as smooth and circular
as they can make it; such a shape is, in fact, both
stable and capacious and provides no hold on the
outside for scheming animals.?
There is more than one reason? for admiring
spiders’ © webs, the common model for both women’s
looms and fowlers’@ nets; for there is the fineness of
the thread and the evenness of the weaving, which has
no disconnected threads and nothing like a warp, but
is wrought with the even continuity of a thin mem-
brane and a tenacity that comes from a viscous sub-
stance inconspicuously worked in. ‘Then too, there
is the blending of the colours that gives it an airy,
misty look, the better to let it go undetected ; and
most notable of all is the art itself, like a charioteer’s
or a helmsman’s, with which the spinner handles her
artifice. When a possible victim is entangled, she
perceives it, and uses her wits, like a skilled handler
of nets, to close the trap suddenly and make it tight.
Since this is daily under our eyes and observation,
my account is confirmed. Otherwise it would seem
a mere fiction, as I formerly regarded the tale of the
Libyan crows 5 which, when they are thirsty, throw
stones into a pot to fill it and raise the water until
it is within their reach ; but later when I saw a dog
¢ Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 39 (623 a 7 ff.) ; Aelian,
De Natura Animal. i. 21; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xi. 79-84;
Philo, 17 (p. 107); Philostratus, Jmagines, ii. 28.
4 Commonly taken as “ fishermen,” but this seems un-
likely here.
¢ Cf. Anth. Pal. ix. 272; Aelian, De Natura Animal. ii.
48; Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 125; Avianus, fable 27.
365
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
/ / > / ~ ~ A
(967) Kuva θεασάμενος εν πλοίῳ, των ναυτῶν μὴ παρ-
’ » » 5 ,ὔ > ~ > /
ὄντων, els ἔλαιον ἀμφορέως ἀποδεοῦς ἐμβάλλοντα
τῶν χαλίκων, ἐθαύμασα πῶς νοεῖ καὶ συνίησι τὴν
γινομένην ἔκθλιψιν ὑπὸ τῶν βαρυτέρων τοῖς κου-
φοτέροις ὑφισταμένων.
σ \ \ \ ~ ~ ~ \
Ὅμοια δὲ καὶ τὰ TOV Κρητικῶν μελισσῶν Kat
\ ~ > rr / ~ > ~ \ \ > - /
B τὰ τῶν ἐν Κιλικίᾳ χηνῶν: ἐκεῖναι μὲν yap ἀνεμῶδές
« /
τι μέλλουσαι κάμπτειν ἀκρωτήριον ἑρματίζουσιν
ἑαυτάς, ὑπὲρ τοῦ μὴ παραφέρεσθαι, μικροῖς λιθι-
δίοις: οἱ δὲ χῆνες τοὺς ἀετοὺς δεδοικότες, ὅταν
ς / \ | ~ >] \ , /
ὑπερβάλλωσι tov Ταῦρον, eis τὸ στόμα λίθον
εὐμεγέθη λαμβάνουσιν, οἷον ἐπιστομίζοντες αὑτῶν
\ ~ A / \ / a
Kat χαλινοῦντες τὸ φιλόφωνον Kat λάλον, ὅπως
λάθωσι σιωπῇ παρελθόντες. τῶν δὲ γεράνων καὶ
τὸ περὶ τὴν πτῆσιν εὐδοκιμεῖ: πέτονται γάρ, ὅταν 7
~ }
πνεῦμα πολὺ Kal τραχὺς ἀήρ, οὐχ, ὥσπερ εὐδίας
οὔσης, μετωπηδὸν ἢ κόλπῳ μηνοειδοῦς περιφε-
ρείας, ἀλλ᾽ εὐθὺς εἰς τρίγωνον συνάγουσαι σχί-
C ζουσι τῇ κορυφῇ τὸ πνεῦμα περιρρέον, ὥστε μὴ
διασπᾶσθαι τὴν τάξιν. ὅταν δὲ κατάρωσιν ἐπὶ
γῆν, αἱ προφυλακὴν ἔχουσαι νυκτὸς ἐπὶ θατέρου
7 > ~ \ ~ ~ > ¢ / \ /
σκέλους ὀχοῦνται TO σῶμα, τῷ δ᾽ ἑτέρῳ ποδὲ λίθον
περιλαβοῦσαι κρατοῦσι: συνέχει' γὰρ ὁ τῆς ἁφῆς
τόνος ἐν τῷ μὴ καθεύδειν πολὺν χρόνον: ὅταν δ᾽
ἀνῶσιν, ἐκπεσὼν ὃ λίθος ταχὺ διήγειρε τὴν προ-
εμένην: ὥστε μὴ πάνυ θαυμάζειν τοῦ “HpakdAédous,
1 συνέχει Leonicus : συνεχὴς.
« Cf. Mor. 510 a-s, which adds the detail that the geese’s
366
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 967
on board ship, since the sailors were away, putting
pebbles into a half empty Jar of oil, | was amazed at
its knowing that lighter substances are forced upward
when the heavier settle to the bottom.
Similar tales are told of Cretan bees and of geese
in Cilicia.* When the bees are going to round some
windy promontory, they ballast themselves with
little stones ὃ so as not to be carried out to sea;
while the geese, in fear of eagles, take a large stone
in their beaks whenever they cross Mt. Taurus, as it
were reining in and bridling their gaggling loquacity
that they may pass over in silence unobserved. It is
well known, too, how cranes © behave when they fly.
Whenever there is a high wind and rough weather
they do not fly, as on fine days, in line abreast or
in a crescent-shaped curve ; but they form at once
a compact triangle with the point cleaving the gale
that streams past, so that there is no break in the
formation. When they have descended to the ground,
the sentinels that stand watch at night support them-
selves on one foot and with the other grasp a stone
and hold it firmly?; the tension of grasping this
keeps them awake for a long time ; but when they
do relax, the stone escapes and quickly rouses the
culprit. So that I am not at all surprised that
flight is by night. Contrast Aelian, De Natura Animal. ii. 1,
Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 60, of cranes.
> Aelian, De Natura Animal. v.13; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xi.
24, and Ernout, ad loc. ; Dio Chrysostom, xliv. 7. Cf. 979 B
infra, of the sea hedgehog; Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 69.
¢ Of. 979 B infra; Aelian, De Natura Animal. ili. 13 ;
Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 63, of geese; Mair on Oppian, Hal. i.
624; Lucan, v. 713 ff.
4 Cf.979 p infra ; Aelian, loc. cit.; Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 59.
ε Cf. the anecdote of Alexander in Ammianus Marcel-
linus, xvi. 5. 4; of Aristotle in Diogenes Laertius, v. 16.
367
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(967) εἰ τόξα μασχάλῃ ὑποθεὶς καὶ
κραταιῷ περιβαλὼν βραχίονι,
εὕδει πιέζων χειρὶ δεξιᾷ ξύλον"
μηδ᾽ αὖ πάλιν τοῦ πρῶτον" ὑπονοήσαντος ὀστρέου
μεμυκότος ἀνάπτυξιν ἐ ἐντυχόντα τοῖς ἐρωδιῶν σοφί-
σμασιν: ὅταν γὰρ τὴν κόγχην καταπίῃ μεμυκυῖαν,
D evoxAovpevos € ἐγκαρτερεῖ, μέχρι ἂν αἴσθηται μαλασ-
σομένην καὶ χαλῶσαν ὑ ὑπὸ τῆς θερμότητος" τότε δ᾽
ἐκβαλὼν κεχηνυῖαν καὶ ἀνεσπασμένην ἐξεῖλε τὸ
ἐδώδιμον.
11. Τὰς δὲ μυρμήκων οἰκονομίας καὶ παρασκευὰς
ἐκφράσαι μὲν ἀκριβῶς ἀμήχανον, ὑπερβῆναι δὲ
παντελῶς ὀλίγωρον" οὐδὲν γὰρ οὕτω μικρὸν ἡ
φύσις ἔχει μειζόνων καὶ καλλιόνων κάτοπτρον,
ἀλλ᾽ ὥσπερ ἐν σταγόνι καθαρᾷ πάσης ἔνεστιν
ἀρετῆς ἔμφασις, “ἔνθ᾽ ἔνι μὲν φιλότης ᾿᾿ τὸ κοινω-
νικόν, ἔνι δ᾽ ἀνδρείας εἰκὼν τὸ φιλόπονον" ἔνεστι δὲ
πολλὰ μὲν ἐγκρατείας σπέρματα, πολλὰ δὲ φρονή-
BE σεως καὶ δικαιοσύνης. ὁ μὲν οὖν Κλεάνθης ἔλεγε,
καίπερ οὐ φάσκων μετέχειν λόγου τὰ ζῷα, τοιαύτῃ
θεωρίᾳ παρατυχεῖν" μύρμηκας ἐλθεῖν ἐπὶ μυρμη-
κιὰν ἑτέραν μύρμηκα νεκρὸν φέροντας" ἀνιόντας
οὖν ἐκ τῆς μυρμηκιᾶς ἐνίους οἷον ἐντυγχάνειν
αὐτοῖς καὶ πάλιν κατέρχεσθαι: καὶ τοῦτο δὶς 7) τρὶς
1 πρῶτον Benseler : πρώτου.
@ Nauck, 7γασ. Graec. Frag. p. 919, Adespoton 416.
Ὁ That is, by dropping it in hot water.
¢ Of. Aelian, De Natura Animal. iii. 20; another pro-
cedure is described in v. 35. See also Pliny, Nat. Hist. x.
115, of the shoveller duck ; Philo, 31 (p. 116); Antigonus,
Hist. Mirah. 41; al. 4 Homer, /liad, xiv. 216.
368
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 967
Heracles tucked his bow under his arm:
Embracing it with mighty arm he sleeps,
Keeping his right hand gripped about the club.
Nor, again, am I surprised at the man who first
guessed how to open an oyster ὃ when I read of the
ingenuity of herons. For they swallow a closed
mussel and endure the discomfort until they know
that it has been softened and relaxed by their internal
heat ; then they disgorge it wide open and unfolded
and extract the meat.°¢
11. It is impossible to relate in full detail all
the methods of production and storage practised by
ants, but it would be careless to omit them entirely.
Nature has, in fact, nowhere else so small a mirror of
greater and nobler enterprises. Just as you may see
greater things reflected in a drop of clear water, so
among ants there exists the delineation of every
virtue.
Love and affection are found, ὦ
namely their social life. You may see, too, the re-
flection of courage in their persistence in hard labour.?
There are many seeds of temperance and many of
prudence and justice. Now Cleanthes/ even though
he declared that animals are not endowed with
reason, says that he witnessed the following spectacle:
some ants came to a strange anthill carrying a dead
ant. Other ants then emerged from the hill and
seemed, as it were, to hold converse with the first
party and then went back again. This happened
¢ Cf. Plato, Laches, 192 5 ff.: we have here the four
Platonic virtues, with Love added.
¥ Von Arnim, S.V.F. i, p. 116; frag. 5153; cf. Aelian, De
Natura Animal, vi. 50.
369
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(967) γενέσθαι" τέλος δὲ τοὺς μὲν κάτωθεν ἀνενεγκεῖν
ὥσπερ λύτρα τοῦ νεκροῦ σκώληκα, τοὺς δ᾽ ἐκεῖνον
F ἀραμένους ἀποδόντας δὲ τὸν νεκρὸν οἴχεσθαι.
Τῶν δὲ πᾶσιν ἐμφανῶν ἣ τε περὶ τὰς ἀπαντήσεις
ἐστὶν εὐγνωμοσύνη, τῶν μηδὲν φερόντων τοῖς
φέρουσιν ἐξισταμένων ὁδοῦ καὶ παρελθεῖν διδόντων"
αἵ τε τῶν δυσφόρων καὶ δυσπαρακομίστων δια-
βρώσεις καὶ διαιρέσεις, ὅπως εὐβάστακτα πλείοσι
γένηται. τὰς δὲ τῶν σπερμάτων' διαθέσεις καὶ
διαψύξεις ἐκτὸς ὑετοῦ ποιεῖται σημεῖον ὁ “Apatos:
7 κοίλης μύρμηκες ὀχῆς ἐξ ὦεα πάντα
θᾶσσον ἀνηνέγκαντο"
, δ᾿ ὁ fETE SIN. 3 , > Stic, Pr 929 € 8
Kal τινες οὐκ “᾿ wa’ γράφουσιν, ἀλλ᾽ “ ἤια ᾿᾿" ὡς
τοὺς ἀποκειμένους καρπούς, ὅταν εὐρῶτα συνά-
908 γοντας αἴσθωνται καὶ φοβηθῶσι φθορὰν καὶ σῆψιν,
ἀναφερόντων. ὑπερβάλλει δὲ πᾶσαν ἐπίνοιαν συνέ-
σεως ἡ τοῦ πυροῦ τῆς βλαστήσεως προκατάληψις"
οὐ γὰρ δὴ παραμένει Enpos οὐδ᾽ ἄσηπτος ἀλλὰ
διαχεῖται καὶ γαλακτοῦται μεταβάλλων εἰς τὸ
φύειν" ἵν᾿ οὖν μὴ γενόμενος σπέρμα τὴν σιτίου
χρείαν διαφθείρῃ, παραμένῃ δ᾽ αὐτοῖς ἐδώδιμος,
ἐξεσθίουσι τὴν ἀρχήν, ἀφ᾽ ἧς τὸν βλαστὸν ὁ πυρὸς
ἀφίησιν.
1 σπερμάτων] Mss. have also κυμάτων and κερμάτων (κυημά-
των Bernardakis).
2 ma Leopardi: €a.
3 ὡς added by Wyttenbach.
« Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. ii. 25.
» Phaenomena, 956 ; cf. Vergil, Georgies, i. 379 f. ; Theo-
phrastus, De Signis, 22.
© Not οἵα, | ia: ** What the ants reall t ij
Not ota, but eta: vat the ants really carry out in
370
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 967-968
two or three times until at last they brought up a
grub to serve as the dead ant’s ransom, whereupon
the first party picked up the grub, handed over the
corpse, and departed.
A matter obvious to everyone is the consideration
ants show when they meet: those that bear no load
always give way to those who have one and let them
pass.“ Obvious also is the manner in which they
gnaw through and dismember things that are difficult
to carry or to convey past an obstacle, in order that
they may make easy loads for several. And Aratus ὃ
takes it to be a sign of rainy weather when they spread
out their eggs and cool them in the open :
When from their hollow nest the ants in haste
Bring up their eggs ;
and some do not write “ eggs’ here, but “ provisions,”’ ¢
in the sense of stored grain which, when they notice
that it is growing mildewed and fear that it may
decay and spoil, they bring up to the surface. But
what goes beyond any other conception of their
intelligence is their anticipation of the germination
of wheat. You know, of course, that wheat does not
remain permanently dry and stable, but expands
and lactifies in the process of germination. In order,
then, to keep it from running to seed and losing its
value as food, and to keep it permanently edible,
the ants eat out the germ from which springs the
new shoot of wheat.4@
Aratus and Vergil is their pupas, but these are commonly
called ‘ eggs’ to this day ” (Platt, Class. Quart. v, p. 255).
The two readings in this passage seem to show that Plutarch
had at hand an edition with a commentary; cf. also 976 F
infra, on the interpretation of Archilochus, and Mor. 22 8,
¢ Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. xi. 109, and Ernout ad loc.
371
(968)
B
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
Τοὺς δὲ τὰς μυρμηκιὰς αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τῷ καταμαθεῖν
ὥσπερ ἐξ ἀνατομῆς παρατηροῦντας' οὐκ ἀποδέ-
χομαι' λέγουσι δ᾽ οὖν οὐκ εὐθεῖαν εἶναι τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς
ὀπῆς" κάθοδον οὐδ᾽ εὔπορον ἄλλῳ θηρίῳ διεξελθεῖν,
ἀλλὰ “καμπαῖς καὶ στρεβλότησι ᾿κεκλασμένας ὑπο-
πορεύσεις καὶ ἀνατρήσεις ἐχούσαις εἰς τρεῖς κοιλό-
TnTas ἀποτελευτῶσαν, ὧν τὴν μὲν ἐνδιαίτημα
κοινὸν αὐτοῖς εἶναι, τὴν δὲ τῶν ἐδωδίμων ταμεῖον,
εἰς δὲ τὴν τρίτην ἀποτίθεσθαι τοὺς θνήσκοντας.
15. Οἶμαι δὲ μὴ ἄκαιρος ὑμῖν φανεῖσθαι. τοῖς
μύρμηξιν ἐπεισάγων τοὺς ἐλέφαντας, ἃ ἵνα τοῦ νοῦ
τὴν ν φύσιν ἔν τε τοῖς μικροτάτοις ἅμα καὶ μεγίστοις
σώμασι κατανοήσωμεν, μήτε τούτοις ἐναφανιζο-
μένην μήτ᾽ ἐκείνοις ἐνδέουσαν. οἱ μὲν οὖν ἄλλοι
θαυμάζουσι τοῦ ἐλέφαντος ὅσα μανθάνων καὶ διδα-
σκόμενος ἐν θεάτροις ἐπιδείκνυται σχημάτων εἰδὴ
καὶ μεταβολάς, ὧν οὐδ᾽ ἀνθρωπίναις μελέταις τὸ
ποικίλον καὶ περιττὸν ἐν μνήμῃ καὶ καθέξει" γενέ-
σθαι πάνυ ῥᾷδιόν ἐστιν: ἐγὼ δὲ μᾶλλον ἐν τοῖς ad’
αὑτοῦ καὶ ἀδιδάκτοις τοῦ θηρίου πάθεσι καὶ κινή-
μασιν, ὥσπερ ἀκράτοις καὶ ἀπαραχύτοις, ἐμφαι-
νομένην ὁρῶ τὴν σύνεσιν.
Ἔν “Ῥώμῃ μὲν γὰρ οὐ πάλαι πολλῶν προδιδα-
1 παρατηροῦντας Post: πληροῦντας.
2 ὀπῆς Meziriacus: ὅλης.
3 καὶ καθέξει] καθεξῆς van Herwerden.
2 The intricate galleries of anthills were used for purposes
of literary comparisons by the ancients: see the fragment
of Pherecrates in Mor. 1142 a and Aristophanes, Thes-
mophoriazusae, 100 (on Timotheiis and Agathon respec-
tively).
» Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 43 divides into men’s
apartments, women’s apartments, and storerooms ; see also
372
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 968
I do not approve of those who, to make a complete
study of anthills, inspect them, as it were, anatomi-
cally. But, be that as it may, they report that the
passage leading downward from the opening is not
at all straight or easy for any other creature to tra-
verse ; it passes through turns and twists ® with
branching tunnels and connecting galleries and ter-
minates in three hollow cavities. One of these is
their common dwelling-place, another serves as
storeroom for provisions, while in the third they
deposit the dying.?
12. I don’t suppose that you will think it out of
order if 1 introduce elephants directly on top of ants
in order that we may concurrently scrutinize the
nature of understanding in both the smallest and
the largest of creatures, for it is neither suppressed
in the latter nor deficient in the former. Let others,
then, be astonished that elephants learn, or are
taught, to exhibit in the theatre all the many postures
and variations of movement that they do,° these
being so varied and so complicated to memorize and
retain that they are not at all easy even for human
artists. For my part, I find the beast’s understanding
better manifested in his own spontaneous and un-
instructed feelings and movements, in a pure, as it
were, and undiluted state.
Well, not very long ago at Rome,? where a large
Philo, 42 (p. 120), and Boulenger, Animal Mysteries, pp.
128 ff. for a modern account. On the social life of ants (and
animals) as contrasted with that of humans see Dio Chry-
sostom, xl. 32, 40 f.; xlviii. 16. ¢ Cf. Mor. 98 &.
@ Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 6, which shows that Plutarch
is drawing on literature, not personal observation ; cf. also
Aelian, De Natura Animal. ii. 11, for the elaborateness of
the manceuvres; Philostratus, Vita Apoll. ii. 13; Philo,
54 (p. 126); see also 992 5 infra.
373
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
, , \ “ 1 , \
(968) σκομένων στάσεις τινὰς ἵστασθαι παραβόλους καὶ
κινήσεις δυσεξελίκτους ἀνακυκλεῖν, εἷς ὁ δυσμαθέ-
στατος ἀκούων κακῶς ἑκάστοτε καὶ κολαζόμενος
/ » \ ᾿] \ 3 > « ~ \ \
πολλάκις ὥφθη νυκτὸς αὐτὸς ἀφ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ πρὸς τὴν
Ὁ σελήνην ἀναταττόμενος τὰ μαθήματα καὶ μελετῶν.
ΕΒ ὃ ᾿ > / / αὐ «ς -
ν δὲ Συρίᾳ πρότερον “Ayvwv ἱστορεῖ, τρεφο-
μένου κατ᾽ οἰκίαν ἐλέφαντος, τὸν ἐπιστάτην λαμ-
βάνοντα κριθῶν μέτρον ὑφαιρεῖν καὶ χρεωκοπεῖν
μέρος ἥμισυ καθ᾽ ἡμέραν: ἐπεὶ δέ, τοῦ δεσπότου
παρόντος ποτὲ καὶ θεωμένου, πᾶν τὸ μέτρον κατή-
> / \ / \ /
pacev, ἐμβλέψαντα καὶ διαγαγόντα τὴν προβοσκίδα
τῶν κριθῶν ἀποδιαστῆσαι καὶ διαχωρίσαι τὸ μέρος,
ὡς ἐνῆν λογιώτατα κατειπόντα τοῦ ἐπιστάτου τὴν
3 / » 4 a “- / \ ~ >
ἀδικίαν: ἄλλον δέ, ταῖς κριθαῖς λίθους Kat γῆν εἰς
τὸ μέτρον τοῦ ἐπιστάτου καταμιγνύοντος, ἐψο-
μένων κρεῶν, Opagdpevov τῆς τέφρας ἐμβαλεῖν εἰς
E τὴν χύτραν. ὁ δ᾽ ὑπὸ τῶν παιδαρίων προπηλακι-
σθεὶς ἐν Ῥώμῃ τοῖς γραφείοις τὴν προβοσκίδα
/ a“ / / > / > /
κεντούντων ὃν συνέλαβε μετέωρον ἐξάρας ἐπίδοξος
ἦν ἀποτυμπανιεῖν"- κραυγῆς δὲ τῶν παρόντων γενο-
μένης, ἀτρέμα πρὸς τὴν γῆν πάλιν ἀπηρείσατο καὶ
παρῆλθεν, ἀρκοῦσαν ἡγούμενος δίκην τῷ τηλικούτῳ
φοβηθῆναι.
Περὶ δὲ τῶν ἀγρίων καὶ αὐτονόμων ἄλλα τε
θαυμάσια καὶ τὰ περὶ τὰς διαβάσεις τῶν ποταμῶν
ἱστοροῦσι: προδιαβαίνει γὰρ ἐπιδοὺς αὑτὸν ὁ νεώ-
1 ἵστασθαι Casaubon: κτᾶσθαι.
* ἀποτυμπανιεῖν W. C. H. from Mor. 170 a: ἀποτυμπανί-
σειν.
« Of Tarsus, pupil of Carneades.
» Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 52.
374
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 968
number of elephants were being trained to assume
dangerous stances and wheel about in complicated
patterns, one of them, who was the slowest to learn
and was always being scolded and often punished,
was seen at night, alone by himself in the moonlight,
voluntarily rehearsing his lessons and_ practising
them.
Formerly in Syria, Hagnon ¢ tells us, an elephant
was brought up in its master’s house and every day
the keeper, when he received a measure of barley,
would filch away and appropriate half of it; but
on one occasion, when the master was present and
watching, the keeper poured out the whole measure.
The elephant gave a look, raised its trunk, and made
two piles of the barley, setting aside half of it and
thus revealing as eloquently as could be the dis-
honesty of its keeper. And another elephant, whose
keeper used to mix stones and dirt in its barley
ration, when the keeper’s meat was cooking, scooped
up some ashes and threw them into the pot.? And
another in Rome, being tormented by little boys
who pricked its proboscis with their writing styluses,
grabbed one of them and raised him into the air as
if to dash him to death; but when the spectators
cried out, it gently set the child down on the ground
again and passed along, thinking it sufficient punish-
ment for one so young to have been frightened.
Concerning wild elephants who are self-governing
they tell many wonderful tales, particularly the one
about the fording of rivers®: the youngest and
smallest volunteers his services to go first into the
¢ Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 11, gives a different account ;_ still
different is Aelian, De Natura Animal. vii. 15, and ef.
Philostratus, Vita Apoll. ii. 15.
375
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
\ / « > « ~ > ~
(968) τατος και PREPOTOTASE ol δ᾽ ἑστῶτες ἀποθεωροῦσιν
ὡς, ἂν ἐκεῖνος ὑπεραίρῃ τῷ μεγέθει τὸ ῥεῦμα,
πολλὴν τοῖς μείζοσι πρὸς τὸ θαρρεῖν περιουσίαν τῆς
F ἀσφαλείας οὖσαν.
3 ~ ~ ’ὔ \ , ~
Ἐνταῦθα τοῦ λόγου γεγονὼς οὐ δοκῶ μοι
παρήσειν δι᾿ ὁμοιότητα τὸ τῆς ἀλώπεκος. οἱ μὲν
οὖν μυθολόγοι τῷ Δευκαλίωνί φασι περιστερὰν ἐκ
τῆς λάρνακος ἀφιεμένην δήλωμα γενέσθαι χειμῶνος
μὲν εἴσω πάλιν ἐνδυομένην, εὐδίας δ᾽ ἀποπτᾶσαν"
οἱ δὲ Θρᾷκες ἔτι νῦν, ὅταν παγέντα διαβαίνειν
ποταμὸν ἐπιχειρῶσιν, ἀλώπεκα ποιοῦνται γνώμονα
969 τῆς τοῦ πάγου στερρότητος" ἡσυχῆ γὰρ ὑπάγουσα
παραβάλλει τὸ οὖς: κἂν μὲν αἴσθηται ψόφῳ τοῦ
ῥεύματος ἐγγὺς ὑποφερομένου, τεκμαιρομένη μὴ
/ \ 7 \ ΄ > \ \ \
γεγονέναι διὰ βάθους τὴν πῆξιν ἀλλὰ λεπτὴν Kal
ἀβέβαιον ἵσταται, κἂν ἐᾷ τις, ἐπανέρχεται: τῷ δὲ
\ A ~ ~ \ ~ \ /
μὴ ψοφεῖν θαρροῦσα διῆλθε. καὶ τοῦτο μὴ λέγωμεν
, / » 5 / 5 7 » > /
αἰσθήσεως ἄλογον ἀκρίβειαν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐξ αἰσθήσεως
\ Ld ce \ ~ A \ \ /
συλλογισμὸν ὅτι “᾿ τὸ ψοφοῦν κινεῖται, TO δὲ κινού-
μενον οὐ πέπηγε, τὸ δὲ μὴ πεπηγὸς ὑγρόν ἐστι, τὸ
» ς \ τ / ,Ψ' ς \ / \
δ᾽ ὑγρὸν ἐνδίδωσιν. οἱ δὲ διαλεκτικοί φασι τὸν
κύνα τῷ διὰ πλειόνων διεζευγμένῳ χρώμενον ἐν
~ 7 3 - / \
B ταῖς πολυσχιδέσιν ἀτραποῖς συλλογίζεσθαι πρὸς
ἑαυτόν, “᾿ ἤτοι τήνδε τὸ θηρίον ὥρμηκεν ἢ τήνδε ἢ
The authorities on Deucalion’s Flood are assembled by
Fister on Apollodorus, i. 7. 2 (L.C.L.), and more completely
in his Folk-Lore in the Old Testament, i, pp. 146 ff. Plutarch
is the only Greek author to add the Semitic dove story,
though Lucian (De Dea Syria, 12 ff.) was to add to the other
major contaminations.
» Cf. 949 p supra and the note.
376
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 968-969
stream. The others wait on the bank and observe
the result, for if his back remains above water, those
that are larger than he will have a wide margin of
safety to give them confidence.
13. At this point in my discourse, I imagine that I
shall do well not to omit the case of the fox, since it
is so similar. Now the story-books 7 tell us that when
Deucalion released a dove from the ark, as long as
she returned, it was a certain sign that the storm was
still raging ; but as soon as she flew away, it was a
harbinger of fair weather. So even to this day the
Thracians,? whenever they propose crossing a frozen
river, make use of a fox as an indicator of the solidity
of the ice. The fox moves ahead slowly and lays
her ear to the ice ; if she perceives by the sound that
the stream is running close underneath, judging that
the frozen part has no great depth, but is only thin
and insecure, she stands stock still and, if she is per-
mitted, returns to the shore ; but if she is reassured
by the absence of noise, she crosses over. And let
us not declare that this is a nicety of perception un-
aided by reason; it is, rather, a syllogistic conclusion
developed from the evidence of perception : “ What
makes noise must be in motion ; what is in motion is
not frozen; what is not frozen is liquid; what is
liquid gives way.” So logicians © assert that a dog,
at a point where many paths split off, makes use
of a multiple disjunctive 7 argument and reasons
with himself: “‘ Either the wild beast has taken this
¢ Specifically Chrysippus (cf. von Arnim, S.V.F. ii, pp.
726 f.). Cf. Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism, i.
69 (the whole passage i. 62-72 is worth reading); Aelian,
De Natura Animal, vi. 59; Philo, 45 (p. 122).
4 For the form of the syllogism see Diogenes Laertius,
vil. 81.
317
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(969) TIVE" ἀλλὰ μὴν οὔτε τήνδε οὔτε τήνδε" τὴν λοιπὴν
ἄρα᾽᾽" τῆς μὲν αἰσθήσεως οὐδὲν ἢ τὴν πρόσληψιν
διδούσης, τοῦ δὲ λόγου τὰ λήμματα καὶ τὸ συμ-
πέρασμα τοῖς λήμμασιν ἐπιφέροντος. οὐ μὴν δεῖταί
γε τοιαύτης μαρτυρίας ὃ κύων" ψευδὴς “γάρ ἐστι
καὶ κίβδηλος" ἡ γὰρ αἴσθησις αὐτὴ τοῖς ἴχνεσι καὶ
τοῖς pevpact” τοῦ θηρίου τὴν φυγὴν ἐπιδείκνυσι,
χαίρειν λέγουσα διεζευγμένοις ἀξιώμασι καὶ συμ-
πεπλεγμένοις. Ov ἄλλων δὲ πολλῶν ἔργων καὶ
παθῶν καὶ καθηκόντων οὔτ᾽ ὀσφραντῶν οὐθ᾽ ὁρα-
C τῶν ἀλλὰ διανοίᾳ καὶ λόγῳ μόνον πρακτῶν καὶ
θεατῶν ὄντων κατιδεῖν ἔστι τὴν κυνὸς φύσιν" οὗ
τὰς μὲν ἐν ἄγραις ἐγκρατείας καὶ πειθαρχίας καὶ
ἀγχινοίας γελοῖος ἔσομαι λέγων πρὸς ὑμᾶς τοὺς
ὁρῶντας αὐτὰ καθ᾽ ἡμέραν καὶ μεταχειριζομένους.
Κάλβου δὲ" τοῦ Ῥωμαίου σφαγέντος ἐν τοῖς ἐμ-
φυλίοις πολέμοις οὐδεὶς ἐδυνήθη τὴν κεφαλὴν ἀπο-
τεμεῖν πρότερον πρὶν ἢ τὸν κύνα τὸν φυλάττοντα
καὶ προμαχόμενον. αὐτοῦ κατακεντῆσαι περιστάν-
τας. Ilvppos δ᾽ ὁ βασιλεὺς ὁδεύων ἐνέτυχε κυνὶ
φρουροῦντι σῶμα “πεφονευμένου, καὶ πυθόμενος
τρίτην ἡμέραν ἐκείνην ἄσιτον παραμένειν καὶ μὴ
Ὁ ἀπολείπειν' τὸν μὲν νεκρὸν ἐκέλευσε θάψαι, τὸν δὲ
κύνα μεθ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ κομίζειν ἐπιμελομένους. ὀλίγαις
1 ἢ τήνδε added by early editors.
2 ῥεύμασι] πνεύμασι Emperius.
3 Κάλβου δὲ Diibner: οὐδὲ.
4 ἀπολείπειν Bernardakis : ἀπολιπεῖν.
¢ Cf. Shorey on Plato, Republic, 427 πὶ (L.C.L., vol. I,
Ὁ: 347, note δὴ.
ὃ For the philosophic dog see Plato, op. cit. 376 B; the
scholia of Olympiodorus add that Socrates’ famous oath * by
378
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 969
path, or this, or this. But surely it has not taken
this, or this. Then it must have gone by the remain-
ing road.” Perception here affords nothing but the
minor premiss, while the force of reason gives
the major premisses and adds the conclusion to the
premisses. A dog, however, does not need such a
testimonial, which is both false and fraudulent ; for
it is perception itself, by means of track and spoor,?
which indicates the way the creature fled; it does
not bother with disjunctive and copulative proposi-
tions. The dog’s true capacity may be discerned
from many other acts and reactions and the perfor-
mance of duties, which are neither to be smelled out
nor seen by the eye, but can be carried out or per-
ceived only by the use of intelligence and reason.?
I should only make myself ridiculous if I described
the dog’s self-control and obedience and sagacity on
hunting parties to you who see and handle these
matters every day.
There was a Roman named Calvus © slain in the
Civil Wars, but no one was able to cut off his head
until they encircled and stabbed to death the dog
who guarded his master and defended him. And
King Pyrrhus? on a journey chanced upon a dog
guarding the body of a murdered man; in answer
to his questions he was told that the dog had re-
mained there without eating for three days and
refused to leave. Pyrrhus gave orders for the corpse
to be buried and the dog cared for and brought along
the dog’ was symbolic of the creature’s rational nature.
See also Sinclair, Class. Rev. xlii (1948), p. 61; the parallel
passages are collected by J. E. B. Mayor, Class. Rev. xii
(1898), pp. 93 ff.
© See Aelian, De Natura Animal. vii. 10.
@ Cf. Aelian, loc. cit.; Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 142.
379
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
5 “ ¢ / ᾽ “4 Ss ~ ~
(969) ὃ VOTEPOV Ἴμεραις ἐξέτασις YY τῶν OTPATLWTWT
Kal πάροδος καθημένου τοῦ βασιλέως καὶ παρῆν ὁ
κύων ἡσυχίαν ἔχων: ἐπεὶ δὲ τοὺς φονέας τοῦ δε-
σπότου παριόντας εἶδεν ἐξέδραμε μετὰ φωνῆς καὶ
θυμοῦ ἐπ᾽ αὐτοὺς καὶ καθυλάκτει πολλάκις μετα-
“
στρεφόμενος εἰς τὸν Πύρρον, ὥστε μὴ μόνον ἐκεί-
vw δι’ ὑποψίας ἀλλὰ καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς παροῦσι τοὺς
ἀνθρώπους γενέσθαι: διὸ συλληφθέντες εὐθὺς καὶ
ἀνακρινόμενοι, μικρῶν τινων τεκμηρίων ἔξωθεν
προσγενομένων, ὁμολογήσαντες τὸν φόνον ἐκο-
λάσθησαν.
E Ταὐτὰ' δὲ καὶ τὸν Ἡσιόδου κύνα τοῦ σοφοῦ
΄σ Vs \ / > / ~
δρᾶσαι λέγουσι, τοὺς VaviKropos ἐξελέγξαντα τοῦ
, Ξ ey? τ ee ͵ 5. ἢ» γὴ
Ναυπακτίου παῖδας, ὑφ᾽ ὧν ὁ ᾿Ησίοδος ἀπέθανεν.
ὃ δ᾽ οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν ἔγνωσαν αὐτοὶ σχολάζον-
τες ᾿Αθήνησιν ἐναργέστερόν ἐστι τῶν εἰρημένων"
παραρρυεὶς γὰρ ἄνθρωπος εἰς τὸν νεὼν τοῦ ᾿Ασ-
κληπιοῦ τὰ εὔογκα τῶν ἀργυρῶν καὶ χρυσῶν ἔλαβεν
3 / \ / / ς ~ ¢
ἀναθημάτων Kat λεληθέναι νομίζων ὑπεξῆλθεν: ὁ
δὲ φρουρὸς κύων, ὄνομα ζάππαρος, ἐπεὶ μηδεὶς
ὑλακτοῦντι τῶν ζακόρων ὑπήκουσεν αὐτῷ, φεύγοντα
τὸν ἱερόσυλον ἐπεδίωκε: καὶ πρῶτον μὲν βαλλόμε-
/ dre / > \
F vos λίθοις οὐκ ἀπέστη: γενομένης δ᾽ ἡμέρας, ἐγγὺς
᾽ \ > > > > > ~ / σ
οὐ προσιὼν ἀλλ᾽ ἀπ᾽ ὀφθαλμοῦ παραφυλάττων εἵ-
\ \ / > > / >
πετο καὶ τροφὴν προβάλλοντος οὐκ ἐλάμβανεν: ava-
παυομένῳ δὲ παρενυκτέρευε καὶ βαδίζοντος πάλιν
ἀναστὰς ἐπηκολούθει, τοὺς. δ᾽ ἀπαντῶντας ὁδοιπό-
1 ταὐτὰ Reiske: ταῦτα.
a ΟΥ̓. 984 νυ infra. A different account, omitting the dog,
will be found in Mor. 162 c-r (where see Wyttenbach’s note) ;
380
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 969
in his train. A few days later there was an inspection
of the soldiers, who marched in front of the king
seated on his throne, while the dog lay quietly by his
side. But when it saw its master’s murderers filing
past, it rushed at them with furious barking and, as it
voiced its accusation, turned to look at the king so
that not only he, but everyone present, became sus-
picious of the men. They were at once arrested and
when put to the question, with the help of some
bits of external evidence as well, they confessed the
murder and were punished.
The same thing is said to have been done by
the poet Hesiod’s “ dog, which convicted the sons of
Ganyctor the Naupactian, by whom Hesiod had been
murdered. Buta matter which came to the attention
of our fathers when they were studying at Athens
is even plainer than anything so far mentioned. A
certain fellow slipped into the temple of Asclepius,?
took such gold and silver offerings as were not bulky,
and made his escape, thinking that he had not been
detected. But the watchdog, whose name was
Capparus, when none of the sacristans responded to
its barking, pursued the escaping temple-thief. First
the man threw stones at it, but could not drive it
away. When day dawned, the dog did not approach
close, but followed the man, always keeping him in
sight, and refused the food he offered. When he
stopped to rest, the dog passed the night on guard ;
when he struck out again, the dog got up and
kept following, fawning on the other people it met
cf. also Pollux, Onomasticon, v. 42 and Gabathiiler on Anth.
Pal. vii. 55 (Hellenistische Epigramme auf Dichter, p. 31).
ὃ The same story in Aelian, De Natura Animal. vii. 13,
indicates a literary source. See now E. R. Dodds, The Greeks
and the Irrational, p. 114 and n. 65.
381
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(969) ρους ἔσαινεν, ἐκείνῳ δ᾽ ἐφυλάκτει καὶ προσέκειτο.
ταῦτα δ᾽ οἱ διώκοντες πυνθανόμενοι παρὰ τῶν
ἀπαντώντων ἅμα καὶ τὸ χρῶμα φραζόντων καὶ τὸ
μέγεθος τοῦ κυνὸς προθυμότερον ἐχρήσαντο τῇ
διώξει, καὶ καταλαβόντες τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἀνήγαγον
970 ἀπὸ Κρομμυῶνος. ὁ δὲ κύων ἀναστρέψας προηγεῖτο
΄- « ~
γαῦρος Kal περιχαρής, οἷον ἑαυτοῦ ποιούμενος ay-
ραν καὶ θήραμα τὸν ἱερόσυλον. ἐψηφίσαντο δὴ
σῖτον αὐτῷ δημοσίᾳ μετρεῖσθαι καὶ παρεγγυᾶσθαι
τοῖς ἱερεῦσιν εἰς ἀεὶ τὴν ἐπιμέλειαν, ἀπομιμησά-
μενοι τὸ πρὸς τὸν ἡμίονον φιλανθρώπευμα τῶν
παλαιῶν ᾿Αθηναίων. τὸν γὰρ ἑκατόμπεδον νεὼν
Περικλέους ἐν ἀκροπόλει κατασκευάζοντος, ὡς
> / / / ~ / 77a /
εἰκός, λίθοι προσήγοντο πολλοῖς ζεύγεσι καθ᾽ ἡμέ-
~ +e /
ραν: τῶν οὖν συνειργασμένων μὲν προθύμως ἤδη
δὲ διὰ γῆρας ἀφειμένων ὀρέων εἷς κατερχόμενος εἰς
A /
Kepapecxov καὶ tots ἀνάγουσι ζεύγεσι τοὺς λίθους
ὑπαντῶν ἀεὶ συνανέστρεφε καὶ συμπαρετρόχαζεν,
οἷον ἐγκελευόμενος καὶ παρορμῶν: διὸ θαυμάσας
αὐτοῦ τὴν φιλοτιμίαν ὁ δῆμος ἐκέλευσε δημοσίᾳ
“-“- ὔ
τρέφεσθαι, καθάπερ ἀθλητῇ σίτησιν ὑπὸ γήρως
ἀπειρηκότι ψηφισάμενος.
£ « A > \ A \
14. Διὸ τοὺς λέγοντας, ws ἡμῖν οὐδὲν προς τὰ
~ / / > « / > / ΝΜ ~ 2 awe
ζῷα δίκαιόν ἐστι, ῥητέον εὖ λέγειν ἄχρι τῶν ἐνάλων
δι / Μ \ > ~ ~ \ /
καὶ βυθίων: ἄμικτα yap ἐκεῖνα κομιδῇ πρὸς χάριν
“ Better known as the Parthenon ; cf. Mor. 349 ἢ, Life of
Pericles, xiii. 7 (159 Ἐ).
»o Cf. Life ey Cato Maior, v. 3 (339 a-B). Aelian, De
Natura Animal. vi. 49, agrees in the main with Plutarch’s
account; Aristotle, Histori ia Animal, vi. 24 (577 B 34), says
merely that a public decree was passed forbidding bakers to
drive the creature away from their trays. He adds that the
382
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 969-970
on the road and barking at the man and sticking to
his heels. When those who were investigating the
robbery learned this from men who had encountered
the pair and were told the colour and size of the dog,
they pursued all the more vigorously and overtook
the man and brought him back from Crommyon. On
the return the dog led the procession, capering and
exultant, as though it claimed for itself the credit for
pursuing and capturing the temple-thief. The people
actually voted it a public ration of food and entrusted
the charge of this to the priests in perpetuity, thereby
imitating the ancient Athenian kindness to the mule.
For when Pericles was building the Hecatompedon @
on the Acropolis, stones were naturally brought by
numerous teams of draught-animals every day. Now
one of the mules who had assisted gallantly in the
work, but had now been discharged because of old
age, ued to go down every day to the Ceramicus
and meet the beasts which brought the stones,
turning back with them and tr otting along by their
side, as though to encourage and cheer them on.
So the people of Athens, admiring its enterprise,
gave orders for it to be maintained at the public
expense, voting it free meals, as though to an athlete
who had succumbed to old age.?
14.¢ Therefore those who deny that there is any
kind of justice owed to animals? by us must be
conceded to be right so far as marine and deep-sea
creatures ὁ are concerned ; for these are completely
mule was 80 years old and is followed by Pliny, Nat. Hist.
viii. 175.
¢ There is probably a lacuna before this chapter.
4 Cf. 999 B infra; 964 B supra.
ε Cf. additional sources cited by Mair on Oppian, Hal.
ii. 43.
83
69
(970)
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
Kal aoTopya Kal πάσης ἄμοιρα γλυκυθυμίας" Kat
καλῶς Ὅμηρος εἶπε
γλαυκὴ δέ σ᾽ ἔτικτε θάλασσα
πρὸς τὸν ἀνήμερον εἶναι δοκοῦντα καὶ ἄμικτον, ὡς
\ ond / ’ -. \ \ ~ /
μηδὲν τῆς θαλάσσης εὐνοϊκὸν μηδὲ πρᾶον depov-
¢ \ \ \ \ a a / /
‘ons. ὁ δὲ Kal πρὸς τὰ χερσαῖα τῷ λόγῳ τούτῳ
, > \ \ , ἊΝ ‘1 /
χρώμενος ἀπηνὴς Kal θηριώδης" ἢ μηδὲ Λυσιμάχῳ
«ς
τι γεγονέναι φήσῃ" πρὸς τὸν κύνα τὸν ‘YpKavov
δίκαιον, ὃς νεκρῷ τε μόνος παρέμεινεν αὐτῷ Kat,
~ > «
καομένου τοῦ σώματος, ἐνδραμὼν αὐτὸς ἑαυτὸν
Be \ > oa ἃ \ \ > 1 3 = ,
ἐπέρριψε. τὰ δ᾽ αὐτὰ Kat τὸν aetov® δρᾶσαι λέ-
Δ / > ς rN \ > ϑ «ὦ ’
γουσιν, ὃν Πύρρος οὐχ ὁ βασιλεὺς ἀλλ᾽ ἕτερός τις
> / ” > / \ >) ~ \ \
ἰδιώτης ἔθρεψεν: ἀποθανόντος yap αὐτοῦ περὶ τὸ
σῶμα διατρίβων καὶ περὶ τὸ κλινίδιον αἰωρούμενος
/
ἐκφερομένου, τέλος εἰς τὴν πυρὰν στειλάμενος
ἀφῆκεν ἑαυτὸν καὶ συγκατέκαυσε.
“- > “
Πώρου δὲ τοῦ βασιλέως ὁ ἐλέφας, ἐν τῇ πρὸς
᾿Αλέξανδρον μάχῃ κατατετρωμένου, πολλὰ τῶν
Η >
ἀκοντισμάτων ἀτρέμα Kal φειδόμενος ἐξήρει TH
προβοσκίδι, καὶ κακῶς ἤδη διακείμενος αὐτὸς οὐ
/ >? / μ ~ / > /
πρότερον ἐνέδωκεν ἢ τοῦ βασιλέως ἐξαίμου yevo-
1 ἢ μηδὲ E only: εἰ δὲ μὴ. 5. φήσῃ Madvig: φήσει.
ars ‘ E See > \ δε τς
ἀετὸν Emperius : ἀστὸν and αὐτὸν.
@ Iliad, xvi. 34.
» Mor. 821 a: the companion and successor of Alexander
(c. 360-281 z.c.). Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 143; Aelian,
De Natura Animal. vi. 25; and ii. 40 (cf. vi. 29), of eagles.
384
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 970
lacking in amiability, apathetic, and devoid of all
sweetness of disposition. And well did Homer @ say
The gray-green sea bore you,
with reference to a man regarded as uncivilized and
unsociable, implying that the sea produces nothing
friendly or gentle. But a man who would use such
speech in regard to land animals is himself cruel and
brutal. Or perhaps you will not admit that there was
a bond of justice between Lysimachus ὃ and the
Hyrcanian dog which alone stood guard by his
corpse and, when his body was cremated, rushed into
the flames and hurled itself upon him.’ The same is
reported to have been done by the eagle ὦ which was
kept by Pyrrhus, not the king, but a certain private
citizen ; when he died, it kept vigil by his body ; at
the funeral it hovered about the bier and finally
folded its wings, settled on the pyre and was con-
sumed with its master’s body.
The elephant of King Porus,’ when he was wounded
in the battle against Alexander, gently and solici-
tously pulled out with its trunk many 7 of the javelins
sticking in its master. Though it was in a sad state
itself, it did not give up until it perceived that the
It may be conjectured that ii. 40 was derived from an original
in which ἀετῶν was confused with κυνῶν, as infra.
¢ Similar stories in Aelian, De Natura Animal. vii. 40.
4‘ Dog” and "“ eagle”’ are again confused; but the
“hovering ”’ is here decisive. (Cf. also Wilamowitz, Hermes,
lxiii, p. 380.) The dog reappears in Pollux, v. 42 (where it is
King Pyrrhus), an eagle in a similar tale in Pliny, Nat.
Hist. x. 18, while Pyrrhus is the name of a dog in Pliny,
vill. 144.
¢ Life of Alewander, |x. 13 (699 B-c), with Ziegler’s refer-
ences ad loc.
7“ Fach one of the spears ”’ in the Life of Alexander.
VOL, XII oO 385
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(970) μένου καὶ περιρρέοντος αἰσθόμενος" καὶ φοβηθεὶς μὴ
πέσῃ πράως ὑφῆκε, παρέχων ἐκείνῳ τὴν ἀπόκλισιν
ἄλυπον.
« \ / \ \ “ - >
O δὲ Βουκεφάλας γυμνὸς μὲν ὧν παρεῖχεν ava-
βῆναι τῷ ἱπποκόμῳ, κοσμηθεὶς δὲ τοῖς βασιλικοῖς
προκοσμίοις καὶ περιδεραίοις οὐδένα προσίετο πλὴν
αὐτὸν ᾿Αλέξανδρον᾽ τοῖς δ᾽ ἄλλοις, εἰ πειρώμενοι
προσίοιεν, ἐναντίος ἐπιτρέχων ἐχρεμέτιζε μέγα καὶ
E ἐνήλλετο᾽ καὶ κατεπάτει τοὺς μὴ πρόσω ἵεσθαι
μηδ᾽ ἀποφεύγειν φθάσαντας.
15. Οὐκ ἀγνοῶ δ᾽ ὅτι τὸ" τῶν παραδειγμάτων
Ἐς A / / Ε ” \ ε / ~
ὑμῖν φανεῖταί τι ποικίλον: οὐκ ἔστι δὲ ῥᾳδίως τῶν
εὐφυῶν ζῴων πρᾶξιν εὑρεῖν μιᾶς ἔμφασιν ἀρετῆς
ἔχουσαν: ἀλλ᾽ ἐμφαίνεται καὶ τῷ φιλοστόργῳ τὸ
φιλότιμον αὐτῶν καὶ τῷ γενναίῳ τὸ θυμόσοφον, 1
τε πανουργία καὶ τὸ συνετὸν οὐκ ἀπήλλακται τοῦ
~ \ > / 2 A > \
θυμοειδοῦς Kal ἀνδρώδους. οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ BovdAo-
μένοις διαιρεῖν καὶ διορίζειν καθ᾽ ἕκαστον, ἡμέρου
μὲν ἔμφασιν ὁ ὁμοῦ καὶ ὑψηλοῦ φρονήματος ποιοῦσιν
ot κύνες, ἀποτρεπόμενοι τῶν συγκαθεζομένων: ὥς
που καὶ ταῦτ᾽ εἴρηται
Ἐ «ς \ r ‘é > ὃ 3 > \ ᾽Οὃ \
οἱ μὲν κεκλήγοντες ἐπέδραμον: αὐτὰρ “Odvacevs
ἕζετο κερδοσύνῃ, σκῆπτρον δέ οἱ ἔκπεσε χειρός"
> / \ / ~ ~
οὐκέτι γὰρ προσμάχονται τοῖς ὑποπεσοῦσι καὶ γε-
/ A U
γονόσι ταπεινοῖς Tas ἕξεις ὁμοίοις.
1 αἰσθόμενος Diibner: αἰσθανόμενος.
2 ἐνήλλετο Diibner : συνήλλετο.
3 τὸ added by Wyttenbach.
« Other stories of humane elephants in Aelian, De Natura
Animal, iii. 46; αἱ.
> Of. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 154; Gellius, Noctes Atticae,
vy. 2; and see the parallels collected by Sternbach, |Viener
386
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 970
king had lost much blood and was slipping off ; then,
fearing that he would fall, it gently kneeled and
afforded its master a painless glide.”
Bucephalas ὃ unsaddled would permit his groom to
mount him; but when he was all decked out in his
royal accoutrements and collars, he would let no one
approach except Alexander himself. If any others
tried to come near, he would charge at them loudly
neighing and rear and trample any of them who
were not quick enough to rush far away and escape.
15. 1 am not unaware that you will think that my
examples are rather a hodge-podge ; but it is not
easy to find naturally clever animals doing anything
which illustrates merely one of their virtues. Their
probity, rather, is revealed in their love of offspring
and their cleverness in their nobility ; then, too,
their craftiness and intelligence is inseparable from
their ardour and courage. Those, nevertheless, who
are intent on classifying and defining each separate
occasion will find that dogs give the impression of a
mind that is at once civil and superior when they
turn away from those who sit on the ground—which
is presumably referred to in the lines ¢
The dogs barked and rushed up, but wise Odysseus
Cunningly crouched ; the staff slipped from his hand ;
for dogs cease attacking those who have thrown
themselves down and taken on an attitude that
resembles humility.?
Studien, xvi, pp. 17 f. The story is omitted by Plutarch in
the Life of Alexander.
¢ Homer, Odyssey, xiv. 30 f.; ef. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii.
146; Antigonus, Hist. Mirab. 24; Aristotle, Rhetoric, ii.
3. 6 (1380 a 24).
4 Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 48, of the lion.
387
(970)
io)
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
Φασὶ δὲ καὶ τὸν πρωτεύοντα κύνα τῶν ᾿Ϊνδικῶν
τὸν μάλιστα θαυμασθέντα πρὸς ᾿Αλεξάνδρου, ἐλά-
φου μὲν" ἀφιεμένου καὶ κάπρου καὶ ἄρκτου,
ἡσυχίαν ἔχοντα κεῖσθαι καὶ περιορᾶν, ὀφθέντος δὲ
λέοντος, εὐθὺς ἐξαναστῆναι καὶ διακονίεσθαι καὶ
φανερὸν εἶναι αὑτοῦ ποιούμενον ἀνταγωνιστήν, τῶν
δ᾽ ἄλλων ὑπερφρονοῦντα πάντων.
Οἱ δὲ τοὺς δασύποδας διώκοντες, ἐὰν μὲν αὐτοὶ
κτείνωσιν, ἥδονται διασπῶντες καὶ τὸ αἷμα λάπ-
τουσι προθύμως: ἐὰν δ᾽ ἀπογνοὺς ἑαυτὸν ὁ λαγωός,
ὃ γίνεται πολλάκις, ὅσον ἔχει πνεύματος εἰς τὸν
ἔσχατον ἀναλώσας δρόμον ἐκλίπῃ, νεκρὸν κατα-
λαβόντες οὐκ ἅπτονται τὸ παράπαν, ἀλλ᾽ ἵστανται
τὰς οὐρὰς κινοῦντες, ὡς οὐ κρεῶν χάριν ἀλλὰ νίκης
καὶ φιλονικίας ἀγωνιζόμενοι.
16. Ilavouvpyias δὲ πολλῶν παραδειγμάτων. ὄν-
των, ἀφεὶς ἀλώπεκας καὶ λύκους καὶ τὰ γεράνων
σοφίσματα καὶ κολοιῶν, ἔστι γὰρ δῆλα, μάρτυρι
χρήσομαι Θαλῇ τῷ παλαιοτάτῳ τῶν σοφῶν, ὃ ὃν οὐχ
ἥκιστα θαυμασθῆναι λέγουσιν ὀρέως" τέχνῃ περι-
γενόμενον. τῶν γὰρ ἁληγῶν ἡ ἡμιόνων εἷς ἐμβαλὼν
εἰς ποταμὸν ὦλισθεν αὐτομάτως καὶ τῶν ἁλῶν δια-
τακέντων ἀναστὰς ἐλαφρὸς ἤσθετο τὴν αἰτίαν καὶ
1 τὸν (W. C. H.) μάλιστα θαυμασθέντα πρὸς ᾿Αλεξάνδρου van
Herwerden: καὶ μαχεσθέντα πρὸς ᾿Αλέξανδρον.
* μὲν added by Benseler.
3 ὀρέως Amyot: ὀρθῶς.
α There are nearly as many emendations of this phrase as
there have been scholars interested in Plutarch’s text. Van
Herwerden’s version, as having the liveliest sense, has been
preferred. It is by no means certain, however, though sup-
ported by Aelian, De Natura Animal, viii. 1; Pliny, Vat.
388
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 970-971
They relate further that the champion of the
Indian dogs, one greatly admired by Alexander,?
when a stag was let loose and a boar and a bear, lay
quiet and still and disregarded them; but when a
lion appeared, it sprang up at once = prepare for
the fray, showing clearly that it chose to match itself
with the lion ὃ and scorned all the others.
Hounds that hunt hares, if they themselves kill
them, enjoy pulling them to pieces ° and eagerly lap
up the blood ; but if, as frequently happens, a hare
in desperation exhausts all its breath in a final sprint
and expires, the hounds, when they come upon it
dead, will not touch it at all, but stand there wagging
their tails, as much as to say that they do not strive
for food, but for victory and the honour of winning.
16. There are many examples of cunning, but I
shall dismiss foxes and wolves? and the tricks of
crane and daw (for they are obvious), and shall take
for my witness Thales,’ the most ancient of the Wise
Men, not the least of whose claims to admiration,
they say, was his getting the better of.a mule by a
trick. For one of the mules that were used to carry
salt, on entering a river, accidentally stumbled and,
since the salt melted away, it was free of its burden
when it got up. It recognized the cause of this and
Hist. viii. 149; cf. also Pollux, v. 43-44 and the parallels
cited by Bethe ad loc. See also Aelian, iv. 19 and Diodorus,
xvil. 94.
> Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 149 f., adds the elephant as a
worthy match.
¢ So “ὁ break up’: Xenophon, Cynegetica, vii. 9.
4 Cf. Pindar, Pythians, ii. 84; Oppian, Cynegetica, iii.
266.
¢ Omitted in Diels-Kranz, Frag. der Vorsok., not with-
out reasen. Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. vii. 42.
7 See the Septem Sapientium Convivium (Mor. 146 5 ff.).
389
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
P / σ / 2 ie \ ’
(971) κατεμνημόνευσεν" ὥστε διαβαίνων ἀεὶ τὸν ποταμόν,
> / « / \ / \ > - /
ἐπίτηδες ὑφιέναι καὶ βαπτίζειν τὰ ἀγγεῖα, συγκαθί-
ζων καὶ ἀπονεύων εἰς ἑκάτερον μέρος: ἀκούσας
> ¢ ~ > / > \ ~ ς ~ > / \
οὖν ὁ Θαλῆς ἐκέλευσεν ἀντὶ τῶν ἁλῶν ἐρίων τὰ
ἀγγεῖα καὶ σπόγγων ἐμπλήσαντας καὶ ἀναθέντας,
> \
C ἐλαύνειν τὸν ἡμίονον. ποιήσας οὖν TO εἰωθὸς καὶ
> / “ \ / ~ > a
ἀναπλήσας ὕδατος τὰ φορτία συνῆκεν ἀλυσιτελῆ
σοφιζόμενος ἑαυτῷ, καὶ τὸ λοιπὸν οὕτω προσέχων
\ / / \ / σ >
καὶ φυλαττόμενος διέβαινε τὸν ποταμόν, ὥστε μηδ
~ ~ - /
ἄκοντος αὐτοῦ τῶν φορτίων παραψαῦσαι TO ὑγρόν.
ἤλλλην δὲ πανουργίαν ὁμοῦ μετὰ τοῦ φιλοστόργου
/ > / \ \ \ 27
πέρδικες ἐπιδεικνύντες τοὺς μὲν νεοττοὺς ἐθίζουσι
μηδέπω φεύγειν δυναμένους, ὅταν διώκωνται, κατα-
/ « / « A ~ / a“ \
Badovras ὑπτίους ἑαυτοὺς βῶλόν τινα ἢ συρφετὸν
ἄνω προΐσχεσθαι τοῦ σώματος οἷον ἐπηλυγαζο-
, ᾽ 1 \ \ , Ἐν »
μένους: αὐταὶ δὲ τοὺς διώκοντας ὑπάγουσιν ἄλλῃ
καὶ περισπῶσιν εἰς" ἑαυτάς, ἐμποδὼν διαπετόμεναι
D καὶ κατὰ μικρὸν ἐξανιστάμεναι, μέχρις ἂν ὅσον
” 23 «CO , , > - \
οὔπω γ᾽" ἁλισκομένων δόξαν ἐνδιδοῦσαι, μακρὰν
ἀποσπάσωσι τῶν νεοττῶν.
Οἱ δὲ δασύποδες πρὸς εὐνὴν ἐπανιόντες ἄλλον
ἀλλαχῆ κοιμίζουσι' τῶν λαγιδέων, καὶ πλέθρου διά-
/ > / > / “ μ)
στημα πολλάκις ἀλλήλων ἀπέχοντας, ὅπως, ἂν
»Μ δ. / rd /
ἄνθρωπος ἢ κύων ἐπίῃ, μὴ πάντες ἅμα συγκινδυ-
1 αὐταὶ Reiske: αὗται.
2 εἰς added by early editors.
3 ὅσον οὔπω y Naber and W. C. H.: οὕτως.
390
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 971
bore it in mind. The result was that every time it
crossed the river, it would deliberately lower itself
and wet the bags, crouching and bending first to
one side, then to the other. When Thales heard of
this, he gave orders to fill the bags with wool and
sponges instead of salt and to drive the mule laden
in this manner. So when it played its customary
trick and soaked its burden with water, it came to
know that its cunning was unprofitable and thereafter
was so attentive and cautious in crossing the river
that the water never touched the slightest portion
of its burden even by accident.
Partridges % exhibit another piece of cunning, com-
bined with affection for their young. They teach
their fledglings, who are not yet able to fly, to lie on
their backs when they are pursued and to keep above
them as a screen some piece of turf or rubbish. The
mothers meanwhile lure the hunters in another
direction and divert attention to themselves, flutter-
ing along at their feet and rising only briefly until,
by making it seem that they are on the point of
being captured, they draw them far away from their
young.
When hares ὃ return for repose, they put to sleep
their leverets in quite different places, often as much
as a hundred feet apart, so that, if man or dog comes
near, they shall not all be simultaneously in danger.
2 Cf. 992 8 infra; Mor. 494 πὶ and the references there ;
add Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 103; Philo, 35 (p. 117) (probably
referring to partridges, though the Latin version reads
palumbae); Antigonus, Hist. Mirab. 39 ; Aelian, De Natura
Animal. iii. 16; xi. 38; Aristotle, Historia Animal. 613
beste
> Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. xiii. 11; vi. 47.
4
κοιμίζουσι Some MSS.: κομίζουσι.
391
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
/ - ~
(97 1) vevwow: αὐτοὶ δὲ πολλαχόθι ταις μεταδρομαῖς ἴχνη
, \ > »” a / \ \ ~
θέντες, TO δ᾽ ἔσχατον ἅλμα μέγα καὶ μακρὰν τῶν
>] ~ ¢
ἰχνῶν ἀποσπάσαντες οὕτω καθεύδουσιν.
€ ~ ~
Η δ᾽ ἄρκτος ὑπὸ τοῦ πάθους, ὃ καλοῦσι φω-
λείαν, καταλαμβανομένη, πρὶν ἢ παντάπασι ναρ-
΄ \ ,ὔ ~ \ / /,
E κῆσαι καὶ γενέσθαι βαρεῖα καὶ δυσκίνητος, Tov TE
’ὔ » / x 7 / \
τόπον ἀνακαθαίρει Kat μέλλουσα καταδύεσθαι τὴν
\ Μ / « 3 / / A
μὲν ἄλλην πορείαν ws ἐνδέχεται μάλιστα ποιεῖται
/ \ , \ »Μ > / ~
μετέωρον καὶ ἐλαφρὰν ἄκροις ἐπιθιγγάνουσα Tots
ἴχνεσι, τῷ νώτῳ δὲ τὸ σῶμα προσάγει καὶ παρα-
κομίζει πρὸς τὸν φωλεόν.
~ ¢
Τῶν ἐλάφων" δ᾽ at θήλειαι μάλιστα τίκτουσι
A \ i / e \ / / \ ,ὔ
παρὰ τὴν ὁδόν, ὅπου τὰ σαρκοβόρα θηρία μὴ πρόσ-
“ 5» » Ὁ ” - ¢ \
εισιν: οἵ T ἄρρενες, ὅταν αἴσθωνται βαρεῖς ὑπὸ
~ \ / y+ > / /
πιμελῆς Kal πολυσαρκίας ὄντες, ἐκτοπίζουσι σῴ-
¢ \ ~ fi “ ~ / 98
ζοντες αὑτοὺς τῷ λανθάνειν, ὅτε τῷ φεύγειν οὐ
/
πεποίθασιν.
~ \ / > / 6 \ « \ «ς ΄ ΝΜ
Τῶν δὲ χερσαίων ἐχίνων ἡ μὲν ὑπὲρ αὑτῶν ἄμυνα
F καὶ φυλακὴ παροιμίαν πεποίηκε
A “A
πόλλ᾽ οἶδ᾽ ἀλώπηξ, ἀλλ᾽ ἐχῖνος ἕν μέγα:
1 φωλείαν Reiske: φωλίαν or φωλία.
2 τῶν ἐλάφων Jannotius: τῶν ἐλεφάντων.
3 οὐ] οὐκέτι Ὗ. C. Η.
«α« Of. Aelian, De Natura Animal. νὶ. 8. Pliny, Nat. Hist.
viii. 126 f.; Mair on Oppian, Cyn. iii. 173 (L.C.L.).
392
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 971
The hares themselves run to and fro and leave tracks
in many places, but last of all with a great leap they
leave their traces far behind, and so to bed.
The she-bear, just prior to the state called hiber-
nation,? before she becomes quite torpid and heavy
and finds it difficult to move, cleans out her lair and,
when about to enter, approaches it as lightly and
inconspicuously as possible, treading on tiptoe, then
turns around and backs into the den.?
Hinds are inclined to bear their young beside a
public road where carnivorous animals do not come ° ;
and stags, when they observe that they have grown
heavy by reason of their fat and surplus flesh, vanish
and preserve themselves by hiding when they do not
trust to their heels.4¢
The way in which hedgehogs defend and guard
themselves has occasioned the proverb ® :
The fox knows many tricks, but the hedgehog one big one ;
» These precautions seem to have been successful (though
cf. the implications of Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 128), since
Aristotle (Historia Animal. viii. 17, 600 b 6 f.) says that
‘‘ either no one (or very few)” has ever caught a pregnant
bear. Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 95 and Amm. Mare. xxii.
15. 22, of the hippopotamus entering a field backwards.
¢ Aristotle (Historia Animal. ix. 5, 611 a 17) notes that
highways were shunned by wild animals because they feared
men. Cf. also Antigonus, Hist. Mirab. 35 and Mair on
Oppian, Cyn. ii. 207 (L.C.L.).
¢ Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 113; [Aristotle], De Mir.
Ause. 5; Historia Animal. 611 a 28.
¢ See Shorey on Plato, Republic, 423 © (L.C.L.) ; Leutsch
and Schneidewin, Paroemiographi Graeci, i, p. 147, Zenobius,
v. 68; attributed by Zenobius to Archilochus (Diehl, Antho-
logia Lyrica, i, p. 241, frag. 103; Edmonds, Elegy and
TIambus, ii, p. 174, frag. 118) and to Homer. Zenobius also
quotes five lines from Ion, of which the last two are Plutarch’s
next quotation.
393
(971)
972
B
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
/ \ XA σ ς ἽὝἼΠ 1
προσιούσης γὰρ αὐτῆς, ὥς φησιν ὁ ἤϊων,
στρόβιλος ἀμφάκανθον" εἱλίξας δέμας,
κεῖται θιγεῖν τε καὶ δακεῖν ἀμήχανος.
γλαφυρωτέρα δ᾽ ἐστὶν ἡ περὶ τῶν σκυμνίων πρό-
νοια᾿ μετοπώρου γὰρ ὑπὸ τὰς ἀμπέλους ὑποδυό-
μενος, καὶ τοῖς ποσὶ τὰς ῥᾶγας ἀποσείσας τοῦ
βότρυος χαμᾶζε καὶ περικυλινδηθείς, “ἀναλαμβάνει
ταῖς ἀκάνθαις" καὶ παρέσχε ποτὲ παισὶν" ἡμῖν ὁρῶ-
σιν ὄψιν ἑρπούσης ἢ βαδιζούσης σταφυλῆς". εἶτα
καταδὺς εἰς τὸν φωλεὸν τοῖς σκύμνοις χρῆσθαι καὶ
λαμβάνειν ἀφ᾽ αὑτοῦ ταμιευομένοις" παραδίδωσι.
τὸ δὲ κοιταῖον αὐτῶν ὀπὰς ἔχει δύο, τὴν μὲν πρὸς
/ \ \ \ / / oe \
νότον τὴν δὲ πρὸς βορέαν βλέπουσαν: ὅταν δὲ
~ σ
προαίσθωνται τὴν διαφορὰν τοῦ ἀέρος, ὥσπερ
ἱστίον κυβερνῆται μεταλαμβάνοντες ἐμφράττουσι
/
τὴν κατ᾽ ἄνεμον τὴν δ᾽ ἑτέραν ἀνοίγουσι. καὶ
τοῦτό τις ἐν Κυζίκῳ καταμαθὼν δόξαν ἔσχεν ὡς
> ~ A / /
ἀφ᾽ αὑτοῦ τὸν μέλλοντα πνεῖν ἄνεμον Tpoayopevwv.
, ~ ~
17. To ye μὴν κοινωνικὸν μετὰ τοῦ συνετοῦ τοὺς
2 > / / © ih /
ἐλέφαντας ἀποδείκνυσθαί φησιν ὁ Ιόβας. ὀρύγ-
ε
ματα γὰρ αὐτοῖς οἱ θηρεύοντες ὑπεργασάμενοι
λεπτοῖς φρυγάνοις καὶ φορυτῷ" κούφῳ κατερέφου-
1 ὁ Ἴων Meziriacus : οἷον.
2 ἀμφάκανθον Salmasius: ἀμφ᾽ ἄκανθαν.
3 παισὶν Kronenberg : πᾶσιν.
4 σταφυλῆς] the mss. add οὕτως ἀνάπλεως ἐχώρει τῆς ὀπώρας,
deleted by W. C. H.
5 ταμιευόμενος Andrews ; -ομένου W. C. H.
8 φορυτῷ Meziriacus: φόρτῳ.
* Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 739; frag. 38, verses 4 f.
(see the preceding note).
ὃ The mss. add an unnecessary explanation : ‘‘so covered
394
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 971-972
for when the fox approaches, as Ion @ says, it,
Curling its spiny body in a coil,
Lies still, impregnable to touch or bite.
But the provision that the hedgehog makes for its
young is even more ingenious. When autumn comes,
it creeps under the vines and with its paws shakes
down to the ground grapes from the bunches and,
having rolled about in them, gets up with them
attached to its quills. Once when I was a child I
saw one, like a creeping or walking bunch of grapes ! ἢ
Then it goes down into its hole and delivers the load
to its young for them to enjoy and draw rations from.
Their lair has two openings, one facing the south,
the other the north; when they perceive that the
wind will change, like good skippers who shift sail,
they block up the entrance which lies to the wind and
open the other. And a man in Cyzicus ὦ observing
this acquired a reputation for being able to predict
unaided which way the wind would blow.
17. Elephants, as Juba ὁ declares, exhibit a social
capacity joined with intelligence. Hunters dig pits
for them, covering them with slender twigs and
with fruit was it as it walked.” Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii.
133; Aelian, De Natura Animal. iii. 10; Anth. Pal. vi. 169.
¢ Cf. 979 «a infra; Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 6
(ΟΠ Pimy, Nat? Hist. vin. 159: 07. vill. 195. oF
squirrels. On animals who predict the weather see Pliny,
Nat. Hist. xviii. 361-364.
4 Aristotle (loc. cit.) says Byzantium (and see infra, 979 B).
¢ Miiller, Frag. Hist. Graec. iii, Ὁ. 474; Jacoby, Frag.
der griech. Hist. iii, pp. 146 f., frag. 5la, 53; ef. Pliny,
Nat. Hist. viii. 24; Aelian, De Natura Animal. viii. 15;
vi. 61; and see the criticism in 977 Ὁ-Ὲ infra. On the
mutual assistance of elephants see Philostratus, Vita Apoll.
ii. 16.
395
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(972) ow: ὅταν οὖν τις εἰσολίσθῃ, πολλῶν ὁμοῦ πορευο-
/ ¢ \ ~ Ὁ \ /
μένων, ot λοιποὶ φοροῦντες ὕλην Kat λίθους
> / > - \ / ~
ἐμβάλλουσιν, ἀναπληροῦντες τὴν κοιλότητα τοῦ
ὀρύγματος, ὥστε ῥᾳδίαν ἐκείνῳ γίνεσθαι τὴν ἔκ-
A -“ lo ~ >
Baow. ἱστορεῖ δὲ καὶ εὐχῇ χρῆσθαι θεῶν τοὺς ἐλέ-
> / ¢ / ~ / \
φαντας ἀδιδάκτως, ἁγνιζομένους τε τῇ θαλάσσῃ καὶ
\ σ > / ~ \
Tov ἥλιον ἐκφανέντα προσκυνοῦντας ὥσπερ χειρὸς
3 / ~ / Ὁ \ /
ἀνασχέσει τῆς προβοσκίδος. ὅθεν καὶ θεοφιλέστα-
/ > \ / ¢ ~ e 7
C τόν ἐστι τὸ θηρίον, ὡς [[΄τολεμαῖος ὁ Φιλοπάτωρ
ἐμαρτύρησε. κρατήσας γὰρ ᾿Αντιόχου καὶ βουλό-
~ ~ A /
μενος ἐκπρεπῶς τιμῆσαι TO θεῖον ἄλλα τε πάμπολλα
κατέθυσεν ἐπινίκια τῆς μάχης καὶ τέσσαρας ἐλέ-
φαντας: εἶτα νύκτωρ ὀνείρασιν ἐντυχών, ὡς τοῦ
θεοῦ μετ᾽ ὀργῆς ἀπειλοῦντος αὐτῷ διὰ τὴν ἀλλό-
- wel : 7]
> / / ¢ a A 7
KoTov ἐκείνην θυσίαν, ἱλασμοῖς τε πολλοῖς ἐχρήσατο
καὶ χαλκοῦς ἐλέφαντας ἀντὶ τῶν σφαγέντων ἀνέ-
στῆσε τέσσαρας.
> it \ \ \ ~ / ς \
Ody ἧττον δὲ κοινωνικὰ τὰ τῶν λεόντων. οἱ yap
A ͵ /
νέοι τοὺς βραδεῖς καὶ γέροντας ἤδη συνεξάγουσιν
ἐπὶ θήραν: ὅπου δ᾽ ἂν ἀπαγορεύσωσιν, οἱ μὲν
/ / ¢ \ / an“ /
κάθηνται περιμένοντες οἱ δὲ θηρεύουσι: Kav AaBw-
~ ~ -
D ow ὁτιοῦν, ἀνακαλοῦνται, μόσχου μυκήματι τὸ
~ >
βρύχημα ποιοῦντες ὅμοιον" ot δ᾽ εὐθὺς αἰσθάνονται
καὶ παραγενόμενοι κοινῇ τὴν ἄγραν ἀναλίσκουσιν.
18. "Epwres δὲ θηρίων' οἱ μὲν ἄγριοι καὶ περι-
μανεῖς γεγόνασιν, οἱ δ᾽ ἔχοντες οὐκ ἀπάνθρωπον
1 θηρίων W.C. Ἡ. : πολλῶν.
4 Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 1 f.; Dio Cassius, xxxix. 38, 5.
396
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 972
light rubbish ; when, accordingly, any elephant of a
number travelling together falls in, the others bring
wood and stones and throw them in to fill up the
excavation so that their comrade can easily get out.
He also relates that, without any instruction, ele-
phants pray to the gods, purifying themselves in
the sea ® and, when the sun? rises, worshipping it
by raising their trunks, as if they were hands of
supplication. For this reason they are the animal
most loved of the gods, as Ptolemy Philopator “ has
testified ; for when he had vanquished Antiochus
and wished to honour the gods in a really striking
way, among many other offerings to commemorate
his victory in battle, he sacrificed four elephants.
Thereafter, since he had dreams by night in which
the deity angrily threatened him because of that
strange sacrifice, he employed many rites of appease-
ment and set up as a votive offering four bronze
elephants to match those he had slaughtered.
Social usages are to be found no less among lions.
For young lions take along with them to the hunt the
old and slow; when the latter are tired out, they rest
and wait, while the young lions hunt on. When they
have taken anything, they summon the others by a
roaring like the bleat of a calf; the old ones hear it
at once and come to partake in common of the prey.?
18. The loves of some animals are wild and furious,
while others have a refinement which is not far from
ὃ The moon in Aelian, De Natura Animal. iv. 10, but the
sun in vii. 44; of tigers in Philostratus, Vita Apoll. li. 28.
¢ Aelian, De Natura Animal. vii. 44: Ptolemy IV (ec.
244-205 B.c.), who reigned 221-205. The decisive defeat of
Antiochus III was at Raphia in 217. For the gods loving
elephants see Aelian, De Natura Animal. vii. 2; al.
4 Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. ix. 1.
397
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(972) ὡραϊσμὸν οὐδ᾽ ἀναφρόδιτον ὁμιλίαν. οἷος ἦν ὁ τοῦ
> / > > / - > ~ >
ἐλέφαντος ἐν Ἀλεξανδρείᾳ τοῦ ἀντερῶντος Αρι-
στοφάνει τῷ γραμματικῷ" τῆς γὰρ αὐτῆς ἤρων
στεφανοπώλιδος, καὶ οὐχ ἧττον ἦν ὁ “ἐλέφας διάδη-
λος: ἔφερε γὰρ αὐτῇ τῆς ὀπώρας ἀεὶ τὰ" πρατήρια
παραπορευόμενος, καὶ χρόνον πολὺν ὑφίστατο καὶ
τὴν προβοσκίδα τῶν χιτωνίων ἐντὸς ὥσπερ χεῖρα
E παραβαλὼν ἀτρέμα τῆς περὶ τὸ στῆθος ὥρας
ἔψαυεν.
ὋὉ δὲ δράκων ὁ τῆς AitwAidos ἐρασθεὶς ἐφοίτα
νύκτωρ παρ᾽ αὐτὴν καὶ τοῦ σώματος ὑποδυόμενος
ἐν χρῷ καὶ περιπλεκόμενος οὐδὲν οὐθ᾽ ἑκὼν οὔτ᾽
ἄκων ἔβλαψεν, ἀλλὰ κοσμίως ἀεὶ περὶ τὸν Op-
θρον ἀπηλλάττετο. συνεχῶς δὲ τοῦτο ποιοῦντος
~ ¢
αὐτοῦ, μετῴκισαν οἱ προσήκοντες ἀπωτέρω τὴν
ἄνθρωπον. ὁ δὲ τρεῖς μὲν ἢ τέτταρας νύκτας" οὐκ
“5 > 9, Pe ” , ὡς \ ,
ἦλθεν ἀλλ᾽ ὡς ἔοικε περιήει ζητῶν καὶ πλανώμενος"
μόλις δέ πως ἐξανευρὼν καὶ περιπεσὼν οὐ πρᾶος“
σ wis > \ / ~ \ Μ
ὥσπερ εἰώθει ἀλλὰ τραχύτερος, τῷ μὲν ἄλλῳ σπει-
F ράματι τὰς χεῖρας αὐτῆς ἔδησε πρὸς τὸ σῶμα, τῷ
δ᾽ ἀπολήγοντι τῆς οὐρᾶς ἐμαστίγου τὰς κνήμας,
> / \ / \ / ”
ἐλαφράν τινα καὶ φιλόστοργον Kat πλέον ἔχουσαν
“- \ /
τοῦ κολάζοντος τὸ φειδόμενον ὀργὴν ἀποδεικνύ-
μενος.
\ > > Ἄν γα τ, 4 ~ a \ \
Tov δ᾽ ἐν Αἰγίῳ᾽ παιδεραστοῦντα χῆνα καὶ τὸν
ἐπιθυμήσαντα LAavKns τῆς κιθαρῳδοῦ κριόν, περι-
1 τὰ added by Bernardakis, after Reiske.
2 νύκτας added by Wyttenbach.
3 πρᾶος Bernardakis : πράως.
Αἰγίῳ Aelian: αἰπῶ or αἰγύπτω.
«α Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. i. 38 (ef. vii. 43) ; Pliny,
Nat. Hist. viii. 13.
398
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 972
human and an intercourse conducted with much
grace. Such was the elephant which at Alexandria
played the rival to Aristophanes 5 the grammarian.
They were, in fact, in love with the same flower-girl ;
nor was the elephant’s love the less manifest : as he
passed by the market, he always brought her fruit
and stood beside her for a long time and would insert
his trunk, like a hand,? within her garments and
gently caress her fair breasts.
The serpent that fell in love with an Aetolian
woman ° used to visit her at night and slip under
some part of her body next the skin and coil about
her without doing her any harm at all, either in-
tentional or accidental; but always at daybreak it
was decent enough to glide away. And this it did
constantly until the kinsmen of the woman removed
her to a house at some distance. The serpent did
not come to her for three or four nights; but all
the time, we may suppose, it was going about in
search of her and missing its goal. At last, when it
had somehow found her with difficulty, it embraced
her, not with that former gentleness it had used, but
rather more roughly, its coils binding her hands to
her body, and with the end of its tail it lashed the
calves of her legs, displaying a light and tender anger
that had in it more indulgence than punishment.
As for the goose in Aegium that loved a boy and
the ram that set his heart on Glauce ὦ the harp-
> Cf. Mair on Oppian, Cyn. ii. 524 for additional authori-
ties.
¢ Told somewhat differently, and of a Jewish woman, in
Aelian, De Natura Animal, vi. 17.
4 Also a goose in Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 51. Both stories are
in Aelian, De Natura Animal. v. 29 (ef. i. 6; viii. 11); for
Glauce see also Gow’s note on Theocritus, iv. 31.
399
9
‘
3
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
2) βόητοι γάρ εἰσι καὶ πολλῶν οἶμαι διηγημάτων δια-
κορεῖς ὑμᾶς εἶναι" διὸ ταῦτα μὲν ἀφίημι.
19. ‘Vdpes δὲ καὶ κόρακες καὶ ψιττακοὶ μανθά-
νοντες διαλέγεσθαι καὶ τὸ τῆς φωνῆς πνεῦμα τοῖς
διδάσκουσιν εὔπλαστον οὕτω καὶ μιμηλὸν' ἐξαρ-
τύειν" καὶ ῥυθμίζειν παρέχοντες ἐμοὶ δοκοῦσι προ-
δικεῖν καὶ συνηγορεῖν τοῖς ἄλλοις ζῴοις ἐν τῷ
μανθάνειν, τρόπον τινὰ διδάσκοντες ἡμᾶς ὅτι καὶ
προφορικοῦ λόγου καὶ φωνῆς ἐνάρθρου μέτεστιν
αὐτοῖς: 7° καὶ πολὺς κατάγελως τὸ πρὸς ταῦτα
καταλιπεῖν ἐκείνοις σύγκρισιν, οἷς οὐδ᾽ ὅσον ὠρύ-
σασθαι μέτεστιν οὐδ᾽ ὅσον στενάξαι φωνῆς. τού-
των δὲ καὶ τοῖς αὐτοφυέσι καὶ τοῖς ἀδιδάκτοις
γηρύμασιν ὅση μοῦσα καὶ χάρις ἔπεστιν, οἱ λογιώ-
τατοι καὶ καλλιφωνότατοι μαρτυροῦσι, τὰ ἥδιστα
ποιήματα καὶ μέλη κύκνων καὶ ἀηδόνων ὠδαῖς
ἀπεικάζοντες. ἐπεὶ δὲ τοῦ μαθεῖν τὸ διδάξαι λογι-
κώτερον, ἤδη πειστέον ᾿Αριστοτέλει λέγοντι καὶ
τοῦτο τὰ ζῷα ποιεῖν: ὀφθῆναι γὰρ ἀηδόνα νεοσσὸν
ἄδειν προδιδάσκουσαν. μαρτυρεῖ δ᾽ αὐτῷ τὸ φαυ-
λότερον ἄδειν ὅσαις συμβέβηκε μικραῖς. ἁλούσαις"
ἀποτρόφοις τῶν μητέρων γενέσθαι" διδάσκονται γὰρ
at συντρεφόμεναι καὶ μανθάνουσιν οὐ διὰ μισθὸν
οὐδὲ πρὸς δόξαν ἀλλὰ τῷ χαίρειν διαμελιζόμεναι
καὶ τὸ καλὸν ἀγαπᾶν μᾶλλον ἢ τὸ χρειῶδες τῆς
φωνῆς.
1 μιμηλὸν ὃν Reiske,
2. ἐξαρτύειν Reiske (cf. 973 Ὁ) : ἐξαριθμεῖν.
3. 4 Wyttenbach: 7. 4 ἁλούσαις Xylander: ἀδούσαις.
* More in Aelian, De Natura Animal, xii. 37; al.
» Cf. Gellius, Noctes Atticae, xiii. 21. 25; Aleiphron,
Epp. iii. 30. 1; Philostratus, Vita Apoll. i. 7; vi. 36: al.
400
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 972-973
player, since these are famous tales and I rather
imagine you have had enough of such to spoil your
appetite for more,* I omit them.
19. As for starlings ἢ and crows and parrots which
learn to talk and afford their teachers so malleable
and imitative a vocal current to train and discipline,
they seem to me to be champions and advocates of
the other animals in their ability to learn, instructing
us in some measure that they too are endowed both
with rational utterance © and with articulate voice ;
for which reason it is quite ridiculous to admit a
comparison of them with creatures who have not
enough voice even to howl or groan.4 And what
music, what grace do we not find in the natural, un-
taught warbling of birds! To this the most eloquent
and musical of our poets bear witness’ when they
compare their sweetest songs and poems to the sing-
ing of swans and nightingales. Now since there is
more reason in teaching than in learning, we must
yield assent to Aristotle 7 when he says that animals
do teach: a nightingale, in fact, has been observed
instructing her young how to sing. A further proof
that supports him is the fact that birds which have
been taken young from the nest and bred apart from
their mothers sing the worse for it; for the birds
that are bred with their mothers are taught and
learn, not for pay or glory, but for the joy of rivalling
each other in song and because they cherish the
beautiful in their utterance rather than the useful.
© For the λόγος προφορικός see, ¢.g., Mor. 777 B-c.
4 Cf. Aristotle, Historia Animal. iv. 9 (535 Ὁ 14 ff.).
6 ¢.g., Bacchylides, iii. 97: Anth. Pal. vii. 414.
7 Historia Animal, iv. 19 (535 Ὁ 17); cf. ix. 1 (608 a 18) ;
ef. Aelian, De Natura Animal. iii. 40.
9 Cf. 992 B-c infra.
401
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
» \ \ / \ / ᾿] ~ \ ¢ ~
ἔχω δὲ περὶ τούτου καὶ λόγον εἰπεῖν πρὸς ὑμᾶς,
ἀκούσας ᾿ Ἑλλήνων τε πολλῶν καὶ Ρωμαίων παρα-
/ ” >
γενομένων. κουρεὺς yap τις ἐργαστήριον ἔχων ἐν
«ς / \ ~ / “ ~ ‘HAA /
Ρώμῃ πρὸ τοῦ τεμένους, ὃ καλοῦσιν ἤνων
ἀγοράν, θαυμαστόν τι χρῆμα πολυφώνου καὶ πολυ-
΄ , ” aq ἀν , «7ὔ
φθόγγου κίττης ἔτρεφεν, ἣ᾽ καὶ ἀνθρώπου ῥήματα
\ / / \ / > / >
καὶ θηρίων φθόγγους Kat ψόφους ὀργάνων ἀντ-
/
απεδίδου, μηδενὸς ἀναγκάζοντος ἀλλ᾽ αὑτὴν ἐθί-
ζουσα καὶ φιλοτιμουμένη μηδὲν ἄρρητον ἀπολιπεῖν
μηδ᾽ ἀμίμητον. ἔτυχε δέ τις ἐκεῖθεν τῶν πλουσίων
> / ς \ / ~ \
ἐκκομιζόμενος ὑπὸ σάλπιγξι πολλαῖς, καὶ yevo-
μένης ὥσπερ εἴωθε κατὰ τὸν τόπον ἐπιστάσεως,
εὐδοκιμοῦντες οἱ σαλπιγκταὶ καὶ κελευόμενοι πολὺν
/ > / ¢ \ / \ \ «ε /
χρόνον ἐνδιέτριψαν: ἡ δὲ κίττα μετὰ τὴν ἡμέραν
> / Μ S \ Μ > \ \ ea
ἐκείνην ἄφθογγος ἦν καὶ ἄναυδος, οὐδὲ τὴν αὑτῆς
ἐπὶ τοῖς ἀναγκαίοις πάθεσιν ἀφιεῖσα φωνήν. τοῖς
οὖν πρότερον αὐτῆς θαυμάζουσι τὴν φωνὴν τότε
θαῦμα μεῖζον ἡ σιωπὴ παρεῖχε, κωφὸν ἀκρόαμα
δ" 7 2 , \ , ς , \
τοῖς συνήθως" παροδεύουσι τὸν τόπον" ὑποψίαι δὲ
φαρμάκων ἐπὶ τοὺς ὁμοτέχνους ἦσαν: οἱ δὲ πλεῖστοι
\ / ” > “ \ > / ~ >
Tas σάλπιγγας εἴκαζον ἐκπλῆξαι τὴν ἀκοήν, TH ὃ
5 ~ / \ / > > > /
ἀκοῇ συγκατεσβέσθαι τὴν φωνήν. ἦν δ᾽ οὐδέτερα
τούτων, ἀλλ᾽ ἄσκησις ws ἔοικε καὶ ἀναχώρησις εἰς
ἑαυτὸ τοῦ μιμητικοῦ, καθάπερ ὄργανον ἐξαρτυο-
μένου τὴν φωνὴν καὶ παρασκευάζοντος: ἄφνω γὰρ
1 ἣ added by Bernardakis.
2 ἀκροάματος συνήθους Reiske.
402
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 973
On this subject I have a story to tell you which I
heard myself from many Greeks and Romans who
were eye-witnesses. A certain barber at Rome had
his shop directly opposite the precinct which they
call the Market of the Greeks.¢ He bred up a
wonderful prodigy of a jay ° with a huge range of
tones and expressions, which could reproduce the
phrases of human speech and the cries of beasts and
the sound of instruments—under no compulsion, but
making it a rule and a point of honour to let nothing
go unrepeated or unimitated. Now it happened that
a certain rich man was buried from that quarter to
the blast of many trumpets and, as is customary,
there was a halt in front of the barber-shop while
the trumpeters, who were applauded and encored,
played for a long time. From that day on the jay
was speechless and mute, not letting out even a
peep to request the necessities of life; so those
who habitually passed the place and had formerly
wondered at her voice, were now even more as-
tonished at her silence. Some suspected that she
had been poisoned by rival bird-trainers, but most
conjectured that the trumpets had blasted her hear-
ing and that her voice had been simultaneously
extinguished. Now neither of these guesses was
correct : it was self-discipline, it would seem, and her
talent for mimicry that had sought an inner retreat
as she refitted and prepared her voice like a musical
instrument. For suddenly her mimicry returned
α Graecostadium (see Platner and Ashby, 4 Topographical
Dictionary of Rome, s.v.) or Forum Graecorum.
» Cf. Porphyry, De Abstinentia, iii. 2 (p. 191. 8, ed.
Nauck); Gow on Theocritus, v. 136; Aristotle, Historia
Animal. ix. 13 (615 b 19 f.). See also the talking birds in
Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 118-134.
403
(973)
E
974
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
τ 4 \ > / > \ ~ / \
αὖθις ἧκε καὶ ἀνέλαμψεν οὐδὲν τῶν συνήθων καὶ
παλαιῶν μιμημάτων ἐκείνων, ἀλλὰ τὰ μέλη τῶν
σαλπίγγων αὐταῖς περιόδοις φθεγγομένη καὶ μετα-
βολὰς πάσας καὶ κρουμάτων διεξιοῦσα πάντας
« / σ σ΄ ” lanl > /
ῥυθμούς: ὥστε, ὅπερ ἔφην, τῆς εὐμαθείας λογικω-
τέραν εἶναι τὴν αὐτομάθειαν ἐν αὐτοῖς.
Πλὴν ἕ ἕν γέ τι μάθημα κυνὸς οὐ δοκῶ μοι παρή-
σειν, γενόμενος ἐν Ῥώμῃ θεατής. παρὼν γὰρ ὃ
κύων μίμῳ πλοκὴν ἔχοντι δραματικὴν καὶ πολυ-
πρόσωπον ἄλλας τε μιμήσεις ἀπεδίδου τοῖς ὑπο-
κειμένοις πάθεσι καὶ πράγμασι προσφόρους, καὶ
φαρμάκου ποιουμένων ἐν αὐτῷ πεῖραν ὑπνωτικοῦ
μὲν ὑποκειμένου δ᾽ εἶναι θανασίμου, τόν T ἄρτον,
ᾧ δῆθεν ἐμέμικτο τὸ φάρμακον, ἐδέξατο καὶ κατα-
φαγὼν ὀλίγον ὕστερον ὅμοιος ἦν ὑποτρέμοντι καὶ
σφαλλομένῳ καὶ καρηβαροῦντι" τέλος δὲ προτείνας
ἑαυτὸν ὥσπερ νεκρὸς ἔκειτο, καὶ παρεῖχεν ἕλκειν
καὶ μεταφέρειν, ὡς ὁ τοῦ δράματος ὑπηγόρευε
λόγος. ἐπεὶ δὲ τὸν καιρὸν ἐκ τῶν λεγομένων καὶ
πραττομένων ἐνόησεν, ἡσυχῆ τὸ πρῶτον ἐκίνησεν
« / σ΄ > “ / > / \
ἑαυτόν, ὥσπερ ἐξ ὕπνου βαθέος ἀναφερόμενος, Kal
\ \ > / / » /
τὴν κεφαλὴν ἐπάρας διέβλεψεν: ἔπειτα θαυμασάν-
2 \ > / \ “ A \ /
των, ἐξαναστὰς ἐβάδιζε πρὸς ὃν ἔδει Kal προσή-
1 / \ 7 “ 7,
καλλεῖ χαίρων καὶ φιλοφρονούμενος, ὥστε πάντας
ἀνθρώπους καὶ Καίσαρα (παρῆν γὰρ ὁ γέρων
Οὐεσπασιανὸς ἐν τῷ Μαρκέλλου θεάτρῳ) συμπα-
θεῖς γενέσθαι.
1 προσήκαλλε Wyttenbach : προσῆκε μὲν.
“ This is also the accomplishment of a homonymous bird
in Aelian, De Natura Animal, vi. 19.
» See 973 a supra,
404
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 973-974
and there blazed forth none of those old familiar
imitations, but only the music of the trumpets,?
reproduced with its exact sequences and every
change of pitch and rhythm and tone. I conclude,
as I said before,? that self-instruction implies more
reason in animals than does readiness to learn from
others.
Still, I believe that I should not pass over one
example at least of a dog’s learning,’ of which I
myself was a spectator at Rome. The dog appeared
in a pantomime with a dramatic plot and many
characters and conformed in its acting at all points
with the acts and reactions required by the text.
In particular, they experimented on it with a drug
that was really soporific, but supposed in the story
to be deadly. The dog took the bread that was
supposedly drugged, swallowed it, and a little later
appeared to shiver and stagger and nod until it
finally sprawled out and lay there like a corpse,
letting itself be dragged and hauled about, as the
plot of the play prescribed. But when it recognized
from the words and action that the time had come,
at first it began to stir slightly, as though recovering
from a profound sleep, and lifted its head and looked
about. Then to the amazement of the spectators it
got up and proceeded to the right person and fawned
on him with joy and pleasure so that everyone, and
even Caesar himself (for the aged Vespasian? was
present in the Theatre of Marcellus), was much
moved.
¢ Cf. the bears that acted a farce in Script. Hist. Aug.,
Vita Car. xix. 2.
4 Vespasian became emperor in a.p. 69 when he was 60
years old and died ten years later, so that this incident can
be dated only within the decade.
4.05
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(974) 90. DeAotor δ᾽ ἴσως ἐσμὲν ἐπὶ τῷ μανθάνειν τὰ
ζῷα σεμνύνοντες, ὧν ὁ Δημόκριτος ἀποφαίνει
μαθητὰς ἐν τοῖς μεγίστοις γεγονότας ἡμᾶς" ἀρά-
xvns ev" ὑφαντικῇ καὶ ἀκεστικῇ, χελιδόνος ἐ ἐν οἶκο-
δομίᾳ, καὶ τῶν λιγυρῶν, κύκνου καὶ ἀηδόνος, ἐν
won κατὰ μίμησιν. ἰατρικῆς δὲ πολὺ τῶν τριῶν
Β εἰδῶν ἑκάστου καὶ γενναῖον ἐν αὐτοῖς μόριον. ὁρῶ-
μεν: οὐ γὰρ μόνον τῷ φαρμακευτικῷ χρῶνται,
χελῶναι μὲν ὀρίγανον γαλαῖ δὲ πήγανον, ὅταν
ὄφεως φάγωσιν, ἐπεσθίουσαι:" κύνες δὲ πόᾳ τινὶ
καθαίροντες ἑαυτοὺς χολεριῶντας" 6 δὲ δράκων τῷ
μαράθρῳ τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν ἀμβλυώττοντα λεπτύνων
καὶ διαχαράττων' ἡ δ᾽ ἄρκτος, ὅταν ἐκ τοῦ φωλεοῦ
προέλθῃ, τὸ ἄρον ἐσθίουσα πρῶτον τὸ ἄγριον" ἡ
γὰρ δριμύτης ἀνοίγει συμπεφυκὸς" αὐτῆς τὸ ἔντε-
pov: ἄλλως δ᾽ ἀσώδης γενομένη πρὸς τὰς μυρμη-
κιὰς τρέπεται καὶ κάθηται προβάλλουσα λιπαρὰν
καὶ μαλακὴν ἰκμάδι γλυκείᾳ τὴν γλῶσσαν, ἄχρις οὗ
Ο μυρμήκων ἀνάπλεως γένηται: καταπίνουσα γὰρ
1 ἐν added by Xylander.
2 συμμεμυκὸς Bernardakis.
« On this chapter see T. Weidlich, Die Sympathie in
Altertum, p. 42.
> Diels-Kranz, Frag. der Vorsok. ii, Ὁ. 173, frag. 1543; cf.
Bailey on Lucretius, v. 1379 (vol. iii, p. 1540 of his edition) ;
Aelian, De Natura Animal. xii. 16.
¢ Cf. 973 a supra.
¢ As given here, cure by (1) drugs, (2) diet, (3) surgery.
There are five divisions in Diogenes Laertius, iii. 85; al.
e Cf. Mor. 918 c, 991 ©; Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi.
12 and Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 6 (612
a 24); of wounded partridges and storks and doves in
Aelian, op. cit. v. 46 (Aristotle, op. cit. 612 a 32).
! Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 6 (612 a 28).
406 ᾿
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 974
20.7 Yet perhaps it is ridiculous for us to make a
parade of animals distinguished for learning when
Democritus ὃ declares that we have been their pupils
in matters of fundamental importance : of the spider
in weaving and mending, of the swallow in home-
building, of the sweet-voiced swan and nightingale °
in our imitation of their song. Further, of the three
divisions of medicine,’ we can discern in animals a
generous portion of each ; for it is not cure by drugs
alone of which they make use. After devouring a
serpent tortoises ὁ take a dessert of marjoram, and
weasels’ of rue. Dogs’ purge themselves when
bilious by a certain kind of grass. The snake”
sharpens and restores its fading sight with fennel.
When the she-bear comes forth from her lair,? the
first thing she eats is wild arum?’; for its acridity
opens her gut which has become constricted. At
other times, when she suffers from nausea,’ she
resorts to anthills and sits, holding out her tongue
all running and juicy with sweet liquor until it is
covered with ants; these she swallows?’ and is
9 See Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 6
(612 a 6); add Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism,
tit:
» Pliny, Nat. Hist. xx. 254. Other details of snake diet
in Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 4.
+ As in 971 D-E supra.
7 Probably the Adam-and-Eve (Arum maculatum L.),
since the Italian arum (Arum italicum Mill.) was cultivated.
See Aristotle, Historia Animal. viii. 17 (600 b 11); ix. 6
(611 b 34); Pliny, Wat. Hist. viii. 129; Aelian, De Natura
Animal, vi. 8. Oribasius (Coll, Med. iii. 24. 5) characterizes
wild arum as an aperient.
k When she has swallowed the fruit of the mandrake,
according to Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 101.
t Aristotle, Historia Animal. viii. 4 (594 Ὁ 9); Aelian, De
Natura Animal, vi. 3; Sextus Empiricus, op. cit. i. 57.
4.07
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(974) ὠφελεῖται. τῆς τ᾽ ἴβεως τὸν ὑποκλυσμὸν ἅλμῃ
καθαιρομένης Αἰγύπτιοι συνιδεῖν καὶ μιμήσασθαι
λέγουσιν: οἱ δ᾽ ἱερεῖς ὕδατι χρῶνται, περιαγνίζοντες
ἑαυτούς, ἐξ οὗ πέπωκεν [Bis ἂν γὰρ 7) φαρμακῶδες
ἢ νοσηρὸν ἄλλως τὸ ὕδωρ, οὐ πρόσεισιν.
᾿Αλλὰ καὶ τροφῆς ἀποσχέσει ἔνια θεραπεύεται,"
καθάπερ λύκοι καὶ λέοντες, ὅταν κρεῶν γένωνται
διακορεῖς, ἡσυχίαν ἄγουσι κατακείμενοι καὶ συν-
θάλποντες ἑαυτούς. τίγριν δέ φασιν, ἐρίφου παρα-
δοθέντος αὐτῇ, χρωμένην διαίτῃ μὴ φαγεῖν ἐφ᾽
ἡμέρας δύο, τῇ δὲ τρίτῃ πεινῶσαν αἰτεῖν ἄλλο καὶ
D τὴν γαλεάγραν σπαράσσειν: ἐκείνου δὲ φείσασθαι
οἰομένην σύντροφον ἔχειν ἤδη καὶ σύνοικον.
Οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ χειρουργίᾳ χρῆσθαι τοὺς ἐλέ-
φαντας ἱστοροῦσι: καὶ γὰρ ξυστὰ καὶ λόγχας καὶ
τοξεύματα, παριστάμενοι τοῖς τετρωμένοις, ἄνευ
σπαραγμοῦ ῥᾳδίως καὶ ἀβλαβῶς ἐξέλκουσιν. at δὲ
Κρητικαὶ αἶγες, ὅταν τὸ δίκταμνον φάγωσιν, ἐκ-
βάλλουσαι τὰ τοξεύματα ῥᾳδίως καταμαθεῖν ταῖς
ἐγκύοις τὴν βοτάνην παρέσχον ἐκτρωτικὴν δύναμιν
ἔχουσαν: ἐπ᾽ οὐδὲν γὰρ ἄλλο τρωθεῖσαι φέρονται
καὶ ζητοῦσι καὶ διώκουσιν 7° τὸ δίκταμνον.
1 θεραπεύεται Bernardakis: θεραπεύονται.
* A short lacuna is probable here.
3 διώκουσιν ἢ Reiske: διώκουσι.
Y
2 Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. ii. 35; vii. 45; Pliny,
Nat, Hist. viii. 97 ; Cicero, De Natura Deorum, ii. 50.
ὃ Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. iv. 15; see the hippo-
potamus in Amm. Mare. xx. 15. 23.
© Of a leopard in Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. ἢ, This
account seems to indicate a lacuna in our text explaining why
408
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 974
alleviated. The Egyptians 5 declare that they have
observed and imitated the ibis’ clyster-like purging
of herself with brine ; and the priests make use of
water from which an ibis has drunk to purify them-
selves ; for if the water is tainted or unhealthy in
any way, the ibis will not approach it.
Then, too, some beasts cure themselves by a short
fast, like wolves ὃ and lions who, when they are sur-
feited with flesh, lie still for a while, basking in the
sun. And they say a tigress, if a kid is given her,
will keep fasting for two days without eating; on
the third, she grows hungry and asks for some
other food. She will even pull her cage to pieces,
but will not touch the kid which she has now come
to regard as a fellow-boarder and room mate.¢
Yet again, they relate that elephants employ
surgery : they do, in fact, bring aid to the wounded?
by easily and harmlessly drawing out spears and
javelins and arrows without any laceration of the
flesh. And Cretan goats,’ when they eat dittany,
easily expel arrows from their bodies and so have
presented an easy lesson for women with child to
take to heart, that the herb has an abortive property 9;
for there is nothing except dittany that the goats,
when they are wounded, rush to search for.
the tigress did not eat the kid in the first place: ‘‘ because
she had already had enough to eat.”
4 For an example see the anecdote of Porus in 970 b
supra, 977 B infra; Juba, frag. 52 (Jacoby); Aelian, De
Natura Animal, vii. 45.
ὁ Cf.991 F infra; Philo, 38 (p. 119); Vergil, den. xii. 415;
Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 6 (612 a 3);
Pease, Mélanges Marouzeau, 1948, p. 472.
7 Cretan dittany (Origanum dictamnus L.); Pliny, Nat.
Mist. xx. 156.
9 Cf. Pease, op. cit. p. 471.
409
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(974) 21. “Hrrov δὲ ταῦτα θαυμαστά, καίπερ ὄντα
ὔ ~ ~
θαυμάσια, ποιοῦσιν at νόησιν ἀριθμοῦ Kat δύναμιν
E τοῦ ἀριθμεῖν ἔχουσαι φύσεις, ὥσπερ ἔχουσιν αἱ
\ ~ , ΨΦΑ \ > / \ ‘
περὶ Σοῦσα βόες: εἰσὶ yap αὐτόθι τὸν βασιλικὸν
παράδεισον ἄρδουσαι περιάκτοις ἀντλήμασιν, ὧν
ὥρισται τὸ πλῆθος: ἑκατὸν γὰρ ἑκάστη βοῦς ἀνα-
/ > ¢ / 6 / > , / >
φέρει καθ᾽ ἡμέραν ἑκάστην avtAnpata: πλείονα ὃ
> ” ” ois PE) + / /
οὐκ ἔστιν οὔτε λαβεῖν' οὔτε βιάσασθαι βουλόμενον"
> \ \ / -“ / / ς
ἀλλὰ καὶ πείρας ἕνεκα πολλάκις προστιθέντων, ὑφ-
ίσταται καὶ οὐ πρόεισιν, ἀποδοῦσα τὸ τεταγμέ-
νον" οὕτως ἀκριβῶς συντίθησι καὶ καταμνημονεύει
\ / e / ς / ¢ /
τὸ κεφάλαιον, ws Κτησίας ὁ Κνίδιος ἱστόρηκε.
Λίβυες δ᾽ Αἰγυπτίων καταγελῶσι μυθολογούντων
~ \ > / ¢ / > /
F περὶ τοῦ ὄρυγος, ὡς φωνὴν ἀφιέντος ἡμέρας ἐκείνης
‘he - > , aes; a Ἔ > \
Kal ὥρας ἧς ἐπιτέλλει TO ἄστρον, ὃ Σῶθιν αὐτοὶ
A ~ a. ~
Κύνα δὲ καὶ Σείριον ἡμεῖς καλοῦμεν: Tas γοῦν" ὁμοῦ
ε / \
Tu πάσας αἶγας, ὅταν ἀνάσχῃ μεθ᾽ ἡλίου τὸ ἄστρον
- “- / \ \
ἀτρεκῶς, ἐκεῖ" στρεφομένας ἀποβλέπειν πρὸς τὴν
/ ~ ΄- /
ἀνατολήν: Kal τεκμήριον. τοῦτο τῆς περιόδου
βεβαιότατον εἶναι καὶ μάλιστα τοῖς μαθηματικοῖς
/
κανόσιν ὁμολογούμενον.
5 \ ¢ -
975 22. Ἵνα δὲ κορυφὴν ὁ λόγος ἐπιθεὶς εαυτῷ
παύσηται, φέρε κινήσαντες τὴν ἀφ᾽ ἱερᾶς βραχέα
>
περὶ θειότητος αὐτῶν Kal μαντικῆς εἴπωμεν. οὐ
1 λαβεῖν] λαθεῖν Meziriacus.
2 γοῦν W.C. Η. : γὰρ αὐτῶν.
3 τὶ added by Bernardakis.
4 ἐκεῖ early editors: ἔχει.
® Of, Aelian, De Natura Animal. iv. 53.
ὃ Frag. 53b, ed. Gilmore (p. 196); cf. Aelian, De Natura
Animal, vii. 1.
410
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 974-975
21. These matters, though wonderful, are less sur-
prising than are those creatures which have cognition
of number and can count,@ as do the cattle near Susa.
At that place they irrigate the royal park with water
raised in buckets by wheels, and the number of
bucketfuls is prescribed. For each cow raises one
hundred bucketfuls each day, and more you could
not get from her, even if you wanted to use force.
In fact, they often try to add to the number to see;
but the cow balks and will not continue when once
she has delivered her quota, so accurately does she
compute and remember the sum, as Ctesias ὃ of
Cnidus has related.
The Libyans laugh at the Egyptians for telling a
fabulous tale about the oryx,¢ that it lets out a ery ὁ
at that very day and hour when the star rises that
they call Sothis,? which we call the Dog Star or
Sirius. At any rate, when this star rises flush with
the sun, practically all the goats turn about and look
toward the east; and this is the most certain sign
of its return and agrees most exactly with the tables
of mathematical calculation.’
22. But that my discourse may add its finishing
touch and terminate, let me “ make the move from
the sacred line 5 and say a few words about the
divine inspiration and the mantic power of animals.
¢ See Mair on Oppian, Cyn. ii. 446.
4 A sneeze, according to Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 107; Aelian,
De Natura Animal. vii. 8.
¢ Cf. Mor. 359 a 3764.
7 They watched for the first sight of Sirius before daybreak
about June 20; the date shifted in the Egyptian calendar.
9 See Mor. 783 8 with Fowler’s note; also 1116 £; Plato,
Laws, 739 4; and Gow on Theocritus, vi. 18. The meaning
is probably something like ὁ let me play my last trump,”’ or
κε commit my last reserve.”
411
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(975) yap τι μικρὸν οὐδ᾽ ἄδοξον, ἀλλὰ πολὺ καὶ παμπά-
λαιον μαντικῆς μόριον οἰωνιστικὴ κέκληται: τὸ γὰρ
ὀξὺ καὶ νοερὸν αὐτῶν καὶ dv εὐστροφίαν ὑπήκοον
τ ~ ~
ἁπάσης φαντασίας ὥσπερ ὀργάνῳ" τῷ θεῷ παρέχει
~~ »
χρῆσθαι καὶ τρέπειν ἐπί τε κίνησιν ἐπί τε φωνὰς
/ ~ > ~
Kal γηρύματα Kal σχήματα νῦν μὲν ἐνστατικὰ νῦν
δὲ φορὰ καθάπερ πνεύματα τὰς" μὲν ἐπικόπτοντα
\ > > / / \ «ε A Ψ \ /
τὰς δ᾽ ἐπευθύνοντα πράξεις Kal ὁρμὰς εἰς TO τέλος.
\ ~ \ ¢ » / ΠῚ ~ / ” >
B διὸ κοινῇ μὲν ὁ Εὐριπίδης “᾿ θεῶν κήρυκας ᾿᾿ ovo-
/ \ y+ > / / € /
paler τοὺς ὄρνιθας: ἰδίᾳ δέ φησιν ὁ Σωκράτης
ce ¢ / ᾽}) ¢€ \ A ce ~ / 72
ὁμόδουλον ᾿᾿ ἑαυτὸν ποιεῖσθαι “᾿ τῶν κύκνων ᾿᾿"
σ΄“ Ss \ ~ / > \ \ € /
ὥσπερ αὖ καὶ τῶν βασιλέων ἀετὸς μὲν ὁ [Πύρρος
ς 5 > ~
ἥδετο καλούμενος, ἱέραξ δ᾽ ὁ ᾿Αντίοχος" ἰχθῦς de
- >) ~
τοὺς ἀμαθεῖς καὶ ἀνοήτους λοιδοροῦντες ἢ" σκώ-
7 \ /
πτοντες ὀνομάζομεν. ἀλλὰ δὴ μυρίων μυριάκις
εἰπεῖν παρόντων, ἃ προδείκνυσιν ἡμῖν καὶ προ-
\ ~ ~ “a
σημαίνει τὰ πεζὰ καὶ πτηνὰ Tapa τῶν θεῶν, ἕν
οὐκ ἔστι τοιοῦτον ἀποφῆναι τῷ προδικοῦντι τῶν
» / 5 \ \ / \ \ ~ /
ἐνύδρων, ἀλλὰ κωφὰ πάντα Kat τυφλὰ τῆς προνοίας
εἰς τὸν ἄθεον καὶ τιτανικὸν ἀπέρριπται τόπον"
ὥσπερ ἀσεβῶν χῶρον, οὗ τὸ λογικὸν καὶ νοερὸν
wn ~ /
( ἐγκατέσβεσται THs ψυχῆς, ἐσχάτῳ δέ τινι συμπε-
1 ὄργανον Reiske.
2 ras μὲν. .. τὰς δὲ Wyttenbach: ταῖς pev. . . ταῖς de.
3 ἢ] μᾶλλον ἢ Reiske.
4 τόπον] πόντον W. C. Η.
α Ornithoscopy or ornithomancy (ef. Leviticus xix. 26) ;
Latin augurium, auspicium. See also Plato, Phaedrus, 244 τ),
Phaedo, 85 B.
ὃ Perhaps Jon, 159; cf. also Mor. 405 p for the phrase.
412
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 975
It is, in fact, no small or ignoble division of divination,
but a great and very ancient one, which takes its
name from birds “; for their quickness of apprehen-
sion and their habit of responding to any manifesta-
tion, so easily are they diverted, serves as an instru-
ment for the god, who directs their movements, their
calls or cries, and their formations which are some-
times contrary, sometimes favouring, as winds are;
so that he uses some birds to cut short, others to speed
enterprises and inceptions to the destined end. It is
for this reason that Euripides ὃ calls birds in general
“heralds of the gods ”’; and, in particular, Socrates ¢
says that he considers himself a “ fellow-slave of the
swans. So again, among monarchs Pyrrhus ὦ liked
to be called an Eagle and Antiochus ὁ a Hawk. But
when we deride, or rail at, stupid and ignorant
people we call them “ fish.”” Really, we can produce
eases by the thousand of signs and portents mani-
fested to us by the gods through creatures of land
and air, but not one such can the advocate for
aquatic creatures name.’ No, they are all “ deaf
and blind’ ”’ so far as foreseeing anything goes, and
so have been cast aside into the godless and titanic”
region, as into a Limbo of the Unblessed, where the
rational and intelligent part of the soul has been
extinguished. Having, however, only a last remnant
¢ Plato, Phaedo, 85 B.
4 Cf. Mor. 184 Ὁ: Life of Pyrrhus, x. 1 (388 -s); Life
of Aristides, vi. 2 (322 a); Aelian, De Natura Animal. vii. 45.
¢ Cf. Mor. 1844. This Antiochus was not, strictly speak-
MES a king, but the younger son of Antiochus II.
f This charge is answered in 976 c infra.
9 Of. the fragment of Epicharmus cited above in 961 a.
h Cf. Plato, Laws, 701 s-c (and Shorey, What Plato Said,
. 629}: 942 4 supra and Cherniss’ note (Class. Phil. xlvi,
1951, p. 157, n. 95); see also 996 c infra with the note.
413
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
O7F / \ λ / > θ / /
(975) φυρμένης καὶ κατακεκλυσμένης αἰσθήσεως μορίῳ,
σπαίρουσι μᾶλλον ἢ ζῶσιν ἔοικεν.
23. HPAKAEQN. ᾿Αναγε τὰς ὀφρῦς, ὦ φίλε Φαί-
διμε, καὶ διέγειρε σεαυτὸν ἡμῖν τοῖς ἐνάλοις καὶ
νησιώταις" οὐ παιδιὰ τὸ χρῆμα τοῦ λόγου γέγονεν,
3 > >? / > \ \ ε / / >
ἀλλ᾽ ἐρρωμένος ἀγὼν Kal ῥητορεία κιγκλίδων ἐπι-
δέουσα καὶ βήματος.
ΦΑΙΔΙΜΟΣ. ᾿Κνέδρα μὲν οὖν, ὦ Ἡρακλέων, σὺν
/ Ψ ~ \ μὴ \ ψν
δόλῳ καταφανής: κραιπαλῶσι γὰρ ἔτι τὸ χθιζὸν
καὶ βεβαπτισμένοις νήφων, ὡς ὁρᾷς, ὁ γενναῖος
ἐκ παρασκευῆς ἐπιτέθειται. παραιτεῖσθαι δ᾽ οὐκ
” > \ / / \ Ἅ
ἔστιν: οὐ γὰρ βούλομαι [Πινδάρου ζηλωτὴς ὧν
ἀκοῦσαι τὸ
D τιθεμένων ἀγώνων πρόφασις
3 \ > ᾽ \ ” /
ἀρετὰν ἐς αἰπὺν ἔβαλε σκότον.
\ \ \ \ , 1 0. σ᾿ ΝΟ ,
σχολὴ μὲν yap πολλὴ πάρεστιν' ἡμῖν, ἀργούντων
> , 3 9 \ A 4 ὦ \ , \
οὐ λόγων" ἀλλὰ κυνῶν καὶ ἵππων καὶ δικτύου Kal
πάσης σαγήνης, διὰ τοὺς λόγους ἐκεχειρίας κοινῇ
πᾶσι τοῖς ζῴοις κατά τε γῆν καὶ κατὰ θάλατταν
/ \ / > \ \ ~ /
δεδομένης TO σήμερον. ἀλλὰ μὴ φοβηθῆτε: χρή-
σομαι γὰρ αὐτῇ μετρίως, οὔτε δόξας φιλοσόφων
wv 3 >’ / 50 ἊΝ > > / > ~
οὔτ᾽ Αἰγυπτίων μύθους οὔτ᾽ ἀμαρτύρους ᾿Ϊνδῶν
> / a“ / i é “ \ ~
ἐπαγόμενος ἢ Λιβύων διηγήσεις: a δὲ πανταχοῦ
1 σχολὴ μὲν γὰρ πολλὴ πάρεστιν Bernardakis: σχολὴ μὲν
οὖν πολλὴ γὰρ ἔστιν.
2 ἡμν W.C. H.: dpiv.
3 λόγων Wyttenbach: χορῶν.
4 That is, it is so realistic that one might imagine oneself
in the laweourts or the public assembly.
4.14
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 975
of sensation that is clogged with mud and deluged
with water, they seem to be at their last gasp. rather
than alive.
23. HERACLEON. Raise your brows, dear Phaedi-
mus, and rouse yourself to defend us the sea folk, the
island-dwellers ! This bout of argument has become
no child’s play, but a hard-fought contest, a debate
which lacks only the actual bar and platform.*
PHAEDIMus. Not so, Heracleon, but an ambush
laid with malice aforethought has been disclosed.
While we are still tipsy and soused from yesterday's
bout, this gentleman, as you see, has attacked us
with premeditation, cold sober. Yet there can be
no begging off. Devotee of Pindar ὃ though I am, I
do not want to be addressed with the quotation
To excuse oneself when combat is offered
Has consigned valour to deep obscurity ;
for we have much leisure °; and it is not our discourse
that will be idle, but our dogs and horses, our nets and
seines of all kinds, for a truce is granted for to-day
because of our argument to every creature both on
land and sea. Yet do not fear: I shall use it 4 with
moderation, introducing no opinions of philosophers
or Egyptian fables or unattested tales of Indians or
Libyans. But those facts that may be observed
ὃ Frag. 272, ed. Turyn (228 Schroeder, 215 Bowra); cf.
Mor. 783 8; Leutsch and Schneidewin, Paroemiographi
Graeci, i, p. 44; Plato, Cratylus, 421 τ.
¢ Perhaps merely a passing allusion to some such passage
as Plato, Phaedrus, 258 © rather than, as Bernardakis
thought, a quotation from an unknown tragic poet (Nauck,
Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 869, Adesp. 138).
4 Rither “‘ our leisure’ or “ the truce,” 1.6. the holiday
Plutarch has given his pupils (see the Introduction to this
essay).
415
(975)
33:
910
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
/ ” \ > ,ὔ \ /
μάρτυρας ἔχει τοὺς ἐργαζομένους τὴν θάλατταν
« / \ / ~ ww / 7, Δ
ὁρώμενα καὶ δίδωσι τῇ ὄψει πίστιν, τούτων ὀλίγα
| παραθήσομαι. καίτοι τῶν μὲν' ἐν γῇ παραδειγμά-
> ~ > / > > > > /
των ἐπιπροσθοῦν οὐδέν ἐστιν, ἀλλ᾽ ἀνεῳγμένη
/ lan > / \ ¢ / ¢ \ /
παρέχει TH αἰσθήσει τὴν ἱστορίαν: ἡ δὲ θάλασσα
\ A \ / / ~ \ /
μικρὰ κατιδεῖν καὶ γλίσχρα δίδωσι, τῶν δὲ πλεί-
στων κατακαλύπτει γενέσεις καὶ τροφὰς ἐπιθέσεις
τε καὶ φυλακὰς ἀλλήλων, ἐν αἷς οὐκ ὀλίγα καὶ
συνέσεως ἔργα καὶ μνήμης καὶ κοινωνίας ἀγνοού-
/ \ / ” \ \ > ~ \
μενα βλάπτει τὸν λόγον. ἔπειτα τὰ μὲν ev γῇ διὰ
τὴν ὁμοφυλίαν καὶ τὴν συνδιαίτησιν ἁμωσγέπως
συναναχρωννύμενα τοῖς ἀνθρωπίνοις ἤθεσιν ἀπο-
~ Va
Aaver καὶ τροφῆς καὶ διδασκαλίας καὶ μιμήσεως:
σ
ἣ τὸ μὲν πικρὸν ἅπαν καὶ σκυθρωπὸν ὥσπερ ἐπι-
/
μιξία ποτίμου θάλασσαν ἐφηδύνει, τὸ δὲ δυσξύνε-
¢ / A
Tov’ ἅπαν καὶ νωθρὸν ἐπεγείρει ταῖς μετ᾽ ἀνθρώπων
κοινωνήσεσιν" ἀναρριπιζόμενον. 6 δὲ τῶν ἐνάλων
βίος ὅροις μεγάλοις τῆς πρὸς ἀνθρώπους ἀπῳκισ-
/ € Ad > / oe oY Q /
μένος ὁμιλίας ἐπείσακτον οὐδὲν οὐδὲ συνειθισμένον
” ” ’ὔ > \ > \ \ ΝΜ >
ἔχων ἴδιός ἐστι καὶ αὐθιγενὴς καὶ ἄκρατος ἀλλο-
/ ” \ \ / ᾽ \ \ / « \
τρίοις ἤθεσι διὰ TOV τόπον, οὐ διὰ τὴν φύσιν. ἡ γὰρ
/ “ 2 “A / pa Re - \
φύσις ὅσον ἐξικνεῖται μαθήσεως ἐφ᾽ αὑτὴν dexo-
\ >?
μένη Kal στέγουσα παρέχει πολλὰς μὲν ἐγχέλεις
7 σ ¢ \ / /
ἀνθρώποις χειροήθεις, ὥσπερ τὸς ἱερὰς λέγομένας"
> mid / ~ > ᾿] ~ ¢ /
ev τῇ ᾿Αρεθούσῃ, πολλαχοῦ δ᾽ ἰχθῦς ὑπακούοντας
1 μὲν added by W. C. Η.
2 δυσξύνετον Reiske: δυσξύνθετον.
3 κοινωνήσεσιν Emperius : κινήσεσιν.
416
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 975-976
everywhere and have as witnesses the men who
exploit the sea and acquire their credit from direct
observation, of these I shall present a few. Yet there
is nothing to impede illustrations drawn from land
animals : the land is wide open for investigation by
the senses. The sea, on the other hand, grants us
but a few dubious glimpses. She draws a veil over
the birth and growth, the attacks and reciprocal
defences, of most of her denizens. Among these
there are no few feats of intelligence and memory
and community spirit that remain unknown to us
and so obstruct our argument. Then too, land
animals “ by reason of their close relationship and
their cohabitation have to some extent been imbued
with human manners; they have the advantage of
their breeding and teaching and imitation, which
sweetens all their bitterness and sullenness, like
fresh water mixed with brine, while their lack of
understanding and dullness are roused to life by
human contacts. Whereas the life of sea creatures,
being set apart by mighty bounds from intercourse
with men and having nothing adventitious or ac-
quired from human usage, is peculiar to itself, in-
digenous, and uncontaminated by foreign ways, not
by distinction of Nature, but of location. For their
Nature is such as to welcome and retain such instruc-
tion as reaches them. This it is that renders many
eels tractable, like those that are called sacred in
Arethusa 8; and in many places there are fish which
= Cf. Pliny, Wat. Hist.1x. 1.
’ Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. viii. 4.
4 ἱερὰς λεγομένας follows ἐγχέλεις in the Mss. ; transferred
here by Kaltwasser.
VOL. XII P 417
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
« ~ > / σ \ / /
(976) αὑτῶν ονόμασιν: ὥσπερ τὴν Κράσσου μυραιναν
« ~ e >
ἱστοροῦσιν, ἧς ἀποθανούσης ἔκλαυσεν ὁ Kpaaaos:
/ /
καὶ ποτε Δομετίου πρὸς αὐτὸν εἰπόντος, “᾿ οὐ σὺ
’ > / ,
μυραίΐνης ἀποθανούσης ἔκλαυσας ;᾿᾿ ἀπήντησεν,
‘ ᾽ \ ~ / -
οὐ σὺ τρεῖς θάψας γυναῖκας οὐκ ἐδάκρυσας ; ᾽᾿
¢ \ ~
Οἱ δὲ κροκόδειλοι τῶν ἱερέων οὐ μόνον γνωρί-
\ \ an
B ζουσι τὴν φωνὴν καλούντων καὶ τὴν ψαῦσιν ὑπο-
/
μένουσιν, ἀλλὰ Kai διαχανόντες παρέχουσι τοὺς
> / > -
ὀδόντας ἐκκαθαίρειν ταῖς χερσὶ καὶ περιμάττειν
0 / ” \ ~ ¢ / -“
ὀθονίοις. ἔναγχος δὲ Φιλῖνος ὁ βέλτιστος ἥκων
/ 2 > / ~ A
πεπλανημένος ev Αἰγύπτῳ παρ᾽ ἡμᾶς διηγεῖτο
~ > - > > / / /
γραῦν ἰδεῖν ev ᾿Ανταίου πόλει KpoKodeiAw συγκαθ-
/ Βι τ or
evoovoay ἐπὶ σκίμποδος εὖ μάλα κοσμίως παρεκ-
τεταμένῳ.
ε ~ / ~ /
Πάλαι δ᾽ ἱστοροῦσι, ἸΪτολεμαίου τοῦ βασιλέως
\ 7
παρακαλουμένου, TOV ἱερὸν κροκόδειλον μὴ ἐπακού-
σαντα μηδὲ πεισθέντα λιπαροῦντι καὶ δεομένῳ"
a“ ~ \ > \
τοῖς ἱερεῦσι δόξαι προσημαίνειν τὴν μετ᾽ οὐ πολὺ
“ ~ ~ / σ \ ~
C συμβᾶσαν αὐτῷ τοῦ βίου τελευτήν: ὥστε μηδὲ τῆς
~ ~ >
πολυτιμήτου μαντικῆς ἄμοιρον εἶναι TO τῶν ἐν-
> \ ~
vdpwv γένος μηδ᾽ ἀγέραστον: ἐπεὶ Kal περὶ Lodpav
7, / 2 ~ / Φέλλ \
πυνθάνομαι, κώμην ev τῇ Λυκίᾳ Φέλλου μεταξὺ
eae Wye , ee ͵ “ >
καὶ Mipwv, καθεζομένους ἐπ᾽ ἰχθύσιν ὥσπερ οἰω-
1 λιπαροῦντι καὶ δεομένῳ Reiske : λιπαροῦσι καὶ δεομένοις.
« Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 193: Aelian, De Natura
Animal, xii. 30.
> Not in the Life of Crassus, but derived from the same
source as Aelian, De Natura Animal. viii. 4.; cf. the remarks
in the Life of Solon, vii. 4(82 a). The story is also recounted
in Mor. 89 a, 811 a; Macrobius, Sat. iii, 15. 4; Porphyry,
418
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 976
will respond to their own names,’ as the story goes
of Crassus’ ὃ moray, upon the death of which he
wept. And once when Domitius ¢ said to him, “ Isn’t
it true that you wept when a moray died?”’ he
answered, “ Isn't it true that you buried three wives
and didn’t weep?”
The priests’ crocodiles ὦ not only recognize the
voice of those who summon them and allow them-
selves to be handled, but open their mouths to let
their teeth be cleaned by hand and wiped with
towels. Recently our excellent Philinus came back
from a trip to Egypt and told us that he had seen in
Antaeopolis an old woman sleeping on a low bed
beside a crocodile, which was stretched out beside
her in a perfectly decorous way.
They have long been telling the tale that when
King Ptolemy ° summoned the sacred crocodile and
it would not heed him or obey in spite of his entreaties
and requests, it seemed to the priests an omen of his
death, which came about not long after ; whence it
appears that the race of water creatures is not wholly
unendowed with your precious gift of divination.’
Indeed, I have heard that near Sura,’ a village in
Lycia between Phellus and Myra, men sit and watch
the gyrations and flights and pursuits of fish and
De Abstinentia, iii. 5. Hortensius, too, wept bitterly at the
death of his pet moray (Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 172).
4Τ, Domitius Ahenobarbus, consul in 54 B.c., a bitter
political opponent of Crassus and the Triumvirate.
@ Cf. Aelian, loc. cit.
€ Aelian, loc. cit., does not know which Ptolemy is meant ;
cf. the story of Apis and Germanicus in Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii.
185; Amm. Mare. xxii. 14. 8.
* Cf. 975 B supra; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 55.
9 Aelian, De Natura Animal. viii. 5; Pliny, Nat. Hist.
ΧΧΧΗ ΜῈ
419
(976)
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
vois διαμαντεύεσθαι τέχνῃ τινὶ καὶ λόγῳ ἑλίξεις"
καὶ φυγὰς καὶ διώξεις αὐτῶν ἐπισκοποῦντας.
24. ᾿Αλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν ἔστω τοῦ μὴ παντάπασιν
ἐκφύλου μηδ᾽ ἀσυμπαθοῦς πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἱκανὰ δείγ-
ματα: τῆς δ᾽ ἀκράτου καὶ φυσικῆς συνέσεως μέγα
δήλωμα τὸ ὀκνηρόν" ἐστιν" οὐδὲν γὰρ οὕτως εὐχεί-
ρωτον ἀνθρώπῳ νηκτόν, δ᾽ μὴ πέτραις προσέχεται
καὶ προσπέφυκεν, οὐδ᾽ ἁλώσιμον a ἄνευ πραγματείας,
ὡς λύκοις μὲν ὄνοι καὶ μέροψι μέλισσαι, χελιδόσι
δὲ τέττιγες, “ἐλάφοις δ᾽ ὄφεις ἀγόμενοι ῥᾳδίως ὑπ᾽
αὐτῶν: 7 καὶ τοὔνομα πεποίηται παρώνυμον οὐ τῆς
ἐλαφρότητος ἀλλὰ τῆς ἕλξεως τοῦ ὄφεως. καὶ τὸ
πρόβατον προσκαλεῖται τῷ ποδὶ τὸν λύκον, τῆ δὲ
παρδάλει τὰ πλεῖστα προσχωρεῖν χαίροντα τῇ ὀσμῇ,
μάλιστα δὲ τὸν πίθηκον λέγουσι. τῶν δὲ θαλατ-
τίων ὁμοῦ τι πάντων ἡ προαίσθησις ὕποπτος οὖσα
καὶ πεφυλαγμένη πρὸς τὰς ἐπιθέσεις ὑ ὑπὸ συνέσεως,
οὐχ ἁπλοῦν τὸ τῆς ἄγρας ἔργον οὐδὲ φαῦλον ἀλλ᾽
ὀργάνων τε παντοδαπῶν καὶ σοφισμάτων ἐ ἐπ᾽ αὐτὰ
δεινῶν καὶ ἀπατηλῶν δεόμενον ἀπείργασται.
Kai τοῦτο δῆλόν ἐστιν ἀπὸ τῶν πάνυ προχείρων.
τὸν μὲν γὰρ ἀσπαλιευτικὸν κάλαμον οὐ βούλονται
πάχος ἔχειν, καίπερ εὐτόνου δεόμενοι πρὸς τοὺς
σπαραγμοὺς τῶν ἁλισκομένων, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἐκ-
λέγονται τὸν λεπτόν, ὅπως μὴ πλατεῖαν ἐπιβάλλων
σκιὰν ἐκταράττῃ τὸ ὕποπτον αὐτῶν. ἔπειτα τὴν
1 λόγῳ ἑλίξεις Bryan: λόγων λέξεις.
* ὀκνηρόν Post: κοινόν. 8. 6 Reiske: a.
@ A bird: Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 13 (615 Ὁ 25);
Aelian, De Natura Animal. v.11; Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 99.
> Aelian, De Natura Animal. villi. 6; ν. 48.
© Llaphrotes.
4.20
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 976
divine from them by a professional and rational
system, as others do with birds.
24. But let these examples suffice to show that sea
animals are not entirely unrelated to us or cut off
from human fellowship. Of their uncontaminated
and native intelligence their caution is strong evi-
dence. For nothing that swims and does not merely
stick or cling to rocks is easily taken or captured
without trouble by man as are asses by wolves, bees
by bee-eaters,* cicadas by swallows, and snakes by
deer, which easily attract them.? This, in fact, is
why deer are called elaphor, not from their swiftness,°
but from their power of attracting snakes.? So too
the ram draws the wolf by stamping and they say
that very many creatures, and particularly apes, are
attracted to the panther by their pleasure in its
scent. But in practically all sea-creatures any sensa-
tion is suspect and evokes an intelligently inspired
defensive reaction against attack, so that fishing has
been rendered no simple or trivial task, but needs all
manner of implements and clever and deceitful tricks
to use against the fish.
This is perfectly clear from ready examples: no
one wants to have an angler’s rod too thick, though
it needs elasticity to withstand the thrashing of such
fish as are caught ; men select, rather, a slender rod
so that it may not cast a broad shadow and arouse
suspicion.’ In the next place, they do not thicken
4 Helxis opheos, a fantastic etymology. Neither deriva-
tion is correct, elaphos being related to the Lithuanian elnis,
“deer.” For the references see Mair on Oppian, Cyn. ii.
234.
ὁ See Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 6
(612 a 13); add Aelian, De Natura Animal, viii. 6; v. 40.
7 Cf. Gow on Theocritus, xxi. 10,
4.21
(976)
ΒΥ
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
ὁρμιὰν ov ποιοῦσι πολύπλοκον τοῖς ἅμμασι τῶν
/ ᾽ \ aA > \ \ ~ ~ /
βρόχων οὐδὲ τραχεῖαν: ἐπεὶ Kal τοῦτο τοῦ δόλου
γίνεται τεκμήριον αὐτοῖς. καὶ τῶν τριχῶν τὰ
ὔ \ \ ΝΜ ¢ ” /
καθήκοντα πρὸς TO ἀγκιστρον ws ἔνι μάλιστα
\ / ~ ~ \ LA >
λευκὰ φαίνεσθαι μηχανῶνται: μᾶλλον yap οὕτως ἐν
- / > « / ~ / /
τῇ θαλάττῃ δι᾿ ὁμοιότητα τῆς χρόας λανθάνουσι.
\ pe \ ~ ~ /
τὸ δ᾽ ὑπὸ τοῦ ποιητοῦ λεγόμενον
ἡ δὲ μολυβδαίνῃ ἰκέλη ἐς βυσσὸν ὄρουσεν,
σ > > / \ / > a“
ἥτε Kat ἀγραύλοιο βοὸς κέρας ἐμβεβαυῖα
” Ψ ~ ϑῪ or 3 / lo /
ἔρχεται ὠμηστῇσιν ἐπ᾽ ἰχθύσι κῆρα φέρουσα:
7 ” / x μὲ \ \
παρακούοντες ἔνιοι βοείαις θριξὶν οἴονται πρὸς Tas
« \ ~ A / cc / ᾽) \ \
ὁρμιὰς χρῆσθαι τοὺς παλαιούς" “ κέρας ᾿᾿ yap τὴν
/ / \ \ / ὃ \ ~ \ \
τρίχα λέγεσθαι καὶ TO κείρασθαι διὰ τοῦτο καὶ τὴν
, \ \ >> , , yy
κουράν: καὶ Tov παρ᾽ ᾿Αρχιλόχῳ “᾿ κεροπλάστην
/ \ / \ /
φιλόκοσμον εἶναι περὶ κόμην Kat καλλωπιστήν.
ΝΜ > >’ > / ¢ / x \ ~ \
ἔστι δ᾽ οὐκ ἀληθές: ἱππείαις yap θριξὶ χρῶνται, Tas
~ > / A β / ¢ \ θ λ ΄σ ”
τῶν ἀρρένων λαμβάνοντες" at yap θήλειαι TH οὔρῳ
\ / / > ~ ~ > /
τὴν τρίχα βεβρεγμένην ἀδρανῆ ποιοῦσιν. ᾿Αρίστ-
αρχος" δέ φησι μηδὲν ἐν τούτοις λέγεσθαι σοφὸν
Ἃ \ LAAG ~ yw / 6 θ \
ἢ περιττὸν ἀλλὰ τῷ ὄντι κεράτιον περιτίθεσθαι πρὸ
δ ὧν / \ \ ε , > 3 \ ”
τοῦ ἀγκίστρου περὶ τὴν ὁρμιάν, ἐπεὶ πρὸς ἄλλο
1 κεροπλάστην Turnebus : κηροπλάστην.
? *Apiotapxos Platt: ᾿Αριστοτέλης.
3 ἐπεὶ Jannotius : ἔπειτα.
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 976-977
the line with many plies when they attach the loop
and do not make it rough ; for this, too, betrays the
lure to the fish. They also contrive that the hairs
which form the leader shall be as white as possible ;
for in this way they are less conspicuous in the sea
because of the similarity of colour. The remark of
the Poet *
Like lead she ὃ sank into the great sea depths,
Like lead infixed in horn of rustic ox
Which brings destruction to the ravenous fish—
some misunderstand this and imagine that the
ancients used ox-hair for their lines, alleging that
keras © means “ hair” and for this reason ketrasthai
means “‘ to have one’s hair cut’ and koura is a “ hair-
cut ’@ and the keroplastes® in Archilochus/ is one
who is fond of trimming and beautifying the hair.
But this is not so: they use horse-hair which they
take from males, for mares by wetting the hair with
their urine make it weak.’ Aristarchus” declares
that there is nothing erudite or subtle in these lines ;
the fact is that a small piece of horn was attached
to the line in front of the hook, since the fish, when
they are confronted by anything else, chew the line
* Homer, Jliad, xxiv. 80-82.
δ Tris going to visit Thetis.
¢ It means, of course, “‘ horn ἢ as above in Homer, /liad,
xxiv. 81.
@ Or “ lock of hair.”
¢ ** Horn-fashioner,’’ so called from the horn-like bunch-
ing together of the hair: see the scholia on Jliad, xxiv. 81.
7 Edmonds, Elegy and Iambus, ii, p. 126, frag. 57 ; Diehl,
Anth. Lyrica, i, p. 228, frag. 59. See the note on 967 F
supra. 9 Cf. Mor. 915 r—916 a.
» Not Aristotle, as the mss. read. See Platt, Class. Quart.
ν. 255.
425
(977)
B
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
ἐρχόμενοι διεσθίουσι. τῶν δ᾽ ἀγκίστρων τοῖς μὲν
στρογγύλοις ἐπὶ κεστρέας καὶ ἀμίας χρῶνται
μικροστόμους ὄντας: τὸ γὰρ εὐρύτερον' εὐλα-
βοῦνται: πολλάκις δὲ καὶ τὸ στρογγύλον ὁ κεστρεὺς
ὑποπτεύων ἐν κύκλῳ περινήχεται, τῇ οὐρᾷ περιρ-
ραπίζων τὸ ἐδώδιμον καὶ ἀνακάπτων᾽" τὸ ἀπο-
κρουόμενον"- ἂν δὲ μὴ δύνηται, συναγαγὼν" τὸ
στόμα καὶ περιστείλας, τοῖς χείλεσιν ἄκροις ἐπι-
ψαύων ἀποκνίζει τοῦ δελέατος.
ὋὉ δὲ λάβραξ, ἀνδρικώτερον τοῦ ἐλέφαντος οὐχ
ἕτερον ἀλλ᾽ αὐτὸς ἑαυτόν, ὅταν περιπέσῃ τῷ ἀγ-
κίστρῳ, βελουλκεῖ, τῇ δεῦρο κἀκεῖ παραλλάξει τῆς
κεφαλῆς ἀνευρύνων τὸ "τραῦμα καὶ τὸν ἐκ τοῦ
σπαραγμοῦ πόνον ὑπομένων, ἄχρις ἂν ἐκβάλῃ τὸ
ἄγκιστρον. ἡ δ᾽ ἀλώπηξ οὐ πολλάκις μὲν ἀγκίστρῳ
πρόσεισιν ἀλλὰ φεύγει τὸν δόλον, ἁλοῦσα δ᾽ εὐθὺς
ἐκτρέπεται" πέφυκε γὰρ δι᾿ εὐτονίαν καὶ ὑγρότητα
μεταβάλλειν τὸ σῶμα καὶ στρέφειν, ὥστε τῶν
ἐντὸς ἐκτὸς γενομένων ἀποπίπτειν τὸ ἄγκιστρον.
25. Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν γνῶσιν ἐμφαίνει καὶ χρῆσιν
ἐπὶ καιρῷ τοῦ συμφέροντος εὐμήχανον καὶ περιττήν᾽
= εὐρύτερον Reiske : εὐθύτερον.
5 ἀνακάπτων Grynaeus : : ἀνακάμπτων.
ἀποκρεμαννύμενον Reiske ; Ε ἀποκρεμάμενον Bernardakis.
4 συναγαγὼν Bernardakis : συνάγων.
3
« “ The section of horn was put around the line. It was
therefore a tube. It was in front of the hook as one held it
in his hand and attached it to the line. It was therefore at
the hook end of the leader. Its hardness prevented the line
from being severed. Its neutral coloration prevented the
fish from being frightened off. Note that Oppian (//al. iii.
147) comments on the use of a hook with an abnormally
long shank for the same purpose “ἢ (Andrews).
424.
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 977
in two.” They use rounded hooks ὃ to catch mullets
and bonitos, whose mouths are small ¢; for they are
wary of a broader hook. Often, indeed, the mullet
suspects even a rounded hook and swims around it,
flipping the bait with its tail and snatching up bits
it has dislodged ; or if it cannot do this, it closes its
mouth and purses it up and with the tips of its lips
nibbles away at the bait.4
The sea-bass is braver than your elephant? : it is
not from another, but from himself without assistance,
that he extracts the barb when he is caught by the
hook ; he swings his head from side to side to widen
the wound, enduring the pain of tearing his flesh until
he can throw off the hook.’ The fox-shark 2 does not
often approach the hook and shuns the lure ;_ but if
he is caught, he immediately turns himself inside
out, for by reason of the elasticity and flexibility of
his body he can naturally shift and twist it about, so
that when he is inside out, the hook falls away.
25. Now the examples I have given indicate intelli-
gence and an ingenious, subtle use of it for opportune
’ A prototype of the Sobey hook.
¢ See Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 37
(621 a 19); Mair on Oppian, Hal. iii. 144.
@ Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 145; Oppian, Hal. iii. 524 ff.
¢ Cf. 974 D supra.
7 Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. i. 40, of the tunny ;
Ovid, Hal. 39 f. and Oppian, Hal. iii. 128 ff., of the bass.
9 Plutarch seems here to have confused this fish with the
so-called scolopendra (of which he writes correctly in Mor.
567 B; see also Mair on Oppian, Hal. ii. 424). Cf. Aristotle,
Historia Animal. ix. 37 (621 a 11); Aelian, De Natura
Animal. ix. 12; Varia Hist.i.5; Mair on Oppian, Hal. iii.
144; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 145. ‘* There are fish (but not
sharks) which can disgorge their stomachs and swallow
them again. Note that hasty reading of Aristotle /.c. could
easily cause this misstatement ” (Andrews).
4.25
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
Μ > > / \ ~ ~ \
(977) ἄλλα δ᾽ ἐπιδείκνυται μετα TOV συνετοῦ TO κοινω-
\ \ \ / [2 > / \ /
νικὸν Kal TO φιλάλληλον, ὥσπερ ἀνθίαι Kai σκάροι.
σκάρου μὲν γὰρ ἄγκιστρον καταπιόντος, οἵ παρ-
ὄντες σκάροι προσαλλόμενοι τὴν ὁρμιὰν ἀποτρώ-
γουσιν" οἱ αὐτοὶ δὲ καὶ τοῖς εἰς κύρτον ἐμπεσοῦσι
\ > A ’, A a ͵ὕ
τὰς οὐρὰς παραδόντες ἔξωθεν ἕλκουσι δάκνοντας
προθύμως καὶ συνεξάγουσιν. οἱ δ᾽ ἀνθίαι τῷ συμ-
φύλῳ βοηθοῦσιν ἰταμώτερον: τὴν γὰρ ὁρμιὰν ἀνα-
θέμενοι κατὰ τὴν ῥάχιν καὶ στήσαντες ὀρθὴν τὴν
Ὁ ἄκανθαν ἐπιχειροῦσι διαπρίειν τῇ τραχύτητι καὶ
διακόπτειν.
’ὔ A » \ ” ¢ / /
Καίτοι χερσαῖον οὐδὲν ἴσμεν ἑτέρῳ κινδυνεύοντι
τολμῶν ἀμύνειν, οὐκ ἄρκτον οὐ σῦν οὐδὲ λέαιναν
᾽ \ / > \ A \ > > \ >
οὐδὲ πάρδαλιν: ἀλλὰ συγχωρεῖ μὲν εἰς ταὐτὸν ἐν
A / ~ ¢ /, \ / 3 3 ͵ὔ
τοῖς θεάτροις τὰ ὁμόφυλα καὶ κύκλῳ μετ᾽ ἀλλήλων
, Cia? 5 ot > > γῶν “Ὁ
περίεισιν: ἑτέρῳ δ᾽ ἕτερον οὐκ οἶδεν οὐδὲ φρονεῖ
βοηθεῖν, ἀλλὰ φεύγει καὶ ἀποπηδᾷ πορρωτάτω
γινόμενα τοῦ τετρωμένου καὶ θνήσκοντος. ἡ δὲ
τῶν ἐλεφάντων ἱστορία φορυτὸν" εἰς τὰ ὀρύγματα
φορούντων" καὶ τὸν ὀλισθόντα διὰ χώματος ἀναβι-
1 of αὐτοὶ Wyttenbach : οὗτοι.
2 φρονεῖ] φροντίζει Bernardakis.
3 φορυτὸν Meziriacus: φίλε τῶν.
4 φορούντων] φορυτὸν συμφορούντων Reiske.
* The anthias of the above passage is probably the
Mediterranean barbier, Serranus anthias C.V., although
elsewhere it is sometimes obviously a much larger fish of
uncertain identity. On the identification cf. Thompson on
Aristotle, Historia Animal. vi. 17 (570 b 19); Glossary of
Greek Fishes, s.v.; Mair, introd, to his ed. of Oppian, pp.
liii-lxi; Marx, RH, i. 2375-2377; ii. 2415; Schmid,
Philologus, Suppb. xi, 1907-1910, p. 273; Brands, Grieksche
426
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 977
profit ; but there are others that display, in combina-
tion with understanding, a social sense and mutual
affection, as is the case with the barbier® and the
parrot-fish. For if one parrot-fish swallows the hook,
the others present swarm upon the line and nibble it
away; and the same fish, when any of their kind
have fallen into the net, give them their tails from
outside ; when they eagerly fix their teeth in these,
the others pull on them and bring them through in
tow.2 And barbiers are even more strenuous in
rescuing their fellows: getting under the line with
their backs, they erect their sharp spines and try to
saw the line through and cut if off with the rough
edge
Yet we know of no land animal that has the courage
to assist another in danger—not bear or boar or
lioness or panther. True it is that in the arena those
of the same kind draw close together and huddle in a
circle ; yet they have neither knowledge nor desire
to help each other. Instead, each one flees to get
as far as possible from a wounded or dying fellow.
That tale of the elephants ὦ carrying brushwood to
the pits and giving their fallen comrade a ramp to
Diernamen, pp. 147 f.; Cotte, Poissons et animaux aqua-
tiques au temps de Pline, pp. 69-73 ; Saint-Denis, Le Vocabu-
laire des animaux marins en latin classique, pp. 5-7. Cf.
also 981 E infra.
® On this story cf. also Aelian, De Natura Animal. i. 4;
Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxii. 11; Ovid, Hal. 9 ff.; Oppian, Hal.
iv. 40 ff. Note also Aelian, De Natura Animal. v. 22, on
mice.
& Of.. Pliny, Nat. ‘Histiixt 182 ;> xxi.’ 13; Ovid;“Hal.
45 ff.; Oppian, Hal. iii. 321 ff.
4 Cf. 972 B supra; Jacoby, Frag. der griech. Hist. iii, Ὁ.
146, frag. 51 Ὁ. On the community spirit of elephants see
also Aelian, De Natura Animal. v. 49; vi. 61; vii. 15; al.
4.27
(977)
EK
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
βαζόντων ἔκτοπός" ἐστι δεινῶς καὶ ἀλλοδαπή, Kat
/ >? ~ / >? /
καθάπερ ἐκ βασιλικοῦ διαγράμματος ἐπιτάττουσα
πιστεύειν αὑτῇ τῶν ᾿Ιόβα βιβλίων: ἀληθὴς δ᾽ οὖσα
πολλὰ δείκνυσι τῶν ἐνάλων μηδὲν ἀπολειπόμενα
τῷ κοινωνικῷ καὶ συνετῷ τοῦ σοφωτάτου τῶν
/ > \ \ / εἰ ~ ” ”
χερσαίων. ἀλλὰ περὶ κοινωνίας αὐτῶν ἴδιος ἔσται
/ /
τάχα λόγος.
26. Οἱ δ᾽ ἁλιεῖς συνορῶντες ὥσπερ ἀλεξήμασιϊ"
/ \ ~ / \ Mie |
παλαισμάτων τὰ πλεῖστα διακρουόμενα τὰς ἀπ
> / \ 2 ἡ / >? / / ¢
ἀγκίστρου βολὰς ἐπὶ βίας ἐτράπησαν, καθάπερ οἱ
/ / ¢ - ’ A 5 ἃ
Πέρσαι, σαγηνεύοντες ὡς τοῖς ἐνσχεθεῖσιν οὐδεμίαν
ἐκ λογισμοῦ καὶ σοφίας διάφευξιν οὖσαν. ἀμῴφι-
βλήστροις μὲν γὰρ καὶ ὑποχαῖς κεστρεῖς καὶ ἰου-
/ ς / / / \ \ \
Aides ἁλίσκονται, μόρμυροί TE καὶ σαργοὶ Kal
κωβιοὶ καὶ λάβρακες: τὰ δὲ βολιστικὰ καλούμενα,
1 ἔκτοπός) ψευδὴς μὲν οὖσα ἔκτοπός Reiske.
3. ἀλεξήμασι Coraes: ἀδοξήμασι.
«α« Juba was king of Mauretania (25 B.c.—c. A.D. 23).
» Cf. Herodotus, vi. 31; iii, 149; Plato, Laws 698 Ὁ:
Fraenkel on Aesch. Agam. 358. On kinds of nets see Mair,
L.C.L. Oppian, pp. x1 ff.
¢ QCoris iulis Gth. Cf. Thompson on Aristotle, Historia
Animal. ix. 3 (610 b 7); A Glossary of Greek Fishes, Ὁ. 91 ;
Schmid, op. cit. p. 292; Brands, op. cit. p. 157 ; Cotte, op.
cit. pp. 59-60 ; Saint-Denis, op. e7t. p. 52.
4 In particular, probably Pagellus mormyrus C.V. On
the identification cf. Thompson on Aristotle, Historia
428
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 977
mount is monstrous and far-fetched and dictates, as
it were, that we are to believe it on a king’s prescrip-
tion—that is, on the writs of Juba.* Suppose it to
be true: it merely proves that many sea creatures
are in no way inferior in community spirit and intelli-
gence to the wisest of the land animals. As for their
sociability, I shall soon make a special plea on that
topic.
26. Now fishermen, observing that most fish evade
the striking of the hook by such countermoves as
wrestlers use, resorted, like the Persians,? to force
and used the dragnet, since for those caught in it
there could be no escape with the help of reason or
cleverness. For mullet and rainbow-wrasse ° are
caught by casting-nets and round nets, as are also
the bream 7 and the sargue ὁ and the goby 7 and the
sea-bass. The so-called net fish, that is surmullet 9
Animal. vi. 7 (570 Ὁ 20); Glossary, p. 161; Cotte, op. cit.
pp. 105-107 ; Saint-Denis, op. cit. pp. 65-66.
ὁ In particular, probably Sargus vulgaris Geoff. On the
identification cf. Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal.
v. 9 (543 a 7); Glossary, pp. 227-228; Cotte, op. cit. pp.
104-105 ; Saint-Denis, op. cit. pp. 99, 107-108; Keller, Die
antike Tierwelt, ii, p. 370; Gossen-Steier, RE, Second
Series, ii. 365.
’ A term mostly for the black goby, Gobius niger L., the
most common Mediterranean species. On the identification
cf. Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. viii. 13 (598 a
12); Glossary, pp. 137-139; Gossen, RE, Second Series,
il. 794-796.
9 The red or plain surmullet, Mullus barbatus L., and the
striped or common surmullet, Mullus surmuletus L. On
this fish ef. Cotte, op. cit. pp. 98-101; Keller, op. cit. ii,
pp. 364 f.; Prechac, Revue d. Et. Lat. xiv (1936), pp. 102-
105 ; xvii (1939), p. 279; Saint-Denis, op. cit. pp. 68 f.;
Schmid, op. cit. pp. 310-312; Steier, RE, xvi. 496-503 ;
Thompson, Glossary, pp. 264-268 ; Andrews, Class. Weekly,
xlii (1949), pp. 186-188.
4.29
(977)
978
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
τρίγλαν καὶ χρυσωπὸν καὶ σκορπίον, γρίποις τε καὶ
σαγήναις ,σύρουσι περιλαμβάνοντες" τῶν δικτύων
οὖν' τὸ γένος ὀρθῶς Ὅμηρος πανάγραν" προσεῖπεν.
ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς ταῦτα μηχαναὶ ταῖς γαλαῖς εἰσιν"
ὥσπερ τῷ λάβρακι: συρομένην γὰρ αἰσθανόμενος
βίᾳ διίστησι. καὶ τύπτει κοιλαίνων" τοὔδαφος" ὅταν
δὲ ποιήσῃ τῆς ἐπιδρομῆς τοῦ δικτύου “χώραν, ἐνέω-
σεν᾽ ἑαυτὸν καὶ προσέχεται, μέχρις ἂν παρέλθῃ.
Δελφὶς δὲ περιληφθείς, 6 οταν συναίσθηται γεγονὼς
ἐν ἀγκάλαις σαγήνης, ὑπομένει μὴ ταραττόμενος
ἀλλὰ χαίρων: εὐωχεῖται γὰρ ἄνευ πραγματείας
ἀφθόνων ἰχθύων παρόντων᾽ ὅταν δὲ πλησίον τῇ γῇ
προσίῃ, διαφαγὼν" τὸ δίκτυον ἄπεισιν. εἰ δὲ
φθαίη φυγών, τὸ πρῶτον οὐδὲν ἔπαθε δεινὸν ἀλλὰ
διαρράψαντες αὐτοῦ περὶ τὸν λόφον ὁλοσχοίνους
ἀφῆκαν: αὖθις δὲ ληφθέντα πληγαῖς κολάζουσι,
γνωρίσαντες ἐκ τοῦ διαρράμματος. σπανίως δὲ
τοῦτο συμβαίνει: συγγνώμης γὰρ τυγχάνοντες τὸ
πρῶτον εὐγνωμονοῦσιν οἱ πλεῖστοι καὶ φυλάττονται
τὸ λοιπὸν μὴ ἀδικεῖν.
Ἔτι δὲ πολλῶν τῶν πρὸς εὐλάβειαν καὶ προφυ-
1 οὖν Bernardakis: ὧν.
Σ᾿ πάναγρον Hatzidakis and Platt (cf. Jliad, v. 487).
3 γαλαῖς εἰσιν Bernardakis: γαλαῖσιν.
4 τύπτων κοιλαίνει Reiske. 5 ἐνέωσεν Hubert: ἔωσεν.
5 διαφαγὼν Reiske: φαγὼν.
7 φυγών Pohlenz: διαφυγών.
« Chrysophrys aurata C.V., called gilthead from the
golden band that runs from eye to eye. On this fish ef. Well-
mann, RA, iii. 2517-2518; Keller, op. cit. ii, pp. 369 ff. ;
RE, vii. 1578; Schmid, op. cit. pp. 297-298; Thompson,
‘lossary, pp. 292-294; Cotte, op. cit. pp. 73-74; Saint-
Denis, op. cit. pp. 80-81.
Ὁ Scorpaena scrofa L.. and S. porcus L. On this fish ef.
430
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 977-978
and gilthead “ and sculpin,’ are caught in seines by
trawling : accordingly it was quite correct for Homer °¢
to call this kind of net a “ catch-all.”’ Codfish,? like
bass,* have devices even against these. Tor when
the bass perceives that the trawl is approaching, it
forces the mud apart and hammers a hollow in the
bottom. When it has made room enough to allow
the net to overrun it, it thrusts itself in and waits
until the danger is past.
Now when the dolphin is caught and perceives
itself to be trapped in the net, it bides its time, not
at all disturbed but well pleased, for it feasts without
stint on the fish that have been gathered with no
trouble to itself. But as soon as it comes near the
shore, it bites its way through the net and makes its
escape. Yet if it should not get away in time, on
the first occasion it suffers no harm: the fishermen
merely sew rushes to its crest and let it go. But if it
is taken a second time, they recognize it from the
seam and punish it with a beating. This, however,
rarely occurs: most dolphins are grateful for their
pardon in the first instance and take care to do no
harm in the future.’
Further, among the many examples of wariness,
Cotte, op. cit. pp. 111-113; Saint-Denis, op. cit. pp. 103-
104; Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. v. 9 (543 a
7); Glossary, pp. 245 f.
¢ [lad, v. 487; cf. Platt, Class. Quart. v, p. 255; Fraenkel,
Aesch. Agam. ii, p. 190.
4 Principally the hake and rockling, Phycis sp. and
Motella sp. Not to be confused with yadeds, a general term
for sharks and dogfishes. Cf. Andrews, Journal of the
Washington Academy of Sciences, xxxix (1949), pp. 1-16.
-1Cf.Oppian, Hal. ni. 121 ff.
7 On the alliance of dolphins and fisherman see Aelian,
De Natura Animal. ii. 8; xi. 12; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 29 ff.
431
(978)
B
=
{
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
λακὴν καὶ ἀπόδρασιν ὄντων παραδειγμάτων, οὐκ
ἀξιόν ἐστι τὸ τῆς σηπίας παρελθεῖν. τὴν γὰρ κα-
λουμένην μύτιν παρὰ τὸν τράχηλον ἔχουσα πλήρη
ζοφερᾶς ὑγρότητος, ἣν θόλον καλοῦσιν, ὅταν κατα-
λαμβάνηται, μεθίησιν ἔξω, τεχνωμένη τῆς θαλάτ-
της διαθολωθείσης ποιήσασα περὶ αὑτὴν σκότος,
ὑπεκδῦναι καὶ ἀποδρᾶναι τὴν τοῦ θηρεύοντος
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/ \ λ / LAA A / \ 1A
μένους Kal διακλέπτοντας. ἀλλὰ τούτων μὲν adts.
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~ ~ ~ »”
νότητος αὐτῶν ἐν πολλοῖς σοφίσματα κατιδεῖν ἔστιν.
ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἀστήρ, ὧν ἂν ἅψηται, πάντα διαλυόμενα
καὶ διατηκόμενα γινώσκων, ἐνδίδωσι τὸ σῶμα καὶ
περιορᾷ ψαυόμενον ὑπὸ τῶν παρατρεχόντων ἢ προσ-
πελαζόντων. τῆς δὲ νάρκης ἴστε δήπου τὴν δύνα-
μιν, οὐ μόνον τοὺς θιγόντας αὐτῆς ἐκπηγνύουσαν,
ἀλλὰ καὶ διὰ τῆς σαγήνης βαρύτητα ναρκώδη ταῖς
χερσὶ τῶν ἀντιλαμβανομένων ἐμποιοῦσαν. ἔνιοι δ᾽
ἱστοροῦσι, πεῖραν αὐτῆς ἐπὶ πλέον λαμβάνοντες, ἂν
ἐκπέσῃ ζῶσα, κατασκεδαννύντες ὕδωρ ἄνωθεν, αἰ-
σθάνεσθαι τοῦ πάθους ἀνατρέχοντος ἐπὶ τὴν χεῖρα
Ἁ \ ς \ > 4 ς ” \ ~ σ΄
καὶ τὴν ἁφὴν ἀμβλύνοντος ὡς ἔοικε διὰ τοῦ ὕδα-
1 οὗς av early editors: ὅταν.
α Of. Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 37 (621 Ὁ 28);
Athenaeus, 323 d-e; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 84; Horace, Sat.
i. 4.100; Aelian, De Natura Animal, i. 34; Mairon Oppian,
Hal, iii. 156.
» Aristotle, Historia Animal. iv. 1 (524 Ὁ 15); De Part.
Animal, iv. 5 (679 a 1).
© ** Under the mouth,’
432
9
says Aristotle.
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 978
precaution, or evasion, we must not pass over that
of the cuttlefish “: it has the so-called mytis ὃ beside
the neck ¢ full of black liquid, which they call “ink.” 4
When it is come upon, it discharges the liquid to the
purpose that the sea shall be inked out and create
darkness around it while it slips through and eludes
the fisherman’s gaze. In this it imitates Homer’s °
gods who often “in a dark cloud”’ snatch up and
smuggle away those whom they are pleased to save.
But enough of this.
27. As for cleverness in attacking and catching
prey, we may perceive subtle examples of it in many
different species. The starfish,? for example, know-
ing that everything with which it comes in contact
dissolves and liquefies, offers its body and is indifferent
to the contact of those that overtake or meet it.
You know, of course, the property of the torpedo 9 :
not only does it paralyse all those who touch it, but
even through the net creates a heavy numbness in
the hands of the trawlers. And some who have
experimented further with it report that if it is
washed ashore alive and you pour water on it from
above, you may perceive the numbness mounting to
the hand and dulling your sense of touch by way of
@ Tholos, “‘ mud,” “ turbidity.”
e For example, Iliad, v. 345.
7 [Aristotle], Historia Animal. ν. 15 (548 a 7 f.), an inter-
polated passage ; nor can we be certain that it was known
to Plutarch. See also Mair on Oppian, Hal. ii. 181.
9 Or “electric ray”’ or “crampfish”’: for the ancient
references see Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix.
37 (620 b 12-23); Glossary, pp. 169-172; Aelian, De Natura
Animal. i. 36; ix. 14; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 143; Mair,
L.C.L. Oppian, p. lxix, and on Hal. ii. 56; iii. 149 ; Philo,
30 (p. 115); Antigonus, Hist. Mirab. 48; Boulenger, World
Natural History, pp. 189 f.
433
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
/ A / / 4
(918) TOS τρεπομένου και προπεπονθότος. ταύτης OVV
ἔχουσα σύμφυτον αἴσθησιν μάχεται μὲν ἐξ ἐναντίας
\ » \ > \ / 4 \ ~
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\ / σ / / \ >
τὸ Onpevopevov ὥσπερ βέλη διασπείρει τὰς ἀπορ-
ροάς, φαρμάττουσα τὸ ὕδωρ πρῶτον, εἶτα τὸ ζῷον
\ ~ “ δῶν. > / / /
D διὰ τοῦ ὕδατος, μήτ᾽ ἀμύνασθαι δυνάμενον μήτε
- > > >? / σ «ς \ ~ \
φυγεῖν ἀλλ᾽ evicyopevov ὥσπερ ὑπὸ δεσμῶν Kal
πηγνύμενον.
« δὲ | / LA \ 7 / ?
O δὲ καλούμενος ἁλιεὺς γνώριμος μέν ἐστι
a \ \ ” ae 7 ” -
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/ \ \ / ~ / £,;o
σοφίσματι καὶ τὴν σηπίαν χρῆσθαί φησιν ὃ ᾽Αρι-
στοτέλης" καθίησι γὰρ ὥσπερ ὁρμιὰν ἀπὸ τοῦ τρα-
λχλήλου πλεκτάνην, μηκύνεσθαί τε πόρρω χαλώσης
καὶ πάλιν συντρέχειν εἰς ἑαυτὴν ἀναλαμβανούσης
ῥᾷστα πεφυκυῖαν. ὅταν οὖν τι τῶν μικρῶν ἰχθυ-
/ ” / Ψ / A \ \ \
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ἀναμηρύεται λανθάνουσα καὶ προσάγεται, μέχρις ἂν
ἐν ἐφικτῷ τοῦ στόματος γένηται τὸ προσισχόμενον.᾽
E Τῶν δὲ πολυπόδων τῆς χρόας τὴν ἄμειψιν ὅ τε
Πίνδαρος περιβόητον πεποίηκεν εἰπὼν
/ \ \ / ,
ποντίου θηρὸς χρωτὶ μάλιστα νόον
/ / / ¢ /
προσφέρων πάσαις πολίεσσιν ὁμίλει"
1 προσισχόμενον Wyttenbach : προσχόμενον.
« Cf. the *‘ upward infection ” of the basilisk, Pliny, at.
Hist. viii. 78.
» The fishing-frog, Lophius piscatorius L.: Aristotle, His-
43.4
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 978
the water which, so it seems, suffers a change and is
first infected.“ Having, therefore, an innate sense
of this power, it never makes a frontal attack or en-
dangers itself ; rather, it swims in a circle around its
prey and discharges its shocks as if they were darts.
thus poisoning first the water, then through the
water the creature which can neither defend itself
nor escape, being held fast as if by chains and frozen
stiff.
The so-called fisherman ὃ is known to many; he
gets his name from his actions. Aristotle ° says that
the cuttlefish also makes use of this stratagem: he
lets down, like a fishing line, a tentacle from his neck
which is naturally designed to extend to a great
length when it is released, or to be drawn to him
when it is pulled in. So when he espies a little fish,
he gives it the feeler to bite and then by degrees
imperceptibly draws it back toward himself until the
prey attached to the arm is within reach of his
mouth.
As for the octopus’ change of colour,’ Pindar?’ has
made it celebrated in the words
To all the cities to which you resort
Bring a mind like the changing skin of the seabeast ;
toria Animal. ix. 37 (620 b 12); Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 144;
Mair on Oppian, Hal. ii. 86; Strémberg, Gr. Fischnamen,
pp. 122 f.
¢ Historia Animal, ix. 37 (622 ἃ 1) : ef. iv. 1 (524 a 8), iv.
6 (531 Ὁ 6): Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 83 ff; Mair on Oppian,
Hate τ 1998
¢ Cf. Aristotle, Historia Animal, ix. 37 (622 ἃ 8); Mair
on Oppian, Hal. ii. 233. Athenaeus, 316 f, 317 f, 513 d;
Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 87; Antigonus, Hist. Mirab. 25, 50;
Aelian, Varia Hist. i. 1; and Wellman, Hermes, li, p. 40.
¢ Frag. 43 Schroeder, 208 Turyn, 235 Bowra (p. 516, ed.
Sandys L.C.L.); ef. Mor. 916 c and Turyn’s references.
435
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(978) Kal Θέογνις ὁμοίως
919
/ / ” / “ \ /
πουλύποδος νόον ἴσχε πολυχρόου, Os ποτὶ πέτρῃ
τῆπερ ὁμιλήσῃ, τοῖος ἰδεῖν ἐφάνη.
μεταβάλλει μὲν γὰρ ὁ' χαμαιλέων οὐδέν τι μηχανώ-
2 \ / ¢ \ 3 > \ /
μενος οὐδὲ κατακρύπτων ἑαυτὸν ἀλλ᾽ ὑπὸ δέους
\
ἄλλως τρέπεται, φύσει ψοφοδεὴς ὧν καὶ δειλός.
συνέπεται δὲ καὶ πνεύματος πλῆθος, ὡς Θεόφραστος"
ἢ A a \ ~ ~ a
ὀλίγον yap ἀποδεῖ πᾶν TO σῶμα τοῦ ζῴου πλῆρες
εἶναι πνεύμονος, ᾧ τεκμαίρεται τὸ πνευματικὸν
~ “ \ \
αὐτοῦ Kal διὰ τοῦτο πρὸς Tas μεταβολὰς εὔτρεπτον.
A y ε
τοῦ δὲ πολύποδος ἔργον ἐστὶν οὐ πάθος ἡ μετα-
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A , a , \ 7 -
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τρέφεται: παρακρουόμενος γὰρ τὰ μὲν" αἱρεῖ μὴ
5.15
φεύγοντα, τὰ δ᾽ ἐκφεύγει παρερχόμενα. τὸ μὲν γὰρ
αὑτοῦ τὰς πλεκτάνας κατεσθίειν αὐτὸν ψεῦδός ἐστιν"
\ \ -/ / \ / > / >
TO δὲ μύραιναν δεδιέναι καὶ γόγγρον ἀληθές ἐστιν"
tm ἐκείνων γὰρ κακῶς πάσχει, δρᾶν μὴ δυνάμενος
ἐξολισθανόντων. ὥσπερ αὖ πάλιν ὁ κάραβος ἐκεί-
1 μὲν γὰρ ὁ Reiske: γὰρ ὁ μὲν.
2 τὰ μὲν added by Meziriacus.
α 215-216; cf. Mor. 96 Fr, 916 c. There are many textual
variants, but none alters the sense.
b Or
‘“*“ Keep a mind as multicoloured as the octopus,
With the rock whereon it sits homologous ”
(Andrews).
¢ See Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. ii. 11
(503 b 2); Ogle on De Part. Animal. iv. 11 (692 a 22 ff.).
See also Aclian: De Natura Animal, iv. 33; and ef. Pliny,
Nat. Hist. viii. 122 for the chameleon’s exclusive diet of
ςς - 39
air”’?: nec alio quam aeris alimento.
436
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 978-979
and Theognis @ likewise :
Be minded like the octopus’ hue :
The colour of its rock will meet the view.?
The chameleon,¢ to be sure, is metachromatic, but
not from any design or desire to conceal itself; it
changes colour uselessly from fear, being naturally
timid and cowardly. And this is consistent with the
abundance of air in it, as Theophrastus @ says; for
nearly the whole body of the creature is occupied by
its lungs,’ which shows it to be full of air and for
this reason easily moved to change colour. But this
same action on the part of the octopus is not an
emotional response, but a deliberate change, since it
uses this device to escape what it fears and to capture
what it feeds on: by this deceit it can both seize the
latter, which does not try to escape, and avoid the
former, which proceeds on its way. Now the story
that it eats its own tentacles 7 is a lie, but it is true
that it fears the moray and the conger. It is, in fact,
maltreated by them; for it cannot do them harm,
since they slip from its grasp. On the other hand,
when the crawfish 5 has once got them in its grasp,
4 Frag. 189 Wimmer (p. 225); Aristotle says merely,
** The change takes place when it is inflated by air.”
¢ Which confirms Karsch’s emendation of Aristotle, His-
toria Animal, ii. 11 (503 Ὁ 21); for Theophrastus and Plutarch
must have had “ lungs’”’ and not “ membranes ”’ in their
text of Aristotle.
f See 965 © supra and the note; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 87 ;
Mor. 1059 ©, 1098 ©, Comm. in Hes. fr. 53 (Bernardakis,
vol. VII, p. 77).
9 The langouste as distinguished from the homard; see
Aelian, De Natura Animal. i. 32; ix. 25; x. 38; Thompson
on Aristotle, Historia Animal. viii. 2 (590 b 16); Glossary,
pp. 102 ff.; Pliny, Nat, Hist, ix. 185; Antigonus, Hist.
Mirab. 92. 3
437
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(979) ip “μὲν ἐν λαβαῖς γενομένων περιγίνεται ῥᾳδίως"
ἡ γὰρ ψιλότης οὐ βοηθεῖ πρὸς τὴν τραχύτητα" τοῦ
δὲ πολύποδος εἴσω τὰς πλεκτάνας διωθοῦντος ἀπ-
όλλυται. καὶ τὸν κύκλον τοῦτον καὶ τὴν περίοδον
ταῖς κατ᾽ ἀλλήλων διώξεσι καὶ φυγαῖς γύμνασμα
καὶ μελέτην 7 φύσις αὐτοῖς ἐναγώνιον πεποίηκε
ie τι καὶ συνέσεως.
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σατο πρόγνωσιν ᾿Αριστότιμος πνευμάτων, ὃς ἐθαύ-
μαζε καὶ γεράνων τὴν ἐν τριγώνῳ πτῆσιν. ἐγὼ
δ᾽ ἐχῖνον μὲν οὐδένα Κυζικηνὸν 7 ἢ Βυζάντιον, ἀλλὰ
Β πάντας ὁμοῦ παρέχομαι τοὺς θαλαττίους, ὅταν
αἴσθωνται μέλλοντα χειμῶνα καὶ σάλον, ἑρματιζο-
μένους λιθιδίοις, ὁ ὅπως μὴ περιτρέπωνται διὰ κου-
φότητα μηδ᾽ ἀποσύρωνται γενομένου κλύδωνος,
ἀλλ᾽ ἐπιμένωσιν ἀραρότως τοῖς πετριδίοις.
EDs, γεράνων μεταβολὴ τῆς πτήσεως πρὸς
ἄνεμον οὐχ ἑνὸς γένους ἐστίν, ἀλλὰ τοῦτο κοινῇ
πάντες ἰχθύες νοοῦντες ἀεὶ πρὸς κῦμα καὶ ῥοῦν
ἀντινήχονται καὶ παραφυλάττουσιν ὅπως μή, κατ᾽
οὐρὰν προσφερομένου τοῦ πνεύματος, ἡ λεπὶς ἀνα-
πτυσσομένη λυπῇ τὸ σῶμα γυμνούμενον καὶ
διατραχυνόμενον: ὅθεν ἀεὶ συνέχουσιν ἑαυτοὺς
( ἀντιπρῴρους" σχιζομένη γὰρ οὕτω κατὰ κορυφὴν ἡ
᾿ χερσαίου] τοῦ λεβσαίοῦ Reiske.
2.0.00) ἦν Ais 108
% ody should perhaps be deleted ; or write οὐχ ἑνὸς μόνον.
α The octopus is worsted by the moray and the conger,
which in turn are defeated by the crawfish, which (to com-
plete the cycle) becomes the octopus’ prey. The whole en-
gagement is graphic ally portrayed in Oppian, Hal. ii. 253-
418. For Nature’s βιαίας, see, 9.0... Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 79.
» Cf. 972 ἃ supra. Valentine Rose, curiously enough,
438
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 979
it wins the victory easily, for smoothness is no aid
against roughness ; yet when the octopus has once
thrust its tentacles inside the crawfish, the latter
succumbs. And so Nature has created this cycle @
and succession of mutual pursuit and flight as a field
for the exercise and competitive practice of adroitness
and intelligence.
28. We have, to be sure, heard Aristotimus ὃ
telling us about the hedgehog’s foreknowledge of
the winds ; and our friend also admired the V-shaped
flight of cranes.“ I can produce no hedgehog of
Cyzicus or Byzantium,’ but instead the whole body
of sea-hedgehogs,’ which, when they perceive that
storm and surf are coming, ballast themselves with
little stones’ in order that they may not be capsized
by reason of their lightness or be swept away by the
swell, but may remain fixed in position through the
weight of their little rocks.
Again, the cranes’ change of flight against the wind?
is not merely the action of one species : all fish gen-
erally have the same notion and always swim against
wave and current, taking care that a blast from the
rear does not fold back their scales and expose and
roughen their bodies. For this reason they always
present the prow of their bodies to the waves, for in
that way head first they cleave the sea, which de-
emended to Aristotle (see Historia Animal. ix. 6, 612 b 4)
and included this passage in Frag. 342. See further Mair on
Oppian, Hal. ii. 226.
° Cf. 967 B supra.
* Perhaps he is leannedly confuting Aristotimus (972
supra) by drawing on Aristotle.
ἐ 2,6. the sea-urchin, regarded by the ancients as a sort of
marine counterpart of the hedgehog because of the similar
spines.
7 Cf. 967 8 supra, of bees. 9 Cf. 967 B supra,
439
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(979) θάλασσα τά τε βράγχια καταστέλλει Kal κατὰ τῆς
ἐπιφανείας ῥέουσα λείως πιέζει καὶ οὐκ ἀνίστησι
τὸ φρικῶδες. τοῦτο μὲν οὖν, ὥσπερ ἔφην, κοι-
/ > ~ > / \ ~ mM ~ /
vov ἐστι τῶν ἰχθύων, πλὴν τοῦ EAAOTOS: τοῦτον δέ
φασι κατ᾽ ἄνεμον καὶ ῥοῦν νήχεσθαι, μὴ φοβούμε-
νον τὴν ἀναχάραξιν τῆς λεπίδος, ἅτε δὴ μὴ πρὸς
οὐρὰν τὰς ἐπιπτυχὰς ἐχούσης.
«ς \ / Ὁ“ > / > ὔ \
29. ὋὉ δὲ θύννος οὕτως ἰσημερίας αἰσθάνεται Kal
τροπῆς, ὥστε καὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον διδάσκειν μηδὲν
ἀστρολογικῶν κανόνων δεόμενος". ὅπου γὰρ ἂν
΄- ς a
αὐτὸν χειμῶνος at τροπαὶ καταλάβωσιν, ἀτρεμεῖ
D καὶ διατρίβει περὶ τὸν αὐτὸν τόπον ἄχρι τῆς ἰση-
͵ὔ 5 \ ~ / \ ¢ ~ /
μερίας. ἀλλὰ τῆς γεράνου σοφὸν ἡ τοῦ λίθου
“- /
περίδραξις, ὅπως προϊεμένη νυκτὸς" ἐξυπνίζηται-"
\ ᾽ὔ / τ / \ ~ ~ -
καὶ πόσῳ σοφώτερον, ὦ φίλε, τὸ τοῦ δελφῖνος, ᾧ
στῆναι μὲν οὐ θέμις οὐδὲ παύσασθαι φορᾶς" ἀεικίνη-
τος γάρ ἐστιν ἡ φύσις αὐτοῦ καὶ ταὐτὸν ἔχουσα τοῦ
ζῆν καὶ τοῦ κινεῖσθαι πέρας" ὅταν δ᾽ ὕπνου δέηται,
- \ \ > ~
μετεωρίσας ἄνω TO σῶμα πρὸς τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν τῆς
, “ 5. 70 \ , "7 \
θαλάττης, ὕπτιον ἀφῆκε διὰ βάθους, aiwpas τινὶ
σάλῳ κοιμιζόμενος ἄχρι προσπεσεῖν καὶ ψαῦσαι
τῆς γῆς" οὕτω δ᾽ ἐξυπνισθεὶς ἀναρροιζεῖ καὶ πάλιν
ἄνω γενόμενος ἐνδίδωσι, καὶ φέρεται κινήσει τινὰ
E μεμιγμένην ἀνάπαυσιν αὑτῷ μηχανώμενος. τὸ δ᾽
1 φασι early editors: φύσει.
= δεόμενος Hubert: δεόμενον.
3 νυκτὸς Kronenberg : πυκνὸν (πρὸς τὸν κτύπον Reiske).
’ὔ Ὁ = /
4 κοιμιζόμενος Reiske: κομιζόμενος.
α Probably usually the common sturgeon, Acipenser
sturio: see Thompson, Glossary, pp. 62 f.; Aelian, De
Natura Animal, viii. 28, speaks of it as a rare and sacred
440
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 979
presses their gills and, flowing smoothly over the
surface, keeps down, instead of ruffling up, the bris-
tling skin. Now this, as I have said, is common to all
fish except the sturgeon,” which, they say, swims
with wind and tide and does not fear the harrowing
of its scales since the overlaps are not in the direction
of the tail.
29. The tunny ἢ is so sensitive to equinox and
solstice that it teaches even men themselves without
the need of astronomical tables; for wherever it
may be when the winter solstice overtakes it, in that
same place it stands and stays until the equinox. As
for that clever device of the crane,° the grasping of
the stone by night so that if it falls, she may awake
from sleep—how much cleverer, my friend, is the
artifice of the dolphin, for whom it is illicit to stand
still or to cease from motion.? For its nature is to
be ever active ὁ : the termination of its life and its
movement is one and the same. When it needs
sleep, it rises to the surface of the sea and allows
itself to sink deeper and deeper on its back, lulled
to rest by the swinging motion of the ground swell f
until it touches the bottom. Thus roused, it goes
whizzing up, and when it reaches the surface, again
goes slack, devising for itself a kind of rest combined
fish; see 981 Ὁ infra. Cf. Milton’s “ Ellops drear ” (P.L.
x. 525).
> Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. ix. 42; Aristotle,
Historia Animal, viii. 13 (598 b 25 f.).
© See 967 ὁ supra.
4 Reiske may have been right in suspecting a trimeter of
unknown origin in these words.
¢ Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal, xi. 22. The dolphin
even nurses its young while in motion: Pliny, Nat. Hist. xi.
235; and cf. Aristotle, Historia Animal, ii. 13 (504 Ὁ 21 ff.).
f As it were, the cradle of the deep.
441
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(979) αὐτὸ δρᾶν καὶ θύννους ἀπὸ τῆς αὐτῆς αἰτίας
λέγουσιν.
> \ > Μ \ \ ᾿ φὰς Ἢ ~ ~
Ἐπεὶ δ᾽ ἄρτι τὴν μαθηματικὴν αὐτῶν' τῆς τοῦ
«λ΄ A Says 2 , a ,
ἡλίου μεταβολῆς ἐτέλεσα" πρόγνωσιν, ἧς μάρτυς
> / > / Μ "ὃ \ > \
Ἀριστοτέλης ἐστίν, ἄκουσον ἤδη THY ἀριθμητικὴν
> 4 > ~ / / \ \ / \
ἐπιστήμην αὐτῶν: πρότερον δέ, vat μὰ Δία, τὴν
> / Δ ” > > / > ~ /
ὀπτικήν, ἣν ἔοικε μηδ᾽ Αἰσχύλος ἀγνοῆσαι" λέγει
γάρ που
τὸ" σκαιὸν ὄμμα παραβαλὼν θύννου δίκην.
τῷ γὰρ ἑτέρῳ δοκοῦσιν ἀμβλυώττειν: ὅθεν ἐμβάλ-
> \ / > ~ a ~ > /
Aovow εἰς τὸν Πόντον ἐν δεξιᾷ τῆς γῆς ἐχόμενοι,
\ , / LA 9.9 > / / \
καὶ τοὐναντίον ὅταν ἐξίωσιν: ἐμφρόνως πάνυ καὶ
νουνεχῶς ἀεὶ τὴν τοῦ σώματος φυλακὴν ἐπὶ τῷ
/ / ~ > ~ Ψ onl
κρείττονι ποιούμενοι τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν. ἀριθμητικῆς
if
F δὲ διὰ τὴν κοινωνικήν, ws ἔοικε, καὶ φιλάλληλον
5 / ¢ ~ / Ψ Ὁ “9 “
ἀγάπησιν ἑαυτῶν δεηθέντες οὕτως ἐπ᾽ ἄκρον ἥκουσι
~ / “ >? / -
τοῦ μαθήματος, ὥστ᾽, ἐπεὶ πάνυ χαίρουσι τῷ συν-
/
τρέφεσθαι καὶ συναγελάζεσθαι μετ᾽ ἀλλήλων, ἀεὶ TO
~ ~ / / \ \ > /
πλῆθος τῷ σχήματι κυβίζουσι καὶ στερεὸν ἐκ πάν-
των ποιοῦσιν, ἕξ ἵσοις ἐπιπέδοις περιεχόμενον" εἶτα
΄ δ΄ πὰ ΤῸ “ \ , > ἢ 5
νήχονται τὴν' τάξιν οὕτω τὸ πλαίσιον ἀμφίστομον
1 αὐτῶν Reiske: οὕτως.
5. ἐτέλεσα] ἐπελήλυθα Reiske.
3 που τὸ Meziriacus : τοῦτο.
4 τὴν] κατὰ Reiske.
5 ἀμφίστοιχον Wyttenbach.
442
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 979
with motion.*? And they say that tunnies do the
same thing for the same reason.
Having just a moment ago given you an account
of the tunny’s mathematical foreknowledge of the
reversal of the sun, of which Aristotle ὃ is a witness,
I beg you to hear the tale of their arithmetical
learning. But first, 1 swear, | must mention their
knowledge of optics, of which Aeschylus ὁ seems not
to have been ignorant, for these are his words :
Squinting the left eye like a tunny fish.
They seem, indeed, to have poor sight in one eye.
And it is for this reason that when they enter the
Black Sea, they hug’ one bank on the right, and
the other? when they are going out, it being very
prudent and sagacious of them always to entrust
the protection of themselves to the better eye. Now
since they apparently need arithmetic to preserve
their consociation and affection for each other, they
have attained such perfection of learning that, since
they take great pleasure in feeding and schooling
together,’ they always form the school into a cube,
making it an altogether solid figure with a surface
of six equal plane sides; then they swim on their
way preserving their formation, a square that faces
* But see Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 210, where it is reported
that dolphins “ are actually heard snoring.”
» Historia Animal, viii. 13 (598 b 25).
¢ Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 96, frag. 308; cf. Aelian,
De Natura Animal, ix. 42.
4 See Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. viii. 13
(598 b 19 ff.); Glossary, p. 84; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 50.
They follow the opposite shore when returning, thus keeping
the same eye towards the land.
¢ Cf. Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 2 (610 b 1 f.);
Aelian, De Natura Animal. xv. 3, 5.
4.43
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
980 διαφυλάττοντες. ὁ γοῦν θυννοσκόπος, av ἀκριβῶς
7 \ > \ ΄- > / >? \ > /
λάβῃ τὸν ἀριθμὸν τῆς ἐπιφανείας, εὐθὺς ἀποφαί-
νεται πόσον καὶ ἅπαν τὸ πλῆθός ἐστιν, εἰδὼς ὅτι
καὶ τὸ βάθος αὐτῶν ἐν ἴσῳ τεταγμένον στοιχείῳ
πρός τε τὸ πλάτος ἐστὶ καὶ τὸ μῆκος.
80. ᾿Αμίαις δὲ καὶ τοὔνομα παρέσχηκεν ὁ συν-
/ Ss \ \ A / ~ Ψ -#
αγελασμός, οἶμαι δὲ καὶ ταῖς πηλαμύσι. τῶν δ᾽ ἀλ-
λων γενῶν ὅσα φαίνεται καὶ ζῇ κοινωνικῶς μετ᾽
> / > \ > ” ” \ > /
ἀλλήλων ἀγεληδὸν οὐκ av τις εἴποι τὸν ἀριθμόν,
3 \ ~ θεν \ > 9. , / b] ~
ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἐπὶ τὰς κατ᾽ ἰδίαν κοινωνίας αὐτῶν
καὶ συμβιώσεις ἰτέον. ὧν ἐστι καὶ ὁ τὸ πλεῖστον
> / ἢ / ΄ 1? \2
ἐξαναλώσας Χρυσίππου μέλαν πιννοτήρας,, ἐν παντὶ
\ aA / \ 3 ~ / ” \
B καὶ φυσικῷ βιβλίῳ Kat ἠθικῷ προεδρίαν ἔχων: τὸν
/
yap σπογγοτήραν οὐκ ἱστόρηκεν, οὐ γὰρ ἂν παρ-
έλιπεν. ὁ μὲν οὖν πιννοτήρας ζῶόν ἐ ἐστι καρκινῶδες,
ὥς φασι, καὶ τῇ πίννῃ σύνεστι καὶ πυλωρεῖ τὴν
1 πιννοτήρας Wyttenbach : πινοθήρας.
2 ἐν παντὶ] ἐν added by Wyttenbach.
A watcher posted on a tall mast to warn fishermen of
the approach of a shoal and to give a count. See Thompson
on Aristotle, Historia Animal. iv. 10 (537 a 19); Glossary,
p. 87; Gow on Theocritus, iii. 26; Mair on Oppian, Hal.
iii. 638. Accounts of the ancient tunny fishery are given by
Thompson, Glossary, pp. 84-88 ; Pace, Atti R. Ac. Archeo-
logia Napoli, NES xit (1931/2), pp. 326 ff.; and Rhode,
Jahrb. f. class. Phil., Suppb. xviii (1900), pp. 1-78. An
account of the ancient ‘iad the modern tunny fishery is given
by Parona, Rk. Comitato Talasso-grajfico Italiano, ‘Memoria,
no. 68, 1919.
> Similarly, Athenaeus (vii. 278 a; ef. 324 ἃ) quotes
Aristotle as defining amia as δ“ not solitary,” i.e. running in
schools. Actually the term is probably foreign, perhaps of
Egyptian origin (cf. Thompson, Glossary, p. 13).
¢ Plutarch takes pélamys to be compound of pelein ** to
be’ and hama ‘* with,’ with reference to their running in
444.
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 980
both ways. Certainly a hooer% watching for tunnies
who counts the exact number on the surface at once
makes known the total number of the shoal, since he
knows that the depth is equal one to one with the
breadth and the length.
30. Schooling together has also given the bonitos
their name of ama ὃ and I think this is true of year-
old tunnies as well. As for the other kinds which
are observed to live in shoals in mutual society, it
is impossible to state their number. Let us rather,
therefore, proceed to examine those that have a
special partnership, that is, symbiosis. One of these
is the pinna-guard,? over which Chrysippus ὁ spilled
a very great deal of ink; indeed it has a reserved
seat in every single book of his, whether ethical or
physical.’ Chrysippus has obviously not investigated
the sponge-guard 2 ; otherwise he could hardly have
left it out. Now the pinna-guard is a crab-like
creature, so they say, who lives with the pinna ” and
schools. It was also anciently presumed to be a compound
of pélos ‘‘ mud” and myein “ἡ be shut in or enclosed,” be-
cause of its habit of hiding in the mud (cf. Aristotle, Historia
Animal, 599 Ὁ 18; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 47). Most scholars
now regard it as a loan from the Mediterranean substratum,
although Thompson (Glossary, p. 198) suggests that it may
be of Asiatic origin, since it was used especially of the tunny
in the Black Sea.
4 See Thompson, Glossary, p. 202.
¢ Von Arnim, S.V.F. ii, p. 208, frag. 729 ἢ (Athenaeus,
89d). Cf. also fragments 729, 729 a, and 730. On the place
of the pinna in Chrysippus’ theology see A. S. Pease, Harv.
Theol. Rev. xxxiv (1941), p. 177.
¥ Cf. Mor. 1035 τι. 1038 B.
9 A little crab that lives in the hollow chambers of a
sponge. See Thompson, loc. cit.
On this bivalve shellfish see Thompson, Glossary, p.
200; Mair on Oppian, Hal. ii. 186.
445
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(980) κόγχην προκαθήμενος, ἐῶν “ἀνεῳγμένην καὶ δια-
κεχηνυῖαν, ἄχρις οὗ προσπέσῃ τι τῶν ἁλωσίμων
αὐτοῖς ἰχθυδίων: τότε δὲ τὴν σάρκα τῆς πίννης
δακὼν παρεισῆλθεν, ἡ δὲ συνέκλεισε τὴν κόγχην,
καὶ κοινῶς τὴν ἄγραν ἐντὸς ἕρκους γενομένην
κατεσθίουσι.
Τὸν δὲ σπόγγον ἡνιοχεῖ θηρίδιον οὐ καρκινῶδες
ἀλλ᾽ ἀράχνῃ παραπλήσιον: οὐ γὰρ ἄψυχον οὐδ᾽ ἀν-
αίσθητον οὐδ᾽ “ἄναιμον ὁ σπόγγος ἐστὶν ἀλλὰ ταῖς
ὃ μὲν πέτραις, ὡς ἄλλα πολλά, προσπέφυκεν, ἔ ἔχει δὲ
κίνησιν ἰδίαν ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ καὶ εἰς ἑαυτόν, οἷον ὑπο-
μνήσεως καὶ παιδαγωγίας δεομένην: μανὸς γὰρ ὧν
ἄλλως καὶ τοῖς ἀραιώμασιν ἀνειμένος ὑπ᾽ ἀργίας
καὶ ἀμβλύτητος, ὅταν ἐμβῇ τι τῶν ἐδωδίμων,
ἐκείνου σημήναντος, ἔμυσε καὶ κατηνάλωσεν' ἔτι
δὲ μᾶλλον, ἀνθρώπου προσιόντος ἢ θιγόντος, δι-
δασκόμενος καὶ χαρασσόμενος οἷον ἔφριξε καὶ συν-
ἔκλεισε τὸ σῶμα πήξας καὶ πυκνώσας, ὥστε μὴ
ῥᾳδίαν ἀλλὰ δύσεργον εἶναι τὴν ὑποτομὴν' αὐτοῦ
τοῖς θηρεύουσιν.
Αἱ δὲ πορφύραι συναγελαζόμεναι τὸ μὲν κηρίον,
ὥσπερ at μέλιτται, κοινῇ ποιοῦσιν, ἐν ᾧ λέγονται
D yovevew: τὰ δ᾽ ἐδώδιμα τῶν βρύων καὶ τῶν φυκίων
ἀναλαμβάνουσαι προσισχόμενα" τοῖς ὀστράκοις οἷον
ἐν περιόδῳ κυκλουμένην ἑστίασιν ἀλλήλαις παρέ-
ατσθα ἑτέραν ἑτέρας ἑξῆς" ἐπινεμομένης.
. Καὶ τί dv τις ἐν τούτοις τὴν κοινωνίαν
1 ἀποτομὴν Meziriacus.
2 προσισχόμενα Reiske : προϊσχόμενα.
3 ἑξῆς Post: ἔξωθεν.
@ Nevertheless, it is a crab, Typton spongicola,
Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. viii. 16; Aristotle,
446
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 980
sits in front of the shell guarding the entrance. It
allows the pinna to remain wide open and agape until
one of the little fish that are their prey gets within ;
then the guard nips the flesh of the pinna and slips
inside ; the shell is closed and together they feast
on the imprisoned prey.
The sponge is governed by a little creature not
resembling a crab, but much like a spider.* Now the
sponge ὃ is no lifeless, insensitive, bloodless thing ;
though it clings to the rocks,° as many other animals
do, it has a peculiar movement outward and inward
which needs, as it were, admonition and supervision.
In any case it is loose in texture and its pores are
relaxed because of its sloth and dullness ; but when
anything edible enters, the guard gives the signal,
and it closes up and consumes the prey. Even more,
if a man approaches or touches it, informed by the
scratching of the guard, it shudders, as it were, and
so closes itself up by stiffening and contracting that
it is not an easy, but a very difficult, matter for the
hunters to undercut it.
The purplefish @ lives in colonies which build up a
comb together, like bees. In this the species is said
to propagate ; they catch at edible bits of oyster-
green and seaweed that stick to shells, and furnish
each other with a sort of periodic rotating banquet.
as they feed one after another in series.
31. And why should anyone be surprised at the
Historia Animal. v. 16 (548 a 28 ff.) ; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix.
148 ; Antigonus, 83; Mair on Oppian, Hal. v. 656 ; Thomp-
son, Glossary, pp. 249-250.
¢ Cf. W. Jaeger, Nemesios von Emesa, p. 116, n. 1.
4 See Aristotle, Historia Animal. v. 15 (546 Ὁ 19 ff.)
quoted in Athenaeus, 88 d—89 a; De Gen. Animal. iii. 11
(761 Ὁ 32 ff.) ; Thompson, Glossary, pp. 209-218.
4AT
(980)
F
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
θαυμάσειεν, ὅπου TO πάντων ἀμικτότατον Kal’ θη-
ριωδέστατον ὧν τρέφουσι ποταμοὶ καὶ λίμναι καὶ
θάλασσαι ζῷον, ὁ κροκόδειλος, θαυμαστὸν ἑαυτὸν
ἐπιδείκνυται πρὸς κοινωνίαν καὶ χάριν ἐν τοῖς πρὸς
τὸν τροχίλον συμβολαίοις ; ὁ γὰρ τροχίλος ἐστὶ
μὲν ὄρνις τῶν ἑλείων καὶ παραποταμίων, φρουρεῖ
δὲ τὸν κροκόδειλον οὐκ οἰκόσιτος ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἐκείνου
λειψάνοις παρατρεφόμενος: ὅταν γὰρ αἴσθηται, τοῦ
κροκοδείλου καθεύδοντος, ἐπιβουλεύοντα τὸν ἰχ-
νεύμονα πηλούμενον ἐπ᾿ αὐτὸν ὥσπερ ἀθλητὴν
κονιόμενον, ἐπεγείρει φθεγγόμενος καὶ κολάπτων᾽
ὁ δ᾽ οὕτως ἐξημεροῦται πρὸς αὐτόν, ὥστε τοῦ στό-
ματος διαχανὼν ἐντὸς παρίησι, καὶ χαίρει τὰ λεπτὰ
τῶν ἐνισχομένων τοῖς ὀδοῦσι σαρκῶν ἐκλέγοντος
ἀτρέμα τῷ ῥάμφει καὶ διασκαλεύοντος: ἂν δὲ με-
τρίως ἔχων ἤδη βούληται συναγαγεῖν τὸ στόμα καὶ
κλεῖσαι, προκλίνει τὴν σιαγόνα καὶ διασημαίνει καὶ
οὐ πρότερον καθίησιν ἢ συναισθανόμενον ἐκπτῆναι
τὸν τροχίλον.
‘O δὲ καλούμενος ἡγεμὼν μεγέθει μέν ἐστι καὶ
σχήματι κωβιῶδες ἰχθύδιον, τὴν δ᾽ ἐπιφάνειαν
ὄρνιθι φρίσσοντι διὰ τὴν τραχύτητα τῆς λεπίδος
ἐοικέναι λέγεται, καὶ ἀεὶ σύνεστιν évl τῶν μεγά-
λων κητῶν καὶ προνήχεται, τὸν δρόμον ἐπευθύνων,
1 καὶ Hubert: καὶ τὸ.
« See Herodotus, ii. 68 ; Thompson on Aristotle, Historia
Animal. ix. 6 (612 a 20); Glossary of Greek Birds, p. 287.
Some authorities such as Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 90 and
Oppian, Cyn. iii. 415 ff., state that the ichneumon attacks the
crocodile while its mouth is open for the plover’s operations.
Cf. Boulenger, Animal Mysteries, p. 104, for a modern
factual account (see also his World Natural History, p. 146).
448
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 980
community life of these when the most unsociable
and brutal of all creatures bred in river, lake, or sea,
the crocodile, shows himself marvellously proficient
at partnership and goodwill in his dealings with the
Egyptian plover?* The plover is a bird of the
swamps and river banks and it guards the crocodile,
not supplying its own food, but as a boarder making
a meal of the crocodile’s scraps.2. Now when it
perceives that, during the crocodile’s sleep, the ich-
neumon © is planning to attack it, smearing itself
with mud like an athlete dusting himself for the
fray, the bird awakes the crocodile by crying and
pecking at it. And the crocodile becomes so gentle
with it that it will open its mouth and let it in and is
pleased that the bird quietly pecks out, with its bill,
bits of fiesh which are caught in the teeth and cleans
them up. When it is now satisfied and wants to close
its mouth, it tilts its snout upward as an indication
of its desire and does not let it down until the plover,
at once perceiving the intention, flies out.
The so-called “ guide ” ὦ is a small fish, in size and
shape like a goby ; but by reason of the roughness
of its scales it is said to resemble a ruffled bird. It
always accompanies one of the great whales, swim-
ming in front of it and directing its course so that it
» Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. iii. 11; xii. 15; [Aris-
totle], Mir. Ause. 7. ¢ Cf. 966 νυ supra.
¢ The name and the activity are appropriate to the pilot-
fish (cf. Oppian, Hal. v. 62 ff.; Aelian, De Natura Animal.
ii. 13), but the description fits rather one of the globe-fishes,
such as Diodon hystrix (cf. Thompson, Glossary, p. 75). See
also Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 186; xi. 165, who calls it the sea
mouse. “ Actually the . . . pilot is just a ‘ sponger’ and
accompanies the shoals . . . with the sole object of picking
up such crumbs as may fall from their table.” Boulenger,
Animal Mysteries, p. 105.
VOL. XII Q 449
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
“ .] > /
(980) ὅπως οὐκ ἐνσχεθήσεται Bpdyeow οὐδ᾽ εἰς τέναγος
»Μ \ > an / Ὁ \
981 ἢ τινα πορθμὸν ἐμπεσεῖται δυσέξοδον: ἕπεται yap
> an \ ~ “
αὐτῷ τὸ κῆτος, ὥσπερ οἴακι ναῦς, παραγόμενον"
2 - \ ~ \ »” “ an“ /
εὐπειθῶς. καὶ τῶν μὲν ἄλλων, 6 τι ἂν παραλάβῃ
~ / ~ 7 a
τῷ χάσματι ζῷον ἢ σκάφος 7 λίθον, εὐθὺς διέ-
θ \ > 5A Ὧ ~ > θ / ι > A
φθαρται καὶ ἀπόλωλε πᾶν ἐμβεβυθισμένον: ἐκεῖνο
\ ~ -
δὲ γινῶσκον ἀναλαμβάνει τῷ στόματι καθάπερ
ἄγκυραν ἐντός" ἐγκαθεύδει γὰρ αὐτῷ καὶ τὸ κῆτος
ἕστηκεν ἀναπαυομένου καὶ ὁρμεῖ: προελθόντος δ᾽
x > “-“ 723 « / / \ >
αὖθις ἐπακολουθεῖ μήθ᾽ ἡμέρας μήτε νυκτὸς ἀπο-
λειπόμενον, ἢ ῥέμβεται καὶ πλανᾶται, καὶ πολλὰ
, , > , 2 \ a >
διεφθάρη καθάπερ ἀκυβέρνητα" πρὸς γῆν ἐξενεχ-
θέντα. καὶ γὰρ ἡμεῖς περὶ ᾿Αντικύραν ἑωράκαμεν
Β οὐ πάλαι: καὶ πρότερον ἱστοροῦσιν οὐ πόρρω
, g iiss / \ , \
Βουλίδος" ἐξοκείλαντος καὶ κατασαπέντος λοιμὸν
γενέσθαι.
> Sy a ewe eS 5 , Ξ , \
Ap’ οὖν ἀξιόν ἐστι ταύταις ταῖς κοινωνίαις καὶ
συμπεριφοραῖς παραβάλλειν ἅσπερ" ᾿Αριστοτέλης
¢ A / > / Va ees \ \ \
ἱστορεῖ φιλίας ἀλωπέκων καὶ ὄφεων διὰ TO κοινὸν
αὐτοῖς πολέμιον εἶναι τὸν ἀετόν, ἢ τὰς ὠτίδων
πρὸς ἵππους, ὅτι χαίρουσι προσπελάζουσαι καὶ δια-
/ \ ΝΜ > \ \ \ 0.9 >
σκάλλουσαι τὸν ὄνθον; ἐγὼ μὲν yap οὐδ᾽ ἐν
/ δ... ἂς / > 7 > / 0.9
μελίτταις ὁρῶ τοσαύτην ἀλλήλων ἐπιμέλειαν οὐδ
ἐν μύρμηξι: τὸ γὰρ κοινὸν αὔξουσι πᾶσαι καὶ πάν-
1 παραγόμενον] περιαγόμενον W. C. H.
2 καὶ πολλάκις (or τὰ πολλὰ) . . . καθάπερ πλοῖα ἀκυβέρνητα
Reiske.
3 οὐ Meziriacus: οὗ.
4 Βουλίδος W. C. H. after C. O. Miiller (Βούλεων) : Βουνῶν.
5 ἐστί τι Reiske.
450
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 980-981
may not go aground in shallows or be cut off in some
lagoon or strait from which exit may be difficult.
The whale follows it, as a ship obeys the helm, chang-
ing course with great docility. And whatever else,
creature or boat or stone, it embraces in its gaping
jaws is at once destroyed and goes to its ruin com-
pletely engulfed ; but that little fish it knows and
receives inside its mouth as in a haven. While the
fish sleeps within, the whale remains motionless and
lies by ; but when it comes out again, the beast
accompanies it and does not depart from it day or
night ; or, if it does, it gets lost and wanders at
random. Many, indeed, have been cast up on the
land and perished, being, as it were, without a
pilot.¢ We, in fact, were witnesses of such a mishap
near Anticyra not long ago; and they relate that
some time ago, when a whale came aground not far
from Boulis ὃ and rotted, a plague ensued.
Is it, then, justifiable to compare with these
associations and companionships those friendships
which Aristotle ὁ says exist between foxes and snakes
because of their common hostility to the eagle ; or
those between bustards and horses? because the
former like to approach and pick over the dung?
As for me, I perceive even in ants or bees no such
concern for each other. It is true that every one of
« Cf. the whole passage in Oppian, Hal. v. 70-349 on the
destruction of whales.
ὃ For the unknown Bouna or Bounae of the mss. C. O.
Miiller (Orchomenos*, p. 482) proposed Boulis, a town to
the east of Anticyra on the Phocian Gulf.
¢ Frag. 354, ed. V. Rose.
4 Of. Aelian, De Natura Animal, ii. 28 and Mair on
Oppian, Cyn. ii. 406.
8 ἅσπερ Wyttenbach: ὁ yap.
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
” eae 4 \
(981) τες Epyov, ἐτέρῳ δὲ καθ᾽ ἕτερον ἑτέρου στοχασμὸς
\
οὐδεὶς οὐδὲ φροντὶς ἔστιν.
Μ \ ~
32. “Eze δὲ μᾶλλον κατοψόμεθα τὴν διαφοράν,
9 +02 \ / ~ ~
Cem ta πρεσβύτατα καὶ μέγιστα τῶν κοινωνικῶν
” \ ,
ἔργων καὶ καθηκόντων τὰ περὶ τὰς γενέσεις καὶ
\ -“
τεκνώσεις τὸν λόγον τρέψαντες. πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ
« , /
ot λίμναις παρήκουσαν ἢ ποταμοὺς ὑποδεχομένην
’ 7 > / “ / /
νεμόμενοι θάλατταν ἰχθύες, ὅταν μέλλωσι τίκτειν,
> ἴω
ἀνατρέχουσι, τῶν ποτίμων ὑδάτων τὴν πραότητα
\ \ »Μ 7 > \ \ ε /
Kat TO ἄσαλον διώκοντες: ἀγαθὴ yap ἡ γαλήνη
λοχεῦσαι: καὶ τὸ ἄθηρον ἅμα ταῖς λίμναις ἔνεστι
\ A “ / A / \
Kal ποταμοῖς, ὥστε σῴζεσθαι τὰ τικτόμενα. διὸ
\ “- \ / / \ \ ”
καὶ πλεῖστα Kal μάλιστα γονεύεται περὶ τὸν Evée-
, δ \ , ΄ Ψ συν ν᾿ ,
νον πόντον" οὐ γὰρ τρέφει κήτη γ᾽ ἀλλ᾽ ἢ φώκην
5» τ \ - ΄ vy 209 € a ΝΕ
ἀραιὰν καὶ δελφῖνα μικρόν. ἔτι" δ᾽ ἡ τῶν ποταμῶν
> / / \ / ? / ᾿]
ἐπιμιξία, πλείστων καὶ μεγίστων ἐκδιδόντων εἰς
D A Il / ” / \ / “- λ &;
τὸν Πόντον, ἤπιον παρέχει καὶ πρόσφορον Tots Ao
χευομένοις κρᾶσιν. τὸ δὲ τοῦ ἀνθίου θαυμασιώτατόν
᾽ Δ “ κα Ve \ > \ 3) ” /
ἐστιν, ὃν “Ὅμηρος “ ἱερὸν ἰχθὺν ᾿᾿ εἴρηκε: καίτοι
μέγαν τινὲς οἴονται τὸν ἱερὸν καθάπερ ὀστοῦν
« \ \ / \ \ > / / /
ἱερὸν TO μέγα, Kal τὴν ἐπιληψίαν, μεγάλην νόσον
> ε \ a ” \ im \ »
οὖσαν, ἱερὰν καλοῦσιν" ἔνιοι δὲ κοινῶς τὸν ἄφετον
1 γ᾽ added by Bernardakis. 2 ἔτι Xylander: ὅτι.
@ See 981 £ infra; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 71.
» Of. Aristotle, Historia Animal. viii. 13 (598 b 2); Pliny,
452
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 981
them promotes the common task, yet none of them
has any interest in or regard for his fellow individually.
32. And we shall observe this difference even more
clearly when we turn our attention to the oldest and
most important of social institutions and duties, those
concerned with generation and procreation. Now in
the first place those fish that inhabit a sea that borders
on lagoons or receives rivers resort to these when
they are ready to deposit their eggs, seeking the tran-
quillity and smoothness of fresh water, since calm is a
good midwife. Besides, lagoons and rivers are devoid
of sea monsters,? so that the eggs and fry may sur-
vive. This is the reason why the Black Sea is most
favoured for spawning by very many fish. It breeds
no large sea beasts at all except an infrequent seal
and a small dolphin’; besides, the influx of rivers
—and those which empty into the Black Sea are
numerous and very large—creates a gentle blend
conducive to the production of offspring. The most
wonderful tale is told about the anthias,° which
Homer ? calls “‘ Sacred Fish.’ ® Yet some think that
“sacred? means “important,” just as we call the
important bone os sacrum/ and epilepsy, an important
disease, the sacred disease.2 Others interpret it in
the ordinary sense as meaning “ dedicated ” or “ con-
Nat. Hist. ix. 49 f.; Aelian, De Natura Animal. iv. 93; ix.
59; Mair on Oppian, Hal. i. 599; Amm. Marc. xxii. 8. 47 ;
Thompson, Glossary, pp. 54, 281.
¢ On the identity see note on 977 c supra.
@ Iliad, xvi. 407.
€ See Gow on Theocritus, frag. 3. Homer does not call
the anthias “ Sacred Fish,’’ but merely alludes to a sacred
fish ; and in later times several were so regarded.
7 The last bone of the spine.
9 Cf. [Hippocrates], De Morbo Sacro (L.C.L., vol. ii, pp.
138 ff.) ; Herodotus, iii. 33; Plato, Timaeus, 85 a-s.
4.53
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(981) καὶ ἱερωμένον. ᾿ρατοσθένης δὲ τὸν χρύσοφρυν
᾿
ἔοικεν
ἢ δρομίην" χρύσειον ἐπ᾽ ὀφρύσιν ἱερὸν ἰχθὺν
λέγειν: πολλοὶ δὲ τὸν ἔλλοπα, σπάνιος γάρ ἐστι καὶ
οὐ ῥάδιος ἁλῶναι. φαίνεται δὲ περὶ [[αμφυλίαν
πολλάκις: ἂν οὖν ποτε λάβωσι, στεφανοῦνται μὲν
αὐτοί, στεφανοῦσι δὲ τὰς ἁλιάδας, κρότῳ δὲ καὶ
E πατάγῳ καταπλέοντας αὐτοὺς ὑποδέχονται καὶ
τιμῶσιν. οἱ δὲ πλεῖστοι τὸν ἀνθίαν ἱερὸν εἶναι
καὶ λέγεσθαι νομίζουσιν: ὅπου γὰρ ἂν ἀνθίας ὀφθῇ,
θηρίον οὐκ ἔστιν, ἀλλὰ θαρροῦντες μὲν οἱ σπογγο-
θῆραι κατακολυμβῶσι, θαρροῦντες δὲ τίκτουσιν οἱ
i χθύες ὥσπερ ἐγγυητὴν ἀσυλίας ἔχοντες. ἡ δ᾽
αἰτία “δυσλόγιστος, εἴτε φεύγει τὰ θηρία τὸν ἀρθῥαν
ὡς σῦν ἐλέφαντες, ἀλεκτρυόνα δὲ λέοντες" εἴτ᾽ ἔστι
σημεῖα τόπων ἀθήρων, ἃ γιγνώσκει καὶ παρα-
φυλάττει συνετὸς ὧν καὶ μνημονικὸς ὁ ἰχθύς.
88. ᾿Αλλ᾽ 7 γε πρόνοια" κοινὴ τοῖς τίκτουσι τῶν
γεννωμένων" οἱ δ᾽ ἄρρενες οὐ τὸν αὑτῶν κατεσθί-
F ουσι γόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ προσδιατρίβουσι τοῖς κυή-
μασιν φοφυλακοῦντες ὡς ἱστόρηκεν ᾿Αριστοτέλης"
οἱ δὲ ἑπόμενοι ταῖς θηλείαις, καταρραίνουσι' Kata”
: ἱερωμένον] Wyttenbach says all mss. read ἱέμενον (a gloss
to ἄφετον ἢ ἀνειμένον ἢ ἄνετον ἢ See Athenaeus, 284 c-d), but
Hubert gives no variant.
“ἢ δρομίην Athenaeus, 284d: εὐδρομίην.
3 ἀλλ᾽ ἡ μὲν πρόνοια Reiske.
4 κματαρραίνουσι Reiske: καταρρέουσι.
5 κατὰ added by Reiske.
4 Powell, Collectanea Alexandrina, p. 60, frag. 12. 3;
Hiller, frag. 14 (p. 31).
» See Mair on Oppian, //al. i. 169.
¢ See 979 c supra. They are wrong, for while both the
454
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 981
secrated.” Eratosthenes® seems to refer to the
gilthead ὃ when he says
Swift courser golden-browed, the sacred fish.
Many say that this is the sturgeon,¢ which is rare and
hard to catch, though it is often seen off the coast of
Pamphylia. If any ever do succeed in catching it,
they put on wreaths themselves and wreathe their
boats ; and, as they sail past, they are welcomed
and honoured with shouts and applause. But most
authorities hold that it is the anthzas that is and
is called “ sacred,’ for wherever this fish appears
there are no sea monsters. Sponge-fishers ἦ may dive
in confidence and fish may spawn without fear, as
though they had a guarantor of their immunity.
The reason for this is a puzzle : whether the monsters
avoid the anthias as elephants do a pig ° and lions a
cock,f or whether there are indications of places free
from monsters, which the fish comes to know and
frequents, being an intelligent creature with a good
memory.
33. Then again the care of the young is shared
by both parents: the males do not eat their own
young, but stand by the spawn to guard the eggs,
as Aristotle 5 relates. Some follow the female and
sprinkle the eggs gradually with milt, for otherwise
gilthead and the sturgeon were sacred fish, the description
points clearly to the gilthead.
4 Cf. 950 c supra; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 153 ; Thompson,
Glossary, p. 15.
¢ Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. i. 38; Vili. 283 xvi.
365. al.
* Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. iii. 31; vi. 223 viii.
28; al.
9 Historia Animal. ix. 37 (621 a 21 ff.); cf. Herodotus, ii. 93.
455
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
\ \ / Μ \ » / / \
(981) μικρὸν τὸν θορόν: ἄλλως yap od γίνεται μέγα TO
/ > > > \ / \ 1 27 > ¢
τεχθέν, ἀλλ᾽ ἀτελὲς μένει καὶ ἀναυξον. ἰδίᾳ δ᾽ αἱ
φυκίδες ἐκ τῶν φυκίων οἷον νεοττιὰν διαπλασά-
μεναι περιαμπέχουσι τὸν γόνον καὶ σκέπουσιν ἀπὸ
τοῦ κλύδωνος.
982 Tod δὲ γαλεοῦ τὸ φιλόστοργον οὐδενὶ τῶν ἡμε-
/ / « \ / \ A
pwratwv ζῴων ὑπερβολὴν γλυκυθυμίας πρὸς τὰ
ἔκγονα καὶ χρηστότητος ἀπολέλοιπε: τίκτουσι μὲν
\ 3.}2 > ~ > > \ > 3ι . \ > ¢ ~
yap wov, εἶτα ζῷον οὐκ ἐκτὸς ἀλλ᾽ ἐντὸς ἐν ἑαυτοῖς
σ
καὶ τρέφουσιν οὕτω καὶ φέρουσιν ὥσπερ ἐκ δευ-
τέρας γενέσεως" ὅταν δὲ μείζονα γένηται, μεθιᾶσι
/ \ / / / φ
θύραζε καὶ διδάσκουσι νήχεσθαι πλησίον: εἶτα
πάλιν εἰς ἑαυτοὺς διὰ τοῦ στόματος ἐπαναλαμ-
βάνουσι καὶ παρέχουσιν ἐνδιαιτᾶσθαι τὸ σῶμα
χώραν ἅμα καὶ τροφὴν καὶ καταφυγήν, ἄχρις ἂν ἐν
δυνάμει τοῦ βοηθεῖν αὑτοῖς γένηται.
\ \ Δ: ~ / \ \ /
B Θαυμαστὴ δὲ καὶ ἡ τῆς χελώνης περὶ THY γένεσιν
~ /
Kal σωτηρίαν τῶν γεννωμένων ἐπιμέλεια: τίκτει
~ 7
μὲν yap exBaivovoa τῆς θαλάττης πλησίον, ἐπῳά-
ζειν δὲ μὴ δυναμένη μηδὲ χερσεύειν πολὺν χρόνον
ἐντίθησι τῇ ψάμμῳ τὰ φὰ καὶ τὸ λειότατον ἐπ-
αμᾶται τῆς θινὸς αὐτοῖς καὶ μαλακώτατον: ὅταν δὲ
/ \ > / / « \ /
καταχώσῃ Kal ἀποκρύψῃ βεβαίως, ot μὲν λέγουσι
τοῖς ποσὶν ἀμύττειν καὶ καταστίζειν τὸν τόπον,
1 ἀναυξές Hatzidakis.
* The phycis is almost certainly one of the wrasses, pro-
bably in particular Crenilabrus pavo C.V. See Mair, L.C.L.
Oppian, p. liii; Thompson, Glossary, pp. 276-278 ;
Andrews, Journal of The Washington Academy of Sciences,
xxxix (1949), pp. 12-14.
4.56
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 981-982
the spawn will not grow, but remains imperfect and
undeveloped. In particular the wrasse * makes a
sort of nest of seaweed, envelops the spawn in it,
and shelters it from the waves.
The affection of the dogfish ὃ for its young is not
inferior in warmth and kindliness to that of any of the
tamest animals; for they lay the egg, then sustain
and carry the newly hatched young, not without, but
within themselves, as if from a second birth. When
the young grow larger, the parents let them out and
teach them to swim close by ; then again they collect
them through their mouths and allow their bodies
to be used as dwelling-places, affording at once room
and board and sanctuary until the young become
strong enough to shift for themselves. °
Wonderful also is the care of the tortoise for the
birth and preservation of her young. To bear them
she comes out of the sea to the shore near at hand ;
but since she is unable to incubate the eggs or to
remain on dry land for long, she deposits them on
the strand and heaps over them the smoothest and
softest part of the sand. When she has buried and
concealed them securely,” some say that she scratches
and scribbles the place with her feet, making it easy
» Cf. Mor. 494 c; 730 ©; Thompson on Aristotle,
Historia Animal. vi. 10 (565 a 22 ff., b 2 ff.) ; Glossary, pp.
39-42; Mair on Oppian, Hal. i. 734.
¢ * Aristotle (Historia Animal. 565 Ὁ 24) reports that some
dogfish brought forth their young by the mouth and took
them therein again. Athenaeus (vii. 294 e) says that the
dogfish took the young just hatched into its mouth and
emitted them again. Plutarch has a somewhat garbled ver-
sion of this presumed process, blended with data on the
parental care of dolphins (cf. Plin. V.H. ix. 21) ” (Andrews).
4 Of. Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 37; contrast the forgetful
lizard (x. 187).
457
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
- ~ ¢ \ / \ ~
(982) εὔσημον ἑαυτῇ ποιοῦσαν, ot δὲ τὴν θήλειαν ὑπὸ τοῦ
»Ἡ / 7 5. \ -
ἄρρενος στρεφομένην τύπους ἰδίους καὶ σφραγῖδας
/ >
ἐναπολείπειν: ὃ δὲ τούτου θαυμασιώτερόν ἐστιν,
« / > / / > /
ἡμέραν ἐκφυλάξασα τεσσαρακοστὴν (ἐν τοσαύταις
1 / /
C yap ἐκπέττεται Kal περιρρήγνυται τὰ Wa), πρόσεισι
~ /
Kal γνωρίσασα τὸν ἑαυτῆς ἑκάστη θησαυρόν, ws
> \ / / ΝΜ > / > /
οὐδεὶς χρυσίου θήκην ἄνθρωπος, ἀσμένως ἀνοίγει.
καὶ προθύμως.
84. Τῶν δὲ κροκοδείλων τὰ μὲν ἄλλα παρα-
΄ι \ > /
πλήσια, τῆς δὲ χώρας ὁ στοχασμὸς ἐπίνοιαν ἀν-
/ ~ A > διὸ δὲ λλ td
θρώπῳ τῆς αἰτίας οὐ δίδωσιν οὐδὲ συλλογισμόν"
\ s \
ὅθεν οὔ φασι λογικὴν ἀλλὰ μαντικὴν εἶναι τὴν
~ / ” \ /
ἐπὶ; τούτου τοῦ θηρίου πρόγνωσιν: οὔτε yap πλέον
| ed »” > re > 3 av > σ Μ «
οὔτ᾽ ἔλαττον ἐκβᾶσ᾽ ἀλλ᾽ ὅσον εἰς ὥραν ἔτους ὁ
Νεῖλος αὐξηθεὶς ἐπικλύσει καὶ ἐπικρύψει τῆς γῆς,
aA σ > / ~
ἐκεῖ τὰ Wa τίθησιν: ὥστε TOV ἐντυχόντα τῶν yewp-
Do 5. Ἢ 2 ΄ pray , Εν
γῶν αὐτόν τεῦ γινώσκειν ἕτέροις τε φράζειν, ὁπόσον
αὐτοῖς ὁ ποταμὸς πρόεισιν: οὕτω συνεμετρήσατο,
\ / > \ / > / >
μὴ βρεχομένων αὐτὸς βρεχόμενος ἐπῳάζῃ. ἐκλα-
/ 3 \ ~ / “ “ > \ > \ \
πέντων" δὲ TOV σκύμνων, ὃς av εὐθὺς avadds μὴ
- a“ ~ x” ,ὔ a“
λάβῃ τι τῶν προστυχόντων, ἢ μυῖαν ἢ σέριφον ἢ
an \ Ὑ ~ /
γῆς ἔντερον ἢ κάρφος ἢ βοτάνην τῷ στόματι, δια-
σπαράξασα τοῦτον ἡ μήτηρ ἀπέκτεινε δακοῦσα: τὰ
δὲ θυμοειδῆ καὶ δραστήρια στέργει καὶ περιέπει,
1 ἐπὶ Basil., Xylander: περὶ (παρὰ Bernardakis ; Meziria-
cus deletes).
2 αὐτόν te Bernardakis: αὐτὸν.
458
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 982
for her to recognize ; others affirm that it is because
she has been turned on her back by the male that
she leaves peculiar marks and impressions about the
place. But what is more remarkable than this, she
waits for the fortieth day ὅ (for that is the number
required to develop and hatch out the eggs) and then
approaches. And each tortoise recognizes her own
treasure and opens it more joyously and eagerly
than a man does a deposit of gold.
34. The accounts given of the crocodile are similar
in other respects, but the animal’s ability to estimate
the right place goes beyond man’s power to guess
or calculate the cause. Hence they affirm that this
creature’s foreknowledge is divine and not rational.
For neither to a greater or a less distance, but just
so far as the Nile will spread that season and cover
the land in flood, just so far does she go to deposit
her eggs, with such accuracy that any farmer finding
the eggs may know himself and predict to others
how far the river will advance.? And her purpose in
being so exact is to prevent either herself or her
eggs getting wet when she sits on them. When they
are hatched, the one which, upon emerging, does not
immediately seize in its mouth anything that comes
along, fly or midge or worm or straw or plant, the
mother tears to pieces and bites to death ©; but those
that are bold and active she loves and tends, thus
« Cf. Aelian, Varia Hist. i. 6.
> See Aelian, De Natura Animal. v. 52 ; and compare B.
Evans, The Natural History of Nonsense, p. 33.
¢ Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. ix. 3; contrast Pliny,
Nat. Hist. x. 10; Antigonus, 46, of the sea eagle; Lucan, ix.
902 ff., of the eagle. See also Julian, Epistle 59 (383 c); 78
(418 Ὁ) with Wright’s note (L.C.L. vol. iii, p. 259, n. 2).
3 ἐκλαπέντων Bernardakis: ἐκλιπόντων or ἐκλεπισθέντων.
459
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(982) καθάπερ οἱ σοφώτατοι τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀξιοῦσι,
κρίσει τὸ φιλεῖν, οὐ πάθει νέμουσα.
Καὶ μὴν αἱ φῶκαι τίκτουσι μὲν ἐν τῷ ξηρῷ,
κατὰ μικρὸν δὲ προάγουσαι τὰ σκυμνία γεύουσι τῆς
E θαλάττης καὶ ταχὺ πάλιν ἐξάγουσι" καὶ τοῦτο πολ-
λάκις ποιοῦσιν ἐν μέρει, μέχρι ἂν οὕτως ἐθιζόμενα
θαρρήσῃ καὶ στέρξῃ τὴν ἔναλον δίαιταν.
i δὲ βάτραχοι περὶ τὰς ὀχείας ἀνακλήσεσι
χρῶνται, τὴν λεγομένην ποιοῦντες ὀλολυγόνα, φω-
νὴν ἐρωτικὴν καὶ γαμήλιον οὖσαν" ὅταν δὲ τὴν
θήλειαν ὁ ἄρρην οὕτω προσαγάγηχαι, κοινῇ, τὴν
νύκτα “περιμένουσιν" ἐν ὑγρῷ μὲν γὰρ οὐ δύνανται,
μεθ᾽ ἡμέραν δὲ δεδίασιν ἐπὶ γῆς μίγνυσθαι: yevo-
μένου δὲ σκότους, ἀδεῶς συμπλέκονται προϊόντες.
ἄλλοτε" δὲ λαμπρύνουσι τὴν φωνήν, ὑετὸν προσ-
δεχόμενοι" καὶ τοῦτο" σημεῖον ἐν τοῖς βεβαιοτάτοις
ἐστίν.
35. ᾿Αλλ᾽ οἷον, ὦ φίλε Πόσειδον, ὀλίγου πάθος
ὡς ἄτοπον πέπονθα καὶ καταγέλαστον, εἴ με διατρί-
F βοντα περὶ φώκας καὶ βατράχους τὸ σοφώτατον καὶ
θεοφιλέστατον ἐξέφυγε καὶ παρῆλθε τῶν ἐνάλων.
ποίας γὰρ ἀηδόνας ἄξιον τῷ φιλομούσῳ τῆς ἀλ-
κυόνος ἢ τῷ φιλοτέκνῳ" χελιδόνας 7 ἢ τῷ φιλάνδρῳ
πελειάδας ἢ τῷ τεχνικῷ παραβάλλειν μελίττας ;
1 κοινῇ early editors: κοινὴν.
2 ἄλλοτε W. Ο. Η. : ἄλλως.
3 τοῦτο τὸ Emperius.
4 φιλοτέκνῳ Meziriacus: φιλοτέχνῳ.
* Apparently with reference to Theophrastus, frag. 74 (ef.
Mor. 482 B).
> Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. ix. 9; Oppian, Hal. i.
686 ff.; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 41.
460
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 982
bestowing her affection by judgement, as the wisest
of men think right, not by emotion.4
Furthermore, seals ὃ too bear their young on dry
land and little by little induce their offspring to try
the sea, then quickly take them out again. This they
do often at intervals until the young are conditioned
in this way to feel confidence and enjoy life in the
sea.
Frogs in their coupling use a call, the so-called
ololygon,° a cry of wooing and mating. When the
male has thus attracted the female, they wait for the
night together, for they cannot consort in the water
and during the day they are afraid to do so on land ;
but when the darkness falls, they come out and
embrace with impunity. On other occasions when
their cry is shrill, it is because they expect rain.¢
And this is among the surest of signs.
35. But, dear Poseidon! What an absurd and
ridiculous error I have almost fallen into : while I am
spending my time on seals and frogs, I have neglected
and omitted the wisest of sea creatures, the most
beloved of the gods! ° For what nightingales are to
be compared with the halcyon?’ for its love of sweet
sound, or what swallows for its love of offspring, or
what doves for its love of its mate, or what bees for
its skill in construction ? What creature’s procreation
¢ See Gow on Theocritus, vii. 139; Boulenger, Animal
Mysteries, pp. 67 f.
4 Cf. Mor. 912 c-p; Aratus, Phaenomena, 946 ff.; ef. Ae-
lian, De Natura Animal. vi. 19; ix. 13.
¢ As it is to Thetis: Virgil, Georgics, i. 399.
7 See Thompson, Glossary of Greek Birds, s.v.; Kraak,
Mnemosyne (3rd series), vii. 142 ; Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 89 ff. ;
Aelian, De Natura Animal. vii. 17 ; Gow on Theocritus, vii.
57; and the pleasant work Halcyon found in mss. of Lucian
and Plato.
461
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
/ a
(982) τινος δὲ γενέσεις καὶ τόκους καὶ ὠδῖνας ὁ θεὸς
οὕτως ἐτίμησε; τὰς μὲν γὰρ Λητοῦς γονὰς μίαν
ἑδρασθεῖσαν ὑποδέξασθαι νῆσον ἱστοροῦσι, τῇ δ᾽
ἀλκυόνι τικτούσῃ περὶ τροπὰς πᾶσαν ἵστησι θά-
ΒΟῊΝ ἴδ tate 1 “ ΩΝ ΤῊΝ
988 λασσαν ἀκύμονα καὶ ἀσάλευτον. ὅθεν οὐδὲν ἔστι
ζῷον ἄλλο, ὃ μᾶλλον" φιλοῦσιν ἄνθρωποι, ἢ du? ἣν
ἑπτὰ μὲν ἡμέρας ἑπτὰ δὲ νύκτας ἐν ἀκμῇ χειμῶνος
ἀδεῶς πλέουσι, τῆς κατὰ γῆν πορείας τηνικαῦτα
\ \ ~ / > / Μ >
τὴν διὰ τῆς θαλάσσης ἀσφαλεστέραν ἔχοντες. εἰ
δὲ δεῖ καὶ περὶ ἑκάστης τῶν ἀρετῶν ἃς ἔχει βραχέα
/ / \ A >] / σ \ >
φάναι, φίλανδρος μὲν οὕτως ἐστίν, ὥστε μὴ καθ
σ \ > \ ae ~ \ /
eva καιρὸν ἀλλὰ du’ ἔτους συνεῖναι Kal προσδέχεσθαι
\ a mM « / b] \ Wels / A
τὴν τοῦ ἄρρενος ὁμιλίαν οὐ διὰ TO ἀκόλαστον (ἄλλῳ
γὰρ οὐ μίγνυται τὸ παράπαν), ἀλλ᾽ ὑπ᾽ εὐνοίας
ὥσπερ γυνὴ γαμετὴ καὶ φιλοφροσύνης" ὅταν δὲ διὰ
γῆρας ἀσθενὴς ὁ ἄρρην γένηται συνέπεσθαι καὶ
Β βαρύς, ὑπολαβοῦσα γηροφορεῖ καὶ γηροτροφεῖ, μη-
δαμοῦ προϊεμένη μηδὲ καταλείπουσα" χωρίς, ἀλλὰ
τοῖς ὥμοις ἐκεῖνον ἀναθεμένη καὶ κομίζει παντα-
χόσε καὶ θεραπεύει καὶ σύνεστιν ἄχρι τελευτῆς.
Τῷ δὲ φιλοτέκνῳ καὶ πεφροντικότι σωτηρίας
τῶν γεννωμένων συναισθανομένη κύουσαν ἑαυτὴν
τάχιστα τρέπεται πρὸς ἐργασίαν τῆς νεοττιᾶς, οὐ
φύρουσα πηλὸν οὐδὲ προσερείδουσα τοίχοις καὶ
-- ἀσάλευτον Leonicus : ἀστάλακτον.
μᾶλλον added by Pohlenz,
3 ἢ δι’ Reiske: δι΄.
4 κματαλείπουσα Bernardakis: καταλιποῦσα.
@ Poseidon.
> For the birth of Apollo and Artemis.
° Delos, the wandering island.
462
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 982-983
and birth pangs has the god% so honoured? For
Leto’s parturition,’ so they say, only one island ¢ was
made firm to receive her; but when the halcyon lays
her eggs, about the time of the winter solstice, the
god? brings the whole sea to rest, without a wave,
without a swell. And this is the reason why there
is no other creature that men love more. Thanks
to her they sail the sea without a fear in the dead of
winter for seven days and seven nights.? For the
moment, journey by sea is safer for them than by
land. If it is proper to speak briefly of her several
virtues, she is so devoted to her mate that she keeps
him company, not for a single season, but throughout
the year. Yet it is not through wantonness that she
admits him to her company, for she never consorts
at all with any other male ; it is through friendship
and affection, as with any lawful wife. When by
reason of old age the male becomes too weak and
sluggish to keep up with her, she takes the burden on
herself, carries him and feeds him, never forsaking,
never abandoning him; but mounting him on her
own shoulders, she conveys him everywhere she goes
and looks after him, abiding with him until the end.?
As for love of her offspring and care for their pre-
servation, as soon as she perceives herself to be
pregnant, she applies herself to building the nest,
not making pats of mud or cementing it on walls and
4 The Haleyon Days (Suidas, s.v.); Aristotle, Historia
Animal. v. 8 (542 Ὁ 6 ff.) ; Aelian, De Natura Animal. i. 36 ;
Pliny, Nat. Hist. xviii. 231; al.
¢ Cf. Aleman’s famous lines: frag. 26 Edmonds (Lyra
Graeca, i, p. 72, L.C.L.), frag. 94 Diehl (Anth. Lyrica, ii,
p. 34); Antigonus, Hist. Mirab. 23; al.
* Cf. Mor. 494 s-B; Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 13
(616 a 19 ff.); Aelian, De Natura Animal, ix. 17.
463
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(983) ) ὀρόφοις ὥσπερ at χελιδόνες, οὐδὲ χρωμένη πολλοῖς
τοῦ σώματος ἐνεργοῖς μέρεσιν, ὥσπερ τῆς μελίττης
ἐνδυομένης τῷ σώματι καὶ τὸ κηρίον ἀνοιγούσης
ὁμοῦ ψαύοντες οἱ ἕξ πόδες" εἰς, efdywva τὸ πᾶν"
Ca ἀγγεῖα διαιροῦσιν: ἡ δ᾽ ἀλκυὼν € ἕν ὄργανον ἁπλοῦν,
ἕν ὅπλον, ἕν ἐργαλεῖον ἔχουσα, τὸ στόμα, καὶ
μηδὲν τὴν pereth φιλοπόνου καὶ φιλοτέχνου" συνερ-
γόν, οἷα μηχανᾶται καὶ δημιουργεῖ χαλεπόν ἐστι
πεισθῆναι μὴ καταμαθόντας ὄψει τὸ πλαττόμενον
ὑπ᾽ αὐτῆς, μᾶλλον δὲ ναυπηγούμενον, σχημάτων
πολλῶν" μόνον ἀπερίτρεπτον καὶ ἀβάπτιστον᾽" συλ-
λέξασα γὰρ τὰς τῆς βελόνης ἀκίδας συντίθησι καὶ
συνδεῖ πρὸς ἀλλήλας ἐγκαταπλέκουσα τὰς μὲν εὖ-
θείας τὰς δὲ πλαγίας, ὥσπερ ἐπὶ “στήμονι κρόκην
ἐμβάλλουσα, προσχρωμένη καμπαῖς καὶ περιαγω-
γαῖς δι᾽ ἀλλήλων, ὥστε διαρμόσαι καὶ γενέσθαι
στρογγύλον ἕν, ἠρέμα" πρόμηκες τοῦ σχήματος,
Ὁ ἁλιευτικῷ κύρτῳ παραπλήσιον. ὅταν δὲ συντελέσῃ,
φέρουσα παρέθηκε παρὰ τὸ κλύσμα τοῦ κύματος,
ὅπου προσπίπτουσα μαλακῶς ἡ θάλασσα τὸ μὲν οὐ"
καλῶς ἀραρὸς ἐδίδαξεν ἀκέσασθαι καὶ καταπυκνῶ-
σαι, χαλώμενον ὁρῶσαν ὑπὸ τῆς πληγῆς" τὰ δ᾽
ἡρμοσμένα κατασφίγγει καὶ πήγνυσιν, ὥστε καὶ
λίθῳ καὶ σιδήρῳ δυσδιάλυτον εἶναι καὶ δύστρωτον.
οὐδενὸς δ᾽ ἧσσον ἀξιοθαύμαστόν ἐστιν ἢ τε συμ-
1 καὶ added by Meziriacus.
2 οἱ ἕξ πόδες added by Meziriacus.
3 εἰς €Edywva τὸ πᾶν Meziriacus: εἰς ἀγῶνα τόπον.
4 φιλοτέχνου Reiske: φιλοτέκνου.
5 πολλῶν] πάντων ὃ
6. &, ἠρέμα Post: ἐνήρεμον (εὔηρες W. C. H., cf. Vita Ant.
65 ; εὐηρεφὲς van Herw erden).
i πρόμηκες Reiske : προμήκει.
8 οὐ] οὐκέτι ?
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 983
roofs like the house-martin®; nor does she use the
activity of many different members of her body, as
when the bee employs its whole frame to enter and
open the wax, with all six feet pressing at the same
time to fashion the whole mass into hexagonal cells.
But the halcyon, having but one simple instrument,
one piece of equipment, one tool—her billand nothing
else, co-operating with her industry and ingenuity—
what she contrives and constructs would be hard to
believe without ocular evidence, seeing the object
that she moulds—or rather the ship that she builds.
Of many possible forms, this alone cannot be cap-
sized © or even wet its cargo. She collects the spines
of garfish ὁ and binds and weaves them together,
some straight, others transverse, as if she were
thrusting woven threads through the warp, adding
such bends and knots of one with another that a
compact, rounded unit is formed, slightly prolate in
shape, like a fisherman’s weel. When it is finished,
she brings and deposits it beside the surging waves,
where the sea beats gently upon it and instructs her
how to mend and strengthen whatever is not yet good
and tight, as she observes it loosened by the blows.
She so tautens and secures the joints that it is difficult
even for stones or iron to break or pierce it. The
proportions and shape of the hollow interior are as
« Cf. 966 D-E supra.
Ὁ Aristotle (Joc. cit.), on the contrary, seems to say (though
his text is corrupt ; see Thompson ad loc.) : ‘‘ The opening
is small, just enough for a tiny entrance, so that even if the
nest is upset, the sea does not enter.”
¢ Belone was usually a term for the garfish and the
needlefish, neither of which has spines of any size. Thomp-
son (Glossary, pp. 31-32) rightly regards the meaning of
belone here as indeterminable. Cf. also Mor. 494 a, which
is almost certainly mistranslated in the L.C.L. edition.
4.65
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
= / / ~ - “ 3 / /
(983) μετρια TO TE σχῆμα τῆς TOV ayyELoU κοιλότητος"
πεποίηται γὰρ αὐτὴν ἐκείνην μόνην ἐνδυομένην
/ A > Μ \ Ss / \
δέχεσθαι, τοῖς δ᾽ ἄλλοις τυφλὸν εἶναι πάντῃ καὶ
/ σ / \ ” \ lod /
E κρύφιον, ὥστε παριέναι μηδὲν εἴσω μηδὲ τῆς θαλάτ-
Ts. οἶμαι μὲν οὖν μηδέν᾽ ὑμῶν ἀθέατον εἶναι τῆς
~ > \ \ / > 4 \ ‘A
νεοττιᾶς: ἐμοὶ δὲ πολλάκις ἰδόντι καὶ θιγόντι παρ-
ίσταται λέγειν καὶ ἄδειν
Δήλῳ δή πότε τοῖον ᾿Απόλλωνος παρὰ ναῷ"
\ / \ Ss > “- « \ /
τὸν κεράτινον βωμὸν εἶδον ἐν τοῖς ἑπτὰ καλουμέ-
/ ,ὔ
νοις θεάμασιν ὑμνούμενον, ὅτι μήτε κόλλης δεό-
μενος μήτε τινὸς ἄλλου δεσμοῦ διὰ μόνων τῶν δε-
~ /
ξιῶν συμπέπηγε Kal συνήρμοσται κεράτων. ἵλεως
Yj ,
δ᾽ 6 θεὸς εἴη καὶ προσήκει" τὸν᾽ μουσικὸν ὄντα καὶ
νησιώτην, ὑμνουμένης" τῆς πελαγίου σειρῆνος, εὐ-
μενῶς καταγελᾶν τῶν ἐρωτημάτων ἐκείνων, ἃ
7 > ~ ae \ hye 3 / >
σκώπτοντες ἐρωτῶσιν οὗτοι, διὰ τί ᾿Απόλλων οὐ
/ 6 δὲ Ν 5A ¢ “ -
γογγροκτόνος" οὐδὲ τριγλοβόλος ἡ ἤΑρτεμις, ἅτε
\ > /
δὴ γινώσκοντα τὴν ἐκ θαλάττης γενομένην ᾿Αφρο-
F δίτην ὁμοῦ τι πάντα τὰ κατὰ θάλατταν ποιουμέ-
ΠΡῸΣ ΨΚ {3 \ \ \ pris
νην αὑτῆς ἱερὰ καὶ ἀδελφὰ καὶ μηδενὶ φονευομένῳ
ναῷ] βωμῷ the mss. of Homer.
προσήκει van Herwerden: zpos.
τὸν Post: τι.
ὑμνουμένης old editors: ὑμένης.
1
2
3
4
5 καὶ before καταγελᾶν deleted by W. C. H.
6 οὐ yoyypoxtovos Salmasius : ové’.
7 πριγλοβόλος ἡ ἔλρτεμις, ἅτε added by Bernardakis after
Salmasius.
8 τὴν ἐκ θαλάττης added by Bernardakis; γενομένην by
W.C.H.; τι by Bernardakis ; πάντα τὰ by Wyttenbach,
9. μηδενὶ φονευομένῳ Wyttenbach : μηδὲν ὀνευομένῳ.
466
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 983
admirable as anything about it; for it is so con-
structed as to admit herself only, while the entrance
remains wholly hidden and invisible to others—with
the result that not even a drop of water can get in.
Now I presume that all of you have seen this nest ;
as for me, since I have often seen and touched it, it
comes to my mind to chant the words
Once such a thing in Delos near Apollo’s shrine @
I saw, the Altar of Horn, celebrated as one of the
Seven Wonders of the World ὃ because it needs no
glue or any other binding, but is joined and fastened
together, made entirely of horns taken from the
right side of the head. Now may the god @ be pro-
pitious to me while I sing of the Sea Siren @—and
indeed, being both a musician and an islander, he
should laugh good-naturedly at my opponents’
scofing questions. Why should he not be called a
“ conger-slayer ’ or Artemis be termed a “ surmullet-
slayer ’’?/ Since he well knows that Aphrodite,
born of the sea, regards practically all sea creatures
as sacred and related to herself and relishes the
Ἢ Homer, Odyssey, vi. 162. ‘‘ That there was some re-
ligious mystery associated with the so-called nest is indicated
by the close of Plutarch’s description.”” (Thompson on
Aristotle, loc. cit.)
» Cf. Strabo, xiv. 2. 5.
¢ Curiously enough, the Life of Theseus, xxi. 2 (9 £) says
the “ left side.”
4 Apollo. From this point on the text of the rest of this
chapter is very bad and full of lacunae. ‘The restorations
adopted here are somewhat less than certain.
¢ This is not fulfilled and so is presumably an indication
of another lacuna toward the end of Phaedimus’ speech, the
location of which we cannot even guess,
7 Cf. 966 a supra.
467
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(983) χαίρουσαν. ev δὲ Λέπτει τοὺς ἱερεῖς τοῦ Lloaedd-
νος οὐδὲν ἔναλον τὸ παράπαν ἐσθίοντας, τρίγλαν δὲ
τοὺς ἐν ᾿᾿λευσῖνι μύστας σεβομένους ἴστε, καὶ τῆς
Ἥρας ἐν "Apyeu τὴν ἱέρειαν ἀπεχομένην ἐπὶ τιμῇ
τοῦ ζῴου: τὸν γὰρ θαλάττιον λαγωόν, ὅς ἐστιν ἀν-
θρώπῳ θανάσιμος, κτείνουσιν αἱ τρίγλαι μάλιστα
καὶ καταναλίσκουσι: διὸ ταύτην ὡς φιλάνθρωπα καὶ
σωτήρια ζῷα τὴν ἄδειαν ἔχουσι.
984 36. Καὶ μὴν ᾿Αρτέμιδός γε Δικτύννης Δελφινίου
τ᾽ ᾿Απόλλωνος ἱερὰ καὶ βωμοὶ παρὰ πολλοῖς εἰσιν
“Ἑλλήνων: ὃν δ᾽ αὐτὸς ἑαυτῷ τόπον ἐξαίρετον ὁ
θεὸς πεποίηταί φησιν ὁ ποιητής, Κρητῶν ἀπο-
γόνους οἰκοῦντας" ἡγεμόνι δελφῖνι χρησαμένους" οὐ
γὰρ ὁ θεὸς" προενήχετο᾽ τοῦ στόλου μεταβαλὼν τὸ
εἶδος, ws οἱ μυθογράφοι λέγουσιν, ἀλλὰ δελφῖνα
πέμψας τοῖς ἀνδράσιν ἰθύνοντα τὸν πλοῦν κατή-
γαγεν εἰς Kippav. ἱστοροῦσι δὲ καὶ τοὺς πεμφ-
θέντας" εἰς Σινώπην ὑπὸ [Πτολεμαίου τοῦ Σωτῆρος
ἐπὶ τὴν Σαράπιδος κομιδήν, Σωτέλη" καὶ Διονύσιον,
ἀπωσθέντας" ἀνέμῳ βιαίῳ κομίζεσθαι παρὰ γνώμην
Β ὑπὲρ Μαλέαν, ἐν. δεξιᾷ Πελοπόννησον ἔχοντας, εἶτα
ῥεμβομένους καὶ δυσθυμοῦντας αὐτοὺς προφανέντα
1 φησιν ὁ ποιητής added by van Herwerden.
2 ἀπογόνους οἰκοῦντας) ἀποικίαν ἡγοῦνται Meziriacus ; ἀποι-
κοῦντας Bernardakis ; ἐπήγαγε τοὺς οἰκοῦντας Post. '
οὐ γὰρ ὁ θεὸς] οὐ μὴν ὁ θεός γε ὃ
4 προενήχετο Xylander ; προενήνοχε τὸ.
ὃ πεμφθέντας Xylander : περιλειφθέντας.
6 SwréAn added by Kaltwasser from Mor. 361 F.
7
ἀπωσθέντας Xylander: ἀπωσθέντα.
α Andrews suspects a confusion here and at Mor. 730 Ὁ
468
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 983-984
slaughter of none of them. In Leptis,* you know, the
priests of Poseidon refrain entirely from any sea
food, and those initiated into the mysteries at
Eleusis hold the surmullet in veneration, while the
priestess of Hera at Argos abstains from this fish to
pay it honour. For surmullets are particularly good
at killmg and eating the sea-hare, which is lethal to
man. It is for this reason that surmullets possess
this immunity, as being friendly and _ life-saving
creatures.
36. Furthermore, many of the Greeks have temples
and altars to Artemis Dictynna ὁ and Apollo Del-
phinios ; and that place which the god had chosen
for himself the poet ὁ says was settled by Cretans
under the guidance of a dolphin. It was not, however,
the god who changed his shape and swam in front of
the expedition, as tellers of tales relate; instead,
he sent a dolphin to guide the men and bring them
to Cirrha.? They also relate that Soteles and ‘Diony-
sius, the men sent by Ptolemy Soter% to Sinope to
bring back Serapis, were driven against their will by
a violent wind out of their course beyond Malea,
with the Peloponnesus on their right. When they
were lost and discouraged, a dolphin appeared by the
with Lepidotonpolis on the Nile, not far below Thebes,
apparently a focal point of a taboo on eating the bynni,
allegedly due to its consumption of the private parts of
Osiris when they were thrown into the river (cf. Mor. 358 8).
® Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. ii. 45; ix. 51; xvi. 19;
Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 155; Philostratus, Vita Apoll. vi. 32.
° As though “ Artemis of the Net’’; see Callimachus,
gn ili. 198.
@ Homer, Hymn to Apollo, iii. 393 ff. (as restored by van
Herwerden). For Delphinian Apollo see lines 495 f.
¢ The port of Delphi.
7 Cf. Mor. 361 τ; Tacitus, Histories, iv. 83-84.
460
(984)
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
δελφῖνα πρῴραθεν ὥσπερ ἐκκαλεῖσθαι καθηγούμε-
νον εἰς τὰ ναύλοχα καὶ σάλους' μαλακοὺς ἔχοντα
τῆς χώρας καὶ" ἀσφαλεῖς, ἄχρις οὗ τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον
ἄγων καὶ παραπέμπων τὸ πλοῖον εἰς Kippav κατ-
, “ > , 3 , ” 7
ἔστησεν. ὅθεν ἀναβατήρια" θύσαντες, ἔγνωσαν ὅτι
- A > / \ \ ~ / >
δεῖ δυεῖν ἀγαλμάτων τὸ μὲν τοῦ [lAovtTwvos av-
ελέσθαι καὶ κομίζειν, τὸ δὲ τῆς Κόρης ἀπομάξασθαι
καὶ καταλιπεῖν.
Εἰκὸς μὲν οὖν ἣν καὶ τὸ φιλόμουσον ἀγαπᾶν τοῦ
/ \ / a \ / > / « /
θηρίου τὸν θεόν: ᾧ καὶ Π΄νδαρος ἀπεικάζων ἑαυτόν
ἐρεθίζεσθαι φησὶν
A ,
ἁλίου" δελφῖνος ὑπόκρισιν"
\ \ ΑΓ ἢ- ἢ 3. τ , ,
τὸν μὲν ἀκύμονος ἐν" πόντου πελάγει
» ~ > / > > \ /
αὐλῶν ἐκίνησ᾽ ἐρατὸν μέλος.
ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἔοικε τὸ φιλάνθρωπον αὐτοῦ θεοφιλὲς
A ΝΜ ὶ 5 / > a Μ
εἶναι: μόνος γὰρ ἄνθρωπον ἀσπάζεται, καθ᾽ ὃ av-
θρωπός ἐστι. τῶν δὲ χερσαίων τὰ μὲν οὐδένα τὰ
δ᾽ ἡμερώτατα μόνους περιέπει τοὺς τρέφοντας ὑπὸ
/ \ \ / ¢ / ie Cur /
χρείας, Kal τοὺς συνήθεις ὁ κύων ὁ ἵππος ὁ ἐλέφας"
ς \ a \ / 4
at δὲ χελιδόνες ὅσων μὲν δέονται τυγχάνουσιν
εἰσοικισάμεναι, σκιᾶς καὶ ἀναγκαίας ἀσφαλείας,
1 σάλους Madvig: στόλους.
2 καὶ Reiske: εἶναι or καταμένειν.
3 ἀναβατήρια Reiske: ἀναβατήριον (ἀποβατήρια van Her-
werden).
4 ἁλίου from Mor. 704 ε Reiske: ov.
5 ὑπόκρισιν Xylander: ἀπόκρισιν.
6 ἐν Wyttenbach : ὃν, εἰς, or ἐκ.
470
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 984
prow and, as it were, invited them to follow and led
them into such parts as had safe roadsteads with but
a gentle swell until, by conducting and escorting the
vessel in this manner, it brought them to Cirrha.
Whence it came about that when they had offered
thanksgiving for their safe landing, they came to see
that of the two statues they should take away the
one of Pluto, but should merely take an impress of
that of Persephone and leave it behind.?
Well might the god be fond of the music-loving
character of the dolphin,? to which Pindar ὁ likens
himself, saying that he is roused
Like a dolphin of the sea
Who on the waveless deep of ocean
Is moved by the lovely sound of flutes.
Yet it is even more likely that its affection for men 4
~ renders it dear to the gods ; for it is the only creature
who loves man for his own sake.® Of the land animals,
some avoid man altogether, others, the tamest kind,
pay court for utilitarian reasons only to those who
feed them, as do dogs and horses and elephants to
their familiars. Martins take to houses to get what
they need, darkness and a minimum of security, but
* That is, in Sinope.
» Cf. Mor. 162 F; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xi. 137.
¢ Page 597, ed. Sandys (L.C.L.); frag. 125, lines 69-71
ed. Bowra (O.C.T.); frag. 222. 14-17, ed. Turyn. The
quotation is found also in Mor. 704 r—705 a. The lines
were partially recovered in Oxyrhynchus Papyri, iii. 408 b
(1903) ; for the critical difficulties see Turyn’s edition.
4 Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 24. For Dionysus and the pirate-
dolphins see the seventh Homeric Hymn and Frazer on
Apollodorus, iii. 5. 3 (L.C.L., vol. i, p. 332).
6 ** The hunting of dolphins is immoral’: Oppian, Hal.
v. 416 (see the whole passage).
471
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(984) φεύγουσι δὲ καὶ φοβοῦνται τὸν ἄνθρωπον ὥσπερ
/ ΄σ \ A“ \ / \ ’ \
θηρίον. τῷ δὲ δελφῖνι παρὰ πάντα καὶ “μόνῳ τὸ
¢e \ ~ > / / -
ζητούμενον ὑπὸ τῶν ἀρίστων φιλοσόφων ἐκεῖνο, τὸ
Abt 0 αι \ \ > \
D φιλεῖν ἄνευ χρείας" ὑπάρχει: μηδενὸς yap ets μηδὲν
ἀνθρώπου δεόμενος πᾶσιν εὐμενής τε φίλος ἐστὶ
καὶ βεβοήθηκε πολλοῖς: ὧν τὰ μὲν ᾿Αρίονος οὐδεὶς
> ~ / / > « / \ \
ἀγνοεῖ: περιβόητα yap ἐστιν: ᾿Ησιόδου δὲ κατὰ
καιρὸν αὐτὸς ἡμᾶς, ὦ φίλε, ἀνέμνησας,
> \ ᾽ / Lc /
ἀτὰρ ov τέλος ἵκεο μύθων.
” 4) τά ͵ , 2 \ A \
ἔδει δὲ τὸν κύνα διηγησάμενον" μὴ παραλιπεῖν τοὺς
δελφῖνας: τυφλὸν γὰρ ἦν τὸ μήνυμα τοῦ κυνός,
ὑλακτοῦντος καὶ μετὰ βοῆς ἐπιφερομένου τοῖς φο-
νεῦσιν, εἰ μὴ τὸν νεκρὸν περὶ τὸ Νέμειον θαλάσσῃ
διαφερόμενον ἀράμενοι δελφῖνες, ἕτεροι παρ᾽ ἑτέρων
> , / > Ae / > / ”
ἐκδεχόμενοι προθύμως, εἰς τὸ “Plov ἐκθέντες ἔδει-
ξαν ἐσφαγμένον.
E ”Evadov δὲ τὸν Αἰολέα Μυρσίλος" ὁ Λέσβιος ἱστο-
ρεῖ, τῆς Σμινθέως" ἐρῶντα θυγατρὸς ῥιφείσης κατὰ
\ As , efi iis Ta A 6 \
χρησμὸν τῆς ᾿Αμφιτρίτης ὑπὸ τῶν [Πενθιλιδῶν," Kat
ast: > , - > \ / en A
αὐτὸν ἐξαλόμενον᾽ εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν ὑπὸ δελφῖνος
σῶον ἐξενεχθῆναι πρὸς τὴν Λέσβον.
Ἢ δὲ πρὸς τὸν ᾿Ιασέα παῖδα τοῦ δελφῖνος εὔνοια
1 χρείας] the mss. follow with the words φύσει πρὸς ἀνθρώ-
mous; deleted by W. C. H.
διηγησάμενον Bernardakis : αἰτησάμενον.
εἰ μὴ τὸν νεκρὸν added by Meziriacus.
Μυρσίλος C. Miiller : μυρτίλος.
Σμινθέως Emperius: φινέως.
Πενθιλιδῶν Meziriacus: πενθίδων.
ἐξαλόμενον Reiske: ἐξαλλόμενον.
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 984
avoid and fear man as a dangerous wild beast.? To
the dolphin alone, beyond all others, nature has
granted what the best philosophers seek : friendship
for no advantage. Though it has no need at all of
any man, yet it is a genial friend to all and has helped
many. The story of Arion ὃ is familiar to everyone
and widely known ; and you, my friend, opportunely
put us in mind of the tale of Hesiod,¢
But you failed to reach the end of the tale.?
When you told of the dog, you should not have left
out the dolphins, for the information of the dog that
barked and rushed with a snarl on the murderers
would have been meaningless if the dolphins had not
taken up the corpse as it was floating on the sea near
the Nemeon”’ and zealously passed it from group
to group until they put it ashore at Rhium and so
made it clear that the man had been stabbed.
Myrsilus 7 of Lesbos tells the tale of Enalus the
Aeolian who was in love with that daughter of
Smintheus who, in accordance with the oracle of
Amphitrite, was cast into the sea by the Penthilidae,
whereupon Enalus himself leaped into the sea and
was brought out safe on Lesbos by a dolphin.
And the goodwill and friendship of the dolphin for
« Cf. Mor.728 4; butsee Aelian, De Natura Animal. i. 52 ;
Arrian, Anabasis, i. 25. 8.
> Herodotus, i. 24; Mair on Oppian, Hal. v. 448. In
Mor. 161 « ff. the story is told by an eye-witness at the
banquet of the Seven Wise Men.
¢ Cf. 969 © supra.
4 Homer, Iliad, ix. 56.
¢ The shrine of Zeus at Oeneon in Locris.
7 Miiller, Frag. Hist. Graec. iv, Ὁ. 459 ; Jacoby, Frag. d.
griech. Hist. ii, frag. 12; cf. Mor. 163 s-p; Athenaeus,
466 c gives as his authority Anticleides.
478
(
984)
F
985
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
καὶ φιλία δι᾿ ὑπερβολὴν ἔρως ἔδοξε: συνέπαιζε yap
αὐτῷ καὶ συνενήχετο καθ᾽ ἡμέραν καὶ παρεῖχεν ἐν
= ξι »
χρῷ wavopevos: ἔπειτα περιβαίνοντος οὐκ ἔφευγεν,
5 ‘is ” / \ “a »” / c ~
ἀλλ᾽ ἔφερε χαίρων, πρὸς ὃ ἔκαμπτε κλίνων, ὁμοῦ
» \
πάντων ᾿Ιασέων ἑκάστοτε συντρεχόντων ἐπὶ τὴν
/ » / ΄ οὗ /
θάλατταν. ὄμβρου δέ ποτε πολλοῦ μετὰ χαλάζης
~ ¢ \
ἐπιπεσόντος, ὁ μὲν παῖς ἀπορρυεὶς ἐξέλιπεν, ὁ δὲ
\ c \ [2 ~ ~ / , ‘
δελφὶν ὑπολαβὼν ἅμα τῷ νεκρῷ συνεξέωσεν αὐτὸς
ἑαυτὸν ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν καὶ οὐκ ἀπέστη τοῦ σώματος
ἕως ἀπέθανε, δικαιώσας μετασχεῖν ἧς συναίτιος
4 ~ > /
ἔδοξε γεγονέναι τελευτῆς. καὶ τοῦ πάθους ἐπίση-
~ ~ ᾽ὔ >
μον ᾿Ϊασεῦσι τὸ χάραγμα τοῦ νομίσματός ἐστι,
παῖς ὑπὲρ δελφῖνος ὀχούμενος.
3 \ / \ \ \ / » i>)
Ex δὲ τούτου καὶ τὰ περὶ Κοίρανον ὄντα μυθώδη
\ /
πίστιν ἔσχε. Ilapios yap ὧν τὸ γένος ev Βυζαντίῳ
/ / > / δ \
δελφίνων βόλον, ἐνσχεθέντων σαγήνῃ καὶ κινδυ-
a “- ᾽ὔ
νευόντων κατακοπῆναι, πριάμενος μεθῆκε πάντας"
σ
ὀλίγῳ δ᾽ ὕστερον ἔπλει πεντηκόντορον ἔχων, ὥς
~ - ~
φασι, λῃστῶν' πεντήκοντα" ἄγουσαν: ev δὲ τῷ
A / \ 7] ~ ~ \ >
μεταξὺ Νάξου καὶ Ildpov πορθμῷ τῆς νεὼς ava-
τραπείσης καὶ τῶν ἄλλων διαφθαρέντων, ἐκεῖνον
λέγουσι, δελφῖνος ὑποδραμόντος αὐτῷ καὶ ἀνακου-
1 λῃστῶν] λῃστὰς Meziriacus ; Μιλησίων Rohde.
2 πεντήκοντα (=v’) Naber, after Reiske: ἀνδρας.
* Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 15 (ef. viii. 11), tells the
story in great detail and with several differences ; cf. also
the younger Pliny’s famous letter (ix. 33) on the dolphin of
Hippo and the vaguer accounts in Aelian, De Natura Animal.
ii. 6; Antigonus, 55; Philo, 67 (p. 132). Gulick on Athe-
naeus, 606 c-d collects the authorities ; see also the dolphin
stories in Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 25 ff. and Mair on Oppian,
474.
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 984-985
the lad of Iasus 5 was thought by reason of its great-
ness to be true love. For it used to swim and play
with him during the day, allowing itself to be touched ;
and when the boy mounted upon its back, it was not
reluctant, but used to carry him with pleasure wher-
ever he directed it to go, while all the inhabitants of
Iasus flocked to the shore each time this happened.
Once a violent storm of rain and hail occurred and the
boy slipped off and was drowned. The dolphin took
the body and threw both it and itself together on the
land and would not leave until it too had died, think-
ing it right to share a death for which it imagined that
it shared the responsibility. And in memory of this
calamity the inhabitants of Iasus have minted their
coins with the figure of a boy riding a dolphin.?
From this the wild tales about Coeranus ὁ gained
credence. He was a Parian by birth who, at By-
zantium, bought a draught of dolphins which had
been caught in a net and were in danger of slaughter,
and set them all free. A little later he was on a sea
voyage in a penteconter, so they say, with fifty
pirates aboard; in the strait between Naxos and
Paros the ship capsized and all the others were lost,
while Coeranus, they relate, because a dolphin sped
beneath him and buoyed him up, was put ashore at
Hal. v. 458; Thompson, Glossary, pp. 54 f. Iasus is a city
in Ionian Caria on the gulf of the same name.
ὃ The story has a happier ending in one version found in
Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 27: the dolphin dies, but Alexander the
Great makes the boy head of the priesthood of Poseidon in
Babylon.
¢ Aelian, De Natura Animal. viii. 3; Athenaeus, 606 e-f
cites from Phylarchus, Book XII (Jacoby, Frag. d. griech.
Hist. i, p. 340). There are many other examples of dolphins
rescuing people, such as the fragment of Euphorion in Page,
Greek Literary Papyri, i, p. 497 (L.C.L.).
47
(985)
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
, > A σι , 1 \ ,
φίζοντος, ἐξενεχθῆναι τῆς Σικίνου' κατὰ σπήλαιον,
ὃ δείκνυται μέχρι νῦν καὶ καλεῖται ἸΚοιράνειον" ἐπὶ
τούτῳ δὲ λέγεται ποιῆσαι τὸν ᾿Αρχίλοχον
πεντήκοντ᾽ ἀνδρῶν λίπε Κοίρανον ἤπιος Ποσειδῶν.
> \ 3 “ 5» / ᾿] ~ \ ζω
ἐπεὶ δ᾽ ὕστερον ἀποθανόντος αὐτοῦ τὸ σῶμα πλη-
σίον τῆς θαλάττης οἱ προσήκοντες ἔκαον, ἐπεφαί-
vovto πολλοὶ δελφῖνες παρὰ τὸν αἰγιαλόν, ὥσπερ
ἐπιδεικνύντες ἑαυτοὺς ἥκοντας ἐπὶ τὰς ταφάς, καὶ
παραμείναντες ἄχρι οὗ συνετελέσθησαν.
ς 9° 15 , > \ “ \ es: τ
Η & ᾽Οδυσσέως ἀσπὶς ὅτι μὲν ἐπίσημον εἶχε
δελφῖνα καὶ Στησίχορος ἱστόρηκεν" ἐξ ἧς δ᾽ αἰτίας,
Δακύνθιοι διαμνημονεύουσιν, ὡς Κριθεὺς μαρτυρεῖ"
?
νήπιος yap ὧν ὁ Τηλέμαχος, ws φασιν, εἰς ἀγχι-
βαθὲς τῆς θαλάττης ὀλισθὼν ἐσώθη, δελφίνων ὑπο-
7
λαβόντων καὶ avavynEapevwv: ὅθεν ἐποιήσατο γλυφὴν
τῇ σφραγῖδι καὶ τῆς ἀσπίδος κόσμον ὁ πατήρ,
ἀμειβόμενος τὸ ζῷον.
3 3 > \ \ ς δὲ 00 Ὁ > ~
AAW’ ἐπεὶ προειπὼν ws οὐδὲ μῦθον ὑμῖν ἐρῶ
καὶ αὐτὸς οὐκ 010° ὅπως πρὸς τοῖς δελφῖσιν ἔλαθον
πορρωτέρω τοῦ πιθανοῦ συνεξοκείλας εἰς τὸν
᾿Οδυσσέα καὶ Κοίρανον, ἐπιτίθημι δίκην ἐμαυτῷ"
παύομαι γὰρ ἤδη λέγων.
37. ΑΡΙΣΤ. ξεστιν οὖν ὑμῖν, ὦ ἄνδρες δικα-
/ \ ~ /
otal, τὴν ψῆφον φέρειν.
1 Yixivov Palmerius (cf. Cobet, Coll. Crit. p. 539): Σι-
κύνθου (said to be an ancient name of Paros).
@ An island south of Paros.
» Of. Edmonds, Elegy and lambus, ii, p. 321 (L.C.L.).
476
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 985
Sicinus,? near a cave which is pointed out to this day
and bears the name of Coeraneum.? It is on this
man that Archilochus is said to have written the line
Out of fifty, kindly Poseidon left only Coeranus. °
When later he died, his relatives were burning the
body near the sea when a large shoal of dolphins
appeared off shore as though they were making it
plain that they had come for the funeral, and they
waited until it was completed.@
That the shield of Odysseus had a dolphin em-
blazoned on it, Stesichorus 6 also has related; and
the Zacynthians perpetuate the reason for it, as
Critheus’ testifies. For when Telemachus was a
small boy, so they say, he fell into the deep inshore
water and was saved by dolphins who came to his aid
and swam with him to the beach; and that was the
reason why his father had a dolphin engraved on
his ring and emblazoned on his shield, making this
requital to the animal.
Yet since I began by saying that I would not tell
you any tall tales and since, without observing what
I was up to, I have now, besides the dolphins, run
aground on both Odysseus and Coeranus to a point
beyond belief, I lay this penalty upon myself: to
conclude here and now.
37. aRIsToTIMus.’ So, gentlemen of the jury, you
may now cast your votes.
¢ Edmonds, op. cit. ii, p. 164; Diehl, Anth. Lyrica, i, p. 243,
frag. 117.
# On the grief of dolphins see Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 25, 33.
¢ Edmonds, Lyra Graeca, ii, p. 66, frag. 71.
7 Nothing whatever is known about this author, whose
name may be given incorrectly in our ss.
9 Perhaps rather Heracleon (975 c) or Optatus (965 Ὁ).
477
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(985) Σωκλ. ᾿Αλλ᾽ ἡμῖν ye πάλαι τὸ τοῦ Σοφοκλέους
δεδογμένον ἐστίν"
εὖ γὰρ καὶ διχοστατῶν λόγος
/ ΝᾺ / >] > a > / 1 /
σύγκολλά τ᾽ ἀμφοῖν ἐς μέσον" τεκταίνεται.
\ / “a \ > / > / /
ταυτὶ yap, ἃ πρὸς ἀλλήλους εἰρήκατε, συνθέντες
εἰς ταὐτὸν ἀμφότεροι καλῶς ἀγωνιεῖσθε κοινῇ πρὸς
τοὺς τὰ ζῷα λόγου καὶ συνέσεως ἀποστεροῦντας.
1 σύγκολλά τ᾽ ἀμφοῖν ἐς μέσον Brunck and Porson: συγ-
~ γ > , > μ -“ B vy
κολλᾶτ᾽ ἐς μέσον ἀμφοῖν.
α Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 314, frag. 783 ; Pearson,
111, p. 69, frag. 867.
» The Stoics, as always in this essay.
478
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS, 985
soctarus. As for us, we have for some time held
the view of Sophocles ¢ :
It is a marvel how of rival sides
The strife of tongues welds both so close together.
For by combining what you have said against each
other, you will together put up a good fight against
those δ᾽ who would deprive animals of reason and
understanding. ¢
¢ To some critics the ending is suspicious because of its
brevity and vagueness; they regard it as added by an
ancient editor who could not find the original termination.
But the sudden turn at the end may merely indicate that the
whole debate is in reality a single argument to prove the
thesis that animals do have some degree of rationality (see
also the Introduction to this dialogue).
479
ot o
230 “— ΠᾺΡ ῖ "δα
(oni Bladen? apie fot vsrad ay
Sthoypaiow Cat :
* Beni: 7
dis λον μὰ
tbr arcane hd olyvecs ten οι ois
τοὺς τὰ ἐῶ Αὔγην καὶ Ue δι
οὶ wb -guibas ad) ἃ
[hie stows, δὲ abe
(att
APPENDIX
A worp of caution is needed: Plutarch emphatically was
no naturalist. The zoological material is a hodge-podge of
misinformation dredged up from various zoological sources,
seasoned here and there with personal contributions, which
are not necessarily correct. In the original sources, terms
for specific types of animals were probably used with con-
siderable precision. It is my impression that Plutarch often
had only a vague idea of the meaning of such terms. For
example, he consistently uses the specific term for a rock
dove, but probably had in mind any type of domestic dove.
Similarly, dorcas was used in Greece commonly as a term
for the roedeer, but in Asia Minor for the common gazelle.
In the original sources the word probably denoted specifically
one or the other, depending on where the man lived; but
Plutarch may well have used the term vaguely for any type
of small deer, including gazelles and antelopes.
ALFRED C. ANDREWS
VOL. XII R 481
CLASSIFIED ZOOLOGICAL INDEX
1. ΜΑΜΜΑῚΒ
Αἴλουρος : wild cat of Egypt (Felis ocreata Gm.) and of
Europe (F. silvestris Schreb.) and domestic form (17, do-
mestica Briss.).
Αἴξ : domestic goat, Capra hircus L.
᾿Αλώπηξ : fox, esp. Vulpes vulgaris Flem.
“Apxtos: bear, more esp. the European brown bear, Ursus
arctos L.
Bots: domestic ox, Bos taurus L.
Γαλέη (γαλῆ) : the weasel (Putorius vulgaris Cuy.), and such
similar animals as the marten (.Wartes sp.) and the polecat
or foumart (Mustela putorius L.).
Δασύπους : hare (see Aaywos).
Δελφίς : dolphin, esp. Delphinus delphis L.
Aopxas : in Greece, usually a term for the roedeer, Capreolus
capreolus L..; in Asia Minor, usually a term for the com-
mon gazelle, Gazella dorcas L.
Ἔλαφος : in Greece, usually a term for the red-deer, Cervus
elaphus L..; in Ionia, usually a term for the fallow-deer,
C. dama L.
᾿Ἐλέφας : elephant, Hlephas indicus L. and EF. africanus
Blumenb.
Ἔριφος : usually a kid (see Aig); sometimes a very young
lamb (see “Ois).
’Exivos (χερσαῖος) : common hedgehog, Hrinaceus europaeus L.
‘Hydovos: mule, usually by mare and he-ass, sometimes by
stallion and she-ass; in Syria, a term for the wild ass
(Asinus onager Sm.) or the dschigetai (4. hemionus Sm.).
Ἵππος : horse, Caballus caballus L.
Ἵππος ποτάμιος : hippopotamus, Hippopotamus amphibius L.
᾿Ιχνεύμων : ichneumon, Herpestes ichneumon L.
Κάμηλος : the Bactrian camel, Camelus bactrianus L., and
the Arabian camel or dromedary, C. dromedarius L.
Kazpos: wild boar, mostly Sus scrofa ferus Riitimeyer.
482
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS
K7ros: in Plutarch usually whale, as in 980 r. See also
Κῆτος under Fisues.
Κριός : ram (see “Ois).
Κύων : dog, Canis familiaris L.
Aaywés: hare, esp. the common European hare (Lepus
europaeus Pall.), to a lesser degree the variable hare (L.
timidus L.).
Λέων : lion, Felis leo L.
Advyé: lynx, Lynx lyne L.; caracal, Lyne caracal Giild.
Λύκος : wolf, Canis lupus L.
“Ois : domestic sheep, Ovis aries L.
Ὄνος : domestic ass, Asinus domesticus Sm.
᾿᾽Ορεύς : mule (see ‘Hyiovos).
"Opv&: chiefly the scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx leucoryx
Pall.) and the straight-horned oryx (O. beisa Riippel).
Πάρδαλις : panther or leopard, Felis pardus antiquorum
Smith.
Πρόβατον : sheep (see “Ois).
Lvs: pig, Sus scrofa domesticus Riitimeyer.
Tadpos: bull (see Boas).
Tiyps: tiger, Felis tigris L.
Φώκη : seal, including the common seal (Phoca vitulina L.)
and the monk seal (P. monachus Herm.).
2. Brros
*Aeros: eagle, esp. Aquila sp.
᾿Αηδών : nightingale, chiefly Luscinia megarhyncha Brehm.
᾿Αλεκτρυών : domestic cock, Gallus domesticus Briss.
᾿Αλκυών : kingfisher, Alcedo ispida L.
Tépavos : common crane, Grus grus L.
Ἔρωδιός : heron, including the common heron (Ardea
cinerea L..), the greater European egret (Herodias alba
Gray), the lesser European egret (Garzetta garzetta L.),
and the bittern (Botaurus stellaris L.).
*IBis: ibis, including the sacred white ibis (Πὲς aethiopica
Ill.) and the black ibis (Plegades falcinellus Kaup.).
‘Iépaé: smaller hawks and falcons generically.
Ἰκτῖνος : kite, including the common kite ( Milvus ictinus
Sav.) and the black kite (/. ater Gm.).
Kizra: jay, Garrulus glandarius L.; sometimes the magpie,
Pica caudata L.
Κολοιός : jackdaw, Corvus monedula L.
483
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
Κόραξ : raven, Corvus corax L.
Κορώνη : crow (Corvus corone L.) and hooded crow (C.
cornix L.).
Κύκνος : swan, Cygnus olor Gm. and C. musicus Bkst.
Μέροψ : bee-eater, Merops apiaster L.
IleAapyos: stork, esp. Ciconia alba L.
Ilépd:é : partridge, esp. the Greek partridge, Alectoris graeca
Kaup; in Italy also the red-legged partridge, 4. rufa Kaup.
Ileprorepad : rock-dove, Columba livia L.; domestic rock-
dove, C. livia domestica L.
Tpoxidos: Egyptian plover, Pluvianus aegyptius Viell.;
elsewhere also the common European wren, T’roglodytes
troglodytes L.
Χελιδών : swallow, including the chimney swallow (Chelidon
rustica L.) and the house-martin (Chelidon urbica Boie).
Xv: as a wild type, the gray or graylag goose (Anser
cinereus Meyer) and the bean goose (Anser segetum
Bonn.), often the domestic type of the gray goose.
Yap: starling, Sturnus vulgaris L.
Ψιττακός : parrot, perhaps esp. Psittacus alewandri L. and
P. torquatus Gm.
Ὦτίές : bustard, Otis tarda L.
Ὦωτος : a horned or eared owl, not more specifically identifi-
able.
3. Reprites AND AMPHIBIA
Batpayos: frog, Rana sp. and allied genera.
Κροκόδειλος : Nile crocodile, Crocodilus niloticus Laur.
Ὄφις : serpent generically.
Χαμαιλέων : the African chameleon, Chameleo vulgaris Latr.
Χελώνη (yepoaia): tortoise, Testudo graeca L. and T. mar-
ginata Schoepff.; (θαλαττία) : sea-turtle, Thalassochelys
corticata Rondel.
4. FisHes
‘AXevs : fishing-frog, Lophius piscatorius L.
᾿Αλώπηξ : fox-shark, Alopecias vulpes Bp.
᾿Αμία : bonito, more esp. the pelamid or belted bonito, Sarda
sarda Cuy., to a lesser degree the bonito or striped-bellied
tunny, Katsuwonus pelamis Kish.
᾿Ανθίας : in 977 c probably the Mediterranean barbier,
Serranus anthias C.V.; sometimes spoken of as a much
larger fish, then of uncertain identity.
484
THE CLEVERNESS OF ANIMALS
Βελόνη : usually the pipefish (Syngnathus rubescens Risso
and S. acus L.) and the garfish (Belone imperialis Vincig.
and Strongylura acus Lacép.); in 983 c indeterminable.
Tadeos: generic term for sharks and dogfishes, more esp.
Scyllium canicula Cuy., S. catulus Cuy., and Mustelus
vulgaris Miill.
Ταλῆ : principally the hake and rockling, Phycis sp. and
Motella sp.
Τόγγρος : conger-eel, Conger vulgaris Cuv.
Ἑλλοψ : probably mostly the common sturgeon, Acipenser
sturio L.
᾿Ἡγεμών : usually the pilot-fish, Naucrates ductor Cuv.; in
980 F apparently also one of the globe-fishes, such as
Diodon hystrix L.
Θρίσσα : probably the shad, Alosa vulgaris C.V., or the
sardinelle, Sardinella aurita C.V.
Θύννος : tunny, mostly the common tunny, Thunnus thyn-
nus L.
‘Iepos: “ἧ sacred,” an epithet applied to several fish, more
especially the av@/as, the gilthead, the sturgeon, the dolphin,
and the pilot-fish.
᾿Ἰουλίς : rainbow-wrasse, Coris iulis Gth.
Keotpevs: the gray mullet in general, sometimes the common
gray mullet, Mugil capito Cuv., in particular.
Κῆτος : sometimes a large sea monster (as in 981 9). in other
authors sometimes a huge fish (such as a large tunny), but
more commonly, and usually in Plutarch, a whale.
Κολίας : coly-mackerel, Pnewmatophorus colias Gm.
Κωβιός : goby, chiefly the black goby, Gobius niger L.
AdBpaé: sea-bass, Labrax lupus Cuv.
Μορμύρος : type of sea bream, the mormyrus, Pagellus
mormyrus C.V.
Mvpawa: moray or murry, Muraena helena L.
Νάρκη : torpedo or electric ray, esp. Torpedo marmorata
Risso, less commonly 7. narce Nardo and T. hebetans
Lowe.
Περαίας : a type of gray mullet (Mugil sp.).
ΠΠηλαμύς : year-old tunny (see Θύννος).
Lapyos: sargue, esp. Sargus vulgaris Geoff.
Σικάρος : parrot-fish, Scarus cretensis C.V.
Σκορπίος : sculpin, Scorpaena scrofa L. and S. porcus L.
TpiyAa: the red or plain surmullet, Mullus barbatus L., and
the striped or common surmullet, 77. surmuletus L.
485
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
Φυκίς : a wrasse, probably specifically Crenilabrus pavo C.V.
Χρυσωπός : gilthead, Chrysophrys awrata C.V.
5. Mo.xwuscs
Κόγχη : mussels in general, including oysters.
Aaywos (θαλάττιος) : sea-hare, Aplysia depilans L.
"Oorpeov: sometimes a generic term for mussels; more
commonly a specific term for the common European oyster,
Ostrea edulis L.; occasionally a term for other species of
oyster, such as O. lamellosa Brocchi and O. cristata Lam.
Ilivn: pinna, especially Pinna nobilis L.; but also P.
rudis L., P. rotundata L., and P. pectinata L.
Πολύπους : octopus, Octopus vulgaris Lam.
Πορφύρα : purplefish, Murex trunculus L., M. brandaris L.,
and Thais haemastoma Lam.
Σηπία : cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis L.
6. CRUSTACEA
KapaBos: rock lobster, Palinurus vulgaris Latr.
Kapxivos: crab, Decapoda brachyura Lam.
Ilayoupos: probably the common edible crab, Cancer
pagurus L.
Πιννοτήρης : pinna-guard, Pinnoteres veterum L.
Σ)πογγοτήρης : sponge-guard, Typton spongicola Costa.
7. Insects AND SPIDERS
᾿Αράχνης : spider (class Arachnoidea, order Araneida).
Μέλιττα : bee generically, but mostly domestic honeybee,
Apis mellifera L.
Muppné: ant generically (family Formicidae).
Τέττιξ : cicada, esp. Cicada plebeia Scop. and C. orni L.
8. EcHINODERMS
᾿Αστήρ : starfish generically, Asterias sp.
*Exivos (θαλάττιος) : sea-urchin, especially Echinus esculentus
Lam. and Strongylocentrotus lividus Bradt.
9, PorRIFERA
Lndyyos: sponge, chiefly Huspongia officinalis Bronn, and
Hippospongia equina Schmidt.
486
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL
(BRUTA ANIMALIA RATIONE UTI)
PLU ARCHES Me
Φυκύξν & «ΣΆ βδι ©
Apterntds. cglithend, Oheyeophere
bag Moxaveat |
Repyy >. rivals igre
—
Aayvtuts ἐδαλόττων &
“ogee 1 rae! Bal a ᾷ ae
cammonly aanpogifite lem mac “iE
πίνει wigs ὡς κα GCcarlonsll
Oyster, εὐδ ἃ ὦ. lateltonn Vrach
liver: phinea veperiall «ene
rusgiiz , » at and. P,
[TiAdeoug | ottypus, δια culorrts Lag
ἐπορφόρα i pisy ish, Murer ον ν
and 7 δὲν basmiisioma Lagi. "
Lyd ᾿ς, cuttehsh, Sepie ofleinateg Σὰ φῇ
“yf
IAVOITAS GRA δ᾽ Ἔ,
“αὐὺ GAOrTan ἈΔΆΜ Re
Πάνουγς Ε μον “The ὐσαυσιδη caer
Pagurus |
Miuseeyep: τ ΤΙ ππ ΣΑΣ, οξον
ΝΣ TV PMS sponge eunrd, l'ep%ce
teuctt o> Sie
a» OS pedey (sess A tachi tye << % ᾿
Mdurraz Vee Αδονγί νυ, bulb. γον ἃ
Ate Pi tivsaors j ᾿ ῥ
ερμεηξ: ont wenevitulls (acs forme
Devers ᾿ ἌΝΩ, νῶν, ( νεῖ pie ὁ) Op. J
4, ἘΣΤΙΝ peas
ΝΑ vil tage h - ene Uy. “A a ἢ wy?
S\o-ts Woddvieec! © ραν η, empeclaln
in, aad Stroagylocmirotar Nadas
). ΤΟΥ ΙΑ
teas: apotge, thirty δἰυρυασίδ
tppuspongte egeina Schmidt ῥῶ
iit}
INTRODUCTION
Many will find this little jew d’esprit as pleasant
reading as anything in Plutarch. In part, this may
be due to its (perhaps accidental) brevity ; but its
originality and freshness are undeniable. These
qualities have, to be sure, puzzled a number of
scholars who are still disputing whether the sources
are principally Epicurean or Peripatetic or Cynic.
Nothing quite like it is known elsewhere,” which sad
lack baffles the Quellenforscher. So, rather than allow
a touch of spontaneous imagination to Plutarch, it
has been confidently asserted that the dialogue must
come from the school of Menippus, or be an attempt
to turn the tables on Polystratus, and so on.
Everything must have a source (if only the author’s
ingenuity) and the source here, so far as it can be
predicated with any certainty, is the tenth book of
the Odyssey seen through the humorous eyes of a
young Boeotian.? We have here, then, a Boeotian
α But talking animals were not new (Hirzel, Der Dialog,
i, p. 338 f.).
® So the sensible Hirzel (op. cit. ii, p. 131); see also
Hartman, De Plutarcho, p. 576. Stylometry, however, does
not encourage the view that this is an early work (Sandbach,
Class. Quart. xxxiii, p. 196).
489
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
pig instructing the favourite of Athena.* It was once
fashionable to assert, or imply, that since Plutarch
was once a young Boeotian himself, matters could
not be so simple, nor could he be the author. But
the climate of scholarship is, perhaps, changing.
There are few of Plutarch’s admirers who will not
claim this lively work for one of his more admirable
achievements, written, perhaps, when he was quite
young.
Even if the authorship is accepted without hesita-
tion, there is little else that is certain except that
the Stoics are constantly under attack, though rather
less directly than in the preceding dialogue. There
is grave doubt about the title: is it no. 127 or no.
135 in the Lamprias Catalogue? Or, as it has be-
come popular to call it, is it really the Gryllus ? ὃ
There are a number of troublesome lacunae ; the
work, as it stands, ends suddenly with a gay witti-
cism instead of being continued to a more conven-
tional termination.° It is only too likely that the
more mature Plutarch would have gone on and on ;
but what would the clever young man who concocted
this conceit have done ? 4
For once, there is a good translation, or paraphrase,
the German one of Bruno Snell in his Plutarch
« Plutarch actually quotes the proverb in his Life of
Demosthenes, xi. 5 (851 B) and Mor. 803 p, but does not seem
to realize its possible application here. See the note on 995 F
infra.
> Ziegler (RE, s.v. “ Plutarchos,”’ 743) says that Gryllus
is impossible in spite of the Platonic examples, but appears
to admit Ammonius (no. 84 in the Lamprias Catalogue).
© See the last note on 992 τὶ infra.
4 Curiously enough, Xenophon is the most famous son of
the historical Gryllus and he is said to have been once a
prisoner in Boeotia (Philostratus, Vit. Soph. 12).
400
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL
(Ziirich, 1948), though this version gives almost too
exciting an impression of vivacity and wit by omitting
the more tiresome sections.
Those interested in Gryllus’ remarks on the in-
decent ways in which men pervert animals to their
taste will find a sympathetic exposition in E. G.
Boulenger’s Animal Mysteries (London, 1927).
491
ΠΕΡῚ
TOY TA AAOTA ΛΟΙΓΩΙ XPHZOAI
ΟΔΥΣΣΕΥ͂Σ, KIPKH, ΓΡΥΛΛΟΣ
(585). ἘΠ oarssers. Tadra μέν, ὦ Κίρκη, μεμαθηκέναι
- \ 7 ες 7 9. arid ,
δοκῶ καὶ διαμνημονεύσειν: ἡδέως δ᾽ av’ σου πυθοί-
” ” ov ΟΝ > / Δ /
μὴν, et Twas ἔχεις “EAAnvas ev τούτοις, οὗς λύκους
καὶ λέοντας ἐξ ἀνθρώπων πεποίηκας.
EK ΚΙΡΚΗ. Kai πολλούς, ὦ ποθούμεν᾽ " ᾿᾽Οδυσσεῦ.
πρὸς τί δὲ τοῦτο ἐρωτᾷς ;
Ε ~ /
oa. Ὅτι νὴ Δία καλὴν av μοι δοκῶ γενέσθαι
/ \ \ ΤῚΣ > / A2 ‘\
φιλοτιμίαν πρὸς τοὺς “EAAnvas, εἰ χάριτι σῇ" λαβὼν
> ¢
τούτους, αὖθις eis? ἀνθρώπους ἑταίρους ἀνασώσαιμι
>
καὶ μὴ περιίδοιμι καταγηράσαντας Tapa φύσιν ἐν
5) /
σώμασι θηρίων, οἰκτρὰν Kal ἄτιμον οὕτω δίαιταν
ἔχοντας.
e ¢ > \ > ς ΄ Ψ > \ -
Κιρ. Οὗτος ὁ ἀνὴρ οὐχ αὑτῷ μόνον οὐδὲ τοῖς
- / A
ἑταίροις, ἀλλὰ τοῖς μηδὲν προσήκουσιν οἴεται δεῖν
«ς > > / \ / \ ¢ ~
ὑπ᾽ ἀβελτερίας συμφορὰν γενέσθαι τὴν αὑτοῦ φιλο-
τιμίαν.
oA. Ἕτερον αὖ τινα τοῦτον, ὦ Κίρκη, κυκεῶνα
> ~ >
λόγων ταράττεις Kat ὑποφαρμάττεις, ἐμὲ γοῦν ἀτε-
1 δ᾽ ἀν] δὲ Kav ?
2 σῇ] missing in some Mss. 3; τῇ σῇ ?
3 εἰς added by Diibner.
492
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL
(The speakers in the dialogue are Odysseus,
Circe, and Gryllus.)
1. opyssEus. These facts,% Circe, I believe I have
learned and shall not forget them ; yet I should be
happy to learn from you further whether there are
any Greeks among those whom you have changed
from the shape of men into wolves and lions.
cIRCE. Quite a few, beloved Odysseus. But what
is your reason for asking this question ἢ
opyssEus. It is, 1 swear, because it would bring
me noble glory among the Greeks if by your favour
I should restore comrades of mine to their original
humanity and not allow them to grow old in the
unnatural guise of beasts, leading an existence that
is so piteous and shameful.
circE. Here’s a lad who finds it appropriate that
not only himself and his companions, but even total
strangers should, through his stupidity, find his am-
bition their ruin.
opysseus. This is a new potion ὃ of words that you
are stirring and drugging for me, Circe. It will cer-
¢ For the beginning cf. Horace, Sat. ii. 5. 1:
‘* Haec quoque, Teresia, praeter narrata .. .,”
a form which is assumed to go back to Menippus.
ὃ By which she transformed men into beasts: Odyssey,
x. 236.
493
(985)
KF
986
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
χνῶς ποιοῦσα θηρίον, εἰ πείσομαΐ σοι ws συμφορά
ἐστιν ἄνθρωπον ἐκ θηρίου γενέσθαι.
Kip. Οὐ γὰρ ἤδη τούτων ἀτοπώτερα πεποίηκας
σεαυτόν, ὃς τὸν ἀθάνατον καὶ ἀγήρω σὺν ἐμοὶ
/ > \ + ee. - « > > /
βίον ἀφεὶς ἐπὶ γυναῖκα θνητήν, ws δ᾽ ἐγώ φημι,
καὶ γραῦν ἤδη διὰ μυρίων ἔτι κακῶν σπεύδεις,
ὡς δὴ" περίβλεπτος ἐκ τούτου καὶ ὀνομαστὸς ἔτι
αλλ Ἃ ~ / 3 \ > Ad \ [ὃ
μᾶλλον ἢ νῦν γενόμενος," κενὸν ἀγαθὸν καὶ εἴδωλον
ἀντὶ τῆς ἀληθείας διώκων ;
> / ~ « / Ἂν “fat / \
oa. “Eyérw ταῦτα ws λέγεις, ὦ Κίρκη: τί yap
δεῖ πολλάκις ζυγομαχεῖν ἡμᾶς περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν;
τούτους δέ μοι δὸς ἀναλύσασα καὶ χάρισαι τοὺς
ἄνδρας.
᾽ “ > « ~ A \ ¢ VA >
Kip. Οὐχ οὕτω γ᾽ ἁπλῶς, μὰ τὴν “Exatny: οὐ
γὰρ οἱ τυχόντες εἰσίν: ἀλλ᾽ ἐροῦ πρῶτον αὐτούς,
>’ / nv Ἁ \ ~ / > A
εἰ θέλουσιν: av δὲ μὴ φῶσι, διαλεχθείς, ὦ γενναῖε,
A \
πεῖσον: ἐὰν δὲ μὴ melons, ἀλλὰ Kal περιγένωνται
διαλεγόμενοι, ἱκανὸν ἔστω σοι περὶ σεαυτοῦ καὶ
~ / ~ ~
τῶν φίλων κακῶς βεβουλεῦσθαι.
oa. Τώμου καταγελᾷς, ὦ μακαρία; πῶς γὰρ
n 1” Ξ - , ” ,ὕ “ ” \
dv ἢ δοῖεν οὗτοι λόγον ἢ λάβοιεν, ἕως ὄνοι Kal
σύες καὶ λέοντές εἰσι;
/ / > > / > /
κιρ. Θάρρει, φιλοτιμότατ᾽ ἀνθρώπων: ἐγώ σοι
παρέξω καὶ συνιέντας αὐτοὺς καὶ διαλεγομένους"
μᾶλλον δ᾽ εἷς ἱκανὸς ἔσται καὶ διδοὺς καὶ λαμβά-
νων ὑπὲρ πάντων λόγον" ἰδού, τούτῳ διαλέγου.
1 ἐστιν) γ᾽ ἐστιν ὃ
2 δὴ] ἂν Bernardakis.
3 γενόμενος] γενησόμενος Hartman.
α Hecate, goddess of black magic, who was invoked for
494
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL, 985-986
tainly transform me literally into a beast if I am to
take your word for it that changing from beast to man
spells ruin.
circE. Haven't you already worked a stranger
magic than this on yourself? You who refused an
ageless, immortal life at my side and would struggle
through a thousand new dangers to a woman who is
mortal and, I can assure you, no longer so very
young—and this for no object other than to make
yourself more gaped at and renowned than you
already are, pursuing an empty phantom instead of
what is truly good.
opyssEus. All right, let it be as you say, Circe.
Why must we quarrel again and again about the
same matters ? Now please just grant me the favour
of letting the men go free.
circe. By the Black Goddess,’ it’s not so simple
as that. These creatures are no run of the mill. You
must ask them first if they are willing. If they say
no, my hero, you'll have to argue with them and
convince them. And if you don’t, and they win the
argument, then you must be content with having
exercised poor judgement about yourself and your
friends.
opyssgus. Dear lady, why are you making fun of
me? How can they argue with me or 1 with them
so long as they are asses and hogs and lions ?
circE. Courage, courage, my ambitious friend.
I’ll see to it that you shall find them both receptive
and responsive. Or rather, one of the number will
be enough to thrust and parry for them all. Presto !
You may talk with this one.
such functions at least from the time of Euripides’ Medea
(394 ff.).
4.95
(986)
D
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
\ / ~ εὖ / /
oA. Kai τίνα τοῦτον, ὦ Κύώρκη, προσαγορεύ-
σομεν; ἢ τίς ἦν οὗτος ἀνθρώπων ;
/ \ ~ \ \ / > A /
Kip. Τί yap τοῦτο πρὸς τὸν Adyov; ἀλλὰ κάλει
, / > / / > \ > > y
αὐτόν, εἰ βούλει, ρύλλον. ἐγὼ δ᾽ ἐκστήσομαι
ὑμῖν, μὴ καὶ παρὰ γνώμην ἐμοὶ δοκῇ χαριζόμενος
διαλέγεσθαι.
2. ΤΡΥ͂ΛΛΟΣ. Χαῖρε, ᾿Οδυσσεῦ.
oa. Καὶ σὺ νὴ Δία, [Γρύλλε.
rp. Τί βούλει ἐρωτᾶν ;
> \ / ἀρ Je = > /
oA. ᾿Εγὼ γινώσκων' ὑμᾶς ἀνθρώπους yeyo-
νότας οἰκτείρω μὲν ἅπαντας οὕτως ἔχοντας, εἰκὸς
δέ μοι μᾶλλον διαφέρειν ὅσοι “EAAnves ὄντες εἰς
ταύτην ἀφῖχθε τὴν δυστυχίαν: νῦν οὖν ἐποιησάμην
τῆς Κίρκης δέησιν ὅπως τὸν βουλόμενον ὑμῶν
ἀναλύσασα καὶ καταστήσασα πάλιν εἰς τὸ ἀρχαῖον
εἶδος ἀποπέμψῃ μεθ᾽ ἡμῶν.
~ > ~ \ / \
rp. Ilate, ᾿Οδυσσεῦ, καὶ περαιτέρω μηδὲν
εἴπῃς" ὡς καὶ σοῦ πάντες ἡμεῖς καταφρονοῦμεν,
ὡς μάτην ἄρα δεινὸς ἐλέγου καὶ τῷ φρονεῖν πολὺ
~ Μ > 7 >] / / “ b) \
τῶν ἄλλων ἀνθρώπων ἐδόκεις διαφέρειν, ὃς αὐτὸ
τοῦτ᾽ ἔδεισας, τὴν μεταβολὴν ἐκ χειρόνων εἰς
ἀμείνω, μὴ σκεψάμενος: ὡς γὰρ" οἱ παῖδες τὰ
φάρμακα τῶν ἰατρῶν φοβοῦνται, καὶ τὰ μαθήματα"
~ ν᾽
φεύγουσιν, ἃ μεταβάλλοντα ἐκ νοσερῶν καὶ ἀνοή-
των ὑγιεινοτέρους καὶ φρονιμωτέρους ποιοῦσιν
> / “ \ /, \ Μ ,’ Μ
αὐτούς, οὕτω σὺ διεκρούσω τὸ ἄλλος ἐξ ἄλλου
γενέσθαι, καὶ νῦν αὐτός τε φρίττων καὶ ὑποδει-
1 γινώσκων Jannotius : γινώσκω.
2 ὡς γὰρ Wyttenbach : ὥσπερ.
3 μαθήματα Stephanus: παθήματα.
406
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL, 986
opysseus. And how am I to address him, Circe ἢ
Who in the world was he ἢ ἃ
circE. What’s that to do with the issue? Call
him Gryllus,? if you like. I'll retire now to avoid any
suggestion that he is arguing against his own con-
victions to curry favour with me.
2. aryLLus. Hello, Odysseus.
opyssEus. And you too, Gryllus, for heaven’s sake !
GRYLLUS. What do you want to ask ὃ
opyssEus. Since I am aware that you have been
men, I feel sorry for all of you in your present plight ;
yet it is only natural that I should be more concerned
for those of you who were Greeks before you fell into
this misfortune. So now I have asked Circe to remove
the spell from any Greek who chooses and restore
him to his original shape and let him go back home
with us.
GRYLLUs. Stop, Odysseus! Not a word more !
You see, we don’t any of us think much of you either,
for evidently it was a farce, that talk of your clever-
ness and your fame as one whose intelligence far
surpassed the rest—a man who boggles at the simple
matter of changing from worse to better because he
hasn’t considered the matter. For just as children
dread the doctor’s doses ὁ and run from lessons, the
very things that, by changing them from invalids
and fools, will make them healthier and wiser, just
so you have shied away from the change from one
shape to another. At this very moment you are not
only living in fear and trembling as a companion of
2 After the Homeric formula, e¢.g., Odyssey, x. 325.
> ** Grunter,”’ ‘* swine.”’
¢ Cf. Lucretius, iv. 11 ff.; Plato, Laws 720 a. If one
takes Laws, 646 c literally, there was some reason for
fear.
407
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(9 86) μαίνων τῇ Κίρκῃ σύνει, * μή ΝΜ ποιήσῃ λαθοῦσα
σῦν ἢ λύκον, ἡμᾶς τε πείθεις, ἐν ἀφθόνοις ζῶντας
ἀγαθοῖς, ἀπολιπόντας ἁ ἅμα τούτοις τὴν ταῦτα παρα-
E σκευάζουσαν ἐκπλεῖν μετὰ σοῦ, τὸ πάντων βάρυ-
ποτμότατον" ζῷον αὖθις ἀνθρώπους γενομένους.
oa. ᾿Εμοὶ σύ, Γρύλλε, δοκεῖς οὐ τὴν μορφὴν
μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν διάνοιαν ὑπὸ τοῦ πόματος
ἐκείνου διεφθάρθαι καὶ γεγονέναι μεστὸς. ἀτόπων
καὶ διαλελωβημένων παντάπασι δοξῶν" ἢ σέ τις
αὖ" συηνίας' ἡδονὴ πρὸς τόδε τὸ σῶμα καταγε-
γοήτευκεν ;
re. Οὐδέτερα τούτων, ὦ βασιλεῦ Κεφαλλήνων:
ἂν δὲ διαλέγεσθαι μᾶλλον ἐθέλῃς 7) λοιδορεῖσθαι,
ταχύ σε μεταπείσομεν, ἑκατέρου τῶν βίων ἐμπεί-
ρως ἔχοντες, ὅτι ταῦτα πρὸ ἐκείνων εἰκότως ἀγα-
πῶμεν.
οδ. ᾿Αλλὰ μὴν ἐγὼ πρόθυμος" ἀκροᾶσθαι.
Fyre Kat ἡμεῖς τοίνυν λέγειν. ἀρκτέον δὲ
πρῶτον ἀπὸ τῶν ἀρετῶν, ἐφ᾽ αἷς ὁρῶμεν ὑμᾶς
μέγα φρονοῦντας, ὡς τῶν θηρίων πολὺ καὶ δικαιο-
σύνῃ καὶ φρονήσει καὶ ἀνδρείᾳ καὶ ταῖς ἄλλαις
ἀρεταῖς διαφέροντας. ἀπόκριναι δή μοι, σοφώτατ᾽
ἀνδρῶν: ἤκουσα γάρ σου ποτὲ διηγουμένου τῇ
Κίρκῃ περὶ τῆς τῶν Κυκλώπων γῆς, ὡς οὔτ᾽ ἀρου-
μένη τὸ παράπαν, οὔτε τινὸς εἰς αὐτὴν φυτεύοντος
οὐδέν, οὕτως ἐστὶν ἀγαθὴ καὶ γενναία τὴν φύσιν,
1 σύνει Reiske: συνεῖναι.
2 βαρυποτμότατον Reiske: φιλοποτμότατον (φιλοτυφότατον
καὶ δυσποτμότατον Post, ‘‘ the vanity-loving ἃπα ill-fated
animal beyond all others as
3 αὖ] dpa Post ; Hartman deletes.
4 ounvias Hartman : συνηθείας.
5 πρόθυμος Reiske: πρὸς ὑμᾶς (ἔχω προθύμως Valckenaer).
408
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL, 986
Circe, frightened that she may, before you know it,
turn you into a pig or a wolf, but you are also trying
to persuade us, who live in an abundance of good
things, to abandon them, and with them the lady
who provides them, and sail away with you, when we
have again become men, the most unfortunate of all
creatures !
opyssEus. To me, Gryllus, you seem to have lost
not only your shape, but your intelligence also under
the influence of that drug. You have become in-
fected with strange and completely perverted no-
tions. Or was it rather an inclination to swinishness
that conjured you into this shape ? 7
GRyLLus. Neither of these, king of the Cephal-
lenians.? But if it is your pleasure to discuss the
matter instead of hurling abuse, I shall quickly make
you see that we are right to prefer our present life in
place of the former one, now that we have tried both.
opyssEus. Goon. I should like to hear you.
3. eryLLtus. And I, in that case, to instruct you.
Let us begin with the virtues, which, we note, inspire
you with pride ; for you rate yourselves as far superior
to animals © in justice and wisdom and courage and
all the rest of them. But answer me this, wisest of
men! Once I heard you telling Circe about the land
of the Cyclopes,? that though it is not ploughed at
all nor does anyone sow there, yet it is naturally so
fertile and fecund that it produces spontaneously
¢ That is, you were always a swine. It is only your shape
that is altered.
>’ After Homer, /liad, ii. 631; Odyssey, xxiv. 378; or,
taking the pun, “ King of Brains,” ‘‘ Mastermind.”
¢ Cf. 962 a supra; on the virtues of animals see Aristotle,
Historia Animal. i. 1 (488 f. 12 ff.); Plato, Laches, 196 £; al.
4 Homer, Odyssey, ix. 108 ff.
499
(986)
987
C
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
ὥσθ᾽ ἅπαντας ἐκφέρειν τοὺς καρποὺς ἀφ᾽ αὑτῆς"
πότερον οὖν ταύτην ἐπαινεῖς μᾶλλον "ἦι: τὴν αἰγί-
βοτον ᾿Ιθάκην καὶ ᾿τραχεῖαν, 1) μόλις ἀπ’ ἔργων τε
πολλῶν καὶ διὰ πόνων μεγάλων μικρὰ καὶ γλίσχρα
καὶ μηδενὸς ἄξια τοῖς γεωργοῦσιν ἀναδίδωσι; καὶ
ὅπως οὐ χαλεπῶς οἴσεις, παρὰ τὸ φαινόμενον εὐνοίᾳ
τῆς πατρίδος ἀποκρινόμενος.
oa. ᾿Αλλ᾽ οὐ δεῖ ψεύδεσθαι: φιλῶ μὲν γὰρ καὶ
ἀσπάζομαι τὴν ἐμαυτοῦ πατρίδα καὶ χώραν μᾶλλον,
ἐπαινῶ δὲ καὶ θαυμάζω τὴν ἐκείνων.
re. Οὐκοῦν τοῦτο μὲν οὕτως ἔχειν φήσομεν, ὡς
ὁ φρονιμώτατος ἀνθρώπων ἄλλα μὲν οἴεται δεῖν
ἐπαινεῖν καὶ δοκιμάζειν ἄλλα δ᾽ αἱρεῖσθαι καὶ ἀγα-
πᾶν, ἐκεῖνο δ᾽ οἶμαί σε καὶ περὶ τῆς ψυχῆς ἀπο-
κεκρίσθαι. ταὐτὸν γάρ ἐστι τῷ περὶ τῆς χώρας, ὡς
ἀμείνων ἥτις ἄνευ πόνου τὴν ἀρετὴν ὥσπερ αὐτο-
φυῆ καρπὸν ἀναδίδωσιν.
oa. "“Eotw σοι καὶ τοῦθ᾽ οὕτως.
re. "Hd 8° ody" ὁμολογεῖς τὴν τῶν θηρίων
ψυχὴν εὐφυεστέραν εἶναι πρὸς γένεσιν ἀρετῆς καὶ
τελειοτέραν" ἀνεπίτακτος γὰρ καὶ ἀδίδακτος ὥσπερ
ἄσπορος καὶ ἀνήροτος ἐκφέρει καὶ αὔξει κατὰ φύσιν
τὴν ἑκάστῳ προσήκουσαν ἀρετήν.
oa. Καὶ τίνος ποτ᾽ ἀρετῆς, ὦ ΤΓρύλλε, μέτεστι
τοῖς θηρίοις ;
4, ΤΡ. Τίνος μὲν οὖν οὐχὶ μᾶλλον 1 7) τῷ σοφω-
τάτῳ τῶν ἀνθρώπων; σκόπει δὲ πρῶτον, εἰ βούλει,
τὴν ἀνδρείαν, ἐφ᾽ 7) σὺ φρονεῖς μέγα καὶ οὐκ ἐγκα-
λύπτῃ “᾿ θρασὺς ᾿᾿ καὶ “᾿ πτολίπορθος ᾿᾿ ἀποκαλού-
1 δ᾽ οὖν Benseler: οὖν.
α Odyssey, xiii. 242 ff. ; cf. iv. 606.
500
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL, 986-987
every kind of crops. Do you, then, rate this land
higher than rugged, goat-pasturing Ithaca,* which
barely yields the tiller a meagre, churlish, trifling
crop after great efforts and much toil? And see
that you don’t lose your temper and give me a
patriotic answer that isn’t what you really believe.
opyssEus. I have no need to lie; for though I love
and cherish my native soil more, the other wins my
approval and admiration.
Grytius. Then this, we shall say, is the situation :
the wisest of men thinks fit to commend and approve
one thing while he loves and prefers another. Now
I assume that your answer applies to the spiritual
field also, for the situation is the same as with the
land ὃ : ee spiritual soil is better which produces a
harvest of virtue as a spontaneous crop without toil.
opyssEus. Yes, this too you may assume.
GRYLLUs. At this moment, then, you are conceding
the point that the soul of beasts has a greater Hapa
capacity and perfection for the generation of virtue ;
for without command or instruction, “ unsown and
unploughed,” as it were, it naturally brings forth and
develops such virtue as is proper in each case.
opyssEus. And what sort of virtue, Gryllus, is ever
found in beasts ?
4. Grytius. Ask rather what sort of virtue is not
found in them more than in the wisest of men? Take
first, if you please, courage, in which you take great
pride, not even pretending to blush when you are
called “valiant” and “sacker of cities." Yet you,
ὃ The principle ubi bene, ibi patria: Pacuvius, frag. 380
(Warmington, Remains of Old Latin, ii, p. 303): Aristo-
phanes, Plutus, 1151; Cicero, Tusc. Disp. v. 37, 108;
Appian, B.C. ii. 8. 50
© Thad, ti. 918:
501
(987)
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
μενος, ὅστις, ὦ σχετλιώτατε, δόλοις καὶ μηχαναῖς
ἀνθρώπους ἁπλοῦν καὶ γενναῖον εἰδότας πολέμου
τρόπον ἀπάτης δὲ καὶ ψευδῶν ἀπείρους παρακρου-
» ~ ~ > ~
σάμενος, ὄνομα TH πανουργίᾳ προστίθης τῆς ἀρετῆς
τῆς ἥκιστα πανουργίαν προσιεμένης. ἀλλὰ τῶν
γε θηρίων τοὺς πρὸς ἄλληλα καὶ πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἀγῶ-
νας ὁρᾷς ὡς ἄδολοι καὶ ἄτεχνοι καὶ μετ᾽ ἐμφα-
νοῦς γυμνοῦ τε τοῦ θαρρεῖν πρὸς ἀληθινῆς ἀλκῆς
~ / ~
ποιοῦνται τὰς ἀμύνας: Kal οὔτε νόμου καλοῦντος
/
οὔτ᾽ ἀστρατείας δεδοικότα γραφὴν ἀλλὰ φύσει φεύ-
γοντα τὸ κρατεῖσθαι μέχρι τῶν ἐσχάτων ἐγκαρτε-
pet καὶ διαφυλάττει τὸ ἀήττητον" οὐ γὰρ ἡττᾶται
κρατούμενα τοῖς σώμασιν οὐδ᾽ ἀπαγορεύει ταῖς
ψυχαῖς ἀλλὰ ταῖς μάχαις ἐναποθνήσκει. πολλῶν
δὲ θνῃσκόντων ἡ ἀλκὴ μετὰ τοῦ θυμοειδοῦς ἀπο-
χωρήσασά mov καὶ συναθροισθεῖσα περὶ ἕν τι τοῦ
σώματος μόριον ἀνθίσταται τῷ κτείνοντι καὶ πηδᾷ
A " v ~ > ~
καὶ ἀγανακτεῖ," μέχρις ἂν ὥσπερ πῦρ ἐγκατασβεσθῇ
παντάπασι καὶ ἀπόληται.
/ > ’ ” 90» ” / 0.»
Δέησις δ᾽ οὐκ ἔστιν οὐδ᾽ οἴκτου παραίτησις οὐδ
> / σ 5 \ / / / \
ἐξομολόγησις ἥττης, οὐδὲ δουλεύει λέων λέοντι Kat
“ ν > > / 4 σ Μ >
ἵππος ἵππῳ Ov ἀνανδρίαν, ὥσπερ ἄνθρωπος av-
θρώπῳ, τὴν τῆς δειλίας ἐπώνυμον εὐκόλως ἐν-
/ “ > » / ” /
ασπαζόμενος. ὅσα δ᾽ ἄνθρωποι πάγαις ἢ δόλοις
> 7, \ \ ” ͵, = \ > ,
ἐχειρώσαντο, Ta μὲν ἤδη τέλεια τροφὴν ἀπωσά-
μενα καὶ πρὸς δίψαν ἐγκαρτερήσαντα τὸν πρὸ δου-
1 τῆς added by W. C. H. after Hartman.
2 ποι Bernardakis: που.
3 ἀγανακτεῖ] ἀναζεῖ Kronenberg.
4 ἀνανδρίαν Meziriacus: ἀνδρείαν.
502
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL, 987
you villain, are the man who by tricks and frauds
have led astray men who knew only a straightforward,
noble style of war and were unversed in deceit and
lies ; while on your freedom from scruple you confer
the name of the virtue that is least compatible with
such nefariousness. Wild beasts, however, you will
observe, are guileless and artless in their struggles,
whether against one another or against you, and
conduct their battles with unmistakably naked
courage under the impulse of genuine valour. No
edict summons them, nor do they fear a writ of
desertion. No, it is their nature to flee subjection ;
with a stout heart they maintain an indomitable
spirit to the very end. Nor are they conquered even
when physically overpowered; they never give up
in their hearts, even while perishing in the fray. In
many cases, when beasts are dying, their valour
withdraws together with the fighting spirit to some
point where it is concentrated in one member and
resists the slayer with convulsive movements and
fierce anger ® until, like a fire, it is completely ex-
tinguished and departs.
Beasts never beg or sue for pity or acknowledge
defeat : lion is never slave to lion, or horse to horse
through cowardice, as man is to man when he
unprotestingly accepts the name whose root is
cowardice.2. And when men have subdued beasts by
snares and tricks, such of them as are full grown
refuse food and endure the pangs of thirst until they
2 Like eels or snakes whose tails continue to twitch long
after they are dead.
> ** Slavery ᾿ (douleia) as though derived from
dice ’’ (deilia).
‘
* cowar-
5 τέλεια Hartman: τέλεια καὶ.
503
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
/ > / 1 \ > ~ / “- \
(987) λείας ἐπάγεται' Kai ἀγαπᾷ θάνατον" νεοσσοῖς δὲ
καὶ σκύμνοις τούτων, OL ἡλικίαν εὐαγώγοις καὶ ἅπα-
λοῖς οὖσιν, πολλὰ καὶ ἀπατηλὰ μειλίγματα καὶ
ὑποπεττεύματαΣ" προσφέροντες καὶ καταφαρμάτ-
τοντες, ἡδονῶν παρὰ φύσιν γευόμενα καὶ διαίτης
ἀδρανῆ χρόνῳ κατειργάσαντο, ἕως" προσεδέξαντο
καὶ ὑπέμειναν τὴν καλουμένην ἐξημέρωσιν ὥσπερ
F ἀπογυναίκωσιν τοῦ θυμοειδοῦς.
Οἷς δὴ“ μάλιστα δῆλον ὅτι τὰ θηρία πρὸς τὸ
θαρρεῖν εὖ πέφυκε. τοῖς δ᾽ ἀνθρώποις ἡ ἡ παρρησία"
καὶ παρὰ φύσιν ἐστίν: ἐκεῖθεν δ᾽ ἄν, ὦ βέλτιστ᾽
> ~ / / >? \ ~ /
Οδυσσεῦ, μάλιστα καταμάθοις" ἐν yap Tots θηρίοις
ἰσορροπεῖ πρὸς ἀλκὴν ἡ φύσις καὶ τὸ θῆλυ τοῦ
ἄρρενος οὐδὲν ἀποδεῖ πονεῖν τε τοὺς ἐπὶ τοῖς
ἀναγκαίοις πόνους ἀγωνίζεσθαί τε τοὺς ὑπὲρ τῶν
τέκνων ἀγῶνας. ἀλλά που" ΚΚρομμυωνίαν τινὰ σῦν
ἀκούεις, ἣ πράγματα πολλά, θῆλυ θηρίον οὖσα,
988 τῷ Θησεῖ παρέσχε" καὶ TH Σφίγγα ἐκείνην οὐκ
ἂν ὥνησεν ἡ σοφία περὶ τὸ Φίκιον ἄνω καθεζο-
μένην, αἰνίγματα καὶ γρίφους πλέκουσαν, εἰ μὴ
ῥώμῃ καὶ ἀνδρείᾳ πολὺ τῶν Καδμείων ἐπεκράτει.
ἐκεῖ δέ που καὶ Tevpnotav® ἀλώπεκα “᾿ μέρμερον
~ ”) \ / Μ ἡ: / \ “
χρῆμα ᾿᾿ καὶ πλησίον ὄφιν τῷ ᾿Απόλλωνι περὶ τοῦ
1 ἐπάγεται) ἀσπάζεται Bernardakis.
ὑποπεττεύματα] ὑποπέμματα Meziriacus.
3 ἕως Wyttenbach (who put it earlier): καὶ.
ols δὴ] τοῖσδε δὴ ἢ “᾿ Now the following facts .. .
5 παρρησία] εὐθάρσεια Emperius.
8 zou W. C. H.: xat.
7 ἀκούεις] ἀκήκοας ?
8 'ευμησίαν] most Mss. have τελμησίαν.
9
“
1
499
α They also refuse to breed in captivity: Pliny, Nat. Hist.
x. 182: al.
504
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL, 987-988
induce and embrace death in place of slavery.* But
nestlings and cubs, which by reason of age are tender
and docile, are offered many beguiling allurements
and enticements that act as drugs. These give them
a taste for unnatural pleasures and modes of life, and
in time make them spiritless to the point where they
accept and submit to their so-called “ taming,” which
is really an emasculation of their fighting spirit.
These facts make it perfectly obvious that bravery
is an innate characteristic of beasts, while in human
beings an independent spirit is actually contrary to
nature. The point that best proves this, gentle
Odysseus, is the fact that in beasts valour is naturally
equal in both sexes” and the female is in no way
inferior to the male. She takes her part both in the
struggle for existence and in the defence of her brood. °
You have heard, I suppose, of the sow of Crommyon 4
which, though a female beast, caused so much trouble
to Theseus. That famous Sphinx’ would have got
no good of her wisdom as she sat on the heights of
Mt. Phicium, weaving her riddles and puzzles, if she
had not continued to surpass the Thebans greatly in
power and courage. Somewhere thereabouts lived
also the Teumesian’ vixen, a “thing atrocious’’ 9;
and not far away, they say, was the Pythoness who
® Cf. the Cynic doctrine in Diogenes Laertius, vi. 12:
virtue is the same for women as for men.
¢ Cf. Plato, Laws, 814 B.
4 Cf. Life of Theseus, 9 (4 p-£), which gives a rationalizing
version of the story and converts the sow Phaea into a female
bandit of the same name. See also Frazer on Apollodorus,
Epitome i. 1 (L.C.L., vol. ii, p. 129); Plato, Laches, 196 x.
e Cf. Frazer on Apollodorus, Library, iii. 5. 8 (L.C.L.,
vol. i, p. 347).
* Cf. Frazer on Pausanias, ix. 19. 1.
9 Presumably a quotation which has not been identified.
505
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(988) δ Mi μονομαχοῦσαν ἐν Δελφοῖς γενέσθαι λέ-
γουσι. τὴν δ᾽ Αἴθην ὁ βασιλεὺς ὑμῶν ἔλαβε παρὰ
τοῦ Εἰνιύνίόν μισθὸν ἀστρατείας, ἄριστα βουλευ-
σάμενος ὃς δειλοῦ προυτίμησεν ἀνδρὸς ἵππον ἀγα-
\ \ / >? \ \ \ / \
θὴν καὶ φιλόνικον. αὐτὸς δὲ Kat παρδάλεις καὶ
/ / cry e > / \ ’ὔ
λεαίνας πολλάκις ἑώρακας, ὡς οὐδέν τι τὰ θήλεα
A Μ « / ~ \ > ~ σ΄ 1 «
Β τοῖς ἄρρεσιν ὑφίεται θυμοῦ καὶ ἀλκῆς" ὥσπερ' ἡ
σὴ γυνή, σοῦ πολεμοῦντος, οἴκοι κάθηται πρὸς
> , ἊΣ , > ἊΝ 2999 ΟΣ ¢ /
ἐσχάρᾳ" πυρός, οὐκ av οὐδ᾽ ὅσον αἱ χελιδόνες
> Ἢ / \ ea | > \ \ \ = /
ἀμυνομένη τοὺς ἐπ᾽ αὐτὴν καὶ τὸν οἶκον Badilov-
τας, καὶ ταῦτα Λάκαινα οὖσα. τί οὖν ἔτι σοι λέγω
\ / ἋἋ / > > > 4 ~
τὰς Kapivas ἢ Matovidas ; ἀλλ᾽ ἐκ τούτων ye δῆ-
λόν ἐστιν, ὅτι τοῖς ἀνδράσιν οὐ φύσει μέτεστι τῆς
ἀνδρείας: μετῆν γὰρ ἂν ὁμοίως καὶ ταῖς γυναιξὶν
ἀλκῆς. ὥσθ᾽ ὑμεῖς, κατὰ νόμων ἀνάγκην οὐχ
ς 4 ᾽ \ / > \ / ”
ἑκούσιον οὐδὲ βουλομένην ἀλλὰ δουλεύουσαν ἔθεσι
\ / \ / > 7 \ /
καὶ ψόγοις καὶ δόξαις ἐπήλυσι Kai λόγοις πλαττο-
( μένην, μελετᾶτε ἀνδρείαν: καὶ τοὺς πόνους ὑφίστα-
σθε καὶ τοὺς κινδύνους, οὐ πρὸς ταῦτα θαρροῦντες
> \ ~ 7 ~ / / a
ἀλλὰ τῷ ἕτερα μᾶλλον τούτων δεδιέναι. ὥσπερ
οὖν τῶν σῶν ἑταίρων ὁ φθάσας πρῶτος ἐπὶ τὴν
ἐλαφρὰν ἀνίσταται κώπην, οὐ καταφρονῶν ἐκείνης
> \ \ \ / \ / “ «
ἀλλὰ δεδιὼς καὶ φεύγων τὴν βαρυτέραν: οὕτως ὁ
1 ὥσπερ) ἀλλ᾽ οὐχ ὥσπερ Post, which may well be right.
2 πρὸς ἐσχάρᾳ van Herwerden: πρὸς ἐσχάραν.
@ Cf. Mor. 293 c, 491 c; Frazer on Apollodorus, i. 4. 1
(L. C.L,.,'vol/i,.p. 2%:
» Agamemnon (lliad, xxiii. 295-299).
¢ A racing mare.
4 Echepolus.
¢ As a daughter of Icarius, the brother of Tyndareiis, she
was a first cousin of Helen.
506
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL, 988
fought with Apollo for the oracle at Delphi.* Your
king ὃ received Aethe ° from the Sicyonian? as a
recompense for excusing him from military service,
making a very wise choice when he preferred a fine,
spirited mare to a cowardly man. You yourself have
often observed in panthers and lionesses that the
female in no way yields to the male in spirit and
valour. Yet, while you are off at the wars, your wife
sits at home by the fire and troubles herself not so
much as a swallow to ward off those who come against
herself and her home—and this though she is a
Spartan born and bred.* So why should I go on to
mention Carian or Maeonian women?’ Surely from
what has been said it is perfectly obvious that men
have no natural claim to courage %; if they did,
women would have just as great a portion of valour.
It follows that your practice of courage is brought
about by legal compulsion, which is neither voluntary
nor intentional, but in subservience to custom and
censure and moulded by extraneous beliefs and argu-
ments.” When you face toils and dangers, you do so
not because you are courageous, but because you are
more afraid of some alternative.*. For just as that
one of your companions who is the first to board ship
stands up to the light oar, not because he thinks
nothing of it, but because he fears and shuns the
heavier one’; just so he who accepts the lash to
7 Extreme examples of female lassitude, when even the
Spartan Penelope is hopeless by Gryllus’ high standards.
9 Cf. Epicurus, frag. 517 (Usener).
n Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 1.
: Cf. Lucan, vii. 104 f.: “;Multos in'summa pericula misit |
venturi timor ipse mali.”
7 He chooses the light oar, not because it is a mere nothing
to work, but because he dreads the heavier one.
507
(988)
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
πληγὴν ὑπομένων, ἵνα μὴ λάβῃ τραύματα, καὶ πρὸ
αἰκίας τινὸς ἢ θανάτου πολέμιόν τιν᾽ ἀμυνόμενος"
οὐ πρὸς ταῦτα θαρραλέος ἀλλὰ πρὸς ἐκεῖνα δειλός
ἐστιν. οὕτω δ᾽ ἀναφαίνεται" ὑμῖν ἡ μὲν ἀνδρεία
δειλία φρόνιμος οὖσα, τὸ δὲ θάρσος φόβος ἐπιστή-
μην ἔχων τοῦ δι᾿ ἑτέρων ἕτερα φεύγειν. ὅλως δέ,
εἰ πρὸς ἀνδρείαν οἴεσθε βελτίους εἶναι τῶν θηρίων,
τί ποθ᾽ ὑμῶν οἱ ποιηταὶ τοὺς κράτιστα τοῖς
{{ »» ᾽) toed bf
πολεμίοις μαχομένους λυκόφρονας ᾿᾿ καὶ “᾿ θυμο-
/
λέοντας ᾿᾿ καὶ “ out εἰκέλους ἀλκὴν ᾿᾿ προσαγορεύ-
ουσιν, ἀλλ᾽ οὐ λέοντά τις αὐτῶν “᾿ ἀνθρωπόθυμον,
οὐ σῦν “ἀνδρὶ εἴκελον ἀλκὴν ᾿ἠ προσαγορεύει;
» "ὦ 5 \ Facile? 7, ” \
GAN ὥσπερ οἶμαι τοὺς ταχεῖς “᾿ ποδηνέμους καὶ
\ \ ce ~ ΨΚ
τοὺς καλοὺς θεοειδεῖς ὑπερβαλλόμενοι ταῖς εἰ-
κόσιν ὀνομάζουσιν, οὕτω τῶν δεινῶν μάχεσθαι πρὸς
τὰ κρείττονα ποιοῦνται τὰς ἀφομοιώσεις. αἴτιον
/ “ ~ \ > / 4. ὔ « /
δέ, ὅτι τῆς μὲν ἀνδρείας οἷον βαφή τις ὁ θυμός
ἐστι καὶ στόμωμα: τούτῳ δ᾽ ἀκράτῳ τὰ θηρία
χρῆται πρὸς τοὺς ἀγῶνας, ὑμῖν δὲ προσμιγνύμε-
vos πρὸς τὸν λογισμὸν ὥσπερ οἶνος πρὸς ὕδωρ ἐξ-
ίσταται παρὰ τὰ δεινὰ καὶ ἀπολείπει τὸν καιρόν.
ἔνιοι δ᾽ ὑμῶν οὐδ᾽ ὅλως φασὶ χρῆναι παραλαμ-
7 > “- / \ \ > > > \
Bavew ἐν ταῖς μάχαις τὸν θυμὸν ἀλλ ἐκποδὼν
θεμένους νήφοντι χρῆσθαι τῷ λογισμῷ, πρὸς μὲν
σωτηρίας ἀσφάλειαν ὀρθῶς, πρὸς δ᾽ ἀλκὴν καὶ
ἄμυναν αἴσχιστα λέγοντες. πῶς γὰρ οὐκ ἄτοπον
αἰτιᾶσθαι μὲν ὑμᾶς τὴν φύσιν, ὅτι μὴ κέντρα προσ-
1
τιν᾽ ἀμυνόμενος] ἀνταμυνόμενος Post.
ἀναφαίνεται} most Mss. have ἀναφαίνει (ἀνεφάνη Reiske).
ro
a Cf, Plato, Phaedo, 68 pv.
> In Homer Gilad: XV. 430) and elsewhere used only as a pro-
per name. Plutarch’s source is probably the lost Epic Cycle.
508
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL, 988
escape the sword, or meets a foe in battle rather than
be tortured or killed, does so not from courage to face
the one situation, but from fear of the other. So it is
clear that all your courage is merely the cowardice
of prudence and all your valour merely fear that has
the good sense to escape one course by taking
another.* And, to sum up, if you think that you are
better in courage than beasts, why do your poets call
the doughtiest fighters “ wolf-minded ” ὃ and “ lion-
hearted ” ὁ and “ like a boar in valour,” ? though no
poet ever called a lion “ man-hearted”’ or a boar
“like a manin valour’? But, limagine, just as when
those who are swift are called “‘ wind-footed ”’ ὁ and
those who are handsome are called “ godlike,’ / there
is exaggeration in the imagery; just so the poets
bring in a higher ideal when they compare mighty
warriors to something else. And the reason is that
the spirit of anger is, as it were, the tempering or
the cutting edge of courage. Now beasts use this
undiluted in their contests, whereas you men have
it mixed with calculation, as wine with water, so that
it is displaced in the presence of danger and fails you
when you need it most. Some of you even declare
that anger should not enter at all into fighting, but
be dismissed in order to make use of sober calcula-
tion 2%; their contention is correct so far as self-
preservation goes, but is disgracefully false as regards
valorous defence. For surely it is absurd for you to
find fault with Nature because she did not equip
¢ Iliad, v. 639 ; vii. 998 ; of Odysseus himself in Odyssey,
iv. 724.
4 Tliad, iv. 253.
€ Iliad, ii. 786 and often (of Iris).
7 Iliad, iii. 16 and often.
9 For the calculation of fear see Plato, Laws, 644 Ὁ.
509
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
8) ἔφυσε τοῖς σώμασι μηδ᾽ ἀμυντηρίους ὀδόντας μηδ᾽
᾿Αγρύλουμὸ ὄνυχας, αὐτοὺς δὲ τῆς ψυχῆς τὸ σύμφυτον
ἀφαιρεῖν ὅπλον καὶ κολούειν ;
5. oa. Παπαί, ὦ [ρύλλε, δεινός μοι δοκεῖς ye-
F yovévat σοφιστής, ὅς γε καὶ νῦν ἐκ τῆς συηνίας
φθεγγόμενος οὕτω νεανικῶς πρὸς τὴν ὑπόθεσιν
ἐπικεχείρηκας. ἀλλὰ τί οὐ περὶ τῆς σωφροσύνης
ἐφεξῆς διεξῆλθες ; :
re. “Ore ᾧμην σε τῶν εἰρημένων πρότερον ἐπι-
λήψεσθαι: σὺ δὲ σπεύδεις ἀκοῦσαι τὸ περὶ τῆς
σωφροσύνης, ἐπεὶ σωφρονεστάτης μὲν ἀνὴρ εἶ
γυναικός, ἀπόδειξιν δὲ σωφροσύνης αὐτὸς οἴει
δεδωκέναι, τῶν Κίρκης ἀφροδισίων περιφρονήσας.
Kav" τούτῳ μὲν οὐδενὸς τῶν θηρίων διαφέρεις πρὸς
ἐγκράτειαν: οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐκεῖνα τοῖς κρείττοσιν ἐπι-
A / > \ \ \ ¢ \ \ \
989 θυμεῖ πλησιάζειν ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰς ἡδονὰς καὶ τοὺς
ἔρωτας πρὸς τὰ ὁμόφυλα ποιεῖται. οὐ θαυμαστὸν
> > > , ¢ 7 > > 7
οὖν ἐστιν, εἰ καθάπερ ὁ Μενδήσιος ev Αἰγύπτῳ
τράγος λέγεται πολλαῖς καὶ καλαῖς συνειργνύμενος
γυναιξὶν οὐκ εἶναι μίγνυσθαι πρόθυμος ἀλλὰ πρὸς
τὰς alyas ἐπτοῆσθαι" μᾶλλον, οὕτω σὺ χαίρων
5 / / ? / Μ Ἅ A
ἀφροδισίοις συνήθεσιν οὐ θέλεις ἄνθρωπος ὧν θεᾷ
συγκαθεύδειν. τὴν δὲ [[ηνελόπης σωφροσύνην
μυρίαι κορῶναι κρώζουσαι γέλωτα θήσονται καὶ
καταφρονήσουσιν, ὧν ἑκάστη," ἂν ἀποθάνῃ ὁ ἄρρην,
1 κἀν Reiske: καὶ.
* ἐπτοῆσθαι Wyttenbach : ἐπτόηται.
3 ἑκάστη Wyttenbach: ἑκάστης.
α “ Comparative anatomy teaches us that man resembles
frugivorous animals in everything, and carnivorous in no-
thing ; he has neither claws wherewith to seize his prey, nor
distinct and pointed teeth to tear the living fibre ᾿" (Shelley,
A Vindication of Natural Diet ; see the introduction to the
510
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL, 988-989
your bodies with natural stings, or place fighting
tusks among your teeth, or give you nails like curved
claws,? while you yourselves remove or curb the
emotional instrument that Nature has given.
5. opyssEus. Bless me, Gryllus, you must once
have been a very clever sophist,? one may judge,
since even as things are, and speaking from your
swinishness, you can attack the subject with such
fervent ardour. But why have you failed to discuss
temperance, the next in order ?
GRYLLUs. Because I thought that you would first
wish to take exception to what I have said. But
you are eager to hear about temperance since you
are the husband of a model of chastity and believe
that you yourself have given a proof of self-control
by rejecting the embraces of Circe. And in this you
are no more continent than any of the beasts ; for
neither do they desire to consort with their betters,
but pursue both pleasure and love with mates of like
species. So it is no wonder that, like the Mendesian ¢
goat in Egypt which, when shut up with many
beautiful women, is said not to be eager to consort
with them, but is far more excited about nannies,
you likewise are contented with the kind of love that
is familiar to you and, being a mortal, are not eager
to sleep with a goddess. As for the chastity of
Penelope, the cawing of countless crows will pour
laughter and contempt upon it; for every crow, if
her mate dies, remains a widow, not merely for a
following essay). For some modern remarks cf. Boulenger,
Animal Mysteries, p. 196.
δ Gryllus acknowledges the truth of this soft impeachment
later on, 989 B infra.
¢ Of. Herodotus, ii. 46; Strabo xvii. 19; and contrast
Aelian, De Natura Animal, vii. 19.
511
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
᾽ > / / > >s2 / /, \ > /
(989) οὐκ ὀλίγον χρόνον ἀλλ᾽ ἐννέα χηρεύει γενεὰς ἀνθρώ-
Β πων: ὥστε σοι τὴν καλὴν [Πηνελόπην ἐννάκις ἀπο-
ἐρορνε τῷ" σωφρονεῖν ἧς βούλει κορώνης.
. ᾿᾽Αλλ᾽ ἐπεί σε μὴ λέληθα σοφιστὴς wv, φέρε
sci τάξει τινὶ τοῦ λόγου, τῆς μὲν σωφρο-
σύνης ὅρον θέμενος, κατὰ γένος δὲ" τὰς ἐπιθυμίας
διελόμενος. ἡ μὲν οὖν σωφροσύνη βραχύτης" τίς
ἐστιν ἐπιθυμιῶν καὶ τάξις, ἀναιροῦσα μὲν τὰς ἐπ-
εισάκτους καὶ περιττάς, καιρῷ δὲ καὶ μετριότητι
κοσμοῦσα τὰς ἀναγκαίας. ταῖς δ᾽ ἐπιθυμίαις ἐν-
ορᾷς" που μυρίαν διαφοράν... καὶ τὴν περὶ τὴν
βρῶσιν καὶ τὴν πόσιν ἅμα τῷ φυσικῷ καὶ τὸ
ἀναγκαῖον ἔχουσαν: αἱ δὲ τῶν ἀφροδισίων αἷς
C ἀρχὰς ἡ φύσις ἐνδίδωσιν, ἔστι δέ που καὶ μὴ χρώ-
μενον ἔχειν ἱκανῶς ἀπαλλαγέντα, φυσικαὶ μὲν οὐκ
ἀναγκαῖαι δ᾽ ἐκλήθησαν. τὸ δὲ τῶν μήτ᾽ ἀναγ-
/ Sie ~ > D ot s \ / ~
καίων μήτε φυσικῶν ἀλλ᾽ ἔξωθεν ὑπὸ δόξης κενῆς
δι᾿ ἀπειροκαλίαν ἐπικεχυμένων γένος ὑμῶν μὲν
IH 7 ~ \ \ > / e A /
ὀλίγου δεῖν τὰς φυσικὰς ἀπέκρυψεν ὑπὸ πλήθους
ε / »Μ i" / / »Μ »Μ >
ἁπάσας, ἔχει δὲ καθάπερ ξένος ὄχλος ἔπηλυς ἐν
δήμῳ καταβιαζόμενος πρὸς τοὺς ἐγγενεῖς πολίτας.
τὰ δὲ θηρία παντάπασιν ἀβάτους καὶ ἀνεπιμίκτους
ἔχοντα τοῖς ἐπεισάκτοις πάθεσι τὰς ψυχὰς καὶ τοῖς
βίοις πόρρω τῆς κενῆς δόξης ὥσπερ θαλάσσης
ἀπ eile τῷ μὲν" γλαφυρῶς καὶ περιττῶς διά-
1 τῷ Wyttenbach : τοῦ. 2 δὲ] κατ᾽ εἴδη δὲ Reiske.
3 βραχύτης] βραδύτης Reiske.
4 ἐνορᾷς Emperius: ἐφορᾷς.
5 περὶ τὴν βρῶσιν καὶ τὴν added by Meziriacus.
6 τῷ μὲν W.C. H.: rod.
« Cf. Mor. 415 c and the note there.
> See Epicurus, frag. 456 (Usener); contrast Aristotle,
Nic. Ethics iii. 10 ff. (1117 Ὁ 23 ff.); [Plato], Def. 411 8; αἱ.
512
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL, 989
short time, but for nine generations of men.? It
follows that your fair Penelope is nine times inferior
in chastity to any crow you please.
6. Now since you are not unaware that I am a
sophist, let me marshal my arguments in some order
by defining temperance and analysing the desires
according to their kinds. Temperance,? then, is a cur-
tailment and an ordering of the desires that elimi-
nate those that are extraneous or superfluous and
discipline in modest and timely fashion those that
are essential.© You can, of course, observe countless
differences in the desires@ . .. and the desire to
eat and drink is at once natural and essential, while
the pleasures of love, which, though they find their
origin in nature, yet may be forgone and discarded
without much inconvenience, have been called
natural, but not essential. But there are desires of
another kind, neither essential nor natural, that are
imported in a deluge from without as a result of
your inane illusions and because you lack true culture.
So great is their multitude that the natural desires
are, every one of them, all but overwhelmed, as
though an alien rabble were overpowering the native
citizenry. But beasts have souls completely inacces-
sible and closed to these adventitious passions and
live their lives as free from empty illusions as though
they dwelt far from the sea. They fall short in the
matter of delicate and luxurious living, but solidly
For the temperance of animals see Aristotle, De Gen. Animal.
i. 4 (717 a 27).
& Of. Mor. 12774, 584.p 4.
4 There is probably a short lacuna at this point.
¢ See Plato, Laws, 704 πὶ ff. (and Shorey, What Plato Said,
ad loc. p. 630): the sea is the symbol of mischievous foreign
influence. Cf. Aristotle, Politics, 1327 a 11 ff.
VOL. XIE 9 513
(989
)
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
yew ἀπολείπεται, TO δὲ σωφρονεῖν Kal μᾶλλον εὐνο-
μεῖσθαι ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις, οὔτε πολλαῖς συνοικούσαις
3
οὔτ᾽ ἀλλοτρίαις, σφόδρα διαφυλάττεται.
3 ~ - “
Eye γοῦν ποτε καὶ αὐτὸν οὐχ ἧττον ἢ σὲ νῦν
>? / \ \ ¢ - ae fh 5 \
ἐξέπληττε μὲν χρυσὸς ws κτῆμα TOV’ ἄλλων οὐδενὶ
, -“ > Μ \ > / 3 \
παραβλητόν, ἥρει δ᾽ ἄργυρος Kai ἐλέφας: ὁ δὲ
πλεῖστα τούτων κεκτημένος ἐδόκει μακάριός τις
εἶναι καὶ θεοφιλὴς ἀνήρ, εἴτε Φρὺξ ἦν εἴτε Kap
τοῦ Δόλωνος ἀγεννέστερος καὶ τοῦ Πριάμου βαρυ-
ποτμότερος. ἐνταῦθα δ᾽" ἀνηρτημένος ἀεὶ ταῖς
> / ” / #1)? ς \ > \ A ”
ἐπιθυμίας οὔτε χάριν οὔθ᾽ ἡδονὴν ἀπὸ τῶν ἄλλων
πραγμάτων ἀφθόνων ὄντων καὶ ἱκανῶν ἐκαρπού-
E μην, μεμφόμενος" τὸν ἐμαυτοῦ βίον, ὡς τῶν μεγί-
μὴν, μεμφομ μ μεγ
στων ἐνδεὴς καὶ ἄμοιρος ἀγαθῶν ἀπολελειμμένος.
τοιγαροῦν σ᾽ ὡς" μέμνημαι ἐν Κρήτῃ θεασάμενος
ἀμπεχόνῃ κεκοσμημένον πανηγυρικῶς, οὐ τὴν φρό-
νησιν ἐζήλουν οὐδὲ τὴν ἀρετήν, ἀλλὰ τοῦ χιτῶ-
νος εἰργασμένου περιττῶς τὴν λεπτότητα καὶ τῆς
χλαμύδος οὔσης ἁλουργοῦ τὴν οὐλότητα καὶ τὸ
κάλλος ἀγαπῶν καὶ τεθηπώς (εἶχε δέ τι καὶ ἡ
πόρπη χρυσὸς οὖσα παίγνιον οἶμαι τορείαις" διη-
κριβωμένον) καὶ εἱπόμην γεγοητευμένος, ὥσπερ
at γυναῖκες. ἀλλὰ νῦν ἀπηλλαγμένος ἐκείνων τῶν
κενῶν δοξῶν καὶ κεκαθαρμένος χρυσὸν μὲν καὶ
F ἄργυρον ὥσπερ τοὺς ἄλλους λίθους περιορῶν ὑπερ-
/ A \ - / \ / ’ \ ἍἋ
βαίνω, ταῖς δὲ σαῖς χλανίσι καὶ τάπησιν οὐδὲν ἂν
μ) - ~ ~ \
pa A’? Σ ἥδιον ἢ βαθεῖ καὶ μαλθακῷ πηλῷ μεστὸς
1 κτῆμα τῶν Reiske, confirmed by Μ88. : κτημάτων.
2 δ᾽ added by Bernardakis.
“μεμφόμενος added by Wyttenbach.
σ᾽ ὡς Meziriacus: ὥς ce.
514
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL, 989
protect their sobriety and the better regulation of
their desires since those that dwell within them are
neither numerous nor alien.
Certainly there was a time when I myself, no less
than you now, was dazzled by gold and held it to be
an incomparable possession ; so likewise I was caught
by the lure of silver and ivory and the man who had
most property of this sort seemed to me to be a
blissful favourite of the gods, whether he was a
Phrygian or a Carian, one more villainous than
Dolon® or more unfortunate than Priam.’ In that
situation, constantly activated ὁ by these desires, I
reaped no joy or pleasure from the other things of
life, which I had sufficiently and to spare. I grumbled
at my life, finding myself destitute of the most im-
portant things and a loser in the lottery of fortune.
This is the reason why, as I recall, when I saw you
once in Crete tricked out in holiday attire, it was not
your intellect or your virtue that I envied, but the
softness of the elegantly woven garment and the
beautiful wool of your purple cloak that 1 admired and
gaped at (the clasp, I believe, was of gold and had
some frivolity worked on it in exquisitely fine inta-
glio). I followed you about as enchanted as a woman.
But now I am rid and purified of all those empty illu-
sions.? I have no eyes for gold and silver and can
pass them by just like any common stone ; and as for
your fine robes and tapestries, I swear there’s nothing
sweeter for me to rest in when I’m full than deep,
α See Iliad, x, where Dolon betrays Troy.
δ See especially his speech, /liad, xxii. 38-76.
¢ Like a puppet on strings.
4 Man alone has luxury: Pliny, Nat. Hist. vii. 5.
5 τρρείαις Reiske, confirmed by Mss. : τορείας.
515
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(989) ὧν ἐγκατακλιθείην ἀναπαυόμενος. τῶν δὲ τοιού-
Tw’ τῶν ἐπεισάκτων ἐπιθυμιῶν οὐδεμία ταῖς ἡμε-
τέραις ἐνοικίζεται ψυχαῖς" ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν πλεῖστα
ταῖς ἀναγκαίαις ὁ βίος ἡ ἡμῶν ἐπιθυμίαις καὶ ἡδοναῖς
διοικεῖται, ταῖς δ᾽ οὐκ ἀναγκαίαις ἀλλὰ φυσικαῖς
μόνον οὔτ᾽ ἀτάκτως οὔτ᾽ ἀπλήστως ὁμιλοῦμεν.
990 7. Καὶ ταύτας γε πρῶτον διέλθωμεν. ἡ μὲν
οὖν πρὸς τὰ εὐώδη καὶ κινοῦντα ταῖς ἀποφοραῖς
τὴν ὄσφρησιν οἰκείως ἡδονὴ πρὸς τῷ τὸ ὄφελος καὶ
προῖκα καὶ ἁπλοῦν ἐ ἔχειν ἅμα χρείαν τινὰ συμβαλ-
λεται τῇ διαγνώσει τῆς τροφῆς. ἡ μὲν γὰρ γλῶττα
τοῦ γλυκέος καὶ δριμέος καὶ αὐστηροῦ γνώμων ἐστί
τε καὶ λέγεται, ὅταν τῷ γευστικῷ" προσμιγέντες ol
χυμοὶ σύγχυσίν τινα λάβωσιν: ἡ δ᾽ ὄσφρησις ἡμῶν
πρὸ τῶν χυμῶν γνώμων οὖσα τῆς δυνάμεως ἑκά-
στου πολὺ τῶν βασιλικῶν προγευστῶν σκεπτικώ-
τερον διαισθανομένη, τὸ μὲν οἰκεῖον εἴσω παρίησι
τὸ δ᾽ ἀλλότριον ἀπελαύνει καὶ οὐκ ἐᾷ θιγεῖν οὐδὲ
Β λυπῆσαι τὴν γεῦσιν ἀλλὰ διαβάλλει καὶ κατηγορεῖ
τὴν φαυλότητα πρὶν 7 βλαβῆναι: τἄλλα δ᾽ οὐκ ἐν-
οχλεῖ, καθάπερ ὑ ὑμῖν, τὰ θυμιάματα καὶ κιννάμωμα
καὶ νάρδους καὶ φύλλα καὶ καλάμους ᾿Αραβικούς,
μετὰ δεινῆς τινος δευσοποιοῦ καὶ “φαρμακίδος
τέχνης, 7) μυρεψικῆς ὄνομα, συνάγειν εἰς ταὐτὸ καὶ
1 τῶν δε τοιούτων Meziriacus: τὰ δὲ τοιαῦτα.
2 γευστικῷ Meziriacus: γνωστικῷ.
3 δευσοποιοῦ Kai Post: καὶ δευσοποιοῦ.
« Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. v. 45.
» 'The servant who pretasted the dishes at a king’s table to
make certain that none of them was poisoned; cf. Athe-
naeus, 171 b ff. On the collegium praegustatorum at Rome
see Furneaux on Tacitus, Annals, xii. 66. 5 and Class. Phil.
Xxvli, p. 160.
516
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL, 989-990
soft mud. None, then, of such adventitious desires
has a place in our souls ; our life for the most part is
controlled by the essential desires and pleasures. As
for those that are non-essential, but merely natural,
we resort to them without either irregularity or excess.
7. Let us, in fact, first describe these pleasures.
Our pleasure in fragrant substances, those that by
their nature stimulate our sense of smell, besides the
fact that our enjoyment of this is simple and costs
nothing, also contributes to utility by providing a
way for us to tell good food from bad. For the
tongue is said to be, and is, a judge of what is sweet
or bitter or sour, when liquid flavours combine and fuse
with the organ of taste ; but our sense of smell, even
before we taste, is a judge that can much more
critically distinguish the quality of each article of
food than any royal taster ὃ in the world. It admits
what is proper, rejects what is alien, and will not let
it touch or give pain to the taste, but informs on and
denounces what is bad before any harm is done. And
in other respects smell is no nuisance to us, as it is to
you, forcing you to collect and mix together incense
of one kind or another and cinnamon ὁ and nard 4
and malobathrum ὁ and Arabian aromatic reeds,f
with the aid of a formidable dyer’s or witch’s art, of
the sort to which you give the name of unguentation,
¢ The aromatic bark of various species of Cinnamomum,
especially C. zeylanicum Breyne, imported from India.
4 As an import from north-eastern India (probably meant
here), the rootstock of spikenard, Nardostachys jata-
mansi DC.
¢ The leaves of a plant of uncertain identity that grew in
the Far East, perhaps Indian patchouli, Pogostemon Patch-
ouly Pellet., or perhaps a type of cinnamon: cf. Pliny, Nat.
Fist. xxiii. 93.
f Probably here sweet flag, Acorus calamus L.
517
(990)
Q
D
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
) συμφυρᾶν' ἀναγκάζουσα, χρημάτων πολλῶν ἡδυ-
πάθειαν ἄνανδρον καὶ κορασιώδη καὶ πρὸς οὐδὲν
οὐδαμῶς χρήσιμον ὠνουμένοις. ἀλλὰ καίπερ οὖσα
τοιαύτη διέφθαρκεν οὐ μόνον πάσας γυναῖκας ἀλλὰ
καὶ τῶν ἀνδρῶν ἤδη τοὺς πλείστους, ὡς μηδὲ ταῖς
αὑτῶν ἐθέλειν συγγίνεσθαι γυναιξίν, εἰ μὴ μύρων
ὑμῖν ὀδωδυῖαι καὶ διαπασμάτων εἰς ταὐτὸ φοιτῷεν.
ἀλλὰ κάπρους τε σύες καὶ τράγους αἶγες καὶ τἄλλα
θήλεα τοὺς συννόμους αὐτῶν ταῖς ἰδίαις ὀσμαῖς
ἐπάγεται, δρόσου τε καθαρᾶς καὶ λειμώνων ὀδω-
δότα καὶ χλόης συμφέρεται πρὸς τοὺς γάμους ὑπὸ
κοινῆς φιλοφροσύνης, οὐχὶ θρυπτόμεναι μὲν αἱ θή-
ειαι καὶ προϊσχόμεναι τῆς ἐπιθυμίας ἀπάτας καὶ
γοητείας καὶ ἀρνήσεις, οἱ δ᾽ ἄρρενες ὑπ᾽ οἴστρου
καὶ μαργότητος ὠνούμενοι μισθῶν καὶ πόνου καὶ
ατρείας τὸ τῆς γενέσεως ἔργον, ἄδολον" δὲ σὺν
καιρῷ καὶ ἄμισθον ᾿Αφροδίτην μετιόντες, ἣ Kal?
ὥραν ἔτους ὥσπερ φυτῶν βλάστην ἐγείρουσα τῶν
ζῴων τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν εὐθὺς “ἔσβεσεν, οὔτε τοῦ θήλεος
προσιεμένου μετὰ τὴν κύησιν οὔτε ᾿πειρῶντος ἔτι
τοῦ ἄρρενος. οὕτω “μικρὰν ἔχει καὶ ἀσθενῆ τιμὴν
ἡδονὴ παρ᾽ ἡμῖν, τὸ δ᾽ ὅλον ἡ φύσις. ὅθεν οὔτ᾽
ἄρρενος πρὸς ἄρρεν οὔτε θήλεος πρὸς θῆλυ μῖξιν at*
τῶν θηρίων ἐπιθυμίαι μέχρι γε νῦν ἐνηνόχασιν.
ὑμῶν δὲ πολλὰ τοιαῦτα τῶν σεμνῶν καὶ ἀγαθῶν"
* συμφυρᾶν Bernardakis: συμφαγεῖν or συμφοιτεῖν (συμ-
παγῆναι Post).
ὠνουμένοις Wyttenbach : ὠνουμένους.
3 ἄδουλον Reiske.
4 ai Meziriacus: εἶναι.
« Cf. Pliny’s frequent and indignant remarks, e.g. Nat.
Hist. xii. 29 and 83; also Seneca, Qu. at. vii. 30-31.
518
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL, 990
thus buying at a great price an effeminate, emascu-
lating luxury which has absolutely no real use. Yet,
though such is its nature, it has depraved not only
every woman, but lately the greater part of men as
well, so that they refuse to sleep even with their own
wives unless they come to bed reeking with myrrh
and scented powders.* But sows attract boars and
nannies bucks and other female creatures their con-
sorts by means of their own special odours ; scented,
as they are, with pure dew and grassy meadows, they
are attracted to the nuptial union by mutual affec-
tion. The females are not coy and do not cloak
their desires with deceits or trickeries or denials ;
nor do the males, driven on by the sting of mad lust,
purchase the act of procreation by money or toil or
servitude. No! Both parties celebrate at the
proper time a love without deceit or hire, a love
which in the season of spring ° awakens, like the
burgeoning of plants and trees, the desire of animals,
and then immediately extinguishes it. Neither does
the female continue to receive the male after she has
conceived, nor does the male attempt her.? So slight
and feeble is the regard we have for pleasure : our
whole concern is with Nature. Whence it comes
about that to this very day the desires of beasts have
encompassed no homosexual mating.® But you have
a fair amount of such trafficking among your high
and mighty nobility, to say nothing of the baser
» Cf. Mor. 493 r; Plato, Laws, 840 p; Oppian, Cyn. i.
378.
¢ Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. x.171; Philo, 48 (p. 123); Aelian,
De Natura Animal. ix. 63; Oppian, Hal. i. 473 ff.
4 But see Oppian, Cyn. iii. 146 ff.
¢ Of. Plato, Laws, 836 c; but see Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 166 ;
Aelian, De Natura Animal. xv. 11; Varia Hist. i. 15; al.
519
(990)
10)
=
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
IA \ \ ? \ > / « Θ...5 / \
ἐῶ yap τοὺς οὐδενὸς ἀξίους: 6 δ᾽ ᾿Αγαμέμνων τὴν
Βοιωτίαν ἐπῆλθε κυνηγετῶν τὸν “Apyvvvov’ ὑπο-
φεύγοντα καὶ καταψευδόμενος τῆς θαλάσσης καὶ
τῶν πνευμάτων... εἶτα καλὸν καλῶς ἑαυτὸν
/ > \ oh / ¢ ᾿] /
βαπτίζων εἰς τὴν Κωπαΐδα λίμνην, ws αὐτόθι Kata-
/ \ ” \ “ἢ > / > /
σβέσων τὸν ἔρωτα καὶ τῆς ἐπιθυμίας ἀπαλλαξό-
μενος. ὁ δ᾽ Ἡρακλῆς ὁμοίως ἑταῖρον ἀγένειον
5 / > / ~ > / \ /
ἐπιδιώκων ἀπελείφθη τῶν ἀριστέων Kal προύδωκε
τὸν στόλον" ἐν δὲ τῇ θόλῳ τοῦ IItwHov ᾿Απόλλωνος
/ ¢ ~ Sie COPS \ / ᾽)
λαθών τις ὑμῶν ἐνέγραψεν “᾿᾿Αχιλλεὺς καλός,
” a > / εν ” \ \ /
ἤδη τοῦ ᾿Αχιλλέως υἱὸν ἔχοντος" καὶ τὰ γράμματα
πυνθάνομαι διαμένειν. ἀλεκτρυὼν δ᾽ ἀλεκτρυόνος
ἐπιβαίνων, θηλείας μὴ παρούσης, καταπίμπραται
ζωός, μάντεώς τινος ἢ τερατοσκόπου μέγα καὶ δεινὸν
ἀποφαίνοντος εἶναι τὸ γινόμενον. οὕτω καὶ παρ᾽
» ~ > / ~ > / 7 ~
αὐτῶν ἀνωμολόγηται τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ὅτι μᾶλλον
A ~ /
τοῖς θηρίοις σωφρονεῖν προσήκει καὶ μὴ παραβιά-
ζεσθαι ταῖς ἡδοναῖς τὴν φύσιν. τὰ δ᾽ ἐν ὑμῖν ἀκό-
λαστα οὐδὲ τὸν νόμον ἔχουσα σύμμαχον ἡ φύσις
ἐντὸς ὅρων καθείργνυσιν, ἀλλ᾽ ὥσπερ ὑπὸ ῥεύματος
> , A2 mo ES , \ “
ἐκφερόμενα πολλαχοῦ" ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις δεινὴν ὕβριν
καὶ ταραχὴν καὶ σύγχυσιν ἐν τοῖς ἀφροδισίοις ἀπερ-
γάζεται τῆς φύσεως. καὶ γὰρ αἰγῶν ἐπειράθησαν
ἄνδρες καὶ ὑῶν καὶ ἵππων μιγνύμενοι καὶ γυναῖκες
1 ”Apyuvvov Leopardus: ἀργαῖον.
2 πολλαχοῦ] πολλάκις Hartman.
α See Barber and Butler on Propertius, iii. 7. 21.
» Probably a brief lacuna should be assumed.
¢ The story of Hylas is related by Theocritus, xiii, Apol-
lonius Rhodius, i. 1207-1272, Propertius, i. 20; al.
4 The Argonauts. ¢ The famous shrine in Boeotia.
520
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL, 990
sort. Agamemnon’ came to Boeotia hunting for
Argynnus, who tried to elude him, and slandering
the sea and winds” . . . then he gave his noble self
a noble bath in Lake Copais to drown his passion
there and get rid of his desire. Just so Heracles,°
pursuing a beardless lad, lagged behind the other
heroes* and deserted the expedition. On the
Rotunda of Ptoian Apollo ὁ one of your men secretly
inscribed FaIR Is ACHILLES /—when Achilles already
had ason. And I hear that the inscription is still in
place.’ But a cock that mounts another for the lack
of a female is burned alive because some prophet or
seer declares that such an event is an important and
terrible omen. On this basis even men themselves
acknowledge that beasts have a better claim to
temperance and the non-violation of nature in their
pleasures. Not even Nature, with Law for her ally,
can keep within bounds the unchastened vice of
your hearts ; but as though swept by the current of
their lusts beyond the barrier at many points, men
do such deeds as wantonly outrage } Nature, upset her
order, and confuse her distinctions. For men have,
in fact, attempted to consort with goats” and sows
and mares, and women have gone mad with lust for
7 On the formula see Robinson and Fluck, ‘* Greek Love
Names” (Johns Hopkins Archaeol. Stud. xxiii, 1937).
9 Reiske acutely observes that this is presumably an
annotation of Plutarch himself, speaking not from Gryllus’
character, but from his own. Since Odysseus, Achilles, and
Gryllus were contemporaries, it would hardly be surprising
that the inscription should still be there. And if it were, how
would Gryllus know ?
rk See Gow on Theocritus, i. 86; Bergen Evans, op. cit.
101 f., and on the “ vileness ᾿ of animals, p. 173. For the
general problem see, ¢.9., J. Rosenbaum, Geschichte der Lust-
seuche im Altertume (Berlin, 1904), pp. 274 ff.
521
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
99] ἄρρεσι θηρίοις ἐπεμάνησαν" ἐκ γὰρ τῶν τοιούτων
γάμων ὑμῖν Μινώταυροι καὶ Αἰγίπανες, ὡς δ᾽
ey@par καὶ Udiyyes ἀναβλαστάνουσι καὶ Κέν-
ταυροι. καίτοι διὰ λιμόν ποτ᾽ ἀνθρώπου καὶ κύων
ἔφαγεν καὶ ὑπ᾽ ἀνάγκης" ὄρνις ἀπεγεύσατο" πρὸς
δὲ συνουσίαν οὐδέποτε θηρίον ἐπεχείρησεν ἀνθρώπῳ
χρήσασθαι. θηρία δ᾽ ἄνθρωποι καὶ πρὸς ταῦτα
\ \ ” \2 3ὲ (Me \ 7, \
καὶ πρὸς ἄλλα πολλὰ" Kal? ἡδονὰς βιάζονται καὶ
παρανομοῦσιν.
LA \ ~ \ > a \ \ >
8. Οὕτω δὲ φαῦλοι καὶ ἀκρατεῖς περὶ Tas εἰρη-
/ > / 4 ” - > A > ,
μένας ἐπιθυμίας ὄντες ἔτι μᾶλλον ἐν ταῖς ἀναγκαίαις
ἐλέγχονται πολὺ τῷ σωφρονεῖν ἀπολειπόμενοι τῶν
θηρίων. αὗται δ᾽ εἰσὶν at περὶ βρῶσιν καὶ πόσιν"
Β ὧν ἡμεῖς μὲν τὸ ἡδὺ μετὰ χρείας τινὸς ἀεὶ λαμβάνο-
μεν, ὑμεῖς δὲ τὴν ἡδονὴν μᾶλλον ἢ τὸ κατὰ φύσιν
τῆς τροφῆς διώκοντες ὑπὸ πολλῶν καὶ μακρῶν
κολάζεσθε νοσημάτων, ἅπερ ἐκ μιᾶς πηγῆς ἐπαν-
τλούμενα" τῆς πλησμονῆς" παντοδαπῶν πνευμάτων
καὶ δυσκαθάρτων ὑμᾶς ἐμπίπλησι. πρῶτον μὲν
\ « / / / / \ / / >
yap ἑκάστῳ γένει ζῴου pia τροφὴ σύμφυλός ἐστι,
τοῖς μὲν πόα τοῖς δὲ ῥίζα τις ἢ καρπός" ὅσα δὲ
~ \ 299 \ » / ~
σαρκοφαγεῖ, πρὸς οὐδὲν ἄλλο τρέπεται βορᾶς εἶδος
οὐδ᾽ ἀφαιρεῖται τῶν ἀσθενεστέρων τὴν τροφήν, ἀλλ᾽
ἐᾷ νέμεσθαι καὶ λέων ἔλαφον καὶ λύκος “πρόβατον
Gh πέφυκεν. ὁ δ᾽ ἄνθρωπος ἐπὶ πάντα ταῖς ἡδοναῖς
᾿ καὶ ὑπ᾽ ἀνάγκης W.C.H.: ὑπ᾽ ἀνάγκης καὶ.
5. καὶ πρὸς . . . πολλὰ] these words should perhaps be
deleted.
8. ἐπαντλούμενα Wyttenbach : ἀπαντλούμενα.
4 πλησμονῆς W. C. Η. : πλησμονῆς τοῖς σώμασι.
¢ Cf. Frazer on Apollodorus, iii. 1. 4 (L.C.L., vol. i, pp.
305-307); Philo, 66 (p. 131).
522
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL, 991
male beasts. From such unions your Minotaurs %
and Aegipans,® and, I suppose, your Sphinxes ° and
Centaurs ὦ have arisen. Yet it is through hunger
that dogs have occasionally eaten a man; and birds
have tasted of human flesh through necessity ; but
no beast has ever attempted a human body for lustful
reasons.* But the beasts I have mentioned and many
others have been victims of the violent and lawless
lusts of man.
8. Though men are so vile and incontinent where
the desires I have spoken of are concerned, they can
be proved to be even more so in the case of essential
desires, being here far inferior to animals in temper-
ance.’ These are the desires for food and drink, in
which we beasts always take our pleasure along with
some sort of utility ; whereas you, in your pursuit
of pleasure rather than natural nourishment, are
punished by many serious ailments which, welling
up from one single source, the surfeit of your bodies,
fill you with all manner of flatulence that is difficult
to purge.’ In the first place each species of animal
has one single food proper to it, grass or some root
or fruit. Those that are carnivorous resort to no
other kind of nourishment, nor do they deprive those
weaker than themselves of sustenance ; but the lion
lets the deer, and the wolf lets the sheep, feed in its
natural pasture. But man in his pleasures is led
> «ὁ Goat Pans’; ef. Hyginus, fable 155; Mela, i. 8. 48.
¢ See Frazer on Apollodorus, iii. 5. 8 (L.C.L., vol. i,
p. 347).
@ See Frazer on Apollodorus, Epitome, i. 20 (L.C.L., vol.
ii, p. 148); Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. ‘‘ Centaurs.”
¢ But see, e.g., Aelian, De Natura Animal. xv. 14.
* Cf. Philo, 47 (p. 122).
9 Cf. Mor. 131 F.
523
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(991) ὑπὸ λαιμαργίας ἐξαγόμενος καὶ πειρώμενος πάντων
καὶ ἀπογευόμενος, ὡς οὐδέπω τὸ “πρόσφορον καὶ
οἰκεῖον ἐγνωκώς, μόνος γέγονε τῶν ὄντων παμ-
φάγον.
Καὶ σαρξὶ χρῆται πρῶτον ὑπ᾽ οὐδεμιᾶς ἀπορίας
οὐδ᾽ ἀμηχανίας, ᾧ πάρεστιν ἀεὶ καθ᾽ ὥραν ἄλλ᾽
ἐπ᾽ ἄλλοις ἀπὸ φυτῶν καὶ σπερμάτων τρυγῶντι καὶ
λαμβάνοντι καὶ δρεπομένῳ μονονοὺ κάμνειν διὰ
~ > > ¢ \ land \ / ~ > /
πλῆθος" ἀλλ᾽ ὑπὸ τρυφῆς καὶ κόρου τῶν ἀναγκαίων
βρώσεις ἀνεπιτηδείους καὶ οὐ καθαρὰς σφαγαῖς
ζῴων μετερχόμενος πολὺ τῶν ἀγριωτάτων θηρίων
ὠμότερον. αἷμα μὲν γὰρ καὶ φόνος καὶ σάρκες
D ἰκτίνῳ καὶ λύκῳ καὶ δράκοντι σιτίον οἰκεῖον, ἀν-
θρώπῳ δ᾽ ὄψον ἐστίν. ἔπειτα παντὶ γένει χρώ-
μενος οὐχ ὡς τὰ θηρία τῶν πλείστων ἀπέχεται,
DNwz \ A \ \ ~ ~ > 7
ὀλίγοις δὲ πολεμεῖ διὰ τὴν τῆς τροφῆς ἀνάγκην"
> “-
ἀλλ᾽ οὔτε τι πτηνὸν οὔτε νηκτόν, ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν,
οὔτε χερσαῖον ἐκπέφευγε τὰς ἡμέρους δὴ λεγομένας
ὑμῶν καὶ φιλοξένους τραπέζας.
9. Εἶεν: add’ ὄψοις χρῆσθε τούτοις ἐφηδύνοντες
τὴν τροφήν. τί οὖν ἐπ᾿ αὐτὰ ταῦτα... φῶντας ;"
> ΕΝ 1 ~ / / ~ \ > ’ὔ’ \
ἀλλ᾽ ἡ τῶν θηρίων φρόνησις τῶν μὲν ἀχρήστων καὶ
~ ~ >
ματαίων τεχνῶν οὐδεμιᾷ χώραν δίδωσι, tas ὃ
ἀναγκαίας οὐκ ἐπεισάκτους παρ᾽ ἑτέρων οὐδὲ μι-
1 μονονοὺ Reiske: μὴ.
2 φῶντας] τρυφῶντας Bernardakis.
* Of. 964 τε supra; and with the whole passage cf. the
impressive proem to the seventh book of Pliny’s Natural
History.
» ** Man is the only animal liable to the disease of a con-
tinuously insatiable appetite.” Pliny, Nat. Hist. xi. 288; ef.
Philo, 62 (p. 136); Lucan, iv. 373-381; al.
524
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL, 991
astray by gluttony to everything edible “; he tries
and tastes everything as if he had not yet come to
recognize what is suitable and proper for him ; alone
of all creatures he is omnivorous. ὃ
In the first place his eating of flesh is caused by no
lack of means or methods,® for he can always in
season harvest and garner and gather in such a
succession of plants and grains as will all but tire
him out with their abundance; but driven on by
luxurious desires and satiety with merely essential
nourishment, he pursues illicit food, made unclean
by the slaughter of beasts; and he does this in a
much more cruel way than the most savage beasts
of prey. Blood and gore and raw flesh are the proper
diet of kite and wolf and snake ; to man they are an
appetizer.? Then, too, man makes use of every kind
of food and does not, like beasts, abstain from most
kinds and consequently make war on a few only that
he must have for food. In a word, nothing that flies
or swims or moves on land has escaped your so-called
civilized and hospitable tables.
9. Well, then. It is admitted that you use animals
as appetizers to sweeten your fare. Why, therefore 7
. . . Animal intelligence, on the contrary, allows no
room for useless and pointless arts ; and in the case
of essential ones, we do not make one man with con-
¢ Cf. 993 Ὁ infra.
¢ Cf. 998 pv, 995 c infra.
¢ Or ‘‘ as supplementary food to make your basic fare
more agreeable ’’ (Andrews).
7 There is probably a considerable lacuna at this point ;
it is indicated in one of the mss. The sense may perhaps
be: ‘‘ Why, in providing yourselves with meat for your
luxurious living, have you invented a special art whose
practitioners make cookery their sole study ? Animal intelli-
gence, on the contrary,”’ etc.
525
(991)
992
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
σθοῦ διδακτὰς οὐδὲ κολλῶσα μελέτῃ Kal συμπη-
/ / a
γνύουσα γλίσχρως τῶν θεωρημάτων ἕκαστον πρὸς
- LAA’ > 50 b] « ~ τ fA - \
ἕκαστον ἀλλ᾽ αὐτόθεν ἐξ αὑτῆς οἷον ἰθαγενεῖς Kat
/ > / \ \ \ ’ /
συμφύτους ἀναδίδωσι. τοὺς μὲν yap Αἰγυπτίους
/ ] ~
πάντας ἰατροὺς ἀκούομεν εἶναι, τῶν δὲ ζῴων ἕκα-
στον οὐ μόνον πρὸς ἴασιν αὐτότεχνόν ἐστιν ἀλλὰ
\
καὶ πρὸς διατροφὴν Kal πρὸς ἀλκὴν θήραν τε καὶ
φυλακὴν καὶ μουσικῆς ὅσον ἑκάστῳ προσήκει κατὰ
/ A ~
φύσιν. παρὰ τίνος yap ἡμεῖς ἐμάθομεν νοσοῦντες
> ~
ἐπὶ τοὺς ποταμοὺς χάριν τῶν καρκίνων βαδίζειν ;
/ \ \ / 29 7 ~ Μ ͵7ὔ
τίς δὲ τὰς χελώνας ἐδίδαξε τῆς ἔχεως φαγούσας
τὴν ὀρίγανον ἐπεσθίειν ; τίς δὲ τὰς Κρητικὰς αἶγας,
ὅταν περιπέσωσι τοῖς τοξεύμασι, τὸ δίκταμνον
7 e / ? / a > / Ἃ
διώκειν, οὗ βρωθέντος ἐκβάλλουσι τὰς ἀκίδας ; ἂν
\ » i LA θ > / ὃ ὃ ΄
γὰρ εἴπῃς, ὅπερ ἀληθές ἐστι, τούτων διδάσκαλον
εἶναι τὴν φύσιν, εἰς τὴν κυριωτάτην καὶ σοφωτάτην
\ ~
ἀρχὴν avadépers τὴν τῶν θηρίων φρόνησιν: ἣν εἰ
\ / » - \ / A - σ
μὴ λόγον οἴεσθε δεῖν μηδὲ φρόνησιν καλεῖν, ὥρα
σκοπεῖν ὄνομα κάλλιον αὐτῇ καὶ τιμιώτερον, ὥσπερ
ἀμέλει καὶ du’ ἔργων ἀμείνονα καὶ θαυμασιωτέραν
\
παρέχεται τὴν δύναμιν: οὐκ ἀμαθὴς οὐδ᾽ ἀπαί-
- “ \ >
devtos, αὐτομαθὴς δέ τις μᾶλλον οὖσα καὶ ἀπροσ-
, ,’ > > / > \ LS, \ /
dens, od dv ἀσθένειαν ἀλλὰ ῥώμῃ καὶ τελειότητι
τῆς κατὰ φύσιν ἀρετῆς, χαίρειν ἐῶσα τὸν παρ᾽
ἑτέρων διὰ μαθήσεως τοῦ φρονεῖν συνερανισμόν.
~ ~ “ >
ὅσα γοῦν ἄνθρωποι τρυφῶντες ἢ παίζοντες εἰς TO
1 τιμιώτερον Meziriacus : τιμιώτατον.
¢ This curious statement may come from a misreading of
Herodotus, ii. 84.
526
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL, 991-992
stant study cling to one department of knowledge
and rivet him jealously to that ; nor do we receive
our arts as alien products or pay to be taught them.
Our intelligence produces them on the spot unaided,
as its own congenital and legitimate skills. I have
heard that in Egypt ὦ everyone is a physician; and
in the case of beasts each one is not only his own
specialist in medicine, but also in the providing of
food, in warfare and hunting as well as in self-defence
and music, in so far as any kind of animal has a
natural gift for it. From whom have we swine
learned, when we are sick, to resort to rivers to catch
crabs ? Who taught tortoises to devour marjoram
after eating the snake ἢ ὃ And who instructed Cretan
goats,© when they are pierced by an arrow, to look
for dittany, after eating which the arrowhead falls
out? For if you speak the truth and say that Nature
is their teacher, you are elevating the intelligence
of animals to the most sovereign and wisest of first
principles. If you do not think that it should be
called either reason or intelligence, it is high time
for you to cast about for some fairer and even more
honourable term to describe it, since certainly the
faculty that it brings to bear in action is better and
more remarkable.? It is no uninstructed or untrained
faculty, but rather self-taught and self-sufficient—
and not for lack of strength. It is just because of
the health and completeness of its native virtue that
it is indifferent to the contributions to its intelligence
supplied by the lore of others. Such animals, at any
rate, as man for amusement or easy living induces to
ὑ Cf. 974 B supra and the note.
¢ Cf. 974 D supra and the note.
4 That is, “‘ better ’’ than human intelligence.
527
(992)
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
/ \ ~ », / « /
μανθάνειν καὶ μελετᾶν ἄγουσι, τούτων ἡ διάνοια
καὶ παρὰ φύσιν τοῦ σώματος" περιουσίᾳ συνέσεως
/ ~
ἀναλαμβάνει τὰς μαθήσεις. ἐῶ yap ἰχνεύειν σκύ-
λακας καὶ βαδίζειν ἐν ῥυθμῷ πώλους μελετῶντας
\2 / / \ / “ \
καὶ κόρακας διαλέγεσθαι καὶ κύνας ἄλλεσθαι διὰ
τροχῶν περιφερομένων. ἵπποι δὲ καὶ βόες ἐν θεά-
τροις κατακλίσεις καὶ χορείας καὶ στάσεις παρα-
βόλους καὶ κινήσεις οὐδ᾽ ἀνθρώποις πάνυ ῥᾳδίας
ἀκριβοῦσιν ἐκδιδασκόμενοι καὶ μνημονεύοντες εὐ-
θ / ’ ὃ ἕ 3 ἃ LAA se ᾽ὃ ~ ᾽ὔ
μαθείας ἐπίδειξιν εἰς" ἄλλο οὐδὲν οὐδαμῶς χρήσιμον
ἔχουσαν. εἰ δ᾽ ἀπιστεῖς ὅτι τέχνας μανθάνομεν,
ἄκουσον ὅτι καὶ διδάσκομεν. αἵ τε γὰρ πέρδικες
~ >
ἐν τῷ προφεύγειν τοὺς νεοττοὺς ἐθίζουσιν ἀπο-
/ \ sh ~ > > ¢ ~
κρύπτεσθαι Kal προΐσχεσθαι βῶλον ἀνθ᾽ ἑαυτῶν
A \ A“
τοῖς ποσὶν ὑπτίους ἀναπεσόντας" Kal τοῖς πελαργι-
~ ~ ~ ~ ¢
δεῦσιν ὁρᾷς ἐπὶ τῶν τεγῶν ὡς ot τέλειοι παρόντες
ἀναπειρωμένοις ὑφηγοῦνται τὴν πτῆσιν. αἱ δ᾽
ἀηδόνες τοὺς νεοσσοὺς προδιδάσκουσιν ade: ot
\ / ” / \ / >? \
δὲ ληφθέντες ἔτι νήπιοι καὶ τραφέντες ἐν χερσὶν
a \ σ
ἀνθρώπων χεῖρον ἄδουσιν, ὥσπερ πρὸ ὥρας ἀπὸ
\ >
διδασκάλου γεγονότες. . . . καταδὺς δ᾽ εἰς τουτὶ
~ ,
τὸ σῶμα θαυμάζω τοὺς λόγους ἐκείνους οἷς av-
επειθόμην ὑπὸ τῶν σοφιστῶν ἄλογα καὶ ἀνόητα
πάντα πλὴν ἀνθρώπου νομίζειν.
10. oa. Νῦν μὲν οὖν, ὦ Γρύλλε, μεταβέβλησαι
1 σώματος Reiske : σώματος καὶ.
2 καὶ Hartman: ἀλλὰ (ἅμα καὶ Post).
eis Reiske 3 Υ ts: 4 ἔχουσαν Wyttenbach: ἔχουσιν.
“ Like our trotters or pacers.
’ A somewhat similar performance of elephants is de-
scribed in Philo, 27 (pp. 113 f.).
528
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL, 992
accept instruction and training have understanding
to grasp what they are taught even when it goes
contrary to their physical endowment, so superior
are their mental powers. I say nothing of puppies
that are trained as hunters, or colts schooled to keep
time in their gait,? or crows that are taught to talk,
or dogs, to jump through revolving hoops. In the
theatres horses and steers go through an exact routine
in which they lie down or dance or hold a precarious
pose or perform movements not at all easy even for
men’; and they remember what they have been
taught, these exhibitions of docility w hich are not in
the least useful for anything else. if you are doubtful
that we can learn arts, then let me tell you that we
can even teach them. When partridges ¢ are making
their escape, they accustom their fledglings to hide
by falling on their backs and holding a lump of earth
over themselves with their claws. You can observe
storks on the roof, the adults showing the art of
flying to the young as they make their trial flights.¢
Nightingales ὁ set the example for their young to
sing; while nestlings that are caught young and
brought up by human care are poorer singers, as
though they had left the care of their teacher too
early.f . . . and since I have entered into this new
body of mine, I marvel at those arguments by which
the sophists 5 brought me to consider all creatures
except man irrational and senseless.
10. opyssEus. So now, Gryllus, you are trans-
¢ Of. 971 c supra; Mor. 494 © and the note.
4 In Aelian, De Natura Animal. viii. 22 will be found the
tale of a stork who did not learn in time.
¢ Cf. 973 B supra.
7 There is probably a long lacuna at this point.
9 Probably the Stoics are meant (by anachronism).
529
(992)
KE
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
\ \ \ / \ > / \ ‘
σὺ Kal τὸ πρόβατον λογικὸν ἀποφαίνεις καὶ TOV
»
ὄνον ;
- 13 >
rp. Αὐτοῖς μὲν οὖν τούτοις, ὦ βέλτιστε ᾿Οδυσ-
~ / - / \ “ /
σεῦ, μάλιστα δεῖ τεκμαίρεσθαι τὴν τῶν θηρίων
/ ς / \ / » Μ ΝΜ
φύσιν, ὡς λόγου καὶ συνέσεως οὐκ ἔστιν ἀμοιρος.
¢ ~ >
ὡς yap’ οὐκ ἔστι δένδρον ἕτερον ἑτέρου μᾶλλον οὐδ
- » > ove , ” 7 \ >
ἧττον ἄψυχον, ἀλλ᾽ ὁμοίως ἔχει πάντα πρὸς avat-
/ > Δ \ > ~ ~ / Ad
σθησίαν (οὐδενὶ yap αὐτῶν ψυχῆς μέτεστιν), οὕτως
᾽ a“ 5 / ~ “ c / - -
οὐκ ἂν ἐδόκει ζῷον ἕτερον ἑτέρου τῷ φρονεῖν
> / + \ / > \ /
apyotepov εἶναι καὶ δυσμαθέστερον, εἰ μὴ πάντα
λόγου καὶ συνέσεως, ἄλλα δὲ μᾶλλον καὶ ἧττον
” “- 5 / > “ \ 2 FF
ἄλλων πως μετεῖχεν. ἐννόησον δ᾽ ὅτι Tas ἐνίων
> / \ / > / ¢e /
ἀβελτερίας καὶ BAaketas ἐλέγχουσιν ἑτέρων πανουρ-
/ \ / a > 4 \ / \
γίαι Kal δριμύτητες, ὅταν ἀλώπεκι καὶ λύκῳ Kal
, 2 7 » \ ΄ “ >
μελίττῃ παραβάλῃς ὄνον καὶ πρόβατον: ὥσπερ εἰ
σαυτῷ τὸν ἰολύφημον ἢ τῷ πάππῳ σου τῷ Αὐτο-
7 \ , Sian \ ὅγε νὴ > \
λύκῳ τὸν Κόροιβον ἐκεῖνον τὸν μωρόν. οὐ yap
s , \ , 3”) 9 s /
οἶμαι θηρίου πρὸς θηρίον ἀπόστασιν εἶναι τοσαύτην,
σ΄ Μ 3 / ~ ~ \ /
ὅσον ἄνθρωπος ἀνθρώπου τῷ φρονεῖν καὶ Aoyile-
\ / > /
σθαι καὶ μνημονεύειν ἀφέστηκεν.
oa. ᾿Αλλ᾽ ὅρα, Τρύλλε, μὴ δεινὸν 7 καὶ βίαιον
> aA 7, e > > / A 7
ἀπολιπεῖν λόγον οἷς οὐκ ἐγγίνεται θεοῦ νόησις.
1 ὡς γὰρ Wyttenbach: ὥσπερ.
530
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL, 992
formed. Do you attribute reason even to the sheep
and the ass ?
GRYLLUS. From even these, dearest Odysseus, it
is perfectly possible to gather that animals have a
natural endowment of reason and intellect. For just
as one tree is not more nor less inanimate than
another, but they are all in the same state of in-
sensibility, since none is endowed with soul, in the
same way one animal would not be thought to be
more sluggish or indocile mentally than another if
they did not all possess reason and intellect to some
degree—though some have a greater or less propor-
tion than others. Please note that cases of dullness
and stupidity in some animals are demonstrated by
the cleverness and sharpness of others—as when you
compare an ass and a sheep with a fox or a wolf or a
bee. It is like comparing Polyphemus to you or that
dunce Coroebus “ to your grandfather Autolycus.? 1
scarcely believe that there is such a spread between
one animal and another as there is between man and
man in the matter of judgement and reasoning and
memory.
opyssEus. But consider, Gryllus : is it not a fearful
piece of violence to grant reason to creatures that
have no inherent knowledge of God ?
¢ For Haupt’s fine correction (Hermes, vi, Ὁ. 4=Opuscula,
ili, p. 552) cf. Leutsch and Schneidewin, Paroemiographi
Graeci, i. 101 (Zenobius, iv. 58); Lucian, Philopseudis, 3.
Coroebus was proverbially so stupid that he tried to count
the waves of the sea.
ὑ Odyssey, xix. 394 ff.: Autolycus surpassed all men “ in
thefts and perjury,” a gift of Hermes.
2 καὶ μελίττῃ) Should perhaps be deleted.
3 τὸν Κόροιβον ἐκεῖνον τὸν μωρόν Haupt: τὸν Kopivéov
ἐκεῖνον ὅμηρον.
531
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(992) rp. Εἶτά σε μὴ φῶμεν, ὦ ᾿Οδυσσεῦ, σοφὸν
οὕτως ὄντα καὶ περιττὸν Σισύφου γεγονέναι ;
« Most critics (and very emphatically Ziegler) believe that
the end, perhaps quite a long continuation, is lost; but
Reiske ingeniously supposes Gryllus’ final answer to mean :
‘* If those who do not know God cannot possess reason, then
you, wise Odysseus, can scarcely be descended from such a
notorious atheist as Sisyphus.” (For Sisyphus’ famous
assertion that ‘‘ the gods are only a utilitarian invention ”
see Critias, Sisyphus, frag. 1: Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag.
0) ay Wee:
There would, then, be no further point in prolonging the
discussion ; and no doubt by this time Odysseus has changed
his mind about the desirability of any further metamorphosis
532
BEASTS ARE RATIONAL, 992
GryLLus. Then shall we deny, Odysseus, that so
wise and remarkable a man as you had Sisyphus for
a father ὃ 4
of his interlocutor, since the last argument touches him
nearly. Sisyphus was said by some to be his real father
(Mor. 301 p).
Others, however, believe that some discussion of further
virtues, such as natural piety, must have followed; and per-
haps the account closed with a consideration of justice. But
would Odysseus have been convinced (cf. 986 B) ? Or is this
as good a place as any to end? Plutarch used no stage
directions, so that, as in the classical Platonic dialogues,
when the characters stop speaking, the discussion is over
and we are left to draw our own conclusions. The undoubted
fact, however, that the work is mutilated in several other
places allows us to leave the question open.
533
| tediy
ἰὴ 2 ba Linc oe τ 7 ef ἢ
rot vuslery δὲ “ isl ON ΤΥ JSG dl Ihe tis
< [ΩΣ we poet of )
ae x er he
Pig +, 2 ἵ ᾿ Ψ +) a?
win 2 {πο ΟΣ 1 τὰ "Ὰ iv A294) as
sidini tae Vin’ aad a "ANI? Ye ila any Ye
i 3 r : 3 , ἜΝ ee
si, a. αἰ Sx
ΤΠ Ἰ | 1; tiescannet, oan 04 rai) unites
aq Dit ἐδ 6} oved Jauin veg bi
niet | sais uh in Holfpsbiedes s (ΠΝ hae
aiid et 3)” fa ORG YN}, Dont Titan) igo OWE
Fonte Ob Ἢ ἀν Ts fas Ὁ)
ποῖ γυοί εν ὙΠῸ ἯΩΙ leole: nhs Thee
save “al idipale »] elite a es ray " Ar
bsidnobnie etl. ἀποϊι προ iste tte does ts ? atti?
TG ΤΥ Ὁ 6] hatali ΠῚ AGF ott iat oi SY
St]O σοι} 5 ΠΝ avo ΟΥ̓ ΕΝ Κ'
!
i?
ON PAE al PNG OPuR LESH
(DE ESU CARNIUM)
I anp II
4
iy ΓΑ om
; ΟΣ
ὧδ ὙΣ
* ΠΟΥ om
ὯΝ
ae ly
(MUIMAAD. Ved αν
II aua I
INTRODUCTION
THEsE two badly mutilated discourses, urging the
necessity for vegetarianism, are merely extracts
from a series (see 996 a) which Plutarch delivered in
his youth, perhaps to a Boeotian audience (995 £).?
In spite of the exaggerated and calculated rhetoric ὃ
these fragments probably depict faithfully a foible
of Plutarch’s early manhood, the Pythagorean or
Orphic © abstention from animal food. There is
little trace of this in his later life as known to us,
though a corrupt passage in the Symposzacs (635 ΕἸ
seems to say that because of a dream our author
abstained from eggs for a long time. In the De
Sanitate Tuenda also (132 a) Plutarch excuses flesh-
eating on the ground that habit “ has become a sort
of unnatural second nature.”
The work appears, on the whole, rather immature
beside the Gryllus and the De Sollertia Animalum,
but the text is so poor that this may not be the
author's fault. In fact the excerptor responsible for
our jumbled text, introducing both stupid interpola-
tions (see especially 998 a) and even an extract from
an entirely different work (994 B-p), may well have
* This was Hirzel’s opinion (Der Dialog, ii, p. 126, n. 2),
which Ziegler (RE, s.v. “* Plutarchos,” col. 734) combats.
> F. Krauss, Die rhetorischen Schriften Plutarchs, pp. 77 ff.
ὁ Plato, Laws, 782 c. Plutarch, Mor. 159 c, makes Solon
say, “ΤῸ refrain entirely from eating meat, as they record of
Orpheus long ago, is rather a quibble than a way of avoiding
wrong diet.”
537
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
altered Plutarch’s wording in many other places
where we have not the means to detect him.
Porphyry * (De Abstinentia, iii. 24) says that Plu-
tarch attacked the Stoics and Peripatetics in many
books ; in this one the anti-Stoic polemic has only
just begun (999 a) when the work breaks off. For a
more complete assault the reader must turn back to
the two preceding dialogues.
It is interesting to learn that Shelley found these
fragments inspiring. In the eighth book of Queen
Mab (verses 211 ff.) we read :
No longer now
He slays the lamb that looks him in the face,
And horribly devours his mangled flesh,
Which, still avenging Nature’s broken law,
Kindled all putrid humours in his frame,
All evil passions, and all vain belief, . . .
The germs of misery, death, disease, and crime.
To this passage the poet appended, more suo, a long
note which ended with four quotations from our essay
in Greek, untranslated (a compliment to the public
of his day, one may suppose). This note he subse-
quently republished as A Vindication of Natural Diet
(1813), omitting the Greek; and in the same year he
wrote to Thomas Hogg that he had “ translated the
two Essays of Plutarch, Περὶ capxodayias.”” But this
has been lost ; it has not, at least, been found among
the unpublished Shelley material in the Bodleian.?
* It is, of course, possible that Porphyry used some portion
of the missing parts of our work ; but this cannot be proved
and may even be thought unlikely in view of the fact that he
makes no use of any extant portion.
» These facts I owe to the kindness of Professors J. A.
Notopoulos of Trinity College and J. E. Jordan of the Uni-
versity of California; see also K, N. Cameron, The Young
Shelley, pp. 224 f.
538
THE EATING OF FLESH
This is one of the eighteen works of the received
Corpus of Plutarch that do not appear in the Lamprias
Catalogue. Such a fact is not, however, to be ad-
duced against its genuineness, since the Symposiacs
themselves are not to be found there.
α It is important to observe that H. Fuchs, Der geistige
Widerstand gegen Rom, p. 49, n. 60, athetizes this work. A
further discussion by this great critic would be warmly
welcomed, especially since Wilamowitz recognized here also
‘** den unverkennbaren Stempel der plutarchischen Art.”
539
C
ΠΕΡῚ SAPKO®ATIAX
MOTOR? Ae,
᾿Αλλὰ σὺ μὲν ἐρωτᾷς τίνι λόγῳ [Πυθαγόρας
ἀπείχετο σαρκοφαγίας ; ; ἐγὼ δὲ θαυμάζω καὶ τίνι
πάθει καὶ ποίᾳ ψυχῇ 7 λόγῳ ὃ πρῶτος ἄνθρωπος
ἥψατο φόνου στόματι καὶ τεθνηκότος ζῴου χείλεσι
προσήψατο σαρκὸς καὶ νεκρῶν σωμάτων καὶ ἑώλων'
προθέμενος τραπέζας ὄψα καὶ τροφὰς" προσεῖπεν"
τὰ μικρὸν ἔμπροσθεν βρυχώμενα μέρη καὶ φθεγγό-
μενα καὶ κινούμενα καὶ βλέποντα. πῶς ἡ ὄψις
ὑπέμεινε τὸν φόνον σφαζομένων δερομένων δια-
μελιζομένων, πῶς ἡ ὄσφρησις ἤνεγκε. τὴν ἀπο-
φοράν, πῶς τὴν γεῦσιν οὐκ ἀπέτρεψεν 6 μολυσμὸς
ἑλκῶν ψαύουσαν ἀλλοτρίων καὶ τραυμάτων θανασί-
μων χυμοὺς καὶ ἰχῶρας ἀπολαμβάνουσαν ;*
εἷρπον μὲν ῥινοί, κρέα δ᾽ ἀμφ᾽ ὀβελοῖς ἐμεμύκει
ὀπταλέα τε καὶ ὠμά, βοῶν δ᾽ ὡς γίγνετο φωνή:
~ \ 5 / \ ~ / > \ / A
τοῦτο μὲν" πλάσμα καὶ μῦθός ἐστι, TO δέ ye δεῖπνον
~ ~ a - /
ἀληθῶς τερατῶδες, πεινῆν τινα τῶν μυκωμένων
1 ἑώλων van Herwerden: εἰδώλων.
2 tpudas] Mss. and early editions have also τροφὴν, τρυφὰς,
and τρυφὴν (see Sandbach, Class. Quart. xxxv (1941), p. 114).
3 προσεῖπεν Kronenberg (cf. 995 c): καὶ προσέτι εἰπεῖν.
4 ἀναλαμβάνουσαν Wyttenbach.
540
ON UPHE EATING PORtELESH
I
1. Can you really ask what reason Pythagoras @
had for abstaining from flesh ? For my part I rather
wonder both by what accident and in what state of
soul or mind the first man ὃ who did so, touched his
mouth to gore and brought his lips to the flesh of a
dead creature, he who set forth tables of dead, stale °
bodies and ventured to call food and nourishment
the parts that had a little before bellowed and cried,
moved and lived. How could his eyes endure the
slaughter when throats were slit and hides flayed and
limbs torn from limb ? How could his nose endure
the stench ? How was it that the pollution did not
turn away his taste, which made contact with the sores
of others and sucked juices and serums from mortal
wounds ?
The skins shivered ; and upon the spits the flesh bellowed,
Both cooked and raw; the voice of kine was heard.4
Though this is an invention and a myth, yet that sort
of dinner is really portentous—when a man craves the
« Cf. 964 Ὁ supra. > Cf. 959 E supra.
¢ Cf. 991 p supra, 995 c infra.
4 Homer, Odyssey, xii. 395-396.
5. μὲν added by Reiske.
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(993) ἔτι' διδάσκοντα ἀφ᾽ ὧν δεῖ τρέφεσθαι ζώντων ἔτι
> / §
καὶ λαλούντων καὶ" διαταττόμενον ἀρτύσεις τινὰς
Ui -
καὶ ὀπτήσεις καὶ παραθέσεις: τούτων" ἔδει ζητεῖν
~ /
τὸν πρῶτον ἀρξάμενον οὐ Tov ὀψὲ παυσάμενον.
a ,
2. Ἢ τοῖς μὲν πρώτοις ἐκείνοις ἐπιχειρήσασι
- ” ~ \ /
σαρκοφαγεῖν τὴν αἰτίαν εἴποι πᾶς av τὴν χρείαν"
\ /
Kal τὴν ἀπορίαν; οὐ yap ἐπιθυμίαις ἀνόμοις συν-
, 22> 2 , Pe ee , ε ,
D διάγοντες οὐδ᾽ ἐν περιουσίᾳ τῶν" ἀναγκαίων ὑβρί-
ν ~
σαντες εἰς ἡδονὰς Tapa φύσιν ἀσυμφύλους ἐπὶ ταῦτ᾽
5λθ pty ” 5ι ” > ~ 7 \
ἦλθον: ἀλλ᾽ εἴποιεν ἂν αἴσθησιν ἐν TH παρόντι καὶ
\ ΄ 6 o> , \ A ΕΣ ΣᾺ
φωνὴν λαβόντες" “᾿ ὦ μακάριοι καὶ θεοφιλεῖς οἱ νῦν
A : .A ~
ὄντες ὑμεῖς, οἷον βίου λαχόντες αἰῶνα καρποῦσθε
\ / ~ > ~ Μ σ ᾽ὔ
καὶ νέμεσθε κλῆρον ἀγαθῶν ἄφθονον: ὅσα φύεται
an ~ ~ > σ
ὑμῖν, ὅσα τρυγᾶται, ὅσον πλοῦτον ἐκ πεδίων, ὅσας
ἈΝ a ε 1 6 , ͵, ”
ἀπὸ φυτῶν ἡδονὰς" δρέπεσθαι πάρεστιν. ἔξεστιν
“ \ ~ \ « ~
ὑμῖν καὶ τρυφᾶν μὴ μιαινομένοις. ἡμᾶς δὲ σκυθρω-
> /
πότατον καὶ φοβερώτατον ἐδέξατο βίου καὶ χρόνου
/ \
μέρος, εἰς πολλὴν καὶ ἀμήχανον ἐκπεσόντας ὑπὸ
a“ > »Μ \
THS πρώτης γενέσεως ἀπορίαν: ἔτι μὲν οὐρανὸν
, A \ -
E ἔκρυπτεν ἀὴρ καὶ ἄστρα θολερῷ καὶ δυσδιαστα-
τοῦντι' πεφυρμένος" ὑγρῷ καὶ πυρὶ καὶ ζάλαις ἀνέ-
ἔτι Stephanus: ἔτι καὶ.
καὶ added by Stephanus.
τούτων Turnebus : τοῦτον.
εἴποι πᾶς ἂν τὴν χρείαν Sandbach, after Amyot: ἂν εἴποι
πᾶσαν.
5 τῶν Diels: τινὶ.
6 ἡδονὰς Stephanus: ἡδονὰς ἃς.
1 δυσδιαστατοῦντι Xylander : δυστατοῦντι.
8 πεφυρμένος Wilamowitz : πεφυρμένα.
1
2
3
4
« “ Hyperbius .. . first killed an animal, Prometheus an
ox.”’ (Pliny, Nat. Hist. vii. 209.) See also the amusing
542
THE EATING OF FLESH I, 993
meat that is still bellowing, giving instructions which
tell us on what animals we are to feed while they are
still alive uttering their cries, and organizing various
methods of seasoning and roasting and serving. It
is the man ὅ who first began these practices that one
should seek out, not him who all too late desisted.?
2. Or would everyone declare that the reason for
those who first instituted flesh-eating was the neces-
sity of their poverty ? It was not while they passed
their time in unlawful desires nor when they had
necessaries in abundance that after indulgence in
unnatural and antisocial pleasures they resorted to
such a practice. If, at this moment, they could re-
cover feelings and voice, they might, indeed, re-
mark: ‘‘ Oh blessed and beloved of the gods, you
who live now, what an age has fallen to your lot
wherein you enjoy and assimilate a heritage abound-
ing in good things ! How many plants grow for you !
What vintages you gather! What wealth you may
draw from the plains and what pleasant sustenance
from trees! Why, you may even live luxuriously
without the stain of blood. But as for us, it was a
most dismal and fearful portion of the world’s history ¢
that confronted us, falling as we did into great and
unbearable poverty brought on by our first appear-
ance among the living. As yet the heavens and the
stars were concealed by dense air that was con-
taminated with turbid moisture, not easily to be
penetrated, and fire and furious wind. Not yet was
analysis of Prometheus and the vulture (=disease) in
Shelley’s 4 Vindication of Natural Diet.
> Pythagoras.
¢ Cf. Empedocles, frag. B 2. 3 (Diels-Kranz, Frag. der
Vorsok. i, p. 309); the whole passage is received as a
doubtful fragment (B 154; i, pp. 371 f.).
543
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(993) μων: οὔπω δ᾽ ἥλιος ἵδρυτο ἀπλανῆ Kat βέβαιον
ἔχων δρόμον, ἠῶ
\ / » \ > »” - > /
καὶ δύσιν ἔκρινεν, περὶ δ᾽ ἤγαγεν αὖθις ὀπίσσω
/
καρποφόροισιν ἐπιστέψας καλυκοστεφάνοισιν᾽
ὥραις" γῆ δ᾽ ὕβριστο
~ b] -
ποταμῶν ἐκβολαῖς ἀτάκτοις, καὶ τὰ πολλὰ" “᾿ λί-
Μ ᾽) \ A / \ /
μναισιν apopda’’ καὶ πηλοῖς βαθέσι καὶ λόχμαις
3 ’ 1 @& > / \ - £ /
ἀφόροις καὶ ὕλαις ἐξηγρίωτο: dopa δ᾽ ἡμέρων Kap-
πῶν καὶ τέχνης ὄργανον οὐδὲν ἦν" οὐδὲ μηχανὴ
/ « \ \ ᾽ 9. , ’; 809), Ὁ >
σοφίας: ὁ δὲ λιμὸς οὐκ ἐδίδου χρόνον οὐδ᾽ ὥρας ἐτη-
σίους σπόρος πυρῶν" τότ᾽ ἀνέμενε. τί θαυμαστὸν
> / ? / \ \ / a 9 s\\ 6
εἰ ζῴων ἐχρησάμεθα σαρξὶ παρὰ φύσιν, ὅτ᾽ ἰλὺς
F ἠσθίετο καὶ φλοιὸς ἐβρώθη ξύλου, καὶ ἄγρωστιν
ε “-“ / ad 76 ev > \
εὑρεῖν βλαστάνουσαν ἢ φλεώ" twa pilav εὐτυχὲς
ἦν; βαλάνου δὲ γευσάμενοι καὶ φαγόντες ἐχορεύ-
7. ¢ ΚΑ νίο A \ A \ , ,
σαμεν ὑφ᾽ ἡδονῆς περὶ δρῦν Twa καὶ φηγόν, ζείδω-
ρον καὶ μητέρα καὶ τροφὸν ἀποκαλοῦντες" ἐκείνην
,
994 μόνην" ὁ τότε βίος ἑορτὴν ἔγνω, τὰ δ᾽ ἄλλα φλεγ-
~ \ ~
μονῆς ἦν ἅπαντα μεστὰ Kal στυγνότητος. ὑμᾶς δὲ
~ /
τοὺς" νῦν tis λύσσα Kai Tis olatpos ayer πρὸς
~ / ~ 5
μιαιφονίαν, οἷς τοσαῦτα περίεστι τῶν ἀναγκαίων ;
~ ~ \
τί καταψεύδεσθε τῆς γῆς ws τρέφειν μὴ δυναμένης ;
A /
τί τὴν θεσμοφόρον ἀσεβεῖτε Δήμητρα καὶ τὸν
1 καλυκοστεφάνοισιν Jacobs : κάλυκος στεφάνοισιν.
5. τὰ πολλὰ Bernardakis: πολλὰ.
3 ἦν added by Wilamowitz.
4 πυρῶν Diels: ὧν. 5 ἐλὺς] δρῦς Bernardakis.
8 dred Stephanus: φλοιοῦ.
7 ἐχορεύσαμεν Sieveking : ἐχόρευσαν.
8 μόνην Xylander: ἣν.
® τοὺς Stephanus: πῶς.
THE EATING OF FLESH I, 993-994
the sun established undeviating
In his firm course,
Dividing day and night; he brought them back
Again and crowned them with the fruitful hours
All wreathed with bloom, while violence
had been done to earth by rivers pouring forth their
floods at random and most parts were deformed by
pools. Earth was made a wilderness by deep quag-
mires and the unfruitful growth of thickets and
forests ; nor was there as yet any agricultural pro-
duction or professional tool or any resource of skill.
Our hunger gave us no respite nor was there any
seed at that time awaiting the annual season of
sowing. What wonder if, contrary to nature, we
made use of the flesh of beasts when even mud was
eaten and the bark of trees devoured, and to light on
sprouting grass or the root of a rush was a piece of
luck ? When we had tasted and eaten acorns we
danced for joy around some oak,? calling it “ life-
giving’ © and “ mother’ and “ nurse.’” This was the
only festival that those times had discovered ; all
else was a medley of anguish and gloom. But you
who live now, what madness, what frenzy drives
you to the pollution of shedding plone: you who
have such a superfluity of necessities ἢ Why προ
the earth by implying that she cannot support you ἢ
Why impiously δια πιἃ law-giving Demeter? and
# You could not tell land from water, because invading
water made pools that dried up later.
» “ Drys was a term used especially for Quercus robur L. ;
phegos for Q. aegilops L.. Actually the early Greeks ate the
acorns mostly of Q. aegilops.’’ (Andrews.)
[the epithet properly meant “ wheat-giving”’ (as in
Homer, Iliad, ii. 548), but was early misinterpreted.
g Cf. Mor. 1119 &.
VOL. Xt τ 545
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
« / \ / > 4 / « >
(994) ἡμερίδην καὶ μειλίχιον αἰσχύνετε Διόνυσον, ws οὐχ
ἱκανὰ παρὰ τούτων λαμβάνοντες; οὐκ αἰδεῖσθε
/ /
τοὺς ἡμέρους καρποὺς αἵματι καὶ φόνῳ μιγνύοντες ;
» Ἁ ’ὔ > / ~ \ / \
ἀλλὰ δράκοντας ἀγρίους καλεῖτε καὶ παρδάλεις Kat
λέοντας, αὐτοὶ δὲ μιαιφονεῖτε εἰς ὠμότητα κατα-
; > / > / > / \ Ἁ c /
Β λιπόντες ἐκείνοις οὐδέν: ἐκείνοις μὲν yap ὁ φόνος
/ ae a > / x)
τροφή, ὑμῖν δ᾽ ὄψον ἐστίν.
᾽ \ \ / / > > / \ 7
8. Οὐ γὰρ δὴ λέοντάς γ᾽ ἀμυνόμενοι καὶ λύκους
2 / > \ ~ \ IA \ "ὦ ~ \
ἐσθίομεν: ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν ἐῶμεν, τὰ δ᾽ ἀβλαβῆ Kat
χειροήθη καὶ ἄκεντρα καὶ νωδὰ πρὸς τὸ δακεῖν
/ > / Δ \ / \ /
συλλαμβάνοντες ἀποκτιννύομεν, ἃ νὴ Δία Kat κάἀλ-
λους ἕνεκα καὶ χάριτος ἡ φύσις ἔοικεν ἐξενεγ-
κεῖν. ..
σ e ΝΜ \ tA e ~ λ -
[Ὅμοιον ὡς εἴτις τὸν Νεῖλον ὁρῶν πλημμυροῦντα
καὶ τὴν χώραν ἐμπιπλάντα' γονίμου καὶ καρπο-
φόρου ῥεύματος μὴ τοῦτο θαυμάζοι τοῦ φερομένου,
τὸ φυτάλμιον καὶ εὔκαρπον τῶν ἡμερωτάτων καὶ
7 ~ > a / \ /
βιωφελεστάτων καρπῶν, ἀλλ᾽ ἰδών που Kal κροκό-
δειλον ἐννηχόμενον καὶ ἀσπίδα κατασυρομένην καὶ
C μυρία᾽ ἄγρια ζῷα," ταύτας λέγοι τὰς αἰτίας τῆς
μέμψεως καὶ τῆς τοῦ πράγματος ἀνάγκης" ἢ νὴ Δία
τὴν γῆν ταύτην καὶ τὴν ἄρουραν ἀποβλέψας ἐμ-
πεπλησμένην ἡμέρων καρπῶν καὶ βρίθουσαν ἀστα-
7 Μ θ᾽ ε λέ 4 - / /
χύων, ἔπειθ᾽ ὑποβλέψας" που τοῖς ληίοις τούτοις
1 ἐμπιπλάντα van Herwerden: ἐμπιπλῶντα.
2 μυρία Wilamowitz : μύας or μυίας.
3 ζῷα Wilamowitz: ζῷα καὶ μιαρὰ.
4 ἐπιβλέψας van Herwerden.
@ Cf. Mor. 451 c (where the epithet is otherwise inter-
preted), 663 ν, 692 E.
546
THE EATING OF FLESH I, 994
bring shame upon Dionysus, lord of the cultivated
vine,* the gracious one, as if you did not receive
enough from their hands? Are you not ashamed to
mingle domestic crops with blood and gore? You
call serpents and panthers and lions savage, but you
yourselves, by your own foul slaughters, leave them
no room to outdo you in cruelty ; for their slaughter
is their living, yours is a mere appetizer.” ὃ
3. It is certainly not lions and wolves that we eat
out of self-defence ; on the contrary, we ignore these
and slaughter harmless, tame creatures without
stings or teeth to harm us, creatures that, I swear,
Nature appears to have produced for the sake of
their beauty and grace. .. . °
[It is as though one, seeing the Nile overflow
its banks, filling the landscape with its fertile and
productive stream, should not marvel at this, its
nourishing of plants and its fruitfulness in such crops
as are most to be cultivated and contribute most
to the support of life, but should espy a crocodile
swimming there somewhere or an asp being swept
along or a thousand other savage creatures and should
cite them as the reasons for his censure and his
compulsion to do as he does.¢ Or, I swear, it is as
though one fixed one’s gaze on this land and its soil
covered with cultivated crops and heavy with ears
of wheat, and then, looking beneath these rich
harvests, one were to catch sight somewhere of a
» As above in 991 p. See the interesting observations in
G. Murray, Rise of the Greek Epic?, p. 64 and the note.
° The rest of this chapter, though possibly by Plutarch, is
probably from another quite different work. Chapter 4
follows quite naturally upon this sentence.
4 These words, plainly out of context as the passage
stands, are too vague to be rendered with any certainty.
547
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(994) Kal πού τινος alpas στάχυν ἰδὼν καὶ ὀροβάγχην,
εἶτ᾽ ἀφεὶς ἐκεῖνα καρποῦσθαι καὶ ληίζεσθαι μέμ-
ψαιτοῦ περὶ τούτων. τοιοῦτόν τι, καὶ λόγον ῥήτο-
ρος ὁρῶν ἐν δίκῃ τινὶ καὶ συνηγορίᾳ πληθύοντα καὶ
φερόμενον ἐπὶ βοηθείᾳ κινδύνων, ἢ νὴ Δί᾽ ἐλέγχῳ
D καὶ κατηγορίᾳ τολμημάτων καὶ ἀποδείξεων, ῥέοντα
δὲ καὶ φερόμενον οὐχ ἁπλῶς οὐδὲ λιτῶς, ἀλλ᾽ ὁμοῦ
πάθεσι πολλοῖς μᾶλλον δὲ παντοδαποῖς, εἰς ψυχὰς
ὁμοίως πολλὰς καὶ ποικίλας καὶ διαφόρους τῶν
ἀκροωμένων ἢ τῶν δικαζόντων, ἃς δεῖ τρέψαι καὶ
μεταβαλεῖν ἢ νὴ Δία πραὗναι καὶ ἡμερῶσαι καὶ
καταστῆσαι: εἶτα παρεὶς τοῦτο τοῦ πράγματος ὁρᾶν
καὶ μετρεῖν τὸ κεφάλαιον καταγώνισμα," παραρ-
ρήσεις ἐκλέγων, ἃς κατιὼν ὁ λόγος συγκατήνεγκε
τῇ ῥύμῃ τῆς φορᾶς, συνεκπεσούσας καὶ i παρολισθού-
σας τῷ λοιπῷ τοῦ λόγου. καὶ δημηγόρου τινὸς
opav. .. .|
᾿Αλλ᾽ οὐδὲν ἡμᾶς δυσωπεῖ, οὐ χρόας ἀνθηρὸν
E εἶδος, οὐ φωνῆς ἐμμελοῦς πιθανότης, οὐ τὸ καθά-
ριον ἐν διαίτῃ καὶ περιττὸν ἐν συνέσει τῶν ἀθλίων,
ἀλλὰ σαρκιδίου μικροῦ χάριν ἀφαιρούμεθα ψυχῆς
ἥλιον, φῶς, τὸν τοῦ βίου χρόνον, ἐφ᾽ @ γέγονε καὶ
πέφυκεν. εἶθ᾽ ἃς φθέγγεται καὶ διατρίζει" φωνὰς
ἀνάρθρους εἶναι δοκοῦμεν, οὐ παραιτήσεις καὶ
δεήσεις καὶ δικαιολογίας ἑκάστου λέγοντος “ οὐ
»1 ὀροβάγχην Xylander: ὀριβάχην and the like.
2 μέμψαιτο W. C. H.: μέμψοιτο.
3 κεφάλαιον καταγώνισμα Post after Turnebus: φύλαιον καὶ
ἀγώνισμα (φιλότιμον Sandbach).
4 οὐ] in the mss. the words οὐ πανουργία ψυχῆς precede ;
deleted by W. C. H. δ ἐφ᾽ ἃ Reiske.
® διατρίζει van Herwerden: διέτρεσε.
548
THE EATING OF FLESH I, 994
growth of darnel or broom-rape and, without more
ado, ceasing to reap the benefit and claim the booty
of the good crops, burst into a tirade about the weeds.
Another example: if one should see an orator
making a speech at some trial where he was advocate,
a speech in which his eloquence in full flood was ad-
vancing to the succour of someone in jeopardy or
(so help me) to the conviction or denunciation of rash
acts or defaults—a flood of eloquence not simple or
jejune, but charged with many (or rather all kinds
of) emotional appeals for the simultaneous influen-
cing of the many different kinds of minds in the
audience or jury, which must either be roused and
won over or (by heaven !) soothed and made gentle
and calm—then if one neglected to observe and take
into account this main point and issue of the matter,
but merely picked out flaws of style that the flood of
oratory, as it moyed to its goal, had swept along by
the momentum of its current, flaws that came rushing
out and slipped by with the rest—and seeing . . . of
some popular leader. . . . 7]
4. But nothing abashed us, not the flower-like
tinting of the flesh, not the persuasiveness of the
harmonious voice, not the cleanliness of their habits
or the unusual intelligence that may be found in the
poor wretches. No, for the sake of a little flesh we
deprive them of sun, of light, of the duration of life
to which they are entitled by birth and being. Then
we go on to assume that when they utter cries and
squeaks their speech is inarticulate, that they do
not, begging for mercy, entreating, seeking justice,
4 The rest of this perplexing fragment has been lost, so
that we do not know what the object of these three com-
parisons is,
549
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(994) παραιτοῦμαί σου τὴν “ἀνάγκην ἀλλὰ τὴν ὕβριν: ἵνα
φάγῃς ἀπόκτεινον, ἵνα δ᾽ ἥδιον φάγῃς μή μ'
ἀναίρει.᾿ ὦ τῆς ὠμότητος: δεινὸν μέν ἐστι καὶ
τιθεμένην ἰδεῖν τράπεζαν ἀνθρώπων πλουσίων ὡς"
F νεκροκόμοις" χρωμένων μαγείροις καὶ ὀψοποιοῖς,
δεινότερον δ᾽ ἀποκομιζομένην: πλείονα γὰρ τὰ
λειπόμενα τῶν βεβρωμένων ἐστίν. οὐκοῦν ταῦτα
μάτην ἀπέθανεν. ἕτεροι δὲ φειδόμενοι τῶν παρα-
τεθέντων οὐκ ἐῶσι τέμνειν οὐδὲ κατακόπτειν,
ΑΝ ΠῚ νεκρά, : ζώντων δ᾽ οὐκ ἐφείσαντο.
“AAoyov yap εἶναί daev” ἐκείνους λέγειν τοὺς
ἄνδρας ἀρχὴν ἔχειν τὴν φύσιν: ὅτι γὰρ οὐκ ἔστιν
ἀνθρώπῳ κατὰ φύσιν τὸ σαρκοφαγεῖν, πρῶτον μὲν
ἀπὸ τῶν σωμάτων δηλοῦται τῆς κατασκευῆς.
οὐδενὶ γὰρ ἔοικε τὸ ἀνθρώπου σῶμα τῶν ἐπὶ
σαρκοφαγίᾳ γεγονότων, οὐ γρυπότης χείλους, οὐκ
995 ὀξύτης ὄνυχος, οὐ τραχύτης ὀδόντος πρόσεστιν, οὐ
κοιλίας εὐτονία καὶ πνεύματος θερμότης, πέψαι"
καὶ κατεργάσασθαι δυνατὴ τὸ βαρὺ καὶ Kpe@des:
ἀλλ᾽ αὐτόθεν ἡ φύσις τῇ λειότητι τῶν ὀδόντων καὶ
τῆ σμικρότητι τοῦ στόματος καὶ τῇ μαλακότητι
τῆς γλώσσης καὶ τῇ πρὸς πέψιν ἀμβλύτητι τοῦ
πνεύματος ἐξόμνυται τὴν σαρκοφαγίαν. εἰ δὲ λέ-
γεις πεφυκέναι σεαυτὸν ἐπὶ τοιαύτην ἐδωδήν, ὃ
βούλει φαγεῖν πρῶτον αὐτὸς ἀπόκτεινον, ἀλλ᾽ αὐτὸς
ὡς added by W. Ο. Η.
νεκροκόμοις Stuart Jones: νεκροκόσμοις.
ἕτεροι] ἑτέρως ? (ἕτερα Wilamowitz).
νεκρὰ Wyttenbach: κρέα.
ἄλογον γὰρ εἶναί φαμεν Bernardakis: ἀλλ᾽ aye παρειλή-
φαμεν.
5. πέψαι Cobet: τρέψαι.
δδ0
σι - ὦ τὸ μὲ
THE EATING OF FLESH I, 994-998
each one of them say, “ I do not ask to be spared in
case of necessity ; only spare me your arrogance !
Kill me to eat, but not to please your palate !’’ Oh,
the cruelty of it! What a terrible thing it is to look
on when the tables of the rich are spread, men who
employ cooks and spicers to groom the dead! And
it is even more terrible to look on when they are
taken away, for more is left than has been eaten.
So the beasts died for nothing! There are others who
refuse when the dishes are already set before them
and will not have them cut into or sliced. Though
they bid spare the dead, they did not spare the
living.”
5. We declare, then, that it is absurd for them to
say that the practice of flesh-eating is based. on
Nature. For that man is not naturally carnivorous
is, in the first place, obvious from the structure of his
body.” A man’s frame is in no way similar to those
creatures who were made for flesh-eating: he has
no hooked beak or sharp nails or jagged teeth, no
strong stomach or warmth of vital fluids able to
digest and assimilate a heavy diet of flesh.° It is
from this very fact, the evenness of our teeth, the
smallness of our mouths, the softness of our tongues,
our possession of vital fluids too inert to digest meat
that Nature disavows our eating of flesh. If you
declare that you are naturally designed for such a
diet, then first kill for yourself what you want to eat.
Do it, however, only through your own resources,
* Post believes that there is another lacuna after this
chapter; and Stephanus posited another one after the first
sentence of chapter 5, rightly, if Bernardakis’ emendation is
not accepted.
> See 988 Ε supra and the note.
¢ Cf. Mor. 87 8, 642 Ὁ,
Or
Or
a
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
5 \ = \ / ὃ δὲ / 1
(995) Ola GEaUTOV, μὴ KPNTALEVOS KOTTLOL μηδε τυμπάνῳ
\ \ / > / ¢ / \ Μ \
τινὶ μηδὲ πελέκει: ἀλλά, ws λύκοι καὶ ἄρκτοι καὶ
Β λέοντες αὐτοὶ ὅσα" ἐσθίουσι φονεύουσιν, ἄνελε δήγ-
~ κ) ~ Ὑ » A
ματι βοῦν ἢ στόματι σῦν, ἢ ἄρνα ἢ λαγωὸν διάρ-
ρηξον καὶ φάγε προσπεσὼν ἔτι ζῶντος, ὡς ἐκεῖνα.
εἰ δ᾽ ἀναμένεις νεκρὸν γενέσθαι τὸ ἐσθιόμενον" καὶ
δυσωπεῖ σε παροῦσα ψυχὴ ἀπολαύειν' τῆς σαρκός,
τί παρὰ φύσιν ἐσθίεις τὸ ἔμψυχον; ἀλλ᾽ οὐδ᾽
ΝΜ Μ / \ A ς᾽ > > >
ἄψυχον av tis φάγοι καὶ νεκρὸν οἷόν ἐστιν, ἀλλ
σ΄ > ~ / \ \ \
ἕψουσιν ὀπτῶσι μεταβάλλουσι διὰ πυρὸς καὶ φαρ-
μάκων, ἀλλοιοῦντες καὶ τρέποντες καὶ σβεννύοντες
ἡδύσμασι μυρίοις τὸν φόνον, ἵν᾽ ἡ γεῦσις ἐξαπατη-
θεῖσα προσδέξηται τἀλλότριον.
/ / / \ ~ / “A > / >
Καίτοι χάριέν ye τὸ τοῦ Λάκωνος, ὃς ἰχθύδιον ἐν
( πανδοκείῳ πριάμενος τῷ πανδοκεῖ σκευάσαι παρ-
“- »
ἔδωκεν: αἰτοῦντος δ᾽ ἐκείνου τυρὸν καὶ ὄξος καὶ
” κέ Ὁ 3 > Va) Φ ”) - ae ? Ἃ
ἔλαιον, “᾿ ἀλλ᾽ εἰ ταῦτ᾽ εἶχον, εἶπεν, “᾿ οὐκ ἂν
> \ 5 / >”) « a > Ὁ“ > ~ /
ἰχθὺν ἐπριάμην. ἡμεῖς δ᾽ οὕτως ἐν τῷ μιαιφόνῳ
τρυφῶμεν, ὥστ᾽ ὄψον τὸ κρέας προσαγορεύομεν,
εἶτ᾽ ὄψων πρὸς αὐτὸ τὸ κρέας δεόμεθα, ἀναμιγ-
΄ ” > / / a” ¢ /
νύντες ἔλαιον οἶνον μέλι ydpov ὄξος ἡδύσμασι
“- a id
Συριακοῖς ᾿Αραβικοῖς, ὥσπερ ὄντως νεκρὸν ἐν-
1 τυμπάνῳ] τυπάνῳ Salmasius ; τυκάνῃ Meziriacus ; τυπάδι
Bernardakis.
2 ὅσα Reiske: as.
3 ἐσθιόμενον Stephanus: αἰσθόμενον.
4 A ἣν 3 ͵΄ > δ. Α a \ >
παροῦσα ψυχὴ ἀπολαύειν Emperius: παροῦσαν ψυχὴν ἀπ-
ελαύνειν.
a ‘**T et the advocate of animal food force himself to a
decisive experiment on its fitness, and, as Plutarch reeom-
mends, tear a living lamb with his teeth, and, plunging his
552
THE EATING OF FLESH I, 995
unaided by cleaver or cudgel of any kind or axe.
Rather, just as wolves and bears and lions themselves
slay what they eat, so you are to fell an ox with your
fangs or a boar with your jaws, or tear a lamb or
hare in bits. Fall upon it and eat it still living, as
animals do.? But if you wait for what you eat to be
dead, if you have qualms about enjoying the flesh
while life is still present, why do you continue,
contrary to nature, to eat what possesses life ? Even
when it is lifeless and dead, however, no one eats the
flesh just as it is; men boil it and roast it, altering
it by fire and drugs, recasting and diverting and
smothering with countless condiments the taste of
gore so that the palate may be deceived and accept
what is foreign to it.
It was, indeed, a witty remark of the Spartan ὃ
who bought a little fish in an inn and gave it to the
innkeeper to prepare. When the latter asked for
cheese and vinegar and oil,° the Spartan said, “ If I
had those, I should not have bought a fish.” But we
are so refined in our blood-letting that we term flesh
a supplementary food 7; and then we need “ supple-
ments” for the flesh itself, mixing oil, wine, honey,
fish paste, vinegar, with Syrian and Arabian spices,’
as though we were really embalming a corpse for
head into its vitals, slake his thirst with the steaming blood ”’
(Shelley, op. cit.).
δ Cf. Mor. 234 Ἐπτὶ where it is meat, not fish, that is
bought: see also 128 c.
¢ To make a sauce for the fish. The innkeeper’s action
was natural enough, in view of Hegesander’s comment
(Athenaeus, 564 a) that apparently everyone liked the
seasonings, not the fish, since no one wanted fish plain and
unseasoned.
4 See 991 pb (and the note), 993 B, 994 B supra.
ες See 990 B supra.
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(995) ταφιάζοντες. Kal yap οὕτως αὐτῶν διαλυθέντων
καὶ μαλαχθέντων καὶ τρόπον τινὰ προσαπέντων᾽
ἔργον ἐστὶ τὴν πέψιν κρατῆσαι, καὶ διακρατηθείσης
dewas’ βαρύτητας ἐμποιεῖ καὶ νοσώδεις ἀπεψίας.
6. Διογένης δ᾽ ὠμὸν φαγεῖν πολύπουν ἐτόλμησεν,
D ἵνα τὴν διὰ τοῦ πυρὸς ἐκβάλῃ κατεργασίαν τῶν
κρεῶν": καὶ πολλῶν περιεστώτων αὐτὸν ἀνθρώ-
πων, ἐγκαλυψάμενος τῷ τρίβωνι καὶ τῷ στόματι
/ \ / (c ¢ \ ¢ ~ ” / G4 \
προσφέρων TO κρέας, “᾿ ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν, φησίν, “ ἐγὼ
/ \ / ᾽) / >
παραβάλλομαι καὶ προκινδυνεύω. καλόν, ὦ
~ / ’ / « / e A ~
Ζεῦ, κίνδυνον: od yap, ws [Πελοπίδας ὑπὲρ τῆς
>
Θηβαίων" ἐλευθερίας 7) ὡς “Αρμόδιος καὶ ᾿Αριστο-
“ «
γείτων ὑπὲρ τῆς" ᾿Αθηναίων, προεκινδύνευσεν ὁ
φιλόσοφος ὠμῷ πολύποδι διαμαχόμενος, ἵνα τὸν
μᾷ μαχόμενος,
βίον ἀποθηριώσῃ ;
ς / -
Οὐ τοίνυν μόνον αἱ κρεοφαγίαι τοῖς σώμασι
/ \ /, > \ \ \ \ « A
E γίνονται mapa φύσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰς ψυχὰς ὑπὸ
πλησμονῆς καὶ κόρου παχύνουσιν" “᾿ οἶνος γὰρ καὶ
σαρκῶν ἐμφορήσιες σῶμα μὲν ἰσχυρὸν ποιέουσι καὶ
ε / \ \ > / ᾽) \ σ A A
ῥωμαλέον, ψυχὴν δὲ ἀσθενέα. καὶ wa μὴ Tots
ἀθληταῖς ἀπεχθάνωμαι, συγγενέσι χρῶμαι παρα-
A «
δείγμασι: τοὺς γὰρ Βοιωτοὺς ἡμᾶς οἱ ᾿Αττικοὶ
καὶ παχεῖς καὶ ἀναισθήτους καὶ ἠλιθίους, μάλιστα
\ \ > / / ae Ὁ » >
dua τὰς ἀδηφαγίας προσηγόρευον" “ οὗτοι δ᾽ αὖ
1 προσαπέντων Emperius : κρεοσαπέντων.
* δεινὰς Post: δὲ δεινὰς.
3 τῶν κρεῶν van Herwerden: τῶν δ᾽ ἱερέων.
4 αὐτὸν] should perhaps be deleted.
5 Θηβαίων Bernardakis : Θηβῶν.
THE EATING OF FLESH I, 995
burial. The fact is that meat is so softened and
dissolved and, in a way, predigested that it is hard
for digestion to cope with it; and if digestion loses
the battle, the meats affect us with dreadful pains
and malignant forms of indigestion.
6. Diogenes 5 ventured to eat a raw octopus in
order to put an end to the inconvenience of preparing
cooked food. In the midst of a large throng he
veiled his head and, as he brought the flesh to his
mouth, said, “ It is for you that I am risking my life.”
Good heavens, a wondrous fine risk! Just like
Pelopidas ὃ for the liberty of the Thebans or Har-
modius and Aristogiton ¢ for that of the Athenians,
this philosopher risked his life struggling with a raw
octopus—in order to brutalize our lives !
Note that the eating of flesh is not only physically
against nature, but it also makes us spiritually coarse
and gross by reason of satiety and surfeit. “ For wine
and indulgence in meat make the body strong and
vigorous, but the soul weak.” * And in order that I
may not offend athletes, I shall take my own people as
examples. It is a fact that the Athenians used to call
us Boeotians ὁ beef-witted and insensitive and foolish,
precisely because we stuffed ourselves.’ “ These
« Cf. 956 B supra where the context is quite different. See
also Athenaeus, 341 e:; Lucian, Vit. Auctio 10; Julian,
Oration, vi. 181 a, 191 c ff. ; Diogenes Laertius, vi. 76; al.
> Cf. Life of Pelopidas, chapters 7-11.
¢ Cf. Thueydides, vi. 54-59.
4. A quotation from the medical writer Androcydes ; see
Mor. 472 8B and the note.
¢ Cf. Rhys Roberts, The Ancient Boeotians, pp. 1-5.
7 The passage that follows is badly mutilated : it probably
contained other quotations and fuller ones than the ss.
indicate.
6. ὑπὲρ τῆς Bernardakis: ὑπὲρ.
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
»
~ A \
(995) σῦς καὶ ὁ Μένανδρος “ οἵ; γνάθους ἔχουσι,
\ ¢ ~
καὶ ὁ [Πίνδαρος “᾿ γνῶναί τ᾽ ἔπειτα. . .” “ αὔη
\2 \ , ” \ \ ¢
de* ψυχὴ σοφωτάτη ᾿᾿ κατὰ τὸν Ἡράκλειτον: of
\ ‘0 3 θέ , ~ , 4 ,
κενοὶ TOL κρουσθέντες ἠχοῦσι, γενόμενοι δὲ πλή-
᾽ ς , om b~ ba
pets οὐχ ὑπακούουσι ταῖς πληγαῖς: τῶν χαλκω-
\ \ \ /
F μάτων τὰ λεπτὰ τοὺς ψόφους ἐν κύκλῳ διαδίδωσιν,
” ἘΠ. , \ , a im κὰ
ἄχρις οὗ ἐμῴφράξῃ καὶ τυφλώσῃ τις τῇ χειρὶ τῆς
“a / 2 ,
πληγῆς περιφερομένης ἐπιλαμβανόμενος" ὀφθαλμὸς
“ / > a
ὑγροῦ πλεονάσαντος ἀναπλησθεὶς μαραυγεῖ καὶ
΄-“:ὠ \ A > A
aTOVEL πρὸς TO οἰκεῖον ἔργον" τὸν ἥλιον δι᾿ ἀέρος
¢ ~ \ > / - > / > /
ὑγροῦ καὶ ἀναθυμιάσεων πλήθους ἀπέπτων ἀθρή-
3 \ > \ \ > \ / ‘
σαντες οὐ καθαρὸν οὐδὲ λαμπρὸν ἀλλὰ βύθιον καὶ
ἀχλυώδη καὶ ὀλισθάνοντα ταῖς αὐγαῖς ὁρῶμεν.
aa οὕτω δὴ Kal διὰ σώματος θολεροῦ καὶ διακόρου
0 ae βαρυνομένου τροφαῖς ἀσυμφύλοις πᾶσ᾽ ἀνάγκη
lod - \ / /
TO γάνωμα τῆς ψυχῆς Kal TO φέγγος ἀμβλύτητα
καὶ σύγχυσιν ἔχειν καὶ πλανᾶσθαι καὶ φύρεσθαι,"
πρὸς τὰ λεπτὰ καὶ δυσθεώρητα τέλη τῶν πραγ-
/ > \ \ / ᾽ > /
μάτων αὐγὴν καὶ τόνον οὐκ ἐχούσης. Αἰτισα
7. Χωρὶς δὲ τούτων ὁ πρὸς φιλανθρωπίαν ἐθι-
σμὸς οὐ δοκεῖ θαυμαστὸν εἶναι ; τίς γὰρ ἂν ἀδική-
" ¢ \ > ͵, v a=
σειεν ἄνθρωπον, οὕτω πρὸς ἀλλότρια καὶ ἀσύμφυλα
1 ot] ὑῶν or ὄνων Meineke.
2 avy δὲ ΝΥ. C. Η. after Hatzidakis: αὐγὴ ζηρὴ.
3 οἱ κενοὶ πίθοι Reiske: ἔοικεν. of πίθοι.
4 τις added by Stephanus.
5 φύρεσθαι Reiske: φέρεσθαι.
—
@ Of. the proverbial “‘ sow and Athena ” (Life of Demos-
thenes, xi. 5, 851 Βὶ and Mor. 803 Ὁ) and the Introduction to
the Gryllus.
» Kock, Com. Att. Frag. iii, p. 238 (frag. 748 Koerte); the
words probably mean ὁ Who are greedy fellows.”’
556
THE EATING OF FLESH I, 995-996
men are swine ’’*; . . . and Menander ? says, ‘‘ Wh
have jaws”; and Pindar °“‘ And thentolearn .. .”’;
‘A dry soul is wisest ’’ according to Heraclitus.4
Empty jars make a noise when struck, but full
ones do not resound to blows.’ Thin bronze objects
will pass the sounds from one to another in a circle
until you dampen and deaden the noise with your
hand as the beat goes round’ The eye’ when it is
flooded by an excess of moisture grows dim and
weakened for its proper task. When we examine the
sun through dank atmosphere and a fog of gross
vapours, we do not see it clear and bright, but sub-
merged and misty, with elusive rays. In just the
same way, then, when the body is turbulent and sur-
feited and burdened with improper food, the lustre
and light of the soul inevitably come through it
blurred and confused, aberrant and inconstant, since
the soul lacks the brilliance and intensity to pene-
trate to the minute and obscure issues of active life.
7. But apart from these considerations, do you not
find here a wonderful means of training in social
responsibility ? Who could wrong a human being
when he found himself so gently and humanely dis-
‘‘ whether we are
rds Je }
¢ Olympians, vi. 89, which continues
truly arraigned by that ancient gibe, ‘ Boeotian swine.
(For this interpretation see G. Norwood, Pindar, pp. 82
and 237.)
4 Diels-Kranz, Frag. der Vorsok. i, p. 100, frag. B 118; ef.
the note on Mor. 432 τ.
¢ Cf. Mor. 721 B-p.
7 Mor. 721 c-p suggests that Plutarch is talking about a
single cauldron with a wave going around it rather than
about a circular arrangement of tuning forks. ‘‘ Sounding
brass’: cf. L. Parmentier, Recherches sur {1518 et Osiris
(Mém. Acad. Roy. Belg. ii, vol. 11, 1912/13), pp. 31 ff.
“ 9 Of, Mor. 714 v.
5ST
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(996) διακείμενος Kal πράως Kal φιλανθρώπως ; ἐμνήσθην
δὲ τρίτην ἡμέραν διαλεγόμενος τὸ τοῦ Ξενοκρά-
> A =~ ~
tous ὅτι' ᾿Αθηναῖοι τῷ ζῶντα τὸν κριὸν ἐκδείραντι
δίκην ἐπέθηκαν" οὐκ ἔστι δ᾽, οἶμαι, χείρων 6 ζῶντα
Β βασανίζων τοῦ παραιρουμένου τὸ ζῆν καὶ φονεύον-
» \ ~ « Μ -“ \ / an“
tos: ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον, ὡς ἔοικε, τῶν παρὰ συνήθειαν ἢ
τῶν παρὰ φύσιν αἰσθανόμεθα. καὶ ταῦτα μὲν ἐκεῖ
κοινότερον ἔλεγον: τὴν δὲ μεγάλην καὶ μυστηριώδη
Tipe: > , 4, Tati ε ,
Kal ἄπιστον ἀνδράσι dewots, ἡ φησιν ὁ Πλάτων,
καὶ θνητὰ φρονοῦσιν ἀρχὴν τοῦ δόγματος ὀκνῶ μὲν
~ - σ ~ ~
ett τῷ λόγῳ κινεῖν, ὥσπερ ναῦν ἐν χειμῶνι ναύ-
κληρος ἢ μηχανὴν αἴρειν' ποιητικὸς ἀνὴρ ἐν θεά-
τρῳ σκηνῆς περιφερομένης. οὐ χεῖρον δ᾽ ἴσως καὶ
προανακρούσασθαι καὶ προαναφωνῆσαι τὰ τοῦ ᾽᾿Ἐμ-
/ > aA \ > ~ \ /
medokA€ous: . . . ἀλληγορεῖ yap ἐνταῦθα τὰς ψυχάς,
“ ,ὔ \ / ~ \ >
ὅτι φόνων καὶ βρώσεως σαρκῶν καὶ ἀλληλοφα-
A /
Ο γίας δίκην τίνουσαι σώμασι θνητοῖς ἐνδέδενται.
καίτοι δοκεῖ παλαιότερος οὗτος ὁ λόγος εἶναι" τὰ
/ / ~
yap δὴ περὶ tov Διόνυσον μεμυθευμένα πάθη τοῦ
διαμελισμοῦ καὶ τὰ Τιτάνων ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν τολμήματα,
κολάσεις τε τούτων καὶ κεραυνώσεις γευσαμένων
~ / > \ ~ > \
τοῦ φόνου, ἠνιγμένος" ἐστὶ μῦθος εἰς τὴν παλιγ-
1 ὅτι Pohlenz: καὶ ὅτι.
2 δεινοῖς Bernardakis: δειλοῖς.
8 ἔτι Reiske: ἐπὶ.
4 αἴρειν Turnebus : ἐρεῖ.
5 ἠνιγμένος Reiske: ἀνηγμένος.
« See Heinze, Yenokrates, p. 151, frag. 99.
ὃ Phaedrus, 245 c.
¢ The Greek is both difficult and ambiguous; perhaps
ἢ hesitates to set his ship in motion while a storm is raging.”
58
σι
THE EATING OF FLESH I, 996
posed toward other non-human creatures? ‘lwo days
ago in a discussion I quoted the remark of Xeno-
crates,’ that the Athenians punished the man who
had flayed a ram while it was still alive; yet, as
I think, he who tortures a living creature is no worse
than he who slaughters it outright. But it seems
that we are more observant of acts contrary to con-
vention than of those that are contrary to nature. In
that place, then, I made my remarks in a popular
vein. I still hesitate, however, to attempt a discus-
sion of the principle underlying my opinion, great as
it is, and mysterious and incredible, as Plato ® says,
with merely clever men of mortal opinions, just as a
steersman hesitates to shift his course “ὁ in the midst
of a storm, or a playwright to raise his god from the
machine in the midst of a play. Yet perhaps it is
not unsuitable to set the pitch and announce the
theme by quoting some verses of Empedocles.? . . .
By these lines he means, though he does not say so
directly, that human souls are imprisoned in mortal
bodies as a punishment for murder, the eating of
animal flesh, and cannibalism. This doctrine, how-
ever, seems to be even older, for the stories told about
the sufferings and dismemberment of Dionysus ὁ and
the outrageous assaults of the Titans upon him, and
their punishment and blasting by thunderbolt after
they had tasted his blood—all this is a myth which
in its inner meaning has to do with rebirth. For to
@ The verses have fallen out, but may be, in part, those
quoted infra, 998 c, or a similar passage.
¢ See I. M. Linforth, The Arts of Orpheus, chapter 5,
‘The Dismemberment of Dionysus,’’ and especially pp.
334 ff., on this passage. A good illustration is the fragment
of Dionysius in D. L. Page, Greek Literary Papyri, i(L.C.L.),
pp. 538-541.
559
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
/ \ \ > « ~ Μ » \
(996) yeveoltav’ TO yap ἐν ἡμῖιν ἄλογον και ATAKTOV και
, > A > \ \ N41 € \
βίαιον od θεῖον ἀλλὰ δαιμονικὸν ov’ οἱ παλαιοὶ
~ / a > Μ /
Τιτᾶνας ὠνόμασαν, καὶ τοῦτ᾽ ἔστι κολαζομένους
\ / /
Kal δίκην διδόντας .ἢ
1 ὃν added by Reiske.
* κολαζομένους καὶ δίκην διδόντας Wyttenbach: κολαζο-
μένου καὶ δίκην διδόντος.
* See Hesiod’s etymology, Theogony, 209 f. For this
560
THE EATING OF FLESH I, 996
that faculty in us which is unreasonable and dis-
ordered and violent, and does not come from the
gods, but from evil spirits, the ancients gave the
name Titans,? that is to say, those that are punished
and subjected to correction. . . .?
‘** Greek equivalent of original sin’ see Shorey on Plato,
Laws, 701 c( What Plato Said, p. 629), Mor. 975 Β supra; and
Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational, pp. 155 and 177.
ὃ The first discourse breaks off at this point.
561
EK
ΠΕΡῚ LAPKO®ATTA®
ΛΟΓΟΣ Β΄
Η "Ent Ta ἕωλα τῆς σαρκοφαγίας προσφάτους
ἡμᾶς ὁ λόγος παρακαλεῖ ταῖς τε διανοίαις καὶ ταῖς
προθυμίαις γενέσθαι. χαλεπὸν μὲν γάρ, ὥσπερ
άτων ἔφησε, λέγειν πρὸς γαστέρας ὦτα μὴ ἐχού-
σας: καὶ πέποται ὁ τῆς συνηθείας κυκεών, ὥσπερ
ς ~ /
ὁ τῆς Κίρκης
>] / > > / / 5 ee / /
ὠδίνας τ᾽ ὀδύνας TE κυκέων' ἀπάτας TE γόους TE’
\ \ ” > / ~ / «
καὶ τὸ ἄγκιστρον ἐκβάλλειν τῆς σαρκοφαγίας ὡς
~ /
ἐμπεπλεγμένον" τῇ φιληδονίᾳ καὶ διαπεπαρμένον οὐ
’ ἴω > σ > /
ῥάδιόν ἐστιν. ἐπεὶ καλῶς εἶχεν, ὥσπερ Αἰγύπτιοι
an ~ \ 2 \ \
τῶν νεκρῶν τὴν κοιλίαν ἐξελόντες Kal πρὸς TOV
/
ἥλιον ἀνασχίζοντες ἐκβάλλουσιν ὡς αἰτίαν ἁπάντων
ὧν ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἥμαρτεν, οὕτως ἡμᾶς ἑαυτῶν" τὴν
αστριμαργίαν καὶ vat boviav ἐκτε όντας ἁγνεῦσαι
Lie \ /
τὸν λοιπὸν βίον: ἐπεὶ ἥ ye γαστὴρ od μιαιφόνον
1 ὠδίνας 7 ὀδύνας τε κυκέων Wilamowitz: ὠδίνας ὀδύνας
κυκεὼν.
2 ἐμπεπλεγμένον Stephanus: ἐμπεπλησμένον or ἐμπεπηγμένον.
3 ἑαυτῶν Turnebus: ἑαυτοὺς.
« Cf. Plutarch’s introduction to the second essay on the
Fortune of Alexander (Mor. 333 Ὁ).
’ Cf. Mor. 131 p, 198 Ὁ: Life of Cato Major, 8 (340 a).
562
ON THE EATING OF FLESH
Il
1. Reason urges us with fresh ideas and fresh zeal
to attack again our yesterday’s discourse % on the
eating of flesh. It is indeed difficult, as Cato ὃ re-
marked, to talk to bellies which have no ears. And
the potion of familiarity has been drunk, like that of
Circe ὁ
Commingling pains and pangs, tricks and tears ὦ;
nor is it easy to extract the hook of flesh-eating, en-
tangled as it is and embedded in the love of pleasure.
And, like the Egyptians ὁ who extract the viscera of
the dead and cut them open in view of the sun, then
throw them away as being the cause of every single
sin that the man had committed, it would be well
for us to excise our own gluttony and lust to kill and
become pure for the remainder of our lives, since it
is not so much our belly that drives us to the pollution
© Odyssey, x. 236.
4 Perhaps a verse of Empedocles: Diels-Kranz, Frag. der
Vorsok. i, p. 372, frag. 154 a; cf. Wilamowitz, Hermes, xl,
p- 165. (Andrews prefers to adopt the reading κυκεών,
“ἢ potion,” assuming a verbal form, “ dulls”’ or ἡ blunts,”
in the preceding or following line.)
¢ Cf. Herodotus, ii. 86; Diodorus, i. 91; Mor. 159 B;
Porphyry, De Abstinentia, iv. 10 (p. 244, ed. Nauck).
563
(996)
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
aah > \ , ee A > ἢ > \
E€OTLV ἀλλὰ μιαινομεένον απὸ ΤῊ" ακρασιᾶας OV μὴν
1)? > \ AS , \ , 5 \1 \ ΄,
α ει και AOUVVATOV V7) Δία ta Τὴν συνήθειαν
\ > / ~
F To αναμαρτήτον, αἰσχυνόμενοι τῳ ἁμαρτάνοντι XP7)-
997
σόμεθα διὰ τὸν λόγον, ἐδόμεθα σάρκας, ἀλλὰ
πεινῶντες οὐ τρυφῶντες: ἀναιρήσομεν ζῷον, ἀλλ᾽
οἰκτείροντες καὶ ἀλγοῦντες, οὐχ ὑβρίζοντες οὐδὲ
βασανίζοντες: οἷα νῦν πολλὰ" δρῶσιν οἱ μὲν εἰς
\ ca ᾽ ~ > \ / a ~
σφαγὴν ὑῶν ὠθοῦντες ὀβελοὺς διαπύρους, ἵνα τῇ
βαφῇ τοῦ σιδήρου περισβεννύμενον τὸ αἷμα καὶ δια-
/ Υ \ / / \ / ¢ > ”
χεόμενον τὴν σάρκα θρύψῃη Kat μαλάξῃ: ot δ᾽ ov-
θασι συῶν ἐπιτόκων ἐναλλόμενοι καὶ λακτίζοντες,
“5 τ \ 7 \ , > , ε A
iv αἷμα καὶ γάλα Kat λύθρον ἐμβρύων ὁμοῦ συμ-
φθαρέντων ἐν ὠδῖσιν ἀναδεύσαντες, ὦ Ζεῦ καθάρ-
σιε, φάγωσι τοῦ ζῴου τὸ μάλιστα φλεγμαῖνον"
ἄλλοι τε γεράνων ὄμματα καὶ κύκνων' ἀπορ-
ράψαντες καὶ ἀποκλείσαντες ἐν σκότει πιαίνουσιν,
ἀλλοκότοις μίγμασι καὶ καρυκείαις τισὶν αὐτῶν τὴν
σάρκα ὀψοποιοῦντες.
2. Ἔξ ὧν καὶ μάλιστα δῆλόν ἐστιν, ὡς οὐ διὰ
\ > \ / 993 > / > 31 $30 \ /
τροφὴν οὐδὲ χρείαν οὐδ᾽ ἀναγκαίως ἀλλ᾽ ὑπὸ κόρου
καὶ ὕβρεως καὶ πολυτελείας ἡδονὴν πεποίηνται τὴν
ἀνομίαν" εἶθ᾽ ὥσπερ ἔρως ἐν γυναιξὶν κόρον ἡδονῆς
οὐκ ἐχούσαις, ἀποπειρώμενος πάντα καὶ πλανώ-
μενος ἀκολασταίνων ἐξέπεσεν εἰς τὰ ἀρρητα"-
οὕτως αἱ περὶ τὴν ἐδωδὴν ἀκρασίαι τὸ φυσικὸν
παρελθοῦσαι καὶ ἀναγκαῖον τέλος ἐν ὠμότητι καὶ
1 yy Δία διὰ Bernardakis: ἢ διὰ.
2 πολλὰ] πολλοὶ πολλὰ van Herwerden.
3 re added by Bernardakis.
4 κύκνων] χηνῶν Wyttenbach.
5 ὥσπερ ἔρως Reiske: ὥσπερ. 8 εἰς τὰ ἄρρενα Emperius.
564
THE EATING OF FLESH II, 996-997
of slaughter ; it is itself polluted by our incontinence.
Yet if, for heaven’s sake, it is really impossible for us
to be free from error because we are on such terms
of familiarity with it, let us at least be ashamed of
our ill doing and resort to it only in reason. We shall
eat flesh, but from hunger, not as a luxury. We shall
kill an animal, but in pity and sorrow, not degrading
or torturing it—which is the current practice in many
cases, some thrusting red-hot spits into the throats
of swine so that by the plunging in of the iron the
blood may be emulsified and, as it circulates through
the body, may make the flesh tender and delicate.
Others jump upon the udders of sows 7 about to give
birth and kick them so that, when they have blended
together blood and milk and gore (Zeus the Purifier !)
and the unborn young have at the same time been
destroyed at the moment of birth, they may eat the
most inflamed part of the creature. Still others sew
up the eyes of cranes ὃ and swans,° shut them up in
darkness and fatten them, making the flesh appetizing
with strange compounds and spicy mixtures.
2. From these practices it is perfectly evident that
it is not for nourishment or need or necessity, but
out of satiety and insolence and luxury that they
“have turned this lawless custom into a pleasure.
~Then, just as with women who are insatiable in
seeking pleasure, their lust tries everything, goes
astray, and explores the gamut of profligacy until at
~ last it ends in unspeakable practices ; so intemper-
ance in eating passes beyond the necessary ends of
nature and resorts to cruelty and lawlessness to give
@ Pliny, Nat. Hist. xi. 210-211 is not quite so gruesome.
> Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 60.
¢ Wyttenbach reasonably suggested “ἡ geese,” but see
Athenaeus, 131 f; 393 ς-α.
565
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(997) παρανομίᾳ ποικίλλουσι τὴν ὄρεξιν. συννοσεῖ γὰρ
ἀλλήλοις τὰ αἰσθητήρια καὶ συναναπείθεται καὶ
συνακολασταίνει μὴ κρατοῦντα τῶν φυσικῶν μέ-
τρων. οὕτως ἀκοὴ νοσήσασα μουσικὴν διέφθειρεν,
ἀφ᾽ ἧς τὸ θρυπτόμενον καὶ ἐκλυόμενον αἰσχρὰς
ποθεῖ" ψηλαφήσεις καὶ γυναικώδεις γαργαλισμούς.
C ταῦτα τὴν ὄψιν ἐδίδαξε μὴ πυρρίχαις χαίρειν μηδὲ
χειρονομίαις μηδ᾽ ὀρχήμασι γλαφυροῖς μηδ᾽ ἀγαλ-
μασι καὶ γραφαῖς, ἀλλὰ φόνον καὶ θάνατον ἀνθρώ-
πων καὶ τραύματα καὶ μάχας θέαμα ποιεῖσθαι
πολυτελέστατον. οὕτως ἕπονται παρανόμοις τρα-
πέζαις συνουσίαι ἀκρατεῖς, ἀφροδισίοις αἰσχροῖς
ἀκροάσεις ἄμουσοι, μέλεσι καὶ ἀκούσμασιν ἀναι-
σχύντοις θέατρα ἔκφυλα, θεάμασιν ἀνημέροις ἀπά-
θεια πρὸς ἀνθρώπους καὶ ὠμότης. διὰ τοῦτο
διέταττεν᾽ ὁ θεῖος Λυκοῦργος ἔν τισιῇ ῥήτραις τὸ
ἀπὸ πρίονος καὶ πελέκεως γίνεσθαι τὰ θυρώματα
Ὁ τῶν οἰκιῶν καὶ τὰς ἐρέψεις," ἄλλο δ᾽ ὄργανον μηδὲν
προσφέρεσθαι, οὐ πολεμῶν δήπου τερέτροις καὶ
σκεπάρνοις καὶ ὅσα λεπτουργεῖν πέφυκεν ἀλλ᾽
εἰδὼς ὅτι διὰ τοιούτων ἔργων" οὐκ εἰσοίσεις
κλινίδιον ἐπίχρυσον οὐδὲ τολμήσεις εἰς οἰκίαν λιτὴν
ἀργυρᾶς εἰσενεγκεῖν τραπέζας καὶ δάπιδας ἁλουρ-
γοὺς καὶ λίθους πολυτελεῖς". ἀλλ᾽ ἕπεται μὲν᾽ οἰκίᾳ
1 ποθεῖ Turnebus: τιθεῖ.
* διέταττεν added by Wyttenbach.
φῦ W. C. H.: rats τρισὶ.
* ἐρέψεις Xylander : τέρψεις.
> -Epywr | θυρῶν. Emperius.
6 ἁλουργεῖς καὶ κύλικας διαλίθους πολυτελεῖς van Herwer-
den.
7 μὲν added by Benseler.
* See Plato, Laws, 816 B.
566
THE EATING OF FLESH II, 997
variety to appetite. For it is in their own company
that organs of sense are infected and won over and
become licentious when they do not keep to natural
standards. Just so the art of hearing has fallen sick,
“corrupting musical taste. From this our luxury and
debauchery conceives a desire for shameful caresses
and effeminate titillations. These taught the sight
not to take pleasure in warlike exercises % or gesticu-
lations or refined dances or statues and paintings, but
to regard the slaughter and death of men, their
wounds and combats, as the most precious sort of
spectacle.? Just so intemperate intercourse follows
a lawless meal, inharmonious music follows a shame-
ful debauch, barbarous spectacles follow shameless
songs and sounds, insensitivity and cruelty toward
human kind follow savage exhibitions in the theatre.
It was for this reason that the godlike Lycurgus °
gave directions in certain rhetrae ὦ that the doors and
roofs of houses should be fashioned by saw and axe
alone and no other tool should be used—not of course
because he had a quarrel with gimlets and adzes and
other instruments for delicate work. It was because
he knew that through such rough-hewn work you
will not be introducing a gilded couch, nor will you
be so rash as to bring silver tables and purple rugs
and precious stones into a simple house. The corol-
δ᾽ Referring to the gladiatorial combats which came to be
substituted for the more refined exhibitions of an earlier age.
Plutarch urges the expulsion of such practices from the
State in Mor. 822 c; for further examples of this kind of
opposition to Roman policy see H. Fuchs, Der geistige
Widerstand gegen Rom, p. 49, n. 60.
¢ Life of Lycurgus, xiii. 5-6 (47 B-c); Mor. 189 τ, 227 c,
285 c; Comment. on Hesiod, 42 (Bernardakis, vii, p. 72).
4 Or “ unwritten laws’; the mss. here say “ in the three
rhetrae.”
567
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(997) καὶ κλίνῃ καὶ τραπέζῃ καὶ κύλικι τοιαύτῃ δεῖπνον
ἀφελὲς καὶ ἄριστον δημοτικόν, ἀρχῇ δὲ μοχθηρᾶς
διαίτης
ἄθηλος ἵππῳ πῶλος ὡς ἅμα τρέχει
~ \ \ /
πᾶσα τρυφὴ Kat πολυτέλεια.
3. Ilotov οὖν οὐ πολυτελὲς δεῖπνον, εἰς 6° θανα-
τοῦταί τι ἔμψυχον ; μικρὸν ἀνάλωμα ἡγούμεθα
Ἅ
EK ψυχήν; οὔπω λέγω τάχα μητρὸς ἢ πατρὸς ἢ
φίλου τινὸς ἢ παιδός, ὡς ἔλεγεν ᾿Εμπεδοκλῆς: ἀλλ᾽
αἰσθήσεώς ye’ μετέχουσαν, ὄψεως ἀκοῆς, φαντα-
σίας συνέσεως, ἣν ἐπὶ κτήσει τοῦ οἰκείου καὶ φυγῇ
τἀλλοτρίου παρὰ τῆς φύσεως ἕκαστον εἴληχε.
σκόπει δ᾽ ἡμᾶς πότεροι βέλτιον ἐξημεροῦσι τῶν
/ € \ / \ / \ / 3
φιλοσόφων, οἱ καὶ τέκνα Kal φίλους Kal πατέρας
μ
\ A 5 / "A > ᾿ς 4
καὶ γυναῖκας ἐσθίειν κελεύοντες ἀποθανόντας, ἢ
, 99 εξ "27 s
Πυθαγόρας καὶ ᾿Εμπεδοκλῆς ἐθίζοντες εἶναι καὶ
\ / / ~
πρὸς Ta ἄλλα γένη" δικαίους. σὺ μὲν καταγελᾷς
κι \ , TEs ’ 5 Δ ΩΤῈ a 6
τοῦ τὸ πρόβατον μὴ ἐσθίοντος: ἀλλ᾽ ἡμεῖς σε,
/ ~ 7~
φήσουσι, θεασάμενοι τοῦ πατρὸς τεθνηκότος ἢ τῆς
\ > / / ~
F μητρὸς ἀποτεμόντα “μερίδας καὶ τῶν φίλων ἀπο-
πεμπόμενον τοῖς μὴ παροῦσι, τοὺς δὲ παρόντας
παρακαλοῦντα καὶ παρατιθέντα τῶν σαρκῶν ἀφει-
1 ὃ Xylander: 6 οὐ.
2 ye Xylander: τε.
πατέρας] καὶ μητέρας old editors add.
ἀποθανόντας Wyttenbach : ὡς ἀποθανόντας.
ένη Xylander: μέρη.
6 ge Wyttenbach: γέ.
? παρακαλοῦντα Kronenberg : καλοῦντα.
3
4
2 Semonides, frag. 5; see Mor. 446 © and the note.
>» That is, ** the reincarnated life.”’
568
THE EATING OF FLESH II, 997
lary of such a house and couch and table and cup is
a dinner which is unpretentious and a lunch which
is truly democratic ; but all manner of luxury and
extravagance follow the lead of an evil way of life
As new-weaned foal beside his mother runs. ?
3. For what sort of dinner is not costly for which
a living creature loses its life? Do we hold a life
cheap? I do not yet go so far as to say that it may
well be the life ὃ of your mother or father or some
friend or child, as Empedocles ° declared. Yet it does,
at least, possess some perception, hearing, seeing,
imagination, intelligence, which last every creature
receives from Nature to enable it to acquire what is
proper for it and to evade what is not. Do but con-
sider which are the philosophers who serve the better
to humanize us: those ὦ who bid us eat our children
and friends and fathers and wives after their death,¢
or Pythagoras 7 and Empedocles who try to accustom
us to act justly toward other creatures also? You
ridicule a man who abstains from eating mutton.
But are we, they “ will say, to refrain from laughter
when we see you slicing off portions from a dead
father or mother and sending them to absent friends
and inviting those who are at hand, heaping their
© As in frag. B 137 (Diels-Kranz, Frag. der Vorsok. i, p.
975).
¢ Cf. von Arnim, S.V.F. iii; p. 186.
¢ That is, they tell us to eat meat without compunction,
because human beings are only mortal, and their souls are
not reincarnated in animals.
7 Cf. 993 a supra. The argument is somewhat weakened
by the fact (certainly well known to Plutarch, e.g. Mor. 286
p-E) that Pythagoras placed an even more stringent taboo
on beans than he did on meat.
9 Pythagoras and Empedocles.
569
(997)
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
δῶς, μή τι γελάσωμεν; ἀλλὰ καὶ νῦν ἴσως
ς 7 “ ¢€ / ~ / 4
ἁμαρτάνομεν, ὅταν ἁψώμεθα τῶν βιβλίων τούτων,
μὴ καθαιρόμενοι χεῖρας καὶ ὄψεις καὶ πόδας καὶ
ἀκοάς, εἰ μὴ νὴ Δί ἐκείνων καθαρμός ἐστι τὸ
περὶ τούτων διαλέγεσθαι, oe ποτίμῳ λόγῳ, ὥς φη-
σιν ὁ ΤΪλάτων, ᾿ὀ ᾿ ἁλμυρὰν ἀκοὴν ἀποκλυζομένους.᾿᾿
εἰ δὲ θείη τις τὰ βιβλία παρ᾽ ἄλληλα καὶ τοὺς
λόγους, ἐκεῖνα μὲν Σκύθαις φιλοσοφεῖται" καὶ
Σογδιανοῖς καὶ Μελαχχλαίνοίς. περὶ ὧν Ἡρόδοτος
ἱστορῶν ἀπιστεῖται"-. τὰ δὲ Πυθαγόρου καὶ ᾿Ἐμ-
πεδοκλέους δόγματα νόμοι τῶν παλαιῶν ἦσαν
ε , \ ¢ 14°07 “ \
Βλλήνων καὶ at πυρικαὶ' δίαιται. . . . [ὅτι πρὸς
\ ” ~ / ΕΒ 99." ΝΜ 5
τὰ ἄλογα ζῷα δίκαιον ἡμῖν οὐδὲν ἔστι."}
4. Τίνες οὖν ὕστερον τοῦτ᾽ ἔγνωσαν;
~ /
ol πρῶτοι Kakoepyov ἐχαλκεύσαντο μάχαιραν
~ ~ , / » 5
εἰνοδίην, πρῶτοι δὲ βοῶν ἐπάσαντ᾽ ἀροτήρων.
οὕτω τοι καὶ οἱ τυραννοῦντες ἄρχουσι μιαιφονίας.
ὥσπερ γὰρ" τὸ πρῶτον᾽ ἀπέκτειναν ᾿Αθήνησι τὸν
κάκιστον τῶν συκοφαντῶν Kal δεύτερον ὁμοίως
καὶ τρίτον: εἶτ᾽ ἐκ τούτου συνήθεις γενόμενοι
γελάσωμεν Bernardakis : γελάσαιμεν.
φιλοσοφεῖται Reiske : φιλοσοφεῖσθαι.
περὶ . . . ἀπιστεῖται should perhaps be deleted.
πυρικαὶ Post : πυρία OY πυρεῖα Kal.
ὅτι. . . ἔστι deleted by Meziriacus.
ὥσπερ yap Bernardakis: ὥσπερ.
τὸ πρῶτον van Herwerden: τὸν πρῶτον or ἀπὸ τῶν πρώτων.
καὶ] in the mss. preceded by the words ὃς ἐπιτήδειος προσ-
nyopevbn, interpolated from 959 p; deleted by W. Ὁ. H.
on non fF ὦ Sw μ
Ω Phaedrus, 243 ἢ: cf. Mor. 627 τ, 706 ἘἙ, 711 Ὁ.
» That is, of the two schools of philosophy mentioned
above in 997 F.
¢ Plutarch seems to have confused the Black Cloaks
570
THE EATING OF FLESH II, 997-998
plates with flesh? But as it is, perhaps we commit
a sin when we touch these books of theirs without
cleansing our hands and faces, our feet and ears—
unless, by Heaven, it is a purification of those mem-
bers to speak on such a subject as this, “ washing,”
as Plato 5 says, “ the brine from one’s ears with the
fresh water of discourse.’ If one should compare
these two sets of books and doctrines,? the former
may serve as philosophy for the Scyths and Sogdians
and the Black Cloaks, whose story as told by Hero-
dotus © gains no credit%; but the precepts of
Pythagoras ὁ and Empedocles were the laws for the
ancient Greeks along with their diet of wheat. . . /
[Because there is no question of justice between us
and the irrational animals. |
4. Who, then, were they who later decreed this ?
The first to forge the highway’s murderous sword,
And first to eat the flesh of ploughing ox.’
This is the way, you may be sure, in which tyrants
begin their course of bloody slaughters. Just as, for
instance, at Athens” they put to death initially the
worst of the sycophants, and likewise in the second
and third instances ; but next, having become accus-
tomed to bloodshed they allowed Niceratus,’ the
(Herodotus, iv. 20, but cf. iv. 107) with the Issedones (iv. 26) :
and perhaps the Sogdians (iii. 93) with the Padaei (111. 99) ;
cf. also 1. 216 and iii. 38.
4 But this clause looks like a semi-learned addition.
¢ Cf. 964 E-F supra.
* There seems to be a lacuna here followed by an inter-
polation from chapter 6 or 7.
9 Aratus, Phaenomena, 131 f.; cf. Lucilius’ parody in the
Palatine Anthology, xi. 136.
h Cf. 959 p supra and the note.
? Cf. Xenophon, Hellenica, ii. 3. 39.
Or
-
--
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(998) Νικήρατον περιεώρων' ἀπολλύμενον τὸν Νικίου καὶ
Θηραμένη τὸν στρατηγὸν καὶ “Πολέμαρχον τὸν
φιλόσοφον" οὕτω τὸ πρῶτον ἄγριόν τι ζῷον ἐβρώθη
καὶ κακοῦργον, εἶτ᾽ ὄρνις τις ἢ ἰχθὺς ds” εἵλκυστο'
καὶ γευσάμενον οὕτω καὶ “προμελετῆσαν € ἐν ἐκείνοις
τὸ φονικὸν" ἐπὶ βοῦν ἐργάτην ἦλθε καὶ τὸ κόσμιον"
πρόβατον καὶ τὸν οἰκουρὸν ἀλεκτρυόνα" καὶ κατὰ
μικρὸν οὕτω τὴν ἀπληστίαν στομώσαντες ἐπὶ σφα-
C yas ἀνθρώπων καὶ πολέμους καὶ φόνους προήλθο-
μεν.ἢ ἀλλ᾽ ἐάν πῃ" προαποδείξῃ" τις, ὅτι χρῶνται
κοινοῖς αἱ ψυχαὶ σώμασιν ἐν ταῖς παλιγγενεσίαις
καὶ τὸ νῦν λογικὸν αὖθις γίνεται ἄλογον καὶ πάλιν
ἥμερον τὸ νῦν ἄγριον, ἀλλάσσει δ᾽ ἡ φύσις ἅπαντα
καὶ μετοικίζει
~ 3 ~ / ~
σαρκῶν ἀλλογνῶτι περιστέλλουσα χιτωνι >
ταῦτ᾽ οὐκ ἀποτρέπει τῶν ἀνῃρημένων" τὸ ἀκόλα-
στον τοῦ" καὶ σώματι νόσους καὶ βαρύτητας ἐμ-
ποιεῖν καὶ ψυχὴν ἐ ἐπὶ τόλμαν ὠμοτέραν"" τρεπομένην
διαφθείρειν ὃ ὅταν ἀπεθισθῶμεν"" μὴ αἵματος ἄνευ καὶ
φόνου μὴ ἕένον ἑστιᾶν, μὴ γάμον ἑορτάζειν, μὴ
φίλοις συγγίνεσθαι;
περιεώρων Stephanus : ἑώρων.
ὃς added by Post.
φονικὸν Turnebus : νικῶν or νικοῦν.
κόσμιον ‘Turnebus : κοσμοῦν.
προήλθομεν W. C. Η. : προῆλθον.
πῃ! Post: μὴ.
προαποδείξῃ Siev eking : προσαποδείξῃ.
τῶν ἀνῃρημένων] τὸ ἀνήμερον Stephanus.
Τοῦ ΟΡ" ἰδ:
τόλμαν ὠμοτέραν Haupt (Hermes, vi, p. 259): πόλεμον
ἀνομωτέρων.
11 ἀπεθισθῶμεν Post: ἐθισθῶμεν.
579
JIA
coonrdoaonuwr & Ww μ
-
ς
THE EATING OF FLESH II, 998
son of Nicias, to be killed and the general Thera-
menes “ and the philosopher Polemarchus.’? Just so,
at the beginning it was some wild and harmful
animal that was eaten, then a bird or fish that had
its flesh torn. And so when our murderous instincts
had tasted blood and grew practised on wild animals,
they advanced to the labouring ox and the well-
behaved sheep and the house-warding cock ; thus,
little by little giving a hard edge to our insatiable
appetite, we have advanced to wars and the slaughter
and murder of human beings. Yet if someone once
demonstrates that souls in their rebirths make use of
common bodies and that what is now rational reverts
to the irrational, and again what is now wild becomes
tame, and that Nature changes everything and
assigns new dwellings
Clothing souls with unfamiliar coat of flesh® ;
will not this deter the unruly element in those who
have adopted the doctrine from implanting disease
and indigestion“ in our bodies and perverting our
souls to an ever more cruel lawlessness, as soon as
we are broken of the habit of not entertaining a
guest or celebrating a marriage or consorting with
our friends without bloodshed and murder ?
α Cf. Xenophon, Hellenica, ii. 3. 56.
ὃ The son of Cephalus and brother of Lysias ; a prominent
character in Plato, Republic, i. For the circumstances of his
death see Lysias’ oration Against Eratosthenes. It is, how-
ever, somewhat unlikely that Plutarch should call Pole-
marchus “ the philosopher ᾿ even though he appeared in
the Republic and his philosophic bent was mentioned in the
Phaedrus (257 8); so that, once again, we may be faced with
interpolation.
¢ Diels-Kranz, Frag. der Vorsok. i, p. 362; Empedocles,
frag. 126. 4 Cf. Mor. 128 s-e.
573
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
/ ~ / A al > /
5. Καίτοι τῆς λεγομένης tats ψυχαῖς εἰς σώματα
/ ~ 5» \ / Μ \ > /
πάλιν μεταβολῆς εἰ μὴ πίστεως ἄξιον TO ἀποδεικνύ-
‘ \
μενον, ἀλλ᾽ εὐλαβείας ye’ μεγάλης Kat δέους τὸ
/
ἀμφίβολον. οἷον εἴ τις ἐν νυκτομαχίαις στρατο-
΄- /
πέδων ἀνδρὶ πεπτωκότι Kal TO σῶμα κρυπτομένῳ
a “ > / / > / 12 /
τοῖς ὅπλοις ἐπιφέρων ξίφος ἀκούσειέ" τινος λέγοντος
> / \ 9 7 / Mv \ \ a
οὐ πάνυ μὲν εἰδέναι βεβαίως, οἴεσθαι δὲ καὶ δοκεῖν
ει , ~ \ / a“ > \ a“ / Ἅ
υἱὸν αὐτοῦ τὸν κείμενον ἢ ἀδελφὸν ἢ πατέρα ἢ
σύσκηνον εἶναι: τί βέλτιον, ὑπονοίᾳ προσθέμενον
, > -“ / \ >] \ « ͵ n“
οὐκ ἀληθεῖ προέσθαι τὸν ἐχθρὸν ws φίλον, ἢ κατα-
~ / > A
φρονήσαντα τοῦ μὴ βεβαίου πρὸς πίστιν ἀνελεῖν
~ ~ /
τὸν οἰκεῖον ws πολέμιον; ἐκεῖνο δεινὸν φήσετε
/ / \ \ \ > ~ / /,
πάντες. σκόπει δὲ καὶ τὴν ἐν TH τραγῳδίᾳ Mepo-
> ~ ~
πὴν ἐπὶ τὸν υἱὸν αὐτὸν ws φονέα τοῦ υἱοῦ πέλεκυν
ἀραμένην καὶ λέγουσαν
>’ / \ / - ere | \ / /
ὠνητέραν δὴ τήνδ᾽ ἐγὼ δίδωμί σοι
’ὔ
πληγήν,
“ > ~ / / A“ /
ὅσον ev τῷ θεάτρῳ κίνημα ποιεῖ, συνεξορθιάζουσα
φ β 3 \ φθ / \ > λ β / / \
ὀβῳ" μὴ φθάσῃ τὸν ἐπιλαμβανόμενον γέροντα καὶ
\ 7 > “
τρώσῃ τὸ μειράκιον. εἰ δ᾽ ἕτερος γέρων παρεστή-
4 / ra A / , > 53. ἷΨΤ 7
Kou’ λέγων, “᾿ παῖσον, πολέμιός ἐστιν ᾿᾽" ἕτερος δέ,
/ « A
“ μὴ παίσῃς, vids ἐστι ᾽᾽" πότερον ἀδίκημα μεῖζον,
ἐχθροῦ κόλασιν ἐκλιπεῖν διὰ τὸν υἱὸν ἢ τεκνοκτονίᾳ
περιπεσεῖν ὑπὸ τῆς πρὸς τὸν ἐχθρὸν ὀργῆς ; ὁπότε
1 ye Reiske: τε.
2 ἀκούσειέ an early correction: ἀκούσοι or ἀκούσει.
3 φόβῳ van Herwerden: φόνου (or φόβῳ) καὶ δέος.
4 παρεστήκοι van Herwerden: παρειστήκει.
574:
THE EATING OF FLESH II, 998
5. Yet even if the argument of the migration of
souls from body to body is not demonstrated to the
point of complete belief, there is enough doubt to
make us quite cautious and fearful. It is as though
in a clash of armies by night 4 you had drawn your
sword and were rushing at a man whose fallen body
was hidden by his armour and should hear someone
remarking that he wasn’t quite sure, but that he
thought and believed that the prostrate figure was
that of your son or brother or father or tent-mate—
which would be the better course: to approve a
false suspicion and spare your enemy as a friend, or
to disregard an uncertain authority and kill your
friend as a foe? The latter course you will declare
to be shocking. Consider also Merope ὃ in the play
raising her axe against her son himself because she
believes him to be that son’s murderer and saying
This blow I give you is more costly yet—
what a stir she rouses in the theatre as she brings
them to their feet in terror lest she wound the youth
before the old man can stop her! Now suppose one
old man stood beside her saying, “ Hit him! He's
your enemy,’ and another who said, “ Don’t strike !
He is your son”: which would be the greater mis-
deed, to omit the punishment of an enemy because
of the son, or to slay a child under the impulse of
« Cf, Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach :
‘““ And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.”
’ Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 500, frag. 456 from the
Cresphontes. Aristotle, Poetics, xiv. 19 (1454 a 5) tells us
that all turns out well: Merope recognizes her son before
she can kill him; but it was a close thing, as Plutarch
implies.
AED
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
/ 9 cal / > \ > \ \ ες \ \ /
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οὐδὲ προς τα, ξενικὰ των ἡδυσμάτων: ἀλλὰ και
Σ᾽ Δ ΒΟΌΣ Η. 9910
* συνήθους Kronenberg: θεοῦ.
3 ἐκεῖ Reiske: ἔχει. 4 Kav W.C. H.: a.
5 δ᾽ ἔτι καὶ Reiske: δέ τις.
ὃ προηγμένον Stephanus : προηγούμενον.
? περὶ roUrwy W.C. Η. : πρὸς τὰ περὶ.
8 φασίν Bernardakis: φησίν.
576
THE EATING OF FLESH II, 998-999
anger against an enemy? In a case, then, where it
is not hate or anger or self-defence or fear for our-
selves that induces us to murder, but the motive of
pleasure, and the victim stands there under our power
with its head bent back and one of our philosophers
says, ‘ Kill it! It’s only a brute beast’; but the
other says, ““ Stop! What if the soul of some relative
or friend has found its way into this body ? ’’—Good
God! Of course the risk is equal or much the same
in the two cases—if I refuse to eat flesh, or if I,
disbelieving, kill my child or some other relative !
6. There remains yet another contention with the
Stoics * about flesh-eating, and this is not “ equal,”
either. For what is this great “ tension ’ ὃ on the
belly and the kitchen? Why, when they count
pleasure effeminate and denounce it as being neither
a good nor an “ advanced principle ”’ © nor “ commen-
surate with Nature,’ ὁ are they so concerned with
these pleasures? It would certainly be consistent for
them, since they banish perfume and cakes from their
banquets, to be more squeamish about blood and flesh.
But as it is, confining as it were their philosophy to
their ledgers, they economize on their dinners in
trivial and needless details while they do not depre-
cate this inhuman and murderous item of expense.
“ΟΥ̓ course,” they say, ““ we human beings have no
compact of justice with irrational animals.’’? Nor,
one might reply, have you with perfume or exotic
sweetmeats either. Refrain from animals also, if you
¢ Cf. von Arnim, S.V.F. iii, pp. 91, 374.
» A technical term of Stoic philosophy.
¢ Further Stoic technical terms.
4 Cf. 970 B supra.
9. δίκαιον Stephanus: οἰκεῖον.
VOL. XII U 577
PLUTARCH’S MORALIA
(999) τούτων ἀποτρέπεσθε, TO μὴ χρήσιμον μηδ᾽ avay-
eas ἐν ἡδονῇ πανταχόθεν ἐξελαύνοντες.
Ov μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦτ᾽ ἤδη σκεψώμεθα, τὸ
ae εἶναι πρὸς τὰ ζῷα δίκαιον ἡμῖν, μήτε τεχνι-
κῶς μήτε' σοφιστικῶς, ἀλλὰ τοῖς πάθεσιν ἐμβλέ-
ψαντες τοῖς ἑαυτῶν καὶ πρὸς ἑαυτοὺς ἀνθρωπικῶς
λαλήσαντες καὶ ἀνακρίναντες...
1 μήτε... μήτε Bernardakis: μηδὲ... μηδὲ.
578
THE EATING OF FLESH II, 999
are expelling the useless and unnecessary element in
pleasure from all its lurking-places.
7. Let us, however, now examine the point
whether we really have no compact of justice with
animals ; and let us do so in no artificial or sophistical
manner, but fixing our attention on our own emotions
and conversing like human beings with ourselves and
weighing . . .4
2 The rest is lacking.
579
INDEX
OF PROPER NAMES AND OF
SELECTED SUBJECTS
[The subject index makes no claim whatever to completeness, con-
taining only what the compiler thought was interesting. A classi-
fied zoological index, collected systematically by A. C. Andrews,
will be found on pp. 482-486. Here the animal references have
been added and are probably reasonably complete. }
ACADEMY, the, 53, 55 note b: the
school of philosophy founded
by Plato at Athens
Acheron, 247: river of the lower
world
Achilles, 161, 521:
the Trojan War
Acropolis, 383: at Athens
Aeacides, 355: a Delphian
Aegipans, 528: Goat Pans
Aegium, 399: city in Achaia
Aeolian, 473
Aeolus, quoted, 321:
of Euripides
Aeschylus, 57: quoted 59, 161,
257, 353, 448 : Athenian tragic
poet, circa 525-456 B.c.
Aethe, 507: a racing mare
Aetna, 81, 275: mountain in
Sicily
Aetolian, 399
Affection, 85 (ef. 267): one of the
two active forces in the physics
of Empedocles
Africa, 265
Agamemnon, 506 note ὃ, 521:
the Greek general at Troy
Agesianax, quoted, 39, 43: Alex-
andrian poet (see 39 note a)
Aleman, 273 note a: quoted, 175:
580
Greek hero in
a lost play
lyric poet of the second half of
the 7th cent. B.c.
Alexander, 385-389: the Great,
356-323 B.C.
Alexandria, 399: metropolis of
Egypt
itunes, 293: the dead
Aloeus, 145: father of Otus and
Ephialtes
Altar of Horn, 467: at Delos
Amphitrite, 473: consort of
Poseidon
Anaxagoras, 59 note d, 121;
quoted, 101 : first Ionian philo-
sopher to reside in Athens ;
circa 500-428 B.C.
Anaximenes, 241: Ionian philo-
sopher, flor. circa 546 B.C.
Androcydes, quoted 555: Greek
medical writer
anonymous citations: 249, 269,
357, 369, 393, 505, al.
ant(s), 369-373, 407, 451 (and see
364 note δ)
Antaeopolis, 419:
antelope, 323:
gazelle
anthias, 426 note a, 453, 455
Anticyra, 451: Phocian port east
of Cirrha
city of Egypt
see also deer.
INDEX
Antiochus, 397 and note c: III,
the Great, king of Syria 228--
187 B.C.
Antiochus, 413 and note e:
Hierax, the son of Antiochus II
(who reigned circa 287-247
B.C.
Antipater, 341 and note ¢: prob-
ably the Stoic philosopher of
the 2nd cent. B.C.
Antipodes, 63 note d
apes, 339, 421
Aphrodite, 85, 467, 518
Apollo, 257, 361, 467, 469, 507
Apollonides, 39, 48, 71, 133, 149.
149: an expert in geometry,
speaker in the dialogue, 7'he
Face on the Moon (see p. 5)
Arabian, 173, 517, 553
Aratus, quoted, 371, 571: Cili-
cian poet, circa 315-249 B.C.
Archelaiis, 281: philosopher of
the 5th cent. B.C.
Archilochus, 119, 423; quoted
259, 393 (?), 477: iambic and
elegiac poet of the 8th or 7th
cent. B.C.
Arethusa, 417: the name of
several ancient fountains
Argonauts, 520 note d
Argos, 469
Argynnus, 521: beloved of Aga-
memnon
Arion, 473: dithyrambic poet of
7th cent. B.C.
Aristarchuss?! 55! 077535) 1.21 οὐ: ΠΕ
Samos, the great mathemati-
cian and astronomer, circa 310—
230) BSC:
Aristarchus, 165, 423: of Samo-
thrace, the Homeric scholar,
circa 217-143 B.C.
Aristogiton, 555: Athenian ty-
rannicide, killed in 514 B.c.
Ariston, 307: Stoic philosopher,
3rd cent. B.C.
Ariston, 355: Plutarch’s cousin
Aristophanes, 399: of Byzantium,
the greatest scholar of antiquity,
circa 257-180 B.C.
Aristotimus, 319, 325, 355-359,
439, 477 and note g: a pupil of
Plutarch’s ; speaker in the dia-
logue, The Cleverness of Animals
Aristotle, 39 (and notes passim),
W215) 2415 249) ΡΒ 205. 328
note a, 335 note c, 357, 358 ff.
in the notes passim, 401, 423
note h, 435, 438 note b, 4438, 451,
455: the philosopher, founder
of the Peripatetic School, 334—
ΒΒ. ΟΣ
Aristotle, 39, 97, 99 : ἃ speaker in
the dialogue, The Face on the
Moon (see p. 6).
Artemis, 49, 167, 221, 356 note ὦ,
361, 467, 469
Asclepius, 381: hero and god of
healing.
asp, 547
ass(es), 341, 352 note d, 353, 421,
495, 531
Assyrians, 141
Astronomy, 45 note b, 167, 189,
191 note a, al.
Athena, 49, 161, 163
Athenian(s), 199, 383, 555, 559
Athens, 323, 381, 383, 571
Athos, 147: a mountain peak of
Chalcidice
Atlantis, 181 note d, 183 note d:
the island of Plato’s Timaeus
and Critias
Atlas, 59: the Titan who held
the sky aloft
Atropos, 221 and note b: one of
the three Fates
Autobulus, 318 note a, 319, 321,
BUG, BY, SBEE Shr, SLs, co.
355, 357: Plutarch’s father,
one of the speakers in the dia-
logue, Zhe Cleverness of Ani-
mals
Autolycus, 531 : Odysseus’ grand-
father
BARBIER, 426 note a, 427: see
also anthias
bass, 359, 425, 429, 431
bear(s), 323, 389, 393, 407, 427, 553
bee(s), 335, 364 note b, 367, 421,
447, 451, 461, 465, 531 and note
2
bee-eaters, 421
beef, 353: see also bulls, calf,
cattle, cow(s), etc.
Bion, 355; the Borysthenite
philosopher, circa 325-255 B.C.
Black Cloaks, 571: a Scythian
tribe
581
INDEX
Black Goddess, 495: Hecate (see
494 note a)
Black Sea, 443, 453
boar(s), 361, 363, 389, 427, 509,
519, 553: see also pig, sow(s),
swine :
Boeotia, 521
Boeotian(s), 213, 555, 557 note Ἢ
bonito(s), 361, 425, 445
Boreal (239), 249: from the
north wind
Boulis, 451 and note ὃ:
on the Phocian Gulf
Bouna(-ae) : see 451 note ὃ
bream, 428 note d, 429
Briareus, 181, 183 note a: a
hundred-handed monster
Britain, 181
Britons, 43
Bucephalas, 387:
favourite horse
bucks: see goat(s)
Bull, 185: Taurus, sign of the
Zodiac
bulls, 352 note d, 353, 363: see
also cattle, cow(s), ete.
bustards, 451
Byzantium, 439, 475:
on the Bosporus
a town
Alexander’s
the city
CAESAR, 405: Vespasian; 253:
probably Trajan (see 252 note a)
calf, 397: see also cattle, cow(s),
etc.
Callimachus, 249 note b: Alex-
andrian poet, circa 305-240
BG.
Calvus, 379: a Roman
camel, 343
Capparus, 381: an Athenian dog
Carian, 507, 515
Carthage, 191
Caspian, 183 and note f, 209
Cato, 563: M. Porcius Cato the
Censor, circa 234-149 B.c.
catoptrics, 107 ff., 151 ff., αἱ.
cats, 323
cattle, 345, 411:
cow(s), ete.
centaurs, 523
Cephallenians, 499 and note ὃ
Ceramicus, 383: a district of
Athens
chameleon, 436 note ¢, 437
Chaos, 271, 291
582
see also bulls,
charm(s), 35, 219, 349: see also
magic
Chios, 93: a large island off the
coast of Asia Minor
Chrysippus, 47 note a, 267, 269,
331 note c, 445; quoted, 267,
331, 333, 335; see also Stoic(s)
cicadas, 339, 421
Cilicia, 367
Circe, 493-499, 511, 563: the
enchantress of Odyssey, x
Cirrha, 469, 471: the port of
Delphi
civil wars, 379: at Rome
Cleanthes, 55, 369: Stoic philo-
sopher, 331—232 B.c.
Clearchus, 39 and note ὁ, 41, 45:
of Soli, pupil of Aristotle, circa
300 (?) B.C.
Cleomenes, 331: III, king of
Sparta, circa 260-219 B.c.
Clotho, 221 and note b: one of
the three Fates
Cnidus, 411: a Greek colony in
southern Asia Minor
cock, 455, 521, 573
codfish, 431 and note d
Coeraneum, 477, a cave on
Sicinus
Coeranus, 475, 477: a Parian
cold, the principle of, 231 ff.
colts, see horse(s)
conflagration, universal, 135 note
c, 291 note e
conger, 359, 361, 437, 467
Copais, Lake, 521: in Boeotia
Cora, 193 and note d, 195, 470:
a name of Persephone
Coroebus, 531 and note a: the
stupid man par excellence
Corybants, 213: ecstatic devo-
tees of Cybele or Attis
cow(s), 323, 352 note d, 411, 541:
see also cattle, ete.
crab(s), 333, 445 and note g, 447,
527
crampfish, 433 note g
orate 367, 389, 439, 441,
565
Crassus, 419 : M. Licinius Crassus,
the triumvir, circa 112—53 B.C.
Crates, 165: of Mallos, philo-
logian with a strong Stoic bias,
2nd cent. B.C.
crawtish, 437 and note g, 439
INDEX
Cresphontes, quoted, 575: a lost
play of Euripides
Cretan(s), 367, 409, 469, 527
Crete, 213, 515
Cretheus, 477 and note f: an
unknown writer
crocodile(s), 363, 419, 449, 459, 547
Crommyon, 383, 505: a castle in
the Megarid
Cronian, 183
Cronus, 181, 185-191, 213, 223:
father of Zeus
crows, 365, 401, 511, 513, 529
Ctesias, 411: of Cnidus, historian
of the late 5th cent. B.C.
cuttlefish, 433, 435
Cyclopes, 499: gigantic one-eyed
creatures
Cydias, 117: Greek lyric poet of
unknown date before 420 8.6.
Cynic, 293: Diogenes
Cyzicus, 395, 439: Milesian
colony on an island of the Pro-
pontis
DACTYLS; 213 ;
dwarfs
Danube, 253
Darkness, 271
daw, 389
ΠΟΘΙ" 323; \a005 da0;1o40, 901.
421, 523: see also hinds,
stag(s)
Delos, 467: sacred Aegean island
mythical Cretan
Delphig 21 Oswess oop eos 2
Apollo’s oracle in Phocis
Delphinios, 469: epithet of
Apollo
Demeter, 193, 194 note a, 199, 545
Demetrians, 199: the dead
Democritus, 243, 407 : of Abdera,
atomic philosopher, circa 460-
370 B.C.
Deucalion, 377: the Greek Noah
Dew (Ersa), 173, 175: daughter
of Zeus and Selene
Dictynna, 357, 469: epithet of
Artemis
Diogenes, 293, 555: of Sinope, the
first to adopt for himself the
name ““ Cynic,’’ circa 400-825
B.C.
Diomedes, 355: son of Tydeus ;
hero of the Trojan War
Dionysius, 355: a Delphian
Dionysius, 469: ambassador of
Ptolemy Soter
Dionysus, 547, 559:
tility and wine
dithvrambic poet, quoted, 269
divination, 411, 413, 419, 421, al.
dog(s), 323, 333, 341, 345, 347,
352 note’ d, 353, 365, 377-385,
385 note d, 387-391, 405, 407,
415, 471, 478, 523; 529; ‘see
also hounds
Dog Star, 411: Sirius
dogfish, 457
Dolon, 515: a Trojan traitor
dolphin(s), 431, 441, 453, 469-477
Domitius, 419 and note c : Aheno-
barbus, consul 54 B.C.
dove(s), 323, 341, 377, 461
dreams, 35, 189, 217, al.
god of fer-
4.90. aoe, Bisa, 413;
Barth) 4555 Slt, ΤΟ Peis,
269 ff., 299, 545, al.
Echepolus, 506 note d
eels, 417, 503 note a
HKgypt, 171, 398 note 4, 419, 511,
527
EAGLE(S),
451
Egyptian(s), 121, 161, 409, 411,
415, 449, 563
Eileithyia : see Llithyia
elephant(s). 348, 363, 373, 385,
395-399, 409, 425, 427, 455, 471
Eleusis, 469: a large town of
Attica west of Athens
Elysian, 211
Elysium, 195 and note d
Empedocles, 51, 83, 85, 119 note j,
245, 267, 271 note d, 275, 351,
559, 569, 571; quoted, 37, 73,
SSeOI 103) 105; Seabee,
563 (?), 573: Sicilian philo-
sopher of the 5th cent. B.C.
Enalus, 473: an Aeolian
Endymion, 217: beloved by
Selene, he fell into an immortal
sleep
Ephialtes, 145 note ὃ : one of the
giant Aloadae
Epicharmus, quoted, 331, 413:
Sicilian comic poet of the 5th
cent. B.C.
Epicurus, 45, 349: Athenian
philosopher, 342-271 B.C.
Epimenides, 177: Cretan re-
583
INDEX
ligious teacher of unknown date
before 500 B.c.
Eratosthenes, quoted, 455 (see
also 175 note a): of Cyrene,
great all-round Alexandrian
scholar, circa 275-194 B.C.
Erebus, 271: the underworld
Eros, 85: god of love
Ersa, 174: Dew, daughter of
Zeus and Selene
Ethiopia, 171
Ethiopians, 59
Eubiotus, 355:
tarch’s father
Euboean, 355: from the long
island east of Boeotia
Euripides, 299 note ὃ, 321, 413;
quoted, 321, 349, 357, 575:
Athenian tragic poet; circa
484-406 B.C.
Euthydamus, 355: a Boeotian (?)
a friend of Plu-
FACE ON THE MOON, 35 ff.
falcon : see hawk(s)
Fates, 221
Favorinus, 227 f., 231, 253, 285:
the famous Gallic rhetorician,
circa A.D. 80-150 -
fire, 49, 51, 267, 291 ff., al. ; see
also Hephaestus
fishing-frog, 434 note b, 435
Flavius : see Vespasian
fly, 459, 446 note 2
Forum Graecorum, 403 note @
fox(es), 251, 345, 377, 389, 393,
395, 451, 531; see also vixen
fox-shark : see shark
frogs, 355, 461; see also fishing-
frog
GANYCTOR, 381: father of
Hesiod’s murderers
garfish, 465 and note ¢e
gazelle, 361
Gedrosia, 171: modern Baluchis-
tan
geese : see goose
geometry, 39, 57 note d, 111, 189,
al.
Giants, 83
gilthead, 430 note a, 431, 455
gladiators, 321, 567 note b; see
also spectacles
Glauce, 399: a harp-player
goat(s), 352 note d, 3538, 409, 411,
584
501, 511, 519, 521, 523 note ὃ,
527; see also kid(s)
goby, 429 and note b
goose (geese), 323, 353 and note e,
367, 399 and note d, 565 note c
Graecostadium, 403, note a
grayfish, 358 note c, 359
Great Island, 191
Greece, 299
Greek(s), 55, 141, 183, 185, 198,
299, 403, 469, 493, 497, 571;
see also Hellenic
Gryllus, 498, 497 and note ὃ, 499-
533: a companion of Odysseus
metamorphosed into a hog
guide (fish), 449 and note d
HADES, 180, 193, 195, and note d,
201, 205, 215, 247, 271 ; see also
Pluto, Tartarus
Hagnon, 375: Academic philo-
sopher of the 2nd cent. Β.6.
haleyon, 461 and note f, 463-467
hare(s), 323, 361, 389-3938, 553
Harmodius, 555: Athenian ty-
rannicide, killed in 514 B.c.
hawk(s), 339, 343, 413
Heat, principle of, 231, al.
Hecate, 158 note c, 209 and note
g, 494 note a: an ancient
Chthonian goddess, sometimes
identified with the moon; mis-
tress of black magic
Hecatompedon, 383: the Par-
thenon at Athens
hedgehog(s), 393, 395, 439
hedgehog (sea)-, 439
Hegesianax: see 39 note a, 43
note a
Hellenic, 185: see also Greek(s)
Hephaestus, 49, 257, 307; see
also fire
Hera, 469: goddess and consort
of Zeus
Heracleon, 318 note c, 319, 355,
415, 477 note g: a speaker in
the dialogue, The Cleverness of
Animals
Heracles, 185, 209, 369, 521
Heraclitus, 351: quoted 205,
247, 299, 557: of Ephesus,
philosopher of the 6th and 5th
cent. B.C.
Hermes, 199
Herodotus, 571: of Halicarnas-
INDEX
sus, the historian of the Persian
Wars
herons, 369
Hesiod, 85, 271 note c, 381, 473 ;
auoted While 4) 501 0549.
Hestia, 242 note ὃ, 281: goddess
of the hearth (see also 55)
hibernation, 393
hinds, 393: see also deer, stag(s)
Hipparchus, 45 and notes : great-
est of the Greek astronomers,
2nd cent. B.C.
Hippolytus of Euripides, quoted,
321
hippopotamuses, 339
hogs, 495: see also pig, sow(s),
swine, etc.
Homer, 257, 273 note a, 283 note
d, 423, 469 note d; quoted, 57,
110. 55 5 (SOs 165}51 70 Sie
195, 215, 239, 245, 247, 265,
5 , 3885, 387, 423, 431,
433, 453, 467, 473, 499, 501,
Horn, Altar of, 467: at Delos
horse(s), 323, 333, 345, 252 note d,
353, 415, 423, 451, 471; 503;
529, 569: see also. colts,
mare(s)
hounds, 321, 389: see also dog(s),
puppies
house-martins, 363: see also
swallow(s)
Hungerbane, 177
Hunting, Praise of, 318 note e,
319: probably a work of Plu-
tarch’s
Huntress, 357: Artemis
Hylas, 520 note c: beloved of
Heracles
Hyrcanian, 385
TaSus, 474 note a, 475:
Caria
ibis, 409
ichneumon, 363, 449
Idaean, 213: of Mt. Ida, in Crete
Iliad, quoted: see Homer
llithyia, 221: goddess protector
of childbirth
India, 299
Indian(s), 163, 415
Introductions, 331 and note ec:
titles used by Chrysippus
city of
Ion, quoted, 99, 395: of Chios,
poet and dramatist of the 5th
cent. B.O.
Isis, 173, 192 note ὃ:
goddess
Isthmians of Pindar, quoted, 249
Ithaca, 501: the island home of
Odysseus
Ixion(s), 158 note b, 159
Egyptian
JAY, 403
Juba, 395, 429: II, the literary
king of Mauretania, circa 50
B.C.—A.D. 23
KID(S), 353, 403 ; see also goat(s)
kine: see cow(s)
kingfisher : see halcyon
kite, 525
LACHESIS, 221 and note ὃ: one
of the Fates
lamb, 553: see also sheep
Lamprias, 35 note ec, 157, 181,
223; speaks 39-53, 61-97, 117,
123, 1338-1577 )A63=18158 193 ;
Foy ee brother (see pp.
3-5
Laws of Plato, quoted, 359
Lebadeia, 213 note e: the only
active oracle in Boeotia
Lemnian, 146
Lemnos, 145: a large island in
the north Aegean
Leonidas, 319: king of Sparta,
487-480 B.C.
leopard : see panther(s)
Leptis, 468 note a, 469: an
African port
Lesbos, 473: a large island off
the coast of Asia Minor
Leto, 463: mother of Apollo and
Artemis
leverets : see hare(s)
Libya, 171, 264
Libyan(s), 365, 411, 415
Licinius : see Crassus
lion(s), 159, 335, 341, 363, 389,
397, 409, 455, 493, 495, 503,
509, 523, 547, 553
lioness(es), 427, 507
lizards, 63
lobster, 437 note g
Love, 267: see Affection
love-restorers, 173
585
INDEX
Lucius. 47, 55, 61, 97, 105, 107,
117, 125, 183: a speaker in the
dialogue, The Face on the Moon
(see p. 6)
Lycia, 419
Lycurgus, 567: the traditional
founder of the Spartan consti-
tution
lynxes, 341
Lysimachus, 385: a companion
and successor of Alexander,
circa 360-281 B.C.
MACKEREL, 361
Maeonian, 507: Lydian
Maeotis, 183 and note e: the Sea
of Azov
magic, 333, 335, 494 note a, 517:
see also charm(s)
Malea, 469: south-eastern pro-
montory and cape of the Pelo-
ponnesus
Marcellus, 405: nephew of Au-
gustus
mare(s), 423, 507, 521, (569):
see also horse(s)
Market of the Greeks, 403 and
note a: at Rome
martins : see house-martins, swal-
low(s)
mathematics, 45 note ὁ, 55, 71,
107, 109, 119, 133, 191 note a,
al.
Medes, 141
Megara, 355: city of the isthmus
of Corinth, south-west of
Athens
Megasthenes, 163, 177: Ionian
writer on India, flor. 300 B.c.
Menander, quoted, 557 : Athenian
comie poet, 342-290 B.c.
Mendesian, 511: of Mendes in
Egypt
Menelaiis, 107: see pp. 7 f.
Mercury, 73: the planet; see also
Stilbon
Merope, 575: the heroine of
Euripides’ Cresphontes
Metrodorus, 92 note b, 93: of
Chios, atomic philosopher
midge, 459
Mimnermus, 117: of Colophon,
early elegiac poet of uncertain
date
Mind, 331: in Epicharmus
586
Minotaurs, 523: creatures like
the ‘‘ Minos bull,’’ half-man,
half-beast
Moirae: see Fates
moon, 35 ff., 49 ff., 55 ff., al.
moray, 419, 437
Mouthless Men, 163, 177: fabri-
cations of Megasthenes
mule(s), 337, 383, 389, 391
mullet(s), 358 note c, 359, 425,
429: see also surmullet
mussel, 369
mutton: see sheep
Myra, 419: a city of Lycia
Myrsilus, 473: of Methymna,
historian of Lesbos, flor. circa
250 B.C.
NANNIES: see goat(s)
natural science : see physics
Nature: 268, 293, 341 ff., 351,
417, 489, 509, 511, 519, 521, 527,
ΠΡ, 559, δθδ, 569, 5738, 577,
al.
Naupactian, 381: from the city
in western Locris
Naxos, 475: island of the central
Aegean
Necessity, 351]
Nemeon, 473 and note e: shrine
of Zeus in Locris
Nicander, 355: a friend of Plu-
tarch’s father
Niceratus, 571: son of Nicias
Nicias, 573: Athenian politician,
circa 470-413 B.c.
nightingale(s), 401, 407, 461, 529
Nightwatchman, 185: the planet
Saturn
Nile, 459, 547: river of Egypt
Nomads, 347
north wind : see Boreal
Notus: see south wind
Nycturos : see Nightwatchman
OCEAN, 41 ff., 175, 183, al.
octopus, 359, 435-439, 555: see
also squid
Odysseus, 397, 477, 493-533: the
Homeric hero
Odyssey, quoted : see Homer
Ogygia, 181, 183: a fabulous
Atlantic island
a τ Ἐν Ὁ of Pindar, quoted 291,
of
INDEX
Optatus, 319, 355, 357, 477 note
g: a speaker in the dialogue,
The Cleverness of Animals
oryx, 411
Otus, 145 note ὃ :
Aloadae
owl, horned, 335
ΟΣ 29: θοὸς
etc.
oyster, 369
oyster-green, 447
one of the giant
see also cattle,
PAEANS of Pindar, quoted, 119
pagoi, 274 note e, 275
Pamphylia, 455: a district on the
coast of southern Asia Minor
panther(s), 421, 427, 507, 547
Parian, 475
Parmenides, 85; quoted, 101:
Eleatic philosopher of the 5th
cent. B.C.
Parnassus, 273 : the sacred moun-
tain above Delphi
Paros, 475: the second largest of
the Cyclades
parrots, 401
parrot-fish, 359, 427
Parthenon, 382 notea: at Athens
partridges, 339, 341, 391, 529
Pelopidas, 555: distinguished
Theban general, circa 410-364
B.C.
Peloponnesus, 121, 159, 331, 469:
the large peninsula of southern
Greece
Penelope, (495), (507), 511, 513:
wife of Odysseus
Penthilidae, 473: descendants of
Orestes ; they became a noble
family of Mitylene
Pericles, 383: the Athenian
statesman, circa 495-429 B.C.
Peripatetics, 39 note d, 347: the
school of Aristotle
Persephone, 192 note b, 471: see
also Cora, Phersephone
Persians, 259, 429
Phaedimus, 319, 325, 355, 357,
415: a pupil of Plutarch’s,
speaker in the dialogue, The
Cleverness of Animals
Phaedra, 321: the unhappy hero-
ine of Euripides’ Hippolytus
Phaenomena of Aratus, quoted,
Stl, 571
Phaenon, 184 note a:
Saturn
Pharnaces, 47, 53, 59, 61, 133-137,
175: a speaker in the dialogue,
The Face on the Moon (see p.
6)
Phellus, 419: a city of Lycia
Pherecydes, 163: early Greek
cosmologist, flor. circa 550 B.C.
Phersephone, 193, 199, 211: see
also Cora, Persephone
Phicium, 505: mountain in
Boeotia near Thebes
Philinus, 419: a friend of Plu-
tarch’s
Philostratus, 355: of Euboea,
present at the dialogue, The
Cleverness of Animals
Phoenicia, 299
Phosphorus, 72, 86:
Venus
Phrygia, 213
Phrygian, 515
physics, 45 note 6, 133, 191 and
note a, al.
pig, 323, 352 note d, 455, 499: see
also boar(s), hogs, sow(s), swine
Pillars of Heracles, 209: at the
strait of Gibraltar
pilot-fish, 449 note d
Pindar, quoted, 59, 119, 249, 291,
415, 485, 471, 557: the great
lyric and choral poet, circa 518--
438 B.C.
pinna, 445, 447
pinna-guard, 445, 447
pipefish : see garfish
Plato, 35 notes and notes passim,
85, 109, 207, 243, 307, 337, 351,
513 note e, 559; quoted, 87,
157, 165, 258, 959. 413057:
the planet
the planet
Athenian philosopher, circa
427-347 B.C.
plover, 449
Pluto, 471: god of the lower
world: see also Hades
Polemarchus, 573: brother of
Lysias
Polyphemus, 531: see also Cy-
clopes
Pontus, 264 note a, 265
Porcius : see Cato
Porphyry : see the notes on 323-—
349: philosopher and scholar,
circa A.D. 232-305
587
INDEX
Porus, 385: an Indian king
Poseidon, 257, 461, 469, 477: god
of the sea
Posidonius, 41 note e, 103, 145
note a, 265: quoted, 123 (see
also pp. 23-25): philosopher
and scientist, circa 135-50 B.C.
Praise of Hunting, 318 note e, 319:
probably a lost work of Plu-
tarch
Priam, 515: last king of Troy
Prometheus, 293, 252, 542 notea:
the Titan, discoverer of fire
Prometheus Bound .of Aeschylus,
quoted, 59
Prometheus Unbound of Aeschy-
lus, quoted, 353
proverbs, 39, 248, 259, 393, 411,
490 note a, 531, 556 note a,
al.
Ptoian, 520 note e, 521: epithet
of Apollo
Ptolemy, 469: I, Soter, circa 367—
282 B.c.; 397 and note c: IV,
Philopator, circa 244-205 B.C. :
kings of Egypt
Ptolemy, 419 and note e: identity
not established
puppies : see dog(s)
Purifier, 565: epithet of Zeus
purplefish, 447
Pyrrhus, 379, 381, 385, 413: king
of Epirus, 319-272 B.c.
Pyrrhus, 385: identity not estab-
lished
Pythagoras, 351, 541, 543 note b,
569, 571: philosopher of the
6th cent. B.C.
Pythagoreans, 323
Python, 219: the fabulous mon-
ster
Pythoness, 505: its female
counterpart
RAINBOW(S), 41 and note ¢, 155
rainbow-wrasse, 429: see also
wrasse
ram, 399, 421, 559: see also
sheep
ray, 433 note g
Red Sea, 209 and note e
rhetrae, 567: of Lycurgus
Rhium, 473: promontory at the
entrance of the Corinthian Gulf
rock-dove : see dove(s)
588
Roman(s), 379, 403
Rome, 343, 373, 375, 403, 405
SACRED FISH, 453, 455
Samian, 55
Sappho, 273 note a: the 6th-cent.
poetess of Lesbos
sargue, 429 and note e
scolopendra, 425 note g
sculpin, 430 note ὃ, 431 °
Scythia, 265
Scyths, 571
sea-bass : see bass
sea-hare, 469
Sea Siren, 467
sea-urchin, 439 note e
seal(s), 453, 461
Selene, 175: the moon goddess
Semonides, quoted, 569: of
Amorgos, the iambic poet of
uncertain date
Serapis, 469: brought to Egypt
from Sinope
serpent(s), 364 note a, 365, 399,
407, 547: see also snake(s)
shad, 333
shark, 358 note c, 425
sheep, 323, 341, 352 note d, 353,
523, 531, (569), 573: see also
lamb, ram
Shelley and Plutarch, 538
Sicinus, 477: asmall Aegean island
Sicynthus, 476 note 1
Sicyonian. 507
Sinope, 469: city on the south
shore of the Black Sea
Sirius, 411: the Dog Star
Sisyphus, 532 note a, 533: the
first mythical atheist
Sizes and Distances, On, 75, 121
note d: a work of Aristarchus
Smintheus, 473: one of the
colonists chosen to found Les-
bos
snake(s), 407, 421, 451, 503 note a,
525, 527: see also serpent(s)
Soclarus, 318 note ὃ, 319, 321,
325; > 827, 08856 88 tenn ΑΥ,
351, 355, 357, 479: a friend of
Plutarch’s, speaker in the dia-
logue, The Cleverness of Ani-
mals
Socrates, 189, 337,. 413:,, the
Athenian philosopher, 469-399
B.O,
INDEX
Sogdians, 570 note ο, 571
Solon, 357: Athenian statesman
and poet, circa 640-560 B.c.
Sophocles, quoted, 63, 147, 323,
479: Athenian dramatist, circa
496-406 B.C.
Sosius Senecio, 252 note a: a
friend to whom Plutarch dedi-
cated several of his works, con-
sul A.D. 99 and later
Soteles, 469: ambassador of
Ptolemy Soter
Soter, 469: Ptolemy I
Sothis, 411: Egyptian name for
the Dog Star
south wind, (239), 249
sow(s), 505, 519, 521, 565:
also pig, swine, etc.
Spartan, 507, 553
spectacles, 343, 353, 373-377, 427,
529, 559, 567 and note ὦ, 575,
al.: see also gladiators
Sphinx(es), 505, 523
spider(s), 364 note ῥ, 365, 407, 447
Spirits, 211, 213
Splendent, 185: the
Saturn
sponge, 445, 447
sponge-divers, 255, 455
sponge-guard, 445, 447
squid, 293: see also octopus
stag(s), 341, 361, 389, 393:
also deer, etc.
starfish, 433
starlings, 401
steers, 529: see also cattle, ete.
Stesichorus, 119, 477: lyric poet
of the 6th cent. B.C.
Stilbon, 72, 184 note a: the
planet Mercury
Stoa, 325: the Stoic Porch
Stoic(s), 47, 55, 61 note a, 65 note
d, 68 note c, 76 note a, 79 note
a, 81 note ὦ, 84 note ec, 88 note
a, 95, 131, 141, 233, 245, 249,
291 note d, 331 note ὁ, 335 note
6, 347 and note a, 478 note ὁ,
529 note g, 577
storks, 339, 529
Strato, 245, 329: Peripatetic
philosopher, died circa 270 B.C.
Strife, 83, 267: one of the two
active forces in the physics of
Empedocles
sturgeon, 440 note a, 441, 455
see
planet
see
Styx, 279 and note b
Sulla (Sextius ?), 35,105, 157, 181,
193, 197, 223: a speaker in the
dialogue, The Face on the Moon
(see p. 3)
UNM Steen Doe Ost OS al.
111 ff., 185, 207, 213 and note g,
219, 269, 557, 563, al.
as Pine of Aeschylus, quoted,
161
Sura, 419: village in Lycia
surmullet, 361, 429 and note g,
467, 469: see also mullet(s)
Susa, 411: capital city of Elam
and Persia
swallow(s), 335, 341, 364 note ῥ,
407, 421, 461, 465, 471, 507:
see also house-martins
swan(s), 401, 407, 413, 565
swine, 499 and note ἃ, 511, 527,
565: see also hogs, pig, ete.
Syene, 171: a city of Egypt just
below the First Cataract
Syria, 375
Syrian, 553
TAENARUM, 279 and note ὃ : the
cape of the central peninsula of
the Peloponnesus
Tantalus, 158 note a, 159: pun-
ished in Hades with everlasting
fear or with hunger and thirst
Taprobanians, 59 and note ec:
from Ceylon
tartarize, 247
Tartarus, 181, 247: the lower
world : see also Hades
Taurus, 185 note b: sign of the
zodiac
Taurus, Mt., 367: in Cilicia
Telemachus, 477: son of Odys-
seus
Telmesian, 504 note 8
Teumesian, 505: fabulous vixen
Thales, 389 : early Milesian philo-
sopher, 7th or 6th cent. B.c.
theatre : see spectacles
Theatre of Marcellus, 405:
Rome
Thebans, 505, 555: of Thebes in
Boeotia
Thebes, 171: a city in Egypt
Theognis, quoted, 437: of Me-
gara, elegiac poet, flor. circa
540 B.C.
at
589
INDEX
Theogony, quoted: see Hesiod
Theon, 61, 63, 117, 125, 155, 163,
167, 175: speaker in the dia-
logue, The Face on the Moon
(see p. 7)
Theophrastus, 265, 273, 328 note
α, 457: Peripatetic philosopher,
circa 372-288 B.C.
Theramenes, 573: Athenian poli-
tician, circa 455-404 B.c.
Theseus, 505: ancient king of
Athens
Thirty, the, 323 (cf. 571): ty-
rants at Athens, 404-409 B.C.
Thrace, 265
Thracians, 251 note d, 377
Thyiades, 273 and note c: Attic
women, devotees of Dionysus
tigress, 409
titanic, 189, 413
Titans, 88, 559, 561: pre-Olym-
pian divinities
Tityus, 219: confined in Hades
for assaulting Leto
torpedo-fish, 433 and note g
tortoise(s), 339, 407, 457. 459, 527
Trajan, 252 note a: M. Ulpius
Traianus, Roman emperor A.D.
98-117
Troglodytes, 161 (cf. 170), 347:
cave-dwellers
Trophoniads, 213 : devotees of the
Trophonius oracle in Boeotia
tunny, 361, 441-445
Typho, 219: a fabulous monster
Tyrtaeus, 319: elegiac poet of
the 7th cent. B.C.
UDORA, 213 and note e
Ulpius : see Trajan
urchin, sea- : see hedgehog (sea)-
VENUS, 73, 87: the planet
Vespasian, 405: Titus Flavius
Vespasianus, Roman emperor
A.D. 69-79
vixen, 377, 505: see also fox(es)
War, 351
weasels, 323, 407
whale(s), 449, 451
Wise Men, the Seven, 389
wolf (-ves), 323, 361, 389, 409,
421, 493, 499, 509, 523, 525,
531, 547, 553
Wonders of the World, 467
Works and Days, quoted: see
Hesiod
worms, 63, 459
wrasse, 456 note a, 457: see also
rainbow-wrasse
XANTHUS, 257 note ὃ : river of
Troy
Xenocrates, 207, 243 note c, 354
note a, 559: philosopher, head
of the Academy from 339 to
314 B.C.
ZACYNTHIANS, 477: islanders
west of the Peloponnesus
Zeus, 66, 81, 85, 106, 124, 160,
175, 181, 187, 189, 290, 332,
492, 496, 514, 548, 565, 570
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Pacuvius, Accius). Vol. III (Lucilius, Laws of the XII
Tables). Vol. ΓΝ (Archaic Inscriptions). (2nd Imp.)
Sauuusr. J.C. Rolfe. (4th Imp. revised.)
Scrierores Hisrorrae Avucustar. Ὁ. Magie. 3 Vols.
(Vol. I 3rd Imp., Vols. Il and III 2nd Imp. revised.)
Seneca: Apocotocyntosis. Cf. Perrontus.
Seneca: Epistutar Moraes. R. M. Gummere. 3 Vols.
(Vol. I 4th Imp., Vols. II and III 3rd Imp. revised.)
Seneca: Morat Essays. J. W. Basore. 3 Vols. (Vol. II
3rd Imp. revised, Vols. | and III 2nd Imp. revised.)
Seneca: Tracepries. F. J. Miller. 2 Vols. (Vol. I 4th
Imp., Vol. 11 3rd Imp. revised.)
Siponius: Poems anp Lerrers. W. B. Anderson. 2 Vols.
(Vol. I 2nd Imp.)
Situs Irauicus. J. Ὁ. Duff. 2 Vols. (Vol. I 2nd Imp.,
Vol. II 3rd Imp.)
Stratius. J.H. Mozley. 2 Vols. (2nd Imp.)
Suetonius. J.C. Rolfe. 2 Vols. (Vol. I 7th Imp., Vol. II
6th Imp.)
Tacitus: Dratocus. Sir Wm. Peterson; and Agricona
AND GerMaANiIA. Maurice Hutton. (6th Jmp.)
Tacitus: Hisrorres anp Annats. C. H. Moore and J.
Jackson. 4 Vols. (Vols. I and II 4th Jmp., Vols. III and
IV 2nd Imp.)
Terence. John Sargeaunt. 2 Vols. (7th Imp.)
YerRTULLIAN: ApoLtocia AND De Specracuuis. T. ἢ, Glover;
Mrwyucius Fetrx. G. H. Rendall. (2nd Imp.)
Vaterius Fraccus. J. H. Mozley. (2nd Imp. revised.)
Varro: De Lineua Latina. R.G. Kent. 2 Vols. (2nd
Imp. revised.)
VeLiteius Patrercutus ΑΝ Res Gestag Divi Avueustt.
F. W. Shipley. (2nd /mp.)
Vine. H.R. Fairclough. 2 Vols. (Vol. I 19th Jmp., Vol.
II 14th Imp. revised.)
Virruvius: De Arcuitrecrura. F.Granger. 2 Vols. (Vol. I
3rd Imp., Vol. Il 2nd Imp.)
GREEK AUTHORS
Acuitirs Tatius. S. Gaselee. (2nd Imp.)
ΔΈΝΕΑΒ Tacricus, ASCLEPIODOTUS AND ONASANDER. The
Illinois Greek Club. (2nd Imp.)
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THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY
AgrscutnEs. C.D. Adams. (2nd Imp.)
Arscuytus. H. Weir Smyth. 2 Vols. (Vol. I 6th Imp.,
Vol. II 5th Imp.)
ΑΙΟΙΡΗΒΟΝ, AELIAN AND Puitostratus: Letters. A. R.
Benner and F. H. Fobes.
Apottoporus. Sir James G. Frazer. 2 Vols. (Vol. I 3rd
Imp., Vol. 11 2nd Imp.)
Apottonius Ruoptius. R.C. Seaton. (5th Imp.)
Tue Apostotic Fatuers. Kirsopp Lake. 2 Vols. (Vol. 1
Sth Imp., Vol. {1 6th Imp.)
Apptan’s Roman History. Horace White. 4 Vols. (Vol. I
4th Imp., Vols. 11 and IV 3rd Imp., Vol. III 2nd Imp.)
Aratus. Cf. CaLLIMacuHus.
ArIsTopHANES. Benjamin Bickley Rogers. 3 Vols. (5th
Imp.) Verse trans.
ArIsToTLe: Art or Rueroric. J. H. Freese. (3rd Imp.)
ARISTOTLE: ATHENIAN ConsTITUTION, EupEem1an Eruics,
Virtues AND Vices. H. Rackham. (3rd Imp.)
ARISTOTLE: GENERATION OF AnrmALS. A.L. Peck. (2nd Imp.)
AristoTLe: Metapuysics. H.Tredennick. 2 Vols. (3rd Jmp.)
ARISTOTLE: Merteoroxocica. H. D. P. Lee.
AristotLE: Minor Works. W. 8. Hett. ‘‘ On Colours,”
‘*On Things Heard,’ “‘ Physiognomics,”’ “* On Plants,”
‘On Marvellous Things Heard,” δ“ Mechanical Problems,”
“On Indivisible Lines,’ ‘‘ Situations and Names of
Winds,” ‘“‘ On Melissus, Xenophanes, and Gorgias.” (2nd
Imp.)
ARISTOTLE: NicomacHEean Eruics. H. Rackham. (6th
Imp. revised.)
ARISTOTLE: Oxrconomica AND Macna Moratia. G. C
Armstrong. (With Metaphysics, Vol. II.) (3rd Imp.)
ARISTOTLE: On THE Heavens. W.K.C. Guthrie. (3rd Imp.)
ARISTOTLE: ON THE Sout, Parva Naruratia, On Breatu.
W.S. Hett. (2nd Imp. revised.)
ARISTOTLE: OrGANoN—THeE Catrecortes; ON INTERPRETA-
tion. H. P. Cooke; Prior Anatytics. H. Treddenick.
(3rd Imp.)
ARISTOTLE: OrGANON—SopuHISTICAL REFUTATIONS. COMING-
TO-BE AND Passryc-away. E.S. Forster. ON THE Cosmos.
D. J. Furley.
ArIsToTLe: Parts or Animas. A. L. Peck; Motion ano
Procression oF Animats. Εἰ. 5. Forster. (3rd Imp.)
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THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY
AnistoTLe: Puysics. Rev. P. Wicksteed and F. M. Corn-
ford. 2 Vols. (Vol. 1 2nd Imp., Vol. II 3rd Imp.)
ArtstoTLe: Porticsand Loneinus. W. Hamilton Fyfe; Dr-
METRIUS ON StyLe. W. Rhys Roberts. (5th Imp. revised.)
AnistotLe: Pourtics. H. Rackham. (4th Jmp.)
ArIsToTLE: Prospiems. W.S. Hett. 2 Vols. (2nd Imp. re-
vised.)
AnistoTLe: RuEToRIcA AD ALExANDRUM. H. Rackham,
(With Problems, Vol. II.)
Arran: History or ALEXANDER AND Inpica. Rey. Εἰ.
lliffe Robson. 2 Vols. (Vol. 1 3rd Jmp., Vol. 1 2nd Imp.)
AtrHENAEUS: DerpnosopHistaE. (Οὐ. B. Gulick. 7 Vols.
(Vols. I, [V-VII 2nd Imp.)
Sr. Basiz: Lerrers. R. J. Deferrari. 4 Vols. (2nd Imp.)
CatuimacHus: Hymns ann Epicrams, AnD LycopHron.
A. W. Mair: Aratus. Ὁ. R. Mair. (2nd Imp.)
CLEMENT OF ALExANDRIA. Rey. G. W. Butterworth. (3rd Jmp.)
Coxiitutuus. Cf. Oppran.
Darunis AND Cutogz. Cf. Loneus.
DemostTHENES I: Onyntniacs, Puitirpics anp Minor
Orations: I-XVII anp XX. J. H. Vince. (2nd Imp.)
Demostuents I]: De Corona anp De Fatsa LecGatione.
C. A. Vince and J. H. Vince. (3rd Imp. revised.)
Demostuenrts III: Merpras, ANprRoTion, ARISTOCRATES,
Timocrates, Arnistocriron. J. H. Vinee. (2nd Imp.)
Demostuenes IV-VI: Privare Oratrions AND In NEAERAM.
A. T. Murray. (Vol. IV 2nd Imp.)
DemostHeNES VII: Funrerat Speecu, Erotic Essay,
Exorpia anv Lertrers. N. W. and N. J. DeWitt.
Dio Casstus: Roman Hisrory. E. Cary. 9 Vols. (Vols.
I and II 3rd Jmp., Vols. I1i-1X 2nd Imp.)
Dro Curysostom. 5 Vols. Vols. 1 and 11. J. W.Cohoon.
Vol. III. J. W. Cohoon and H. Lamar Crosby. Vols. IV
and V. H. Lamar Crosby. (Vols. 1-ἰν 2nd Imp.)
Dioporus Sicutus. 12 Vols. Vols. I-VI. C. H. Oldfather.
Vol. VII. C. L. Sherman. Vols. 1X and X. Russel M.
Geer. (Vols. I-1V 2nd Imp.)
Driocenes Larrtius. ΗΠ. Ὁ. Hicks. 2 Vols. (Vol. 14th Imp.,
Vol. Il 3rd Imp.)
Dionysius or Haricarnassus: Roman Antiquities. Spel-
man’s translation revised by E. Cary. 7 Vols. (Vols.
I-V 2nd Imp.)
THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY
Eprcretus. W. A. Oldfather. 2 Vols. (Vol. I 3rd Imp.,
Vol. ΠῚ 2nd Imp.)
Euripripes. Α. 5. Way. 4 Vols. (Vols. I and II 7th Imp.,
Vols. III] and 1V 6th Imp.) Verse trans.
Eusesius: Eccresrastican History. Kirsopp Lake and
J.E.L. Oulton. 2 Vols. (Vol. 13rd Imp., Vol. 11 4th Imp.)
Ga en: On THE NaturatFacutties. A.J. Brock. (4th Imp.)
THe Greek AntHotocy. W. R. Paton. 5 Vols. (Vols. I
and II 5th Imp., Vol. III 4th Imp., Vols. [ν΄ and V 3rd
Imp.)
Tue Greek Bucouic Ports (THEocritus, Bron, Moscuus).
J. M. Edmonds. (7th Imp. revised.)
GreEK ELecy anp [AmMBUS WITH THE ANACREONTEA. J. M.
Edmonds. 2 Vols. (Vol. I 3rd Imp., Vol. II 2nd Imp.)
Greek Matuematicat Works. Ivor Thomas. 2 Vols.
(2nd Imp.)
Heropes. Cf. THEopHRAsTUS: CHARACTERS.
Hfropotus. A. D. Godley. 4 Vols. (Vols. I-III 4th Imp.,
Vol. IV 3rd Imp.)
Hersiop AND THE Homeric Hymns. H. G. Evelyn White.
(7th Imp. revised and enlarged.)
Hippocra'rEs AND THE FRAGMENTS OF Heracteitus. W.H.S.
Jones and E. T. Withington. 4 Vols. (3rd Imp.)
Homer: litap. A. T. Murray. 2 Vols. (Vol. 1 7th Imp.,
Vol. Il 6th Imp.)
Homer: Opyssry. A. ΤῸ Murray. 2 Vols. (8th Imp.)
Isarus. E.S. Forster. (3rd Imp.)
Isocrates. George Norlin and LaRue Van Hook. 8 Vols.
(2nd Imp.)
St. Jonn DamasceneE: Bartaam AND Ioasapn. Rey. G. R.
Woodward and Harold Mattingly. (3rd Imp. revised.)
JosepHus. H. St. J. Thackeray and Ralph Marcus. 9 Vols.
Vols. I-VII. (Vol. V 3rd Imp., Vols. I-IV, VI and VII 2nd
Imp.)
Jutran. Wilmer Cave Wright. 3 Vols. (Vols. I and II 3rd
Imp., Vol. ΠΠ| 2nd Imp.)
Loneus: Dapunis anp Cutor. Thornley’s translation
revised by J. M. Edmonds; and Partuentus. S. Gaselee.
(4th Imp.)
Lucian. A. M. Harmon. 8 Vols. Vols. I-V. (Vols. I and
II 4th Imp., Vol. {Π1 3rd Imp., Vols. 1VImp. and V 2nd )
LycopHron. Cf. CaLiimMacuus.
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THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY
Lyra Grareca. J. M. Edmonds. 3 Vols. (Vol. I 4th Imp.,
Vols. 11 (revised and enlarged) and II1 3rd Imp.)
Lysias. W.R. M. Lamb. (3rd Jmp.)
Μάνετηο. W.G. Waddell; Protemy: Trrraststos. F. E.
Robbins. (3rd Jmp.)
Marcus Auretius. C. RK. Haines. (4th Imp. revised.)
Menanpver. F.G. Allinson. (3rd Imp. revised.)
Minor Artic Orarors. 2 Vols. K. J. Maidment and
J.O. Burtt. (Vol. I 2nd Imp.)
Nownos: Drionysraca. W.H. D. Rouse. 3 Vols. (2nd Jmp.)
Oprian, Cot_tutuus, TrypHioporus. A. W. Mair. (2nd /mp.)
Papyri. Non-Lirerary Sevections. A. 8. Hunt and (Ὁ. 6.
Edgar. 2 Vols. (2nd Imp.) Lairerary SELEcTIoNs.
(Poetry). Ὁ. L. Page. (3rd Imp.)
Partruenius. Cf. Loneus.
Pausanrtas: Description or Greece. W. H. 8. Jones. 5
Vols. and Companion Vol. arranged by R. E. Wycherley.
(Vols. I and III 3rd Imp., Vols. Il, LV and V 2nd Imp.)
Puito. 10 Vols. Vols. I-V. F. H. Colson and Rey. G. Ἢ.
Whitaker; Vols. VI-IX. F. H. Colson. (Vols. I-III,
V-IX 2nd Imp., Vol. ΓΝ 3rd Imp.)
Two Supplementary Vols. ‘Translation only from an
Armenian Text. Ralph Marcus,
Puitostratus: THe Lire or Apottonius oF Tyana. F.C,
Conybeare. 2 Vols. (Vol. I 4th Imp., Vol. IL 3rd Jmp.)
Puitostratus: ImaGines; CaLiistRATUS: DESCRIPTIONS.
A. Fairbanks. (2nd Imp.)
Puitostratus AND Eunapius: Lives oF THE SOPHISTs.
Wilmer Cave Wright. (2nd Imp.)
Pinpar. Sir J. E. Sandys. (7th Imp. revised.)
Prato 1: Eurnypuro, Aporocy, Criro, PHarpo, PHAEDRUs.
H. N. Fowler. (11th Jmp.)
Prato Il: TuHearrrerus anp Sopuist. H.N. Fowler. (4th
Imp.)
Boars 11: Sraresman, Puiresus. H. N. Fowler; ἴον.
W.R.M. Lamb. (4th Imp.)
Prato IV: Lacues, Proracoras, Meno, Euruypemus.
W.R.M. Lamb. (γα Imp. revised.)
Prato V: Lysis, Sympostum, Gorcias. W. ἢ. M. Lamb.
(5th Imp. revised.)
Prato VI: Crarytus, ParmMenrpes, GREATER Hipptas,
Lesser Hirrras. H.N. Fowler. (4¢h Imp.)
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THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY
Prato VII: Trarus, Critias, CiriropHo, MENEXxENUS, EpI-
stuLaE. Rev. R.G. Bury. (3rd Imp.)
Prato VIII: CHarmipes, Acciprapes, Hipparcuus, THE
Lovers, lHEAGEs, Minos anp Epinomis. W.R.M. Lamb.
(2nd Imp.)
Prato: Laws. Rev. R. G. Bury. 2 Vols. (3rd Imp.)
Prato: Repusiic. Paul Shorey. 2 Vols. (Vol. 1 5th Imp.,
Vol. II 4th Imp.)
PrurarcH: Moratia. 14 Vols. Vols. I-V. F.C. Babbitt;
Vol. VI. W.C.Helmbold; Vol. X. H.N. Fowler; Vol.
XII. H. Cherniss and W. C. Helmbold. (Vols. I-VI, X
2nd Imp.)
PirurarcH: THE Parattet Lives. B. Perrin. 11 Vols.
(Vols. I, II, VI, VII and XI 3rd Imp., Vols. III-V and
VIII-X 2nd Imp.)
Potysius. W.R. Paton. 6 Vols. (2nd Imp.)
Procopius: History or THE Wars. H. B. Dewing. 7 Vols.
(Vol. I 3rd Imp., Vols. H1-VIL 2nd Imp.)
Protemy: Tretrasistos. Cf. ManetuHo.
Quintus SMyrnaEus. A.S. Way. (3rd Imp.) Verse trans.
Sextus Emprricus. Rev. R.G. Bury. 4 Vols. (Vol. I 3rd
Imp., Vols. 11 and III 2nd Imp.)
Sorpuoctres. F. Storr. 2 Vols. (Vol. I 10th Imp., Vol. Il
oth Imp.) Verse trans.
SrraBo : Grocrapuy. Horace L. Jones. 8 Vols. (Vols. I,
V and VIII 3rd Imp., Vols. II-IV, VI and VII 2nd
Imp.)
THEropnrastus: CuHaracters. J. M. Edmonds; Heropes,
etc. A.D. Knox. (37d Imp.)
THreopHrastus: Enquiry into Puants. Sir Arthur Hort.
2 Vols. (2nd Imp.)
Tuucypipes. C.F. Smith. 4 Vols. (Vol. I 5th Imp., Vols.
II-IV 3rd Imp.)
TrypHioporus. Cf. Oppran.
XENOPHON: CyropaEpia. Walter Miller. 2 Vols. (Vol. I
4th Imp., Vol. 11 3rd Imp.)
XENOPHON: HeELLENIcCA, ANABASIS, APOLOGY, AND Sympo-
stum. (Ὁ. L. Brownson and O. J. Todd. 3 Vols. (Vols. I
and III 3rd /mp., Vol. II 4th Imp.)
XENopHON: MeEMoRABILIA AND Orconomicus. Εἰ. C. Mar-
chant. (Srd Imp.)
XENOPHON: Scripra Minora. E.C. Marchant. (3rd Imp.)
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GREEK AUTHORS
AgLIAN: On THE Nature oF Antmats. A. F. Scholfield.
Arsop AND OTHER ΒΑΒύ 1515. Β. Εἰ. Perry.
Aristorte: History or Animats. A. L. Peck.
Caturmacnus: FraGMents. C. A. Trypanis.
Protrinus. A. H. Armstrong.
LATIN AUTHORS
St. Aueustine: Crry or Gop.
Cicero: Pro Sestio, In Vatinrum, Pro Cartio, De Pro-
vinciis ConsuLARIBUS, Pro Batso. J. H. Freese and ἢ.
Gardner.
PHAEDRUS AND OTHER Fapuuists. Β. Εἰ. Perry.
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