Plutarch, De Facie Quae in orbe Lunae Apparet, Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator), 13

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[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 providence¹ or of what Zeus, the master-craftsman²is maker and father-creator.³ In an army, certainly, tacticians are useless if each one of the soldiers should know of himself his post and position 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 arrangement. If, however, this notion eliminates providence forthwith and if the arrangement of existing things pertains to God and [the] distributing of them too,⁴ what wonder is there that nature has been so marshalled 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?⁵ For, if all things really must follow their natural inclinations and move with their 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 naturally upwards and not in a circle.⁶ 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 naturally deprives light objects of their upward motion but is unable to master objects that are heavy and have a downward inclination; on the contrary, by [whatever] influence it rearranged the former it rearranged the latter too and employed the nature of both of them for the better.

De Facie Quae in orbe Lunae Apparet. Plutarch. Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1957.

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Current edition Perseus

Concerning the Face which Appears in the Orb Of the Moon (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. XII. Cherniss, Harold and William Clark Helmbold translators. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1957 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Περὶ τοῦ ἐμφαινομένου προσώπου τῷ κύκλῳ τῆς σελήνης Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol. V. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1893.) — 13 focus

[13] εἰ μὲν γὰρ οὐδʼ ἄλλο τι τῶν τοῦ κόσμου μερῶν παρὰ φύσιν ἔσχεν, ἀλλʼ ἕκαστον πέφυκε κεῖται, μηδεμιᾶς μεθιδρύσεως μηδὲ μετακοσμήσεως δεόμενον μηδʼ ἐν ἀρχῇ δεηθέν, ἀπορῶ τί τῆς προνοίας 20 927b ἔργον ἐστὶν ἢ τίνος γέγονε ποιητὴς καὶ πατὴρ δημιουργὸς ὁ Ζεὺς ὁ ἀριστοτέχνας. οὐ γὰρ ἐν στρατοπέδῳ τακτικῶν ὄφελος, εἴπερ εἰδείη τῶν στρατιωτῶν ἕκαστος ἀφʼ ἑαυτοῦ τάξιν τε καὶ χώραν κατὰ καιρόν, οὗ δεῖ, λαβεῖν καὶ διαφυλάσσειν οὐδὲ κηπουρῶν οὐδʼ οἰκοδόμων, εἰ πῆ μὲν αὐτὸ τὸ ὕδωρ ἀφʼ αὑτοῦ πέφυκεν ἐπιέναι τοῖς δεομένοις καὶ κατάρδειν ἐπιρρέον, πῆ δὲ πλίνθοι καὶ ξύλα καὶ λίθοι ταῖς κατὰ φύσιν χρώμενα ῥοπαῖς καὶ νεύσεσιν ἐξ 5 ἑαυτῶν καταλαμβάνειν τὴν προσήκουσαν ἁρμονίαν καὶ χώραν. εἰ δʼ · οὗτος μὲν ἄντικρυς ἀναιρεῖ τὴν 927c πρόνοιαν ὁ λόγος, τῷ θεῷ δʼ ἡ τάξις τῶν ὄντων προσήκει καὶ τὸ διαιρεῖν, τί θαυμαστὸν οὕτω τετάχθαι, καὶ διηρμόσθαι τὴν φύσιν, ὡς ἐνταῦθα μὲν 10 πῦρ ἐκεῖ δʼ, ἄστρα, καὶ πάλιν ἐνταῦθα μὲν γῆν ἄνω δὲ σελήνην ἱδρῦσθαι, βεβαιοτέρῳ τοῦ κατὰ, φύσιν τῷ κατὰ λόγον δεσμῷ περιληφθεῖσαν; ὡς, εἴ γε πάντα δεῖ ταῖς κατὰ φύσιν ῥοπαῖς χρῆσθαι καὶ φέρεσθαι καθʼ ὃ πέφυκε, μήθʼ ἥλιος κυκλοφορείσθω 15 μήτε φωσφόρος; μηδὲ τῶν ἄλλων ἀστέρων ἄνω γὰρ οὐ κύκλῳ τὰ κοῦφα καὶ πυροειδῆ κινεῖσθαι πέφυκεν. εἰ δὲ τοιαύτην ἐξαλλαγὴν ἡ φύσις ἔχει παρὰ τὸν τόπον, ὥστʼ ἐνταῦθα μὲν ἄνω φαίνεσθαι φερόμενον τὸ πῦρ, ὅταν δʼ εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν παραγένηται, 20 τῇ δίνῃ συμπεριστρέφεσθαι, τί θαυμαστὸν εἰ καὶ τοῖς βαρέσι καὶ γεώδεσιν ἐκεῖ · γενομένοις 927d συμβέβηκεν ὡσαύτως εἰς ἄλλο κινήσεως εἶδος ὑπὸ τοῦ περιέχοντος ἐκνενικῆσθαι; οὐ γὰρ δὴ τῶν μὲν ἐλαφρῶν τὴν ἄνω φορὰν ἀφαιρεῖσθαι· τῷ οὐρανῷ κατὰ φύσιν ἐστί, τῶν δὲ βαρέων καὶ κάτω ῥεπόντων · οὐ δύναται κρατεῖν, ἀλλʼ ᾗ ποτʼ ἐκεῖνα δυνάμει καὶ ταῦτα μετακοσμήσας ἐχρήσατο τῇ φύσει αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τὸ βέλτιον.

Translations (1)

Of the Face Appearing Within the Orb Of the Moon Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. V. Goodwin, William W., editor; G., A., translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 13 focus

[13] For if there had not been any other part of the world against Nature, but every thing had been in the same place and quality it naturally ought to be, without standing in need of any change or transposition or having had any occasion for it from the beginning, I know not what the work of Divine Providence is or in what it consists, or of what Jupiter has been the father, creator, or worker. For there would not in a camp be any need of the art of ranging and ordering of battles, if every soldier of himself knew and understood his rank, place, and station, and the opportunity he ought to take and keep; nor would there be any want of gardeners or builders, if water were of itself framed to flow where it is necessary, and irrigate such plants as stand in need of watering, or if bricks, timber, and stones would of their own inclinations and natural motion range and settle themselves in due and fitting places and orders. Now if this discourse manifestly takes away Providence, and if the ordering and distinction of things that are in the world belongs to God, why should we wonder at Nature’s having been so disposed and ordained by him, that the fire should be here, and the stars there, and again the earth should be situated here below, and the moon above, lodged in a prison found out by reason, more sure and straight than that which was first ordained by Nature? For if it were of absolute necessity that all things should follow their natural instinct and move according to the motion given them by Nature, neither the Sun, Venus, nor any other planet would any more run a circular course; for light and fiery substances have by Nature their motion directly upwards. And if perhaps Nature itself receives this permutation and change by reason of the place, so that fire should here in a direct line tend upwards, but being once arrived at heaven, should turn round with the revolution of the heavens; what wonder would it be, if heavy and terrestrial bodies, being in like manner out of their natural place, were vanquished by the ambient air, and forced to take another sort of motion? For it cannot with any reason be said that heaven has by Nature the power to take away from light things the property of mounting directly upwards, and cannot likewise have the force to overcome heavy things and such as tend downwards; but that sometimes making use of this power, and sometimes of the proper nature of the things, it still orders every thing for the best.

Notes on the current edition

Concerning the Face which Appears in the Orb Of the Moon

1. On the importance of providence in Stoic doctrine and its ubiquity in Stoic writings cf. Stoicorum Repugnantiis, 1050 A - B ( = S. V. F. ii, frag. 937), 1051 E ( = S. V. F. ii, frag. 1115); Communibus Notitiis, 1075 E ( = S. V. F. ii, frag. 1126), 1077 D - E ( = S. V. F. ii, frag. 1064); Cicero, Natura Deorum, iii. 92 ( = S. V. F. ii, frag. 1107); Diogenes Laertius, vii. 138-139 ( = S. V. F. ii, frag. 634).

2. Plutarch ascribes to Pindar this epithet of Zeus in Quaest. Conviv 618 B, Sera Numinis Vindicta, 550 A, Communibus Notitiis, 1065 E, and in Praecepta Gerendae Reipublicae, 807 C uses it of the statesman; cf. Pindar, frag. 48, Bowra = 57, Bergk and Schroeder = 66, Turyn.

3. This terminology is more Platonic than Stoic: cf. Quaest. Conviv 720 B - C, An. Proc. in Timaeo, 1017 A; cf. Timaeus, 28 C and contrast S. V. F. ii, frag. 323 a.

4. cf. Aristotle, Metaphysics, 1075 A 11-15 , and Diogenes Laertius, vii. 137 ( = S. V. F. ii, frag. 526): ( θεός) δημιουργὸς ὣν τῆς διακοσμήσεως.

5. Wyttenbach’s correction is assured by Timaeus, 41 B 4-6, of which this is meant to be an echo.

6. 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. 580; S. V. F. ii, frag. 682). In Stoicorum Repugnantiis, 1053 E Plutarch quotes Chrysippus to the effect that τὸ πῦρ ἀβαρὲς ὂν ἀνωφερς εἶναι ( = S. V. F. ii, frag. 434). In accordance 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.

Plutarch De Facie Quae in orbe Lunae Apparet 13

Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator)

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