Plutarch, De Facie Quae in orbe Lunae Apparet, Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator), 15

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[15] Such is probably the case with the cosmos too, if it really is a living being¹: in many places it has earth and in many fire and water and breath as the result not of forcible expulsion² 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 Chios³ 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 eyes⁴ in the countenance of the universe, the sun in the hearts capacity transmits and disperses out of himself heat and light as it were blood and breath, and earth and sea naturally 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 viscera⁵ 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.⁶ It is not clear to us whether her earthiness and solidity have any use suitable to other ends also. Nevertheless, in everything the better has control of the necessary.⁷ Well, what probability can we thus conceive 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.⁸ Yet all the same anyone can see that the moon has not been separated from the ether but that there is 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 precincts⁹ of each of the bodies, but their arrangement is the result of a different principle.

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.) — 15 focus

[15] ὥσπερ εἰκὸς ἔχειν καὶ τὸν κόσμον, εἴ γε δὴ ζῷὸν 10 ἐστι, πολλαχοῦ γῆν ἔχοντα, πολλαχοῦ δὲ πῦρ καὶ ὕδωρ καὶ πνεῦμα, οὐκ ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἀποτεθλιμμένον ἀλλὰ λόγῳ διακεκοσμημένον. οὐδὲ γὰρ ὀφθαλμὸς ἐνταῦθα τοῦ σώματός; ἐστιν ὑπὸ κουφότητος ἐκπιεσθείς, οὐδʼ 928b ἡ καρδία τῷ βάρει ὀλισθοῦσα πέπτωκεν εἰς τὸ στῆθος, 15 ἀλλʼ ὅτι βέλτιον ἦν οὕτως ἑκάτερον τετάχθαι. μὴ τοίνυν μηδὲ τῶν τοῦ κόσμου μερῶν νομίζωμεν μήτε γῆν ἐνταῦθα κεῖσθαι συμπεσοῦσαν διὰ βάρος μήτε τὸν ἣλιον, ὡς ᾤετο Μητρόδωρος ὁ Χῖος, εἰς τὴν ἄνω χώραν ἀσκοῦ δίκην ὑπὸ κουφότητος ἐκτεθλῖφθαι, 20 μήτε τοὺς ἄλλους ἀστέρας ὥσπερ ἐν ζυγοστάθμου διαφορᾷ ῥέψαντας, ἐν οἷς εἰσι, γεγονέναι τόποις· ἀλλὰ τοῦ κατὰ λόγον κρατοῦντος, οἱ μὲν ὥσπερ ὄμματα φωσφόρα τῷ προσώπῳ τοῦ παντὸς ἐνδεδεμένοι περιπολοῦσιν, ἥλιος δὲ καρδίας ἔχων δύναμιν 25 928c ὥσπερ αἷμα καὶ πνεῦμα διαπέμπει καὶ διασκεδάννυσιν ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ θερμότητα καὶ φῶς· γῇ δὲ καὶ θαλάσσῃ χρῆται κατὰ φύσιν ὁ κόσμος ὅσα κοιλίᾳ καὶ κύστει ζῷον. σελήνη δʼ ἡλίου μεταξὺ καὶ γῆς, ὥσπερ καρδίας καὶ κοιλίας ἧπαρ ἤ τι μαλθακὸν ἄλλο σπλάγχνον ἐγκειμένη τὴν τʼ ἄνωθεν ἀλέαν ἐνταῦθα 5 διαπέμπει καὶ τὰς ἐντεῦθεν ἀναθυμιάσεις πέψει τινὶ καὶ καθάρσει λεπτύνουσα περὶ ἑαυτὴν ἀναδίδωσιν εἰ δὲ καὶ πρὸς ἄλλα τὸ γεῶδες αὐτῆς καὶ στερέμνιον ἔχει τινὰ πρόσφορον χρείαν, ἄδηλον ἡμῖν. ἐν παντὶ δὲ κρατεῖ τὸ βέλτιον τοῦ κατηναγκασμένου. 10 τί γὰρ οὕτω λάβωμεν, ἐξ ὧν ἐκεῖνοι λέγουσι, τὸ εἰκός; λέγουσι δὲ τοῦ αἰθέρος τὸ μὲν αὐγοειδὲς καὶ 928d λεπτὸν ὑπὸ μανότητος οὐρανὸν γεγονέναι, τὸ δὲ πυκνωθὲν καὶ συνειληθὲν ἄστρα· τούτων δὲ τὸ νωθρότατον εἶναι τὴν σελήνην καὶ θολερώτατον. 15 ἀλλʼ ὅμως ὁρᾶν πάρεστιν οὐκ ἀποκεκριμένην τοῦ αἰθέρος τὴν σελήνην, ἀλλʼ ἔτι πολλῷ μὲν τῷ περὶ, αὐτὴν ἐμφερομένην, πολλὴν δʼ ὑφʼ ἑαυτὴν ἔχουσαν ἀνέμων δινεῖσθαι καὶ κομήτας. οὕτως οὐ ταῖς ῥοπαῖς σεσήκωται κατὰ βάρος καὶ κουφότητα τῶν 20 σωμάτων ἕκαστον, ἀλλʼ ἑτέρῳ λόγῳ κεκόσμηται.

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.) — 15 focus

[15] Wherefore it is also probable that the world, if it is an animal, has in many parts of its body earth, and in as many fire and water and air, not thrust and driven into it by force, but ordered and disposed by reason. For neither was the eye by its lightness forced into that part of the body where it is, nor the heart by its gravity pressed down into the breast; but both the one and the other were thus placed because it was better and more expedient. In like manner we ought not to think of the parts of the world, either that the earth settled where it is, being beaten down thither by its ponderosity; or that the sun was carried upwards by its levity, like a bottle or bladder full of wind (which, being plunged into the bottom of the water, immediately rises up again), as Metrodorus of Chios was persuaded; or that the other stars, as if they had been put into a balance, were swayed this way or that way, according to their weight or lightness, and so mounted higher or lower to the places they now possess. But reason having prevailed in the constitution of the world, the stars have, like to glittering eyes, been fixed in the firmament, as it were in the face of the universe, there to turn continually about; and the sun, having the force and vigor of the heart, sends and distributes its heat and light, like blood and spirits, throughout all; the earth and sea are in the world, as the paunch and bladder in the body of a living creature; and the moon placed between the sun and the earth, as the liver, or some other soft entrail between the heart and the belly, transmits down thither the heat of the superior bodies, and draws round about her the vapors which arise from hence, subtilizing them by way of concoction and purification. And whether its solid and terrestrial quality has any other property serving for some profitable use, is indeed unknown to us; but everywhere that which is better prevails over what is by necessity. For what probability can we draw from that which they Affirm? They say, that the most subtile and luminous part of the air, by reason of its rarity, became heaven; but what was thickened and closely driven together was made into stars, of which the moon being the heaviest is compacted of the grossest and muddiest matter. And yet it is plainly to be seen, that the moon is not separated or divided from the air, but moves and makes her revolution through that which is about her, to wit, the region of the winds, and where the comets are engendered and keep their course. These bodies then were not by a natural inclination thus placed and situated as they are, but have by some other reason been so ordered and disposed.

Notes on the current edition

Concerning the Face which Appears in the Orb Of the Moon

1. In Adv. Coloten, 1115 B Strato’s denial of this is cited as an example of his opposition to Plato; and in An. Proc. in Timaeo, 1014 C - D Plutarch, speaking of the creation of the world by the Platonic demiurge, says τὸ κάλλιστον ἀπεργασάμενος καὶ τελειότατον ζῳον, thereby referring to such passages as Timaeus, 30 B - D, 32 C - D, 68 E, 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 implication that the moon despite its location can consist of earth.

2. cf. Aristotle, Caelo, 277 B 1-2 : ουδὲ βίᾳ (scil. φέρεται αὐτῦν τὸ μὲν ἄνω τὸ δὲ κάτω) ὥσοερ τινές φασι τῇ ἐκθλίξει, and Cherniss, Aristotle’s Criticism of Presocratic Philosophy, p. 191, n. 196.

3. For this Atomist, who is not to be confused with the Epicurean, Metrodorus of Lampsacus, or with the Anaxagorean, cf. Diels-Kranz, Frag, der Vorsok⁵ ii, pp. 231-234; the present passage should be added to that collection, from which it is missing. According to Placitis, 889 B ( = Aëtius, ii. 15. 6 [ Dox. Graeci, p. 345 A 7-12]) Metrodorus considered 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 suns position here ascribed to Metrodorus see note a supra and cf. Simplicius, De Caelo, p. 712. 27-29.

4. In Fortuna, 98 B the phrase is quoted as Plato’s; it comes from Timaeus, 45 B ( τῶν δὲ ὀργάνων πρῶτον μὲν φωσφόρα συνευεκτήναντο ὄμματα, τοιᾷδε ἐνδήσαντες αἰτίᾳ), and Plutarch’s τῷ προσὠποῳ τοῦ παντὸς ἐνδεδεμένοι was suggested by this in conjunction with the preceding lines (45 a: . . . ὑποθέντες αὐτ aυτόσε τὸ πρόσωπον, ὄργανα ἐνέδησαν τούτῳ), though Plato is there speaking of the human face and eyes.

5. i.e. the spleen. For the purpose of liver and spleen cf. Aristotle, 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.

6. Eustathius, Ad Iliadem, 695. 12 ff. says that according to the Stoics the golden rope of Iliad, viii. 19 is ὁ ἥλιος εἰς ὃν κάτωθεν ὥσττερ εἰς καρδίαν ἀποχεῖται ἀναδιομένη 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 contention is refuted by R. M. Jones, Class. Phil. xxvii (1932), pp. 121-128. Passages which equate sun and heart are fairly frequent, e.g. Theon of Smyrna, pp. 187. 13-188. 7 (Hiller); Proclus, In Timaeum, 171 C - D (ii, p. 104. 20-21 and 28-29, Diehl); Macrobius, Somn. Scip. i. 20. 6-7 (pp. 564-565, Eyssenhardt); Chalcidius, In Platonis Timaeum, § 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 analogy between the various human faculties and the seven planets is mentioned by Proclus, In Timaeum, 348 A - B (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 ἐβδομάδων 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 Ptolemys Apotelesmatica published by F. Cumont in Mèlanges 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.

7. cf. Plato, Timaeus, 48 A: noῦ δὲ ἀνάγκης ἄρχοντος τῷ πείθειν αὐτὴν τῶν γιγομένων τὰ πλεῖστα ἐπι τὸ βέλτιστον ἄγρειν κτλ. For the term τὸ κατηναγκασμένον cf. S. V. F. ii, frag. 916.

8. = S. 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. 137 (= S. V. F. ii, frag. 580) and note g on 922 B supra.

9. The lexica give weigh balance as the meaning of σεσήλωται, but the logic of the passage here shows that the word must be connected with σηκός, not with σήκωμα ( cf. Hesychius: ἀποσηκώσας and σάκωσε). Amyot’s situez et colloquez and Keplers quasi obvallata sunt render the sense correctly.

Plutarch De Facie Quae in orbe Lunae Apparet 15

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

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