Plutarch, De Facie Quae in orbe Lunae Apparet, Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator), 6

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[6] Even while I was still speaking Pharnaces spoke: Here we are faced again with that stock manoeuvre of the Academy¹: on each occasion that they engage in discourse with others they will not offer any accounting of their own assertions but must keep 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.² We³ 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 you⁴ do who station the earth here suspended in the air? Yet the earth is a great deal larger than the moon⁵ 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.⁶ For the shadow of the earth grows smaller the further it extends, because the body that casts the light is larger than the earth⁷; 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 sharpness of the shadow.⁸ Yet captured by this part in eclipses⁹ 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.¹⁰ All the same, you fear for the moon lest it fall; whereas concerning the earth perhaps Aeschylus has persuaded you that Atlas

Stands, staying on his back the prop of earth And sky no tender burden to embrace.¹¹

Or, while under the moon there stretches air unsubstantial and incapable of supporting a solid mass, the earth, as Pindar says, is encompassed by steel-shod pillars¹²; and therefore Pharnaces is himself without any fear that the earth may fall but is sorry for the Ethiopians or Taprobanians,¹³ 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.¹⁴ For each thing is governed by its natural motion unless it be diverted by something else. 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 absolutely 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 still more, inasmuch as the moon has, of course, become light through the action of heat and fire.¹⁵ 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,¹⁶ but you people say that earth does abide without root or foundation.¹⁷ 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 inclination press against one another and towards which they move and converge from every direction, whereas all the upper space, even if it receive something 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 naturally to descend.¹⁸

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

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Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

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.) — 6 focus

[6] καὶ ὁ Φαρνάκης, ἔτι μου λέγοντος, τοῦτʼ ἐκεῖνο πάλιν εἶπεν· ἐφʼ ἡμᾶς ἀφῖκται τὸ περίακτον ἐκ τῆς Ἀκαδημείας, ἐν τῷ πρὸς ἑτέρους λέγειν διατρίβοντας 25 ἑκάστοτε μὴ παρέχειν ἔλεγχον ὧν αὐτοὶ λέγουσιν, ἀλλʼ ἀπολογουμένοις ἀεὶ χρῆσθαι μὴ κατηγοροῦσιν, ἂν ἐντυγχάνωσιν ἐμὲ δʼ οὖν οὐκ ἐξάξεσθε τήμερον εἰς τὸ διδόναι λόγον ὧν ἐπικαλεῖτε τοῖς Στωικοῖς, πρὶν εὐθύνας λαβεῖν παρʼ ὑμῶν, ἄνω τὰ κάτω τοῦ κόσμου ποιούντων καὶ ὁ Λεύκιος γελάσας μόνον εἶπεν ὦ τάν, μὴ κρίσιν ἡμῖν ἀσεβείας 5 923a ἐπαγγείλῃς, ὥσπερ Ἀρίσταρχον ᾤετο δεῖν Κλεάνθης τὸν Σάμιον ἀσεβείας προσκαλεῖσθαι τοὺς Ἕλληνας, ὡς κινοῦντα τοῦ κόσμου τὴν ἑστίαν, ὅτι τὰ 10 φαινόμενα σῴζειν ἁνὴρ ἐπειρᾶτο, μένειν τὸν οὐρανὸν ὑποτιθέμενος, ἐξελίττεσθαι δὲ κατὰ λοξοῦ κύκλου τὴν γῆν, ἅμα καὶ περὶ τὸν αὑτῆς ἄξονα δινουμένην. ἡμεῖς μὲν οὖν οὐδὲν αὐτοὶ παρʼ αὑτῶν λέγομεν, οἱ δὲ γῆν ὑποτιθέμενοι τὴν σελήνην, ὦ 15 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 οἱ μαθηματικοὶ καὶ ταῖς διὰ 923b τοῦ σκιάσματος παρόδοις τῆς ἐποχῆς τὸ μέγεθος 20 ἀναμετροῦσιν; ἥ τε γὰρ σκιὰ τῆς γῆς ἐλάττων ὑπὸ μείζονος τοῦ φωτίζοντος ἀνατείνει καὶ τῆς σκιᾶς αὐτῆς λεπτὸν ὂν τὸ ἄνω καὶ στενὸν οὐδʼ Ὅμηρον, ὥς φασιν, ἔλαθεν, ἀλλὰ τὴν νύκτα θοήν ὀξύτητι τῆς σκιᾶς προσηγόρευσεν ὑπὸ τούτου δʼ ὅμως ἁλισκομένη ταῖς ἐκλείψεσιν ἡ σελήνη τρισὶ μόλις τοῖς αὑτῆς μεγέθεσιν ἀπαλλάττεται. σκόπει δὴ πόσων, γῆ σεληνῶν ἐστιν, εἰ σκιὰν ἀφίησιν, ᾗ βραχυτάτη, πλάτος τρισέληνον. ἀλλʼ ὅμως ὑπὲρ τῆς 5 σελήνης μὴ πέσῃ δεδοίκατε· περὶ δὲ τῆς γῆς ἴσως Αἰσχύλος ὑμᾶς πέπεικεν, ὡς ὁ Ἄτλας 923c

ἕστηκε, κίονʼ οὐρανοῦ τε καὶ χθονὸς

ὤμοις ἐρείδων, ἄχθος οὐκ εὐάγκαλον

εἰ τῇ μὲν σελήνῃ κοῦφος ἀὴρ ὑποτρέχει καὶ στερεὸν 10 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 μεταφορᾷ τῆς σελήνης Αἰθίοπας ἢ Ταπροβηνούς, 15 μὴ βάρος αὐτοῖς ἐμπέσῃ τοσοῦτον. καίτοι τῇ μὲν σελήνῃ βοήθεια πρὸς τὸ. μὴ πεσεῖν ἡ κίνησις αὐτὴ 923d καὶ τὸ ῥοιζῶδες τῆς περιαγωγῆς, ὥσπερ ὅσα ταῖς σφενδόναις ἐντεθέντα τῆς καταφορᾶς κώλυσιν ἴσχει τὴν κύκλῳ περιδίνησιν ἄγει γὰρ ἕκαστον ἡ κατὰ 20 φύσιν κίνησις, ἂν ὑπʼ ἄλλου μηδενὸς ἀποστρέφηται. διὸ τὴν σελήνην οὐκ ἄγει τὸ βάρος, ὑπὸ τῆς περιφορᾶς τὴν ῥοπὴν ἐκκρουόμενον. ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἴσως λόγον εἶχε θαυμάζειν μένουσαν αὐτὴν παντάπασιν ὥσπερ ἡ γῆ καὶ ἀτρεμοῦσαν. νῦν δὲ σελήνη μὲν ἔχει μεγάλην αἰτίαν τοῦ δεῦρο μὴ φέρεσθαι· τὴν δὲ γῆν, ἑτέρας κινήσεως ἄμοιρον οὖσαν, εἰκὸς ἦν. μόνῳ τῷ βαρύνοντι κινεῖν · βαρυτέρα δʼ ἐστὶ τῆς σελήνης οὐχ ὅσῳ μείζων, ἀλλʼ ἔτι μᾶλλον, ἅτε δὴ 5 923e διὰ θερμότητα καὶ πύρωσιν ἐλαφρᾶς γεγενημένης. ὅλως δʼ ἔοικεν ἐξ ὧν λέγεις ἡ σελήνη, μᾶλλον, εἰ πῦρ ἐστι, γῆς δεῖσθαι καὶ ὕλης, ἐν ᾗ βέβηκε καὶ προσπέφυκε καὶ συνέχει καὶ ζωπυρεῖ τὴν δύναμιν· οὐ γὰρ ἔστι πῦρ χωρὶς ὕλης διανοηθῆναι σῳζόμενον· 10 γῆν δέ φατε ὑμεῖς ἄνευ βάσεως καὶ ῥίζης διαμένειν. πάνυ μὲν οὖν εἶπεν ὁ Φαρνάκης τὸν μέσον τόπον ἔχουσαν, ὥσπερ αὐτῇ οἰκεῖον καὶ κατὰ φυσιν· οὗτος γάρ ἐστι, περὶ· ὃν ἀντερείδει πάντα τὰ βάρη ῥέποντα καὶ φέρεται καὶ συννεύει πανταχόθεν· 15 923f ἡ δʼ ἄνω χώρα πᾶσα, κἄν τι δέξηται γεῶδες ὑπὸ βίας ἀναρριφέν, εὐθὺς ἐκθλίβει δεῦρο, μᾶλλον δʼ ἀφίησιν, πέφυκεν οἰκείᾳ ῥοπῇ καταφερόμενον.

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.) — 6 focus

[6] Whilst I was yet speaking, Pharnaces interrupting my discourse said: See here again the usual stratagem of the Academy brought into play against us, which is to busy themselves at every turn in speaking against others, but never to afford an opportunity for reproving what they say themselves; so that those with whom they confer and dispute must always be respondents and defendants, and never plaintiffs or opponents. You shall not therefore bring me this day to give you an account of those things you charge upon the Stoics, till you have first rendered me a reason for your turning the world upside down.

Then Lucius smiling said: This, good sir, I am well contented to do, provided only that you will not accuse us of impiety, as Cleanthes thought that the Greeks ought to have called Aristarchus the Samian into question and condemned him of blasphemy against the Gods, as shaking the very foundations of the world, because this man, endeavoring to save the appearances, supposed that the heavens remained immovable, and that the earth moved through an oblique circle, at the same time turning about its own axis. As for us therefore, we say nothing that we take from them. But how do they, my good friend, who suppose the moon to be earth, turn the world upside down more than you, who say that the earth remains here hanging in the air, being much greater than the moon, as the mathematicians measure their magnitude by the accidents of eclipses, and by the passages of the moon through the shadow of the earth, gathering thence how great a space it takes up? For the shadow of the earth is less than itself, by reason it is cast by a greater light. And that the end of this shadow upwards is slender and pointed, they say that Homer himself was not ignorant, but plainly expressed it when he called the night θοή (that is, acute) from the sharp-pointedness of the earth’s shadow. And yet the moon in her eclipses, being caught within this point of the shadow, can scarce get out of it by going forward thrice her own bigness in length. Consider then, how many times the earth must needs be greater than the moon, if it casts a shadow, the narrowest point of which is thrice as broad as the moon. But you are perhaps afraid lest the moon should fall, if it were acknowledged to be earth; but as for the earth, Aeschylus has secured you, when he says that Atlas

Stands shouldering the pillar of the heaven and earth,

A burden onerous.

If then there runs under the moon only a light air, not firm enough to bear a solid burthen, whereas under the earth there are, as Pindar says, columns and pillars of adamant for its support, therefore Pharnaces himself is out of all dread of the earth’s falling, but he pities the Ethiopians and those of Taprobane, who lie directly under the course of the moon, fearing lest so ponderous a mass should tumble upon their heads. And yet the moon has, for an help to preserve her from falling, her motion and the impetuosity of her revolution; as stones, pebbles, and other weights, put into slings, are kept from dropping out, whilst they are swung round, by the swiftness of their motion. For every body is carried according to its natural motion, unless it be diverted by some other intervening cause. Wherefore the moon does not move according to the motion of her weight, her inclination being stopped and hindered by the violence of a circular revolution. And perhaps there would be more reason to wonder, if the moon continued always immovable in the same place, as does the earth. But now the moon has a great cause to keep herself from tending hither downwards; but for the earth, which has no other motion, it is probable that it has also no other cause of its settlement but its own weight. For the earth is heavier than the moon, not only because it is greater, but also because the moon is rendered lighter by the heat and inflammation that is in it. In brief, it appears by what you say, if it is true that the moon is fire, that it stands in need of earth or some other matter, which it may rest on and cleave to, for the maintaining and nourishing of its power. For it is not possible to imagine how a fire can be preserved without some combustible matter. And you yourselves say that the earth continues firm without any basis or pedestal to support it.

Yes surely, said Pharnaces, being in its proper and natural place, the very middle and centre of the universe. For this it is to which all heavy and ponderous things do from every side naturally tend, incline, and aspire, and about which they cling and are counterpoised. But every superior region, though it may perhaps receive some earthly and weighty thing sent by violence up into it, immediately repels and casts it down again by force, or (to speak better) lets it follow its own proper inclination, by which it naturally tends downwards.

Notes on the current edition

Concerning the Face which Appears in the Orb Of the Moon

1. The word τὸ περίακτον occurs in Comp. Lys. Sulla, iii, 476 E, where it seems to mean the old saw, though it may refer to a proverbial state of inside out and wrong side to. In Gloria Atheniensium, 348 E 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 Genio Socratis, 588 D in the sense of distraction 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.

2. = S. V. F. i, p. 112, frag. 500; the title, Against 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 ; Placitis 891 A = Aëtius, ii. 24. 8 ( Dox. Graeci, p. 355); Archimedes, Arenarius, i. 1.4-7 ( Opera Omnia, ii, p. 218 Heiberg); Sextus Empiricus, Adv. Math. x. 174; T. L. Heath, Aristarchus of Samos, pp. 301 ff.

3. i.e. we Academics, the party which did in fact maintain that the moon is an earthy body.

4. i.e. you Stoics; cf. Achilles, Isagogê, 4 = S. V. F. ii, frag. 555, p. 175. 36 ff.

5. 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. Aëtius, ii. 26. 1 ( Dox. Graeci, p. 357 and p. 68, n. 1), and M. Adler, Diss. Phil. Vind. x (1910), p. 155.

6. cf. Cleomedes, ii. 1, § 80 (p. 146. 18 ff. Ziegler); Simplicius, Caelo, p. 471. 6-11.

7. cf. Cleomedes, ii. 2. §§ 93-94 (p. 170. 11 ff. Ziegler); Theon of Smyrna, p. 197. 1 ff. (Hiller); Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 11 (8), 51.

8. cf. Defectu Oraculorum, 410 D. Homer uses the phrase θοὴ νύξ frequently (e.g. Iliad, x. 394 [ cf. Leaf’s note ad loc.], Odyssey, xii. 284 ). Another θοός, supposedly meaning pointed, sharp and cognate with ἐθόωσα in Odyssey, ix. 327 , is used of certain islands in Odyssey, xv. 299 ( cf. Strabo, viii. 350-351 ; Pseudo-Plutarch, Vita et Poesi Homeri, B, 21 [vii, p. 347. 19 ff. Bernardakis]). The latter passage so understood was used to support the hypothesis that θοὴ νυξ 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 interpretation of the phrase by Crates of Mallos.

9. For this temporal dative without ἐν cf. Theon of Smyrna, p. 194. 1-3 (Hiller).

10. cf. An. Proc. in Timaeo, 1028 D 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 Hipparchus (t: 1: s = 1 . 1/3 . 12 1/3; cf. Heath, Aristarchus of Samos, pp. 342 and 350 after Hultsch). Hipparchus, however, considered the breadth of the shadow at the moon’s mean distance from the earth in eclipses to be lunar diameters (Ptolemy, Syntaxis, iv. 9 [i, p. 327. 1-4 Heiberg]), while Aristarchus, whose calculations of the moon’s diameter Plutarch quotes at 932 B s.v., 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, Elementa, 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. Cleomedes, p. 146. 21-25 [Ziegler] and M. Adler, Diss. Phil. Vind. x [1910], p. 156, n. 2).

11. Aeschylus, Prometheus Vinct. 351-352 (Smyth).

12. Pindar, frag. 88 (Bergk) = 79 (Bowra).

13. i.e. the Sinhalese; cf. Strabo, ii. 1. 14, chap. 72 and xv. 1. 14, chap. 690; Pliny, Nat. Hist. vi. 22 (24).

14. cf. Aristotle, 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, xii. 3-4 (439 D) ascribes to Anaxagoras the notion that the heavenly bodies are kept from falling by the speed of their circular motion.

15. Here Lucius assumes the Stoic theory of the composition of the moon in order to rebut the Stoic objections.

16. 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, conglobatamque nec stabili inditam corpori, profecto iam mundus turbine suo dissipasset.

17. cf. 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 Vinct. 1046-1047 ; and the Orphic lines quoted by Proclus, In Timaeum, 211 C (ii, p. 231. 27-28 [Diehl]) = Kern, Orphicorum Fragmenta, 168. 29-30 (p. 202). The phrase ῥίζα καὶ βάσις is applied to the earth itself in a different sense by Timaeus Locrus (97 E). For the ascription to Xenophanes of the notion that the earth ἐπ’ ἄπειρον ἐρρίζωται cf. Xenophanes, frag. A 47 (i, pp. 125-126 [Diels-Kranz]).

18. = S. V. F. ii, p. 195, frag. 646. This is the doctrine of proper place and natural motion, originally Aristotelian and ascribed to Aristotle in Defectu Oraculorum, 424 B 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 ( Defectu Oraculorum, 425 D - E, Stoicorum Repugnantiis, 1054 C - D).

Plutarch De Facie Quae in orbe Lunae Apparet 6

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

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