Plutarch, De Facie Quae in orbe Lunae Apparet, Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator), 9

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[9] Now, said I, my dear Apollonides, you mathematicians¹ say that the sun is an immense distance from the upper circumference and that above the sun Venus and Mercury and the other planets² revolve lower than the fixed stars and at great intervals 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 ridiculous 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,³

That skims [the post in passing].

Frequently she does not even surmount the earth’s shadow, 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 boldly declare, I think, that the moon is within the confines of [the] earth inasmuch as she is occulted by its extremities.

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.) — 9 focus

[9] 925a ἀλλʼ ἥλιον μὲν ἀπλέτους μυριάδας ἀπέχειν τῆς ἄνω περιφορᾶς φατε εἶπον ὦ φίλε Ἀπολλωνίδη, καὶ φωσφόρον ἐπʼ αὐτῷ καὶ στίλβοντα καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους πλάνητας ὑφιεμένους τε τῶν ἀπλανῶν 5 καὶ πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἐν διαστάσεσι μεγάλαις φέρεσθαι· τοῖς δὲ βαρέσι καὶ γεώδεσιν οὐδεμίαν οἴεσθε τὸν κόσμον εὐρυχωρίαν παρέχειν ἐν ἑαυτῷ καὶ διάστασιν ὁρᾶτε ὅτι γελοῖόν ἐστιν, εἰ γῆν οὐ φήσομεν εἶναι τὴν σελήνην, ὅτι τῆς κάτω χώρας ἀφέστηκεν, ἄστρον 10 925b δὲ φήσομεν, ὁρῶντες ἀπωσμένην τῆς ἄνω περιφορᾶς μυριάσι σταδίων τοσαύταις καὶ ὥσπερ εἰς βυθόν τινα καταδεδυκυῖαν τῶν μὲν γʼ ἄστρων κατωτέρω τοσοῦτὸν ἐστιν, ὅσον οὐκ ἄν τις εἴποι μέτρον, ἀλλʼ ἐπιλείπουσιν ὑμᾶς τοὺς μαθηματικοὺς ἐκλογιζομένους 15 οἱ ἀριθμοί, τῆς δὲ γῆς τρόπον τινὰ ψαύει καὶ περιφερομένη πλησίον

ἅρματος ὥσπερ ἂν ἴχνος ἑλίσσεται

φησὶν Ἐμπεδοκλῆς

ἥ τε περὶ ἄκραν

20 οὐδὲ γὰρ τὴν σκιὰν αὐτῆς; ὑπερβάλλει πολλάκις ἐπὶ μικρὸν αἰρομένην τῷ παμμέγεθες εἶναι τὸ φωτίζον· ἀλλʼ οὕτως ἔοικεν ἐν χρῷ καὶ σχεδὸν ἐν ἀγκάλαις τῆς γῆς περιπολεῖν, ὥστʼ ἀντιφράττεσθαι πρὸς τὸν 925c ἥλιον ὑπʼ αὐτῆς, μὴ ὑπεραίρουσα τὸν σκιερὸν καὶ χθόνιον καὶ νυκτέριον τοῦτον τόπον, ὃς γῆς κλῆρός ἐστι. διὸ λεκτέον οἶμαι θαρροῦντας ἐν τοῖς τῆς γῆς ὅροις εἶναι τὴν σελήνην ὑπὸ τῶν ἄκρων αὐτῆς ἐπιπροσθουμένην.

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.) — 9 focus

[9] But you mathematicians, friend Apollonides, say that the sun is distant from our upper sphere infinite thousands of miles, and after him the day-star or Venus, Mercury, and other planets, which being situated under the fixed stars, and separated from one another by great intervals, make their revolutions; and in the mean time you think that the world affords not to heavy and terrestrial bodies any great and large place or distance one from another. You plainly see, it would be ridiculous, if we should deny the moon to be earth because it is not seated in the lowest region of the world, and yet affirm it to be a star, though so many thousands of miles remote from the upper firmanent, as if it were plunged into some deep gulf. For she is so low before all other stars, that the measure of the distances cannot be expressed, and you mathematicians want numbers to compute and reckon it; but she in a manner touches the earth, making her revolution so near the tops of the mountains, that she seems, as Empedocles has it, to leave even the very tracks of her chariot-wheels behind her. For oftentimes she surpasses not the shadow of the earth, which is very short through the excessive greatness of the sun that shines upon it, but seems to turn so near the superficies, and (as one may say) between the arms and in the bosom of the earth, that it withholds from her the light of the sun, because she mounts that shady, earthly, and nocturnal region which is the lot and inheritance of the earth. And therefore I am of opinion, we may boldly say that the moon is within the limits and confines of the earth, seeing she is even darkened by the summits of its mountains.

Notes on the current edition

Concerning the Face which Appears in the Orb Of the Moon

1. This is implied by the second person plural addressed to Apollonides, cf. 925 B s.v. and 920 F, 921 C supra.

2. For the order of the planets cf. Dreyer, History of the Planetary Systems, pp. 168-170, and Boyancè, Ètudes 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.

3. Empedocles, frag. B 46 (i, p. 331 [Diels-Kranz]).

Plutarch De Facie Quae in orbe Lunae Apparet 9

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

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