Plutarch, De primo frigido, Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator), 12

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[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 jar¹ 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.² 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 barbarians³ 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 at a depth. 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 with Caesar⁴ 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.⁵ 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.⁶ So now, Favorinus, the argument that attributes the primal force of cold to the air depends on such plausibilities as these.

De primo frigido. Plutarch. Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1957.

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Current edition Perseus

On the Principle of Cold (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. XII. Cherniss, Harold and William C. Helmbold, translators. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1957 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Περὶ τοῦ πρώτως ψυχροῦ Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol V. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1893.) — 12 focus

[12] ἔτι τοίνυν τὰ μὲν ἀποσπασθέντα τῆς πηγῆς ὕδατα μᾶλλον πήγνυται μᾶλλον γὰρ ὁ ἀὴρ ἐπικρατεῖ 25 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 ἀλλʼ ἐν τῷ ἀέρι κρέμασθαι, περιμείνῃ χρόνον οὐ 949d πολύν, ἔσται ψυχρότερον τὸ ὕδωρ· μάλοστα δηλοῦται τὸ μὴ, τοῦ ὕδατος εἶναι τὴν πρώτην αἰτίαν 5 τῆς ψυχρότητος ἀλλὰ τοῦ ἀέρος.· τῶν γε μὴν μεγάλων ποταμῶν οὐδεὶς πήγνυται διὰ βάθους· οὐ γὰρ καθίησιν εἰς ὅλον ὁ ἀήρ,. ἀλλʼ ὅσα τῇ ψυχρότητι περιλαμβάνει ψαύων καὶ πλησιάζων, ταῦθʼ ἵστησιν· ὅθεν οἱ βάρβαροι διαβαίνουσι πεζῇ, προβαλόντες 10 ἀλώπεκας· ἄν γὰρ μὴ πολὺς ἀλλʼ ἐπιπόλαιος ὁ πάγος ᾖ, αἰσθανόμεναι τῷ ψόφῳ τοῦ ὑπορρέοντος ὕδατος ἀναστρέφουσιν ἔνιοι δὲ καὶ θηρεύουσιν ἰχθῦς, ὕδατι θερμῷ τοῦ πάγου παραλύοντες καὶ 949e χαλῶντες; τό γε τὴν ὁρμιὰν δεξόμενον. οὕτως οὐδὲν 15 ὑπὸ τοῦ ψυχροῦ τὸ ἐν βάθει πέπονθε. καίτοι τῶν ἄνω τοσαύτη γίγνεται μεταβολὴ διὰ τὴν πῆξιν, ὥστε συντρίβειν τὰ πλοῖα τὸ ὕδωρ ἀποβιαζόμενον εἰς ἑαυτὸ καὶ συνθλιβόμενον, ὡς ἱστοροῦσιν οἱ νῦν μετὰ τοῦ Καίσαρος ἐπὶ τοῦ Ἴστρου διαχειμάσαντες. 20 οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ περὶ. ἡμᾶς συμβαῖνον ἱκανὴν μαρτυρίαν δίδωσι μετὰ γὰρ τὰ λουτρὰ καὶ τὰς ἐξιδρώσεις περιψυχόμεθα μᾶλλον, τοῖς σώμασιν ἀνειμένοις καὶ διακεχυμένοις πολλὴν ψυχρότητα μετὰ τοῦ ἀέρος καταδεχόμενοι. τὸ δʼ αὐτὸ τοῦτο καὶ τὸ 25 ὕδωρ πάσχει· ψύχεται γάρ, ἂν προθερμανθῇ, μᾶλλον, εὐπαθέστερον τῷ ἀέρι γενόμενον ὁπότε τὰ ζέοντα 949f 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 5 τοιαύταις ἐστὶ πιθανότησιν.

Translations (1)

Concerning the First Principle of Cold Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. V. Goodwin, William W., editor; Fetherstone, F., translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 12 focus

[12] And therefore water drawn from a fountain soonest congeals; for the more of cold in the air overcomes the less of cold in the water. Thus if a man takes cold water out of a well and puts it into a vessel, and then lets the vessel down again into the well, so that it may not touch the water but hang for some time in the air, the water will be much colder. Whence it is apparent, that the coldness of the water is not the first cause of coldness, but the coldness of the air. For you do not find that any of your great rivers are ever thoroughly frozen, by reason of their depth. For the air doth not pierce through the whole; only so much as it can seize and embrace with its cold quality generally freezes, and no more. Therefore the barbarians never cross over frozen rivers till they have sent a fox before to try the depth of the ice. For if the ice be not very thick, but only superficial, the fox, perceiving it by the noise of the water floating underneath, returns. And some there are that melt the ice with hot water to make way for their lines, when they go to catch fish in winter. So that nothing suffers from cold in the depth of the water. Nevertheless, so great has been the alteration of the upper parts of the water by congelation, that several vessels riding in the stream have been bruised and broken by the forcible compressure and griping of the congelation; as we have heard from them who lately had their winter quarters with Caesar upon the Danube. And indeed, what happens to ourselves is sufficient to demonstrate the truth of this. For after hot bathings and sweatings, we are most sensible of cold, at what time, our bodies being open and the skin relaxed, we give a freer entrance to the cold together with the ambient air. And after the very same manner the water itself suffers. For it sooner freezes if it be first heated, as being thereby rendered more easy for the air to work upon. And therefore they who lade out scalding water, and let it fall again from a good height in the air, do it to no other purpose than to mix it with a great deal of air. And therefore, Favorinus, the arguments that attribute the first power of cold to the air are grounded upon these probabilities.

Notes on the current edition

On the Principle of Cold

1. Presumably Plutarch is thinking of a jar of porous earthenware, such as are commonly used to cool water in the Near East.

2. Cf. Mor. 690 b-e.

3. The Thracians, according to 968 f ff. infra; cf. also Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 103; Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 24; xiv. 26.

4. Probably the reference is to Trajan and the Second Dacian War (a.d. 105-107). Plutarch’s intimate friends, Sosius Senecio, is known to have taken part in it.

5. Cf. Mor. 690 c-d.

6. Cf. Mor. 690 c-d.

Plutarch De primo frigido 12

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

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