Plutarch, De primo frigido, Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator), 7

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

← Previous Next →

[7] Furthermore, given four primary bodies in the universe¹ which, because of their quantity, simplicity, and potentiality, most judges regard as being the elements or first principles of everything else - I mean fire, water, air, and earth - the number of primary, simple qualities must be the same. And what should these be but warmth and cold, dryness and moisture, which by their very nature cause all the elements to act and be acted upon?² Just as in grammar we have elements long and short and in music elements high and low in pitch - and in neither case is one element merely a negation of the other - so also in physical bodies we must assume an elementary opposition of wet to dry and cold to hot, and in this way we shall be faithful both to logic and to experience. Or are we, as old Anaximenes³ maintained, to leave neither hot nor cold in the realm of being, but to treat them as states belonging equally to any matter and occurring as a result of changes within it ? He affirms, in fact, that anything which undergoes contraction and condensation of matter is cold, while anything that suffers rarefaction and distention - this comes close to his own phrasing - is hot. So there is no contradiction in the remark that the man blew both hot and cold,⁴ for breath grows cold when it is compressed and condensed by the lips; but when it is expelled from the mouth left slack, it becomes hot through rarefaction. Aristotle,⁵ however, holds that in this Anaximenes was mistaken: when the mouth is slack, what is exhaled is warm air from our own bodies; but when we compress the lips and blow, it is not air from ourselves, but the cold air in front of the mouth that is propelled forward and makes contact.

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

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

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.) — 7 focus

[7] καὶ μὴν τεττάρων γε τῶν πρώτων ὄντων ἐν τῷ παντὶ σωμάτων, ἃ διὰ πλῆθος καὶ ἁπλότητα καὶ 25 δύναμιν οἱ πλεῖστοι στοιχεῖα τῶν ἄλλων ὑποτίθενται καὶ ἀρχάς, πυρὸς καὶ ὕδατος καὶ ἀέρος καὶ γῆς, ἀναγκαῖόν ἐστι καὶ ποιότητας εἶναι τὰς πρώτας καὶ ἁπλᾶς τοσαύτας. τίνες οὖν εἰσιν αὗται πλὴν θερμότης καὶ ψυχρότης καὶ ξηρότης καὶ ὑγρότης, αἷς τὰ στοιχεῖα πάσχειν ἅπαντα καὶ ποιεῖν πέφυκεν; ὡς δὲ τῶν ἐν γραμματικῇ στοιχείων βραχύτητὲς 5 εἰσι καὶ μακρότητες, τῶν δʼ ἐν μουσικῇ βαρύτητες 947f καὶ ὀξύτητες, οὐ θάτερα τῶν ἑτέρων στέρησις, οὕτως ἐν τοῖς φυσικοῖς σώμασιν ἀντιστοιχίαν ὑποληπτέον ὑγρῶν πρὸς ξηρὰ καὶ ψυχρῶν πρὸς θερμά, τὸ κατὰ λόγον ἅμα καὶ τὰ φαινόμενα διαφυλάττοντας· 10 ἢ, καθάπερ Ἀναξιμένης ὁ παλαιὸς ᾤετο, μήτε τὸ ψυχρὸν ἐν οὐσίᾳ μήτε τὸ θερμὸν ἀπολείπωμεν, ἀλλὰ πάθη κοινὰ τῆς ὕλης ἐπιγιγνόμενα ταῖς μεταβολαῖς· τὸ γὰρ συστελλόμενον αὐτῆς καὶ πυκνούμενον ψυχρὸν εἶναί φησι· τὸ δʼ ἀραιὸν 15 καὶ τὸ χαλαρόν, οὕτω πως ὀνομάσας καὶ τῷ ῥήματι, θερμόν. ὅθεν οὐκ ἀπεικότως λέγεσθαι τὸ καὶ θερμὰ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἐκ τοῦ στόματος καὶ ψυχρὰ μεθιέναι 948a ψύχεται γὰρ ἡ πνσὴ πιεσθεῖσα καὶ πυκνωθεῖσα τοῖς χείλεσιν, ἀνειμένου δὲ τοῦ στόματος ἐκπίπτουσα 20 γίγνεται θερμὸν ὑπὸ μανότητος. τοῦτο μὲν οὖν ἀγνόημα ποιεῖται τἀνδρὸς ὁ Ἀριστοτέλης· ἀνειμένου γὰρ τοῦ στόματος ἐκπνεῖσθαι τὸ θερμὸν ἐξ ἡμῶν αὐτῶν, ὅταν δὲ συστρέψαντες τὰ χείλη φυσήσωμεν, οὐ τὸν ἐξ ἡμῶν ἀλλὰ τὸν ἀέρα τὸν πρὸ τοῦ στόματος 25 ὠθεῖσθαι ψυχρὸν ὄντα καὶ προσεμπίπτειν.

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.) — 7 focus

[7] Now in regard there are four first bodies in the universe, which, by reason of their number, their being uncompounded, and their efficacy, are allowed for the most part to be the principles and beginnings of all other,— that is to say, fire and water, air and earth,—is there not the same necessity that there should be as many first and uncompounded qualities? And what are they but heat and cold, drought and moisture, by virtue of which it comes to pass that all the principles act and suffer? Thus, as there are in grammar lengthenings and shortenings of sounds, in music, deep and acute sounds, though not one of them is the privation of the other; we must leave the dry opposed to the moist principles, and the hot to the cold, if we intend to have the effects answerable to reason and what is visible in Nature. Unless, as it was the opinion of the ancient Anaximenes, we will not allow either cold or hot to be in substance, but only to be common passive qualities accompanying the alterations of the matter. For he affirms the contraction and condensation of the matter to be cold; but the rarefication and laxation of it (for by that word he calls it) to be hot. Whence it may not be improperly said, that a man breathes hot and cold at once. For the breath grows cold being compressed and thickened by the lips, but coming out of the open mouth it is hot, as being rarefied by that emission. But for this, Aristotle convinces the same person of ignorance; for that when we blow with the mouth open, we blow hot from our own bodies; but when we blow with compressed lips, we do not breathe forth the air from ourselves, but the air that is before our mouths, being cold, is thrust forward, and lights upon what is next it.

Notes on the current edition

On the Principle of Cold

1. See Diels-Kranz, Frag. der Vorsok. 5, i, pp. 315 ff., Empedocles, frag. B 17. The doctrine is clearly stated by, for example, Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 10. The author of the Epinomis (981 c) adds a fifth element, aether ( cf. 951 d infra).

2. Post translates his emendation: by which all things are qualified through the natural action of the elements, pointing out that elements have nothing but size, shape, and motion. Fire causes heat, but its atoms are not themselves hot.

3. Diels-Kranz, Frag. der Vorsok. 5, i, p. 95; cf. Diller, Hermes, lxvii, pp. 35 f.

4. See Aesop’s Fables (no. 60 in Chambry’s Bude edition, vol. i, pp. 131 ff.), where the satyr renounces friendship with the man because the latter blows both hot and cold through the same mouth.

5. Probably ( cf. the note on 950 b infra) Problemata, xxxiv. 7 (964 a 10 ff.); contrast Plato, Timaeus, 79 a-c.

Plutarch De primo frigido 7

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

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Current edition Perseus

Notes on the current edition

Stable identifiers