Plutarch, De sollertia animalium, Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator), 29

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[29] The tunny¹ is so sensitive to equinox and solstice that it teaches even men themselves without the need of astronomical tables; for wherever it may be when the winter solstice overtakes it, in that same place it stands and stays until the equinox. As for that clever device of the crane,² the grasping of the stone by night so that if it falls, she may awake from sleep - how much cleverer, my friend, is the artifice of the dolphin, for whom it is illicit to stand still or to cease from motion.³ For its nature is to be ever active⁴: the termination of its life and its movement is one and the same. When it needs sleep, it rises to the surface of the sea and allows itself to sink deeper and deeper on its back, lulled to rest by the swinging motion of the ground swell⁵ until it touches the bottom. Thus roused, it goes whizzing up, and when it reaches the surface, again goes slack, devising for itself a kind of rest combined with motion.⁶ And they say that tunnies do the same thing for the same reason.

Having just a moment ago given you an account of the tunny’s mathematical foreknowledge of the reversal of the sun, of which Aristotle⁷ is a witness, I beg you to hear the tale of their arithmetical learning. But first, I swear, I must mention their knowledge of optics, of which Aeschylus⁸ seems not to have been ignorant, for these are his words:

Squinting the left eye like a tunny fish.

They seem, indeed, to have poor sight in one eye. And it is for this reason that when they enter the Black Sea, they hug one bank on the right, and the other⁹ when they are going out, it being very prudent and sagacious of them always to entrust the protection of themselves to the better eye. Now since they apparently need arithmetic to preserve their consociation and affection for each other, they have attained such perfection of learning that, since they take great pleasure in feeding and schooling together,¹⁰ they always form the school into a cube, making it an altogether solid figure with a surface of six equal plane sides; then they swim on their way preserving their formation, a square that faces both ways. Certainly a hooer¹¹ watching for tunnies who counts the exact number on the surface at once makes known the total number of the shoal, since he knows that the depth is equal one to one with the breadth and the length.

De sollertia animalium. Plutarch. Harold Cherniss (Translator), William C. Helmbold (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1957.

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Current edition Perseus

Whether land or sea animals are cleverer (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. XII. Cherniss, Harold, and Helmbold, William C., translators. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1957 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Πότερα τῶν ζῴων φρονιμώτερα τὰ χερσαῖα ἢ τὰ ἔνυδρα Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol. VI. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1895.) — 29 focus

[29]

ΦΑΙΔΙΜΟΣ.

ὁ δὲ θύννος οὕτως ἰσημερίας αἰσθάνεται καὶ τροπῆς, ὥστε καὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον διδάσκειν, 10 979d μηδὲν ἀστρολογικῶν κανόνων δεόμενον· ὅπου γὰρ ἂν αὐτὸν χειμῶνος αἱ τροπαὶ καταλάβωσιν, ἀτρεμεῖ καὶ διατρίβει περὶ τὸν αὐτὸν τόπον ἄχρι τῆς ἰσημερίας. ἀλλὰ τῆς γεράνου σοφὸν ἡ τοῦ λίθου περίδραξις, ὅπως προϊεμένη πυκνὸν ἐξυπνίζηται. 15 καὶ πόσῳ σοφώτερον, ὦ φίλε, τὸ τοῦ δελφῖνος, ᾧ

στῆναι μὲν οὐ θέμις οὐδὲ παύσασθαι φορᾶς

ἀεικίνητος γάρ ἐστιν ἡ φύσις αὐτοῦ καὶ ταὐτὸν ἔχουσα τοῦ ζῆν καὶ τοῦ κινεῖσθαι πέρας· ὅταν δʼ ὕπνου δέηται, μετεωρίσας ἄνω τὸ σῶμα πρὸς τὴν 20 979e ἐπιφάνειαν τῆς θαλάττης, ὕπτιον ἀφῆκε διὰ βάθους, αἰώρας τινὶ σάλῳ κοιμιζόμενος, ἄχρι προσπεσεῖν καὶ ψαῦσαι τῆς γῆς· οὕτω δʼ ἐξυπνισθεὶς ἀναρροιζεῖ καὶ πάλιν ἄνω γενόμενος ἐνδίδωσι, καὶ φέρεται κινήσει τινὰ μεμιγμένην ἀνάπαυσιν αὑτῷ μηχανώμενος. 25 τὸ δʼ αὐτὸ δρᾶν καὶ θύννους ἀπὸ τῆς αὐτῆς αἰτίας λέγουσιν. ἐπεὶ δʼ ἄρτι τὴν μαθηματικὴν αὐτῶν τῆς τοῦ ἡλίου μεταβολῆς ἐτέλεσα πρόγνωσιν, ἧς μάρτυς Ἀριστοτέλης ἐστίν, ἄκουσον ἢδη τὴν ἀριθμητικὴν ἐπιστήμην αὐτῶν· πρότερον δέ, ναὶ μὰ Δία, τὴν ὀπτικήν, ἣν ἔοικε μηδʼ Αἰσχύλος ἀγνοῆσαι· 5 λέγει γάρ που

τὸ σκαιὸν ὄμμα παραβαλὼν θύννου δίκην.

979f τῷ γὰρ ἑτέρῳ δοκοῦσιν ἀμβλυώττειν ὅθεν ἐμβάλλουσιν εἰς τὸν Πόντον ἐν δεξιᾷ τῆς γῆς ἐχόμενοι, καὶ τοὐναντίον, ὅταν ἐξίωσιν· ἐμφρόνως πάνυ καὶ 10 νουνεχῶς ἀεὶ τὴν τοῦ σώματος φυλακὴν ἐπὶ τῷ κρείττονι ποιούμενοι τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν. ἀριθμητικῆς δὲ διὰ τὴν κοινωνικήν, ὡς ἔοικε, καὶ φιλάλληλον ἀγάπησιν ἑαυτῶν δεηθέντες οὕτως ἐπʼ ἄκρον ἥκουσι τοῦ μαθήματος, ὥστε, ἐπεὶ πάνυ χαίρουσι τῷ συντρέφεσθαι 15 καὶ συναγελάζεσθαι μετʼ ἀλλήλων, ἀεὶ τὸ πλῆθος τῷ σχήματι κυβίζουσι καὶ στερεὸν ἐκ πάντων 980a ποιοῦσιν, ἓξ ἴσοις ἐπιπέδοις περιεχόμενον εἶτα νήχονται τὴν τάξιν οὕτω τὸ πλαίσιον ἀμφίστομον διαφυλάττοντες ὁ γοῦν θυννοσκόπος, ἂν ἀκριβῶς 20 λάβῃ τὸν ἀριθμὸν τῆς ἐπιφανείας, εὐθὺς ἀποφαίνεται πόσον καὶ ἅπαν τὸ πλῆθός ἐστιν, εἰδὼς ὅτι καὶ τὸ βάθος αὐτῶν ἐν ἴσῳ τεταγμένον στοιχείῳ πρός τε τὸ πλάτος ἐστὶ καὶ τὸ μῆκος.

Translations (1)

Which are the most crafty, water-animals or those creatures that breed upon the land? Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. V. Goodwin, William W., editor; Philips, John, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1874.) — 29 focus

[29] Moreover, the tunny is so sensible of the equinoxes and solstices, that he teaches even men themselves without the help of any astrological table. For where the winter solstice overtakes him, there he remains till the vernal equinox.

As for that same artifice of the cranes, that keep themselves waking by clutching a stone in their claws, how much more cunningly done is that of the dolphin, for whom it is not lawful to stand still or to be out of motion. For it is the nature of the dolphins to be always in motion; so that, when they cease to move, they also cease to live. And therefore when sleep seizes them, they raise their bodies to the superficies of the sea, and so sinking down again with their bellies upward, are carried along with the tide till they touch again the shore. Wakened in that manner, with an impetuous noise they mount upward again, designing thus a kind of rest still intermixed with motion. And the same thing is reported of the tunnies for the same reason.

Having thus concluded their mathematical foreknowledge of the mutations of the sun, of which Aristotle gives testimony, let me now relate their skill in arithmetic; but first of all, their knowledge in optics, of which Aeschylus seems not to have been altogether ignorant. For these are his words:

Casting a squint-eye like the tunny.

For tunnies seem to be dim-sighted of one eye. And therefore, when they enter the Euxine Sea, they coast along the land on the right side, and contrariwise when they come forth; prudently committing the care of their bodies to the best eye.

But wanting arithmetic in order to the preservation of mutual love and society one with another, they arrive in such a manner to the perfection of that science, that, in regard they are extremely desirous to enjoy the society of each other, they always make up their whole fry into the form of a cube, and make a solid of the whole number consisting of six equal planes; and then they swim in such order as to present an equal front in each direction. So then, if the observer of the tunnies does but exactly take the number of the side that he sees, he knows the whole number of the shoal; well knowing that the depth is equal to the breadth and length.

Notes on the current edition

Whether land or sea animals are cleverer

1. Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. ix. 42; Aristotle, Historia Animal. viii. 13 (598 b 25 f.).

2. See 967 c supra.

3. Reiske may have been right in suspecting a trimeter of unknown origin in these words.

4. Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. xi. 22. The dolphin even nurses its young while in motion; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xi. 235; and cf. Aristotle, Historia Animal. ii. 13 (504 b 21 ff.).

5. As it were, the cradle of the deep.

6. But see Pliny, Nat. Hist. x. 210, where it is reported that dolphins are actually heard snoring.

7. Historia Animal. viii. 13 (598 b 25).

8. Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 96, frag. 308; Cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. ix. 42.

9. See Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. viii. 13 (598 b 19 ff.); Glossary, p. 84; Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 50. They follow the opposite shore when returning, thus keeping the same eye towards the land.

10. Cf. Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 2 (610 b 1 f.); Aelian, De Natura Animal. xv. 3, 5.

11. A watcher posted on a tall mast to warn fishermen of the approach of a shoal and to give a count. See Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. iv. 10 (537 a 19); Glossary, p. 87; Gow on Theocritus, iii. 26; Mair on Oppian, Hal. iii. 638. Accounts of the ancient tunny fishery are given by Thompson, Glossary, pp. 84-88; Pace, Atti R. Ac. Archeologia Napoli, N.S. xii (1931/2), pp. 326 ff.; and Rhode, Jahrb. f. class. Phil., Suppb. xviii (1900), pp. 1-78. An account of the ancient and the modern tunny fishery is given by Parona, R. Comitato Talasso-grafico Italiano, Memoria, no. 68, 1919.

Plutarch De sollertia animalium 29

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

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