Plutarch, De communibus notitiis adversus Stoicos, ed. Grēgorios N. Vernardakēs, 35

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[35] 10

ΔΙΑΔΟΥΜ.

ἀλλὰ τῶν φυσικωτέρων λεγομένων ἆρʼ οὐ παρὰ τὴν ἔννοιάν ἐστι σπέρμα πλέον εἶναι καὶ μεῖζον ἢ τὸ γεννώμενον ἐξ αὐτοῦ; τὴν γοῦν φύσιν ὁρῶμεν πᾶσι καὶ ζῴοις καὶ φυτοῖς καὶ ἡμέροις καὶ ἀγρίοις ἀρχὰς τὰ μικρὰ καὶ γλίσχρα καὶ μόλις 15 ὁρατὰ τῆς τῶν μεγίστων γενέσεως λαμβάνουσαν. οὐ γὰρ ἐκ πυροῦ στάχυν οὐδʼ ἄμπελον ἐκ γιγάρτου μόνον, ἀλλʼ ἐκ πυρῆνος βαλάνου τινὸς ὄρνεον διαφυγούσης ὥσπερ ἐκ μικροῦ τινος σπινθῆρος 1077b ἐξάψασα καὶ ῥιπίσασα τὴν γένεσιν, ἔρνος ἢ βάτου 20 ἢ δρυὸς ἢ φοίνικος ἢ πεύκης περιμήκιστον ἀναδίδωσιν, καί φασιν

τὸ μὲν σπέρμα τὴν ἐπὶ μικρὸν ὄγκον ἐκ πολλοῦ

σπείρασιν

ὠνομάσθαι, τὴν δὲ

φύσιν

ἐμφύσησιν οὖσαν καὶ διάχυσιν τῶν ὑπʼ αὐτῆς ἀνοιγομένων καὶ λυομένων λόγων ἢ ἀριθμῶν. ἀλλὰ τοῦ τε κόσμου πάλιν τὸ πῦρ ὃ σπέρμα λέγουσιν εἶναι καὶ μετὰ τὴν ἐκπύρωσιν εἰς σπέρμα μετέβαλε τὸν κόσμον ἐκ βραχυτέρου σώματος καὶ ὄγκου, φύσιν ἔχοντα πολλὴν καὶ τοῦ κενοῦ προσεπιλαμβάνοντα 5 χώραν ἄπλετον ἐπινεμομένην τῇ αὐξήσει, γεννωμένου δʼ αὖθις ὑποχωρεῖν τὸ μέγεθος καὶ συνολισθάνειν, 1077c δυομένης καὶ συναγομένης περὶ τὴν γένεσιν εἰς ἑαυτὴν τῆς ὕλης.

De communibus notitiis adversus Stoicos. Plutarch. ed. Grēgorios N. Vernardakēs. Leipzig. 1895.

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Current edition Perseus

Περὶ τῶν κοινῶν ἐννοιῶν πρὸς τοὺς Στωικοὺς (Greek) (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol. VI. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1895.)

Translations (1)

Of common conceptions, against the Stoics. Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. IV. Goodwin, William W., editor; White, Samuel, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 35 focus

[35]

DIADUMENUS.

Is it not therefore against sense to say that the seed is more and greater than that which is produced of it? For we see that Nature in all animals and plants, even those that are wild, has taken small, slender, and scarce visible things for principles of generation to the greatest. For it does not only from a grain of wheat produce an ear-bearing stalk, or a vine from the stone of a grape; but from a small berry or acorn which has escaped being eaten by the bird, kindling and setting generation on fire (as it were) from a little spark, it sends forth the stock of a bush, or the tall body of an oak, palm, or pine tree. Whence also they say that seed is in Greek called σπέρμα, as it were, the σπείρασις or the coiling up of a great mass in a little compass; and that Nature has the name of φύσις, as if it were the inflation ( ἐμφύσησις) and diffusion of reason and numbers opened and loosened by it. But now, in opposition to this, they maintain that fire is the seed of the world, which shall after the conflagration change into seed the world, which will then have a copious nature from a smaller body and bulk, and possess an infinite space of vacuum filled by its increase; and the world being made, the size again recedes and settles, the matter being after the generation gathered and contracted into itself.

Plutarch De communibus notitiis adversus Stoicos 35

ed. Grēgorios N. Vernardakēs

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ΔΙΑΔΟΥΜ.

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DIADUMENUS.

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