De Facie Quae in orbe Lunae Apparet

When Theon had so spoken, I said [Bravo], you have most excellently [smoothed our] brows by the sport of your speech, wherefore we have been inspired with boldness to reply, since we anticipate no very sharp or bitter scrutiny. It is, moreover, a fact that there really is [no] difference between those who in such matters are firm believers and those who are violently annoyed by them and firmly disbelieve and refuse to examine calmly what can be and what might be.[*](Strictly, the potential and the contingent; but probably Plutarch meant his phrase here to imply only the possible in all its senses and intended no technical distinction between δυνατόν and ἐνδεχόμενο. Certainly one cannot ascribe to him the distinction drawn in the pseudo-Plutarchean Fato, 570 E 571 E; n.b. that in Stoicorum Repugnantiis, 1055 d-f he attacks the Chrysippean doctrine of δυνατόν. On δυνατόν and ἐνδεχόμενον as used by Aristotle cf. Ross, Aristotle’s Metaphysics, ii, p. 245 ad 1046 B 26, and Faust, r Möglichkeitsgedanke, i, pp. 175 ff.; for the attitude of the Hellenistic philosophers, Faust, Op. cit. i, pp. 209 ff.) So, for example, in the first

place, if the moon is not inhabited by men, it is not necessary that she have come to be in vain and to no purpose, for we see that this earth of ours is not productive and inhabited throughout its whole extent either but only a small part of it is fruitful of animals and plants on the peaks, as it were, and peninsulas rising out of the deep, while of the rest some parts are desert and fruitless with winter-storms and summer-droughts and the most are sunk in the great sea. You, however, because of your constant fondness and admiration for Aristarchus, give no heed to the text that Crates read:

1. Ocean, that is the universal source
2. Of men and gods, spreads over most of earth.[*](For the uninhabitability of the arctic and torrid zones cf. besides Iside, 367 D Strabo, ii. 3. 1 (c. 96) and Cleomedes, i. 2. 12 (p. 22. 11-14 [Ziegler]); and for the connection of this theory with the notion that the greatest part of the outer ocean is in the torrid zone cf. Cleomedes, i. 6. 33 (p. 60. 21-24). This was not the opinion of Posidonius (Cleomedes, ibid, and i. 6. 31-32 [p. 58. 4-25]); it was the geography of Cleanthes, which Crates sought to impose upon Homer (cf. Geminus, xvi. 21 ff. [p. 172. 11 ff., Manitius]; Kroll, R. E. xi. 1637 s. v. Krates; Susemihl, Geschichte der griech. Litteratur in der Alexandrinerzeit, ii, pp. 5 ff.). Since the first line quoted by Plutarch is Iliad, xiv. 246 of our text of Homer (with ὠκεανοῦ instead of ὠκεανός) but the second line does not occur, the latter was probably an interpolation made by Crates to support his interpretation of Homer’s geography; for Crates textual alterations and for the controversy between him and Aristarchus cf. Susemihl, Op. cit. i, p. 457 and ii, p. 7, n. 33; Kroll, loc. cit. 1640; ChristSchmid-Stählin⁶, ii. 1, p. 210; Mette, Sphairopoiia. pp. 60 ff.)

Yet it is by no means for nothing that these parts have come to be. The sea gives off gentle exhalations, and the most pleasant winds when summer is at its height are released and dispersed from the uninhabited and frozen region by the snows that are gradually melting there.[*](cf. Theophrastus, Ventis, ii, § 11, and Aristotle, Meteorology, 364 A 5-13. For ἡ ἀοίκητος without a noun = the uninhabited world cf. Adv. Coloten, 1115 a.) A strict guardian and artificer of day and night has according to Plato[*](Lamprias retorts upon Theon an adaptation of his own quotation of Timaeus, 40 B - C; cf. 937 E supra and note c there.) been stationed in the centre. Nothing then prevents the moon too, while destitute of living beings, from providing reflections for the light that is diffused about her and for the rays of the stars a point of confluence in herself and a blending whereby she digests the exhalations from the earth and at the same time slackens the excessive torridity and harshness of the sun.[*](cf. 928 C supra.) Moreover, conceding a point perhaps to ancient tradition also, we shall say that she was held to be Artemis on the ground that she is a virgin and sterile but is helpful and beneficial to other females.[*](For moon = Artemis cf. 922 A supra and note b there; for the virgin goddess of childbirth cf. besides the references there Plato, Theaetetus, 149 B, and Cornutus, 34 (p. 73. 18 ff. [Lang]).) In the second place, my dear Theon, nothing that has been said proves impossible the alleged inhabitation of the moon. As to the rotation, since it is very gentle and werene, it smooths the air and distributes it in settled order, so that there is no danger of falling and slipping off for those who stand there. And if it is not simple either,[*](This refers to 937 F supra. For the use of ἁπλῆ simple in this context cf Cleomedes, i. 4. 19 (p. 34. 20 [Ziegler]) and Theon of Smyrna, p. 150. 21-23 (Hiller).) even this complication and variation of the motion is not attributable to irregularity or confusion; but in them astronomers demonstrate a marvellous order and progression, making her revolve with circles that unroll about other circles, some assuming that she is herself motionless and others that she retrogresses smoothly and regularly with ever constant velocity,[*](An example of the former hypothesis is Aristotle’s theory that each planet is fixed in a sphere revolving within counteracting spheres that cancel the special motions of the superior planet (cf. Metaphysics, 1073 B 38-1074 A 14 and Caelo, 289 B 30-290 A 7); an example of the latter is Plato’s theory of freely moving planets (cf. Timaeus, 40 C-D, Laws, 822 A-C; Cornford, Plato’s Cosmology, pp. 79-93). Theon of Smyrna (p. 175. 1-4 [Hiller]) observes that the difference between these two kinds of astronomical model is immaterial in saving the phenomena. On the whole passage cf. Eudemus in Theon of Smyrna, p. 200. 13 ff. (Hiller).) for these superpositions of the circles and their rotations and relations to one another and to us combine most harmoniously to produce the apparent variations of her motion in altitude and the deviations in latitude at the same time as her revolutions in longitude.[*](Norlind (Eranos, xxv [1927], pp. 275-277) argues from the terms used here and in 937 F supra that Plutarch has in mind the theory of epicycles which Hipparchus proposed for the moon and which is described by Ptolemy, Syntaxis, iv (i, pp. 265 ff. and especially pp. 301. 16-302, 11 [Heiberg]). The evidence of the terminology is not exact enough to make this thesis convincing (cf. Class. Phil. xlvi [1951], pp. 146-147).) As to the great heat and continual scorching of the sun, you will cease to fear it, if first of all you set the conjunctions over against the twelve summery full-moons[*](cf. 938 A supra: twelve summers every year. ) and suppose that the continuousness of the change produces in the extremes, which do not last a long time, a suitable tempering and removes the excess from either. Between these then, as is likely, they have a season most nearly approaching spring. In the second place, upon us the sun sends, through air which is turbid and which exerts a concomitant pressure, heat that is nourished by the exhalations, whereas there the air being tenuous and translucent scatters and diffuses the sun’s light, which has no tinder or body to sustain it.[*](For the pressure of the air and the ὑπέκκαυμα cf. Aristotle, Meteorology, 341 B 6-25, and Alexander, Meteor. p. 20. 11 ff. Praechter (Hierokles der Stoiker, p. 109) refers to Seneca, Nat. Quaest. iv b 10 in support of his thesis that the material in this chapter of the Facie is from a Stoic source.) The fruits of tree and field here in our region are nourished by rains; but elsewhere, as up in your home[*](Lamprias is addressing Theon primarily; but Menelaus also was from Egypt, though we know only Alexandria as his residence.) around Thebes and Syene, the land drinking water that springs from earth instead of rain-water and enjoying breezes and dews[*](Theophrastus (Hist. Plant. viii. 6. 6) says that in Egypt, Babylon, and Bactria, where rain is absent or scarce, dews nourish the crops (cf. also Hist. Plant. iv. 3. 7). Plutarchs statement here that the water drunk by the land in Egypt is γηγενές may have been inspired by Platos remark in Timaeus, 22 E 2-4; for the theory that the flood of Nile was caused by water springing from the earth cf. Oenopides, frag. 11 (i, p. 394. 39 ff. [Diels-Kranz]; cf. Seneca, Nat. Quaest. iv a 2. 26) and the opinion mentioned without an author by Seneca, Nat. Quaest. vi. 8. 3. Praechter (Hierokles, p. 110) holds that Plutarch here reflects Posidonius’s theory as reconstructed by Oder (Philologus, Suppl. vii [1898], pp. 299 ff. and 312 f.).) would refuse, I think, to adapt itself[*](For this meaning of συμφέρεσθαί τινι cf. Quomodo Quis Sent. Prof. Virt. 79 A, Cohibenda Ira, 461 A, Sollertia Animalium, 960 E, Timoleon, 15 (242 E), Wyttenbach’s Animadversiones in Plutarchi Opera Moralia (Leipzig, 1820), i, p. 461; the phrase cannot mean to be compared with, as it has been regularly translated here.) to the fruitfulness that attends the most abundant rainfall, and that because of a certain excellence and temperament that it has. Plants of the same kind, which in our region if sharply nipped by winter bear good fruit in abundance, in Libya and in your home in Egypt are very sensitive to cold and afraid of winter.[*](That the same species of plant varies with the nature of the soil, the atmosphere, and the cultivation is frequently stated by Theophrastus (cf. e.g. Hist. Plant. vi. 6. 3-5-8); cf. with ἐὰν σφόδρα τιεσθῇ χειμῶσιν in this passage Theophrastus, Causis Plant. ii. 1. 2-4.) And, while Gedrosia and Ethiopia which comes down to the ocean is barren and entirely treeless because of the aridity, in the adjacent and surrounding sea there grow and thrive down in the deep plants of great magnitude, some of which are called olives, some laurels, and some tresses of Isis[*](On these plants that grew in the sea cf. Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. iv. 7. 1 ff.; Eratosthenes in Strabo, xvi. 3. 6 (c. 766); Pliny, Nat. Hist. xiii. 25. 50-52 (140-142). In Quaest. Nat. 911 F Plutarch refers to the plants that are said to grow in the Red Sea, but there he states that they are nurtured by the rivers which bring down mud and that these plants consequently grow only near to the shore.); and the plants here called love-restorers when lifted out of the earth and hung up not only live as long as you wish but sprout[*](Cf Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxiv. 17. 102 (167).) [. . .]. Some plants are sown towards winter, and some at the height of summer as sesame and millet.[*](cf. Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. viii. 1. 1 and 4; 2. 6; and 3. 2.) Thyme or centaury, if sown in good, rich soil and wetted and watered, departs from its natural quality and loses its strength, whereas drought delights it and causes it to reach its proper stature[*](cf. Theophrastus, Causis Plant. iii. 1. 3-6.); and some plants, as they say, cannot stand even dew, as is true of the majority of Arabian plants, but are blighted and destroyed by being moistened.[*](For the notion that dew injures some plants cf. possibly Theophrastus, Causis Plant. vi. 18. 10; but he holds that desert vegetation is nourished by dew in default of rain (Hist. Plant. iv. 3. 7 and viii. 6. 6).) What wonder then if on the moon there grow roots and seeds and trees that have no need of rain nor yet of snow but are naturally adapted to a summery and rarefied air? And why is it unlikely that winds arise warmed by the moon and that breezes steadily accompany the rolling swell of her revolution and by scattering off and diffusing dews and light moisture suffice for the vegetation and that she herself is not fiery or dry in temperament but soft and humidifying? After all, no influence of dryness comes to us from her but much of moistness and femininity[*](Of. Vita et Poesi Homeri, B, 202 (vii, p. 450. 14-20 [Bernardakis]); Aristotle, Hist. Animal. 582 A 34 b 3.): the growth of plants, the decay of meats, the souring and flattening of wine, the softening of timbers, the easy delivery of women.[*](On the liquefying action of the moon and the passage in general cf. Quaest. Conviv iii. 10 (657 F ff.); Iside, 367 D; Cicero, Nat. Deorum, ii. 19. 50 (with Mayor’s note ad. loc.); Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 101 (223). On the growth of plants cf. also Iside, 353 F and Athenaeus, iii. 74 C; on softening of timbers Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. v. 1. 3; on easy delivery S. V. F. ii, frag. 748. For further literature cf. Boll, Sternglaube und Sterndeutung³ (1926), pp. 122-125.) Now that Pharnaces is quiet I am afraid of provoking and arousing him again if I cite, in the words of his own school, the flood-tides of Ocean and the swelling of the straits when they are increased and poured abroad by the liquefying action of the moon.[*](= S. V. F. ii, frag. 679. cf. also Cicero, Divinatione, ii. 34 (with Pease’s note ad loc.) and Nat. Deorum, ii. 7. 19; Seneca, Provid. i. 4; Cleomedes, ii. 1. 86 (p. 156. 15-16 [Ziegler]) and ii. 3. 98 (p. 178. 4-5); Strabo, iii. 5. 8 (cc. 173 f.) and i. 3. 11 (cc. 54-55). In Placitis, 897 B-C ( = Aëtius, iii. 17. 3 and 9) theories that the moon influences the tides are attributed to Pytheas and to Seleucus.) Therefore I shall rather turn to you, my dear Theon, for when you expound these words of Alcman’s,

[Such as] are nourished by Dew, daughter [of Zeus] and of [divine] Selene,[*](Alcman, frag. 43 (Diehl) = 48 (Bergk⁴). In both Quaest. Conviv 659 B and Quaest. Nat. 918 A Plutarch quotes the line as an explanation of the origin of dew, cf. Macrobius, Sat. vii. 16. 31-32.)

you tell us that at this point he calls the air Zeus and says that it is liquefied by the moon and turns to dew-drops.[*](cf.Vergil, Georgics, iii. 337; Roscher, Selene und Verwandtes, p. 50, n. 200.) It is in fact probable, my friend, that the moon’s nature is contrary to that of the sun, if of herself she not only naturally softens and dissolves all that he condenses and dries but liquefies and cools even the heat that he casts upon her and imbues her with. They err then who believe the moon to be a fiery and glowing body; and those who demand that living beings there be equipped just as those here are for generation, nourishment, and livelihood seem blind to the diversities of nature, among which one can discover more and greater differences and dissimilarities between living beings than between them and inanimate objects.[*](cf.Aristotle, Hist. Animal. 588 B 4 ff. and Part. Animal. 681 A 12-15.) Let there not be mouthless men nourished by odours who [Megasthenes] thinks [do exist][*](See 938 C supra and note d there. On the text and implication of this sentence cf. Class. Phil. xlvi (1951), pp. 147-148.); yet the Hungerbane,[*](For ἡ ἄλιμος cf. Sept. Sap. 157 D-F; [Plutarch], Comment. in Hesiod. § 3 (vii, p. 51. 14 ff. [Bernardakis]); Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxii. 22 (73); Porphyry, Vita Pythag. § 34 and Abstinentia, iv. 20 (p. 266. 5 ff. [Nauck]); Plato, Laws, 677 E (where the word ἄλιμος itself does not occur, however).) the virtue of which he was himself trying to explain to us, Hesiod hinted at when he said

Nor what great profit mallow has and squill[*](Works and Days, 41.)

and Epimenides made manifest in fact when he showed that with a very little fuel nature kindles and sustains the living creature, which needs no further nourishment if it gets as much as the size of an olive.[*](cf. Epimenides, frag. A 5 (i, pp. 30-31 [Diels-Kranz]), where reference to this passage should be added.) It is plausible that the men on the moon, if they do exist, are slight of body and capable of being nourished by whatever comes their way.[*](cf.Aristotle, Gen. Animal. 761 B 21-23 for the suggestion that animate beings of a kind unknown to us may exist on the moon and [Philoponus], Gen. Animal. p. 160. 16-20 for a description of these creatures that do not eat or drink.) After all, they say that the moon herself, like the sun which is an animate being of fire many times as large as the earth, is nourished by the moisture on the earth, as are the rest of the stars too, though they are countless; so light and frugal of requirements do they conceive the creatures to be that inhabit the upper region.[*](= S. V. F. ii, frag. 677. cf. Stoicorum Repugnantiis, 1053 A ( = S. V. F. ii, frag. 579); Aëtius, ii. 17. 4; Strabo, i. 1. 9 (c. 6); Cleomedes, i. 6. 33 (p. 60. 21-24 [Ziegler]). Plutarch, of course, uses Stoic doctrine here against the Stoics.) We have no comprehension of these beings, however, nor of the fact that a different place and nature and temperature are suitable to them. Just as, assuming that we were unable to approach the sea or touch it but only had a view of it from afar and the information that it is bitter, unpotable, and salty water, if someone said that it supports in its depths many large animals of multifarious shapes and is full of beasts that use water for all the ends that we use air, his statements would seem to us like a tissue of myths and marvels, such appears to be our relation to the moon and our attitude towards her is apparently the same when we disbelieve that any men dwell there. Those men, I think, would be much more amazed at the earth, when they look out at the sediment and dregs[*](Zeno called earth ἰλύ and ὑποστάθμη (S. V. F. i, frags. 104 and 105); but, since the end of this chapter appears to have been inspired by Plato’s Phaedo, 109 B-D, the phrase here used was probably suggested to Plutarch by Plato’s use of ὑποστάθμη there (109 C 2).) of the universe, as it were, obscurely visible in moisture, mists, and clouds as a lightless, low, and motionless spot, to think that it engenders and nourishes animate beings which partake of motion, breath, and warmth. If they should chance to hear somewhere these Homeric words, Dreadful and dank, which even gods abhor[*](Iliad, xx. 65.) and

Deep under Hell as far as Earth from Heaven,[*](Iliad, viii. 16.)

these they would say are simply a description of this place and Hell and Tartarus have been relegated hither while the moon alone is earth, since it is equally distant from those upper regions and these lower ones.