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 , 570 E 571 E; n.b. that in , 1055 d-f he attacks the Chrysippean doctrine of δυνατόν. On δυνατόν and ἐνδεχόμενον as used by Aristotle cf. Ross, Aristotle’s , ii, p. 245 ad 1046 B 26, and Faust, , 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: Ocean, that is the universal source Of men and gods, spreads over most of earth.For the uninhabitability of the arctic and torrid zones cf. besides , 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, xi. 1637 s. v. Krates; Susemihl, , ii, pp. 5 ff.). Since the first line quoted by Plutarch is , 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, 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, , ii, § 11, and Aristotle, , 364 A 5-13. For ἡ ἀοίκητος without a noun = the uninhabited world cf. , 1115 a. A strict guardian and artificer of day and night has according to PlatoLamprias retorts upon Theon an adaptation of his own quotation of , 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, , 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. , 1073 B 38-1074 A 14 and , 289 B 30-290 A 7); an example of the latter is Plato’s theory of freely moving planets (cf. , 40 C-D, , 822 A-C; Cornford, , 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 (, 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, , 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. 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-moonscf. 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, , 341 B 6-25, and Alexander, p. 20. 11 ff. Praechter (, p. 109) refers to Seneca, iv b 10 in support of his thesis that the material in this chapter of the 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 homeLamprias 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 dewsTheophrastus ( viii. 6. 6) says that in Egypt, Babylon, and Bactria, where rain is absent or scarce, dews nourish the crops (cf. also 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 , 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, iv a 2. 26) and the opinion mentioned without an author by Seneca, vi. 8. 3. Praechter (, p. 110) holds that Plutarch here reflects Posidonius’s theory as reconstructed by Oder (, Suppl. vii [1898], pp. 299 ff. and 312 f.). would refuse, I think, to adapt itselfFor this meaning of συμφέρεσθαί τινι cf. 79 A, , 461 A, , 960 E, , 15 (242 E), Wyttenbach’s (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. vi. 6. 3-5-8); cf. with ἐὰν σφόδρα τιεσθῇ χειμῶσιν in this passage Theophrastus, 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 IsisOn these plants that grew in the sea cf. Theophrastus, iv. 7. 1 ff.; Eratosthenes in Strabo, xvi. 3. 6 (c. 766); Pliny, xiii. 25. 50-52 (140-142). In 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 sproutCf Pliny, xxiv. 17. 102 (167). [. . .]. Some plants are sown towards winter, and some at the height of summer as sesame and millet.cf. Theophrastus, 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 staturecf. Theophrastus, 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, vi. 18. 10; but he holds that desert vegetation is nourished by dew in default of rain ( 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 femininityOf. , B, 202 (vii, p. 450. 14-20 [Bernardakis]); Aristotle, 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. iii. 10 (657 F ff.); , 367 D; Cicero, , ii. 19. 50 (with Mayor’s note ad. loc.); Pliny, ii. 101 (223). On the growth of plants cf. also , 353 F and Athenaeus, iii. 74 C; on softening of timbers Theophrastus, v. 1. 3; on easy delivery ii, frag. 748. For further literature cf. Boll, (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.= ii, frag. 679. cf. also Cicero, , ii. 34 (with Pease’s note ad loc.) and , ii. 7. 19; Seneca, 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 , 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 659 B and 918 A Plutarch quotes the line as an explanation of the origin of dew, cf. Macrobius, 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, , iii. 337; Roscher, , 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, 588 B 4 ff. and 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. xlvi (1951), pp. 147-148.; yet the Hungerbane,For ἡ ἄλιμος cf. 157 D-F; [Plutarch], § 3 (vii, p. 51. 14 ff. [Bernardakis]); Pliny, xxii. 22 (73); Porphyry, § 34 and , iv. 20 (p. 266. 5 ff. [Nauck]); Plato, , 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, 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, 761 B 21-23 for the suggestion that animate beings of a kind unknown to us may exist on the moon and [Philoponus], 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.= ii, frag. 677. cf. , 1053 A ( = 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 dregsZeno called earth ἰλύ and ὑποστάθμη ( i, frags. 104 and 105); but, since the end of this chapter appears to have been inspired by Plato’s , 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, xx. 65. and Deep under Hell as far as Earth from Heaven,, 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.

Almost before I had finished, Sulla broke in. Hold on, Lamprias, he said, and put to the wicket of your discoursecf., 965 B. lest you unwittingly run the myth aground, as it were, and confound my drama, which has a different setting and a different disposition. Well, I am but the actor of the piece, but first I shall say that its author began for our sake — if there be no objection with a quotation from HomerOn the text of this sentence cf. xlvi (1951), pp. 148-149.: An isle, Ogygia, lies far out at sea,, vii. 244. On the geographical introduction to the myth see the Introduction, § 5, and especially Hamilton, xxviii (1934), pp. 15-26, who points out the parallel between Plutarch’s geographical scheme and Plato’s location of Atlantis in , 24 E 25 A. a run of five days off from Britain as you sail westward; and three other islands equally distant from it and from one another lie out from it in the general direction of the summer sunset. In one of these, according to the tale told by the natives, Cronus is confined by Zeus, and the antique [Briareus], holding watch and ward over those islands and the sea that they call the Cronian main, has been settled close beside him.cf., 420 A and on the text xlvi (1951), p. 149. For Briareus as a guard set by Zeus over Cronus and the Titans cf. Hesiod, , 729-735 and Apollodorus, i. 7 ( = i. 2. 1). The pillars of Heracles are said to have had the older name Βριάρεω στῆλαι (cf. Aelian, v. 3 = Aristotle, frag. 678) and before that Κρόνου στῆλαι (cf. Charax, frag. 16 = iii, p. 640); cf. also Clearchus, frag. 56 ( ii, p. 320) and Parthenius, frag. 21 (Diehl) = frag. 31 (Martin). The great mainland, by which the great ocean is encircled,cf. 24 E 5 25 A 5. while not so far from the other islands, is about five thousand stades from Ogygia, the voyage being made by oar, for the main is slow to traverse and muddy as a result of the multitude of streams.Plutarch’s language really implies that the way is so long — not just that it takes a long time — because the sea is hard to traverses3 The streams are discharged by the great land-mass and produce alluvial deposits, thus giving density and earthiness to the sea, which has been thought actually to be congealed.cf. Strabo, i. 4. 2 (c. 63): ἥν (i.e. Θούλνἠ φησι Πυθέας ἐγγὺς εἶναι τῆς πεπηγυίας θαλάττης, and Pliny, iv. 16 (104): a Tyle unius diei navigatione mare concretum a nonnullis Cronium appellatur (n. b. that for Apollonius Rhodius [iv. 327, 509, 546] the Adriatic is the Cronian sea); cf. Tacitus, , § 10 and , § 45. Plutarch denies that the sea is really congealed as it is reputed to be and explains its nature in imitation of Plato (, 25 d 3-6, , 108 E 6 109 A 2); but, since he cannot adduce as the cause of the muddy shallows the settling of the island, Atlantis, under the sea, he falls back upon alluvial deposits from the rivers on the great continent, a notion familiar from many sources (cf. , 602 D with Thucydides, ii. 102. 6; Aristotle, , 351 B 28-32; Herodotus, ii. 10; Strabo, i. 2. 29-30 [cc. 36-37]). For the congealed sea cf. further K. Müllenhoff, , i (1890), pp. 410-425; E. Janssens, (1946), pp. 20-22; J. O. Thomson, , pp. 148-149, 241, and 54-55 (on Avienus, , 117-129). On the coast of the mainland Greeks dwell about a gulf which is not smaller than the MaeotisThe Sea of Azov, the size of which Herodotus had greatly exaggerated (iv. 86); Strabo reduced its perimeter to 9000 stades (ii. 5. 23 [c. 125]). and the mouth of which lies roughly on the same parallel as the mouth of the Caspian sea.The Caspian was thought to be a gulf of the outer ocean from the time of Alexander until Ptolemy corrected the error (, chap. 44; Strabo, xi. 6. 1 [c. 507]), though Herodotus (i. 202-203) and Aristotle (, 354 A 3-4) had known that it was connected with no other sea. These people consider and call themselves continentals [and the] inhabitants of this land [islanders] because the sea flows around it on all sides; and they believe that with the peoples of Cronus there mingled at a later time those who arrived in the train of Heracles and were left behind by him and that these latter so to speak rekindled again to a strong, high flame the Hellenic spark there which was already being quenched and overcome by the tongue, the laws, and the manners of the barbarians. Therefore Heracles has the highest honours and Cronus the second. Now when at intervals of thirty years the star of Cronus, which we call Splendent Φαίνων as the name of the planet Saturn occurs in , 1029 B (acc.: Φαίνωνα); Aëtius, ii. 15. 4 (where mss. vary between Φαίνωνα and Φαίνοντα, cf. Diels, , p. 344 ad loc.); [Aristotle], , 392 A 23 (Φαίνοντος); cf. Cicero, , ii. 20. 52. There is a similar variation in the mss. as between Στίλβοντ and Στίλβωνα (cf. Diels, , p. 345 on Aëtius, ii. 15. 4), though at 925 A supra the mss. of agree on Στίλβοντα. but they, our author said, call Nightwatchman, enters the sign of the Bull,Taurus is the sign of the moon’s exaltation (cf. Ptolemy, , i. 20 [p. 44. 2, Boll-Boer]; Porphyry, . 18), and it is for this reason that the expedition begins when Saturn enters this sign. For the thirty years cf. Aëtius, ii. 32. 1 (, p. 363); Cleomedes, i. 3. 16-17 (p. 30. 18-21 [Ziegler]); Cicero, , ii. 20, 52. they, having spent a long time in preparation for the sacrifice and the [expedition], choose by lot and send forth [a sufficient number of envoys] in a correspondingly sufficient number of ships, putting aboard a large retinue and the provisions necessary for men who are going to cross so much sea by oar and live such a long time in a foreign land. Now when they have put to sea the several voyagers meet with various fortunes as one might expect; but those who survive the voyage first put in at the outlying islands, which are inhabited by Greeks,These islands lie out westward or north-westward from Ogygia, cf. 941 A supra. It has not previously been said that they are inhabited by Greeks; in fact, 941 B seems to imply that Greeks live only on the mainland. and see the sun pass out of sight for less than an hour over a period of thirty days,I have tried to preserve the ambiguity of Plutarch’s language, though he probably meant to say less than an hour each day for thirty days (so Kepler understood, who thought that the reference was to Greenland). For the length of summer-days in Britain and in Thule cf. Cleomedes, i. 7. 37-38 (pp. 68. 6-70. 22 [Ziegler]) and Pytheas and Crates in Geminus, vi. 9-21 (pp. 70-76 [Manitius]). Pliny, iv. 16 (104) says that in Thule at the summer solstice there is no night at all, i.e. while the sun is in Cancer; but he adds here, what he had before (ii. 75 [186-187]) ascribed to Pytheas, that some think that in Thule there is a continuous day of six months duration. — and this is night, though it has a darkness that is slight and twilight glimmering from the west. There they spend ninety days regarded with honour and friendliness as holy men and so addressed, and then winds carry them across to their appointed goal.cf. xlvi (1951), p. 149 and note 91. Nor do any others inhabit it but themselves and those who have been dispatched before them, for, while those who have served the god together for the stint of thirty years are allowed to sail off home, most of them usually choose to settle in the spot, some out of habit and others because without toil or trouble they have all things in abundance while they constantly employ their time in sacrifices and celebrations or with various discourse and philosophy, for the nature of the island is marvellous as is the softness of the circumambient air. Some when they intend to sail away are even hindered by the divinity which presents itself to them as to intimates and friends not in dreams only or by means of omens, but many also come upon the visions and the voices of spirits manifest. For Cronus himself sleeps confined in a deep cave of rock that shines like gold — the sleep that Zeus has contrived as a bond for him —, and birds flying in over the summit of the rock bring ambrosia to him, and all the island is suffused with fragrance scattered from the rock as from a fountain; and those spirits mentioned before tend and serve Cronus, having been his comrades what time he ruled as king over gods and men. Many things they do foretell of themselves, for they are oracular; but the prophecies that are greatest and of the greatest matters they come down and report as dreams of Cronus, for all that Zeus premeditates Cronus sees in his dreamsFor the sleep of Cronus as his bonds and for the spirits who are his servitors cf. , 420 A. For the sleeping Cronus cf. also Kern, , frags. 149 and 155; in these Orphic or Neo-Platonic passages, however, Cronus prophesies, furnishes Zeus with plans, or thinks the world order before Zeus is aware of it (cf. Damascius, 305 v-306 r [ii, pp. 136. 19-137. 8, Ruelle] and Proclus, , p. 53. 29 ff. [Pasquali]), which is the opposite of what Plutarch’s words imply. Because of Tertullian, , 46. 10 (f. 156) J. H. Waszink (Tertullian, , p. 496) thinks it certain that the ultimate source of the story was one of Aristotle’s lost dialogues. Pohlenz ( xi. 2013. s.v. Kronos) supposes that Plutarchs source was Posidonius and that Posidonius was inspired by Nordic legends3 The feature of the birds that bring Cronus ambrosia appears to have been adapted from the story of Zeus’s nectar; cf. 156 F and , xii. 63-65. Besides J. H. Waszink (Tertullian, , p. 496) see the same author’s articles in , i (1947), pp. 137-149 (especially pp. 145-149) and in , ii (1950), pp. 639-653 (especially pp. 651-653). Waszink mistakenly believes that in Plutarch’s story special demons convey to Zeus [the thoughts that arise in Cronus’s dreams] who makes use of them for his government of the universe, and consequently he overlooks the important difference between Plutarch’s version and the Orphic passages that I have pointed out in this note. and the titanic affections and motions of his soul make him rigidly tense [until] sleep [restores] his repose once more and the royal and divine element is all by itself, pure and unalloyed.cf. xlvi (1951), pp. 149-150. Here then the strangerThis is the first mention of the stranger, unless he was referred to in the lost beginning of the dialogue. Hitherto he has merely been implied by the indirect discourse and τὸν ποιητήν in 941 A supra; cf. the reference in note c there. was conveyed, as he said, and while he served the god became at his leisure acquainted with astronomy, in which he made as much progress as one can by practising geometry, and with the rest of philosophy by dealing with so much of it as is possible for the natural philosopher.φιλοσοφίας χρώμενος is highly condensed; it must be construed: φιλοσοφίας δὲ πῆς ἄλλης ῾ἐμπειρίαν ἔσχἐ, χρώμενος ῾αὐτῇ ἐφ᾽ ὅσον̓ τῷ φυσικῷ ῾δυνατόν ἐστιν̓. For the distinction between ἀστρολογία and φυσική here referred to cf. Geminuss quotation of Posidonius in Simplicius, , pp. 291. 23-292. 9 (Diels). Since he had a strange desire and longing to observe the Great Island (for so, it seems, they call our part of the world), when the thirty years had elapsed, the relief-party having arrived from home, he saluted his friends and sailed away, lightly equipped for the rest but carrying a large viaticum in golden beakers. Well, all his experiences and all the men whom he visited, encountering sacred writings and being initiated in all rites — to recount all this as he reported it to us, relating it thoroughly and in detail, is not a task for a single day; but listen to so much as is pertinent to the present discussion. He spent a great deal of time in Carthage inasmuch as [Cronus] receives great [honour] in our country,For the special position of Cronus at Carthage cf. , 171 C, , 552 A; Diodorus, v. 66. 5. and he discovered certain sacred parchments that had been secretly spirited off to safety when the earlier city was being destroyed and had lain unnoticed in the ground for a long time.Nothing in the subsequent account supports the frequently expressed notion that the myth is supposed to have been discovered in these parchments, and 945 D s.v. expressly invalidates any such assumption. Among the visible godscf., 40 D (τὰ περὶ θεῶν ὁρατῶν), 41 A (ὅσοι περιπολοῦσιν φανερῶς θεοί); , 985 D (τοὺς ὄντως ἡμῖν φανεροὺς ὄντας θεούς). he said that one should especially honour the moon, and so he kept exhorting me to do, inasmuch as she is sovereign over life [and death], bordering as she does [upon the meads of Hades].

When I expressed surprise at this and asked for a clearer account, he saidHere Sulla begins to quote the stranger directly and continues his direct quotation to the end of the myth in 945 D.: Many assertions about the gods, Sulla, are current among the Greeks, but not all of them are right. So, for example, although they give the right names to Demeter and Cora, they are wrong in believing that both are together in the same region. The fact is that the former is in the region of earth and is sovereign over terrestrial things, and the latter is in the moon and mistress of lunar things. She has been called both Cora and Phersephone,For identification of Persephone and the moon cf. Epicharmus, frag. B 54 (i, p. 207. 9-11 [Diels-Kranz] = Ennius in Varro, , v. 68); Porphyry, 18; Iamblichus in John Laurentius Lydus, , iv. 149; Martianus Capella, ii. 161-162. Plutarch in , 372 D notices the identification of Isis and the moon and in 361 E that of Isis and Persephassa (cf. note c on 922 A supra for Athena). The Pythagoreans are said to have called the planets the hounds of Persephone (Porphyry, 41 = Aristotle, frag. 196; Clement, v. 50 [676 P, 244 S]); and Plutarch in , 416 E refers to some who call the moon χθονίας ὁμοῦ καὶ οὐρανίας κλῆρον Ἑκάτης (cf. , 368 E). cf. further, Roscher, , pp. 119 ff. the latter as being a bearer of lightcf. for the ancient etymologies of Φερσεφόνη Bräuninger, xix. 1. 946-947, and Roscher, , ii. 1288; there seems to be no ancient parallel to the one given here, to which Plutarch does not refer in , 377 D, where he mentions the etymology proposed by Cleanthes. In the to Persephone (xxix. 9 = , rec. E. Abel, p. 74. 9) the epithet, φαεσφόρος, is used of the goddess but not by way of etymology (cf. line 16); nor is she expressly identified with the moon, although she is called φαεσφόρος, ἀγλαόμορφε, εὐφεγγές, κερόεσσα. and Cora because that is what we call the part of the eye in which is reflected the likeness of him who looks into itcf.[Plato], , 133 A. The word κόρη means girl, maiden, for which reason it was used of such goddesses as Athena and Persephone, and also doll, whence like Latin pupilla it came to mean the pupil of the eye; cf. English the baby in the eye. as the light of the sun is seen in the moon. The tales told of the wandering and the quest of these goddesses contain the truth [spoken covertly],i.e. the wandering of Demeter in search of Persephone after the abduction of the latter by Hades: cf. e.g. the to Demeter and Apollodorus, , i. 5. In the myth, however, Demeter was the wanderer; but the earth, which she is here supposed to represent, is stationary. In the myth Persephone is in darkness when she is separated from her mother and with Hades, whereas Plutarch’s interpretation requires that Persephone, the moon, be in darkness and night when she is in the embrace of her mother, the earth. for they long for each other when they are apart and they often embrace in the shadow. The statement concerning Cora that now she is in the light of heaven and now in darkness and night is not false but has given rise to error in the computation of the time, for not throughout six months but every six months we see her being wrapped in shadow by the earth as it were by her mother, and infrequently we see this happen to her at intervals of five months,cf. 933 E supra and , 591 C: σελήνη φεύγει τὴν Στύγα μικρὸν ὑπερφέρουσα λαμβάνεται δ᾽ ἅπαξ ἐν μέτροις δευτέροις ἑκατὸν ἑβδομήκοντα ἑπτά (177 days = one-half of a lunar year, 6 synodic months). for she cannot abandon Hades since she is the boundary of Hades, as Homer too has rather well put it in veiled terms: But to Elysium’s plain, the bourne of earth. iv. 563 but with ἀλλά ς᾽ ἐς instead of ἀλλ᾽ εἰς. Where the range of the earth’s shadow ends, this he set as the term and boundary of the earth.cf.Stobaeus, , i. 49 (i, p. 448. 5-16 [Wachsmuth]) = frag. 146 β (vii, p. 176 [Bernardakis]), where , iv. 563-564 is taken to indicate that the region of the moon is the seat of righteous souls after death (cf. Eustathius, , 1509. 18). There Ἠλύσιον πεδίον is said to mean the surface of the moon lighted by the sun (cf. 944 C s.v.) and πείρατα γαίης the end of the earth’s shadow which often touches the moon; but there is no mention of Hades, Persephone, or Demeter. In the present passage Plutarch does not say why his interpretation of Homer’s line justifies him in calling the moon τοῦ Ἅιδου πέρας, but the rest of the myth makes it certain that Hades is the region between earth and moon (cf. 943 C s.v.). This agrees with the myth of , where (591 A-C) this region is the portion of Persephone and the earth’s shadow is Styx and the road to Hades and where (590 F) Hades and Earth are clearly identical (cf. Heinze, , p. 135; R. M. Jones, , p. 57 and n. 147). Probably then Plutarch here thought that, if Homer could be shown to have set the boundary of earth at the moon, it follows that he understood the moon to be the boundary of Hades. In , 591 B the moon is expressly made the boundary between the portion of Persephone, which is Hades, and the region which extends from moon to sun. Nevertheless, in 944 C s.v. the Elysian plain is said to be the part of the moon that is turned to heaven, i. e. away from the earth; and, though this does not explicitly contradict the present passage, it might still seem to suggest the notion ascribed to Iamblichus by John Laurentius Lydus (, iv. 149 [p. 167. 24 ff.]): τὸν ὑπὲρ σελήνης ἄχρις ἡλίου χῶρον τῷ Ἅιδῃ διδούς, παρ᾽ ᾧ φησὶ καὶ τὰς ἐκκεκαθαρμένας ἐστάναι ψυχάς, καὶ αὐτὸν μὲν εἶναι τὸν Πλούτωνα, Περσεφόνην δὲ τὴν σελήνην. To this point rises no one who is evil or unclean, but the good are conveyed thither after death and there continue to lead a life most easy to be sureCf, , iv. 565: τῇ περ ῥηίστη βιοτὴ πέλει ἀνθρώποισιν. though not blessed or divine until their second death.In Quaest. Rom. 282 A Plutarch cites Castor (cf. 266 E) for the notion that after death souls dwell on the moon, for which cf. in general P. Capelle, (Halis Saxonum, 1917), pp. 1-18 and n. b. Iamblichus, 18. 82; Varro in Augustine, , vii. 6 (i, p. 282. 14-17 [Dombart]); ii, frag. 814.

And what is this, Sulla? Do not ask about these things, for I am going to give a full explanation myself. Most people rightly hold man to be composite but wrongly hold him to be composed of only two parts. The reason is that they suppose mind to be somehow part of soul, thus erring no less than those who believe soul to be part of body, for in the same degree as soul is superior to body so is mind better and more divine than soul. The result of soul [and body commingled is the irrational or the affective factor, whereas of mind and soul] the conjunction produces reason; and of these the former is source of pleasure and pain, the latter of virtue and vice.cf., 441 D 442 A, , 591 D-E. The ultimate source of Plutarch’s conception of the relation of mind, soul, and body is such passages of Plato as , 30 B, 41-42, 90 A; Laws, 961 D-E, , 247 C (cf. ThÈvenaz, , pp. 70-73). Plutarch himself ascribes the twofold division, soul and body, to οἱ πολλοί and so cannot intend a reference to any philosophical school; by those who make soul a μόριον τοῦ σώματος he might mean Stoics (cf. , 1052 F ff., , 1083 C ff.) but might equally well mean Epicureans or materialists generally. Against Adler’s argument ( x, pp. 171-172) that the first of the two notions rejected is Platonic and the second Stoic, so that Plutarch’s source must have been Posidonius, cf. Pohlenz, xxxii (1912), p. 653, and R. M. Jones, , p. 55. In the composition of these three factors earth furnishes the body, the moon the soul, and the sun furnishes mind [to man] for the purpose of his generationcf., 591 B, where motion and generation are linked by Mind in the sun and generation and destruction by Nature in the moon. even as it furnishes light to the moon herself. As to the death we die, one death reduces man from three factors to two and another reduces him from two to oneFor a mortal soul or mortal part of the soul cf. Plato, , 42 D, 61 C, 69 C-D.; and the former takes place in the [earth] that belongs to Demeter [[wherefore to make an end is called] to render [one’s life] to her and Athenians used in olden times to call the dead Demetrians],cf. xlvi (1951), p. 151. [the latter] in the moon that belongs to Phersephone, and associated with the former is Hermes the terrestrial, with the latter Hermes the celestial.cf., 367 D-E. Hermes appears in the myth of Persephone as early as , 377 ff. and is connected with Hecate in the fragment of Theopompus in Porphyry, , ii. 16. cf. also 296 F and Halliday’s note ad. loc. While the goddess herei.e. on earth, Demeter, which is why Plutarch refers to her with αὕτη, though she is the former of the two mentioned. dissociates the soul from the body swiftly and violently, Phersephone gently and by slow degrees detaches the mind from the soul and has therefore been called single-born because the best part of man is born single when separated off [by] her.μονογενής, which appears as an epithet of Hecate and Persephone (cf.Hesiod, , 426; , xxix. 1-2 [Abel]; Apollonius Rhodius, iii. 847), means unique: cf., 31 B and 92 C, to which Plutarch refers in , 423 A and C, where he interprets the word to mean only born. Here, however, he probably takes the final element in an active sense such as it has in Καλλιγένεια, an epithet of Demeter, the moon, and the earth. Each of the two separations naturally occurs in this fashion: All soul, whether without mind or with it,This may mean only whether the soul has been obedient to reason in life or has not but ὅλη κατέδυ εἰς σῶμα, as , 591 D-E puts it; but at 945 B s.v. Plutarch speaks of souls which ἄνευ νοῦ assume bodies and live on earth, and by avow here he may intend to refer to the separation of such souls from their bodies. He cannot mean, as Raingeard supposes, souls whose minds have immediately passed to the sun, for he has just said that the separation of mind from soul takes place at the second death on the moon and neither here nor in 944 F s.v. does he allow for any exception in the sense of the doctrine of the , x. 16, where νοῦς is separated from ψυχή at the moment when the soul leaves the body (cf. Scott, , ii, p. 265). In , 591 D 592 D Plutarch makes νοῦς and φυχή not really two different substances as here in the but considers φυχή to be a degeneration of νοῦς. when it has issued from the bodycf., 563 E: ἐπεὶ γὰρ ἐξέπεσε τὸ φρονοῦν τοῦ σώματος . . . is destined to wander [in] the region between earth and moon but not for an equal time. Unjust and licentious souls pay penalties for their offences; but the good souls must in the gentlest part of the air, which they call the meads of Hades, For the location of Hades cf. , 382 E and the etymology in , 1130 A (cf. Plato, , 493 B and , 80 D); for the identification of Hades with the dark air cf. [Plutarch], , § 97; Philodemus, , c. 13 (, p. 547 b); Cornutus, c. 5 and c. 35; Heraclitus, , § 41. Reference to a mead (λειμών) or meads in the underworld is common: cf. , xi. 539, 573 and xxiv. 13-14; Kern, , 32 f 6 and 222; Plato, 524 A, , 614 E and 616 B. The Neo-Platonists argued that the λειμών in these Platonic passages is meant to be located in the atmosphere under the moon: Proclus, , ii, pp. 132. 20-133. 15 (Kroll); Olympiodorus, , p. 237. 10-13 (Norvin); Hermias, , p. 161. 3-9 (Couvreur). pass a certain set time sufficient to purge and blow away [the] pollutions contracted from the body as from an evil odour.cf. §§ 11-12 (p. 64. 24-25 [Nauck]); Proclus, , iii, p. 331. 6-9 (Diehl); and in general on the pollution of the soul by association with the body Plato, , 81 B-C. Plutarch in a different context uses the words: ὅταν ἀτμοὶ πονηροί ταῖς τῆς φυχῆς ἀνακραθῶσι περιόδοις (, 129 C). [Then], as if brought home from banishment abroad, they savour joy most like that of initiates, which attended by glad expectation is mingled with confusion and excitement.For life on earth as the soul’s exile from its proper home cf. , 607 C-E; and for the comparison with initiates and what follows in this vein a few lines below cf. fragment VI (vii, p. 23. 4-17 [Bernardakis]). For many, even as they are in the act of clinging to the moon, she thrusts off and sweeps away; and some of those souls too that are on the moon they see turning upside down as if sinking again into the deep.cf., 591 C, and Plato’s , 248 A-B, especially αἱ δὲ δὴ ἄλλαι γλιχόμεναι μὲν ἅπασαι τοῦ ἄνω ἕπονται, ἀδυνατοῦσαι δέ, ὑποβρύχιαι συμπεριφέρονται κτλ. Those that have got up, however, and have found a firm footing first go about like victors crowned with wreaths of feathers called wreaths of steadfastness,For life as an athletic contest and the soul as athlete cf. , 561 A, , 593 D-E and 593 F 594 A. The conception is Platonic (cf. , 621 C-D, , 256 B); and it is irrelevant to cite oriental notions of life as a combat and immortality as a triumph as Soury does (, p. 189, n. 1) after Cumont. Soury follows Raingeard in misconstruing στεφάνοις λεγομένοις and supposing that πτερῶν εὐσταθείας is an expression mystique (Op. cit. pp. 189 and 191-192). εὐσταθείας does not depend upon πτερῶν or vice versa; and Plutarch has simply woven the feathers of the soul, which appear throughout the myth of the Phaedrus, into a wreath that is given to the souls of the good for their steadfastness, just as the Victorious souls in , 256 B become ὑπόπτεροι because in life they were ἐγκρατεῖς αὑτῶν καὶ κόσμιοι. because in life they had made the irrational or affective element of the soul orderly and tolerably tractable to reasoncf., 592 A, and Plato’s , 247 B (n.b. εὐήνια ὄντα ῥᾳδίως πορεύεται).; secondly, in appearance resembling a ray of light but in respect of their nature, which in the upper region is buoyant as it is here in ours, resembling the ether about the moon,αἰθήρ for Plato was simply the uppermost and purest air (cf. , 58 D, , 109 B and 111 B); but here the word is probably used under Stoic influence, for which see note d on 928 D and note g on 922 B supra and cf. [Plato], , 366 A (ἡ ψυχὴ συναλγούσα τὸν οὐράνιον ποθεῖ καὶ σύμφυλον αἰθέρα). These last sentences of chapter 28 show several definitely Stoic traits, especially the conception of tension, nourishment of the soul by the exhalations, and the use of the quotation from Heraclitus. It has long been customary to compare with this passage Cicero, i. 19, 43, and Sextus Empiricus, ix. 71-73 (cf. Heinze, , pp. 126-128; K. Reinhardt, , pp. 308-313 and p. 323; R. M. Jones, xxvii [1932], pp. 113 ff.). they get from it both tension and strength as edged instruments get a temper,For the Stoic doctrine of τόνος cf. , 1054 A-B, , 1085 C-D, and ii, frags. 447 and 448. The metaphor of tempering was also commonly used by the Stoics in connection with the soul: cf. ii, frags. 804-806. for what laxness and diffuseness they still have is strengthened and becomes firm and translucent. In consequence they are nourished by any exhalation that reaches them, and Heraclitus was right in saying: Souls employ the sense of smell in Hades. Frag. 98 (i, p. 173. 3 [Diels-Kranz]). For the nourishment of disembodied souls cf. the passages of Cicero and Sextus cited in note e, p. 203. Here the argument of Lamprias in 940 c-d supra is incorporated into the myth, which thereby appears to substantiate the argument.

First they behold the moon as she is in herselfPlutarch certainly wrote αὐτῆς σελήνης (or perhaps αὐτῆς τῆς σελήνης) under the influence of Plato’s true earth, αὐτὴ ἡ γῆ, in , 109 B 7, 110 B 6 (cf. 935 A supra and 944 B s.v.).: her magnitude and beauty and nature, which is not simple and unmixed but a blend as it were of star and earth. Just as the earth has become soft by having been mixed with breath and moist[ure] and as blood gives rise to sense-perception in the flesh with which it is commingled,cf.Aristotle, 656 B 19-21 and 25-26, 666 A 16-17; and Plato, , 77 E on the connection of the blood-vessels with τὸ τῶν αἰσθήσεων πάθος. so the moon, they say,Not the demons who told the stranger the story, as Raingeard says, but the human authors of the theory mentioned in the next sentence; cf. xlvi (1951), pp. 151-152. because it has been permeated through and through by ether is at once animated and fertile and at the same time has the proportion of lightness to heaviness in equipoise. In fact it is in this way too, they say, that the universe itself has entirely escaped local motion, because it has been constructed out of the things that naturally move upwards and those that naturally move downwards.cf. ii, frag. 555 and xlvi (1951), p. 157, n. 105. This was also the conception of Xenocrates who, taking his start from Plato, seemsThe Greek does not imply, as Adler supposes, that Plutarch had any doubt about what Xenocrates had said (cf. E. M. Jones, , p. 55). to have reached it by a kind of superhuman reasoning. Plato is the one who declared that each of the stars as well was constructed of earth and fire bound together in a proportion by means of the [two] intermediate natures, for nothing, as he said, attains perceptibility that does not contain an admixture of earth and light, 40 A and 31 B 32 C; cf.[Plato], , 981 d-e; Plutarch, , 316 E-F. , 31 B strictly requires γῆς καὶ πυρός here; but according to , 45 B and 58 C φῶς is the species of fire that produces visibility.; but Xenocrates says that the stars and the sun are composed of fire and the first density, the moon of the second density and air that is proper to her, and the earth of water [and air] and the third kind of density and that in general neither density all by itself nor subtility is receptive of soul.Xenocrates, frag. 56 (Heinze); for text and implications cf. xlvi (1951), p. 152. So much for the moon’s substance. As to her breadth or magnitude, it is not what the geometers say but many times greater. She measures off the earth’s shadow with few of her own magnitudes not because it is small but she more ardently hastens her motion in order that she may quickly pass through the gloomy place bearing away [the souls] of the good which cry out and urge her on because when they are in the shadow they no longer catch the sound of the harmony of heaven.Plutarch here gives a mythical correction of the astronomical calculations in 923 A-B and 932 B supra (on the text and the paralogism of this correction cf. xlvi [1951], pp. 152-153) and also a mythical explanation of the acceleration of which he had spoken in 933 B supra. With this account of the effect of the lunar eclipse upon the disembodied souls cf. , 591 C and for the harmony in the heavens cf. 590 C-D there, 1147, Plato’s , 617 B, Aristotle’s , 290 B 12 291 A 28. At the same time too with wails [and] cries the souls of the chastised then approach through the shadow from below. That is why most people have the custom of beating brasses during eclipses and of raising a din and clatter against the souls,cf., 17 (264 B); Pliny, ii. 12. 9 (54); Tacitus, , i. 28; Juvenal, vi. 442-443. The purpose of the custom is here made to fit the myth; in , 591 C the moon herself flashes and bellows to frighten away the impure souls. which are frightened off also by the socalled face when they get near it, for it has a grim and horrible aspect.cf. Epigenes in Clement, v. 49 (= Kern, , frag. 33): Γοργόνιον τὴν σελήνην διὰ τὸ ἐν αὐτῇ πρόσωπον. cf. the notion that the face in the moon is that of the Sibyl (, 398 C-D; , 566 D). It is no such thing, however; but just as our earth contains gulfs that are deep and extensive,cf.Plato, , 109 B. one here pouring in towards us through the Pillars of Heracles and outside the Caspian and the Red Sea with its gulfs,For the Caspian see note f on 941 C supra. By Red Sea Plutarch means what we call the Indian Ocean plus the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea; in 733 B he cites Agatharchidas who wrote an extensive work on the Red Sea (cf. Photius, , cod. 250 [pp. 441 ff., Bekker]). so those features are depths and hollows of the moon. The largest of them is calledcf. xlvi (1951), p. 151 on 943 E. Hecate’s Recess, For Hecate and the moon see notes c on 937 F and b on 942 D supra; cf. Sophocles, frag. 492 (Nauck²) and Kern, , frag. 204. For Hecate’s association with a cave cf. , 24-25, and Roscher, , pp. 46-48. Plutarch himself associates μυχός with the punishments in Hades (, 167 A). where the souls suffer and exact penalties for whatever they have endured or committed after having already become Spiritsa This has been called inconsistent with the preceding statement in chapter 28 that only pure or purified souls attain the moon. Even the pure souls that reach the moon, however, still have the affective soul as well as mind; and Plutarch has already said in chapter 28 (942 F) that the life which they lead on the moon is οὐ μακάριον οὐδὲ θεῖον.; and the two long ones are called the Gates,cf. xlvi (1951), p. 153. for through them pass the souls now to the side of the moon that faces heaven and now back to the side that faces earth.They pass to the outer side on their say to the second death (944 E ff. s.v.) and to the hither side on their way to rebirth in bodies (945 C s.v.). In , 766 B the place to which souls come to be reborn in the body is called οἱ Σελήνης καὶ Ἀφροδίτης λειμῶνες.. The side of the moon towards heaven is named Elysian plain, See 942 F supra and note d there. the hither side House of counter-terrestrial Phersephone. Plutarch uses ἀντίχθων in the usual Pythagorean sense in , 1028 B (cf. , 891 f, 895 C, 895 E = Aëtius, ii. 29. 4; iii. 9. 2; iii. 11. 3). Identification of the moon with the counter-earth is ascribed to certain Pythagoreans (but cf. Cherniss, , i, p. 562) by Simplicius, , p. 512. 17-20 (cf. Asclepius, p. 35. 24-27; , 505 A 1 [Brandis]).