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ΚΡΥΣΤΑ ΛΛΟΕΙ⊿ΩΣ

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

James Longrigg
James Longrigg
Affiliation:
The Waburg Institute
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Extract

In the doxographical tradition the concept of a ‘crystalline’ outer-heaven is ascribed to two Presocratic thinkers. Aëtius tells us that Anaximenes held that the stars were fastened like nails in the ‘crystalline’: (2. 14–3 DK. 13 A14) and, again, that Empedocles believed that the fixed stars were attached to the ‘crystalline’, while the planets were unattached: (2. 13. II DK 31 A54.) The ascription of this concept to both these Presocratic philosophers is decidedly odd; for, whereas, in the case of Empedocles’ thought, fire acts as a solidifying agent, Anaximenes, on the other hand, connected solidity with cold and rarity with heat and in his cosmology the heavenly bodies are created by the rarefaction into fire of vapour from the earth. For this reason the concept of a solid outer-heaven is quite incompatible with the little else that is known of his cosmogony and cosmology.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , December 1965 , pp. 249 - 251
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1965

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References

1 Cf. Hephaestion, , Ench. i p. 2Google Scholar, 13 Consbr. (DK 31 B56); Aëtius 2. n. 2 (DK 31 A51), and Ps.-Plut. Strom, ap. Eus. P.E. 1. 8. 10 (DK 31 A30).Google Scholar

2 Cf. Hipp. Ref. 1. 7. 5Google Scholar (DK 13 A7) together with Plutarch de prim. frig. 7. 947 F (DK 13 Bi); Theophrastus ap. Simplicius Phys. 24. 26Google Scholar (DK 13 A5) and Hermias, , Irrisus 7 (DK 13 A8).Google Scholar

3 Cf. Guthrie, W. K. C., ‘Anaximenes and ’ C.Q. N.S. vi (1956), 40–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and A History of Greek Philosophy, i (Cambridge 1962), p. 137.Google Scholar

1 Cf. Kirk, G. S. & Raven, J. E., The Presocratic Philosophers (Cambridge, 1957), p. 155.Google Scholar

2 Cf. Burnet, J., Early Greek Philosophy (4th. ed., London, 1930), p. 237Google Scholar. Cf., too, p. 239, where in similar fashion he claims that the (fiery) stars were attached to the frozen air.Google Scholar

3 Cf. Tannery, P., Pour l'histoire de la science hellène (Paris, 1887), p. 156.Google Scholar

1 Cf. Aëtius 2. 6. 3 (DK 31 A49); ibid., 3. 16. 3 (DK 31 A66) and Aristode Meteorol. B 3. 357.25 (DK 31 B55, where the reference is misprinted).

2 Snell, B., The Discovery of the Mind (Oxford, 1953), pp. 215 ff.Google Scholar

3 Cf. R.-E. s.v. ‘Salz’, 2079Google Scholar: ‘In Sizilien waren besonders die Salinen von Agrigent bekannt …’ together with the references to Pliny, N.H. 31. 85 and Augustine, Civ. Dei, 21. 5. It is interesting to note that the word actually comes to bear the sense of‘rock-salt’; cf. LSJ s.v. II.Google Scholar