On the Apparent Face in the Orb of the Moon

p. 237 the sight, produces a reflection neither intense nor powerful. And what need is there to say more, when the sun's light reflected from the moon doth lose all its heat, and of its brightness there comes to us merely an unsubstantial and ineffectual remnant? Surely, when the sight travels along the same course, is it conceivable that a single particle of a remnant shall reach the sun from the moon? I do not think it. Consider, too," added I, "that if the sight is similarly affected in the case of water and of the moon, the full moon would be obliged to render back the images of earth, plants, men, and stars, in the same way as the other reflecting surfaces return them. But if reflections (repercussion) of the view do not take place against the latter object, through its own weakness, or through the unevenness of the moon's surface, we must not demand that they shall be produced upon the sun." XXIV. "We therefore," I continued, "have now related to you all the different theories that have not slipped our memory. But it is now high time to call upon Sylla, nay, rather to exact from him his story, as having been our hearer upon certain conditions. Wherefore, if you please, let us end our walk, and, sitting down upon the steps, 1 furnish him with a stationary audience." This was agreed to; and when we had sat down: "I," said Theon, "desire as much as any one of you to hear what is about to be said, Lamprias; 2 but previously I would be glad to hear about those said to live in the moon—not who they are that dwell there, but whether it is possible to inhabit there: for if that is not possible, it is absurd to say the moon is an earth, for she will appear to have been made for no purpose, but all in vain, if she neither bears crops, nor furnishes men of some sort with habitation, birth, and

p. 238 living: for the which ends we say this earth was made, according to Plato, for our nurse, and unwearied keeper both by day and night, and our artificer.' For you see that many tales are told, both in jest and earnest, about these matters. For to those dwelling under the moon, as they say, she is suspended overhead, as though they were so many Tantali; those, again, living upon her surface, fast bound like so many Ixions, with such incredible velocity of revolution … and yet she does not move with a single motion; but, as is said somewhere, she is a 'traveller on three roads,' at one and the same time carried onwards lengthways towards the Zodiac, and broadways, 1 and deepways. Of which motions, the first the mathematicians call the 'circuit,' the second the 'spiral,' and the third, I know not why, the inequality:' although they have observed nothing equal or regular in her recessions. Consequently, if a lion 2 once fell down into the Peloponnesus from her rapid gyration, it is [not] surprising—it is, on the contrary, a wonder we do not continually see showers of men, and heaps of cattle, 3 diving down from thence, and turning round and round in the air. For it is ridiculous to argue about a residence there, if she is not capable of containing generation or stability. For whilst the Egyptians and Troglodytes, over whose heads the sun stands vertically for a single day at the solstice, and then departing, hardly escape being burnt up through the dryness of the atmosphere, pray is it likely people in the moon can stand twelve summer days in each year, when month by month the sun stands plumb-line over them, and remains stationary, when it is full-moon? At any rate, winds and clouds and showers,

p. 239 without which there is no growth of plants, or nourishment for things produced, cannot possibly be thought of under such circumstances, as being brought together, in consequence of the heat and rarefaction of the atmosphere; for neither do the mountains there, however lofty, harbour the furious and ascending winters; but … now, the air kept in perpetual agitation through its lightness, escapes this settlement and condensation—unless, forsooth, we shall say, that like as Minerva dropped down nectar and ambrosia over Achilles, when he refused all food, so the moon that is both named and is Minerva, feeds her inhabitants, by issuing out unto them daily ambrosia, in the same way as Pherecydes of old supposes the gods are fed. As for the Indian root, which Megasthenes says they neither eat nor drink, but, as they are without mouths, they burn and use like incense, and are nourished by the fume 1—how is it to be found growing there if the moon is never rained on?" XXV. When Theon had spoken this, … "Well done," I replied; "by the sportiveness of your discourse [you have relieved] the seriousness of the subject: which inspires us with courage to pursue the dispute, inasmuch as we do not look for a very spiteful or grave examination from our audience. For truly they differ greatly from the people that believe these tales [but they equally differ from those] who are disgusted with and utterly disbelieve them, and are not willing to consider dispassionately what is possible and probable. In the first place, then, it does not necessarily follow that because the moon is not inhabited by men, she was made for no purpose, and in vain. For neither do we see this earth of ours universally utilized and inhabited, but only a small portion thereof, like so many capes or peninsulas jutting out into the vasty deep,

p. 240 is capable of breeding animals and plants, whilst the rest lies partly desert and barren by reason of winters or of drought, whilst the greater portion of her surface is submerged under the spreading ocean. But you who love and admire Aristarchus do not attend to Crates when he acknowledges, "'Ocean, to all, the origin ordained Both men and gods, spreads over most of earth.' [paragraph continues] But these things are far from being created to no purpose, for the sea sends up mild exhalations, and the most refreshing airs in the height of summer; whilst from the uninhabited and frozen quarter, the snows quietly melting away, relax and disperse … For the sake of day and night, an unwearied guardian in the midst, "according to Plato," and creator. There is no objection then to the moon's being really devoid of all living things, but affording reflection to the light diffused around her, and a rallying-point for the rays of the stars, and meeting-place within herself, in which she digests the exhalations rising up from earth, and in concert with the sun extracts the over fiery and harsh part of the same, and discharges it. And if we concede so much to ancient tradition, that she is named 'Artemis,' 1 we shall say, as before, that she is unfruitful (like that virgin goddess), yet in other respects full of help and beneficial. For her revolution being accomplished with great evenness and tranquillity, smooths down and distends the atmosphere that moves against (encounters) her, so that there is no danger of those dwelling upon her falling off, or slipping down. For this [revolution] and the varied and erratic nature of her motion is not a sign of irregularity and confusion, but, as astronomers make out, of a

p. 241 wonderful order in these phenomena, and of a course in cycles revolving around other cycles, in which they confine her; some of them making her immovable, others travelling forwards with the same velocity [as the cycles] in the opposite direction. For these progressions of the cycles, their revolutions and their relations towards each other and to us, bring about in the most regular manner all the phenomena of the lunar motion, such as her elevations and depressions, her deviations in the direction of her breadth, and revolutions in that of her length. As for the intense heat and perpetual roasting [of her inhabitants] by the sun, you need not be too much afraid of all that, if you oppose to the eleven summer conjunctions all the full moons; and secondly, the continuity of the change, as a set off against the excessive heats, that indeed do not last for a long time, which circumstance produces a peculiar temperature, and softens down either extreme, and the mean between them, in all likelihood, produces a temperature resembling that of spring. In the next place, the [sun] sends down on us his heat through turbid air, 1 and with much effort, which heat is nourished by the exhalations [of earth]; but there above, the air is rarefied and transparent, and disperses and diffuses the sun's rays, that have no excessive heat or substance. Wood and corn the rains themselves nourish, but in a different way: as up the country about Thebes, with you and at Syene, it is not the rain water [that nourishes], but the earth herself that drinks the earth-born water and employs the mind and dews, yet will not, I fancy, submit to a comparison, 2 in point of fertility, with the best rain-watered soil, by reason of its goodness and natural constitution. Plants the same in kind amongst us, even though they be greatly pinched

p. 242 by the frosts, bring forth abundant and fine fruit; whereas in Libya and amongst you in Egypt they are difficult of cultivation, and very susceptible of the frosts. 1 Whilst Gedrosea and the Troglodyte country, which reaches down to the ocean, is barren through want of rain, and entirely destitute of water, yet in the seas lying adjacent, and spreading round it, grow wonderful monsters of plants, and spring up from the bottom; some of which they call olive trees, some laurels, others Isis-hair. The plants called 'anacampsaroles,' 2 not only live, when taken out of the ground, if hung up as long as you please, but even flower.… Some [crops] are sown towards winter, others again, for instance, sesame at midsummer, and millet, also thyme or centaury, if planted in good and rich soil, and watered and irrigated, degenerates from its natural character and loses its virtue, but loves dryness and reverts thereby to its own nature. And if it be true, as people say, that they 3 do not even bear the dews, like most of the Arabian plants, which fade away when moistened and are destroyed—what wonder is it if there should grow in the moon roots, seeds, and woods that require neither rain nor winter, but are naturally adapted for a summer-like and rarefied atmosphere? Why is it improbable that the moon herself emits genial airs, and that currents (of air) are produced by the very rapidity of her gyration, that quietly supply dews and a slight moisture, which being diffused and dispersed assist the vegetation, and that her actual temperature is neither

p. 243 fiery nor droughty but soft and humid? For no feeling of dryness comes down to us from her, but on the contrary many proofs of moisture and a feminine nature; the growth of plants, the putrefaction of meat, the conversion [fermentation] and settling of wine, the softening of timber, the easy delivery of women. 1 I am afraid of again provoking and stirring up Pharnaces, now that he is quiet, by talking of the tides of the ocean (as his own sect pretend), and the flooding of straits that are overspread and swollen by the action of the moon, through the renewal of their fluidity. 2 Consequently, I will rather turn myself to you, my dear Theon; for you say, quoting to us those lines of Alcman's: "'Daughter of Jove, nourishing Dew! and Nurse of the sacred moon.' [paragraph continues] Because here he calls the air Jupiter, and says that he, being moistened by the moon, dissolves 3 into the dew. She appears, my friend, to possess a nature the opposite to the sun's, that is, if not only whatever he is naturally disposed to condense and to dry up, she by her nature softens and dissolves, but also she moistens and cools down the heat proceeding from him, when it impinges upon and is mingled with herself. 4 Those who think the moon to be a fiery p. 244 and burning substance, are in the wrong; and they who demand that living creatures up there shall possess all the things that those here below require for their birth, nutriment, and existence, seem to pay no consideration to the disparities in nature of the two worlds, in which it is perhaps possible 1 to find greater and more numerous differences and disparities of the living things between one another than are found between things that do not live at all [here on earth]. Granting that there be no such things in reality as men without mouths, and nourished by the smell, unless … not seem, the virtue of which Ammonius told us about, and Hesiod has hinted at, when he says:

"'Or how much enjoyment lies in the mallow and asphodel.' [paragraph continues] But Euripides really hath made it plain, by teaching that Nature with quite a small spark warms up and keeps together the living being, "if it shall have received the bigness of an olive, 2 standing in need of no assistance more." And that those living upon the moon must be slender in person, and are content to be fed upon what comes to hand, is probable enough; for that the moon herself is, like the sun (which is a fiery living thing and many times bigger than the earth), said to be nourished by the moist vapours rising from the earth, as are also the other stars innumerable as they are: in the same way they suppose the necessary animals that the upper region produces are light and attenuated. But these facts we do not perceive, 3 nor that there is place, nature, or other constitution of things p. 245 adapted for them. As if, therefore, we were unable to approach or touch the sea, but only to stand afar off and contemplate it, and learning by inquiry that the water is bitter, undrinkable, and briny, someone should tell us that living creatures, numberless, huge, and varied in shape, are nourished in its depths, and that it swarms with wild creatures that use the water just as we do the air, you would think he was imposing upon you with fiction and prodigies. We appear to be similarly situated and to experience the same thing with respect to the moon in disbelieving that men of some sort inhabit her. They on their part will, I fancy, much more wonder as they look down upon our earth, lying like the sediment and dregs of the universe amongst damps, mists, and clouds; showing through them a lightless, low, immovable spot, they must wonder whether it breeds and maintains living creatures endowed with motion, breath, and warmth. And if perchance they may have heard Homer's lines,

"'Horrible dark, which dread the very gods: Sunk below hell as far as heaven from earth,' they will declare that all this is said with reference to this place, and that hell and Tartarus lie here; and that the one and only earth is the moon, which is equally distant from those upper and lower regions." XXVI. Almost whilst I was still speaking, Sylla took up the discourse with "Stop, Lamprias, and shut to the wicket of your speech lest you unwittingly run the fable aground, and throw this play of mine into confusion, for it has a different scene and plot. Now, I am the player, but first I will tell you the author of the piece, if there is no objection, who begins after Homer's fashion with, "'An isle Ogygian lies far out at sea,' distant five days’ sail from Britain, 1 going westwards, and p. 246 three others equally distant from it, and from each other, are more opposite to the summer visits of the sun; in one of which the barbarians fable that Saturn is imprisoned by 1 Jupiter, whilst his son lies by his side, as though keeping guard over those islands and the sea, which they call 'the Sea of Saturn.' 2 The great continent by which the great sea is surrounded on all sides, they say, lies less distant from the others, but about five thousand stadia from Ogygia, 3 for one sailing in a rowing-galley; for the sea is difficult of passage and muddy through the great number of currents, and these currents issue out of the great land, and shoals are formed by them, and the sea becomes clogged and full of earth, by which it has the appearance of being solid. 4 That sea-coast of the mainland Greeks are settled on, around a bay not smaller than the Mæotis, the entrance of which lies almost in a straight line opposite the entrance to the Caspian Sea. 5 Those Greeks call and consider themselves continental people, but islanders all such as inhabit this land of ours, inasmuch as it is surrounded on all sides by the sea; and they believe that with the peoples of Saturn

p. 247 were united, later, those who wandered about with Hercules, and being left behind there, they rekindled into strength and numbers the Greek element, then on the point of extinction, and sinking into the barbarian language, manners, and laws; whence Hercules has the first honours there, and Saturn the second. But when the star of Saturn, which we call the 'Informer,' but they 'Nocturnal,' comes into the sign of the Bull every thirty years, they having got ready a long while beforehand all things required for the sacrifice and the games … they send out people appointed by lot in the same number 1 of ships, furnished with provisions and stores necessary for persons intending to cross so vast a sea by dint of rowing, as well as to live a long time in a foreign land. When they have put to sea, they meet, naturally, with different fates, but those who escape from the sea, first of all, touch at the foremost isles, which are inhabited by Greeks also, and see the sun setting for less than one hour for thirty days in succession; and this interval is night, attended with slight darkness, and a twilight glimmering out of the west. 2 Having spent ninety days there, treated with honour and hospitality, being both considered and entitled 'holy,' thenceforward they voyage with the help of the winds. No other people inhabit the islands save themselves and those that had been sent out before; it is, indeed, allowed to such as have served thirteen 3 years in waiting upon the god, to return home, but the greatest part prefer to remain there, partly out of habit, partly because they have all things in abundance without toil and trouble, as they pass their time in

p. 248 sacrifices and hymn singing, or in studying legends and philosophy of some sort. 1 For wonderful are both the island and the mildness of the climate; whilst the deity himself has been an obstacle to some when contemplating departure, by manifesting himself to them as to familiars and friends, not by way of dreams or by tokens, but conversing with them in a visible form with many apparitions and speeches of genii. For Saturn himself is imprisoned in a vast cavern, sleeping upon a rock overlaid with gold; for his sleep has been contrived by Jupiter for his chaining—whilst birds fly down from the rock, which are ordained to carry ambrosia to him, whilst the island is overspread with fragrance, diffused from the rock as from a fountain. Those genii wait upon and nurse Saturn, who had been his companions at the time when truly he used to reign over both gods and men; and they, being endowed with prophecy, foretell, on their own account, many things, but important matters, and such as concern the highest things, they go down into the cavern and report as the dreams of Saturn; for whatsoever things Jupiter is devising for the future, Saturn dreams 2 what they are about, and that which is kingly and divine. 3 The stranger having been carried there, as he told us, and waiting upon the god at his leisure, he gained acquaintance with astrology 4 and p. 249 geometry as far as it is possible to advance, whilst he took up 'natural science' for his department of philosophy. 1 But, seized at last with a desire and longing to become acquainted with the 'great island,' for so, as was natural, they denominate the territories inhabited by ourselves; when the thirty years had expired, 2 and the successors were come from home, he took leave of his friends and sailed away, having provided himself carefully with all other stores, and carrying his travelling expenses in [the shape of] cups of gold. 3 All that he endured, and how many nations he passed through, consulting their sacred books, and receiving initiation into all their mysteries, would take a whole day to enumerate in the way that he related it to us, describing the circumstances very well and particularly; but as much of them as is connected with the present inquiry you must now hear, for he spent a very long time at Carthage, inasmuch as he received great honours amongst us for having discovered, deposited in the earth, some sacred parchments, which had been secretly carried off at the time when the former city was destroyed, and which had been concealed a very long time. Of the visible powers, he said we ought (and exhorted me also) especially to worship the moon, as being in reality, and also reputed, the sovereign of life."

XXVII. When I was astonished at this, and begged for some clearer information, "Many things, Sylla," said he, "are told amongst the Greeks, but not all rightly, concerning the Gods. For instance, at starting, you are right p. 250 in calling the same person 'Demeter,' and the 'Maid,' but not right in supposing the place of each as one and the same, and that both were occupied by the same things, for the one is on the earth, and mistress of things upon earth, the other in the moon, and of the things pertaining to the moon. She is named the 'Maid,' and 'Persephone,' 1 the latter as being the bringer of light, but 'maid' because we call maid (pupil) that part of the eye in which the image of the spectator is reflected, just as the image of the sun is reflected in the moon. In the legends told about their wandering and going in search, there is a [certain amount of] truth; for they long for each other when they are apart, and often embrace under the obscuration. Now the being at one time in heaven and in the light, at another in the darkness and the night, is not false as regards the Maid; but the time has occasioned error in the counting, since it is not during six months, but at intervals of six months that we see her enveloped in shadow by the earth as if by a mother, but rarely experiencing this at intervals of five months; for it is impossible for her to leave the shades, and from them pass, as Homer disguising the thing hath not ill said,

"'Into Elysian plains and Earth's recess.' [paragraph continues] For where the earth's shadow ceases to reach, this point we supposed the limit and end of earth. 2 To this place no bad or unpurified person ascends; but the good, after decease, being carried hither, continue here enjoying a very tranquil life, not, however, a blissful one, nor that of gods, until the Second Death." p. 251 XXVIII. "What, pray, is this, Sylla?" said I. "Do not ask questions about it," replied he, "for I am going to relate it all. Man most people rightly think a composite being, but wrongly think a composite of two parts only, for they reckon the mind as only a part of the soul, being no less in error than they who think the soul to be only part of the body; for the mind is as much better and more divine than the soul, as the soul is superior to the body. For the conjunction of body and soul produces 1 … . Reason, whereof the one is the origin of pleasure and pain, the other, of vice and virtue. Of these three combined things, the earth furnished for the birth the body, the moon the soul, the sun the mind, just as he supplies light to the moon. The death which we die makes the man two instead of three, the second (death) makes him one out of two. The first takes place in the region of Demeter [because the earth] and also the dead are subject to her, whence the Athenians of old used to call the [dead] "Demetrians." The second [death] takes place in the moon, the dominion of Persephone; and of the former the consort is the Earthly Hermes, of the latter, the Heavenly. The former separates the soul from the body, hastily and with violence; but Persephone gently and slowly loosens the mind from the soul, and for this reason she has been named the "Only-begotten," 2 because the best part of the man becomes single when separated from the rest by her means. Each of these changes happens, according to nature, as follows: every soul, whether without mind, or joined to mind, on departing from the body, is ordained to wander in the region lying 3 between the moon and

p. 252 earth for a term, not equal in all cases; but the wicked and incontinent pay a penalty for their sins; whereas the virtuous, in order, as it were, to purify themselves and to recover breath, after the body, as being the source of sinful pollution, must pass a certain fixed time in the mildest region of air, which they call the "Meadow of Hades." Then, as though returning to their native land after enforced banishment, they taste of joy, such as the initiated into mysteries feel, mingled with trouble and apprehension, joined with a peculiar hope, for 1 it drives off and tosses away many of them when already making for the moon, and they [the virtuous] also see the ghosts of people there turned upside down, and, as it were, descending into the abyss. 2 Such as are arrived above, and have got firm footing there [on the moon], like victors in the games, crowned with wreaths, encircle their heads with crowns called crowns of "Constancy," 3 made of feathers, 4 because the irrational and passionate part of the soul they have in life presented to Reason, manageable and kept in restraint. 5 In the next place, their sight resembles a sunbeam, and the soul, wafted on high by the air surrounding the moon, gains tone and vigour from the same, just as here below steeled p. 253 tools gain it by the tempering; for that which was unsubstantial and diffuse becomes solid and transparent, so as to be nourished by the exhalation it meets with there; and Heraclitus hath well said that 'Souls in Hades have the sense of smell.'"

tools gain it by the tempering; for that which was unsubstantial and diffuse becomes solid and transparent, so as to be nourished by the exhalation it meets with there; and Heraclitus hath well said that 'Souls in Hades have the sense of smell.'" XXIX. "They contemplate, in the first place, the magnitude and beauty of the moon; also her nature, which is not simple and unmixed, but as it were a combination of star and earth; for just as earth mixed with air and moisture becomes soft, and the blood mingling itself with the flesh produces sensibility, in like manner they say the moon being mixed up 1 from her inmost depth, becomes both animated and generative, and at the same time has the symmetrical arrangement of its levity around the centre of the mass for a counteracting force to its own gravity. For it is in this way that our world, being composed out of elements that by their own nature tend some upwards, some downwards, is free from all motion in its place. These facts Xenocrates appears to have discovered through a certain admirable process of reasoning, having taken his starting-point out of Plato. For it is Plato who proved that also each one of the stars is composed of earth and fire, by means of the ascertained analogy of the intervening substances; because nothing comes within the reach of sense that has not some portion of earth and of fire mingled with it. Now Xenocrates says the sun is composed of fire and the First Solid; but the moon of the Second Solid and her own air; and the earth out of water, fire, and the Third of the Solids; and, generally, that neither the solid, taken by itself, nor the fluid, is capable of a soul. Thus much, then, for the physical constitution 2 of the moon. The breadth, and the magnitude of her is not what the geometricians assert, but much larger; for

p. 254 she measures the shadow of the earth only a few times 1 with her own magnitude, not in consequence of her smallness, but because she puts out all her speed, that she may pass through the darkened spot, and carry out with her the souls of the good, that are eager for it and cry aloud to her; because they hear no longer, whilst they are in the shadow, the harmony of the heavens, and at the same time, the souls of those suffering punishment rush up towards her from below through the shadow, wailing and shouting (for which reason, during eclipses, most people clatter their brass pots and clap their hands, and make a noise to scare away the ghosts), for the so-called Face frightens them when they come nigh, looking grim and horrible. Such it is not really, but like 2 as our earth has deep and great gulfs—one of them flowing inwards towards us through the Pillars of Hercules; others flowing outwards as the Caspian, and those in the Red Sea—in like manner there are deep places and gulf-like in the moon, whereof the largest is called 'Hecate's dungeon,' in which the souls either suffer or inflict punishment, for the things which they have either done or endured, when they have already been made genii: as for the two smaller depths, because the souls pass through them on the way towards heaven and towards earth back again, the one is denominated the 'Elysian Plain,' the other the 'Passage of Persephone the Terrestrial!'"

XXX. "The genii do not always pass their time upon her (the moon), but they come down hither and take charge of Oracles; they are present at and assist in the most advanced of the initiatory rites [in the several p. 255 [paragraph continues] Mysteries], as punishers and keepers of wrong-doers they act, and shine as saviours in battle and at sea; 1 and whatsoever thing in these capacities they do amiss, either out of spite, unfair partiality, or envy, they are punished for it, for they are driven down again to earth and coupled with human bodies. Of the best of these genii they told him were those who 2 wait upon Saturn now, and the same in old times were the Idæi Dactyli in Crete, the Curetes in Phrygia, the Trophonii in Bœotia Lebadea, and others without number in various parts of the world, of whom the holy places, honours, and titles still remain; though of some the powers have ceased since they have experienced a removal of their virtue to another locality. This change they suffer, some sooner, some later, when the mind has been separated from the soul. The mind separates itself out of a desire of reaching the Image in the sun, 3 through which shines forth the Desirable, and Beautiful, and Divine, and Blissful, to which every unmixed nature aspires in different ways. For the moon herself, out of desire for the sun, revolves round and comes in contact with him, because she longs to derive from him the generative principle. The nature of the soul is left behind in the moon, retaining vestiges as it were and dreams of life; and on this account you must suppose it rightly said:

"'Like to a dream, the soul took wing and fled.' [paragraph continues] For the soul does not suffer this all at once; nor as soon as separated from the body, but afterwards when she has become desolate and solitary, when the mind is departed. 4 p. 256 [paragraph continues] And Homer (said he) appears to have spoken especially through divine inspiration about the whole question: "'There midst the rest strong Hercules I marked, His spectre—for himself dwells with the gods.' [paragraph continues] For each individual of us is not anger, nor fear, nor desire, just as he is neither pieces of flesh nor humours; but that wherewith we think and understand is the soul, impressed by the mind, and in its turn impressing the body, and impinging upon it from all parts it models the form; 1 so that, though it may continue a long time separated from both (the mind and the body), yet as it retains the likeness and imprint, it is properly denominated the "Image" (or Spectre). 2 Of these images the moon is the element: for they are resolved into her substance, like as bodies into earth, of the dead. Quickly resolved are the temperate, such as have led a tranquil, philosophic, and leisurely life on earth; for being let go from the mind, and no longer subject to the passions, they wither away. Of those ambitious, busy, amorous, and irascible when in the body, the souls are visited, like dreams, with recollections of their past life, and are troubled with them; like that of Endymion of old. For their restless and passionate character stirs them up, and draws them away from the moon towards a second birth; she suffers them not, however [to escape], but recalls them to herself, and soothes them to remain. For it is far from quiet or orderly work, when souls, separated from mind, get possession of a body subject to passions. 3 Of such souls came perchance the Tityi and the Typhons, and that Typhon 4

p. 257 who used to hinder and trouble the oracular power at Delphi: for they are destitute of reason, and actuated by the passionate part, puffed up with pride and self-conceit. But, in time, even these the moon absorbs into herself, and reduces to order. In the next place, the sun having impregnated 1 the mind with vital force, produces new souls. And, thirdly, earth furnishes a body: for earth takes back after death that which she gave at birth; whereas the sun takes nothing, only takes back the mind, which he gave: but the moon both takes and gives, and puts together, and separates; in virtue of two different powers, of which the combining power is named 'Elithyia,' the separative one 'Artemis.' And of the Three Fates, Atropos, seated in the sun, supplies the origin of birth; Clotho, moving about the moon, unites together and mingles the various parts; lastly, Lachesis, on earth, who has most to do with Fortune, puts her hand to the work. For the inanimate part is powerless, and liable to be acted upon by others; but the mind is impassive and independent; and the soul is of mixed nature, and intermediate between the two: just as the moon hath been made by the Deity a mixture of things above and of things below, 'a great, full horn,' bearing the same relation to the sun that the earth bears to the moon. "All this," said Sylla, "I heard the stranger recounting; and the chamberlains and ministers of Saturn 2 had related it, as he said, to him. You, Lamprias, are at liberty to make what use you please of the story."

"All this," said Sylla, "I heard the stranger recounting; and the chamberlains and ministers of Saturn 2 had related it, as he said, to him. You, Lamprias, are at liberty to make what use you please of the story." 197:1 This explanation of optical illusion. 198:1 This word has dropped out of the text, but is indispensable. 198:2 Or perhaps plump and polished, as the Italian "bagnato." 198:3 πιέζει in text, for πιέζεται. 198:4 γραφικὴ, drawing in outline, the first thing taught in Greek schools, as Pliny notes under "Pamphilus." This whole paragraph is in inextricable confusion. 199:1 When the moon takes the form of a crescent. 200:1 All this is in confusion, and some part quite lost, for the end of the sentence must be part of Apollonius's reply. 201:1 A curious reference to the old times of Greece, when the painted vase manufacture was of the same importance as the porcelain of our times. With the Romans earthenware served only for the commonest household usage. 202:1 Referring to the heating of sling-bullets—produced in reality by impact, but supposed by the ancients to be generated during their flight— "Volat atque incandescit eundo." 202:2 Because it would necessarily slip off a convex surface. 203:1 Aliter, Aristarchus. 203:2 The Zodiac. Modern savants pass this theory slightingly by, as "a guess amongst many;" but the rule in such cases assures every one p. 204 who can use his common sense that Aristarchus had his own arguments, derived from observation of the phenomena, that satisfied himself and his disciples of the soundness of Isis hypothesis. How unfortunate that Plutarch did not take the trouble to give some brief notice of them, as he has done here of so many others of less value.

204:1 τῆς ἐποχῆς should be in the dative, else I cannot see how the passage can be construed. 204:2 Or "acute." 205:1 ῥιζῶδες must be ῥοιζῶδες, of similar sound. 206:1 This must be an error for "centre." 206:2 Meaning the outer circumference of the globe. 206:3 A curious illustration, much bungled by the scribe. "Saw a beam in two at the centre, the globe being supposed hollow, each piece falls in an opposite direction until it strikes against earth's crust, when it is repelled, and the two pieces meet again at the centre." 207:1 His head would be upwards with respect to the other surface of the globe; his feet with respect to ours. 208:1 If all the heavenly bodies can more about at great intervals from each other, why must all earthly bodies gravitate into one mass? 209:1 αὐτῆς in text for σκίας? 209:2 A radius of 4,000 miles, making the moon's distance from earth 224,000. The text, therefore, should read myriad for thousand in the sum, as also appears from what follows. 209:3 4,000 × 10,000 = 40,000,000 30 × 10,000 = 300,000 40,300,000 About 40,300,000 miles. 211:1 [Actuated, the consequence of the diversity being.] 212:1 A quotation from some poet. 214:1 The Platonic term for the Divine Will, or the "Logos." 214:2 Natural position of each element. 215:1 Better rendered by Wisdom, for it is the Achamoth of the Alexandrine Jews, and the Second Person, "the Spirit of God," in their Divinity.

215:1 Better rendered by Wisdom, for it is the Achamoth of the Alexandrine Jews, and the Second Person, "the Spirit of God," in their Divinity. 216:1 In proportion to the weight of each. 218:1 This Treatise being in the form of a reported conversation. 218:2 The moon does not collect a stock of light within her body—otherwise her light would not be intermittent. "When the light of torches is augmented" by the kindling of additional torches. 219:1 Or "owl-faced," a far-fetched sense of γλαυκώπις quite in Empedocles’ style. 220:1 There is sufficient head room in the mirror-face for the images to be repeated as the eyes involuntarily change their position. 221:1 The doctrine of the equality of the angles of incidence and reflection may hold good for truly polished surfaces, but not for irregular surfaces. 221:2 Independently of the moon, but somewhere in the heavens on the way towards her. 222:1 Supposing the moon made of æther, the sun on the least contact would illuminate the whole orb, so there could be no half-moons or crescents. 223:1 "Sun" and "Air" have got interchanged in the text; but the true sense is obvious. 224:1 The phenomena attending an eclipse of the sun closely resemble those attending a regular sunset. 224:2 April 30, A.D. 59: a notice fixing the date of this Treatise. 224:3 When the sun is setting, the view of his orb is obstructed by the elevation of the horizon between him and the spectators; but when he is eclipsed, our sight of him is intercepted by the moon coming between us and him.

224:3 When the sun is setting, the view of his orb is obstructed by the elevation of the horizon between him and the spectators; but when he is eclipsed, our sight of him is intercepted by the moon coming between us and him. 225:1 Not the gentleman present. 226:1 The person to whom Plutarch is relating the discussion. 226:2 σύνοδος for moon's conjunction with sun = dark quarter. 226:3 διχόμηνος when the moon is in opposition to the sun = full-moon. 227:1 τὸ μὲν, in text for μὲν, which is necessitated by the ἡ δἑ following. 227:2 Doubtless "phases"—β being written for φ in the text, in consequence of the similarity of sound, as the scribes pronounce it. 228:1 If the moon were of the nature of a star, self-lighted, she would be conspicuous when passing through earth's shadow; whereas she now becomes invisible in her passage through it. 229:1 ἀνθρακώδης, "smouldering," like that of a hot piece of charcoal, ἀνϑραξ being always taken in an active sense. 229:2 διακαὴς, not smouldering, but, like charcoal, fully alight. 230:1 Counting from sunset, as the Romans still do. 230:2 At what time "morning," as distinct from "day-break," commenced, I cannot discover. 230:3 Plutarch's explanation cannot stand; a general epithet cannot be derived from a so transient state, and of rare occurrence. 230:4 Our "Sultan red," the brightest dye the ancients could produce with their coccus, kermes. Their "purple" was a very dark red, bluish viewed in one light.

230:4 Our "Sultan red," the brightest dye the ancients could produce with their coccus, kermes. Their "purple" was a very dark red, bluish viewed in one light. 231:1 βαφὰς must be βαφὴς. 231:2 What flower the ἴον was is now impossible to define. The epithet "flame-coloured," given to it by Dioscorides, inclines me to think it the reddish-purple cyclamen, so common in South Europe: but W. G. Clark was in favour of the heartsease which he observed growing abundantly in Greece—clearly it was not our violet. 231:3 The "True World," described in such Apocalyptical terms in the "Phædo." 232:1 Quoting Socrates’ description of the True World. 232:2 Citizens of Delphi; where the Oracle at first belonged to "Mother Earth," before she ceded it to Apollo. 233:1 Nine inches English. 233:2 3,750 miles English. 233:3 Fifty-two miles. 233:4 Perceptible as actual cavities in the moon's surface, not as mere patches of colour. 233:5 The biggest giants of the Titans. 234:1 Eighty-five miles across the sea. 234:2 [You do not imagine this is the actual height of the mountain.] 235:1 With her reflected light. 235:2 As in the experiment just cited. 235:3 That throws back the solar ray. 235:4 κορυφή. 235:5 "Reflecting medium," as water does: referring to what was said before of the spectrum cast from dancing waves upon a wall. 235:6 Mirrors in Plutarch's time were all made of speculum metal, and liable to be spoilt by rust.

235:6 Mirrors in Plutarch's time were all made of speculum metal, and liable to be spoilt by rust. 236:1 The negative here is certainly demanded by the sense of the whole argument. 236:2 Rather, "makes himself ridiculous." 236:3 ὁρᾶτι must be ὁρᾶτε. 237:1 The grand flight of steps leading up to the Temple of Apollo, in front of which the conversation was held. 237:2 Plutarch's brother, who relates this conversation. 238:1 Sideways and downwards. 238:2 λέων for λίϑος, of which Anaxagoras predicted the fall; or was there some story of a bonâ fide lion tumbling out of the moon? 238:3 βίων must be βοῶν. 239:1 This looks like some tradition of the use of tobacco, brought by some prehistoric Columbus. 240:1 ὠφελεῖν must be ὦ φίλε, which makes the passage intelligible: "Nothing," my dear Theon, "of what has been said proves that her being inhabited is impossible." 241:1 The sun's heat strikes on us so forcibly because it has to pass through thick atmosphere and exhalations rising out of earth. 241:2 i.e., suffer by comparison. 242:1 An evident slip of the pen for heats: the argument being that fruit trees that thrive in the North, in spite of the frost, will not answer in a hot climate. 242:2 Probably the kind of Sedum, now called the Air plant, which grows when hung from a ceiling. 242:3 The name of the plant is lost here; but, from the connection with Arabia, must be the frankincense tree (our olibanum), her special product:

242:3 The name of the plant is lost here; but, from the connection with Arabia, must be the frankincense tree (our olibanum), her special product: "Molles sua thura sabæi." 243:1 This curious effect of moonlight, whether actually observed, or only fancied by the ancients, sufficiently explains the apparent anomaly of making the virgin Artemis to preside over parturition: "Qum laborantes utero puellas Ter vocata audis adimisque letho." 243:2 The flow of the tides not produced by a mere return of water from the open sea, but by the actual increase of the quantity of water, due to lunar influence in the diminished bed of the strait. 243:3 In the same manner as the female nature dissolves the male in the act of copulation. 243:4 Because she converts the heat she receives from the sun into chilly and humid moonbeams. 244:1 Possibly, the differences between living beings in the Moon and on Earth, are even greater than the differences between the various kinds of inanimate things here below. 244:2 We have lost here some Egyptian story about nutriment compressed in marvellously small compass. [This phrase occurs extensively in the Talmud to indicate a small amount of food, and it may have also been used in the Hellenic world.—JBH.] 244:3 Learn by the evidence of our senses. 245:1 Ireland, probably, which lies at this distance from Rutupiae, the p. 246 only British port known to Plutarch. The Romans had marched across the island as far as Anglesea in Nero's reign.

245:1 Ireland, probably, which lies at this distance from Rutupiae, the p. 246 only British port known to Plutarch. The Romans had marched across the island as far as Anglesea in Nero's reign. 246:1 Previously quoting the same legend, he says, by Briareus. "Visits" I can only understand by "risings," which makes these three isles lie N.Nϵ. of the large one. 246:2 All in confusion here, but by reading φρουρὰν for φρουρὸν, and putting ὡς before ἔχοντα, there is some remedy. 246:3 This looks like a vague tradition of the existence of America: by reading "myriads" for "thousands" of stadia, we should get the proper distance. This exchange we have had convincing reason for making in a former passage. 246:4 Probably a vague tradition of icebergs and pack-ice seen by some very adventurous explorer, like Pytheas of Massilia. 246:5 The Caspian Sea was believed by the Greeks to communicate with the ocean. This may really have been the case in historical times, for its waters are even now rapidly shrinking up, and may have extended indefinitely a few thousand years ago. 247:1 As the period of years between each expedition, i.e., thirty. 247:2 This looks like a vague tradition of an actual visit to the Shetlands: this particular could never have been invented by a Greek. The Romans knew the North Sea as "Mare Cronium." 247:3 This seems a false reading for "thirty," when the arrival of the next expedition would relieve them of their duties.

247:3 This seems a false reading for "thirty," when the arrival of the next expedition would relieve them of their duties. 248:1 Some wandering Greeks having got amongst the Druids of Ireland, are probably the authors of the story. If admitted to all the privileges of the sacerdotal order, they certainly could not better their condition by returning home. The Druidical students, according to Cæsar, spent all their time in learning by heart interminable religious stories in verse, together with a "course of Natural Science." 248:2 εῖναι δὲ ἀνάστασιν in text, must be εῖναι, ἀνάστησι δὲ, because sleep stirs up within him prophetic passions and emotions of the soul. 248:3 The text in utter confusion here, but probably intended in this sense. 248:4 γένηται makes no sense, but reading γίνεται, gives "is, of its own self, pure and unmixed." 249:1 Pliny remarks that "Britain cultivates Magia [astrology] with such zeal that any one would suppose it was she who had communicated it to Persia." Now Britain was regarded in Gaul as the fountain-head of religion. 249:2 From this we can correct the reading "thirteen" at p. 247. 249:3 Perhaps ring-money, with the large cup-shaped extremities, is here meant. The whole story is evidently based upon the report of a visit to some Druidical sanctuary—perhaps Mona, or even Ireland. 250:1 Of Demeter's long searchings after Persephone; and the abduction of the latter by the Lord of the Shades.

250:1 Of Demeter's long searchings after Persephone; and the abduction of the latter by the Lord of the Shades. 250:2 A very far-fetched interpretation of Homer's word "Recess," by which he meant the abode of departed spirits in the vast hollow of the globe. 251:1 "Sensation" must be the word lost here; as plainly appears from what comes next. 251:2 Perverted into an active sense, as "begotten of one." 251:3 "The Middle Space," which figures so largely in the theology of the Pistis Sophia. 252:1 The word is lost here, but probably was "the incredible velocity of new gyration," or something to that effect. 252:2 The spirits of the good rest above in a fearful hope, for from their place of rest they can see the ghosts of the wicked repelled by the circumference of the moon, tossed about, and falling headlong, as they fancy, into the abyss below. 252:3 εὐσταθείας, "steadiness." 252:4 Perhaps suggested by the plumed cap, the badge of the Egyptian priesthood. 252:5 Conversely, Dante sees the souls that had in life subjected their reason to their appetite, tossed about by whirlwinds in mid air: "Intesi ch’ a cosi fatto tormento Eran dannati i peccator carnali, Che la ragion sommettono al talento." 253:1 Being a mixture of starry and earthy natures. 253:2 The Druidical story is here taken up again. 254:1 The breadth of earth's shadow appears to be many times greater than the moon's diameter; not from the smallness of the latter, but from the rapidity of her transit.

254:2 There is no actual Face, but the depressions of surface represent its features when viewed from afar. 255:1 Appearing as the twin star, St. Elmo's Fire, upon the ship's mast. 255:2 οἵ τε for τούς τε. 255:3 The sun being the visible type of the supreme godhead, to union (absorption) with whom every pure nature aspires: the grand Buddhist doctrine. 255:4 ἀπαλλαττομένη for … νου. 256:1 Moulds the soul into a shape oaf its own. 256:2 εἴδωλον; the portrait of the intelligence which has flown away from it. after moulding it to her own likeness. 256:3 Read τοῦ παθητικοῦ, governed by ἐπιλάβωνται. 256:4 Error for "Python," whom Apollo destroyed, in order to recover his Oracle. 257:1 This doctrine explains a curious gem (Matter, "Hist. Crit. du Gnosticisme," Pl. I. F., No. 1), exhibiting the Mithraic Lion copulating with a woman, quadrupedum ritu, in a cartouche placed over an outstretched corpse. 257:2 A proof that the whole theory came from the Druids, who, according to Cæsar, devoted themselves to speculations of this sort.