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Book I Chapter 39

Chapter 39: On waters

On waters.

⟨From the epitome of Arius Didymus.⟩⁹⁷⁵

Aristotle’s account · 1

Aristotle’s account. The properties of waters, their tastes, and all their other qualities arise, to sum the matter up, from three causes.⁹⁷⁶ Either they are due to differences in the earth (for each water takes on a taste corresponding to the kind of earth in which it lies and through which it flows: salty, alkaline, bitter, or any of the other tastes);⁹⁷⁷

2 · Exhalation and air

or they are due to the admixture of a smoky and fiery exhalation (for the admixture of what is hot and smoky produces petrification and the solidification of salts and alkalis, as well as heaviness and lightness, thickness and thinness, and the other properties); or they are due to the air.⁹⁷⁸

3 · Heat and the ground

Heat and cold also arise [indeed] from the earth, according to the kind through which the water flows and in which it ⟨may⟩ be.⁹⁷⁹ For burnt, dry, and bituminous earth makes waters warm;

4 · Springs and depths

whereas cold waters, speaking generally, ⟨are those in⟩ places with flowing springs; more particularly, those at a depth [as a general rule],⁹⁸⁰ such as those in mines (for they are far from the sun), unless the place is fiery (for the waters must be removed from sources of heat, both the heat in the air and that in the earth);⁹⁸¹

5 · Height, shade, and wind

also those in high places, because of the winds and especially because of the coldness of the air; and ⟨those⟩ in deeply shaded and windy places (for they are cooled by both, which is also why some become warm when trees are cut down);⁹⁸²

6 · Air passages

also those with air passages like ravines and caves (for the wind, channeled through in this way, cools them, as it does in wells);⁹⁸³

7 · Moist rock

and ⟨those⟩ that flow through rock, moist rock at that (for stone is cold, and such stone especially so).⁹⁸⁴

8 · Water’s own nature

But if all water is cold just as it is fresh (for both belong to its nature), its heat, like the quality of its tastes, would arise from other things.⁹⁸⁵

9 · The source of the differences

Thus this argument too implies that water has no difference in itself, but differs through the powers of other things, if indeed some effects are produced by earth, others by fire, and others by air.⁹⁸⁶

975.Wachsmuth’s supplied Latin heading, translated on both sides, identifies the epitome of Arius Didymus, physical fragment 14a in the additions to Diels, p. 854. The Greek attribution “Aristotle’s account” follows. It stands in the margin of manuscript F and in the text of P. The chapter is one continuous excerpt; the numbered subdivisions below are for comparison of the facing text.

976.Dynameis, here “properties,” are the powers or characteristics by which waters act or differ; the term need not refer specifically to medicinal effects. Chyloi are tastes or flavors in this passage, as the following examples show.

977.“Alkaline” renders nitrōdes, like nitron, the mineral alkali also called soda. It is a description of taste in the ancient account. Compare the lexicon’s identification of the Chalastra variety of nitron as soda (LSJ, s.v. Chalastraîos).

978.The exhalation is a material rising from the earth. Compare Aristotle, Meteorology II.3, on dry exhalation and the earthy admixtures that alter water’s taste. That parallel helps explain the theory; this epitome is not a quotation of that passage. “Thickness” follows the printed pachytētas, contrasted with thinness; the apparatus also records a reading meaning swiftness.

979.Wachsmuth rejects the particle men, represented by “[indeed],” and adopts Meineke’s supplemented an with ginētai, reflected in “⟨may⟩ be.” The transition is difficult: air has just been named as the third cause, but the text immediately returns to the earth. The apparatus records other proposed repairs; the translation follows the printed text.

980.The words “⟨are those in⟩” reproduce Wachsmuth’s supplement. “As a general rule” is bracketed because Usener regarded it as a gloss on “speaking generally.” Both decisions remain visible. “Places with flowing springs” supplies the understood noun with namatiaiois.

981.Metalla means mines here. The reason given for their cold water is distance from the sun, with an explicit exception for heat within the ground. The parenthesis makes separation from both sources of heat a condition of cold water.

982.The list still describes cold waters. “Both” refers to shade and wind; the example of felled trees illustrates the removal of shade. The bracketed “those” reflects the supplied Greek article ta.

983.Diaulōnizon describes air passing through as through a pipe or channel. The comparison concerns cooling by a draft. Lakkoi can mean pits or wells; “wells” is used here in the discussion of water.

984.The printed wording is grammatically uneven: pagous is accusative plural, while enikmou, “moist,” is genitive singular. Wachsmuth asks whether pagou should be read, but does not put that change into the text. The Greek retains his printing; the English gives the apparent sense. Although pagos can also mean frost, the following reference to stone supports “rock” here.

985.“Fresh” renders glyky, literally “sweet,” in the contrast with salty or otherwise flavored water. The claim concerns water’s own nature, before the acquired qualities discussed above. The conditional opening follows Usener’s repair as printed by Wachsmuth. “Like” follows Wachsmuth’s hōs, which compares the origin of heat with that of taste.

986.The conclusion returns to the three causes named at the beginning. It distinguishes water considered in itself from the differing qualities produced in it by other things. Wachsmuth understands the preceding “other things” (heterōn) in the same sense as “other things” (allōn) here, rather than as other hot or cold waters.