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← ExitStobaeus, Volume I

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Book I Chapter 40

Chapter 40: On the universe

On the universe.

From Aristotle’s letter to Alexander.⁹⁸⁷

1 · Two senses of cosmos

⟨Chapter 2⟩ The cosmos, then, is a system composed of heaven and earth and the natures contained within them. “Cosmos” is also used in another sense: the arrangement and ordering of all things, maintained by God and through gods.⁹⁸⁸

2 · Earth and heaven

Its center, [and] motionless and firmly set, has fallen to ⟨the⟩ life-bearing earth, mistress and mother of every kind of animal. Everything above it, bounded on every side toward the upper region, the dwelling of the gods, is called heaven. Filled with divine bodies, which we are accustomed to call stars, it moves eternally in revolution and dances in a circle with them all, unceasingly through all time.⁹⁸⁹

3 · The celestial axis

Since the whole heaven and cosmos is spherical and moves continuously, as I have said, there must be two motionless points directly opposite one another. As with a sphere revolving on a lathe, they remain fixed and hold the sphere together, while its entire bulk turns in a circle around them. These are called poles. If we imagine a straight line joining them, which is called the axis, it will be a diameter of the cosmos, with the earth at its center and the two poles as its ends.⁹⁹⁰

4 · The two poles

Of these motionless poles, one is always visible, above us toward ⟨the⟩ northern region, and is called the arctic pole; ⟨the other is always hidden beneath the earth, toward the south, and is called the antarctic pole.⟩⁹⁹¹

5 · The fifth element

The substance of heaven and the stars ⟨we call⟩ aether, not, as some do, because it is fiery and burns, thereby misunderstanding a power that is very far removed from fire, but because it always runs in a circular course. It is an element different from the four, uncorrupted and divine.⁹⁹²

6 · Fixed and wandering stars

Of the stars contained in it, some revolve with the whole heaven without wandering, keeping the same positions. Around its middle, the circle called the zodiac runs obliquely through the tropics, divided into twelve regions of signs. The wandering stars, however, naturally move neither at the same speed as the former nor [in] one another,⁹⁹³ but in distinct circles, one nearer the earth and another higher up.

7 · Nested circles

The multitude of fixed stars is beyond human discovery, although they move on a single surface, that of the whole heaven. The wandering stars, seven in all, occupy as many circles set one after another, so that each higher circle is larger than the one beneath it, and the seven are enclosed within one another. All are enclosed by the sphere of the fixed stars. This arrangement extends continuously to the limit of aether, which contains the divine bodies and the ordering of their motion.⁹⁹⁴

8 · The changeable region

Immediately after the ethereal and divine nature, which we declare to be ordered, and also unchanging, unalterable, and unaffected, comes the nature that is throughout subject to affection and change and, to speak generally, to destruction and death.⁹⁹⁵

9 · The fiery layer

First within this nature is the substance of fine particles and flame, kindled by the ethereal substance because of the latter’s magnitude and the swiftness of its motion. In this substance, called fiery and disorderly, lights shoot across, flames are hurled out, and the appearances called beams, pits, and comets repeatedly take up a position and are extinguished.⁹⁹⁶

10 · Air and weather

Beneath this substance air is spread out. It is naturally dark and icy, ⟨but⟩, illuminated and heated by that substance, it becomes brighter and warm. In air, which itself belongs to the nature subject to affection ⟨and⟩ is altered in every way, clouds form, rains pour down, and there are snows, frosts, hail, blasts of winds and whirlwinds, as well as thunder, lightning, falling thunderbolts, and the collision of countless masses of darkness.⁹⁹⁷

11 · Land and sea

⟨Chapter 3⟩ Next to the nature of air, earth and sea are set in place, abounding in plants and animals, springs and rivers, some winding through the land and others pouring into the sea. This region is varied with countless stretches of green growth, high mountains, deeply wooded forests, cities founded by the wise animal, the human being, and islands in the sea.

12 · The inhabited world as an island

The common account divides the inhabited world into islands and continents, overlooking the fact that the whole of it is itself a single island, surrounded by the sea called the Atlantic. ⟨It is likely⟩ that many others lie apart from it across the water, some larger and some smaller, all invisible to us except this one.⁹⁹⁸

13 · The surrounding waters

For the relation of our local islands to these seas is the relation of this inhabited world, and many others, to the entire sea. These are great islands washed round by great seas. The whole body of liquid, lying at the surface according to the properties of liquid and the hollows, with the so-called inhabited worlds growing up from it, would be for the most part next to the nature of air.⁹⁹⁹

14 · The center below

After these, in the depths at the very center of the cosmos, ⟨the whole earth, compacted together,⟩ stands firmly set, motionless and unshaken. This is the entire region of the cosmos that we call “below.”¹⁰⁰⁰

15 · The five regions

These five elements, ⟨situated⟩ spherically in five regions, ⟨the smaller always enclosed by the larger⟩ (I mean earth within water, water within air, air within fire, and fire within aether), constitute the entire cosmos. They mark out the whole upper region as the dwelling of gods, and the lower as that of creatures of a day. Of this lower region, one part is wet, which we are accustomed to call rivers, streams, and seas; another is dry, which we name land, continents, and islands.¹⁰⁰¹

16 · Islands of the inner sea

Of the islands, some are great, as the whole inhabited world has been said to be, and many others surrounded by great seas; others are smaller, visible to us, and situated within. Among these, the notable ones are Sicily, Euboea, Cyprus, Sarda ⟨and⟩ Kyrnos, Crete [and the Peloponnese], and Lesbos. Others are lesser: some are called the Sporades ⟨and⟩ Cyclades, while others have other names.¹⁰⁰²

987.The source identifies this as De mundo (On the Cosmos), chapters 2-5. The treatise was transmitted under Aristotle’s name; most modern scholars regard its author as someone else, hence “Pseudo-Aristotle.” Its date remains disputed. See Betegh and Gregorić, “Multiple Analogy in Ps.-Aristotle, De mundo 6,” Classical Quarterly 64 (2014), opening discussion. The attribution printed here is Stobaeus’s heading. Wachsmuth’s chapter markers refer to De mundo; the square-bracketed chapter 4 marker is a cross-reference, not rejected text; the numbered subdivisions in this translation are for comparison of the facing text.

988.Kosmos can name both the universe and its orderly arrangement. The printed Greek has singular “God” followed by plural “gods”; these are preserved. Wachsmuth’s apparatus records a singular “through God” in other witnesses to De mundo. The English does not harmonize the two forms.

989.The rejected “and” and supplied article follow Wachsmuth. The earth is stationary at the center in this account. The wording about the upper boundary is compressed; the translation retains the supplied edition’s “toward the upper region.” “Mistress and mother” follows its despozousa kai mētēr, rather than the different wording of the parallel text.

990.The poles and axis belong to the revolving celestial sphere in this geocentric description. The lathe is the mechanical comparison used to make the fixed axis and revolving mass intelligible.

991.This is the observer’s northern perspective: “above us” need not mean directly at the zenith. Wachsmuth supplies the article; the entire clause about the southern pole was restored by Heeren from De mundo. Arctic and antarctic mean the pole of the Bear and its opposite.

992.The author contrasts two explanations of aithēr: from aithesthai, “to burn,” and from aei thein, “always to run.” The latter is an ancient explanatory wordplay. The four other elements are earth, water, air, and fire. “We call” is restored from the parallel treatise.

993.The intrusive en, “in,” is rejected in the source and retained in brackets here. Without it, the sense is “nor at the same speed as one another.” Fixed stars keep their relative positions; the wandering bodies have distinct motions. “Zodiac” renders zōiophoros, literally the figure-bearing circle.

994.The seven wandering bodies in this ancient scheme include the sun and moon along with the five planets visible to the unaided eye. Wachsmuth notes that the separate text of De mundo treats the arrangement more fully. The shorter passage preserved here is translated without importing the omitted detail.

995.The distinction is between the changeless celestial region and the region where things undergo alterations, come into being, and perish. “Affection” here means being acted upon or undergoing a change, not an emotion.

996.“Magnitude” follows the printed megethos; Usener proposed a different reading referring to proximity. The named lights are classified by appearance, not by modern astronomical categories. Comets are placed in the changeable region here; beams and pits receive further explanation later in the excerpt.

997.The supplied conjunctions are retained. Gnophos denotes darkness or a dark cloud; the closing image is of dense storm masses colliding. The author groups ordinary weather and violent storms within the same mutable layer.

998.Oikoumenē is the inhabited world known to the author and his readers. The other great land masses are inferred by analogy; the passage does not claim to have observed them. “It is likely” is supplied by Wachsmuth from De mundo. The Atlantic here is the surrounding Ocean, broader than the modern ocean bearing that name.

999.The final sentence is textually difficult. The printed “properties of liquid” differs from the separate text of De mundo, and anapephykuia, “having grown up,” does not fit smoothly with its object. The English makes the apparent picture explicit: land masses emerge amid the waters, whose upper surface adjoins the air. The Greek is retained without adopting an unprinted repair.

1000.The bracketed words restore a clause absent from the Stobaeus manuscripts, using De mundo. “Below” is defined by the center of this spherical arrangement, not by an absolute direction outside it.

1001.“Creatures of a day” renders ephēmerōn zōiōn, emphasizing the transience of mortal life. Wachsmuth restores the explanation of the nested regions from De mundo; it remains bracketed in both languages.

1002.Sarda and Kyrnos are Sardinia and Corsica. “Within” refers to the inner sea, the Mediterranean. The Peloponnese is a peninsula; Heeren rejected its inclusion here, and Wachsmuth retains it in square brackets. Both supplied conjunctions are also shown.