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Ancient contents - Book I

Ancient contents · Book I

The first book has sixty chapters ... Their sequence is, after

1. the discussion of God: that he is the maker of the things that are and governs the whole by the principle of providence;

2. second, on those who think there is no providence, nor divine powers attending it in the government of the whole;

3. then, on justice, appointed by God to watch over human actions and punish wrongdoers.²⁰⁸⁵

4-10 · Necessity, fortune, time, and principles

4. And on divine necessity, through which what accords with the will of God occurs inexorably.

5. And on fate and the orderly arrangement of events.

6. And on fortune or spontaneity.

7. And that the course of fortune cannot be calculated.

8. And on the nature of time, its parts, and how many things it is responsible for.

9. And on heavenly Aphrodite and divine love.

10. Tenth, on principles, elements, and the whole.²⁰⁸⁶

11-20 · Matter, form, bodies, and change

11. Then, on matter.

12. On form.

13. On causes.

14. On bodies, their division, and the minimum.

15. On shapes.

16. On colors.

17. On mixture and blending.

18. On void, place, and space.

19. On motion.

20. Twentieth, on coming to be and passing away.²⁰⁸⁷

21-26 · The world and the heavenly bodies

21. On the world: whether it has a soul and is governed by providence, where it has its ruling part, and whence it receives nourishment.

22. On the order of the world; whether the whole is one.

23. On the substance and division of the heaven.

24. On the substance and shapes of the stars, their motion and significance.

25. On the sun’s substance, size, shape, turnings, eclipse, signs, and motion.

26. On the moon’s substance, size, shape, and illuminations; on its eclipse and appearance, and on its distances and signs.²⁰⁸⁸

27-32 · Celestial and atmospheric phenomena

27. On the Milky Way.

28. On comets, shooting stars, and such things.

29. On thunder, lightning, thunderbolts, fiery whirlwinds, and whirlwinds.

30. Thirtieth, on the rainbow, on the halo, mock sun, and rods.

31. And also on clouds, mist, rain, dew, snow, frost, and hail.

32. On winds.²⁰⁸⁹

33-40 · Earth, sea, waters, and the whole

33. On the earth: whether it is one and finite, what its size is, and on its position.

34. And on the shape of the earth.

35. And whether the earth remains at rest or moves.

36. And on earthquakes.

37. And on the sea.

38. How ebb and flood tides arise.

39. On waters.

40. On the whole.²⁰⁹⁰

41-49 · Nature, living beings, and the soul

41. On nature and the causes arising from it.

42. On the generation of living creatures and what follows.

43. How many kinds of living creatures there are, and whether all are rational and perceptible.

44. On sleep and death.

45. On plants.

46. On the nourishment and appetite of living creatures.

47. On human nature.

48. On intellect.

49. On the soul.²⁰⁹¹

50-56 · Perception and the senses

50. On perception and perceptible things, and whether the senses are truthful.

51. How many senses there are, and what substance and activity each has.

52. On sight and images in mirrors.

53. On hearing.

54. On smell.

55. On taste.

56. On touch.²⁰⁹²

57-60 · Voice, imagination, belief, and breathing

57. On voice, whether voice is incorporeal, and what its ruling part is.

58. On imagination and the criterion.

59. And fifty-ninth, on belief.

60. And sixtieth, on breathing and bodily processes.²⁰⁹³

Two preliminary chapters

Such, then, are the number and subjects of the first book’s chapters ... In this book, however, before undertaking the chapters just mentioned, he treats two preliminary chapters. The first is a praise of philosophy, which he weaves together from various authors; the second concerns the schools established within philosophy. In it he also records ancient opinions about geometry, music, and arithmetic.²⁰⁹⁴

2085.This appendix translates the ancient outline preserved by Photius and printed by Wachsmuth on pp. 3-10. It surveys all four books, although the present volume contains Book I. The opening is compressed: “after discussing God ... second ...”. Its printed discontinuity is retained. Arabic numbers follow the editor’s chapter locators; connectors are placed with the entry they introduce. Latin cross-references are omitted. Chapter 2’s text is lost.

2086.Spontaneity renders to automaton, events occurring of themselves; it does not refer to machinery. The table links its subjects with and, then, and occasional ordinals. These words belong to the Greek account, even where the editor’s chapter numbers already indicate the sequence. Heavenly Aphrodite and divine love contrast with the bodily love named in the outline of IV.19.

2087.Idea is form; elachiston is the minimum or smallest unit considered in the discussion of bodies and division. The outline distinguishes mixture from blending, and place from space. The table announces subjects without endorsing a single philosophical explanation of them.

2088.The ruling part, hēgemonikon, is the governing element of an ensouled whole. The stars’ significance concerns their role as signs; the sun’s turnings include its seasonal turning points. The lunar heading here prints the question of distances without the supplement signs found in the main chapter heading. The facing Greek follows this table’s wording.

2089.Gala, literally milk, names the Milky Way. Prēstēres and typhōnes are ancient categories of violent atmospheric events, rendered fiery whirlwinds and whirlwinds. The rods are streaks of light considered alongside halos and mock suns. These translations preserve the source’s categories without treating them as exact modern classifications.

2090.The outline preserves the subjects of lost chapters 33-35 and 37; their restored headings appear in the main translation with notices of loss. Chapter 38 has the plural plēmmyrai, flood tides. Chapter 40 is expressly headed On the whole in this table as well as in the running text.

2091.What follows in chapter 42 abbreviates further topics; it is not an omission introduced by this translation. Chapters 44 and 46 are lost. In chapter 43 aisthēta means perceptible, rather than the usual word for possessing perception. The English preserves that distinction here, as in the main heading.

2092.The outline distinguishes perception in general, its objects and reliability, the number and activities of the senses, and the individual senses. Emphaseis in the heading on sight denotes appearances or images in mirrors. The Greek title itself supplies this optical setting.

2093.Unlike the main heading of chapter 57, this table has no supplied clause about the soul’s perceptive power. The pronoun its is therefore left as printed; its intended reference is not clarified by adding soul. Phantasia is imagination or appearance, kritērion a means of judging, and pathē the bodily processes discussed at the end of Book I.

2094.The Greek retrospectively adds two chapters before the sixty numbered subjects. Wachsmuth marks the praise of philosophy as lost. On Arithmetic is the surviving conclusion of this preliminary material and has already been translated near the beginning of this edition. The two preliminaries also explain the final total of 208 chapters for the collection.