From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordParatripsis is friction or rubbing.
- In StobaeusDemocritus’s reported lightning account uses friction to gather fire-producing constituents during cloud collision.
- In this edition“Friction” is clear without requiring a modern quantitative theory of heating.
- A place to beginFriction gathers constituents involved in lightning.
- English renderings
- friction; rubbing
Meaning
Paratripsis is friction or rubbing. It describes contact in movement, which may help explain the production of fire.
Use in the book
Democritus’s reported lightning account uses friction to gather fire-producing constituents during cloud collision. Elsewhere a shooting flare is said to arise from friction while its speed explains its elongated appearance. The term names the proposed generating action, separate from the light’s subsequent path.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
“Friction” is clear without requiring a modern quantitative theory of heating.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 232–233, 266. The two accounts belong to different reports; their shared term does not imply identical theories of the constituents involved.