Pupil of the eye

Use in the book

Socrates asks Alcibiades whether he has noticed that the face of someone looking into an eye appears in the eye opposite as in a mirror. The wording joins the anatomical region and the visible miniature figure that explains its designation. This makes the example immediately accessible while preparing the claim that the eye sees itself through what is best in another eye.

The image must not be inflated into an independent metaphysical entity. Nothing in this passage identifies the little εἴδωλον with a Platonic Form or establishes a general hierarchy of images and originals. It is the observer's visible likeness used to explain the possibility of reflexive seeing.

The textual caution is unusually specific. Burnet prints the phrase about what is called the pupil, while his apparatus records Schleiermacher's deletion of that clause and T's alternative κορυφήν. The dispute concerns the wording of the anatomical explanation; it does not permit a reader to describe the entire eye analogy as absent from the manuscripts.

Places to read

1. 132e–133aThe observer’s face appears in the opposite eye as an image
2. 133a2 (apparatus)2The clause about the pupil is printed but its deletion and an alternative reading are reported

Translation in this edition

The edition's note explains the girl/doll sense behind κόρη and gives the English “pupil” a visual context. Its note attributes deletion only to “the thing we also call the pupil,” not to the whole sentence or analogy.

εἴδωλον

Attested: εἴδωλον (eidōlon; 133a). At 133a: A likeness of the person looking into the opposite eye, not a separately asserted metaphysical Form. Lexical identification: lemma: εἴδωλον. See Pupil.

ἐμφαίνομαι

Attested: ἐμφαίνεται (emphainetai; 133a). At 133a: The observer's face appears in the opposite eye as in a mirror. Lexical identification: lemma: ἐμφαίνομαι. See Pupil.

κόρη

Attested: κόρην (korēn; 133a). At 133a: The pupil of the eye, connected by the sentence with the miniature image of the observer. Lexical identification: lemma: κόρη. See Pupil.

κορυφή

Attested: κορυφὴν (koryphēn; 133a2; apparatus2). At 133a2: T’s alternative reading where Burnet prints pupil; it is recorded as a textual variant and does not define the reflecting region in this edition’s reading text. Lexical identification: lemma: κορυφή. See Pupil.

Use in the book

In the account of Chrysippus, visual pneuma extends from the ruling part as far as the pupil before acting on the surrounding air. The pupil marks a boundary in the description of the visual process. It is not identical with the whole eye or with the ruling psychic power from which the pneuma proceeds.

Places to read

1. I.52.18The pupil is the endpoint of the internal course of visual pneuma.

Translation in this edition

“Pupil” is precise in this context; retain the distinction from the eye as a whole.

Use in the book

The structure has two complementary functions: it holds surrounding water back and permits finer fire to pass out. The covering is therefore neither a sealed wall nor an unrestricted opening. Its particular organization explains why one component remains enclosed while another can cross. This is a local instance of the importance of fit and passage in Empedoclean physical explanation.

The fire is said to lie in ambush. That personifying expression gives the enclosed active constituent a readiness to emerge; it need not imply a small conscious person living inside the eye. The membranes and tissues, by contrast, receive the language of controlled enclosure and perforation. The description combines active material with a structured route.

The immediate comparison with a screened lamp limits the most secure interpretation. Just as a protective screen separates blowing wind from issuing light, the bodily covering separates surrounding water from issuing fire. The passage does not name a retina, explain a lens, or identify the tissues with a complete modern anatomy of the eye. Its technical specificity is real, but it belongs to its own model.

Places to read

1. B 84.7–11The pupil contains enclosed fire; perforated tissues retain water while passing finer fire.
2. B 84.1–62The first half supplies the lamp-and-screen comparison.

Translation in this edition

The connective beside “fine tissues” and the relative pronoun beginning the next line are supplied in the printed Greek. The words should not be treated as though every detail of the syntax survived without editorial help. The individual tissue words are attested even where their connection is editorially restored.