(1) c. 1, 920 B. The opening of the Dialogue is abrupt; compare that of
‘On the Instances of Delay in Divine Punishment’. Many of the Symposiacs
open as abruptly, and there a former conversation is sometimes resumed
by the same speakers. It seems not impossible that there had been a
previous Dialogue on the Face in the Moon, and, again, that the περὶ
ψυχῆς preceded the _De Sera numinum Vindicta_.
Wyttenbach reads τῷ γ᾽ ἐμῷ for the MSS. τῷ γὰρ ἐμῷ, but suggests τῷ παρ᾽
ἐμοί, which seems better. Sylla is not the author, but the depository,
of the myth.
For εἰ δεῖ τι ... προσανακρούσασθαι he reads εἰ δή τι ...
προσανεκρούσασθε. The past indicative is required by the τί δὲ οὐκ
ἐμέλλομεν which follows, the reference being to the previous discussion
(see Introduction). The combination εἰ δή or εἰ δή τι is a frequent one.
If δή was altered to δεῖ, the further alteration of the verb would
follow. Sylla’s language is nautical, as in c. 26, ‘Did you really stop
rowing, and back-water on to the received views?’
(2) c. 3. 921 A. _For our sight._ ὄψις is an old correction for ἴτυς of
the MSS., and is required by the context.
(3) c. 4. 921 C. _Equal in breadth and length._ Empedocles (Fr. 17, 20)
has a line
καὶ Φιλότης ἐν τοῖσιν, ἴση μῆκός τε πλάτος τε.
This poetical quotation is introduced to indicate that the world is not
a mere point, but has sensible dimensions. In literal truth, the
habitable world was held to be twice as long as it was wide (i. e. N. to
S.).
The words as to the earth occupying ‘a point central to the sphere (i.
e. orbit) of the moon’ are quoted from the Second Hypothesis of
Aristarchus (see Introduction). It has been proposed (by Dr. Max Adler)
to substitute the name of Clearchus for that of Hipparchus. But the
quarrel of Lamprias is not with philosophers but with astronomers and
mathematicians, represented by Apollonides and Menelaus. The greatest of
them is of absolute authority as to angles of reflexion, &c., not so
when he propounds a physical theory of vision, which many find
unsatisfactory. For the theory itself see the quasi-Plutarchean _De
Placitis_, 4, 13.
For the words καίτοι γε φίλε πρίαμ᾽ (omitted in the translation),
Turnebus proposed καίτοι γε φίλε Λαμπρία, which is very attractive as to
the letters, but impossible, unless the text be wholly reconstructed,
because Lamprias is himself the speaker.
For discrepancies between the mathematically correct theory of reflexion
and its physical application see chapters 17 and 23.
(4) c. 7, 924 B. _That segments of beams...._ The sense intended by the
translation is this: A beam is sawn into two segments on the earth’s
surface. The two segments, which at first are separated by a short
interval, move simultaneously towards the earth’s centre, but in
converging, not parallel, lines, and jam each other long before they
reach it. (This is suggested by Aristotle, _de Caelo_, 2, 14, 296 b 18.)
For ἀποκρίπτεσθαι Dr. Purser suggests ἀποθρύπτεσθαι, which I have
rendered; ἀποκύπτεσθαι (Aristoph. Lysis. 1003), ‘to crouch aside’, seems
possible.
(5) c. 9, 925 B. Perhaps the line of Empedocles may run ἅρματος
ὡσπερανεὶ (L. C. P.) χνόη ᾄσσεται.
(6) c. 10, 925 E. The MSS. have ἀλλὰ καὶ κινητικὸ ταύτῃ διάστημα τὸ
δέον, for which Madvig (_Adv. Crit._, vol. i, p. 665) makes the
admirable correction: ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐκείνῃ καὶ ταύτῃ δυίστημα δοτέον.
(7) c. 14, 927 F. _The growth within._ I read αὔξησιν, which is
sometimes confused with ἕξιν. Cp. Ar. _Eth. N._ 3, 14, 149 b 4.
(8) c. 19, 932 C. [_the moon ... bodies also_]. The words in brackets
have been supplied from the substance of the passage of Aristotle
mentioned in the footnote.
(9) c. 19, 932 C. Posidonius’ definition is introduced because it
contains an admission that the moon casts a shadow, and is therefore an
earthlike, not a starlike, body. It has been proposed to alter σκιᾶς
into σκιᾷ, and the construction with σύνοδος could be justified by
Platonic examples (see R. Kunze in _Rhein. Mus._ vol. 64, p. 635), but
the assumed corruption is improbable. E appears[375] to read οἷς not ἧς;
the clause introduced by the relative seems to contain a limitation of
the phenomenon to ‘those who experience the obscuration’, i.e. those in
the track of the shadow over the earth’s surface. In this case, the
words may either have come from a marginal gloss on τόδε τὸ πάθος, or
should be transposed with those words, as suggested by Dr. Purser. This
will be consistent with the account of a solar eclipse given by
Cleomedes (2, 3, p. 172), doubtless after Posidonius; it is not αὐτοῦ
τοῦ θεοῦ πάθος ἀλλὰ τῆς ἡμετέρας ὄψεως, whereas an eclipse of the moon
is αὐτῆς τῆς θεοῦ πάθος, irrespective of the place of the terrestrial
observer.
(10) c. 24, 937 F. _A lion._ Kepler suggests that there was an old
confusion between λῖς, a lion, and λᾶς, a stone.
(11) c. 24, 938 C. _without mouths._ The MSS. have εὐστόμους, but
ἀστόμους is an old correction adopted by W. Pliny, _N. H._ 7, 2, 25,
quotes Megasthenes for a mouthless people living near the sources of the
Ganges. See also Müller, _Fragm. Hist. Graec._ 2, 427 (Adler). For the
notion of living by smell cp. Heraclitus (Fr. 38).
(12) c. 26, 941 A. This interesting passage should be read by the side
of _De Defectu Oraculorum_, c. 18, p. 19 F (p. 135 above), which has a
close verbal resemblance, and is perhaps extracted from it (Adler).
Briareus may have been named in the full text here, as the son of
Cronus. In Hesiod, _Theogon._ 147, he is the son of Uranus, and so
Eustathius on Hom. _Il._ 1, 403, but a little later on Eustathius
mentions Cronus as his father on the authority of Arrian. παρακάτω
κεῖσθαι of the MSS. is difficult. Adler would read Βριάρεων δὲ τὸν υἱὸν
ὡς ἔχοντα φρουρὰν τῶν τε νήσων ἐκείνων καὶ τῆς θαλάττης, ἣν Κρόνιον
πέλαγος ὀνομάζουσιν, παρακατῳκίσθαι. Dr. Purser points out that the
Straits of Gibraltar were first called the Pillars of Cronus, afterwards
the Pillars of Briareus, and lastly the Pillars of Hercules (_Schol. ad
Dionys. Perieg._ 64 in Müller’s _Fragm. Hist. Gr._ 3, 640).
I have followed the reading of Emperius πέραν κατῳκίσθαι, but without
much confidence. Cronus could not well, as Dr. Purser points out, have
been _in_ one of the islands, and also _beyond_ it.
(13) c. 26, 942 C. I venture to suggest that the text may have run
something as follows:
Πλεῖστον γὰρ ἐν Καρχηδόνι χρόνον διέτριψεν ἅτε δὴ παρ᾽ ἡμῖν μέταλλα
ἔχων, ὃς καί τινας, ὅθ᾽ ἡ προτέρα πόλις ἀπώλλυτο, κτλ.
The long sojourn of the stranger in Carthage would be explained if he
owned mines there.
In the sequel φαινομένων may perhaps stand for Φοινικικῶν and χρῆναι for
χρηστήρια εἶναι.
408 F (p. 110, l. 19). πρὸς δὲ πίστιν ἐπισφαλὴς καὶ ὑπεύθυνος. If
ἐπισφαλής stands, it should rather mean ‘liable to take good faith (like
an infection)‘, a very common use of the adjective and its adverb in
Plutarch. See e. g. 661 B, 631 C. This seems rather a forced oxymoron
here. Wyttenbach doubted, and Madvig proposed ἀνεπισφαλής, a word said
to be found in Themistius.
On the passage see J. H. W. Strijd in _Class. Rev._, xxviii, p. 219.