Chapter XII: The Lay Authors (4)

[150\12: ~sunekri/thê kai\ diekri/thê, kapê=lthen ho/then ê=lthen pa/lin, ga= me\n es ga=n, pneu=m' a/nô; ti/ tô=nde cha/lepo/n? ou\de\ he/n~, Epich. ap. Plu., _Cons. ad Apoll._ 15, 110 A; Epich., _fr._ 8 [245 Kaib.]. ~pneu=ma~ as a general name for the ~psuchê/~ occurs also in Epich., _fr._ 7 [265]. No earlier authority is to be found for this usage that became so common later (under Stoic influence) than Xenophanes who ~prô=tos apephê/nato ho/ti hê psuchê\ pneu=ma~ (D.L. ix, 19). Epicharm. may have been actually following Xenophanes (whose writings he knew: Arist., _Meta._ iii, 5, 1010a, 6) in this use of the word. Eurip. then did the same, _Suppl._ 533. ~pneu=ma~ is the name given to the ~aê/r~ in so far as it is in _motion_. ~(hupolêpte/on, ei=nai sô=ma to\n ae/ra) gi/netai de\ pneu=ma kinêthei/s. outhe\n ga\r he/tero/n esti pneu=ma ê\ kinou/menos aê/r~: Hero, ~mêchan. su/st.~, p. 121 (ed. Diels = i, p. 6. ed. Schmidt) after Straton. The soul is called a ~pneu=ma~ just because the soul is that which has continual movement from its very nature (and is the principle of movement); as such it had already been regarded by Alkmaion (and later by Plato), and even before that by Pythagoras (see above, chap. xi, n. 40); in a different way by Herakleitos and Demokritos also. The universal ~aê/r~ and the Soul-~pneu=ma~, if we give the terms their proper meaning, are to be thought of as being of the same nature, so that the ~aê/r~, too (still more the ~aithê/r~ as a higher ~aê/r~), is psychical and animated by soul. That at least was how Diogenes of Apollonia regarded it. (~aê/r~ = the outer air, ~pneu=ma~ the air which is inside men's bodies: [Hp.] _de Flatib._ 3 [vi, 94 L.], a section taken from Diog. Ap.)]

[151\12: Numerous references in Eurip. to verses of Epicharm. are pointed out by Wilamowitz, _Eurip. Herakles_, i, 29. The fact that Eurip. knew the poems of Epich. and valued them for their philosophic contents is clearly made out by Wilamowitz' study. But he goes on to assert that all the allusions of Eurip. refer only to the (or one of the) forgeries in the name of Epicharm., of which many were known in antiquity. The reason alleged for this statement--"Euripides never quotes comedies"--is merely a petitio principii. It may be that Eurip. does not "quote" contemporary Attic comedy, but whether he maintained the same attitude to the brilliantly original comic poet of Sicily, whom Aristotle and even Plato (_Gorg._ 505 E and esp. _Tht._ 152 E) were not ashamed to notice, is the very point at issue; nothing is gained by unproved denial of this main premiss.--Moreover, it would be a most unusual species of forger that preferred to publish gems like ~na=phe kai\ . . .~ (imitated by Eurip.) or ~no/os horê=|~--under another man's name. The fragments of the ~Politei/a~, which is really a forgery fathered on Epicharmos (ap. Clem. Al., _Str._ v, p. 719 P. = Lor., p. 297), are of a very different character.]

[152\12: Archelaos makes a less satisfactory model for Eurip. here. Arch. in his reconciliation of the doctrines of Anaxagoras and Diogenes did not separate ~nou=s~ from the mixture of the material elements (or from the ~aê/r~), but he distinguished between them, while for the poet ~aithê/r~ and mind are the same.] {462}

[153\12: ~aithê/r~ = Zeus, _fr._ 941. ~aithê/r. . . . Zeu\s ho\s anthrô/pois onoma/zetai~, _fr._ 877. Hence the ~aithê/r~ is ~koruphê\ theô=n~, _fr._ 919.--In the same way for Diog. Ap. the air is god (Cic., _ND._ i, 29) and Zeus (Philod., _Piet._ c. 6b, p. 70 Gomp.; _Dox._ 536).--In E., _fr._ 941: ~to\n hupsou= to/nd' a/peiron aithe/ra kai\ gê=n pe/rix e/chonth' hugrai=s en agka/lais~ the ~aithê/r~ is not put instead of ~aê/r~ (for ~to\n hupsou=~ only suits ~aithê/r~ in its proper sense), but the two are combined under the one word (~_hugrai=s_ en agka/lais~ could not be said of the ~aithê/r~ in the strict sense), just as the ~aê/r~ of Diogenes includes the ~aithê/r~ (for the hot ~aê\r para\ tô=| hêli/ô|~, _fr._ 6 [5 Diels] is, in fact, the ~aithê/r~, and so, too, essentially, is the warm ~aê/r~ in our bodies).]

[154\12: ~--eis atha/naton aithe/r' empesô/n~, _Hel._ 1016.]

[155\12: ~ho ento\s aê\r~ (which alone ~aistha/netai~--not the senses) ~mikro\n mo/rion ô\n tou= theou=~, Diog. ap. Thphr., _Sens._ 42.]

[156\12: The living air, or Zeus, is ~nou=s brotô=n~, _Tro._ 886. And vice versa, the ~nou=s~ in each one of us is no other than God, _fr._ 1018.]

[157\12: ~ho nou=s tô=n katthano/ntôn zê=| me\n ou/, gnô/mên d' e/chei atha/naton, eis atha/naton aithe/r' empesô/n~, _Hel._ 1013 ff.--Ambiguity attaches to the passages in which a dying person is said to depart ~eis a/llo schê=ma bi/ou~ (_Med._ 1039), ~es a/llas bio/tou morpha/s~ (_Ion_, 1068), to ~he/teron aiô=na kai\ moi=ran~ (_IA._ 1508). It is possible that in each case a personal existence continued in a land of the dead is understood--but if they mean no more than that they are remarkably pregnant in form. In reading them (esp. _Med._ 1039) one is reminded of the remarkable lines of Philiskos (pupil of Isocr.) ap. [Plu.] _Vit. X Or._, p. 243, 60 West. ~tô=| ga\r es a/llo schê=ma metharmosthe/nti kai\ a/llois en ko/smoisi bi/ou sô=ma labo/nth' he/teron~--said of the dead Lysias. But here the idea of metempsychosis seems really to be involved, which it can hardly be in the case of Eurip.]

[158\12: Eur. adopts it for himself, _fr._ 189 (_Antiope_), and confirms it by so many ~lo/gôn ha/millai~ in which he allows the most contradictory opinions about a single subject to be given equally plausible expression.]

[159\12: ~apeirosu/nê a/llou bio/tou~, etc. _Hip._ 191-7. ~to\ zê=n ga\r i/smen, tou= thanei=n d' apeiri/a| pa=s tis phobei=tai phô=s lipei=n to/d' hêli/ou~, _fr._ 816, 10 f. (_Phoinix_).]

[160\12: The dead man is ~gê= kai\ skia/--to\ mêde\n eis oude\n rhe/pei~, _fr._ 532; cf. 533, 534. ~to\ mê\ gene/sthai tô=| thanei=n i/son; hô/sper ouk idou=sa phô=s~ the dead woman knows nothing of herself or her sufferings, _Tro._ 636-44 (a locus often initiated in "consolations": _Axioch._ 365 D, Plu., _Cons. ad Apoll._ 15, p. 110 A).]

[161\12: ~phê/mê to\n esthlo\n kan muchoi=s dei/knusi gê=s~, _fr._ 865. ~aretê\ de\ ka\n tha/nê| tis ouk apo/llutai, zê=| d' ouket' o/ntos sô/matos~, _fr._ 734; cf. _Andr._ 772. At the sacrifice of Makaria the chorus in _Hcld._ 621 ff. can only offer as consolation the fame which awaits her--~oud' akleê/s nin do/xa pro\s anthrô/pôn hupode/xetai~.]

[162\12: Makaria voluntarily going to meet her death--~ei/ ti dê\ kata\ chthono/s; _ei/ê ge me/ntoi mêde/n_. ei ga\r he/xomen kakei= meri/mnas hoi thanou/menoi brotô=n ouk oi=d' ho/poi tis tre/psetai; to\ ga\r thanei=n me/giston pha/rmakon nomi/zetai~, _Hcld._ 592 ff.; cf. _fr._ 916.]

[163\12: _fr_, 757 (the metaphor of ll. 5 ff. is employed for homiletic purposes by Epictet. ii, 6, 11-14); _Andr._ 1270 ff.]

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