Chapter XVIII: Introduction (4)

In theory the number of Cosmi might be infinite, but a shrinking from the vague ‘Infinity’, in later times associated with the Epicureans, led Plato, for instance, to restrict the number to a possible five. That he based this number upon that of the five regular solids may seem fanciful, but the solid angles and forms observed in crystals might reasonably suggest the hypothesis that the ultimate constituents of the crust of the earth would be found in the most perfect solid structures known to theory. In theory there is much that is attractive in these five solids. To one coming fresh from a study of Plane Polygonal Figures, which exist in infinite number, and, when regular, approximate more and more closely to the Plane Circle, it comes as a surprise to find that, in the next higher degree, the number of solid bodies so approximating to the Sphere is five only. Again, it seems almost a paradox that, of these five, the nearest approximation to the Sphere is attained, not by the body with twenty fine faces, but by that which shews only twelve, and those comparatively blunted and unshapely (pentagons). It was perhaps from such considerations that the Dodecahedron was held of special importance by the Pythagoreans. Plato’s study of the several faces of these solids, as available for construction or reconstruction of a world, leaves nothing to be desired, assuming that a solid body can be built out of plane figures, an assumption which appears to belong to the same habit of thought as that which makes the point the square of unity, and the lineal measure corresponding to the number two the first rectangle. As the pentagon defies the analysis available for the equilateral triangle or for the square, the Dodecahedron remains over, a model or pattern of a stitch-work world, as viewed from outside (_Phaedo_ 110 B and _Timaeus_ 55 C; see also Burnet’s _Early Greek Philosophy_, p. 341 foll.). It may not be amiss to be reminded that Kepler, mathematician as well as astronomer, spent many toilsome years in the endeavour to arrange the members of our solar system upon a plan based on the five solids. ‘If Kepler went out “to seek his father’s asses”, he found a kingdom, for it was in the course of these speculations, and through them, that he discovered not only his own “Third Law”, but also the truth, overlooked by Copernicus, that the orbit of each planet lies in a plane which passes through the centre of the sun.’ (Dreyer, _Planetary Systems_, p. 410.)

The discussion of the plurality of worlds, in the modern sense, begins with the very attractive work of Fontenelle, brought out, in its original form, in 1686, a year before Newton’s _Principia_, being a series of conversations between the Author and a witty and accomplished Marquise, as to the habitability of the several members of the solar system. The argument which followed is distinguished by many great names, those of Newton himself, Bentley, Huyghens, the Herschels, Dr. Chalmers, till it was brought to a head in the middle of the nineteenth century by Dr. Whewell and Sir David Brewster, writing respectively against and for the hypothesis. The subject was then one (as readers of Anthony Trollope will remember) upon which any one might be called upon to take a side in a London drawing-room. In more recent times interest has been concentrated upon Mars, who now possesses the distinction of having two satellites. We are only concerned to invite the reader to compare the religious argument addressed to the Stoics by Plutarch (p. 142 foll.) with the religious argument drawn by Dr. Chalmers and Sir David Brewster from the enrichment of the providential scheme for man upon our earth which would follow the conception of other earths tenanted by other beings perhaps of a higher order.

But it is natural that any such speculation should begin with the moon, and in fact we find the question of her habitability discussed by Theon and by Lamprias (pp. 293-9). With the later treatises on this subject, beginning with Lucian’s witty flight of fancy, we are not concerned. But an exception must be made for the very able works of Savinien de Cyrano, known to us as Cyrano de Bergerac, whose _Histoire comique des États et Empires de la Lune_ appeared, probably, in 1650, and was followed by a similar work about the sun. Cyrano appears to be familiar with Plutarch: thus he meets in the moon the ‘daemon of Socrates’, who has also been the tutelary spirit of Epaminondas, of Cato of Utica, and of Brutus. The idea (due in the first place to Heraclitus) of being fed on smells, is worked out with much vivacity. But with so original and daring a writer, it is not quite easy to settle how much is due to any hint from others and how much to himself. A modern reader will not need to be reminded that Cyrano was not a person of whom it was wise to give an outspoken opinion in his lifetime. But I had wished to speak with nothing but respect of a man of real learning and genius, who, from whatever cause, did not bring to perfection any work worthy of himself.

See, on the general subject, an Essay by the late Professor Henry J. S. Smith in _Oxford Essays_, 1855.

INDEX
OF PERSONS AND PLACES MENTIONED BY PLUTARCH IN THESE DIALOGUES

¶ In this Index the Greek spelling of ei (Lat. ī) has been usually retained.

All dates are B. C. unless otherwise stated.

The dates are often approximate and conventional.

Other numerals refer to pages of this volume.

For the speakers in each Dialogue see that Dialogue _passim_ and the Introductions.

(The ‘Three Pythian Dialogues’ are quoted under that designation See p. 52.)

A.

Academy, Academic, the School founded by Plato in ‘the most beautiful
suburb of Athens’ (Thuc. ii. 34), 65, 104, 178, 264.

Acanthus, Acanthian, a town of the Chalcidice, 94, 95.

Achaeans, 102.

Achaeus, 95.

Achĕron, a river of the lower world, 227.

Achilles, 294.

Admētus, king of Pherae in Thessaly, and husband of Alcestis, 132.

Adōnis (‘Gardens of Adonis’ were cut flowers planted in pots), 199.

Adrasteia, a name for Nemesis, ‘the unescapable’, 207.

Aegīna, an island in the Saronic Gulf, opposite to Athens, 99.

Aegon, 85.

Aegos Potami, a river, and in later times a town, in the Chersonese,
famous for the sea-battle of 405, in which Lysander defeated the
Athenian fleet, 88.

Aemiliānus, a rhetorician, 134, 135.

Aeolian, 121.

Aeolĭdae, 132.

Aeschylus, tragic poet of Athens, (525-456), 67, 132, 162, 265.

Aesop of Samos, writer of fables (fl. 570), a freedman of Iadmon of
Samos, 94, 192.

Aetna, Mount, in Sicily, 271.

Aetolians, 92.

Agamemnon, 125, 230.

Agathŏclēs, 193.

Agāvē, daughter of Cadmus, and mother of Pentheus, 226.

Agenorĭdas, 13.

Agesianax (or Hegesianax), a poet, probably of Alexandria, third
century, 260, 261.

Agesilaüs II, the lame king of Sparta, reigned 398-361 (see his _Life_)
11, 13, 91.

Aglaonīcē, 130.

Aglaŏphon, 166.

Agrigentum (Acragas), a town on the south coast of Sicily, 184.

Aïdoneus (Hades), 77.

Ajax, 193, 230.

Alcaeus, of Lesbos, lyric poet (fl. 600), 118.

Alcibiădes 450-404, Athenian politician, 19, 183.

Alcman, lyric poet of Sparta (fl. 630), 297.

Alcmēna, wife of Amphitryon and mother of Hercules; (on her sanctuary,
in a grove near Thebes, see Pausan. ix. 16. 4), 11, 12, 13.

Alĕüs, 12.

Alexander, the Great, 95, 192, 233.

Alexis, of Thurii, poet of the so-called ‘Middle Attic Comedy’, fourth
century, 137.

Aloădes, Otus and Ephialtes, giant sons of Iphimedeia, wife of Aloeus
(_Od._ xi. 307 foll., and _Il._ v. 385), 289.

Alopĕcus, 109.

Alphēüs, a river of Arcadia and Elis, 160.

Alyattes, king of Lydia and father of Croesus (d. 560), 96.

Alyrius, 100.

Amēstris, 235.

Ammon, the temple of Zeus Ammon in an oasis of the Libyan Desert to the
N.W. of Egypt, 117, 120.

Ammonius, an Athenian philosopher of the first century A. D., the
instructor of Plutarch. A speaker in the First and Third Pythian
Dialogues. _See also_ 298, and cp. Sympos. 3, 1, 2; 8, 3; 9, 1, 2,
5, 14; and _Life of Themistocles_, end.

Amphiaraüs of Argos, prince and seer, who accompanied the Seven
Chieftains against Thebes, and was swallowed up by the earth there,
121.

Amphictyons, ‘Dwellers around’, whose council met at Thermopylae and at
Pylaea, a suburb of Delphi, 95, 110.

Amphilŏchus, son of Amphiaraüs, worshipped at Malli in Cilicia, 163,
205.

Amphīon, the district of Thebes between the rivers Strophia and Ismenus
(Pausan. ix. 16 and 17), 10.

Amphipolis, a town of Macedon on the Strymon, taken by Brasidas in 424,
175 _n._

Amphitheüs, a Theban patriot, imprisoned by the Polemarchs, 11, 29, 43,
50.

Amphitryon, father of Hercules, 13.

Anactorium, a town and promontory of Acarnania, 184.

Anaxagoras, 499-427, a philosopher of Clazomenae in Ionia, 71, 165,
231, 277, 283.

Andocĭdes, 16.

Androcleidas, a Theban patriot, assassinated when a refugee in Athens,
46.

Antichthon, 306.

Antigŏnus, younger son of Demetrius Sotēr, king of Syria (d. 125), 204.

Antipater, son of Cassander, king of Macedon, succeeded his brother
Philip, and was himself murdered, 198.

Antiphon, 18.

Aphroditē, goddess of love, 189, 232, 272.

Apollo, 59, 62, 67, 68, 73, 76, 77, 78, 88, 93, 94, 96, 99, 121, 132,
146, 160, 161, 170, 193, 210, 232.

Apollocrates, son of Dionysius the younger, of Syracuse (d. 354), 198.

Apollodōrus, tyrant of Cassandria (Potidaea) from 379, 189, 191.

Apollonia, a town in Illyria founded from Corinth, 184.

Apollonia, a town in Pisidia, 96.

Apollonides, a speaker in the _Face in the Moon_. ὁ τακτικός (_Sympos._
3, 4).

Arabia, 297.

Arcadia, Arcadians, 176.

Arcĕsus, Lacedaemonian Harmost, 29, 51.

Arcĕsus, of Sicily, 22.

Archelaüs, king of Macedon, 413-399, friend and host of Euripides, 59.

Archias, of Athens, the priest, 47.

Archias, of Thebes. A member of the oligarchical party, and made a
Polemarch by Sparta, 8, 10, 29, 32, 43, 44, 47, 48, 50.

Archidāmus, an Athenian, 6, 7, 8, 44, 45, 47.

Archilŏchus, 714-676, of Paros, lyric and iambic poet, 63, 199, 230,
282.

Archīnus, 7.

Archȳtas of Tarentum, mathematician and statesman, fl. 300 (see _Life
of Marcellus_, c. 14), 14 _n._, 181.

Argos, Argive, 85, 186.

Aridaeus, 206.

Aristarchus of Samos, astronomer and physicist (310-230), 98, 264, 269,
283.

Aristarchus, critic, of Samothrace and Alexandria (fl. 156), 295.

Aristocrătes, king of Arcadia (stoned to death 668), 176.

Aristodēmus, king of Messenia (d. 723), 229, 230.

Ariston, 186, 195.

Aristonīca, 104.

Aristotle, 384-322, founder of the Peripatetic School at Athens, 69,
84, 88, 143, 162, 283, 318.

Aristotle (see p. 255), a Peripatetic, who takes part in the Dialogue
on the _Face in the Moon_.

Aristyllus, an astronomer (fl. 233), 98.

Arnē, a town in Thessaly, 158.

Arsălus, 138, 139.

Artĕmis, 146, 230, 232, 262, 295, 308.

Artemisium, on the north coast of Euboea, where the Greek fleet
defeated that of Xerxes in 480, 183.

Asclepius (Aesculapius), 185.

Assyrians, 288.

Asterium, 92.

Athămas, 190, 226.

Athena (Pallas Athene), 16, 50, 102, 139, 193, 262, 294.

Athens, Athenian, 7, 8, 17, 18, 19, 23, 40, 47, 49, 62, 65, 88, 95, 96,
99, 177, 183, 185, 195, 196, 197, 229, 303.

Atlas, a giant son of Iapĕtus and brother of Prometheus, identified
with a mountain in NW. Africa, 65, 265.

Atrŏpus, 37, 308, 315.

Attĭca, 162.

Augeas, king of the Epeans; slain for bad faith by Hercules, and
succeeded by Phyleus, 204.

Ausonius, a Latin poet of Bordeaux (A.D. 310-90), 127 _n._

Autolycus, son of Hermes, and grandfather of Ulysses, famed for his
cunning, 185.

B.

Bacchus, 209.

Bacchylĭdas, 20.

Bacis, an ancient Boeotian seer, connected in story with the Corycian
cave, 90.

Bakerwoman, the, 96.

Basilocles, a speaker in the introductory part of the Second Pythian
Dialogue.

Battus, of Thera, founder of Cyrene (see Herod. 4, 150 foll.), 103,
108.

Bessus, 186.

Bias, sixth century; of Priēnē in Ionia; one of the Seven Wise Men, 61.

Bion, a Scythian philosopher and wit of the third century, 86, 201,
229.

Boeotia, 7, 9, 50, 65, 120, 194, 306.

Boēthus, a young geometrician and Epicurean (probably an Athenian), a
speaker in the Second Pythian Dialogue (cp. _Sympos._ 5, 1 and 8,
3).

Branchĭdae, 193.

Brasĭdas, the Spartan general (d. 422), 94, 95, 175.

Briăreus, 135, cf. 299.

Britain, Briton, 117, 133, 261, 299.

Byzantium, 189.