The Lagoon

by Armand Marie Leroi

  VI. RELATIONSHIPS AMONG SOME LIFE-HISTORY FEATURES, ILLUSTRATED USING MODERN DATA

  In GA IV and LBV, Aristotle claims that various life-history features are associated with each other in certain ways. His claims are correct at least for placental mammals. Below, I illustrate four of these associations using data from the panTHERIA database of mammalian life history.* I exclude Orders not seen by Aristotle (e.g. Marsupialia) or else excluded from his tetrapods (Chiroptera, Cetacea), and then model the log-transformed data using linear regression. Four of Aristotle’s claimed relationships are shown: brood size and adult body size (negative), gestation time and longevity (positive), adult body size and longevity (positive) and fecundity and adult body size (negative). Much more sophisticated analyses of this sort have often been published.* They usually aim to take various confounding effects into account and so reduce, but hardly eliminate, the difficulty of inferring causal relations from comparative data.

  NOTES

  THE EXEGETICAL LITERATURE on Aristotle’s writings is ancient, disputatious and vast. Modern classical philosophers, working out what Aristotle was getting at in his Physics, often cite Alexander of Aphrodisias’ commentary even though it was written in the second century AD. I, however, must eschew such erudition and the notes below have only two modest goals. The first is to guide you to Aristotle’s texts. If you want to read for yourself what he said about the mole’s eyes, the notes to Chapter LIV will tell you where to do so. The second is to give you an entrée to the most important, recent and accessible secondary literature. Unfortunately these qualities rarely coincide since Aristotelian scholarship is glacially slow and often appears in those Patagonias of academic publishing, Festschriften and conference proceedings. For the most part I have neither justified my readings by appeal to this literature nor attempted to adjudicate on disputes within it. If, on occasion, I cite scholars who offer different interpretations from my own, it is only to warn of important disagreements among experts or a small unorthdoxy of my own.

  References to Aristotle’s works are in the form of ‘Bekker numbers’, which refer to Immanuel Bekker’s 1831 edition of the Greek text. They look like this: HA 608b20, where HA refers to the treatise, Historia animalium, and 608b20 to the line number. Any given work, e.g. HA, is also divided into ‘books’ and ‘chapters’ which I do not generally use unless citing an entire chapter, e.g. HA I, 1 – HA book I, chapter 1. Using these numbers you will be able to find any given text in any decent edition written in any language.

  The Oxford Works of Aristotle Translated into English, 1910–52, edited by J. A. Smith and W. D. Ross, is available free online. It was revised and published in two volumes as The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation, Princeton, 1984, edited by Jonathan Barnes. However, if you want a copy of HA, hunt down a second-hand paper copy of the 1910 Oxford edition: D’Arcy Thompson’s. True, I am being sentimental, but it also has the notes that the Princeton and online editions don’t. The Loeb editions, published by Harvard, are also invaluable and contain the Greek.

  These editions have been partly superseded by the Clarendon Aristotle which gives an English text with important commentaries; however, the only biological work currently available in this series is Jim Lennox’s The Parts of Animals, 2001. German readers will want Aristoteles: Werke in deutscher Übersetzung, Akademie Verlag; however, again, the only available biological works are Jutta Kollesch’s IA and MA, 1985, and Wolfgang Kullmann’s PA – Über die Teile der Lebewesen, 2007. The standard Greek edition of Historia animalium is David Balme’s (with Allan Gotthelf) editio maior, Cambridge, 2002.

  WORKS BY ARISTOTLE

  *Pseudo-Aristotelian

  Cat Categories (Categoriae)

  APo Posterior Analytics (Analytica posteriora)

  Top Topics (Topica)

  Phys Physics (Physica)

  DC The Heavens (de Caelo)

  GC On Generation & Corruption (de Generatione et corruptione)

  Meteor Meteorology (Meteorologica)

  DA The Soul (de Anima)

  PN Small Treatises on Nature (Parva naturalia)

  Sens Sense and Sensible Things (de Sensu et sensibilius)

  SV Sleep (de Somno et viglia)

  LBV The Length and Shortness of Life (de Longitudine et brevitate vitae)

  JSVM Youth & Old Age, Life & Death, incl. Respiration (de Juventute et senectute, vita et morte, incl. de Respiratione)

  HA Enquiries into Animals (Historia animalium)

  PA The Parts of Animals (de Partibus animalium)

  DM The Movement of Animals (de Motu animalium)

  IA The Progression of Animals (de Incessu animalium)

  GA The Generation of Animals (de Generatione animalium)

  DP On Plants (de Plantis)*

  Mirab Marvellous Things Heard (de Mirabilibus auscultationibus)*

  Prob Problems (Problemata)*

  Metaph Metaphysics (Metaphysica)

  EN Nicomachean Ethics (Ethica Nicomachea)

  EE Eudemian Ethics (Ethica Eudemia)

  MM Great Ethics (Magna moralia)*

  Pol Politics (Politica)

  Poet Poetics (Poetica)

  FR Fragments (Fragmenta)

  WORKS BY THEOPHRASTUS

  HP Enquiries into Plants (Historia plantarum)

  CP Explanations of Plants (de Causis plantarum)

  St On Stones (de Lapidibus)

  WORKS BY PLATO

  Rep The Republic

  Tim The Timaeus

  Phaedrus The Phaedrus

  Phaedo The Phaedo

  States The Statesman

  Laws The Laws

  Philebus The Philebus

  Georgias The Gorgias

  WORKS BY OTHER ANCIENT WRITERS

  Athen Athenaeus, Deipnosophists

  DK Pre-Socratic texts (Diels–Kranz number)

  DL Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers

  Econ Xenophon, Oeconomicus

  Herod Herodotus, The Histories

  Hesiod Hesiod, Theogony

  HM Aelian, Historical Miscellany

  Mem Xenophon, Memorabilia, or, Recollections of Socrates

  NA Aelian, On the Nature of Animals

  Paus Pausanias, Description of Greece

  Plin Pliny, Natural History

  Plut Plutarch, Life of Alexander

  Strab Strabo, Geography

  Symp Xenophon, Symposium

  I

  Shells & snails. A. on shells, HA 528a20; on the internal anatomy of snails, HA 529a1. THOMPSON (1947) p. 113 doubts the etymology of kēryx from herald and suggests it’s just an ancient name for snail.

  II

  The Lyceum. Sulla sacked Athens in 87–86 BC during the first Mithridatic War; see KEAVENEY (1982) p. 69. Strab XIII, 1, 54–5 describes how he took A.’s works to Rome. Strab IX, 1, 24 and Paus I, 19, 3 give late descriptions of the Lyceum; LYNCH (1972) discusses its topography and function. The sayings and description of A. are given in DL V, 1–2; DL V, 17–22 [trans. HICKS (1925)]. In some sources it’s a shame to keep quiet while Isocrates (a sophist) rather than Xenocrates (a fellow Academician) speaks. Most scholars agree that A.’s extant works are lecture notes, e.g. ACKRILL (1981) p. 2, GRENE (1998) p. 32, BARNES (1996) p. 3, ANAGNOSTOPOULOS (2009b). Canguilhem’s historiographical strictures were issued in L’objet de l’histoire des sciences, 1968, but I found them in PELLEGRIN (1986) p. 2. A. speaks of the study of nature at PA 639a13, PA 644b17, PA 645a6 and DA 402a7. He gives the curriculum of the great course at Meteor 338a20. The Invitation to Biology can be found at PA 645a15.

  III

  D’Arcy Thompson. A life of D’Arcy Thompson was written by his daughter, THOMPSON (1958). THOMPSON (1910) identifies the jerboa at HA 606b6, n. 1, and discusses the Rhinobatos and relations at HA 566a27, n. 6. THOMPSON (1910) p. vii makes the case for A.’s stay in Lesbos – more generally, the Eastern Aegean – as the period in which he did the bulk of his biological work. JAEGER (1948) ignored this in his chronology, but LEE (1948
) argued for Thompson’s view, while SOLMSEN (1978) criticized Thompson on the basis of the inauthenticity of the main passages in HA; LEE (1985) defended Thompson again. BALME (1991) p. 25 considered the period in Lesbos the ‘likeliest’ for the bulk of A.’s work on HA, but thought some of the other biological works were earlier, perhaps even Academic. KULLMANN (2007) pp. 146–56 reviews the arguments for the chronology of the zoology and concludes that ‘The time at Lesbos is thereby the terminus post quem [i.e. earliest date] for the drafting of the zoological works. There is much to suggest that all the zoological works were conceived in the same period of A.’s life. Whether they were developed only later, we do not know’ [trans. AML]. THOMPSON (1910) p. iv despairs of annotating A.’s natural history.

  IV

  Lesbos. For the birds of Lesbos see DUDLEY (2009); for its geology see ZOUROS et al. (2008); for its botany see BAZOS and YANNITSAROS (2000) and BIEL (2002). Makis Axiotis, a local doctor, naturalist and polymath, has also written several excellent books on the island’s fauna and flora (in Greek) which you can buy locally.

  V

  At the lagoon. My Aristotelian synopsis of the animals of the Lagoon is compiled from the following passages: HA 621b13, HA 544a20, PA 680b1, HA 547a4, HA 548a8, HA 603a22, GA 763b1. THOMPSON (1913) adds HA 548b25 which refers to the sponges of Cape Malea; however, although there is a Cape Malea on Lesbos, there’s a much more famous one on the Peloponnese so I exclude it. A.’s word for ‘lagoon’ is limnothalassa or ‘lake sea’, cf. GA 761b7, HA 598a20, which he does not specifically apply to Kalloni.

  VI

  Fish as food. Archestratus’ foodie fragments are collected and translated by WILKINS et al. (2011). In his classic work on Greek consumption, DAVIDSON (1998) has much to say about the importance of fish.

  VII

  The Pre-Socratics. For accessible introductions to the thought of the physiologoi see LLOYD (1970) and WARREN (2007). BARNES (1982) and BARNES (1987) give a generous selection of the texts and commentaries that are both witty and illuminating. Barnes is, however, by his own admission, not very interested in the scientific theories of the physiologoi, so these excellent books must be supplemented by KIRK et al. (1983). For some, e.g. FARRINGTON (1944–9) and LLOYD (1970) p. 9, the physiologoi ‘leave the gods out’; others, e.g. SEDLEY (2007), are more inclined to see the divine in their explanations. LLOYD (1970) p. 10 and BARNES (1982) ch. 1 argue that the physiologoi are characterized by debate or reason. Thales’ account of earthquakes is due to Aëtus III, 15 and Seneca’s Naturales quaestiones III, 14; 6.6. A. discusses Hesiod at Metaph 983b19; Hesiod 116–20. Heraclitus is cutting about his contemporaries and predecessors at DK 22B40. The reference edition of the Corpus Hippocraticum is Littré’s Greek/French one: LITTRé (1839–61), but the corpus is available in Greek/English: JONES et al. (1923–2012) and LONIE (1981). ‘Hippocrates’ wants to ‘explain how man and the other animals . . .’: Littré VIII, Fleshes, 1 [trans. modified from JONES et al. (1923–2012) vol. VIII]; speaks of the uses of oxymel: Littré II, Regimen in acute diseases, 16. A. mentions Hippocrates only once and not in a medical context: Pol 1326a15. Empedocles’ quackery is recorded in DK 31B111; A. criticizes his style at Metaph 985a5.

  VIII

  A. arrives at the Academy. A.’s biography has been cobbled together, with subtle scholarship, from a variety of late and unreliable vitae. DüRING (1957) was, for many years, the standard account; now NATALI (2013) has produced an excellent new analysis of them. A. speaks of the abandonment of natural science at PA 642a29. A list of Plato’s students can be found at DL III, 46. Socrates’ despair at his own muddleheadedness is recorded in Phaedo 99B. His anti-science is recorded by Xenophon in Mem I, 1.11–15. Cicero commends Socrates’ ethical turn in the Tusculan Disputations vol. 10.

  IX

  Plato’s anti-science. Speusippus’ character is recorded in DL IV, 1. The dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon is from Rep 527C–531C.

  X

  The Timaeus. BURNYEAT (2005) analyses the meaning of eikōs mythos. Plato’s numerological theory of the elements is given at Tim 54D–55C [trans. CORNFORD (1997)]. GREGORY (2000) and JOHANSEN (2004) give general accounts of Plato’s natural philosophy. HAWKING (1988) looks for the mind of God. (He later gave up.) A. speaks of the conflict between love of truth and friendship at EN 1096a11; in the later tradition this often becomes ‘I love Plato, but I love truth more.’

  XI

  At the Academy. The (fairly implausible) anecdote about how A. bullied the elderly Plato is recorded by Aelian: HM III, 19. We hear about Hermias and Assos in DL V, 3–9, who also records the inscription on Hermias’ statue; cf. Athen XV, 696 and Strab XIII, 1, 57. ANDREWS (1952) discusses whether A. was politically involved in Hermias’ court; Plato probably never met Hermias – at least so his Sixth Letter, about friendship, which is addressed to Hermias as well as to the Academicians Coriscus and Erastus, seems to imply, NATALI (2013). A. speaks of the optimal age of marriage at Pol 1335a27; he was around thirty-seven at the time, from which we infer (indirectly enough) that Pythia was eighteen. ‘A spray of myrtle . . .’: Archilochus [trans. BARNSTONE (1972) p. 29].

  XII

  Assos. A report of the excavations at Assos is given by CLARKE et al. (1882).

  XIII

  Theophrastus. The archaeology of ancient Eresos is recorded by SCHAUS and SPENCER (1994). T.’s life is given in DL V, 36–57. His botany can be read in the Greek/English editions of HORT (1916) and EINARSON and LINK (1976–90) which, however, have been superseded by the Greek/French editions of AMIGUES (1988–2006) and AMIGUES (2012), or will be, when the latter is finished. The rest of T.’s fragmentary writings have been collected and analysed in the long series of monographs titled Theophrastus of Eresus: Sources for his Life, Writings, Thought and Influence, and related volumes, edited by the late Robert Sharples, William Fortenbaugh and Pamela Huby of the great Theophrastus Project.

  XIV

  Lesbos. ‘He will be a lucky . . .’ is from THOMPSON (1913) p. 13, a tribute from one great zoologist to another.

  XV

  A. as a scientist. A. uses physikē [epistēmē] at Metaph 1026a6 and physikos at Phys 197a22. The term ‘scientist’ was defined by WHEWELL (1840) vol. I, p. 113, though used by him earlier.

  XVI

  Epistemology. ‘All men . . . desire to know’ at Metaph 980a21 [trans. ROSS (1915) modified], continuing in Met I, 1. The Metaphysics is a compilation of related texts. The fashion used to be, following JAEGER (1948), to analyse them into different layers of development, but this is now thought to be hard to do; see BARNES (1995b) for an introduction to their contents and relationships.

  XVII

  The source of empirical information. OWEN (1961/1986) and NUSSBAUM (1982) discuss what A. means by phainomena, but do not, I think, credit his empiricism sufficiently; see BOLTON (1987) for a corrective. For a clear statement on A.’s sense of empirical reality, and the primacy of observation, in doing science see DC 306a5 among others. For all that, A.’s inquiries into phainomena do often begin not only with his own observations but with ‘reputable opinions’ or ‘the opinions of the many or the wise’, what he calls endoxa, e.g. Top 100b21. ‘Some animals are live bearing’ is from HA 489a35. I estimate the number of empirical claims in HA from a sample of 1,500 words chosen at random from THOMPSON (1910) HA. Plato’s acceptance of hieroscopy is apparent in Tim 71–2. We press on those in front at DL V, 20. BOURGEY (1955), PREUS (1975) and LLOYD (1987) discuss the sources of A.’s empirical data. A. talks about diviners and bird behaviour at HA 608b19. THOMPSON (1895), THOMPSON (1910) n. 609a4 and PREUS (1975) pp. 34–6; ibid. pp. 278 n. 113, 115, 116 suggest that a good deal of A.’s bird lore was astrological in origin; see also A. on the alkyōn, Ch. LXXX. PREUS (1975) p. 22 discusses A.’s use of ‘mythos’, while LLOYD (1979) ch. 3 discusses the relationship between Greek science and popular belief. For A. on the astragalus see HA 499a22, HA 499b19; gall bladders, HA 506a20; rejections of myths about cranes, HA 597a23; lions, HA 579b2
; wolves, HA 580a11; talking heads, PA 673a10.

  XVIII