Wilson, M. 2013. Structure and method in Aristotle’s Meteorologica: a more disorderly nature. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Winemiller, K. G. and K. A. Rose. 1993. Why do most fish produce so many tiny offspring? American Naturalist 142:585–603.
Winsor, M. P. 1969. Barnacle larvae in the nineteenth century: a case study in taxonomic theory. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 24:294–309.
Winsor, M. P. 1976. Starfish, jellyfish and the order of life: issues in nineteeth-century science. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
Witt, C. 1998. Form and normativity in Aristotle: a feminist perspective. pp. 118–37 in C. Freeland, ed. Re-reading the canon: feminist essays on Aristotle. Penn State University Press, University Park, PA.
Witt, C. 2013. Aristotle on deformed animal kinds. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 43:83–106.
Wittkower, R. 1939. Eagle and serpent: a study in the migration of symbols. Journal of the Warburg Institute 2:293–325.
Ziswiler, V. and D. S. Farner. 1972 Digestion and the digestive system. pp. 343–430 in D. S. Farner, J. R. King and K. C. Parkes, eds. Avian Biology. Academic Press, New York, NY.
Zouros, N. et al. 2008. Guide to the Plaka and Sigri petrified forest parks. Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest, Ministry of Culture, Lesvos.
Zwier, K. in prep. Aristotle on Spontaneous Generation.
ILLUSTRATING ARISTOTLE
ANY ILLUSTRATIONS THAT Aristotle’s zoological works may have contained have been long lost. Rather than plunder the rather thin collections of animal representations in ancient Greek art, little of which is contemporaneous with Aristotle anyway, I have chosen to illustrate his animals by modern – post-1500 AD – illustrations. The sixteenth-century woodcuts from Gesner, Belon and their contemporaries seem particularly apposite, being naive in a way comparable to, say, fourth-century fish plates. When depicting exotic animals, they also often have that air of strangeness that comes from reconstructions based on imperfect, second-hand information. Besides, the animal iconographers of the Renaissance were all working from Aristotle’s texts.
The anatomical diagrams on pages 61, 64, 110 and 168 are all based on diagrams that Aristotle mentions. They were reconstructed by David Koutsogiannopoulos with the advice of a papyrologist, Grace Ioannidou. To do this, David began with the texts themselves, and then sought ancient models. No ancient Greek anatomical diagrams – Aristotelian or otherwise – have survived, but contemporary and Hellenistic papyri depicting geometrical diagrams and animals were a guide to technique. Fish plates gave a sense of the observed detail. After much experimentation, the result is a style that conveys the work not of an artist but of a thinker – one who thought, as any thinker does, with his pen, or rather his brush.*
vi M. G. F. A. de Choiseul-Gouffier (1782–1822) Voyage pittoresque en Grèce, vol. 2, Paris.
2 M. Lister (1685) Historiae sive synopsis methodicae conchyliorum, London.
10 A. E. d’Audebert de Férussac and A. D’Orbigny (1835–48) Histoire naturelle générale et particuliere des Céphalopods Acétabulifères vivants et fossils, Paris.
12 P. Alpini (1629) de Plantis exoticis, Venice.
17 K. Gesner (1551–87) Historia animalium, Zurich.
29 Unidentified nineteenth-century lithograph.
31 M. G. F. A. de Choiseul-Gouffier (1782–1822) Voyage pittoresque en Grèce, vol. 2, Paris.
31 Author photograph.
38 K. Gesner (1551–87) Historia animalium, Zurich.
45 K. Gesner (1551–87) Historia animalium, Zurich.
54 Modified from R. Pocock (1939) The fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma: mammalia, London.
58 J. Klein (1734) Naturalis dispositio echinoderatum, Danzig.
61 D. Koutsogiannopoulos.
64 D. Koutsogiannopoulos.
70 T. Gill (1906) Parental care in fishes. Annual report of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington for the year ending 30 June 1905:403–531.
71 H. Fischer (1894) Note sur le bras hectocotylis de l’Octopus vulgaris Lamarck. Journal de Conchyliologie 42:13–19, Paris.
71 K. Gesner (1551–87) Historia animalium, Zurich.
73 K. Gesner (1551–87) Historia animalium, Zurich.
76 K. Gesner (1551–87) Historia animalium, Zurich.
96 P. Belon (1551) Histoire naturelle des estranges poissons, Paris.
98 Author photograph.
110 D. Koutsogiannopoulos.
122 K. Gesner (1551–87) Historia animalium, Zurich.
126 M. A. Bell (1976) Evolution of phenotypic diversity in the Gasterosteus aculeatus superspecies on the Pacific coast of North America. Systematic Zoology 25:211–227. Modified; with permission.
134 K. Gesner (1551–87) Historia animalium, Zurich.
138 K. Gesner (1551–87) Historia animalium, Zurich.
141 R. Owen (1866) Anatomy of vertebrates, vol. 2, London.
142 T. Mortenson (1927) Handbook of the echinoderms of the British Isles.
152 K. Gesner (1551–87) Historia animalium, Zurich.
155 D. Koutsogiannopoulos.
168 L. H. Bojanus (1819–21) Anatome testudinis Europaeae, Vilnius.
173 Unidentified nineteenth-century lithograph.
180 J. Rueff (1554) De Conceptu et generatione hominis, Frankfurt. Wellcome Library, London.
186 D. Koutsogiannopoulos.
193 Unidentified nineteenth-century lithograph.
195 H. Fabricius ab Acquapendene (1604) de Formatione ovo et pulli, Padua. Wellcome Library, London.
196 M. K. Richardson et al. (1998) Haeckel, embryos and evolution. Science 280: 985–6. Modified; with permission.
204 K. Gesner (1551–87) Historia animalium, Zurich.
207 Author photograph.
218 Unkown nineteenth-century etchings.
224 M. Lister (1685) Historiae sive synopsis methodicae conchyliorum, London.
226 A. J. Dezallier d’Argenville (1772) La conchyliologie, ou, Traité sur la nature des coquillages, Paris.
236 Anon. (1792) Natural history of insects compiled from Swammerdam, Brookes, Goldsmith & co., Perth.
238 P. Belon (1551) Histoire naturelle des estranges poissons, Paris.
240 D. Koutsogiannopoulos.
251 Anon. (1792) Natural history of insects compiled from Swammerdam, Brookes, Goldsmith & co., Perth.
268 K. Gesner (1551–87) Historia animalium, Zurich.
282 G. Cuvier (1830) Considérations sur les mollusques et en particulier les Céphalopods. Annales des Sciences Naturelles 19:241-59.
283 R. Owen (1866) Anatomy of vertebrates, vol. 2, London.
294 A. Scilla (1670) La vana speculazione disingannata dal senso, Naples.
304 P. Belon (1551) Histoire naturelle des estranges poissons, Paris.
327 K. Gesner (1551–87) Historia animalium, Zurich.
331 Tunc Tezel. With permission.
344 T. Gaza (1552) Aristotelis et Theophrasti Historiae, Lyon
351 Author photograph.
377 D. Koutsogiannopoulos.
379 D. Koutsogiannopoulos.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I HAVE ACCUMULATED MANY debts while writing this book. My agent, Katinka Matson, and John Brockman at Brockman Inc. always saw what The Lagoon might become. I thank them as well as Rick Kot at Viking Penguin, Anna Simpson and, most of all, Michael Fishwick, my visionary editor, at Bloomsbury. Peter James, my wonderful copyeditor, saved me from many infelicities; doubtless even he has not saved me from them all.
Many people in Athens and Lesbos have answered specific queries: Makis Axiotis, Lara Barazai-Yeroulanos, Níkh Dimopoulou, George Filios (Scuba Lesvos), George Fotinos (Fotinos FishShells), Alkis Kalampokis, Dimitrios Karidis, Kostas Kostakis, Ignatis Manavis, Aleka Meliadou, Theodora and Eleni Panyotis, George Papadatos, Michaelis Stoupakis (sometime First Officer of F/B Sappho), Christos Samaras and Dimitra Vati.
Scientific colleagues, some from the University of the Aeg
ean, Mytilene, answered zoological queries: Filios Akreotis, Ioannis Batjakis, Ioannis Bazos, Mike Bell, Tim Birkhead, Mick Crawley, Charles Godfray, Giorgos Kokkoris, Drosos Koutsoubas, Ioannis Leonardos, Sally Leys, Chris McDaniel, Ian Owens, Panyotis Panyotides, Vassilis Papasotiropoulos, Theodora Petanidou, Tommaso Pizzari, Michel Poulain, Mike Richardson, Sophia Spathari, Cleon Tsimabos, George Tsitiris and Nikolaos Zouros.
The classical philosophers and historians who truly know Aristotle have been generous and patient in helping me understand his thought; some, generously, commented on chapters: Keith Bemer, Istávan Bodnár, Nick Bunnin, Devin Henry, Wolfgang Kullmann, Jim Lennox, Mariska Leunissen, Geoffrey Lloyd, Diana Quarantotto, the late Bob Sharples, Alfred Stückelberger, Polly Winsor, Malcolm Wilson and Karen Zwier. A great Aristotelian, one of the kindest of all, died shortly before this book went to press. Allan Gotthelf would have argued with quite a bit of this book, but when you read of the functional analysis of the elephant, or how Darwin compares to Aristotle, you are reading things that Allan made clear to me.
In 2009 I made a film for BBC4 about Aristotle and Lesbos called Aristotle’s Lagoon. At the time of filming, I had already been working on this book for years. Many people contributed to that film, but my co-writer, Richard King, and director, Harry Killas, made it into the loveliest of all the films that I have worked on.
Emmanuelle Almira, Cassandra Coburn, Enrico Coen, Níkh Dimopoulou, Arnold Heumakers, Olivia Judson, David Koutsogiannopoulos, Marzena Pogorzaly, Jonathan Swire and, most of all, Clare Isacke and Rebecca Stott, read chapters or offered literary advice. David Angeli constructed the control diagram of the nutritive soul. David Koutsogiannopoulos advised me on Greek natural history, was my dive buddy and drew the Aristotelian figures (advised by Grace Ioannidou). Simon MacPherson, Classics Master at Harrow School, is credited with translating and transliterating the Greek, but did so much more than that. Giorgos Kokkoris introduced me to the island. He and Dimitra Filippopoulou have cared for me there ever since. This book began when Alkistis Kontou-Dimas told me that I must write it. I thank them all.
My greatest debts are to those close to me: friends – Austin Burt, Vasso Koufopanou, Daphne Burt, Olivia Judson, Jonathan Swire and Kaori Imoto, Michaelis Koutroumanidis and Katerina Ertsou; and family – Marie-France Leroi, Iracema Leroi, Harry Killas, Joseph Meagher and the Vancouver and Manchester branches of the NLS. There is no one to whom I, and this book, owe more than Clare Isacke.
London’s currents have lately swept me to a Sargasso Sea, a sea-hoard composed of ambergris, rare inlays and strange spars of knowledge – the words are Pound’s. But, were I to write my Portrait d’une Femme, I would insist that all these wonders are Jerry Hall’s own. It is with love that I thank her for sharing them with me.
INDEX
The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book. To find the corresponding locations in the text of this digital version, please use the “search” function on your e-reader. Note that not all terms may be searchable.
Agassiz, Louis, 69
ageing, theories of, 159, 163, 261, 263–264, 263n
Akreotis, Filios, 67
Alcaeus of Mytilene, 77q
Aldrovandi, Ulisse, 356
Alexander the Great
Aristotle, tutor to, 49–50
payment to Aristotle for research, 50
as source of information for Aristotle, 48–49, 50, 52
campaigns, 49–50, 52
altruistic animal species, discussion of, 322–323
amphibian, larva, 200, 231
anatomy
diagrams of, 60
comparative, 282, 282, 117–119
reproductive, 53, 54, 72, 184
human, 62–66, 175–176
Anatomies, The (Aristotle), 60
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, 83–84
hands, importance of in humans, 308
sex determination & genetic inheritance, 215
‘intelligence’, use of, 83–84
Anaximander of Miletus, 288
origins of life, 289
Antipater, 350
ancestral reversions/atavisms, 210–221
Aphrodite, 193
Apollo Lykeios, sanctuary of, 6
‘appearances’ (phainomena), 41, 130, 252, 330
Aquinas, Thomas, 354
Archestratus, Life of Luxury, 18
Argument from Design, see also teleological explanation, 85–86
Aristotle
Alexander the Great, teaching, 49–50
Assos, stay at, 28
Athens, time spent at, 27–28, 345
background & education of, 22
Bacon, F., view of, 358–360, 358q,
Callisthenes of Olynthos, collaboration with, 55
Darwin, C., shared ideas of, 299
death, view of, 264–265
Lesbos, moving to, 32
Macedon, 49
domestic life of, 29, 212, 340, 350
physical appearance of, 8
Plato’s Academy, at, 22, 27–28
Plato’s ideas, view of, 27
school, at the Lyceum (Athens), 6, 7
Theophrastus, friendship with, 32
will of, 350
works by (mentioned), 410
works, nature of, 7, 345–349
works, survival of, 352
Assos (Troad peninsula), 28, 31
description of, 30
astronomy, 329–335
Aristotle’s view of, 330–331
celestial bodies, 331–333
Cosmological Selection Theory, 335
‘first element’, 331–332
modern view, 334
Athenaeus of Naucratis, 45
Athens
politics of, 314–316, 317
automaton / automata
puppets, 172, 199
logic, 173–174, 199–202, 216
spontaneous, 78–80, see also ‘spontaneous generation’
Bacon, Francis, 358, 358q,
Aristotle, view of, 358–360
Novum organum, 359, 359q
Baer, K. von, 192, 195, 196n, 201n, 220, 273
‘Bekker numbers’, 407
Bernard, Claude, 176
behaviour, animals, 309–310
bees and honey, 247–252
bees, generation of, 249–251
behaviour of, 309–310
honeybee, 251
origins of honey, 248–249
bile, 146, 146n
birds
alimentary tracts, 141
classification of, by Aristotle, 135
functional anatomy, 136–137
‘primitive features’ of, 141
blood
in classification, 105, 109, 117
effect on animal temperament, 308, 310
as nutrition, 168
Bonnet, Charles, 201
Borges, J. L., 105, 378
breathing, 21, 175–176
Callisthenes of Olynthos, 55–56
Canguilhem, Georges, 9
Cannon, Walter, 176
Cantartzis, Palaiologos C., 15
camel, 129, 183, 184
catfish, 69–70, 69, 69q, 70
celestial bodies, view of, 333
cephalopods
cuttlefish, 10, 10, 59–60, 61, 152, 153–154, 155
nautilus, 104
octopus, 68, 71, 71, 72, 104, 124–125, 154
paper nautilus, 70–72, 71
cetaceans, 42, 116
chameleon, 38, 46–47
Characters (Theophrastus), 32–33
Chiaje, Delle, 71
chicken, reproduction and embryology of, 194–195, 195, 256
Choiseul-Gouffier, M. G. F. A. de, 30
cicada, 235–236, 236, 261
Cicero, Socrates, view of, 23q
classification of animals, 111–113
Cuvier, G., view of, 280–281
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, É., view of, 280–281
hiera
rchies, 106, 116–117
Le règne animal (Cuvier, G.), 279, 280
Natural System of classification (Darwin, C.), 286
classification of constitutions, 105, 317
‘conditional necessity’, 139, 283q
coral, red, 271
Corpus Aristotelicum, see ‘Aristotle, works’
Corpus Hippocratium, 21
Fleshes, 21
On Generation, 213
cosmos, view of, 80, 319–321
balance of nature, 325
cosmic change, 328–329
cosmic teleology, 326
geometric model (Aristotle), 338
Plato’s view of, 321–322
Ctesias of Cnidus, 50–51
cuttlefish, 10, 10, 153–154
dissection of, 59–60, 61
eggs and embryology of, 152, 154, 155
Cuvier, Georges, 67–68, 69, 71, 102, 102q
comparative anatomy, 282
Conditions of Existence, 283
embranchements, 279, 280
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, É., dispute with, 280–282
Le règne animal, 279
cybernetics, 176–177
cycles, elemental, 242–244
cycles, geological, 243
cycles, life, 239–242, 251, 263–265
darnel (plant), 297–298
Darwin, Charles, 82, 92
Aristotle’s influence on, 274–275, 374–375
Aristotle, compared to, 374–375
theories of inheritance of, 208–210, 214, 221
Natural System of classification, 286
Origin of the Species, 207–208, 208q, 284, 284q
sheep, view of, 206q
Tuco-Tuco, views on, 374–375
deer
red, 122
antlers of, 148, 149n
teeth of, 118–119, 128, 129
longevity of, 255, 255n
Delbrück, Max, 372
Democritus, 78, 288
Aristotle’s view of, 22, 79–80
theories of, 79–80
demonstration, theory of, 128–129, 130
democracy, 314, 316, 317
Descartes, René, 360, 371
Diogenes Laertius, Aristotle, description of, 8
Diogenes of Apollonia, 63
dogfish, 72–74, 73, 288–289, 327
dolphins, 96, 114–116,
Driesch, Hans, 161, 361
ecology, 309, 318–327
economics
The Lagoon Page 52
