Geneva Scholia on Homer.[1] It is directed against the old assumption that the "waters under the earth" are an independent source of moisture, and runs thus:
The waters we drink are all from the sea; for if wells were deeper than the sea, then it would not, doubtless, be from the sea that we drink, for then the water would not be from the sea, but from some other source. But as it is, the sea is deeper than the waters, so all the waters that are above the sea come from it. R. P. 219 b.
We observe here the universal assumption that water tends to rise from the earth, not to sink into it.
Along with Hippon, Idaios of Himera may just be mentioned. We know nothing of him except from Sextus,[2] who says he held air to be the primary substance. The fact that he was a Sicilian is, however, suggestive.
II. Diogenes of Apollonia[3]
186.Date. After discussing the three great representatives of the Milesian school, Theophrastos went on to say:
And Diogenes of Apollonia, too, who was almost the latest of those who gave themselves up to these studies, wrote most of his work in an eclectic fashion, agreeing in some points with Anaxagoras and in others with Leukippos. He, too, says that the primary substance of the universe is Air infinite and eternal, from which by condensation, rarefaction, and change of state, the form of everything else arises. R. P. 206 a.[4]
- ↑ Schol. Genav. p. 197, 19. Cf. Diels in Arch. iv. p. 653. The extract comes from the Ὁμηρικά of Krates of Mallos.
- ↑ Sext. Adv. Math. ix. 360.
- ↑ Stephanos of Byzantion s.v. Ἀπολλωνία says this was Apollonia in Crete, but that seems improbable. Zeller doubted it on the ground that Diogenes wrote in Ionic, but Ionic was the regular dialect for scientific works, and we cannot found on that. On the other hand, it seems much more likely in itself that he came from Apollonia on the Pontos, a Milesian colony which regarded Anaximander as its founder (p. 52, n. 1). Aelian (V. H. ii. 31) calls him Διογένης ὁ Φρύξ, which shows that he took this view.
- ↑ On this passage see Diels, "Leukippos and Diogenes von Apollonia" (Rhein. Mus. xlii. pp. 1 sqq.). Natorp's view that the words are merely those of Simplicius (ib. pp. 349 sqq.) can hardly be maintained.
