πρηστῆρος αὐλός Revisited

πρηστηρος αυλός Revisiteden las citas sobre Anaximandro y sus doctrinas, los autores, en la

mayoria de los casos, se limitan a repertirse unos a oiros1

Dirk L. Couprie

Aetius reports that according to Anaximander we see the light of the sunώσπερ δια πρηστηρος αϋλοΰ, and that of the moon οίον πρηστηρος αϋλόν.2Presumably, a similar mechanism also accounts for the light of the stars.The words ώσπερ δια πρηστηρος αΰλοΰ are usually translated by some-thing like 'as through the nozzle (or: the mouthpiece) of a bellows'.3 Thistranslation goes back to a suggestion by Diels in Doxographi Graeci:'immo πρηστήρ estfollisfabrorum'.* In Diels's Vorsokratiker his translationis more or less rucked away. In a Nachtrag zum ganzen Werk, after havingstipulated that the word πρηστήρ should be printed wide, indicating that

1 E. Gongora, 'La obra astronomica de Anaximandro', Revista de Filosofia de laUniversidad de Costa Rica 38 (1976) 31-5,31

2 H. Diels / W. Kranz, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker (Berlin 1964") (= DK) 12A21[13],12A22[21], and 12B4 (the figures between square brackets indicate the line wherethe quotation can be found).

3 See, e.g., W.K.C. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy. I. The Earlier Presocratics andthe Pythagoreans (Cambridge 1962), 94; C.H. Kahn, Anaximander and the Origins ofGreek Cosmology (New York I960, repr. Indianapolis 1994), 86.

4 H. Diels, Doxographi Graeci (Berlin 1879), 26. See also: H. Diels, ' ber AnaximandersKosmos' Archiv f r Geschichte der Philosophie 10 (1897) 228-37, 229: 'das Mundst ckeines Blasebalges'. Liddell & Scott mention this meaning in their Dictionary, lemmaπρηστήρ, with the two instances in the Anaximander-doxography and the locus inApollonius of Rhodes, quoted by Diels (see n. 8) as the only references.

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196 Dirk L. Couprie

he considers it as authentic, Diels says that such a 'Blasebalgr hre' ismentioned by Hippocrates, and in the Wortindex, edited by Kranz, thetranslation 'Blasebalg' is listed.5 However, the image of a bellows, some-how connected to a celestial wheel, tends to complicate rather thanelucidate the meaning of the text. If we were to understand that everycelestial body had such a bellows, the result would be hundreds ofnozzles, extending from the celestial wheels towards the earth.6 Theimage of celestial wheels is in itself clear: it accounts for the circular orbitsof the celestial bodies, it provides a visualization of a ring that concealssome substance (fire) within its rim, and it explains why these bodies donot fall to earth.7 The combination of this image with that of a bellows,however, makes everything unclear. Furthermore, a regular bellows issupposed to blow air into the fire and not the other way round, as mustbe the case with the would-be celestial bellows.

Since Homer's time the usual word for bellows is φυσά. The onlyevidence that Diels produces in Doxographi Graeci is one locus in Apollo-nius of Rhodes (third century BC).8 This case, however, is not very strong.It reads as follows: δεύτερα δ ' εις "Ηφαιστον έβήσατο, παΰσε δε τόνγερίμφα σιδηρείων τυπίδων, εσχοντο δ 'άυτμής αίθαλέοι πρηστηρες ('In thesecond place, she went to Hephaestus and caused him immediately tostay his iron hammers: the sooty πρηστηρες withheld their breath'.Fr nkel denies that the meaning of πρηστηρες here is 'bellows': 'Nicht"der Blasebalg" [...], sondern der "Glutwind" der oben aus dem Felsen

5 H Diels, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker Band Π.2 (Berlin 19102) Nachtrage zum ganzenWerk, νι: 'πρηστηρος zu sperren als Wort des Anaximandros'. The reference toHippocrates will be treated later in this article. The translation 'Blasebalg' in theWortmdex by Walter Kranz in the same volume and in 19224, lemma πρηστήρ.

6 The idea of looking again at the πρηστηρος αυλός came to me during a visit RobertHahn paid me in May 2000. He had gathered all kinds of pictures of ancient Greekbellows and when we discussed them it struck me that the whole idea of celestialbellows is awkward.

7 In a sense, the stability of the celestial wheels is a counterpart of that of the earth,which, according to Anaximander, does not fall because of όμοιότης. See for adiscussion of this point: I.M. Bodn r, 'Anaximander's Rings', Classical Quarterly 38(1988) 49-51, 51, and I.M. Bodn r, 'Anaximander on the Stability of the Earth',Phronesis 37 (1992) 336-42,339.

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πρηστήρος αυλός Revisited 197

aufstieg.'9 If Fr nkel is right, the only evidence for Diels's translationcollapses. But let us suppose that Diels was right and that πρηστήρ in thistext of Apollonius means 'bellows'. In that case Apollonius uses theword πρηστήρ within a context — Hephaestus's forge — which wouldhave made it evident to every Greek at the time that he meant 'bellows'.This gives Apollonius the opportunity to exaggerate in order to stressthat his story is not about an ordinary forge with normal bellows, butabout the workshop of a god with its huge and impressive bellowsemitting a thunderstorm's blast. In the context of Anaximander's de-scription of the universe, on the other hand, it is not immediately evidentthat bellows would play any role in celestial mechanics. //Anaximanderhad meant to compare the light of the heavenly bodies with nozzles ofbellows, then he would have used the ordinary word φυσά and not theword πρηστήρ, which every Greek at the time would have understoodto denote a violent weather phenomenon in this context.

Strangely enough, in the Vorsokratiker Diels does not mention Apol-lonius of Rhodes, but instead he refers to two loci in Hippocrates' Dearticulatione.10 In these texts Hippocrates describes the use of a contrap-tion that is made from a leather wineskin (ασκός) with a brass pipe (αυλόςεκ χαλκείου) connected to it, which is used in an unsuccessful experimentto cure a hump on the spine (47) as well as in the (also not very effective)treatment of dislocation of the hip-joint (77). The idea is that the emptywineskin is gradually filled with air blown into it through a pipe attachedto one of the loose feet of the skin. There are, however, two significantdifferences between Hippocrates's wineskin and Anaximander's would-be bellows. The first is that the wineskin, which has to be inflated, hasonly one opening (the pipe) to let the air in, whereas a bellows has twoopenings, one at top for air intake and one outlet through the pipe.11 The

9 H. Fr nkel, Noten zu den Argonautika des Apollonius Rhodius (Amsterdam 1964) 532,note at line 777. F. Vian, Apollonios de Rhodes, Argonautiques, Tome III, Chant IV (Paris1981) 105 translates: 'souffles'. See also E. Livrea, Apollonii Rhodii Argonauticon LiberIV (Firenze 1973). 223, note at line 777: 'Asai piu giustamente invece Fr nkel, Noten,p. 532, ritorna al valore originario di "Glutwind" [...] Quest' interpretazione econfermata dai luoghi parallel! raccolti da Livrea a Coll.52'.

10 Hippocrates, De articulatione, sections 47 and 77; in H. Kuehlewein, Hippocratis Operaquaeferuntur omnia, Vol. Π (Lipsiae 1902), 181 and 235. See Diels, Vorsokratiker 19102,Nachtrag, vi, and 19224, note at 2.21[29]. See also DK note at 12A21[13].

11 A primitive bellows might use the same opening both as inlet and outlet, but in theBrought to you by | West Virginia UniversityAuthenticated | 157.182.150.22


198 Dirk L. Couprie

second is that in Hippocrates's apparatus, the air has to be blownthrough the pipe into the wineskin, whereas the important characteristicof the would-be celestial bellows is that it is supposed to blow the fireout through the pipe. Hippocrates does not use the word πρηστήρ. Andthe word φυσά, which appears in both texts, is not used here in themeaning of 'bellows', but indicates the wind or air, blown into thewineskin, and not the sack itself.12 So it is clear that Hippocrates did notwant to describe a kind of bellows. For these reasons, it is hard to seehow these texts could be put forward as an evidence for the translationof πρηστήρος αυλός as 'Blasebalgr hre'.

Apparently, Diels was so convinced that his suggestion was right thathe even changed the reading of another source: where the mss. renderHippolytus' text as τόπους τινάς άερώδεις, Diels reads πόρους τινάςαύλώδεις.13 Here obviously the wish was father to the thought. There isno need for tube-like gadgets in order to understand this text. WhatHippolytus presumably wanted to say is that the inner fire of the celestialwheels is emitted from their envelopes of air at certain points. AchillesTatius, however, also seems to understand αυλός as a kind of pipe, forin the same context he speaks of a trumpet (σάλπιγξ). Now Achilles isnot a very reliable ally, for in the same text he seems to be confused aboutAnaximander's image of the celestial wheels. Kahn and Guthrie omithim from their considerations, because his text is 'a mere distortion' ofAetius's.'4 But even here there is no need to think that Achilles meantpipes emerging from celestial wheels. All he seems to be saying is that

would-be case of celestial bellows there must be two. one to let the fire in from thecelestial wheel and one to blow it out through the pipe towards the earth For a hugeancient Greek bellows with a slit opening at top, see Graef and Langlotz, Die antikenVasen von der Akropolis, Vol I, 125, Acropolis 2134 I owe this reference to RobertHahn.

12 In 47 Hippocrates writes: ... και έπειτα αύλω εκ χαλκείου ες τον ασκόν τον ύποκεί-μενον φϋσαν ένιέναι, and in 77: ... έπειτα ες ένα των ποδεώνων, τον λελυμένον, (i.e.one of the loose feet of the skin) ένθέντα αύλόν εκ χαλκίου φΰσαν έσαναγκάζειν εςτον άσκόν.

13 DK 84, note at 12Α11(4)[10]. Μ. Conche,Anaximandre. Fragmentset temoignages (Paris1991), 192 remarks: 'la correction de Diels ... est inutile'.

14 Kahi\,Anaximanderand Origins, 25; Guthrie, History, 93n.: 'an unrntelligently garbledversion of what is described more clearly by Aetius'.Brought to you by | West Virginia University

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the celestial wheels have holes just like a σάλπιγξ. And the word πρηστήρhere means something like 'stream of air'. The whole clause can betranslated as: Others say that, as in the case of a trumpet, it (viz. the sun)emits the light through a narrow hole like streams of air'.15

After Diels's death, Kranz apparently became suspicious of Diels'ssuggestion, since in the fifth and later editions of the Vorsokratiker whichhe edited, πρηστήρος αυλός is translated as 'Glutwindr hre' and not as'Blasebalgr hre'.16 Sometimes even stranger translations of πρηστήροςαυλός have been tried. Mansfeld's overtly anachronistic translation, forwhich he doesn't offer any explanation, is 'L trohr', which means some-thing like 'soldering-pipe'.17 Kratzert, following Riedel, sees in the wordαυλός a reminiscence of the Dionysian cult, because a surname of Diony-sus is φλοιός, another word used in Anaximander's cosmogony.18 It ishard to see, however, what the flutes which accompanied thedithyrambs of a Dionysian trance should have to do with the way thelight of the celestial bodies reaches us. Another translation of ώσπερ διαπρηστήρος αύλοΰ: 'as through the funnel of a tornado', has been pro-posed by Hall, and earlier by Teichm ller.19 This translation has at leastthe advantage of employing a meteorological image for a celestial phe-nomenon. Elsewhere in the doxography of Anaximander, and also in thedoxography on Heraclitus, Anaxagoras, Democritus, and Metrodorus of

15 DK 12A21[9]: ως από σάλπιγγας εκ κοίλου τόπου και στενοΰ έκπέμπειν αυτόν το ίώςώσπερ πρηστηρας. Conche, o.e., 197 n. 12, translates: "D'autres... disent que, commepar une trompette, le soleil, d'un lieu creux et etroit, renvoie la lumiere comme dessouffles emanees.'

16 DK 12B4:'Glutwindr hre'.

17 J. Mansfeld, Die Vorsokratiker (Stuttgart 1987), 77

18 T. Kratzert, Die Entdeckung des Raums. Vomhesiodischen 'χάος'zur platonischen 'χώρα'.(Amsterdam/Philadelphia 1998), 39; M. Riedel "Αρχή und άπειρον. ber dasGrundwort Anaximanders', Archiv f r Geschichte der Philosophie, 69 (1987) 1-17,11

19 J.J. Hall, 'πρηστήρος αυλός' Journal of Hellenic Studies 89 (1969) 57-9. This suggestionhas already been discussed almost a century earlier by G. Teichmuller, Studien zurGeschichte der Begriffe (Berlin 1874, repr. Hildesheim 1966), 13n.: 'Man k nnten mlich unter αυλός die R hre innerhalb des Wirbelwindes verstehen und δια localfassen, so dass der Sinn sehr einfach und der ganzen Anschauung entsprechendw re "wie durch die H hlung innerhalb des Wirbelwindes" '.Brought to you by | West Virginia University


200 Dirk L. Couprie

Chios, πρηστήρ is a meteorological phenomenon.20 The translation 'fun-nel of a tornado', however, presents difficulties similar to those encoun-tered with the 'bellows' translation: the funnel-shaped cloud of a tornadois difficult to relate to fire or light,21 and the image of hundreds of thesefunnels emerging from the holes in the celestial wheels is decidedly odd.

Instead of looking elsewhere, perhaps it is more promising to lookinto other information from the doxography on Anaximander, in orderto see whether it is possible to throw some light on the meaning of theexpression πρηστηρος αυλός. I think Lloyd has given a casual hint thatmay put us on the right track: 'It seems better to retain a meteorologicalsense for πρηστήρ, then, e.g.,... lightning.'22 Α πρηστήρ is a Slower' or a"bumei', and so it may mean 'lightning'. Classen notes that the Arabs(tenth century AD) translated the phrase ώσπερ δια πρηστηρος αύλοΰ as'like the lightning',23 or more fully: 'the fire comes out of them througha mouth-piece (in the same way) as the flashes of lightning appear'.24 Myguess is that the Arabs were also on the right track. So let us see what thedoxography has to tell about Anaximander's opinion on the phenome-non of lightning. Aetius testifies that, according to Anaximander, mete-orological phenomena like πρηστήρ result from wind which is enclosedwithin a thick cloud (νέφει παχεΐ), from where it escapes. The resultingrupture, by contrast with the dark cloud, looks like a flash of light(διαυγασμός).25 In the same sense Hippolytus reports that lightning

20 DK 12A23[24], 22A14,59A84,68A93,70A15. The meaning of πρηστήρ in Heraclitus,DK 22B31, is uncertain (Diels/Kranz translate 'Gluthauch').

21 P. Plass, Ά note on πρηστηρος αυλός', Journal of Hellenic Studies 92 (1972) 179-80,points to the incidental cases of lightning within a funnel of a tornado, but althoughhis contribution is perhaps instructive, it is not very convincing.

22 G.E.R. Lloyd, Polar:ty and Analogy. Two Types of Argumentation in Early Greek Thought(Cambridge 1966), 314 n. 1; see also 313 n. 1.

23 C.J. Classen, Ans tze. Beitr ge zum Verst ndnis der fr hgriechischen Philosophie (Wur-zburg/Amsterdam 1986), 87 n. 114

24 'Das Feuer tritt aus einer M ndung von ihr (in gleicher Weise) zutage, wie die Blitzeerscheinen.' (H. Daiber, Aetius Arabus. Die Vorsokratiker in arabischer berlieferung[Wiesbaden 1980], 155, my translation).

25 DK 12A23[24], cf. 12A11(7)[19]. Seneca's testimony of Anaximander on lightning(DK 12A23[32]) is difficult to understand: 'fulguratio' is a violent movement of theair tearing apart and imploding, which unveils a lazy (?) fire, incapable of escapingBrought to you by | West Virginia University


πρηστηρος αυλός Revisited 201

originates when an attacking wind (άνεμος) breaks up the clouds.26 Andnow let us compare this with what the reports say about Anaximander'sopinion on the light of the celestial bodies. Anaximander's celestialwheels are made of compressed air that hides the fire within (πιλήματααέρος τροχοειδή, πυρός έμπλεα).27 The fire of the sun shines permanentlythrough the hole in the sun's wheel. 'It is impossible to mistake theparallel between this meteorological fire and that of the celestial rings',Kahn rightly remarks.28 The comparison Anaximander must have beenthinking of lies to hand: whereas an ordinary flash of lightning is amomentary flash of fire appearing in a rupture in a thick airy substance(a cloud), the light of the sun (and of the other celestial bodies as well) islike a permanent jet, beam, or stream (αυλός) of lightning fire (πρηστήρ)emanating from a hole in a compressed airy substance (a celestial wheel).The meaning of 'jet' or 'stream' for αυλός is attested in Homer, whosomewhere uses it in the sense of a jet, squirt, or stream (of blood).29

It seems to me that Bumet expresses the same idea when he writes:'[...] lightning is explained in much the same way as the heavenly bodies.It, too, was fire breaking through condensed air, in this case stormclouds. It seems probable that this was really the origin of the theory,and that Anaximander explained the heavenly bodies on the analogy oflightning [...]/3° Nevertheless, Bumet, without any explanation, acceptsthe translation 'as through the nozzle of a pair of bellows'. Tanneryvoices the same suggestion: 'un astre est done comme un eclair qui

('languidum ignem nee exiturum apenens'). A 'fulinen', on the other hand, is thecourse of a stronger and tighter wind ('spiritus'). According to P.J. Bicknell, 'Senecaand Aetius on Anaximander's and Anaximenes' Accounts of Thunder and Light-ning', Latomus 27 (1968) 181-4, Seneca's account is more trustworthy than that ofAetius. But neither he nor anyone else, as far as I know, can make sense of it.

26 DK 12A11(7)[19]

27 DK 12A18[28-29]

28 Kahn, Anaximander and Origins, 102

29 Odyssey, χ 18: αύτίκα δ' αυλός ανά ρίνας παχύς ήλθεν αίματος άνδρομέοιο ('imme-diately, a thick stream of human blood sprang out of his nostrils'). It is worthnoticing that πρηστήρ can also mean 'jet' or 'stream' (of blood), as in Euripides, Fr.384: ομμάτων δ' άπο αιμοσταγή πρηστήρε ρεύσονται κάτω ('and from the eyes twostreams of blood will flow down').

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202 Dirk L. Couprie

durerait toujours'.31 The expression οίον πρηστήρος αύλόν, which is usedin the case of the moon, seems to render this idea quite well. So I take itthat these words are not a shortened version of ώσπερ δια πρηστήροςαύλοΰ, as one perhaps might think, but that the former expression iscloser to Anaximander's original than the latter. The translation 'like astream of lightning fire' evokes the image of a sun-, moon-, or star-beam,emerging from the hole in the celestial wheel. So we may conclude thatthe words πρηστήρος αυλός are not meant as an image, viz. the light ofthe celestial bodies as coming out of pipes of bellows, but as an attemptto explain that light on the analogy of the phenomenon of lightning.

Sticking to this interpretation, one might perhaps maintain that thewords ώσπερ δια πρηστήρος αΰλοΰ also have to be understood as Anaxi-mander's own. Following a suggestion of Teichm ller, one might pointout that the word δια does not necessarily have a local meaning, but canalso have a causal or instrumental flavor, just like the English 'through'.32

In that case, the translation would become: 'as through a stream oflightning fire (reading πρηστήρος as a genitivus explicativus). I would liketo propose, however, another explanation as more convincing. My sug-gestion is that Aetius, no longer fully understanding what Anaximanderhad meant by οίον πρηστήρος αύλόν, tried to elucidate these words byώσπερ δια πρηστήρος αύλοΰ, perhaps thinking that Anaximander hadmeant some kind of pipe which emits fire. If this assumption is right, wecould say that Diels fell into the trap which Aetius had inadvertently set.Otherwise said, these words do not reflect the picturesque style of someHellenistic popularizer, as Kahn thought,33 but in their translation gen-

31 P. Tannery, Pour l'histoire de la science liellemque. de Thaies a bmpedocle (Pans 1887,repr. 1930), 92. Perhaps Tannery borrows this interpretation from Teichm ller,Studien zur Geschichte, 31: '... dass die Erzeugung der Gestirn/lammen nach derAnalogie des Blitzes von Anaximander erkl rt wurde.' Teichm ller translates,however: 'wie durch einem aus einen Blasinstrumente herausfahrenden Wirbel-wind' (ibid, 14).

32 Soll δια aber, wie ich vermuthe, die wirkende Ursache angeben ... Der Genitivαϋλοΰ ist f r eine poetische Diction statthaft.' (Teichmuller, Studien zur Geschichte,12 and 13 n.). It has to be observed, however, that the words ώσπερ δια πρηστήροςαϋλοΰ are used as an explanation of the preceding δια στομίου, where the word διαhas a local sense.

33 Kahn, Anaximander and Origins, 87 Brought to you by | West Virginia UniversityAuthenticated | 157.182.150.22



Η Λ Ι Ο Σ

Figure Imap of Anaximander's universe

erations of scholars have been misled by the imagination of the greatDiels.

As shown, the above-mentioned interpretation of πρηστήρος αυλόςaccords with Anaximander's understanding of meteorological phenom-ena. It can also account for the visibility of the outer celestial bodiesthrough the wheels of the inner ones. The problem of the visibility of theouter celestial bodies has to be distinguished from that of the strangeorder of the celestial bodies (stars, moon, sun) as such, which is evidentlythe order of increasing brightness. This last question goes beyond thescope of this article. The visibility of the celestial bodies, however, has tobe explained given the order of the celestial rings. I think Dreyer is wrongBrought to you by | West Virginia University


204 Dirk L. Couprie

when he says: 'these matters of detail had probably not been consideredby Anaximander.'34 We are tempted to imagine that the light of thebrighter fire of the outer celestial bodies manages to burn through thecompressed air of the wheels of the inner ones. Bodnar likewise hassought the solution of this problem in the order of the celestial bodies:the farther a celestial body is the brighter it must be, so that the light fromthe outer celestial bodies can pass through the inner rings.35 The imageof a beam of light passing through the inner wheels is rather strikingwhen we try to show, on a map which we suppose to be much likeAnaximander's, how the light of the celestial bodies reaches the earth,as can be seen in Figure I. This solution presupposes that the air of thecelestial wheels which are nearer to the earth is less dense, as von Fritzrightly remarks.36 For the light of the sun is hidden within the condensedair of its wheel, whereas it can penetrate the air of the wheels of moonand stars (and the same mutatis mutundis for the moon). Apparently, thislight is not of such a nature that it would destroy the matter of the innercelestial wheels when it penetrates them. Although this would seem anobvious solution, as the inner wheels have to conceal a less bright fire,so that their airy envelopes can be less dense, the extant testimoniesunfortunately do not mention such a phenomenon.37

Dirk L. CouprieSt. Maartenslaan 51D

6221AW MaastrichtThe Netherlands

[email protected]

34 J.L.E. Dreyer, A History of Astronomy from Thales to Kepler (New York 1953, repr. of1905), 15

35 Bodnar, Anaximander's Rings, 50

36 K. von Fritz in a letter to Kahn; See Kahn, Anaximander and Origins, 90 n 3.

37 Sometimes history goes in circles. This solution has already been proposed byTeichmuller in a personal letter to Tannery, Studien zur Geschichte, 95, in 1887:'Chacune des trois enveloppes feutrees serait assez epaisse pour masquer .. le feuqui circule ä son interieur, mais assez transparente pour laisser voir les flammesplus lointaines et plus puissantes dont 1'eclat fait pälir et efface les inferieures; ainsila sphere etoile, oil le feu est le moins vif et le moins pur, ne cree aucun obstaclepour la vision des disques de la Lune et du Soleil.'Brought to you by | West Virginia University


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πρηστῆρος αὐλός Revisited