The next Author on my list from Thomas More’s personal library in Utopia is Plutarch (46-119 AD), a Greek historian and essayist. I will reference a 1935 French translation (from the original Greek) of Moralia, a collection of his essays and speeches. I will focus on the essay Du Visage Qui Apparait Dans le Rond de la Lune (“The Face which appears on the orb of the moon”) as I also love all things Astronomy! To better understand this complex story, I am also referencing Paul Coones’ article The geographical significance of Plutarch’s dialogue, Concerning the face which appears in the orb of the moon from JSTOR.
There is so much to unpack in Plutarch’s Moralia. For the purpose of this blog, I will only be able touch the surface (pun intended- and I have always pined to touch the surface of the moon) and highlight the areas of interest, pour moi.
The Man in the Moon
Plutarch’s Moralia is the extraordinary dialogue concerning the face which appears in the orb of the moon. This dialogue is set sometime after 75 AD and is a very complex blend of first-century science and science and philosophy, combining intelligent speculation with an assessment of earlier ideas and culminating in a Platonic myth centered upon the fate of the soul after death. The speakers review the available knowledge concerning the nature of the moon and its relationship with the earth and other heavenly bodies. This debate, in turn, raises the question of the possibility of life on the moon, and whether, in the absence of inhabitants, the moon can be said to have a purpose (Coones, 360).
In this dialogue, Lamprias, a vehement critic of Stoicism, is the leader of an earlier discussion about the face which appears on the orb of the moon. Other key members of this discussion are Apollonides, a geometry expert; Aristotle, who proposes the orthodox Peripatetic theory of the heavenly bodies; Pharnaces the Stoic; Lucius (probably the pupil of Moderatus; the Pythagorean); Theon, the literary authority; Menelaus the mathematician; and Plutarch.
This discussion introduces fascinating thoughts on the fundamental issues of environmental causation, the mutual relations of man and nature, and the structure and order of the cosmos. It refers to the theories of Aristarchus and Hipparchus and has been described by Kepler as “the most valuable discussion of the earth’s satellite to come down to us from antiquity” and is possibly the first work on astrophysics ever written. De facie has also been significant in the evolution of physics, catoptrics, and cosmology (Coones, 364). Wow, pretty cool.
I imagine these learned men standing in a garden near the Temple of Apollo in Delphi (where Plutarch was a Priest), gazing up at the full moon. Sulla is discussing the music of the heavenly spheres in opposition of these Stoics who believed the Earth was at the center of the world and that the moon was a mixture of air and fire (Raingeard, IX). Most of these mathematical arguments, according to Raingeard, stem from calculations and theories posed by the Astronomers and Astrologers of that time (the “star in the east” which the Wise Men followed to seek the royal birth, leads them to Jesus as recorded in the book of Matthew in the New Testament).
The central thesis of the first part is that the moon is an earth with a solid, earth-like constitution; it is not, as the Stoics and Aristotle believed, a mixture of smoldering fire and murky air, an ethereal or luminiferous star composed of a special superior to the four elements of earth, water, fire, and air.
The primary conflict is over the origin of the “face of the moon.” Plutarch begins with a warning to his readers that they should never call the figure seen on the moon “an affection of vision in its feebleness giving way to brilliance,” also known as du papillotage, or bedazzlement. Instead, this phenomenon occurs in relation to the sun since the sun lights upon us as keen and gentle. She [the moon] is alluring, cheerful, and harmless. Those with robust vision (or by telescope today!) make out the pattern of facial features more precisely and distinctly and more clearly perceive the variations.
As one can see, the dark images are submerged beneath the brilliant ones and soon become thoroughly intertwined with each other. The result is a figure resembling a painting, according to Aristotle. [This observation was contrary to Cléarchus of Sparta, a Greek general who was intimidated by Aristotle, according to Plutarch]. Apollonides, a Stoic philosopher from 46AD, agreed with Aristotle, claiming that “the face of the man you see” is a mirrored likeness to the images of the great oceans, reflected in the moon, particularly in the full phase.
In addition, Apollinides points out that the reflection of the visual ray to the sun produces the appearance of a rainbow where the moisture has become somewhat smooth and condensed. Amazing! How did he know this in the first century?
Clearchus, on the other hand, thought that the outer ocean is seen in the moon through a visual ray that has been deflected to the ocean and then reflected to us. Plutarch assumes that Clearchus believed the moon was an ethereal and luminiferous star. In contrast, Plutarch and Apollonides believe it to be a body of weight and solidity and, therefore contradict Clearchus’ hypothesis:
The dark spots on the moon do not appear as one continuous sea, but are separated by boundaries, the layers of light upon shadow, assuming the semblance of height and depth, producing a close likeness of eyes and lips (920).
I love this. Imagine these first-century scholars gazing at the moon, arguing the reason for the appearance of its face.
Lucius argues that when the sun catches the moon, it should all shine out with an even light. For with us, too, while the air in the depths and hollows of the earth, wherever the sun’s rays do not penetrate, remains shadowy and unlit, that which suffuses the earth outside takes on brilliance and a luminous colour (Le Visage, 922).
Lucius continues with his argument, stating that mathematicians have determined through the occurrence of eclipses that the earth is a great deal larger than the moon and that the shadow of the earth grows smaller the further it extends, because the body that casts the light is larger than the earth. How many of you witnessed the Annual Solar Eclipse on October 14th of this year? Were you considering these things as you safely gazed upon this eclipse?
Annular Solar Eclipse, Oct 14 2023 [taken with my Iphone through protective glass lens]
Furthermore, the upper part of the shadow on the “face” is taper and narrow and was recognized, even by Homer, who called the night ‘nimble’ because of the sharpness of the shadow (923).
At this point, Theon refers to Sophocles, who said that the earth is a sphere although it contains such great depths, heights and irregularities. “Not that people live on the opposite hemisphere clinging to the earth like wood-worms turned bottom side-up…and that we in standing remain not at right angles to the earth but at an oblique angle, leaning from the perpendicular like drunken men “(924b). He continues stating that pieces of meteors burnt out on either side of the earth do not move downward continually, but fall upon the surface of the earth, force their way into it from the outside, and conceal themselves in the centre. Just as turbulent streams of water stop suspended, oscillating in an incessant and perpetual see-saw (924d).
Wow, this is beyond my field of comprehension.
Aristotle taught that the earth lies in the center of the cosmos. Apollonides, a follower of Aristotle, adds to this theory that above the sun, all the planets revolve lower than the fixed stars and thousands of miles from the moon. The moon frôle la terre en quelque sorte et en circulant autour (practically grazes the Earth and revolves close to it). In addition, according to Aristarchus in his treatise, On Sizes and Distances, the distance of the sun is more than 18 times and less than 20 times distance to the moon. Because of her [moon] weight, she has migrated closer to the Earth than the sun. This treatise was written by Aristarchus around 200 BCE. How could he calculate this? With what instruments? He undoubtedly used the foundations of geometry by Euclid of Alexandria, who was born in 300 BC. Amazing.
Based on this statement by Apollonides, Plutarch ponders that Earth is situated in the middle and the middle of what? Infinity? Infinity, however, cannot have a middle as it negates limits. Plutarch refers next to Timaeus, in which Platodescribes the events before the creation of time. ‘The Father who had begotten the universe observed it set in motion and alive…and he was pleased’. He would create an eternal image moving according to number or time. This ‘number’ would be infinity. (Timaeus 37c6-d7). Whew.
The Function and Purpose of the Moon
There is a consensus in this dialogue that, unlike our great planet Earth, the moon is barren of all life, including that of humans. So what is its purpose? How is it useful? Lamprias points out that the only useful functions of the moon are “digesting the exaltations from the earth and slackening the excessive torridity and harshness of the sun. Plutarch, in refutation, declares that the influence of the moon is one of moistness and femininity which softens, liquefies, and cools the heat of the sun which “softens the timbers and eases the birth of children through the flood-tides of the ocean”(364).
Sulla explains his myth of the moon’s purpose towards the end of the first dialogue. He believes that the moon is inhabited by people whose souls have relinquished their bodies after death on Earth. After death, the souls wander in the region between the moon and Earth, and the purer souls reach the moon. When in eclipse, these souls can approach the earth’s shadow and can return to Earth. Furthermore, Sulla believes that death on the earth separates the soul from the body, while death on the moon detaches the mind from the soul out of love of the divine!
WORKS CITED
Paul Coones. The geographical significance of Plutarch’s dialogue, Concerning theface which appears in the orb of the moon. JSTOR.
https://www-jstor-org.library.dbu.edu/stable/622050?seq=3
Plato. Timaeus. “Time and Cosmology in Plato and the Platonic Tradition”. Brill’s Plato Study Series, Volume 9
P. Raingeard. Le Visage du Rond de la Lune. Paris: Société D’Edition Les Belles Lettres. 1935
My French Quest 