Socrates inquiring about the heavens in the Clouds and the Phaedo.
Higher Thinking
Strepsiades: Hey, Socrates! Hey, little Socrates!
Socrates: Why are you calling on me, ephemeral creature?
Strepsiades: First, could I ask you to tell me what it is you’re doing?
Socrates: I am air-climbing and thinking about the sun.
Strepsiades: Well, in that case, why are you thinking over the gods from a basket instead of from the ground?
Socrates: Because I’d never properly discover the celestial bodies (τὰ μετέωρα πράγματα = things above the ground) if I did not suspend my mind and mix my subtle thought into the kindred air. If I were grounded and I examined the higher things from below, I would never make any discoveries. Obviously, the earth draws by force my thinking-juices towards itself. The watercress experiences this same thing…
Strepsiades: What are you saying? Thinking draws juice into the watercress? Come on now, come down to me from there, little Socrates, so that you can teach me I’ve come to learn.
{Στ.} ὦ Σώκρατες.
ὦ Σωκρατίδιον.
{Σω} τί με καλεῖς, ὦ 'φήμερε;
{Στ.} πρῶτον μὲν ὅτι δρᾷς, ἀντιβολῶ, κάτειπέ μοι.
{Σω.} ἀεροβατῶ καὶ περιφρονῶ τὸν ἥλιον.
{Στ.} ἔπειτ' ἀπὸ ταρροῦ τοὺς θεοὺς ὑπερφρονεῖς,
ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς, εἴπερ;
{Σω.} οὐ γὰρ ἄν ποτε
ἐξηῦρον ὀρθῶς τὰ μετέωρα πράγματα
εἰ μὴ κρεμάσας τὸ νόημα καὶ τὴν φροντίδα,
λεπτὴν καταμείξας εἰς τὸν ὅμοιον ἀέρα.
εἰ δ' ὢν χαμαὶ τἄνω κάτωθεν ἐσκόπουν,
οὐκ ἄν ποθ' ηὗρον· οὐ γὰρ ἀλλ' ἡ γῆ βίᾳ
ἕλκει πρὸς αὑτὴν τὴν ἰκμάδα τῆς φροντίδος.
πάσχει δὲ ταὐτὸ τοῦτο καὶ τὰ κάρδαμα.
{Στ.} πῶς φῄς;
ἡ φροντὶς ἕλκει τὴν ἰκμάδ' εἰς τὰ κάρδαμα;
ἴθι νυν κατάβηθ', ὦ Σωκρατίδιον, ὡς ἐμέ,
ἵνα με διδάξῃς ὧνπερ ἕνεκ' ἐλήλυθα.
Aristophanes, Clouds 221–238
Fish out of Water
“Furthermore,” he said, “[the earth] is something immense and we who inhabit the lands between the pillars of Herakles and the Phasis river are living in some small part around the sea like ants or frogs around a pound, and many others in foreign lands live in many other such places.
“For around the earth in all directions there are many hollows of all sorts of shapes and sizes into which water, mist and air flow together into a stream; but the pure earth itself is situated in the pure heaven where the stars exist, which many of those accustomed to discussing such things call, ‘aether’; of which these (sc. water, mist, air) are sediment and forever flow into the hollows of the earth.
“Now we are unaware that we live in the hollows, and we think we live above upon the surface of the earth—as if someone living in the middle of the ocean’s depths thought they lived on the surface of the sea, and seeing the sun and the other stars through the water they thought the sea to be heaven, but because of slowness and weakness, they never reached the sea’s upper limit, nor raising their head out of the sea and emerging into this region here have they seen how much purer and more beautiful it happens to be than the place in which they live, nor have they heard about it from anyone else.
“We experience this same thing. For living in a certain hollow of the earth we think we inhabit its upper part; and we call the air ‘heaven,’ as if it were the heaven through which the stars travel; and it is the same, that because of weakness and slowness we are unable to travel to the farthest air: if anyone went to its extremes, or having grown wings flew up to it and raised their head out, then they would see—just as fish raising their heads out of the water see things here, they too would see the things there—and if their nature were strong enough to contemplate them, they would recognize that there is the true heaven and the true light and the true earth.
“For the earth, the stones and the whole region here are corrupted and corroded, just as things in the sea are by the salt water—and nothing worth mentioning grows in the sea, nor is anything there, in a word, perfect, but there are caverns and sand, and endless mud and slime wherever there is also earth, and there is nothing worth comparing to the beauty of things around us. The things up there, in turn, seem to be yet even more superior than the things around us.”
ἔτι τοίνυν, ἔφη, πάμμεγά τι εἶναι αὐτό, καὶ ἡμᾶς οἰκεῖν τοὺς μέχρι Ἡρακλείων στηλῶν ἀπὸ Φάσιδος ἐν σμικρῷ τινι μορίῳ, ὥσπερ περὶ τέλμα μύρμηκας ἢ βατράχους περὶ τὴν θάλατταν οἰκοῦντας, καὶ ἄλλους ἄλλοθι πολλοὺς ἐν πολλοῖσι τοιούτοις τόποις οἰκεῖν.
εἶναι γὰρ πανταχῇ περὶ τὴν γῆν πολλὰ κοῖλα καὶ παντοδαπὰ καὶ τὰς ἰδέας καὶ τὰ μεγέθη, εἰς ἃ συνερρυηκέναι τό τε ὕδωρ καὶ τὴν ὁμίχλην καὶ τὸν ἀέρα: αὐτὴν δὲ τὴν γῆν καθαρὰν ἐν καθαρῷ κεῖσθαι τῷ οὐρανῷ ἐν ᾧπέρ ἐστι τὰ ἄστρα, ὃν δὴ αἰθέρα ὀνομάζειν τοὺς πολλοὺς τῶν περὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα εἰωθότων λέγειν: οὗ δὴ ὑποστάθμην ταῦτα εἶναι καὶ συρρεῖν ἀεὶ εἰς τὰ κοῖλα τῆς γῆς.
ἡμᾶς οὖν οἰκοῦντας ἐν τοῖς κοίλοις αὐτῆς λεληθέναι καὶ οἴεσθαι ἄνω ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς οἰκεῖν, ὥσπερ ἂν εἴ τις ἐν μέσῳ τῷ πυθμένι τοῦ πελάγους οἰκῶν οἴοιτό τε ἐπὶ τῆς θαλάττης οἰκεῖν καὶ διὰ τοῦ ὕδατος ὁρῶν τὸν ἥλιον καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ἄστρα τὴν θάλατταν ἡγοῖτο οὐρανὸν εἶναι, διὰ δὲ βραδυτῆτά τε καὶ ἀσθένειαν μηδεπώποτε ἐπὶ τὰ ἄκρα τῆς θαλάττης ἀφιγμένος μηδὲ ἑωρακὼς εἴη, ἐκδὺς καὶ ἀνακύψας ἐκ τῆς θαλάττης εἰς τὸν ἐνθάδε τόπον, ὅσῳ καθαρώτερος καὶ καλλίων τυγχάνει ὢν τοῦ παρὰ σφίσι, μηδὲ ἄλλου ἀκηκοὼς εἴη τοῦ ἑωρακότος.
ταὐτὸν δὴ τοῦτο καὶ ἡμᾶς πεπονθέναι: οἰκοῦντας γὰρ ἔν τινι κοίλῳ τῆς γῆς οἴεσθαι ἐπάνω αὐτῆς οἰκεῖν, καὶ τὸν ἀέρα οὐρανὸν καλεῖν, ὡς διὰ τούτου οὐρανοῦ ὄντος τὰ ἄστρα χωροῦντα: τὸ δὲ εἶναι ταὐτόν, ὑπ’ ἀσθενείας καὶ βραδυτῆτος οὐχ οἵους τε εἶναι ἡμᾶς διεξελθεῖν ἐπ ἔσχατον τὸν ἀέρα: ἐπεί, εἴ τις αὐτοῦ ἐπ’ ἄκρα ἔλθοι ἢ πτηνὸς γενόμενος ἀνάπτοιτο, κατιδεῖν ἂν ἀνακύψαντα, ὥσπερ ἐνθάδε οἱ ἐκ τῆς θαλάττης ἰχθύες ἀνακύπτοντες ὁρῶσι τὰ ἐνθάδε, οὕτως ἄν τινα καὶ τὰ ἐκεῖ κατιδεῖν, καὶ εἰ ἡ φύσις ἱκανὴ εἴη ἀνασχέσθαι θεωροῦσα, γνῶναι ἂν ὅτι ἐκεῖνός ἐστιν ὁ ἀληθῶς οὐρανὸς καὶ τὸ ἀληθινὸν φῶς καὶ ἡ ὡς ἀληθῶς γῆ.
ἥδε μὲν γὰρ ἡ γῆ καὶ οἱ λίθοι καὶ ἅπας ὁ τόπος ὁ ἐνθάδε διεφθαρμένα ἐστὶν καὶ καταβεβρωμένα, ὥσπερ τὰ ἐν τῇ θαλάττῃ ὑπὸ τῆς ἅλμης, καὶ οὔτε φύεται ἄξιον λόγου οὐδὲν ἐν τῇ θαλάττῃ, οὔτε τέλειον ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν οὐδέν ἐστι, σήραγγες δὲ καὶ ἄμμος καὶ πηλὸς ἀμήχανος καὶ βόρβοροί εἰσιν, ὅπου ἂν καὶ ἡ γῆ ᾖ, καὶ πρὸς τὰ παρ’ ἡμῖν κάλλη κρίνεσθαι οὐδ’ ὁπωστιοῦν ἄξια. ἐκεῖνα δὲ αὖ τῶν παρ’ ἡμῖν πολὺ ἂν ἔτι πλέον φανείη διαφέρειν.
Plato, Phaedo 109A–110A
