§1εστι τις ἆρα τοῦ ψυχροῦ δύναμις, ὦ Φαβωρῖνε, πρώτη καὶ οὐσία, καθάπερ τοῦ θερμοῦ τὸ πῦρ, ἧς παρουσίᾳ τινὶ καὶ μετοχῇ γίνεται τῶν ἄλλων ἕκαστον ψυχρόν·
Is there, then, Favorinus, some primary power and essence of the cold, just as fire is of the hot, by whose presence and participation each of the other things becomes cold?
ἢ μᾶλλον ἡ ψυχρότης στέρησὶς ἐστι θερμότητος, ὥσπερ τοῦ φωτὸς τὸ σκότος λέγουσι καὶ τῆς κινήσεως τὴν στάσιν;
Or is coldness rather a privation of heat, just as they say darkness is of light and rest is of motion?
ἐπεὶ καὶ τὸ ψυχρὸν ἔοικε στάσιμον εἶναι, κινητικὸν δὲ τὸ θερμόν·
For indeed the cold seems to be stationary, and the hot to be mobile.
αἵ τε τῶν θερμῶν καταψύξεις οὐδεμιᾶς παρουσίᾳ γίγνονται δυνάμεως, ἀλλʼ ἐκστάσει θερμότητος· ἅμα γὰρ ἀπιοῦσα πολλὴ φαίνεται καὶ ψύχεται τὸ ὑπολειπόμενον·
Moreover, the cooling of hot things does not occur by the presence of any power, but by the departure of heat; for as it departs, a great deal is seen to go away, and what is left behind is cooled.
ὁ γὰρ ἀτμός, ὃν τὰ ζέοντα τῶν ὑδάτων μεθίησιν, ἀπιόντι τῷ θερμῷ συνεκπίπτει διὸ καὶ μειοῖ τὸ πλῆθος ἡ περίψυξις ἐκκρίνουσα τὸ θερμόν, ἑτέρου μηδενὸς ἐπεισιόντος.
For the steam which boiling water emits escapes along with the departing heat; wherefore cooling, by expelling the heat, diminishes the quantity, while nothing else enters in.
§2ἢ πρῶτον μὲν ἄν τις ὑπίδοιτο τοῦ λόγου τούτου τὸ πολλὰς τῶν ἐμφανῶν ἀναιρεῖν δυνάμεων, ὡς οὐ ποιότητας οὐδʼ ἕξεις ἕξεων δὲ καὶ ποιοτήτων στερήσεις, βαρύτητα μὲν κουφότητος καὶ σκληρότητα μαλακότητος τὸ μέλαν δὲ τοῦ λευκοῦ καὶ τὸ πικρὸν αξ τοῦ γλυκέος, καὶ ὧν ἕκαστον ἑκάστῳ πέφυκεν ἀντιδε πριιιιδο. ἀντικεῖσθαι κατὰ δύναμιν, οὐχ ὼγ ἕξει στέρησις·
Or, in the first place, one might suspect this argument of doing away with many manifest powers, as though they were not qualities or states, but privations of states and qualities: heaviness of lightness, hardness of softness, black of white, and bitter of sweet, and indeed all things which are naturally opposed to one another in power, not as a privation to a state.
ἔπειθʼ ὅτι πᾶσα στέρησις ἀργόν ἐστι καὶ ἄπρακτον, ὡς τυφλότης; καὶ κωφότης καὶ σιωπὴ καὶ θάνατος; ἐκστάσεις γάρ εἰσιν εἰδῶν καὶ ἀναιρέσεις οὐσιῶν, οὐ φύσεις τινὲς οὐδʼ οὐσίαι καθʼ ἑαυτάς ἡ δὲ ψυχρότης οὐκ ἐλάττονα τῆς θερμότητος ἐγγιγνομένη τοῖς σώμασι πάθη καὶ μεταβολὰς ἐνεργάζεσθαι πέφυκε·
In the second place, because every privation is inert and inactive, like blindness, deafness, silence, and death; for they are departures of forms and destructions of essences, not any natures or essences in themselves.
καὶ γὰρ πήγνυται πολλὰ τῷ ψυχρῷ καὶ συγκρίνεται καὶ πυκνοῦται·
But coldness, when it arises in bodies, is naturally active in producing no less affection and change than heat; for many things are congealed, compacted, and condensed by cold.
καὶ τὸ στάσιμον αὐτῷ καὶ δυσκίνητον οὐκ ἀργόν ἐστιν, ἀλλʼ ἐμβριθὲς καὶ βέβαιον, ὑπὸ ῥώμης συνερειστικὸν καὶ συνεκτικὸν ἐχούσης; τόνον.
And its stationary and immobile character is not inert, but weighty and stable, supporting and holding things together by a strength that possesses tension.
ὅθεν ἡ μὲν στέρησις ἔκλειψις γίγνεται καὶ ὑποχώρησις τῆς ἀντικειμένης δυνάμεως, ψύχεται δὲ πολλά, πολλῆς αὐτοῖς θερμότητος ἐνυπαρχούσης ἔνια δὲ καὶ μᾶλλον ἡ ψυχρότης, ἂν λάβῃ θερμότερα, πήγνυσι καὶ συνάγει, καθάπερ τὸν βαπτόμενον σίδηρον οἱ δὲ Στωικοὶ καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα λέγουσιν ἐν τοῖς σώμασι τῶν βρεφῶν τῇ περιψύξει στομοῦσθαι καὶ μεταβάλλον ἐκ φύσεως γίγνεσθαι ψυχήν·
Hence, while privation is an eclipse and withdrawal of the opposing power, many things are cooled while much heat still exists in them; and some things indeed coldness, if it receives them hotter, congeals and contracts even more, like iron dipped in water. And the Stoics even say that the breath (pneuma) in the bodies of infants is tempered by cooling and, changing from nature, becomes soul.
ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν ἀμφισβητήσιμον, ἑτέρων δὲ πολλῶν τὴν ψυχρότητα φαινομένην δημιουργὸν οὐκ ἄξιον ἡγεῖσθαι στέρησιν.
But while this is disputable, since coldness is seen to be the creator of many other things, it is not right to consider it a privation.
§3ἔτι στέρησις μὲν οὐδεμία δέχεται τὸ μᾶλλον καὶ τὸ ἧττον, οὐδʼ ἂν εἴποι τις ἕτερον ἑτέρου μᾶλλον πεπηρῶσθαι τῶν μὴ βλεπόντων ἢ σιωπᾶν τῶν μὴ φθεγγομένων ἢ τεθνάναι τῶν μὴ ζώντων.
Furthermore, no privation admits of the "more" and the "less," nor would anyone say that one of those who do not see is more blind than another, or that one of those who do not speak is more silent, or that one of those who do not live is more dead.
ἐν δὲ τοῖς ψυχροῖς πολὺ τὸ μᾶλλον καὶ τὸ ἧττον ἔνεστι καὶ τὸ λίαν καὶ τὸ μὴ λίαν καὶ ὅλως ἐπιτάσεις καὶ ἀνέσεις, ὥσπερ ἐν τοῖς θερμοῖς, διὰ τὸ τὴν ὕλην πῆ μὲν σφόδρα πῆ δʼ ἠρέμα πάσχουσαν ὑπὸ τῶν ἐναντίων δυνάμεων ἕτερα μᾶλλον ἑτέρων καὶ θερμότερα καὶ ψυχρότερα παρέχειν ἐξ ἑαυτῆς.
But in cold things there is much of the "more" and "less," and "very much" and "not very much," and in general, intensities and remissions, just as in hot things, because matter, being affected by the opposing powers sometimes intensely and sometimes gently, produces from itself things that are more or less hot and cold than others.
καὶ γὰρ ἕξεως μὲν οὐκ ἔστι μῖξις πρὸς στέρησιν οὐδʼ ἀναδέχεται δύναμις οὐδεμία τὴν ἀντικειμένην αὐτῇ στέρησιν ἐπιοῦσαν οὐδὲ ποιεῖ κοινωνὸν ἀλλʼ ἀντεξανίσταται θερμὰ δʼ ἐστίν,, ἄχρι οὗ κεραννύμενα ψυχροῖς ὑπομένει, καθάπερ μέλανα λευκοῖς καὶ βαρέσιν ὁζέα καὶ γλυκέσιν αὐστηρά, παρέχοντα τῇ κοινωνίᾳ ταύτῃ καὶ ἁρμονίᾳ χρωμάτων τε καὶ φθόγγων καὶ φαρμάκων καὶ ὄψων προσφιλεῖς πολλὰς καὶ φιλανθρώπους γενέσεις.
For there is no mixing of a state with a privation, nor does any power admit the opposing privation when it approaches, nor does it make it a partner, but rather resists it. Yet hot things endure as long as they are mixed with cold things, just as black with white, high notes with low notes, and sweet with sour, producing by this partnership and harmony of colors, sounds, medicines, and foods many pleasant and beneficial creations.
ἡ μὲν γὰρ κατὰ στέρησιν καὶ ἕξιν ἀντίθεσις πολεμικὴ καὶ ἀσύμβατός ἐστιν, οὐσίαν θατέρου τὴν θατέρου φθορὰν ἔχοντος·
For opposition according to privation and state is hostile and irreconcilable, since the existence of the one involves the destruction of the other; but that which is according to opposing powers, when it finds its opportunity, is much used by the arts, and most of all by nature in other creations and in the turnings of the air.
τῇ δὲ κατὰ τὰς ἐναντίας δυνάμεις καιροῦ τυχούσῃ πολλὰ μὲν αἱ τέχναι χρῶνται, πλεῖστα δʼ ἡ φύσις ἔν τε ταῖς ἄλλαις γενέσεσι καὶ ταῖς περὶ τὸν ἀέρα τροπαῖς, καὶ ὅσα διακοσμῶν καὶ βραβεύων ὁ θεὸς ἁρμονικὸς καλεῖται καὶ μουσικὸς, οὐ βαρύτητας συναρμόττων καὶ ὀξύτητας οὐδὲ λευκὰ καὶ μέλανα συμφώνως ὁμιλοῦντα παρέχων ἀλλήλοις, ἀλλὰ τὴν τῆς θερμότητος καὶ ψυχρότητος ἐν κόσμῳ κοινωνίαν καὶ διαφορὰν, ὅπως συνοίσονταί τε μετρίως καὶ διοίσονται πάλιν, ἐπιτροπεύων καὶ τὸ ἄγαν ἑκατέρας ἀφαιρῶν εἰς τὸ δέον ἀμφοτέρας καθίστησι.
And the god, who orders and rules all these things, is called "harmonious" and "musical," not because he tunes low and high notes together, nor because he makes white and black associate harmoniously with one another, but because he supervises the partnership and difference of heat and cold in the cosmos, so that they may agree moderately and differ again, managing them and removing the excess of each to establish both in what is necessary.