Humanitext Reader

Theophrastus · Fragments §32.1

The Three Starless Spheres of the Sun's Motion

Passage 22 of 196 · Greek

Summary

This section explains that the sun itself was said to move in three spheres, which Theophrastus termed "starless" because they contain no stars.

§32.1Fr. 32 Διὰ τοῦτο οὖν ἐν τρισὶν αὐτὸν τὸν ἥλιον ἔλεγον φέρεσθαι σφαίραις, ἂς Θ. ἀνάστρους ἐκάλει ὡς μηδὲν ἐχούσας ἄστρον.
For this reason, then, they said that the sun itself was carried in three spheres, which Theophrastus called "starless" as having no star.

Notes

  1. §32.1ἐν τρισὶν ... σφαίραις — There is a prominent hyperbaton where the accusative infinitive clause elements (αὐτὸν τὸν ἥλιον) and the main verb (ἔλεγον) are inserted between the preposition ἐν and its noun σφαίραις, which structurally form a single prepositional phrase meaning "in three spheres."
  2. §32.1ἔλεγον φέρεσθαι — The main verb ἔλεγον (3rd person plural with an indefinite subject, "they said") governs the accusative and infinitive construction, with αὐτὸν τὸν ἥλιον as the subject accusative and φέρεσθαι as the passive infinitive.
  3. §32.1ὡς μηδὲν ἐχούσας ἄστρον — The conjunction ὡς with the feminine accusative plural participle ἐχούσας (agreeing with the relative pronoun ἂς) expresses the subjective reason or rationale from Theophrastus' point of view ("on the ground that they had...", "as having..."). The use of the subjective negation μηδέν instead of οὐδέν reflects this subjective or characteristic nuance.

Cite this passage

Theophrastus, Fragments §32.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0093.tlg010x09.humanitext-grc1:32.1

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