Page:Early Greek philosophy by John Burnet, 3rd edition, 1920.djvu/203

Rh into real things. At this date, spheres would not have served to explain anything that could not be explained more simply without them.

We are next told that these "bands" encircle one another or are folded over one another, and that they are made of the rare and the dense element. We also learn that between them are "mixed bands" made up of light and darkness. Now it is to be observed, in the first place, that light and darkness are exactly the same thing as the rare and the dense, and it looks as if there was some confusion here. It may be doubted whether these statements are based on anything else than fr. 12, which might certainly be interpreted to mean that between the bands of fire there were bands of night with a portion of fire in them. That may be right; but I think it rather more natural to understand the passage as saying that the narrower circles are surrounded by wider circles of night, and that each has its portion of fire rushing in the midst of it. These last words would then be a simple repetition of the statement that the narrower circles are filled with unmixed fire, and we should have a fairly exact description of the "wheels" of Anaximander.

94. "In the middle of those," says Parmenides, "is the goddess who steers the course of all things." Aetios explains this to mean in the middle of the "mixed bands," while Simplicius declares that it means in the middle of all the bands, that is to say, in the centre of the world. It is not likely that either of them had anything better to go upon than the words of Parmenides himself, and these are ambiguous. Simplicius, as is clear from the language he