Diogenes Laërtius · fl. 3rd century CE
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.145 — Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Translation by R. D. Hicks (1925)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.145
Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
The moon, however, is of a more earthy composition, since it is nearer to the earth. These fiery bodies and the stars generally derive their nutriment, the sun from the wide ocean, being a fiery kindling, though intelligent; the moon from fresh waters, with an admixture of air, close to the earth as it is: thus Posidonius in the sixth book of his Physics; the other heavenly bodies being nourished from the earth. They hold that the stars are spherical in shape and that the earth too is so and is at rest; and that the moon does not shine by her own light, but by the borrowed light of the sun when he shines upon her. An eclipse of the sun takes place when the moon passes in front of it on the side towards us, as shown by Zeno with a diagram in his treatise On the Whole.
Cite this passage
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.145 (on the Stoics), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/lives-of-the-stoics/7.145
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book VII, tr. R. D. Hicks (Loeb, 1925). Text: Perseus Digital Library (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesThe moon is more earthy, and heavenly bodies feed on water and earth, the sun on the ocean and the moon on fresh water. Stars and earth are spherical, the earth is at rest, the moon shines by borrowed sunlight and a solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes in front of the sun.
Older wording
- “nutriment”
- — nourishment, food
- “kindling”
- — fuel that burns
Themes and situations
- Nature and the cosmos
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