eul_wid: cui-ab
DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20335421 PDFMarkdown

Fragments on Oceanic Hydrology by Hippon of Samos

The Fragments on Oceanic Hydrology is a modern descriptive title for the surviving cosmological ideas of the 5th-century BCE Pre-Socratic philosopher Hippon of Samos. No complete text by Hippon survives; his theories are known only through a handful of fragmentary passages quoted or reported by later ancient authors. These fragments present a materialist cosmology in which water and moisture are posited as the archē of the world. Hippon specifically argued that the sea is the ultimate source of all water, including that found in rivers, springs, and wells, and he assigned it a central role in the origin of life. His thinking characteristically blended cosmology with biology, as he also proposed that psychē itself was derived from moisture, specifically locating its origin in the brain or semen. This biologically oriented development of earlier Ionian monist philosophy was criticized in antiquity; Aristotle, for instance, dismissed Hippon’s reductive, materialist conception of psychē as intellectually crude and impious. The transmission of his work is entirely indirect, relying on brief excerpts preserved within the texts of later philosophers, doxographers, and commentators such as Aristotle and pseudo-Plutarch.

Σχόλια εἰς Ἰλιάδα καὶ Ὀδύσσειαν ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἔστι Διὶ Κρονίωνι μάχεσθαι· τῶι οὐδὲ κρείων Ἀχελώιος ἰσοφαρίζει οὐδὲ βαθυρρείταο μέγα σθένος Ὠκεανοῖο, ἐξ οὗ περ πάντες ποταμοὶ καὶ πᾶσα θάλασσα καὶ πᾶσαι κρῆναι καὶ φρείατα μακρὰ νάουσιν. Κράτης δὲ ἐν β τῶν Ὁμηρικῶν δεικνύς, ὅτι Ὠκεανὸς «Μεγάλη θάλασσα»· «ταῦτα γάρ, φησίν, μόνως ἂν ἁρμόττοι ῥηθῆναι περὶ τῆς ἐκτὸς θαλάσσης, ἣν ἔτι καὶ νῦν οἱ μὲν “Μεγάλην θάλατταν”, οἱ δὲ “Ἀτλαντικὸν πέλαγος”, οἱ δὲ Ὠκεανὸν προσαγορεύουσιν. ποταμὸς δὲ ποῖος ἂν δύναιτο ταύτην ἔχειν τὴν δύναμιν; καίτοι γʼ ἔνιοι ἐξαιροῦντες τὸν περὶ τοῦ Ὠκεανοῦ στίχον τῶι Ἀχελώιωι περιτιθέασι ταῦτα, ὃς οὐχ ὅτι τῆς θαλάσσης μείων ἐστίν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν ἐν αὐτῆι κόλπων, λέγω δὴ Τυρρηνικοῦ καὶ Ἰονίου. εἶπε δὲ τοῖς τρισίν, φησίν, ὅ τι καὶ οἱ μετὰ ταῦτα φυσικοὶ συνεφώνησαν, τὸ περιέχον τὴν γῆν κατὰ τὸ πλεῖστον μέρος ὕδωρ Ὠκεανὸν εἶναι, ἐξ οὗπερ τὸ πότιμον. Ἵππων· “τὰ γὰρ ὕδατα πινόμενα πάντα ἐκ τῆς θαλάσσης ἐστίν· οὐ γὰρ δή που τὰ φρέατα βαθύτερα ἢ ἡ θάλασσά ἐστιν ἐξ ὧν πίνομεν· οὕτω γὰρ οὐκ ἂν ἐκ τῆς θαλάσσης τὸ ὕδωρ εἴη, ἀλλʼ ἄλλοθέν ποθεν. νῦν δὲ ἡ θάλασσα βαθυτέρα ἐστὶ τῶν ὑδάτων. ὅσα οὖν καθύπερθεν τῆς θαλάσσης ἐστί, πάντα ἀπʼ αὐτῆς ἐστιν”. οὕτως τὰ αὐτὰ εἴρηκεν Ὁμήρωι».

Κλήμης ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς οὐ νέμεσις τοίνυν οὐδὲ Ἵππωνι ἀπαθανατίζοντι τὸν θάνατον τὸν ἑαυτοῦ· ὁ Ἵ. οὗτος ἐπιγραφῆναι ἐκέλευσεν τῶι μνήματι τῶι ἑαυτοῦ τόδε τὸ ἐλεγεῖον· «Ἵππωνος ... καταφθίμενον». τοῦτο δὲ λέγοι ἂν περὶ αὐτοῦ, ὅτι ἄθεος ἦν· τοιοῦτο γὰρ καὶ τὸ ἐπὶ τοῦ τάφου αὐτοῦ ἐπίγραμμα· «Ἵππωνος ... καταφθίμενον». Ἵππωνος τόδε σῆμα, τὸν ἀθανάτοισι θεοῖσιν ἶσον ἐποίησεν Μοῖρα καταφθίμενον.

Ἀθήναιος πάντων αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τῆι μνήμηι θαυμασάντων ὁ Κύνουλκος ἔφη «πουλυμαθημοσύνης τῆς οὐ κενεώτερον οὐδέν» … Ἵππων ἔφη ὁ ἄθεος.