Ed.: W.S. Hett, Aristotle, On the Soul, Parva Naturalia, On Breath, rev. ed. (Loeb 1957); A. Roselli,
[Aristotle], De spiritu (1992).
W.W. Jaeger, “Das Pneuma im Lykeion,” Hermes 48 (1913) 29–74.
Oliver Hellmann
Aristotelian Corpus, de Coloribus (ca 320 – 250 BCE?)
Brief treatise, textually corrupt in many places, generally thought to have been authored not
by A, but by another Peripatetic. There is no unanimity, however, regarding the
author’s identity; scholars recently have attributed the treatise to T, though
S also had been suggested, while its unpolished style suggests a student’s lecture
notes.
The author claims that the basic colors are those of the elements: fire by nature is yellow,
while air, water and earth intrinsically are white. When heated, though, air and water
become black; in addition, things appear black when reflecting little or no light. All other
colors are produced by mixing elemental colors; an object’s specific color depends not only
on the colors mixed but also on proportion and intensity. For instance, violet is produced at
sunrise and sunset by the mixture of the sun’s rays, then weak, with the then shadowy
colored air.
The treatise includes numerous illustrations of color phenomena which the author tries
to explain, especially on artificial dyeing and the colors of plants and animals. The last part
of this work treats particular cases exemplifying color changes of plants and animals, due
either to exsiccation or to the earth’s absorption of liquids. For instance, human
hair changes color because it acquires through the skin different degrees of moisture at
different ages.
There are clear deviations from Aristotle’s color theory; e.g. elements are said to be
colored, the “transparent” is not mentioned, light is treated as a material substance. But
these deviations, together with the treatise’s method, are not foreign to the Peripatetic
school; for similar doctrines and the preference for observed phenomena over abstract
generalizations can be found in post-Aristotelian Peripatetic accounts.
Having been included in the Aristotelian corpus, this work was widely read and para-
phrased in medieval times. Michael of Ephesos commented on it in the 12th c., and his
comments as well as the text itself were later translated into Latin.
Ed.: K. Prantl, Aristoteles über die Farben (1849); M.F. Ferrini, Pseudo Aristotele, I colori (1999).
H.B. Gottschalk, “The De coloribus and its author,” Hermes 92 (1964) 59–85; G. Wöhrle, Aristoteles,
De coloribus. Aristoteles Werke in deutscher Übersetzung (1999).
Katerina Ierodiakonou
Aristotelian Corpus On the Flood of the Nile (ca 340 – 328 BCE)
A Medieval Latin translation preserves, under A’s name, this short treatise, whose
scientific aim is to investigate why the Nile is the only river that floods in summer. The text
discusses and refutes some 12 different explanations of this, some made by Greek intel-
lectuals or famous philosophers from the 6th to 4th cc. BCE. The author’s conjecture, namely
that heavy rains in “Ethiopia” cause the Nile’s rise, is strikingly accurate, but not original.
Although modern scholars have raised doubts about both Aristotle’s authorship of this
short treatise and its original structure, it is likely that the Latin version comes from a Greek
original written by Aristotle, since both in this treatise and in his Meteo ̄rologikà the Red Sea
ARISTOTELIAN CORPUS, DE COLORIBUS