AristotleOn Sterility 273
not constitute the female contribution in a material sense, the mechanism
of its emission does contribute, though perhaps indirectly, to the female’s
ability to receive the male seed. It might be objected to this interpretation
that it is questionable whether the fluid would then still qualify as ‘seed’.
I see no immediate answer to this question, except that it is the kind of
difficulty that, one could imagine, might cause Aristotle, inGeneration of
Animals, to be more specific and to conclude explicitly that the female
emission during intercourse does not constitute the female contribution in
the material sense.
As far as the role ofpneumais concerned, the view criticised inGen.
an. 737 b 28 – 3262 is thatpneumais involved in theemissionof seed by the
male,^63 not that it is involved in the seed’s being drawn into the uterus,
which is what ‘Hist. an. 10 ’ claims ( 634 b 34 ; 636 a 6 ; 637 a 17 ). As the
use of terms such as"!
,D!,
and
in thisGeneration of Animalspassage shows, Aristotle is not discussing
copulation but the transport of seed from various sections within the body
of the discharging agent to the genital organ (the
!Lwhere it
is discharged.^64
As for the explanation ofmola uteriin terms of heat, which seems to
contradictGen. an. 776 a 2 , where Aristotle insists that this is not due
to heat but to a deficiency of heatK (
1 !#0 ?
," 1 +
’"
!#L, it should be said that
the author of ‘Hist. an. 10 ’ seems to toy with the idea rather than actually
commit himself to heat as a cause. At 638 a 19 f. he asks whether it is through
heat that this phenomenon occursK! .
1 !#
3 $ > > > L, but in the course of his answer he gets sidetracked;
at 638 b 1 he addresses himself again to this possibility, but again fails to
make up his mind as to the actual cause: ‘But is heat the cause of the
affection, as we said, or is it rather because of fluid – something that in
fact constitutes the fullness of pregnancy – that it closes its mouth as it
were? Or is it when the uterus is not cold enough to discharge it nor hot
enough to concoct it?’^65 There is no clear answer, and this is again typical
Problemata-style, stating various alternative explanations that must have
(^62) Cf. 739 a 3.
(^63) A view which is incidentally advocated inHist. an. 9 ( 7 ) 586 a 15.
(^64) That this is the subject matter of this passage is also indicated by the fact that in the sequel Aristotle
is discussing how the female residue reaches the uterus (which is also called
!in 739 a
3 – 5 ) in order to be discharged.
(^65) ! ’? A#
0
1 !#
3 B +
’H!# K
3 ) L ` -
0 B % 2) kn :1 8 H ? "
0 #’2)
% ? :
; (tr. Balme).