Phaino ̄n (“bright”), Jupiter Phaëtho ̄n (“shining”), Mars Puroeis (“fiery”), and Mercury Stilbo ̄n
(“scintillating”), names attested in A E and G, although
Aristotle denied that planets scintillated, On Heaven 2.8 (290a17–24). The planetary periods
were one year for Venus and Mercury, two years for Mars, 12 years for Jupiter, and two and
a half times that for Saturn, as in E K. The planets produce by their
motion the resounding harmony hypothesized by P K, but rejected by
Aristotle, On Heaven 2.9 (290b12–291a27). The known world is divided into Europe, Asia,
and Libya, with unknown inhabited continents likely. Two exhalations arose from the
earth: the wet produced precipitation, the dry caused other aerial phenomena. He classified
precipitation, wind, lightning, comets, and earthquakes.
The kosmos maintained its eternal order, despite the opposed powers of the four mut-
able elements, through harmonia enforced by one pervading Power that ruled them all and
in balance bound them. All pairs of mundane powers constituted the whole, and planetary
movements were beautifully constant and ordered. The author claimed to “theologize”
about the kosmos, and the work amounts to a cosmological argument for god, concluding
with a sermon on the 37 names of God. In contrast to Aristotle, who had viewed the relation
between the supreme god and the kosmos in metaphysical terms, this author perceived a
religious relation and a single god. In antiquity, it seems to have been read primarily by non-
philosophers and Christians: P probably, and P certainly, denied that it
was by Aristotle, and Aristotelian commentators such as A A and
S say next to nothing about this work. It was translated into Latin (by A
around 160 CE), and into Syriac (around 500 CE), later into Armenian, and thrice into
Arabic. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance it exerted tremendous influence, especially
on Roman Catholic philosophers such as Ficino and Pico della Mirandola; it was Daniel
Heinsius (in 1609) who first argued at length that it could not be by Aristotle.
Ed.: G. Reale and A.P. Bos, Il trattato sul cosmo per Alessandro attribuito ad Aristotele 2nd ed. (1995).
Gottschalk (1987) 1132–1139; J. Mansfeld, “ΠΕΡΙ ΚΟΣΜΟΥ: A note on the history of the title,”
Mnemosyne 46 (1992) 391–411.
PTK
Kranto ̄r of Soloi (Kilikia) (ca 335 – 275 BCE)
Academic philosopher, old enough to have been X’ pupil, he worked
mainly under P, and formed a close relationship with the young Arkesilaos.
Apart from D L’ vita 4.24–27, Kranto ̄r is known to us chiefly from his
widespread influence on consolation-literature through his On Grief, and from references
in P and P to his commentary on P’s Timaios. Proklos (in Tim. 1,
p. 76.1) describes him as the first commentator, making him a key figure in the interpret-
ation of Platonic physics. Proklos says Kranto ̄r treated the Atlantis-story as simple histor-
ical narrative (historia psile ̄) rather than as a mythical construction revealing some deeper
meaning. Kranto ̄r took the story as a rebuff to those accusing Plato of stealing his
constitution (in the Republic) from Egypt, making the Egyptians in turn indebted to an
early Athenian state! It is usually assumed that he thought the story true, but Proklos’
evidence comes from P’ discussions of the genre rather than the historical
status of the tale.
More importantly, Kranto ̄r was already suggesting how Plato (ibid. 1, p. 277.8) could
describe a universe (kosmos) without a beginning as generated. Kranto ̄r held that it owed
KRANTO ̄R OF SOLOI (KILIKIA)