Diogenes Laërtius · fl. 3rd century CE
Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.158 — Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
Translation by R. D. Hicks (1925)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.158
Reported speech · Diogenes Laërtius on the Stoics
We hear when the air between the sonant body and the organ of hearing suffers concussion, a vibration which spreads spherically and then forms waves and strikes upon the ears, just as the water in a reservoir forms wavy circles when a stone is thrown into it. Sleep is caused, they say, by the slackening of the tension in our senses, which affects the ruling part of the soul. They consider that the passions are caused by the variations of the vital breath. Semen is by them defined as that which is capable of generating offspring like the parent. And the human semen which is emitted by a human parent in a moist vehicle is mingled with parts of the soul, blended in the same ratio in which they are present in the parent.
Cite this passage
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 7.158 (on the Stoics), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/lives-of-the-stoics/7.158
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 notesAncient explanations of hearing as ripples of shaken air, of sleep as a slackening of tension in the senses, and of the passions as caused by shifts in the body's vital breath. Semen is defined as what can produce offspring like the parent.
Older wording
- “sonant body”
- — something that produces sound
- “concussion”
- — a shaking impact
- “vital breath”
- — the life-giving breath or spirit that moves the body
Themes and situations
- Nature and the cosmos
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