BOOK XI[327]ON MAN AND MONSTERS
ON MAN AND MONSTERS
Chapter 1. On man and his parts.
4.Homois so named because he is made ofhumus(earth), as it is told in Genesis: “Et creavit Deus hominem de humo terrae.” And the whole man made up of both substances, thatis, of the union of soul and body, is termedhomoby an abuse of the word.
6. Man is two-fold, the inner and the outer. The inner man is the soul (anima); the outer man, the body.
7.Animareceived its name from the heathen, for the reason that it is wind (ventus). Wind is called in the Greek ἄνεμος; and we seem to live by drawing air into the mouth. But this is most clearly false, becauseanimacomes into being long before air can be received into the mouth, because it is already alive in the womb of the mother.
8.Animatherefore is not air, as certain have thought who have not been able to form a conception of an incorporeal nature.
9. The evangelist asserts thatspiritusis the same thing asanima, saying: “Potestatem habeo ponendi animam meam et rursus potestatem habeo sumendi eam.” And in regard to theanimaof the Lord at the time of the passion, the same evangelist thus spoke, saying: “et inclinato capite emisit spiritum.”
10. For what is it to send forth thespiritus, if not to lay down theanima. But theanimais so called because it lives, and thespiritusbecause of its spiritual nature, or because it breathes (inspiret) in the body.
11. Likewiseanimusis the same asanima. Butanimais of life,animusof wisdom. Whence the philosophers say that even withoutanimusthe life remains, and without the mind,animaendures....
12. ... It is notanima, but what excels inanimathat is calledmens, its head or eye, as it were. Whence man himself is called the image of God in respect tomens. However all those things are united toanimaso that it is one thing. Theanimahas received different names according to the working of different causes.
13. ... When it gives life to the body, it isanima; when it wills,[328]it isanimus; when it knows, it ismens; when it recollects, it ismemoria; when it judges what is right, it isratio; when it breathes, it isspiritus; when it is conscious of anything, it issensus....
14.Corpusis so called because being corrupted, it perishes. For it is perishable and mortal and must sometime be dissolved.
16. The body is made up of the four elements. For earth is in the flesh; air in the breath; moisture in the blood; fire in the vital heat. For the elements have each their own part in us, and something is due them when the structure is broken up....
18. The bodily senses are five: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch. Two of these open and close; two are always open.
56. The arteries are so named because the air, that is, the breath, is carried by them from the lungs; or because they retain the breath of life in their narrow and close passages, whence they emit the sounds of the voice, which would all sound alike if the movement of the tongue did not create differences of the voice.
77.Lac(milk) derives its name from its color, because it is a white liquor, for the Greeks call white λεῦκος and its nature is changed from blood; for after the birth whatever blood has not yet been spent in the nourishing of the womb flows by a natural passage to the breasts, and whitening by their virtue, receives the quality of milk.
86.Ossa(bones) are the solid parts of the body. For on these all form and strength depend.Ossaare named fromustus(burned), because they were burned by the ancients, or as others think, fromos(the mouth), because there they are visible, for everywhere else they are covered and concealed by the skin and flesh.
92.Terga, because it is on the back that we lie flat on the earth (terra); men alone can do this, for dumb animals lie either on the belly or on the side; whence the wordtergumis applied to them mistakenly.
108. The knees are the meeting-points of the thighs and lower legs; and they are called knees (genua) because in thewomb they are opposite to the cheeks (genae). For they adhere to them there and they are akin to the eyes, the revealers of tears and of pity. For the knees (genua) are so called from the cheeks (genae).
109. In short they assert that man in his beginning and first formation is so folded up that the knees are above, and by these the eyes are shaped so that there are deep hollows. Ennius says: “Atque genua comprimit artagena.” Thence it is that when men fall on their knees they at once begin to weep. For nature has willed that they remember their mother’s womb where they sat in darkness, as it were, until they should come to the light.
118.Coris derived from a Greek term—what they call καρδία (heart)—or, it may be, fromcura(cure). For in it dwell all anxious thought and wisdom. And it is near the lungs for this reason, that when it is fired by anger it may be cooled by the liquid of the lungs. It has two arteries, of which the left has more blood, the right, more air. From it also is the pulse we find in the right arm.
120. Thepulsus(pulse) is so called because it beats (palpitet), and by its evidence we perceive that there is sickness or health. Its motion is two-fold; a simple motion which is made up of a single beat, and a composite, made up of several movements—irregular and unequal. And these movements have definite limits....
121. The veins are so called because they are the passages of the flowing blood, and its streamlets spread through all the body, by which all the parts are moistened.
124. The Greeks call the lungs πλεύμων, because they are the bellows of the heart and in them is πνεῦμα, that is,spiritus, by which they are stirred and moved, whence they are calledpulmones....
125.Jecur(liver) has its name because in it fire (ignis) has its seat, and from there it flies up into the head. Thence it spreads to the eyes and the other organs of sense and the limbs, and by its heat it changes into blood the liquid that it has appropriated from food, and this blood it furnishes tothe several parts to feed and nourish them. In the liver pleasure resides and desire, according to those who dispute about natural philosophy.
127. The spleen is so called from corresponding to (supplementum) the liver on the opposite side in order that there may be no vacuum, and this certain men believe was formed with a view to laughter. For it is by the spleen we laugh, by the bile we are angry, by the heart we are wise, by the liver we love. And while these four elements remain, the animal is whole.
Chapter 3. On human monstrosities.
1. Portents, Varro says, are those births which seem to have taken place contrary to nature. But they are not contrary to nature, because they come by the divine will, since the will of the creator is the nature of each thing that is created. Whence, too, the heathen themselves call God now nature, now God.
2. A portent, therefore, happens not contrary to nature, but contrary to known nature....
4. Certain creations of portents seem to have been made with future meanings. For God sometimes wishes to indicate what is to come by disgusting features at birth, as also by dreams and oracles, that he may give forewarning by these, and indicate to certain nations or certain men coming destruction. This has been proved by many trials.
5. ... But these portents which are sent in warning, do not live long, but die as soon as they are born.
12. And just as there are monstrous individuals in separate races of men, so in the whole human kind there are certain monstrous races, as the Gigantes, Cynocephali, Cyclopes, and the rest.
15. The Cynocephali are so called because they have dogs’ heads and their very barking betrays them as beasts rather than men. These are born in India.
16. The Cyclopes, too, the same India gives birth to, and they are named Cyclopes because they are said to have a singleeye in the midst of the forehead. These have the additional name ἀγριοφαγίται because they eat nothing but the flesh of wild beasts.
17. The Blemmyes, born in Libya, are believed to be headless trunks, having mouth and eyes in the breast; others are born without necks, with eyes in their shoulders.
18. In the remote east, races with faces of a monstrous sort are described. Some without noses, with formless countenances; others with lower lip so protruding that by it they shelter the whole face from the heat of the sun while they sleep; others have small mouths, and take sustenance through a narrow opening by means of oat-straws; a good many are said to be tongueless, using nod or gesture in place of words.
19. They say the Panotii in Scythia have ears of so large a size that they cover the whole body with them. For πᾶν in Greek means all, and ὦτα, ears.
21. The Satyrs are manikins with upturned noses; they have horns on their foreheads, and are goat-footed, such as the one St. Anthony saw in the desert. And he, being questioned, is said to have answered the servant of God, saying, “I am mortal, one of the inhabitants of the waste, whom the heathen, misled by error, worship as the Fauns and Satyrs.”
23. The race of the Sciopodes is said to live in Ethiopia. They have one leg apiece, and are of a marvelous swiftness, and the Greeks call them Sciopodes from this, that in summertime they lie on the ground on their backs and are shaded by the greatness of their feet.
24. The Antipodes in Libya have feet turned backward and eight toes on each foot.
28. Other fabulous monstrosities of the human race are said to exist, but they do not; they are imaginary. And their meaning is found in the causes of things, as Geryon, King of Spain, who is said to have had a triple form. For there were three brothers of such harmonious spirit that it was, as it were, one soul in three bodies.
Chapter 4. On transformations to beasts.
2. Moreover they affirm with no fabulous lying but with historic proof, that Diomedes’ companions were changed to birds. And certain say that witches are created from human beings. For the shapes of the wicked change for their many villanies, and they turn bodily into beasts, whether by magic charms or by the use of herbs.
3. Many creatures go through a natural change and by decay pass into different forms, as bees [are formed] by the decaying flesh of calves, as beetles from horses, locusts from mules, scorpions from crabs.