Plutarch on Anaximander’s Zoogony (Quaest. Conv. VII 8. 4 730E = 12 A 30 DK)

Abstract

In Quaestiones Convivales (730E), Plutarch notes that according to Anaximander’s zoogony first living creatures originated in fish, like οἱ γαλεοί, one species of Selachia, which corresponds to modern dogfish. Plutarch describes this kind of fish also in two other treatises (De sollertia animalium 982A and De amore prolis 494C). In the two latter instances Plutarch refers to two peculiarities of the dogfishes, namely their way of breeding which resembles the mammals and the way of nursing their youth — mother lets it swim around, feed itself and then takes the offspring back inside her body. Aristotle duly observed both peculiarities (HA I 5. 489b11 f.; VI 10. 565b24) as typical for the majority of Selachia (a broader class than modern Selachii, or sharks), including γαλεοί, and it is almost certain that Plutarch depends on this report. On the contrary, there is no reason to believe with some scholars that Plutarch had in view Aristotle’s famous description of one species of γαλεοί, namely γαλεὸς λεῖος (mustelus levis) with its unusual mode of breeding the youth (HA 565b2–9). In his testimony for Anaximander Plutarch does not have nursing in view– his point is only the womb-like conditions in which the young develop before birth within mother’s body. The comparison with the dogfishes is thus more trivial than often assumed and might, of course, stem from Anaximander. More probable, nevertheless, that it was added by Plutarch himself in order to make his discourse about abstinence from fish more impressive.