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For as the moon waxes, the things under it wax, then as it wanes they cease and contract into themselves. And from this it seemed right to the Egyptians to honor both the ibis and the cercops; for both animals are considered to be in sympathy with the moon. The ibis, on the one hand, is similar in its very shape, darkening at the extremities, but white in the middle parts, just like the ethereal moon. For when the sky is moonless, ibises do not see, but they shut their eyes during this time and endure without food, awaiting their kindred element. But the cercops has clearer activities: for when the light of the moon increases, the circle of its eyes widens with it, but when that diminishes, the circumference of its eyes contracts. And some say, among whom is Dercyllus, that in the Hydaspes river a stone is produced called lychnis; this, as the moon waxes, gives forth a melodious sound. But indeed also in the Arar river of Celtic lands, or rather in the Aesarus of Sybaris, a fish is born, which the locals call a 'clopias'. They say that this fish becomes white when the moon is waxing, and becomes black again when its light is diminishing. Callisthenes the Sybarite records this. But also Archelaus says that the livers of mice have fifteen lobes, which are not all produced at once, but each, one by one per lunar day, is added out of nothing from the new moon until the full moon, and again from the full moon, one lobe after another per day dwindling, they all disappear by the new moon. And again from that they begin to be produced in accordance with the period of the moon and the number of its days, they themselves being produced and disappearing and increasing and decreasing. The same historian says also that the eggs of sea urchins undergo the same thing. 3.12 Anaximenes, then, holds that the moon is a circle nineteen times the size of the earth, full of fire just like that of the sun, Xenophanes that it is a fiery cloud, the Stoics a mixture of fire and air, Plato that it is mostly of a fiery nature, Anaxagoras and Democritus a fiery solid body, having within itself plains and mountains and ravines, Heraclitus an earth enveloped in mist, Pythagoras, however, a fire-like body. And concerning its light, we will say that Anaximander holds it has its own light, but somehow fainter, while Antiphon says the moon shines with its own light, but the part of it that is hidden is obscured by the sun's impact, since it is the nature of the stronger light to obscure the weaker, which indeed also happens with the other stars. But Thales and his followers determined that the moon is illuminated by the sun. Heraclitus, for his part, says that the sun and the moon experience the same thing; for being bowl-shaped in their forms, they are illuminated for our perception by the moist exhalation, but the sun is brighter because it appears in purer air. According to Eratosthenes, the moon is distant from the earth 780,000 stades, and the sun 4,080,000. For the moon, occupying the seventh zone, is closer to the earth than the other stars; whence they say it is not a pure condensation of aether like the other stars, but a mixture of aetherial and aerial substance; for the blackness that appears on it, which some call a face, is nothing other than the intermingled air, which being black by nature extends up to it. And it is worth noting the following. The new moon is called the head of the month by the ancients. And they introduce ten shapes of the moon, from which the thirty-day cycle is completed; and these are conjunction, rising, crescent, half-moon, gibbous, full, again half-moon, again gibbous, again crescent, again conjunction. But others hold that there are eleven shapes; for after the conjunction

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αὐξομένης γὰρ τῆς σελήνης αὔξεται τὰ ὑπ' αὐτήν, εἶτα συνιούσης ἀπολήγει καὶ εἰς ἑαυτὰ συστέλλεται. καὶ τὴν ἶβιν δὲ καὶ τὸν κέρκωπα Αἰγυπτίοις ἔνθεν ἐδόκει τιμᾶν· ἀμφότερα γὰρ τὰ ζῶα σελήνῃ συμπαθῆ εἶναι προσείκασται· ἡ μὲν ἶβις αὐτῷ τε τῷ σχήματι ἐμφερής, ἄκρα μὲν ὁμιχλαίνουσα, λευκαίνουσα δὲ τὰ μέσα καθάπερ ἡ αἰθερία μήνη. ὅτε γὰρ οὐρανὸς ἀσέληνος οὐδὲ ἴβιδες ὁρῶσι, μύουσι δὲ τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς τουτονὶ τὸν χρόνον καὶ ἄσιτοι ἐγκαρτεροῦσι τὸ συγγενὲς στοιχεῖον ἀναμένουσαι. ὁ δὲ κέρκωψ δηλοτέρας ἔχει τὰς ἐνεργείας· ὅτε μὲν γὰρ αὔξει τὸ φῶς τῆς σελήνης, ὁ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν κύκλος τούτῳ εὐρύνεται, ὅτε δὲ ἐκεῖνο μειοῦται, τὸ τῶν ὀμμάτων περιφερὲς συστέλλεται. φασὶ δέ τινες, ὧν ἐστι καὶ ∆έρκυλλος, ὅτι γεννᾶται ἐν τῷ Ὑδάσπῃ ποταμῷ λίθος λυχνὶς καλούμενος· οὗτος σελήνης αὐξομένης ἦχον μελῳδίας ἀποδίδωσι. ἀλλὰ μὴν καὶ ἐν Ἀράρει ποταμῷ τῆς Κελτικῆς, μᾶλλον δὲ Αἰσάρῳ Συβάρεως, γεννᾶται ἰχθύς, κλοπίαν δὲ αὐτὸν οἱ ἐπιχώριοι καλοῦσι. τοῦτον λέγουσιν αὐξανομένης μὲν τῆς σελήνης λευκαίνεσθαι, μελαίνεσθαι δὲ αὖθις μειουμένης τοῦ φωτὸς αὐτῆς. ἱστορεῖ δὲ τοῦτο Καλλισθένης ὁ Συβαρίτης. ἀλλὰ καὶ Ἀρχέλαός φησι τὰ τῶν μυῶν ἥπατα λοβοὺς ἔχειν πεντεκαίδεκα, οἵτινες οὐκ ἀθρόοι πάντες ἐγγίνονται, ἀλλ' ἕκαστος καθ' ἡμέραν σεληνιακὴν εἷς ἐπιγινόμενος ἐξ οὐκ ὄντος προστίθεται ἀπὸ τῆς νεομηνίας μέχρι τῆς πανσελήνου, πάλιν δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς πανσελήνου εἷς ἐφ' ἑνὶ καθ' ἡμέραν φθίνων λοβὸς πάντες μέχρι τῆς νεομηνίας ἐκλείπουσι. καὶ αὖθις ἐξ ἐκείνης ἄρ χονται γίνεσθαι πρὸς τὴν τῆς σελήνης περίοδον καὶ τὸν ἀριθμὸν τῆς ἐκείνης ἡμερῶν καὶ αὐτοὶ γινόμενοι καὶ ἀπογινόμενοι καὶ πληθυνόμενοι καὶ μειούμενοι. ὁ δ' αὐτὸς ἱστορικὸς λέγει καὶ τὰ τῶν θαλασσίων ἐχίνων ᾠὰ τὸ αὐτὸ πάσχειν. 3.12 Ἀναξιμένης τοίνυν κύκλον τὴν σελήνην εἶναι βούλεται ἐννεακαιδεκαπλασίονα τῆς γῆς, πλήρη πυρὸς ὥσπερ τὸν τοῦ ἡλίου, Ξενοφάνης δὲ νέφος εἶναι πεπυρωμένον, οἱ Στωικοὶ μικτὴν πυρὸς καὶ ἀέρος, Πλάτων ἐκ πλείονος τοῦ πυρώδους, Ἀναξαγόρας καὶ ∆ημόκριτος στερέωμα διάπυρον, ἔχον ἐν ἑαυτῷ πεδία καὶ ὄρη καὶ φάραγγας, Ἡράκλειτος γῆν ὁμίχλῃ περιειλημμένην, Πυθαγόρας γε μὴν πυροειδὲς σῶμα. περὶ δὲ τοῦ κατ' αὐτὴν φωτὸς ἐροῦμεν, ὡς Ἀναξίμανδρος μὲν ἴδιον αὐτὴν φῶς ἔχειν βούλεται, ἀραιότερον δέ πως, ὁ δὲ Ἀντιφῶν ἰδίῳ μὲν φέγγει λάμπειν τὴν σελήνην φησί, τὸ δὲ ἀποκρυπτόμενον περὶ αὐτὴν ὑπὸ τῆς προσβολῆς τοῦ ἡλίου ἀμαυροῦσθαι, πεφυκότος τοῦ ἰσχυροτέρου φωτὸς τὸ ἀσθενέστερον ἀμαυροῦν, ὃ δὴ συμβαίνει καὶ περὶ τὰ ἄλλα ἄστρα. Θαλῆς δὲ καὶ οἱ ἀπ' αὐτοῦ ὑπὸ τοῦ ἡλίου φωτίζεσθαι τὴν σελήνην ἐνέκριναν. ὅ γε μὴν Ἡράκλειτος τὸ αὐτὸ πεπονθέναι τὸν ἥλιον καὶ τὴν σελήνην φησί· σκαφοειδεῖς γὰρ ὄντας τοῖς σχήμασιν ἐκ τῆς ὑγρᾶς ἀναθυμιάσεως φωτίζεσθαι πρὸς τὴν φαντασίαν, λαμπρότερον δὲ τὸν ἥλιον διὰ τὸ ἐν καθαρῷ ἀέρι φαίνεσθαι. ἀφεστάναι δὲ λόγος ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς κατὰ τὸν Ἐρατοσθένην τὴν μὲν σελήνην σταδίων μυριάδας ἑβδομήκοντα ὀκτώ, τὸν δὲ ἥλιον τετρακοσίας καὶ ὀκτάκις μυρίας. ἡ σελήνη γὰρ τὴν ἑβδόμην κατέχουσα ζώνην προσγειοτέρα τῶν ἄλλων ἐστὶν ἀστέρων· ὅθεν οὐδὲ πίλημα ἄκρατον αἰθέρος αὐτὴν εἶναί φασι κατὰ τοὺς ἄλλους ἀστέρας, κρᾶμα δὲ αἰθερώδους καὶ ἀερώδους οὐσίας· τὸ γὰρ φαινόμενον αὐτῆς μέλαν, ὃ καλοῦσι πρόσωπόν τινες, οὐδὲν ἄλλο εἶναι ἢ τὸν ἀναμεμιγμένον ἀέρα, ὃς φύσει μέλας ὢν ἄχρις αὐτῆς τείνεται. ἐκεῖνο δὲ μὴ παριδεῖν ἄξιον. ἡ νεομηνία κεφαλὴ μηνὸς πρὸς τῶν ἀρχαίων προσαγορεύεται. δέκα δὲ εἰσηγοῦνται σελήνης σχήματα, ἀφ' ὧν ὁ τριακονθήμερος ἀναπληροῦται κύκλος· τὰ δέ ἐστι σύνοδος ἀνατολὴ μηνοειδὴς διχότομος ἀμφίκυρτος πλήρης αὖθις διχότομος αὖθις ἀμφίκυρτος αὖθις μηνοειδὴς αὖθις σύνοδος. ἕτεροι δὲ ἕνδεκα σχήματα εἶναι βούλονται· μετὰ γὰρ τὴν σύνοδον