Note 432 — Chapter V · THE DEMONOLOGY OF GHOSTS AND SPRITES AND BOGEYS.
Reading edition
Frg. ap. Plut. Consol. ad Apoll. XXVI. Τί οὖν; ἆρά γ’ ἡμεῖς τοῦτο διὰ τοῦ λόγου μαθεῖν οὐ δυνάμεθα, οὐδ’ ἐπιλογίσασθαι; ὅτι πλείη μὲν γαῖα κακῶν πλείη δὲ θάλασσα καὶ τοιάδε θνητοῖσι κακὰ κακῶν ἀμφί τε κῆρες εἰλεῦνται, κενεὴ δ’ εἴσδυσις οὐδ’ αἰθέρι. Bergk (Frg. adesp. 2 B) points out that Plutarch’s second quotation is an elegiac couplet, and for the MS. αἰθέρι reads Ἀΐδεω. This gives no satisfactory sense. Mr Gilbert Murray reads ἀθέρι a conjecture made certain by a passage in the dialogue ‘Theophrastos’ (p. 399 E) by Aeneas of Gaza, πλήρης δὲ καὶ ἡ γῆ καὶ ἡ θάλασσα καὶ τὰ ὑπὸ γῆν πάντα· καὶ ὡς ἔφη τις τῶν παρ’ ἡμῖν σοφῶν κενὸν οὐδὲν οὐδ’ ὅσον ἀθέρα καὶ τρίχα βαλεῖν.