GENERATION OF ANIMALS 



which developed later. A hwafus is rather a substance 

 which is a power, which can assert itself, and by the 

 simple act of asserting itself, by being too strong, 

 stronger than the others, can cause trouble. The 

 remedy in such a case is to deprive it of some of its 

 strength, until it again takes its proper place among its 

 peers, or, in the language of medicine, to " concoct " it 

 or otherwise bring it into a harmless condition by 

 " blending " " it with the other substances. 



(26) (B) As each of the substances known as Swdfieis had its Dynunieis as 

 own specific and peculiar character, sharply marked off sutetances 

 from the others, it was easy for the meaning " peculiar tive char^' 

 and distinctive character " to become closely associated acter. 

 with the term Svva^s, quite apart from any reference to 



these particular substances. In fact, it almost comes 

 to mean any " substance of a distinctive qualitj- " ; and 

 in this sense it is found in G'..i., for instance at 720 b 32 

 (oAAtj Tis SuVa/xts) and 736 a 21 (Aphrodite was called 

 after " this hwafjus," sc. d<f>p6s, foam). From this it is 

 an easy step to " distinctive physical quality," or simply 

 " distinctive character " (as, e.g., at 731 b 19, where it is 

 Joined with Xoyos rijs ovalas ; at 751 a 33, where it refers 

 to the distinctive character of the yolk and white of an 

 egg respectively * ; and cf. 733 b 15 l^et bvvafuv (hov — 

 it has the distinctive character of an egg, it is equivalent 

 to an egg ; and 780 b 8, 784 b 15) : or " characteristic " 

 (applied to the sexes at 756 a 1, 763 b 23 ; cf. 760 a 19). 



(27) In the sense of " (substance of) distinctive character " it 

 can be used practically as an alternative to <f>vai.s, or in 

 conjunction with ^u'ai? (as indeed it often is in Hippo- 

 crates and Plato), and this seems to be the use of it in 

 P. A. 655 b 12 i^ avayKTis 8e raura navra y€U)8T] Kal 

 arepeav !;(« ttjv (f>vaiv ottXov yap avrt] 8vvafjLis {cf. 

 P..1. 651 b 21). 



(28) (C) From this usage it is not far to the idiomatic, pleo- Idiomatic 

 nastic usage, e.g., 17 twv evripwv Su'va/iij (almost=Ta usage. 

 evrepa P. A. 678 a 13) ; ij tuiv Trrepajv 8vvafj.is ( = Ta Trrepd, 



682 b 15); and this is -paralleled by the similar usage 



ou some of the uses of Sxivani^ have been made by J. Souilhe, £tude sur 

 le terme Suvo/iis drins les dialogues de Platon, Paris, 1910, and A. Keus, 

 Vber philosophisehe Begriffe u. Theorien in den hippokrati^chen Schriften, 

 Coin, 1914, pp. 46 flF. 

 " See § 40. '' <^iiiTiv is used in a similar context at 753 a 35. 



