The Water of Oikos

Aristotle and Water (by Jim Kimmel, 8/4/21)

Although I spent only one night in Assos, it is one of those places that remains vibrant in my memory. We arrived late in the afternoon when the light was soft. The hotel was named Kervansaray, after lodging common on the caravan routes in the Old World. Maybe the old building actually was a caravansary.

Assos was established about 3,000 years ago on the upland about 700 feet above the little port. A temple to Athena was built about 530 BCE. In 348 BCE Aristotle moved to Assos and established an academy to work on his Zoological Researches. Christian scripture, in Acts 20: 13-14 says We went on ahead to the ship and sailed for Assos, where we were going to take Paul aboard. He had made this arrangement because he was going there on foot. ¹⁴ When he met us at Assos, we took him aboard and went on to Mitylene.

Aristotle stayed in Assos about three years, studying marine life as part of his comprehensive study of zoology. It's easy to imagine that he would walk down the steep road from the city to the harbor, where he would have a boat with research gear we would recognize today. He probably would have at least had nets, lines and hooks, buckets and bottles for samples, alcohol for preserving specimens, and maybe even some free diving weights and ropes. No ROVs, sonar, GPS, Nikonos underwater cameras, SCUBA gear, or digital displays. His boat would be a little row/sailboat.

Aristotle is called the "father of science." His research involved detailed, systematic observation of nature. His observations were qualitative rather than our modern emphasis on quantitative data. But he was a keen observer and wrote detailed descriptions of what he found. For example, here is his description of octopuses:

The octopus uses its tentacles both as feet and as hands: it draws in food with the two that are placed over its mouth; and the last of its tentacles, which is very pointed and the only one of them which is whitish and bifurcated at the tip (it uncoils towards the rhachis – the rhachis is the smooth surface on the opposite side from the suckers) – this it uses for copulation. In front of the sac and above the tentacles it has a hollow tube by which it discharges the sea-water which gets into the sac whenever it takes anything in with its mouth. It moves this tube to right and to left; and it discharges milt through it. It swims obliquely in the direction of the so-called head, stretching out its feet; and when it swims in this way it can see forwards (since its eyes are on top) and has its mouth at the rear. As long as the animal is alive, its head is hard and as it were inflated. It grasps and retains things with the underside of its tentacles, and the membrane between its feet is fully extended. If it gets on to the sand, it can no longer retain its hold.

I like to imagine that Aristotle went out in his boat in the early mornings and late at night. He then came back to the harbor to write his detailed observations. If he was like modern Mediterranean people he knew the pleasure of sitting in a café overlooking the water. Just like I did there. He probably ate the octopus, like I did too!