Book 14
4
There is no reason; all things must fall within this range of numbers if, as was assumed, all things share in number, and different things may fall under the same number. Hence if certain things happened to have the same number, on the Pythagorean view they would be the same as one another, because they would have the same form of number; e.g., sun and moon would be the same.Cf. previous note.
5
But why are these numbers causes? There are seven vowels,In the Greek alphabet. seven strings to the scale,In the old heptachord; cf. note on Aristot. Met. 5.11.4. seven Pleiads; most animals (though not allCf. Aristot. Hist. An. 576a 6.) lose their teeth in the seventh year; and there were seven heroes who attacked Thebes. Is it, then, because the number 7 is such as it is that there were seven heroes, or that the Pleiads consist of seven stars? Surely there were seven heroes because of the seven gates, or for some other reason, and the Pleiads are seven because we count them so; just as we count the Bear as 12, whereas others count more stars in both.
6
Indeed, they assert also that Ξ, Ψ and Ζ are concords,According to Alexander ζ was connected with the fourth, ξ with the fifth, and ψ with the octave. and that because there are three concords, there are three double consonants. They ignore the fact that there might be thousands of double consonants—because there might be one symbol for ΓΡ. But if they say that each of these letters is double any of the others, whereas no other is,θ, φ , and χ are aspirated, not double, consonants. and that the reason is that there are three regionsPalate, lips, and teeth. of the mouth, and that one consonant is combined with σ in each region, it is for this reason that there are only three double consonants, and not because there are three concords—because there are really more than three; but there cannot be more than three double consonants.
