the mirror, clearly regarded by the accusers, though Apuleius does not say so, as a magical instrument.
[Chapter 15.] The Lacedaemonian Agesilaus, the greatest of the Spartan kings, 440-360 b.c. Cp. Cic. ad Fam. v. 12.
Socrates. Cp. Diog. Laert. ii. 5, 33.
Demosthenes and Plato. Cp. Quint. xii. 2. 22 and 10. 23.
Eubulides, a sophist of Miletus. Cp. Diog. Laert. ii. 10. 4.
the orator when he wrangles, &c. The pun on iurgari, 'wrangles,' and obiurgari, 'rebukes,' can scarcely be reproduced. 'Disproves' and 'disapproves' would weaken the translation.
Epicurus of Samos, born 342 b.c. For his views on vision cp. Lucret. iv. 156, on mirrors, 293.
Plato. Cp. Timaeus, p. 46 a, 'Within the eyes they (the gods) planted that variety of fire which does not burn, but it is called light homogeneous with the light without. We are enabled to see in the daytime, because the light within our eyes pours out through the centre of them and commingles with the light without. The two being thus confounded together transmit movements from every object they touch through the eye inward to the soul, and thus bring about the sensation of the sight.' Grote's Plato iii. 265.
Archytas of Tarentum, a Pythagorean (circa 400 b.c.). The Stoics—believed that sight consisted in a refined fluid or visual effluence proceeding from the central intelligence through the eyes. 'In the process of seeing, the ὁρατικὸν πνεῦμα (visual effluence) coming into the eyes from the ἡγεμονικόν (central intelligence) gives a spherical form to the air before the eye by virtue of its τονικὴ κίνησις (i.e. the tension it sets up), and by means of the sphere of air comes in contact with things; and since by this process rays of light emanate from the eye, darkness must be visible.' Zeller, The Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics, p. 209, note. Cp. Plut. Plac. Phil. iv. 15.
[Chapter 16.] two rival images of the sun. Apparently an allusion to the phenomenon of mock suns. Archimedes had, according to Apuleius, treated of the rainbow and the mock sun in connexion with his researches into mirrors.