Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Chapter 2 -- Greek Philosophers
Let us reduce Aristotle's thoughts to a schematic, a much enhanced of the earlier one done for
Heraclitus.
Evaporation
Ocean
Precipitation
Rivers
Land
Clouds
Springs
Mountain Caverns
Aristotle's Hydrologic Cycle
Had Greek thought continued to advance, we can only speculate that the scientific realizations of
the 17th century might have occurred much earlier. But were that the case, we'd be already
approaching the end of our journey, and in counting the pages, we're not even close.
In the first chapter, we floated through the Greek underworld with little hope or comprehension.
The philosophers of this chapter haven't made our journey a pleasant excursion, but they've
admirably argued for an underlying order to the flow.
We keep in mind the nagging fact that in our journey so far, none of the pundits have themselves
seen the waters of which we speak.
Perhaps what we need are some able note-takers, scholars who'll help us find a pattern in the
fluvial underground. With that in mind, let's go to Rome.
DRAFT 1122//66//22001122
Condensation
Uppddaatteess aatt hhttttpp::////www. .uunnm. .eedduu//~rrhheeggggeenn//UnnddeerrggrroouunnddRi ivveerrss. .hhttml l
22