Christopher Schliephake – On the (Im)Purity of Water: Reflections on "Environmental Consciousness" in Ancient Greek Thought

My talk will look at the different "waters" that we can find in ancient texts and how they relate to both their larger environmental setting as well as the human body; looking at symbolic dimensions of "water", I will also analyze the way the ancients tried to assess the quality of individual waters and how the reflected on anthropogenic influences on waters (and the environment at large). What I refer to as "environmental consciousness" means both a sensitivity to varying degrees of water quality and its fundamental changeability, as well as an awareness that humans themselves could pollute water through their actions. As I would like to suggest, this insight also gave rise to the need to regulate human behavior in connection with water as a resource, without explicitly developing a concept of environmental protection. In order to do this, a number of questions will be addressed: First, the question of how ancient people conceptualized and, above all, differentiated the medium of water. Secondly, the question of how ancient people actually determined the purity and impurity of water. Thirdly, the question of the awareness of the human influence on water quality, with attention to the rules of conduct related to water.