Pneuma of taste

Gustatory extension — tongue / mouth

The pneumatic extension of taste, terminating in the tongue. Stoic physiology treats the tongue as a moisture-soaked terminus across which dissolved sapid substance is registered by the gustatory pneuma; sapidity is a relational property between the sapid object and the gustatory current. We place the rendered point at the chin-region landmark height as a stand-in for the tongue's interior position, since the silhouette renders the closed mouth as a single midline locus.

HēgemonikonPneuma of sight (right eye)Pneuma of sight (left eye)Pneuma of hearingPneuma of smellPneuma of tastePneuma of tastePneuma of touchPneuma of voice (phōnē)Pneuma of generation

Point 6 of 9 in Stoic Hēgemonikon — Central Commanding Faculty + Seven Pneumatic Extensions

Cross-tradition overlaps

No overlapping points are registered for this point.

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Sources

Diogenes Laertius, Lives VII.157 (primary_canonical)

Diogenes Laertius VII.157 names taste among the five sensory powers that belong to the Stoic eight-part soul. The citation supports the tongue as the gustatory termination of a faculty continuous with the hēgemonikon.

Aetius, Placita IV.21 (primary_canonical)

Placita IV.21 preserves Stoic physiological material concerning the peripheral powers of soul, including the sensory and generative extensions. It supports the gustatory extension shown here; the chin marker remains a rendering proxy for the interior tongue.

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