Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

​The embryo is first solidified in forty days, and in accordance with the ratios of harmony, having reached completion in seven, nine, or at most ten months, the child is brought to birth. It possesses within itself all the ratios of life, which, being connected together in a chain, are held together according to the ratios of harmony, each appearing at appointed times. Sensation generally, and vision specifically, is an exceedingly hot vapor. For this reason vision is said to see through air and through water; for the hot meets resistance from the cold. For indeed, if the vapor in the eyes were cold, it would have dispersed into the like air; but as it is... in some passages he calls the eyes the gates of the sun. He lays down the same doctrines concerning hearing and the remaining senses.

​The soul of man is divided into three parts: into intellect (nous), reason (phrenes), and passion (thymos). Intellect and passion are present in the other animals as well, but reason is in man alone. The domain of the soul extends from the heart to the brain; the part of it situated in the heart is passion, while reason and intellect are those in the brain; and the senses are drops from these. The rational part is immortal, but the rest are mortal. The soul is nourished by blood, and the discourses (logoi) of the soul are winds. Both it and its discourses are invisible, since the aether too is invisible.

​The bonds of the soul are the veins, arteries, and sinews; but when it is strong and, having come to be by itself, is at peace, its bonds become its words and deeds. When cast out upon the earth, it wanders in the air resembling the body. Hermes is the steward of souls, and for this reason is called Conductor, Gatekeeper, and of the Underworld, since it is he who conducts souls from their bodies, from both land and sea. The pure souls are led to the highest realm, while the impure souls neither approach them nor one another, but are bound in unbreakable bonds by the Furies.

​The whole air is full of souls, and these are called daemons and heroes; by them are sent to men dreams and signs of disease and health, and not only to men, but also to sheep and the other cattle. Toward these beings are directed purifications, apotropaic rites, all manner of divination, omens, and the like. He says that the greatest thing among men is to persuade the soul toward the good or toward the evil. Men are happy whenever a good soul is added to them, yet they are never at rest nor do they maintain the same flow...

​Justice is bound up with oaths, and for this reason Zeus is called Guardian of Oaths. Virtue is a harmony, as are health, every good, and God; wherefore all things are constituted in accordance with harmony. Friendship is a harmonious equality. Honors must be rendered to gods and heroes, yet not equal honors: to gods always with auspicious words, wearing white garments and observing purity, but to heroes from midday onward. Purity is achieved through purifications, washings, sprinklings, and through keeping oneself clean from funerals, childbirth, and every defilement, and abstaining from meats of animals that have died of themselves, red mullet, blacktail, eggs, oviparous animals, beans, and the other things forbidden also by those who perform initiatory rites in the sanctuaries.