§14τοσαύτας δὲ καὶ τηλικαύτας ἔχοντος τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ δυνάμεις, καλὴ καὶ ἡ γένεσίς ἐστιν, οὐχ ἣν ἤδη διήλθομεν, ἐκ δυάδος οὖσα καὶ τριάδος, ἀλλʼ ἣν ἡ ἀρχὴ τῷ πρώτῳ συνελθοῦσα τετραγώνῳ παρέσχεν.
While the number possesses so many and such great powers, its generation also is beautiful—not the one we have already gone through, which is from the dyad and the triad, but that which the principle, coming together with the first square, has provided.
ἀρχὴ μὲν γὰρ ἀριθμοῦ παντὸς ἡ μονάς, τετράγωνος δὲ πρῶτος ἡ τετράς ἐκ δὲ τούτων, ὥσπερ ἰδέας καὶ ὕλης πέρας ἐχούσης, ἡ πεμπάς.
For the monad is the principle of every number, and the tetrad is the first square; and from these, as if from form and matter having a limit, comes the pentad.
εἰ δὲ δὴ καὶ τὴν μονάδα τετράγωνον ὀρθῶς ἔνιοι τίθενται, δύναμιν οὖσαν ἑαυτῆς καὶ περαίνουσαν εἰς ἑαυτήν, ἐκ δυεῖν πεφυκυῖα τῶν πρώτων τετραγώνων ἡ πεμπὰς οὐκ ἀπολέλοιπεν ὑπερβολὴν εὐγενείας.
And if indeed some correctly posit the monad also as a square, being the power of itself and limiting into itself, the pentad, being naturally produced from two of the first squares, does not fall short of the highest nobility.
§15τὸ δὲ μέγιστον
ἔφην
δέδια μὴ ῥηθὲν πιέζῃ τὸν Πλάτωνα ἡμῶν, ὡς ἐκεῖνος ἔλεγε πιέζεσθαι τῷ τῆς σελήνης ὀνόματι τὸν Ἀναξαγόραν, παμπάλαιον οὖσαν τινα τὴν περὶ τῶν φωτισμῶν δόξαν αὑτοῦ, ἰδίαν ποιούμενον.
"But the greatest point," said I, "I fear that if spoken it may press hard upon our Plato, just as he used to say that Anaxagoras was pressed hard by the name of the moon, making a very ancient opinion about its illumination his own private one.
ἦ γὰρ οὐ ταῦτʼ εἴρηκεν ἐν Κρατύλῳ
; πάνυ μὲν οὖν
ὁ Εὔστροφος ἔφη,
τί δʼ ὅμοιον πέφυκεν οὐ συνορῶ. καὶ μὴν οἶσθα δήπουθεν, ὅτι πέντε μὲν ἐν Σοφιστῇ τὰς κυριωτάτας· ἀποδείκνυσιν ἀρχάς, τὸ ὂν τὸ ταὐτὸν τὸ ἕτερον, τέταρτον δὲ καὶ πέμπτον ἐπὶ τούτοις κίνησιν καὶ στάσιν.
For did he not say this in the *Cratylus*?" "Certainly," said Eustrophus; "but what similarity there is, I do not see." "And yet you surely know that in the *Sophist* he proves five most sovereign principles: Being, Sameness, Difference, and in addition to these, fourth and fifth, Motion and Rest.
ἄλλῳ δʼ αὖ τρόπῳ διαιρέσεως ἐν Φιλήβῳ χρώμενος, ἓν μὲν εἶναί φησι τὸ ἄπειρον ἕτερον δὲ τὸ πέρας· τούτων δὲ μιγνυμένων πᾶσαν συνίστασθαι γένεσιν.
And again, using another method of division in the *Philebus*, he says that one is the Unlimited, and the other is the Limit; and that from the mixture of these all generation is constituted.
αἰτίαν δʼ, ὑφʼ ἧς μίγνυται, τέταρτον γένος τίθεται· καὶ πέμπτον ἡμῖν ὑπονοεῖν ἀπολέλοιπεν, ᾧ τὰ μιχθέντα πάλιν ἴσχει διάκρισιν καὶ διάστασιν.
And the Cause, by which they are mixed, he posits as a fourth class; and he has left us to suspect a fifth, by which the mixed things again obtain separation and division.
τεκμαίρομαι δὲ ταῦτʼ ἐκείνων ὥσπερ εἰκόνας λέγεσθαι, τοῦ μὲν ὄντος τὸ γιγνόμενον, κινήσεως δὲ τὸ ἄπειρον, τὸ δὲ πέρας τῆς στάσεως, ταὐτοῦ δὲ τὴν μιγνύουσαν ἀρχήν, θατέρου δὲ τὴν διακρίνουσαν.
And I conjecture that these are spoken of as images of those: of Being, the Becoming; of Motion, the unlimited; of Rest, the Limit; of Sameness, the mixing principle; of Difference, the separating principle.
εἰ δʼ ἕτερα ταῦτʼ ἐστί, κἀκείνως ἂν εἴη καὶ οὕτως ἐν πέντε γένεσι καὶ διαφοραῖς.
But if these are different, in that way too and in this way they would be in five classes and distinctions.
πυθόμενος, φήσει δή τις, ταῦτα πρότερος συνιδὼν Πλάτωνος, δύο Ε καθιέρωσε τῷ θεῷ, δήλωμα καὶ σύμβολον τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ τῶν πάντων ἀλλὰ μὴν καὶ τἀγαθὸν ἐν πέντε γένεσι φανταζόμενον κατανοήσας, ὧν πρῶτόν ἐστι τὸ μέτριον δεύτερον δὲ τὸ σύμμετρον, καὶ τρίτον ὁ νοῦς καὶ τέταρτον αἱ περὶ ψυχὴν ἐπιστῆμαι καὶ τέχναι καὶ δόξαι ἀληθεῖς, πέμπτον εἴ τις ἡδονὴ καθαρὰ καὶ πρὸς τὸ λυποῦν ἄκρατος, ἐνταῦθα λήγει τὸ Ὀρφικὸν ὑπειπών
"ἕκτῃ δʼ ἐν γενεῇ καταπαύσατε θεσμὸν ἀοιδῆς. " §16ἐπὶ τούτοις
ἔφην
εἰρημένοις πρὸς ὑμᾶς
ἓν βραχύ
τοῖς περὶ Νίκανδρον ἀείσω
ξυνετοῖσι
τῇ γὰρ ἕκτῃ τοῦ νέου μηνὸς ὅταν κατάγῃ εἷς τὴν Πυθίαν εἰς τὸ πρυτανεῖον, ὁ πρῶτος ὑμῖν γίγνεται τῶν τριῶν κλήρων εἰς, τὰ πέντε, πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἐκείνης τὰ τρία τοῦ δὲ τὰ δύο βάλλοντες.
Someone might well say, having learned these things and understood them before Plato, that he dedicated two Es to the god, as a manifestation and symbol of the number of all things. Nay, furthermore, having understood the Good also as manifesting itself in five classes, of which the first is the moderate, the second the symmetrical, the third intellect, the fourth the sciences, arts, and true opinions belonging to the soul, and fifth whatever pleasure is pure and unmixed with pain, he ends there, suggesting the Orphic verse: 'And in the sixth generation, bring to rest the order of song.'" "In addition to these things having been said to you," I said, "I will sing one brief thing to those with Nikandros, to those who understand. For on the sixth day of the new month, when one conducts the Pythia to the prytaneum, the first of the three lots for you becomes one concerning five, as you cast three for her and two for him against each other.
ἦ γὰρ οὐχ οὕτως ἔχει; καὶ ὁ Νίκανδρος
οὕτως
εἶπεν
ἡ δʼ αἰτία πρὸς ἑτέρους ἄρρητός ἐστι
. οὐκοῦν
ἔφην ἐγὼ μειδιάσας
ἄχρι οὗ τἀληθὲς; ἡμῖν ὁ θεὸς ἱεροῖς γενομένοις γνῶναι παράσχῃ, προσκείσεται καὶ τοῦτο τοῖς ὑπὲρ τῆς πεμπάδος λεγομένοις. τοιοῦτο μὲν καὶ ὁ τῶν ἀριθμητικῶν καὶ ὁ τῶν μαθηματικῶν ἐγκωμίων τοῦ Ε λόγος, ὡς ἐγὼ μέμνημαι, πέρας ἔσχεν.
For is it not so?" And Nikandros said, "It is so; but the reason is unutterable to others." "Therefore," said I with a smile, "until the god, when we have become consecrated, allows us to know the truth, this too shall be added to what is said on behalf of the pentad." In this way the discourse of the arithmetical and mathematical praises of the E, as far as I remember, came to an end.