§17ὁ δʼ Ἀμμώνιος, ἅτε δὴ καὶ αὐτὸς οὐ τὸ φαυλότατον ἐν μαθηματικῇ φιλοσοφίας τιθέμενος, ἥσθη τε τοῖς λεγομένοις καὶ εἶπεν
οὐκ ἄξιον πρὸς ταῦτα λίαν ἀκριβῶς ἀντιλέγειν τοῖς νέοις, πλὴν ὅτι τῶν ἀριθμῶν ἕκαστος οὐκ ὀλίγα βουλομένοις ἐπαινεῖν καὶ ὑμνεῖν παρέξει.
Ammonius, since he himself too placed no small part of philosophy in mathematics, was pleased with what was said and said, "It is not worth while to argue too precisely against these young men, except that each of the numbers will afford not a few things to those who wish to praise and hymn them.
καὶ τί δεῖ περὶ τῶν ἄλλων λέγειν;
And why need one speak of the others?
ἡ γὰρ ἱερὰ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος ἑβδομὰς ἀναλώσει τὴν ἡμέραν πρότερον ἢ λόγῳ τὰς δυνάμεις αὐτῆς ἁπάσας ἐπεξελθεῖν.
For the sacred heptad of Apollo will consume the day before one can go through all its powers in speech.
εἶτα τῷ κοινῷ νόμῳ
πολεμοῦντας
ἅμα καὶ
τῷ πολλῷ χρόνῳ
τοὺς σοφοὺς ἀποφανοῦμεν ἄνδρας, εἰ τὴν ἑβδομάδα τῆς προεδρίας παρώσαντες τῷ θεῷ τὴν πεμπάδα καθιέρωσαν ὡς μᾶλλόν τι προσήκουσαν.
Then, shall we show those wise men to be warring at once with common custom and with long time, if, thrusting aside the heptad from its place of honor, they dedicated the pentad to the god as being somehow more appropriate?
οὔτʼ οὖν ἀριθμὸν οὔτε τάξιν οὔτε σύνδεσμον οὔτʼ ἄλλο τῶν ἐλλιπῶν μορίων οὐδὲν οἶμαι τὸ γράμμα σημαίνειν· ἀλλʼ ἔστιν αὐτοτελὴς τοῦ θεοῦ προσαγόρευσις καὶ προσφώνησις, ἅμα τῷ ῥήματι τὸν φθεγγόμενον εἰς ἔννοιαν καθιστᾶσα τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ δυνάμεως.
Therefore, I do not think the letter signifies a number or order or conjunction or any other of the deficient parts; but it is an independent address and salutation of the god, which, simultaneously with the utterance, brings the speaker to a conception of the god's power.
ὁ μὲν γὰρ θεὸς ἕκαστον ἡμῶν ἐνταῦθα προσιόντα οἷον ἀσπαζόμενος προσαγορεύει τὸ
γνῶθι σαυτόν,
ὃ δὴ τοῦ χαῖρε οὐδὲν μεῖόν ἐστιν.
For the god, as it were welcoming each of us who approaches here, addresses us with 'Know thyself', which is indeed nothing less than 'Hail'.
ἡμεῖς δὲ πάλιν ἀμειβόμενοι τὸν θεὸν
εἶ
φαμέν, ὡς ἀληθῆ καὶ ἀψευδῆ καὶ μόνην μόνῳ προσήκουσαν τὴν τοῦ εἶναι προσαγόρευσιν ἀποδιδόντες.
And we in turn, answering the god, say 'Thou art', paying back to him the address of being as true, without falsehood, and belonging to him alone.
§18Ἡμῖν μὲν γὰρ ὄντως τοῦ εἶναι μέτεστιν οὐδέν, ἀλλὰ πᾶσα θνητὴ φύσις ἐν μέσῳ γενέσεως καὶ φθορᾶς γενομένη φάσμα παρέχει καὶ δόκησιν ἀμυδρὰν καὶ ἀβέβαιον αὑτῆς· ἂν δὲ τὴν διάνοιαν ἐπερείσῃς λαβέσθαι βουλόμενος, ὥσπερ ἡ σφοδρὰ περίδραξις ὕδατος τῷ πιέζειν εἰς ταὐτὸ καὶ συνάγειν διαρρέον ἀπόλλυσι τὸ περιλαμβανόμενον, οὕτω τῶν παθητῶν καὶ μεταβλητῶν ἑκάστου τὴν ἄγαν ἐνάργειαν ὁ λόγος διώκων ἀποσφάλλεται τῇ μὲν εἰς τὸ γιγνόμενον αὐτοῦ τῇ δʼ εἰς τὸ φθειρόμενον, οὐδενὸς λαβέσθαι μένοντος οὐδʼ ὄντος ὄντως δυνάμενος.
For we in truth have no share in being, but every mortal nature, being in the midst of generation and corruption, presents a phantom and an obscure and unstable opinion of itself; and if you strain your mind wishing to grasp it, just as a tight grasping of water, by pressing together and drawing it to the same spot, ruins the embraced substance because it flows away, so the reason, pursuing the excessive clarity of each of the passive and changeable things, is frustrated, on one side by its becoming, on the other by its perishing, being unable to grasp anything that remains or really is.
ποταμῷ γὰρ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐμβῆναι δὶς τῷ αὐτῷ καθʼ
Ἡράκλειτον οὐδὲ θνητῆς οὐσίας δὶς ἅψασθαι κατὰ ἕξιν ἀλλʼ ὀξύτητι καὶ τάχει μεταβολῆς
σκίδνησι καὶ πάλιν συνάγει,
μᾶλλον δʼ οὐδὲ πάλιν οὐδʼ ὕστερον ἀλλʼ ἅμα συνίσταται καὶ ἀπολείπει καὶ
πρόσεισι καὶ ἄπεισι,
ὅθεν οὐδʼ εἰς τὸ εἶναι περαίνει τὸ γιγνόμενον αὐτῆς τῷ μηδέποτε λήγειν μηδʼ ἵστασθαι τὴν γένεσιν, ἀλλʼ ἀπὸ σπέρματος ἀεὶ μεταβάλλουσαν ἔμβρυον ποιεῖν εἶτα βρέφος εἶτα παῖδα, μειράκιον ἐφεξῆς, νεανίσκον, εἶτʼ ἄνδρα, πρεσβύτην, γέροντα, τὰς πρώτας φθείρουσαν γενέσεις καὶ ἡλικίας; ταῖς ἐπιγιγνομέναις.
For 'it is not possible to step twice into the same river', according to Heraclitus, nor to touch mortal substance twice in the same state, but by the sharpness and speed of change, it scatters and gathers again, or rather, not again nor later, but at the same time it constitutes and fails, and approaches and departs; whence its becoming does not even progress into being, because the generation never ceases nor stands still, but changing always from seed, makes an embryo, then a babe, then a child, next a lad, a youth, then a man, an elder, an old man, destroying the former generations and ages by those that succeed them.
ἀλλʼ ἡμεῖς ἕνα φοβούμεθα γελοίως θάνατον, ἢδη τοσούτους τεθνηκότες καὶ θνήσκοντες.
But we ridiculously fear one death, having already died so many deaths and still dying.
οὐ γὰρ μόνον, ὡς Ἡράκλειτος ἔλεγε,
πυρὸς θάνατος ἀέρι γένεσις, καὶ ἀέρος θάνατος; ὕδατι γένεσις,
ἀλλʼ ἔτι σαφέστερον ἐπʼ αὐτῶν ἡμῶν· φθείρεται μὲν μὲν γὰρ ὁ ἀκμάζων γενομένου γέροντος, ἐφθάρη δʼ ὁ νέος εἰς τὸν ἀκμάζοντα, καὶ ὁ παῖς; εἰς τὸν νέον, εἰς δὲ τὸν παῖδα τὸ νήπιον ὃ τʼ ἐχθὲς εἰς τὸν σήμερον τέθνηκεν, ὁ δὲ σήμερον εἰς τὸν αὔριον ἀποθνήσκει; μένει δʼ οὐδεὶς οὐδʼ ἔστιν εἷς, ἀλλὰ γιγνόμεθα πολλοὶ, περὶ ἕν τι φάντασμα καὶ κοινὸν ἐκμαγεῖον ὕλης περιελαυνομένης καὶ ὀλισθανούσης ἐπεὶ πῶς οἱ αὐτοὶ μένοντες ἑτέροις χαίρομεν νῦν, ἑτέροις πρότερον, τἀναντία φιλοῦμεν ἢ μισοῦμεν καὶ θαυμάζομεν καὶ ψέγομεν;
For not only, as Heraclitus said, is 'the death of fire the birth of air, and the death of air the birth of water', but still more clearly in our own case: for the man in his prime is destroyed when the old man comes to be, and the youth was destroyed into the man in his prime, and the child into the youth, and the infant into the child; and he of yesterday has died into him of today, and he of today is dying into him of tomorrow; and no one remains, nor is one, but we become many, around a single phantom and common mold of matter which is wheeled around and slipping away; since, how is it that if we remain the same we now rejoice in some things and formerly in others, and love or hate opposite things, and admire and blame?
ἄλλοις δὲ χρώμεθα λόγοις ἄλλοις πάθεσιν, οὐκ εἶδος οὐ μορφὴν οὐ διάνοιαν ἔτι τὴν αὐτὴν ἔχοντες;
And use other words and other passions, no longer having the same appearance, shape, or mind?
οὔτε γὰρ ἄνευ μεταβολῆς ἕτερα πάσχειν. εἰκός, οὔτε μεταβάλλων ὁ αὐτός ἐστιν· εἰ δʼ ὁ αὐτὸς οὐκ ἔστιν, οὐδʼ ἔστιν, ἀλλὰ τοῦτʼ αὐτὸ μεταβάλλει γιγνόμενοσἕτερος ἐξ ἑτέρου.
For neither is it probable that one experiences different things without change, nor is he who changes the same; and if he is not the same, he does not even exist, but this very thing changes, becoming one after another.
ψεύδεται δʼ ἡ αἴσθησις ἀγνοίᾳ τοῦ ὄντος εἶναι τὸ φαινόμενον.
And sensation lies, through ignorance of what is, in thinking that the appearance exists."