§1ὁ περὶ τῆς ἑν τῷ Τιμαίῳ ψυχογονίας ἐπιγεγραμμένος λόγος, ὅσα Πλάτωνι καὶ τοῖς Πλατωνικοῖς πεφιλοτίμηται, ἀπαγγέλλει·
The discourse entitled "On the Generation of the Soul in the Timaeus" reports all that has been eagerly pursued by Plato and the Platonists.
εἰσάγει δὲ καὶ γεωμετρικάς τινας ἀναλογίας καὶ ὁμοιότητας, πρὸς τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς ὡς οἴεται θεωρίαν συντεινούσας αὐτῷ, καὶ δὴ καὶ μουσικὰ καὶ ἀριθμητικὰ θεωρήματα.
It also introduces certain geometrical proportions and similarities, which, as he himself believes, contribute for him to the contemplation of the soul, and indeed musical and arithmetical theorems as well.
§2λέγει δὲ τὴν ὕλην διαμορφωθῆναι ὑπὸ τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ δίδωσι μὲν τῷ παντὶ ψυχήν, δίδωσι δὲ καὶ ἑκάστῳ ζῴῳ τὴν διοικοῦσαν αὐτό, καὶ πῆ μὲν ἀγένητον εἰσάγει ταύτην πῆ δὲ γενέσει δουλεύουσαν ἀίδιον δὲ τὴν ὕλην καὶ ὑπὸ τοῦ θείου διὰ τῆς ψυχῆς μορφωθῆναι· καὶ τὴν κακίαν δὲ βλάστημα τῆς ὕλης γεγονέναι, ἵνα μή, φησί, τὸ θεῖον αἴτιον τῶν κακῶν νομισθείη.
And he says that matter was shaped by the soul, and he gives a soul to the universe, and also gives to each living being the soul that governs it; and in one way he introduces this soul as ungenerated, and in another way as subject to generation, and matter as eternal and shaped by the divine through the soul; and he says that evil has come into being as an offshoot of matter, so that, as he says, the divine might not be thought to be the cause of evils.
§3ὅτι οἱ περὶ τὸν Ποσειδώνιον οὐ μακρὰν τῆς ὕλης ἀπέστησαν τὴν ψυχήν, ἀλλὰ δεξάμενοι τὴν τῶν περάτων οὐσίαν περὶ τὰ σώματα λέγεσθαι επιτομε λιβρι μεριστὴν καὶ ταῦτα τῷ νοητῷ μίξαντες ἀπεφήναντο τὴν ψυχὴν ἰδέαν εἶναι τοῦ πάντῃ διαστατοῦ κατʼ ἀριθμὸν συνεστῶσαν ἁρμονίαν περιέχοντα·
Posidonius and his followers did not place the soul far from matter, but accepting the substance of the limits spoken of in connection with bodies as "the epitome of the book, divisible," and mixing these with the intelligible, they declared that the soul is the idea of that which is extended in all directions, consisting according to a number containing harmony.
τά τε γὰρ μαθηματικὰ τῶν πρώτων νοητῶν μεταξὺ καὶ τῶν αἰσθητῶν τετάχθαι· τῆς τε ψυχῆς τῷ νοητῷ τὸ ἀίδιον καὶ τῷ αἰσθητικῷ τὸ παθητικὸν ἐχούσης, προσῆκον ἐν μέσῳ τὴν οὐσίαν ὑπάρχειν.
For mathematical entities are placed between the primary intelligible things and the sensible things; and since the soul has eternity through the intelligible and passivity through the sensory, its substance fittingly exists in the middle.
ἔλαθε γὰρ καὶ τούτους ὁ θεὸς τοῖς τῶν σωμάτων πέρασιν ὕστερον, ἀπειργασμένης ἤδη τῆς ψυχῆς, χρώμενος ἐπὶ τὴν τῆς ὕλης διαμόρφωσιν, τὸ σκεδαστὸν αὐτῆς καὶ ἀσύνδετον ὁρίζων καὶ περιλαμβάνων ταῖς ἐκ τῶν τριγώνων συναρμοττομένων ἐπιφανείαις.
For it escaped their notice too that God later, when the soul had already been completed, used the limits of bodies for the shaping of matter, defining and encompassing its scattered and disconnected nature with surfaces fitted together from triangles.
ἀτοπώτερον δὲ τὸ τὴν ψυχὴν ἰδέαν ποιεῖν· ἡ μὲν γὰρ ἀεικίνητος ἡ δʼ ἀκίνητος, καὶ ἡ μὲν ἀμιγὴς πρὸς τὸ αἰσθητὸν ἡ δὲ τῷ σώματι συνειργμένη·
But it is more absurd to make the soul an idea; for the one is always in motion, while the other is motionless, and the one is unmixed with the sensible, while the other is bound up with the body.
πρὸς δὲ τούτοις ὁ θεὸς τῆς μὲν ἰδέας ὡς παραδείγματος γέγονε μιμητής, τῆς δὲ ψυχῆς ὥσπερ ἀποτελέσματος δημιουργός.
Moreover, God has become an imitator of the idea as a model, but a craftsman of the soul as a product.
ὅτι δʼ οὐδʼ ἀριθμὸν ὁ Πλάτων τὴν οὐσίαν τίθεται τῆς ψυχῆς ἀλλὰ ταττομένην ὑπʼ ἀριθμοῦ, προείρηται.
And that Plato does not posit the substance of the soul to be a number, but to be ordered by number, has been said before.
§4πρὸς δʼ ἀμφοτέροις τούτοις κοινόν ἐστι τὸ μήτε τοῖς πέρασι μήτε τοῖς ἀριθμοῖς μηθὲν ἴχνος ἐνυπάρχειν ἐκείνης τῆς δυνάμεως, ᾗ τὸ αἰσθητὸν ἡ ψυχὴ πέφυκε κρίνειν.
Common to both of these views is the fact that neither in the limits nor in the numbers is there any trace of that power by which the soul is naturally fitted to judge the sensible.
νοῦν μὲν γὰρ αὐτῇ καὶ νοητικὸν ἡ τῆς νοητῆς μέθεξις ἀρχῆς; ἐμπεποίηκε, δόξας δὲ καὶ πίστεις καὶ τὸ φανταστικὸν καὶ τὸ παθητικὸν ὑπὸ τῶν περὶ τὸ σῶμα ποιοτήτων, ὃ οὐκ ἄν τις ἐκ μονάδων οὐδὲ γραμμῶν οὐδʼ ἐπιφανειῶν ἁπλῶς νοήσειεν ἐγγινόμενον.
For participation in the intelligible principle has produced intellect and intellectual power in it, whereas opinions, beliefs, imagination, and passivity are produced by the qualities associated with the body, which one could not conceive of as arising simply from monads, lines, or surfaces.
καὶ μὴν οὐ μόνον αἱ τῶν θνητῶν ψυχαὶ γνωστικὴν τοῦ αἰσθητοῦ δύναμιν ἔχουσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ
τὴν τοῦ κόσμου
φησὶν
ἀνακυκλουμένην αὐτὴν πρὸς ἑαυτήν, ὅταν οὐσίαν σκεδαστὴν ἔχοντός τινος ἐφάπτηται καὶ ὅταν ἀμέριστον, λέγειν κινουμένην διὰ πάσης ἑαυτῆς, ὅτῳ ἄν τι ταὐτὸν καὶ ὅτου ἂν ἕτερον, πρὸς ὅτι τε μάλιστα καὶ ὅπη καὶ ὅπως συμβαίνει, καὶ τὰ γιγνόμενα πρὸς ἕκαστον ἕκαστα εἶναι καὶ πάσχειν.
And indeed, it is not only the souls of mortals that have a cognitive power of the sensible, but he says that the soul of the cosmos as well, turning back upon itself, whenever it touches something having a scattered substance and whenever it touches an indivisible one, says, moving through the whole of itself, with what anything is identical and from what it is different, and in relation to what especially, and where and how it happens, and that each of the things that come into being is and suffers in relation to each.
ἐν τούτοις ἅμα καὶ τῶν δέκα κατηγοριῶν ποιούμενος ὑπογραφὴν ἔτι μᾶλλον τοῖς ἐφεξῆς διασαφεῖ.
In these words, he simultaneously outlines the ten categories and clarifies them even more in what follows.
λόγος γάρ
φησιν
ἀληθής, ὅταν μὲν περὶ τὸ αἰσθητὸν γίγνηται καὶ ὁ τοῦ θατέρου κύκλος ὀρθὸς ἰὼν εἰς πᾶσαν αὐτοῦ τὴν ψυχὴν διαγγείλῃ, δόξαι καὶ πίστεις γίγνονται βέβαιοι καὶ ἀληθεῖς· ὅταν δʼ αὖ πάλιν περὶ τὸ λογιστικὸν καὶ ὁ τοῦ ταὐτοῦ κύκλος εὔτροχος ὢν αὐτὰ μηνύσῃ, ἐπιστήμη ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἀποτελεῖται.
For a true discourse, he says, when it concerns the sensible, and the circle of the Other, running straight, announces it to all its soul, firm and true opinions and beliefs arise; but when, on the other hand, it concerns the rational, and the circle of the Same, running smoothly, declares these things, science is of necessity completed.
τούτω δὲ ἐν ᾧ τῶν ὄντων ἐγγίγνεσθον, ἐάν, ποτέ τις αὐτὸ ἄλλο πλὴν ψυχὴν προσείπῃ, πᾶν μᾶλλον ἢ τὸ ἀληθὲς; ἐρεῖ.
And if anyone should ever call that in which of existing things these two arise anything other than a soul, he will say everything rather than the truth.
πόθεν οὖν ἔσχεν ἡ ψυχὴ τὴν ἀντιληπτικὴν τοῦ αἰσθητοῦ καὶ δοξαστικὴν ταύτην κίνησιν, ἑτέραν τῆς νοητικῆς ἐκείνης καὶ τελευτώσης εἰς ἐπιστήμην, ἔργον εἰπεῖν, μὴ θεμένους; βεβαίως ὅτι νῦν οὐχ ἁπλῶς ψυχὴν ἀλλὰ κόσμου ψυχὴν συνίστησιν ἐξ ὑποκειμένης τῆς τε κρείττονος οὐσίας καὶ ἀμερίστου καὶ τῆς χείρονος, ἣν περὶ τὰ σώματα μεριστὴν κέκληκεν, οὐχ ἑτέραν οὖσαν ἢ τὴν δοξαστικὴν καὶ φανταστικὴν καὶ συμπαθῆ τῶν αἰσθητῶν κίνησιν, οὐ γενομένην ἀλλʼ ὑφεστῶσαν ἀίδιον, ὥσπερ ἡ ἑτέρα.
From where, then, did the soul get this receptive of the sensible and opinionative motion, which is different from that intellectual motion that ends in science, is hard to say, unless we firmly assume that he is now establishing not simply a soul but the soul of the cosmos from the underlying better and indivisible substance, and the worse substance, which he has called divisible about bodies, being no other than the opinionative, imaginative, and sympathetic motion toward the sensible, not having come into being but pre-existing as eternal, just as the other.
τὸ γὰρ νοερὸν ἡ φύσις ἔχουσα καὶ τὸ δοξαστικὸν εἶχεν· ἀλλʼ ἐκεῖνο μὲν ἀκίνητον καὶ ἀπαθὲς καὶ περὶ τὴν ἀεὶ μένουσαν ἱδρυμένον οὐσίαν· τοῦτο δὲ μεριστὸν καὶ πλανητόν, ἅτε δὴ φερομένης καὶ σκεδαννυμένης ἐφαπτόμενον ὕλης.
For having the intellectual part, its nature also had the opinionative; but the former is motionless, impassive, and established about the substance that always remains, while the latter is divisible and wandering, since indeed it touches matter that is borne along and scattered.
οὔτε γὰρ τὸ αἰσθητὸν εἰλήχει τάξεως ἀλλʼ ἦν ἄμορφον καὶ ἀόριστον, ἥ τε περὶ τοῦτο τεταγμένη δύναμις οὔτε δόξας ἐνάρθρους οὔτε κινήσεις ἁπάσας εἶχε τεταγμένας, ἀλλὰ τὰς πολλὰς ἐνυπνιώδεις καὶ παραφόρους καὶ ταραττούσας τὸ σωματοειδές, ὅσα μὴ κατὰ τύχην τῷ βελτίονι περιέπιπτεν ἐν μέσῳ γὰρ ἦν ἀμφοῖν καὶ πρὸς ἀμφότερα συμπαθῆ καὶ συγγενῆ φύσιν εἶχε, τῷ μὲν αἰσθητικῷ τῆς ὕλης ἀντεχομένη τῷ δὲ κριτικῷ τῶν νοητῶν.
For neither had the sensible received order, but it was formless and indefinite, nor did the power appointed over this have articulate opinions or all its motions ordered, but mostly dreamlike, wandering, and disturbing the bodily nature, except what by chance fell in with the better part; for it was in the middle of both and had a nature sympathetic and kindred to both, clinging on the one hand to the sensory aspect of matter and on the other hand to the critical aspect of the intelligibles.