§5οὕτω δέ πως καὶ Πλάτων διασαφεῖ τοῖς ὀνόμασιν·
Plato also clarifies this in some way by his words.
οὗτος γάρ
φησι
παρὰ τῆς ἐμῆς ψήφου λογισθεὶς ἐν κεφαλαίῳ δεδόσθω λόγος, ὄν τε καὶ χώραν καὶ γένεσιν εἶναι τρία τριχῆ καὶ πρὶν οὐρανὸν γενέσθαι. χώραν τε γὰρ καλεῖ τὴν ὕλην ὥσπερ ἕδραν ἔστιν ὅτε καὶ ὑποδοχήν, ὂν δὲ τὸ νοητόν, γένεσιν δὲ τοῦ κόσμου μήπω γεγονότος οὐδεμίαν ἄλλην ἢ τὴν ἐν μεταβολαῖς καὶ κινήσεσιν οὐσίαν, τοῦ τυποῦντος καὶ τοῦ τυπουμένου μεταξὺ τεταγμένην, διαδιδοῦσαν ἐνταῦθα τὰς ἐκεῖθεν εἰκόνας.
For he says: "Let this discourse, calculated according to my vote, be given in summary: that Being, Space, and Generation existed as three things in three ways even before the heaven came into being." For he calls matter "Space", as sometimes "seat" and "receptacle", and Being the intelligible, and as for "Generation" of the cosmos not yet brought into being, he calls it no other than the substance in changes and motions, which is placed between the shaping agent and the shaped, distributing here the images from there.
διά τε δὴ ταῦτα μεριστὴ προσηγορεύθη καὶ ὅτι τῷ αἰσθητῷ τὸ αἰσθανόμενον καὶ τῷ φανταστῷ τὸ φανταζόμενον ἀνάγκη συνδιανέμεσθαι καὶ συμπαρήκειν ἡ γὰρ αἰσθητικὴ κίνησις ἰδία ψυχῆς οὖσα κινεῖται πρὸς τὸ αἰσθητὸν ἐκτός·
And indeed for these reasons it was called "divisible", and because it is necessary that that which perceives be distributed with and accompany that which is perceived, and that which imagines with that which is imagined. For the sensory motion, being proper to the soul, moves toward the external sensible object.
ὁ δὲ νοῦς αὐτὸς μὲν ἐφʼ ἑαυτοῦ μόνιμος ἦν καὶ ἀκίνητος, ἐγγενόμενος δὲ τῇ ψυχῇ καὶ κρατήσας εἰς ἑαυτὸν ἐπιστρέφει καὶ συμπεραίνει τὴν ἐγκύκλιον φοράν, περὶ τὸ μένον ἀεὶ μάλιστα ψαύουσαν τοῦ ὄντος.
But the intellect itself by itself was stable and motionless, yet having come into being in the soul and having prevailed, it turns the soul back to itself and completes the circular motion, which, about that which always remains, touches Being in the highest degree.
διὸ καὶ δυσανάκρατος ἡ κοινωνία γέγονεν αὐτῶν, τῷ ἀμερίστῳ τὸ μεριστὸν καὶ τῷ μηδαμῇ κινητῷ τὸ πάντῃ φορητὸν μιγνύουσα καὶ καταβιαζομένη θάτερον εἰς ταὐτὸν συνελθεῖν.
Therefore, their association has also become difficult to mix, blending the divisible with the indivisible and that which is in no way movable with that which is carried in all directions, and forcing the other to come together with the same.
ἦν δὲ τὸ θάτερον οὐ κίνησις ὥσπερ οὐδὲ ταὐτὸν στάσις, ἀλλʼ ἀρχὴ διαφορᾶς καὶ ἀνομοιότητος.
But the "other" was not motion, just as "same" was not rest, but the principle of difference and dissimilarity.
ἑκάτερον γὰρ ἀπὸ τῆς ἑτέρας ἀρχῆς κάτεισι, τὸ μὲν ταὐτὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ ἑνὸς τὸ δὲ θάτερον ἀπὸ τῆς δυάδος καὶ μέμικται πρῶτον ἐνταῦθα περὶ τὴν ψυχήν, ἀριθμοῖς καὶ λόγοις συνδεθέντα καὶ μεσότησιν ἐναρμονίοις, καὶ ποιεῖ θάτερον ἐγγενόμενον τῷ ταὐτῷ διαφοράν, τὸ δὲ ταὐτὸν ἐν τῷ ἑτέρῳ τάξιν, ὡς δῆλόν ἐστιν ἐν ταῖς πρώταις τῆς ψυχῆς δυνάμεσιν εἰσὶ δʼ αὗται τὸ κριτικὸν καὶ τὸ κινητικόν.
For each comes down from the other principle, the same from the One, and the other from the Dyad; and it was first mixed here about the soul, bound together by numbers, ratios, and harmonious means, and the "other" coming into being in the "same" produces difference, while the "same" in the "other" produces order, as is clear in the first powers of the soul; and these are the critical and the motive.
ἡ μὲν οὖν κίνησις εὐθὺς ἐπιδείκνυται περὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐν μὲν τῇ ταὐτότητι τὴν ἑτερότητα τῇ περιφορᾷ τῶν ἀπλανῶν, ἐν δὲ τῇ ἑτερότητι τὴν ταὐτότητα τῇ τάξει τῶν πλανήτων· ἐπικρατεῖ γὰρ ἐν ἐκείνοις τὸ ταὐτόν, ἐν δὲ τοῖς περὶ γῆν τοὐναντίον.
On the one hand, then, motion is immediately displayed about the heaven, in sameness showing otherness by the revolution of the fixed stars, and in otherness showing sameness by the order of the planets; for in those the same prevails, but in the things about the earth, the contrary.
ἡ δὲ κρίσις ἀρχὰς μὲν ἔχει δύο, τόν τε νοῦν ἀπὸ τοῦ ταὐτοῦ πρὸς τὰ καθόλου καὶ τὴν αἴσθησιν ἀπὸ τοῦ ἑτέρου πρὸς τὰ καθʼ ἕκαστα.
On the other hand, judgment has two principles: intellect from the same toward the universals, and sensation from the other toward the particulars.
μέμικται δὲ λόγος ἐξ ἀμφοῖν, νόησις ἐν τοῖς νοητοῖς καὶ δόξα γινόμενος ἐν τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς· ὀργάνοις τε μεταξὺ φαντασίαις τε καὶ μνήμαις χρώμενος, ὧν τὰ μὲν ἐν τῷ ταὐτῷ τὸ ἕτερον τὰ δʼ ἐν τῷ ἑτέρῳ ποιεῖ τὸ ταὐτόν.
And a discourse is mixed from both, becoming intellection in the intelligibles and opinion in the sensibles; and using as intermediate instruments both imaginations and memories, of which some produce the other in the same, and others produce the same in the other.
ἔστι γὰρ ἡ μὲν νόησις κίνησις τοῦ νοοῦντος; περὶ τὸ μένον, ἡ δὲ δόξα μονὴ τοῦ αἰσθανομένου περὶ τὸ κινούμενον· φαντασίαν δὲ συμπλοκὴν δόξης πρὸς αἴσθησιν οὖσαν ἵστησιν ἐν μνήμῃ τὸ ταὐτόν· τὸ δὲ θάτερον κινεῖ πάλιν ἐν διαφορᾷ τοῦ πρόσθεν καὶ νῦν, ἑτερότητος ἅμα καὶ ταὐτότητος ἐφαπτόμενον.
For intellection is the motion of the thinker about that which remains, while opinion is the rest of the perceiver about that which is moved; and the same establishes imagination, which is a combination of opinion with sensation, in memory; while the other moves it again in the difference between the before and now, touching both otherness and sameness at once.
§6δεῖ δὲ τὴν περὶ τὸ σῶμα τοῦ κόσμου γενομένην σύντηξιν εἰκόνα λαβεῖν τῆς ἀναλογίας; ἐν διηρμόσατο τὴν ψυχήν.
And one must take the fusion that occurred about the body of the cosmos as an image of the proportion in which he harmonized the soul.
ἐκεῖ μὲν γὰρ ἦν ἄκρα τὸ πῦρ καὶ ἡ γῆ, χαλεπὴν πρὸς ἄλληλα κραθῆναι φύσιν ἔχοντα, μᾶλλον δʼ ὅλως ἄκρατον καὶ ἀσύστατον· ὅθεν ἐν μέσῳ θέμενος αὐτῶν τὸν μὲν ἀέρα πρὸ τοῦ πυρὸς τὸ δʼ ὕδωρ πρὸ τῆς γῆς, ταῦτα πρῶτον ἀλλήλοις ἐκέρασεν εἶτα διὰ τούτων ἐκεῖνα πρός τε ταῦτα καὶ ἄλληλα συνέμιξε καὶ συνήρμοσεν.
For there, fire and earth were the extremes, having a nature difficult to blend with each other, or rather altogether unblended and unstable; whence placing in the middle of them air before fire, and water before earth, he first blended these with one another, and then through these he mixed and harmonized those extremes with these and with one another.
ἐνταῦθα δὲ πάλιν τὸ ταὐτὸν καὶ τὸ θάτερον, ἐναντίας δυνάμεις καὶ ἀκρότητας ἀντιπάλους, συνήγαγεν οὐ διʼ αὑτῶν, ἀλλʼ οὐσίας ἑτέρας μεταξύ, τὴν μὲν ἀμέριστον πρὸ τοῦ ταὐτοῦ, πρὸ δὲ τοῦ θατέρου τὴν μεριστήν, ἔστιν προσήκουσαν ἑκατέραν ἑκατέρᾳ τάξας, εἶτα μιχθείσαις ἐκείναις ἐπεγκεραννύμενος, οὕτω τὸ πᾶν συνύφηνε τῆς ψυχῆς εἶδος, ὡς· ἦν ἀνυστόν, ἐκ διαφόρων ὅμοιον ἔκ τε πολλῶν ἓν ἀπεργασάμενος.
Here again, he brought together the same and the other, opposite powers and rival extremes, not through themselves, but through another intermediate substance, placing the indivisible before the same, and the divisible before the other, arranging each as appropriate to each; then, further mixing these into those that had been blended, he thus wove together the entire form of the soul, finishing it as far as was possible, making a likeness out of different things and one out of many.