§245ΞΕ. ἀλλὰ μὴν τό γε μεμερισμένον πάθος μὲν τοῦ ἑνὸς ἔχειν ἐπὶ τοῖς μέρεσι πᾶσιν οὐδὲν ἀποκωλύει, καὶ ταύτῃ δὴ πᾶν τε ὂν καὶ ὅλον ἓν εἶναι.
STR. But indeed, nothing prevents that which is divided from having the property of the one in all its parts, and in this way being both all and whole, and thus being one.
ΘΕΑΙ. τί δʼ οὔ;
THEAE. Why not?
ΞΕ. τὸ δὲ πεπονθὸς ταῦτα ἆρʼ οὐκ ἀδύνατον αὐτό γε τὸ ἓν αὐτὸ εἶναι;
STR. But is it not impossible for that which has undergone these things to be the one itself?
ΘΕΑΙ. πῶς;
THEAE. How so?
ΞΕ. ἀμερὲς δήπου δεῖ παντελῶς τό γε ἀληθῶς ἓν κατὰ τὸν ὀρθὸν λόγον εἰρῆσθαι.
STR. Surely that which is truly one must, according to correct reason, be said to be entirely without parts.
ΘΕΑΙ. δεῖ γὰρ οὖν.
THEAE. Yes, indeed.
ΞΕ. τὸ δέ γε τοιοῦτον ἐκ πολλῶν μερῶν ὂν οὐ συμφωνήσει τῷ λόγῳ.
STR. But such a thing, being made of many parts, will not harmonize with that reason.
ΘΕΑΙ. μανθάνω.
THEAE. I understand.
ΞΕ. πότερον δὴ πάθος ἔχον τὸ ὂν τοῦ ἑνὸς οὕτως ἕν τε ἔσται καὶ ὅλον, ἢ παντάπασι μὴ λέγωμεν ὅλον εἶναι τὸ ὄν;
STR. Should we then say that being, by having the property of the one, is in this way both one and whole, or should we not say at all that being is whole?
ΘΕΑΙ. χαλεπὴν προβέβληκας αἵρεσιν.
THEAE. You have proposed a difficult choice.
ΞΕ. ἀληθέστατα μέντοι λέγεις.
STR. You speak most truly.
πεπονθός τε γὰρ τὸ ὂν ἓν εἶναί πως οὐ ταὐτὸν ὂν τῷ ἑνὶ φανεῖται, καὶ πλέονα δὴ τὰ πάντα ἑνὸς ἔσται.
For if being has undergone being one in some way, it will appear not to be identical with the one, and so all things will be more than one.
ΘΕΑΙ. ναί.
THEAE. Yes.
ΞΕ. καὶ μὴν ἐάν γε τὸ ὂν ᾖ μὴ ὅλον διὰ τὸ πεπονθέναι τὸ ὑπʼ ἐκείνου πάθος, ᾖ δὲ αὐτὸ τὸ ὅλον, ἐνδεὲς τὸ ὂν ἑαυτοῦ συμβαίνει.
STR. And furthermore, if being is not a whole because of having undergone that property from it, but the whole itself exists, it turns out that being is deficient in itself.
ΘΕΑΙ. πάνυ γε.
THEAE. Quite so.
ΞΕ. καὶ κατὰ τοῦτον δὴ τὸν λόγον ἑαυτοῦ στερόμενον οὐκ ὂν ἔσται τὸ ὄν.
STR. And according to this argument, being, deprived of itself, will be not-being.
ΘΕΑΙ. οὕτως.
THEAE. That is so.
ΞΕ. καὶ ἑνός γε αὖ πλείω τὰ πάντα γίγνεται, τοῦ τε ὄντος καὶ τοῦ ὅλου χωρὶς ἰδίαν ἑκατέρου φύσιν εἰληφότος.
STR. And again, all things become more than one, since being and the whole have each taken on a private nature of their own apart from each other.
ΘΕΑΙ. ναί.
THEAE. Yes.
ΞΕ. μὴ ὄντος δέ γε τὸ παράπαν τοῦ ὅλου, ταὐτά τε ταῦτα ὑπάρχει τῷ ὄντι, καὶ πρὸς τῷ μὴ εἶναι μηδʼ ἂν γενέσθαι ποτὲ ὄν.
STR. But if the whole does not exist at all, these same things apply to being, and in addition to not being, it could never even become being.
ΘΕΑΙ. τί δή;
THEAE. Why is that?
ΞΕ. τὸ γενόμενον ἀεὶ γέγονεν ὅλον· ὥστε οὔτε οὐσίαν οὔτε γένεσιν ὡς οὖσαν δεῖ προσαγορεύειν τὸ ὅλον ἐν τοῖς οὖσι μὴ τιθέντα.
STR. Because that which has come to be always comes to be as a whole; so that one who does not place the whole among things that are, must not speak of either reality or becoming as being.
ΘΕΑΙ. παντάπασιν ἔοικε ταῦθʼ οὕτως ἔχειν.
THEAE. That seems entirely to be the case.
ΞΕ. καὶ μὴν οὐδʼ ὁποσονοῦν τι δεῖ τὸ μὴ ὅλον εἶναι· ποσόν τι γὰρ ὄν, ὁπόσον ἂν ᾖ, τοσοῦτον ὅλον ἀναγκαῖον αὐτὸ εἶναι.
STR. And furthermore, that which is not a whole must not be of any quantity at all; for being of some quantity, whatever that quantity may be, it must necessarily be a whole of that quantity.
ΘΕΑΙ. κομιδῇ γε.
THEAE. Exactly.
ΞΕ. καὶ τοίνυν ἄλλα μυρία ἀπεράντους ἀπορίας ἕκαστον εἰληφὸς φανεῖται τῷ τὸ ὂν εἴτε δύο τινὲ εἴτε ἓν μόνον εἶναι λέγοντι.
STR. And so, ten thousand other things, each containing endless difficulties, will appear to anyone who says that being is either some two things or only one.
ΘΕΑΙ. δηλοῖ σχεδὸν καὶ τὰ νῦν ὑποφαίνοντα· συνάπτεται γὰρ ἕτερον ἐξ ἄλλου, μείζω καὶ χαλεπωτέραν φέρον περὶ τῶν ἔμπροσθεν ἀεὶ ῥηθέντων πλάνην.
THEAE. That is shown pretty clearly even by what is now appearing; for one thing links to another, bringing ever greater and more difficult wandering concerning what was said before.
§246ΞΕ. τοὺς μὲν τοίνυν διακριβολογουμένους ὄντος τε πέρι καὶ μή, πάντας μὲν οὐ διεληλύθαμεν, ὅμως δὲ ἱκανῶς ἐχέτω·
STR. Well then, we have not gone through all those who treat of being and not-being with precision, but nevertheless let that suffice.
τοὺς δὲ ἄλλως λέγοντας αὖ θεατέον, ἵνʼ ἐκ πάντων ἴδωμεν ὅτι τὸ ὂν τοῦ μὴ ὄντος οὐδὲν εὐπορώτερον εἰπεῖν ὅτι ποτʼ ἔστιν.
And now we must look in turn at those who speak differently, so that from all of them we may see that it is no easier to say what being is than what not-being is.
ΘΕΑΙ. οὐκοῦν πορεύεσθαι χρὴ καὶ ἐπὶ τούτους.
THEAE. So we must proceed to them as well.
ΞΕ. καὶ μὴν ἔοικέ γε ἐν αὐτοῖς οἷον γιγαντομαχία τις εἶναι διὰ τὴν ἀμφισβήτησιν περὶ τῆς οὐσίας πρὸς ἀλλήλους.
STR. Indeed, there seems to be a kind of battle of the giants among them, because of their dispute with one another about reality.
ΘΕΑΙ. πῶς;
THEAE. How so?
ΞΕ. οἱ μὲν εἰς γῆν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἀοράτου πάντα ἕλκουσι, ταῖς χερσὶν ἀτεχνῶς πέτρας καὶ δρῦς περιλαμβάνοντες.
STR. Some drag down all things from heaven and the unseen to earth, literally grasping rocks and oaks in their hands.
τῶν γὰρ τοιούτων ἐφαπτόμενοι πάντων διισχυρίζονται τοῦτο εἶναι μόνον ὃ παρέχει προσβολὴν καὶ ἐπαφήν τινα, ταὐτὸν σῶμα καὶ οὐσίαν ὁριζόμενοι, τῶν δὲ ἄλλων εἴ τίς τι φήσει μὴ σῶμα ἔχον εἶναι, καταφρονοῦντες τὸ παράπαν καὶ οὐδὲν ἐθέλοντες ἄλλο ἀκούειν.
For by touching all such things they insist that that alone is which provides some resistance and contact, defining body and reality as the same, and if anyone says that something else of the other things is without having a body, they utterly despise him and refuse to hear anything else.
ΘΕΑΙ. ἦ δεινοὺς εἴρηκας ἄνδρας· ἤδη γὰρ καὶ ἐγὼ τούτων συχνοῖς προσέτυχον.
THEAE. You have described formidable men indeed; for I too have already met with many of them.
ΞΕ. τοιγαροῦν οἱ πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἀμφισβητοῦντες μάλα εὐλαβῶς ἄνωθεν ἐξ ἀοράτου ποθὲν ἀμύνονται, νοητὰ ἄττα καὶ ἀσώματα εἴδη βιαζόμενοι τὴν ἀληθινὴν οὐσίαν εἶναι·
STR. Therefore, those who dispute with them defend themselves very cautiously from somewhere above in the unseen, forcefully maintaining that certain intelligible and bodiless forms are the true reality.
τὰ δὲ ἐκείνων σώματα καὶ τὴν λεγομένην ὑπʼ αὐτῶν ἀλήθειαν κατὰ σμικρὰ διαθραύοντες ἐν τοῖς λόγοις γένεσιν ἀντʼ οὐσίας φερομένην τινὰ προσαγορεύουσιν.
But the bodies of the others and their so-called truth, they shatter into small pieces in their arguments and call it some flowing becoming instead of reality.
ἐν μέσῳ δὲ περὶ ταῦτα ἄπλετος ἀμφοτέρων μάχη τις, ὦ Θεαίτητε, ἀεὶ συνέστηκεν.
And in the midst of these things, Theaetetus, an immense battle has always been established between them.
ΘΕΑΙ. ἀληθῆ.
THEAE. True.
ΞΕ. παρʼ ἀμφοῖν τοίνυν τοῖν γενοῖν κατὰ μέρος λάβωμεν λόγον ὑπὲρ ἧς τίθενται τῆς οὐσίας.
STR. Let us therefore take an account in turn from both groups concerning the reality they posit.
ΘΕΑΙ. πῶς οὖν δὴ ληψόμεθα;
THEAE. How then shall we take it?
ΞΕ. παρὰ μὲν τῶν ἐν εἴδεσιν αὐτὴν τιθεμένων ῥᾷον, ἡμερώτεροι γάρ· παρὰ δὲ τῶν εἰς σῶμα πάντα ἑλκόντων βίᾳ χαλεπώτερον, ἴσως δὲ καὶ σχεδὸν ἀδύνατον.
STR. From those who place reality in forms it is easier, for they are more civilized; but from those who drag everything by force into body, it is more difficult, and perhaps even nearly impossible.
ἀλλʼ ὧδέ μοι δεῖν δοκεῖ περὶ αὐτῶν δρᾶν.
But this is how it seems to me we should act regarding them.
ΘΕΑΙ. πῶς;
THEAE. How?
ΞΕ. μάλιστα μέν, εἴ πῃ δυνατὸν ἦν, ἔργῳ βελτίους αὐτοὺς ποιεῖν· εἰ δὲ τοῦτο μὴ ἐγχωρεῖ, λόγῳ ποιῶμεν, ὑποτιθέμενοι νομιμώτερον αὐτοὺς ἢ νῦν ἐθέλοντας ἂν ἀποκρίνασθαι.
STR. Best of all, if it were somehow possible, would be to make them better in reality; but if this is not permissible, let us make them so in argument, by assuming that they would be willing to answer more lawfully than they do now.
τὸ γὰρ ὁμολογηθὲν παρὰ βελτιόνων που κυριώτερον ἢ τὸ παρὰ χειρόνων· ἡμεῖς δὲ οὐ τούτων φροντίζομεν, ἀλλὰ τἀληθὲς ζητοῦμεν.
For what is agreed upon by better men is surely more authoritative than what is agreed upon by worse; though we care nothing for them, but are searching for the truth.
ΘΕΑΙ. ὀρθότατα.
THEAE. Most correct.
ΞΕ. κέλευε δὴ τοὺς βελτίους γεγονότας ἀποκρίνασθαί σοι, καὶ τὸ λεχθὲν παρʼ αὐτῶν ἀφερμήνευε.
STR. Command then those who have become better to answer you, and interpret what is said by them.
ΘΕΑΙ. ταῦτʼ ἔσται.
THEAE. That shall be done.
ΞΕ. λεγόντων δὴ θνητὸν ζῷον εἴ φασιν εἶναί τι.
STR. Let them say then if they say there is such a thing as a mortal living being.
ΘΕΑΙ. πῶς δʼ οὔ;
THEAE. Of course they do.
ΞΕ. τοῦτο δὲ οὐ σῶμα ἔμψυχον ὁμολογοῦσιν;
STR. And do they not agree that this is an ensouled body?
ΘΕΑΙ. πάνυ γε.
THEAE. Quite so.
ΞΕ. τιθέντες τι τῶν ὄντων ψυχήν;
STR. Positing soul as something among things that are?