§77ΤΙ. ἐπειδὴ δὲ πάντʼ ἦν τὰ τοῦ θνητοῦ ζῴου συμπεφυκότα μέρη καὶ μέλη, τὴν δὲ ζωὴν ἐν πυρὶ καὶ πνεύματι συνέβαινεν ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἔχειν αὐτῷ, καὶ διὰ ταῦτα ὑπὸ τούτων τηκόμενον κενούμενόν τʼ ἔφθινεν, βοήθειαν αὐτῷ θεοὶ μηχανῶνται.
TI. And when all the parts and limbs of the mortal living thing had grown together, and it happened of necessity that it had its life in fire and breath, and because of this it was melted and emptied by these and decayed, the gods devised a help for it.
τῆς γὰρ ἀνθρωπίνης συγγενῆ φύσεως φύσιν ἄλλαις ἰδέαις καὶ αἰσθήσεσιν κεραννύντες, ὥσθʼ ἕτερον ζῷον εἶναι, φυτεύουσιν· ἃ δὴ νῦν ἥμερα δένδρα καὶ φυτὰ καὶ σπέρματα παιδευθέντα ὑπὸ γεωργίας τιθασῶς πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἔσχεν, πρὶν δὲ ἦν μόνα τὰ τῶν ἀγρίων γένη, πρεσβύτερα τῶν ἡμέρων ὄντα.
For, mixing a nature kindred to the human nature with other forms and sensations, so that it should be another living thing, they planted it; those which are now civilized trees and plants and seeds, having been trained by agriculture to be tame toward us, whereas previously there were only the wild kinds, being older than the civilized ones.
πᾶν γὰρ οὖν ὅτιπερ ἂν μετάσχῃ τοῦ ζῆν, ζῷον μὲν ἂν ἐν δίκῃ λέγοιτο ὀρθότατα·
For indeed, anything whatsoever that shares in life might most justly and correctly be called a living thing.
μετέχει γε μὴν τοῦτο ὃ νῦν λέγομεν τοῦ τρίτου ψυχῆς εἴδους, ὃ μεταξὺ φρενῶν ὀμφαλοῦ τε ἱδρῦσθαι λόγος, ᾧ δόξης μὲν λογισμοῦ τε καὶ νοῦ μέτεστιν τὸ μηδέν, αἰσθήσεως δὲ ἡδείας καὶ ἀλγεινῆς μετὰ ἐπιθυμιῶν.
Now this which we are speaking of shares in the third form of soul, which is said to be seated between the diaphragm and the navel, which has no share in opinion, reasoning, and intellect, but in pleasant and painful sensation along with desires.
πάσχον γὰρ διατελεῖ πάντα, στραφέντι δʼ αὐτῷ ἐν ἑαυτῷ περὶ ἑαυτό, τὴν μὲν ἔξωθεν ἀπωσαμένῳ κίνησιν, τῇ δʼ οἰκείᾳ χρησαμένῳ, τῶν αὑτοῦ τι λογίσασθαι κατιδόντι φύσει οὐ παραδέδωκεν ἡ γένεσις.
For it continues always passive, and though it turns within itself about itself, repelling motion from without and using its own, its generation did not grant it by nature to observe and reason upon any of its own concerns.
διὸ δὴ ζῇ μὲν ἔστιν τε οὐχ ἕτερον ζῴου, μόνιμον δὲ καὶ κατερριζωμένον πέπηγεν διὰ τὸ τῆς ὑφʼ ἑαυτοῦ κινήσεως ἐστερῆσθαι.
For this reason, then, it lives indeed and is not other than a living thing, but it remains fixed and rooted, being deprived of motion by itself.
ταῦτα δὴ τὰ γένη πάντα φυτεύσαντες οἱ κρείττους τοῖς ἥττοσιν ἡμῖν τροφήν, τὸ σῶμα αὐτὸ ἡμῶν διωχέτευσαν τέμνοντες οἷον ἐν κήποις ὀχετούς, ἵνα ὥσπερ ἐκ νάματος ἐπιόντος ἄρδοιτο.
Having planted all these kinds as food for us, who are inferior, the superiors channeled our body itself, cutting conduits as in gardens, so that it might be watered as from an incoming stream.
καὶ πρῶτον μὲν ὀχετοὺς κρυφαίους ὑπὸ τὴν σύμφυσιν τοῦ δέρματος καὶ τῆς σαρκὸς δύο φλέβας ἔτεμον νωτιαίας, δίδυμον ὡς τὸ σῶμα ἐτύγχανεν δεξιοῖς τε καὶ ἀριστεροῖς ὄν·
And first, they cut two veins along the back under the joining of the skin and the flesh, hidden conduits, since the body happened to be double, with a right and a left side.
ταύτας δὲ καθῆκαν παρὰ τὴν ῥάχιν, καὶ τὸν γόνιμον μεταξὺ λαβόντες μυελόν, ἵνα οὗτός τε ὅτι μάλιστα θάλλοι, καὶ ἐπὶ τἆλλα εὔρους ἐντεῦθεν ἅτε ἐπὶ κάταντες ἡ ἐπίχυσις γιγνομένη παρέχοι τὴν ὑδρείαν ὁμαλήν.
These they let down along the spine, holding between them the generative marrow, so that this might flourish as much as possible, and that the overflow from there, being made as if down a slope, might provide an easy flow and even watering to the other parts.
μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα σχίσαντες περὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν τὰς φλέβας καὶ διʼ ἀλλήλων ἐναντίας πλέξαντες διεῖσαν, τὰς μὲν ἐκ τῶν δεξιῶν ἐπὶ τἀριστερὰ τοῦ σώματος, τὰς δʼ ἐκ τῶν ἀριστερῶν ἐπὶ τὰ δεξιὰ κλίναντες, ὅπως δεσμὸς ἅμα τῇ κεφαλῇ πρὸς τὸ σῶμα εἴη μετὰ τοῦ δέρματος, ἐπειδὴ νεύροις οὐκ ἦν κύκλῳ κατὰ κορυφὴν περιειλημμένη, καὶ δὴ καὶ τὸ τῶν αἰσθήσεων πάθος ἵνʼ ἀφʼ ἑκατέρων τῶν μερῶν εἰς ἅπαν τὸ σῶμα εἴη διάδηλον.
After this, splitting the veins about the head and weaving them opposite to one another, they let them pass through, inclining those from the right to the left of the body, and those from the left to the right, so that there might be a bond of the head to the body along with the skin, since it was not encompassed by sinews in a circle at the crown, and also that the affection of sensations might be clear from both sides to the whole body.
§78ΤΙ. τὸ δʼ ἐντεῦθεν ἤδη τὴν ὑδραγωγίαν παρεσκεύασαν τρόπῳ τινὶ τοιῷδε, ὃν κατοψόμεθα ῥᾷον προδιομολογησάμενοι τὸ τοιόνδε, ὅτι πάντα ὅσα ἐξ ἐλαττόνων συνίσταται στέγει τὰ μείζω, τὰ δὲ ἐκ μειζόνων τὰ σμικρότερα οὐ δύναται, πῦρ δὲ πάντων γενῶν σμικρομερέστατον, ὅθεν διʼ ὕδατος καὶ γῆς ἀέρος τε καὶ ὅσα ἐκ τούτων συνίσταται διαχωρεῖ καὶ στέγειν οὐδὲν αὐτὸ δύναται.
TI. Thereupon they already prepared the water-supply in some such manner as this, which we shall see more easily if we first agree on the following: that all things that consist of smaller parts hold the larger, but those of larger parts cannot hold the smaller; and fire is of all kinds the most small-parted, whence it passes through water, earth, air, and whatever consists of these, and nothing can hold it.
ταὐτὸν δὴ καὶ περὶ τῆς παρʼ ἡμῖν κοιλίας διανοητέον, ὅτι σιτία μὲν καὶ ποτὰ ὅταν εἰς αὐτὴν ἐμπέσῃ, στέγει, πνεῦμα δὲ καὶ πῦρ σμικρομερέστερα ὄντα τῆς αὑτῆς συστάσεως οὐ δύναται.
The same indeed must be conceived also about our belly, that when food and drink fall into it, it holds them, but breath and fire, being smaller-parted than its own constitution, it cannot hold.
τούτοις οὖν κατεχρήσατο ὁ θεὸς εἰς τὴν ἐκ τῆς κοιλίας ἐπὶ τὰς φλέβας ὑδρείαν, πλέγμα ἐξ ἀέρος καὶ πυρὸς οἷον οἱ κύρτοι συνυφηνάμενος, διπλᾶ κατὰ τὴν εἴσοδον ἐγκύρτια ἔχον, ὧν θάτερον αὖ πάλιν διέπλεξεν δίκρουν· καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν ἐγκυρτίων δὴ διετείνατο οἷον σχοίνους κύκλῳ διὰ παντὸς πρὸς τὰ ἔσχατα τοῦ πλέγματος.
These, therefore, God used for the watering from the belly to the veins, weaving a network of air and fire like a weel, having double inner-baskets at the entrance, one of which again he wove as two-pronged; and from the inner-baskets he stretched out, as it were, ropes in a circle all through to the extremities of the network.
τὰ μὲν οὖν ἔνδον ἐκ πυρὸς συνεστήσατο τοῦ πλοκάνου ἅπαντα, τὰ δʼ ἐγκύρτια καὶ τὸ κύτος ἀεροειδῆ, καὶ λαβὼν αὐτὸ περιέστησεν τῷ πλασθέντι ζῴῳ τρόπον τοιόνδε.
The inside of the web indeed he constructed entirely of fire, but the inner-baskets and the main body of air-like material, and taking it, he placed it around the fashioned living thing in the following manner.
τὸ μὲν τῶν ἐγκυρτίων εἰς τὸ στόμα μεθῆκεν· διπλοῦ δὲ ὄντος αὐτοῦ κατὰ μὲν τὰς ἀρτηρίας εἰς τὸν πλεύμονα καθῆκεν θάτερον, τὸ δʼ εἰς τὴν κοιλίαν παρὰ τὰς ἀρτηρίας·
One of the inner-baskets he let down into the mouth; since this was double, he let down one part of it through the windpipes into the lungs, and the other into the belly along the windpipes.
τὸ δʼ ἕτερον σχίσας τὸ μέρος ἑκάτερον κατὰ τοὺς ὀχετοὺς τῆς ῥινὸς ἀφῆκεν κοινόν, ὥσθʼ ὅτε μὴ κατὰ στόμα ἴοι θάτερον, ἐκ τούτου πάντα καὶ τὰ ἐκείνου ῥεύματα ἀναπληροῦσθαι.
The other inner-basket he split and let both parts go in common through the channels of the nose, so that when one did not go through the mouth, all the streams of that one also might be supplied from this.
τὸ δὲ ἄλλο κύτος τοῦ κύρτου περὶ τὸ σῶμα ὅσον κοῖλον ἡμῶν περιέφυσεν, καὶ πᾶν δὴ τοῦτο τοτὲ μὲν εἰς τὰ ἐγκύρτια συρρεῖν μαλακῶς, ἅτε ἀέρα ὄντα, ἐποίησεν, τοτὲ δὲ ἀναρρεῖν μὲν τὰ ἐγκύρτια, τὸ δὲ πλέγμα, ὡς ὄντος τοῦ σώματος μανοῦ, δύεσθαι εἴσω διʼ αὐτοῦ καὶ πάλιν ἔξω, τὰς δὲ ἐντὸς τοῦ πυρὸς ἀκτῖνας διαδεδεμένας ἀκολουθεῖν ἐφʼ ἑκάτερα ἰόντος τοῦ ἀέρος, καὶ τοῦτο, ἕωσπερ ἂν τὸ θνητὸν συνεστήκῃ ζῷον, μὴ διαπαύεσθαι γιγνόμενον·
The rest of the body of the weel he grew around as much of our body as is hollow; and all of this he made at one time to flow together gently into the inner-baskets, since they are of air, and at another time the inner-baskets to flow back, and the network, since the body is porous, to sink inward through it and again outward, while the rays of fire within, being bound to it, followed whichever way the air went.
τούτῳ δὲ δὴ τῷ γένει τὸν τὰς ἐπωνυμίας θέμενον ἀναπνοὴν καὶ ἐκπνοὴν λέγομεν θέσθαι τοὔνομα.
And this, as long as the mortal living thing consists, does not cease occurring; to this kind of action indeed, the one who gave names, we say, gave the name of inspiration and expiration.
πᾶν δὲ δὴ τό τʼ ἔργον καὶ τὸ πάθος τοῦθʼ ἡμῶν τῷ σώματι γέγονεν ἀρδομένῳ καὶ ἀναψυχομένῳ τρέφεσθαι καὶ ζῆν·
And all this work and affection has arisen for our body so that, being watered and cooled, it may be nourished and live.