§91ΤΙ. τῶν γενομένων ἀνδρῶν ὅσοι δειλοὶ καὶ τὸν βίον ἀδίκως διῆλθον, κατὰ λόγον τὸν εἰκότα γυναῖκες μετεφύοντο ἐν τῇ δευτέρᾳ γενέσει· καὶ κατʼ ἐκεῖνον δὴ τὸν χρόνον διὰ ταῦτα θεοὶ τὸν τῆς συνουσίας ἔρωτα ἐτεκτήναντο, ζῷον τὸ μὲν ἐν ἡμῖν, τὸ δʼ ἐν ταῖς γυναιξὶν συστήσαντες ἔμψυχον, τοιῷδε τρόπῳ ποιήσαντες ἑκάτερον.
TI. Of the men who were generated, all who were cowardly and passed their life unjustly were, according to the likely account, transformed into women in the second generation; and at that time, for these reasons, the gods devised the love of copulation, compounding an animated living being, one in us and another in women, making each in the following manner.
τὴν τοῦ ποτοῦ διέξοδον, ᾗ διὰ τοῦ πλεύμονος τὸ πῶμα ὑπὸ τοὺς νεφροὺς εἰς τὴν κύστιν ἐλθὸν καὶ τῷ πνεύματι θλιφθὲν συνεκπέμπει δεχομένη, συνέτρησαν εἰς τὸν ἐκ τῆς κεφαλῆς κατὰ τὸν αὐχένα καὶ διὰ τῆς ῥάχεως μυελὸν συμπεπηγότα, ὃν δὴ σπέρμα ἐν τοῖς πρόσθεν λόγοις εἴπομεν·
The outlet for drink, which receives the beverage that comes through the lungs under the kidneys into the bladder and, compressed by the breath, sends it out together, they pierced into the marrow that is solidified from the head down the neck and through the spine, which very marrow indeed we called seed in the former accounts.
ὁ δέ, ἅτʼ ἔμψυχος ὢν καὶ λαβὼν ἀναπνοήν, τοῦθʼ ᾗπερ ἀνέπνευσεν, τῆς ἐκροῆς ζωτικὴν ἐπιθυμίαν ἐμποιήσας αὐτῷ, τοῦ γεννᾶν ἔρωτα ἀπετέλεσεν.
And this marrow, since it is animated and has found an outlet for breath, implanted in itself, at the very place where it breathed out, a vital desire for emission, and thus perfected the love of generation.
διὸ δὴ τῶν μὲν ἀνδρῶν τὸ περὶ τὴν τῶν αἰδοίων φύσιν ἀπειθές τε καὶ αὐτοκρατὲς γεγονός, οἷον ζῷον ἀνυπήκοον τοῦ λόγου, πάντων διʼ ἐπιθυμίας οἰστρώδεις ἐπιχειρεῖ κρατεῖν·
Wherefore indeed in men, the nature of the genitals, becoming disobedient and self-ruling, like a living being that is deaf to reason, attempts to dominate everything through raging desires.
αἱ δʼ ἐν ταῖς γυναιξὶν αὖ μῆτραί τε καὶ ὑστέραι λεγόμεναι διὰ τὰ αὐτὰ ταῦτα, ζῷον ἐπιθυμητικὸν ἐνὸν τῆς παιδοποιίας, ὅταν ἄκαρπον παρὰ τὴν ὥραν χρόνον πολὺν γίγνηται, χαλεπῶς ἀγανακτοῦν φέρει, καὶ πλανώμενον πάντῃ κατὰ τὸ σῶμα, τὰς τοῦ πνεύματος διεξόδους ἀποφράττον, ἀναπνεῖν οὐκ ἐῶν εἰς ἀπορίας τὰς ἐσχάτας ἐμβάλλει καὶ νόσους παντοδαπὰς ἄλλας παρέχει, μέχριπερ ἂν ἑκατέρων ἡ ἐπιθυμία καὶ ὁ ἔρως συναγαγόντες, οἷον ἀπὸ δένδρων καρπὸν καταδρέψαντες, ὡς εἰς ἄρουραν τὴν μήτραν ἀόρατα ὑπὸ σμικρότητος καὶ ἀδιάπλαστα ζῷα κατασπείραντες καὶ πάλιν διακρίναντες μεγάλα ἐντὸς ἐκθρέψωνται καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο εἰς φῶς ἀγαγόντες ζῴων ἀποτελέσωσι γένεσιν.
On the other hand, in women, what are called the womb and matrix, for these very same reasons, being an appetitive living being within them desirous of child-bearing, when it remains fruitless for a long time beyond its proper season, bears it with heavy vexation, and wandering everywhere throughout the body, obstructing the outlets of the breath and not allowing them to breathe, casts them into the extreme difficulties and causes all other kinds of diseases, until the desire and the love of both bring them together, and, as if plucking fruit from trees, sow into the womb, as into a field, living beings invisible because of their smallness and unformed, and having again differentiated them, nourish them to a great size within, and after this, bringing them into the light, complete the generation of living beings.
γυναῖκες μὲν οὖν καὶ τὸ θῆλυ πᾶν οὕτω γέγονεν·
Women, then, and the whole female sex, were generated in this way.
τὸ δὲ τῶν ὀρνέων φῦλον μετερρυθμίζετο, ἀντὶ τριχῶν πτερὰ φύον, ἐκ τῶν ἀκάκων ἀνδρῶν, κούφων δέ, καὶ μετεωρολογικῶν μέν, ἡγουμένων δὲ διʼ ὄψεως τὰς περὶ τούτων ἀποδείξεις βεβαιοτάτας εἶναι διʼ εὐήθειαν.
But the race of birds was remodeled, growing feathers instead of hair, from men who were harmless but light-minded, and who, though interested in the things above, fancied through simplicity that the demonstrations concerning these things are most secure through sight.
τὸ δʼ αὖ πεζὸν καὶ θηριῶδες γέγονεν ἐκ τῶν μηδὲν προσχρωμένων φιλοσοφίᾳ μηδὲ ἀθρούντων τῆς περὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν φύσεως πέρι μηδέν, διὰ τὸ μηκέτι ταῖς ἐν τῇ κεφαλῇ χρῆσθαι περιόδοις, ἀλλὰ τοῖς περὶ τὰ στήθη τῆς ψυχῆς ἡγεμόσιν ἕπεσθαι μέρεσιν.
And on the other hand, the land and wild beast-like kind was generated from those who made no use of philosophy nor contemplated anything of the nature of the heavens, because they no longer used the rotations in the head, but followed the dominant parts of the soul around the breast.
§92ΤΙ. ἐκ τούτων οὖν τῶν ἐπιτηδευμάτων τά τʼ ἐμπρόσθια κῶλα καὶ τὰς κεφαλὰς εἰς γῆν ἑλκόμενα ὑπὸ συγγενείας ἤρεισαν, προμήκεις τε καὶ παντοίας ἔσχον τὰς κορυφάς, ὅπῃ συνεθλίφθησαν ὑπὸ ἀργίας ἑκάστων αἱ περιφοραί·
TI. As a result of these practices, their front limbs and heads were drawn toward the earth by reason of their kinship and fixed there, and they got elongated and all kinds of heads, according as the rotations of each were crushed together through idleness.
τετράπουν τε τὸ γένος αὐτῶν ἐκ ταύτης ἐφύετο καὶ πολύπουν τῆς προφάσεως, θεοῦ βάσεις ὑποτιθέντος πλείους τοῖς μᾶλλον ἄφροσιν, ὡς μᾶλλον ἐπὶ γῆν ἕλκοιντο.
And their race was generated four-footed and many-footed from this cause, God putting more supports under the more foolish, that they might be drawn the more toward the earth.
τοῖς δʼ ἀφρονεστάτοις αὐτῶν τούτων καὶ παντάπασιν πρὸς γῆν πᾶν τὸ σῶμα κατατεινομένοις ὡς οὐδὲν ἔτι ποδῶν χρείας οὔσης, ἄποδα αὐτὰ καὶ ἰλυσπώμενα ἐπὶ γῆς ἐγέννησαν.
And as for the most foolish of these very ones, whose whole bodies were stretched entirely along the ground, as there was no longer any need of feet, the gods generated them footless and crawling upon the earth.
τὸ δὲ τέταρτον γένος ἔνυδρον γέγονεν ἐκ τῶν μάλιστα ἀνοητοτάτων καὶ ἀμαθεστάτων, οὓς οὐδʼ ἀναπνοῆς καθαρᾶς ἔτι ἠξίωσαν οἱ μεταπλάττοντες, ὡς τὴν ψυχὴν ὑπὸ πλημμελείας πάσης ἀκαθάρτως ἐχόντων, ἀλλʼ ἀντὶ λεπτῆς καὶ καθαρᾶς ἀναπνοῆς ἀέρος εἰς ὕδατος θολερὰν καὶ βαθεῖαν ἔωσαν ἀνάπνευσιν·
And the fourth kind, the aquatic, was generated from the most mindless and ignorant of all, whom those who remodeled them no longer deemed worthy even of pure respiration, since their souls were in an impure state from all kinds of transgression, but instead of the refined and pure respiration of air, they pushed them into the turbid and deep respiration of water.
ὅθεν ἰχθύων ἔθνος καὶ τὸ τῶν ὀστρέων συναπάντων τε ὅσα ἔνυδρα γέγονεν, δίκην ἀμαθίας ἐσχάτης ἐσχάτας οἰκήσεις εἰληχότων.
Whence arose the nation of fishes and of oysters and of all aquatic creatures whatsoever, which have received the lowest habitations as a penalty for their extreme ignorance.
καὶ κατὰ ταῦτα δὴ πάντα τότε καὶ νῦν διαμείβεται τὰ ζῷα εἰς ἄλληλα, νοῦ καὶ ἀνοίας ἀποβολῇ καὶ κτήσει μεταβαλλόμενα.
And according to all these things, both then and now, all living beings change into one another, being transformed by the loss or acquisition of intellect and folly.
καὶ δὴ καὶ τέλος περὶ τοῦ παντὸς νῦν ἤδη τὸν λόγον ἡμῖν φῶμεν ἔχειν·
And now indeed let us say that our discourse concerning the universe has finally reached its end.
θνητὰ γὰρ καὶ ἀθάνατα ζῷα λαβὼν καὶ συμπληρωθεὶς ὅδε ὁ κόσμος οὕτω, ζῷον ὁρατὸν τὰ ὁρατὰ περιέχον, εἰκὼν τοῦ νοητοῦ θεὸς αἰσθητός, μέγιστος καὶ ἄριστος κάλλιστός τε καὶ τελεώτατος γέγονεν εἷς οὐρανὸς ὅδε μονογενὴς ὤν.
For having received mortal and immortal living beings and having been thus filled up, this world, a visible living being containing the visible things, an image of the intelligible, a sensible god, has become greatest and best, most beautiful and most perfect, this one heaven, being unique.