Humanitext Reader

Marcus Aurelius · Meditations §5.30.1

The Social Mind of the Whole and the Harmony of Beings

Passage 131 of 486 · Greek

Summary

Explaining that the mind of the universe is social, this passage describes how all things in the world are harmoniously ordered and arranged according to their respective value.

§5.30.1Ὁ τοῦ ὅλου νοῦς κοινωνικός.
The mind of the whole is social.
πεποίηκε γοῦν τὰ χείρω τῶν κρειττόνων ἕνεκεν καὶ τὰ κρείττω ἀλλήλοις συνήρμοσεν.
At all events, it has made the inferior things for the sake of the superior, and has fitted the superior things to one another.
ὁρᾷς πῶς ὑπέταξε, συνέταξε, καὶ τὸ κατ̓ ἀξίαν ἀπένειμεν ἑκάστοις καὶ τὰ κρατιστεύοντα εἰς ὁμόνοιαν ἀλλήλων συνήγαγεν.
You see how it subordinated, coordinated, and assigned to each according to its worth, and brought the best things into mutual concord.

Notes

  1. §5.30.1Ὁ τοῦ ὅλου νοῦς — The genitive form τοῦ ὅλου, meaning 'the whole' or 'the universe', modifies νοῦς (mind). It refers to 'the mind of the universe'.
  2. §5.30.1ὑπέταξε, συνέταξε — These two verbs implicitly take the contrasted terms from the preceding sentence as their respective objects: namely, it subordinated (ὑπέταξε) the inferior things (τὰ χείρω) and coordinated (συνέταξε) the superior things (τὰ κρείττω).

Cite this passage

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations §5.30.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0562.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:5.30.1

Please note the AI-draft status of the translation and the date accessed.

Translation, notes and summary are AI-generated drafts, revised through reader feedback.