Humanitext Reader

Marcus Aurelius · Meditations §7.23.1

The Transformation of Universal Substance: Assembly and Dissolution

Passage 219 of 486 · Greek

Summary

The author explains the natural transformation of the universe where the nature of the whole shapes and dissolves various things like wax, asserting that dissolution is no more terrible than assembly.

§7.23.1Ἡ τῶν ὅλων φύσις ἐκ τῆς ὅλης οὐσίας ὡς κηροῦ νῦν μὲν ἱππάριον ἔπλασε, συγχέασα δὲ τοῦτο εἰς δενδρύφιον συνεχρήσατο τῇ ὕλῃ αὐτοῦ· εἶτα εἰς ἀνθρωπάριον· εἶτα εἰς ἄλλο τι· ἕκαστον δὲ τούτων πρὸς ὀλίγιστον ὑπέστη.
The nature of the whole, out of the substance of the whole, as if from wax, at one time fashions a little horse, and then melting this down, uses its material for a little tree, then for a little man, then for something else; and each of these has subsisted for only the shortest time.
δεινὸν δὲ οὐδὲν τὸ διαλυθῆναι τῷ κιβωτίῳ, ὥσπερ οὐδὲ τὸ συμπαγῆναι ἀγαθόν.
And it is nothing terrible for the chest to be broken up, just as it was nothing good for it to be put together.

Notes

  1. 7.23.1ὡς κηροῦ — A metaphorical phrase modifying the preceding ἐκ τῆς ὅλης οὐσίας ("out of the substance of the whole"), indicating that the substance as raw material is as malleable as wax.
  2. 7.23.1τῷ κιβωτίῳ — Meaning "for the chest." Here, it is a metaphor for any individual composite body (or the body as a container of the soul). It functions as a dative of interest (dativus commodi/incommodi) indicating the entity affected by the dissolution.

Cite this passage

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations §7.23.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0562.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:7.23.1

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