The Demiurge and the World Soul

[Translator’s note: This chapter covers Stephanus 29d–42e, corresponding to PDF pages 43–55 of the 1578 Estienne edition. The World Soul construction (35a–36b) — the “Lambda” passage — was translated in two passes: a first pass within the full-chapter context, then a second pass in isolation with strict term preservation for the number series, means, and interval ratios. The Pass 1 text of that passage is preserved in the revisions ledger; the body below carries the Pass 2 result. All other sections were translated in a single pass from Serrani’s Latin.]

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The Demiurge’s Motive

Let us now inquire for what reason the maker of this admirable Universe established such a nature. He excelled in goodness; and one who is truly good is free from any envy of anything whatsoever. Being free from envy, he wished that all things should come to resemble himself as much as possible. This is the most genuine starting point for the generation of the world, accepted by men of wisdom: God wishing all things to be good and nothing base, insofar as this could be helped, took all that was visible — not at rest but moving discordantly and without order — and brought it from disorder into order, since he judged order in every respect more beautiful than disorder.

It was not permitted, nor is it permitted, for one who is supremely good to accomplish anything other than what is most excellent. Reasoning and reflecting, he found that among the things naturally visible, no whole that lacks intelligence is more beautiful than any whole that possesses intelligence; and that intelligence cannot be present in anything apart from soul. On account of this reasoning, fashioning the universe, he set intelligence within soul and soul within body, so that the work he accomplished might be by nature as beautiful and excellent as possible. In this way therefore, according to a probable account, one must say that this world was made by the providence of God as a living creature truly endowed with soul and intelligence.

One World or Many

This being established, the following point must be addressed: in the likeness of which living creature did its maker make the world? We must not suppose it was in the likeness of any that exists as a species of a part; for nothing resembling what is incomplete could ever be beautiful. Rather, let us say that the world most closely resembles that of which all other living creatures — individually and in their kinds — are parts. For that one comprehends and contains within itself all intelligible living creatures, just as this world comprehends us and all other visible creatures. For God, wishing to make this world most like the most beautiful and in all ways most perfect of intelligible things, made it one visible living creature, containing within itself all living creatures that are naturally akin to it.

Is it then right that there should be one world, or many? One — that is, this world, modelled on its exemplar. For what encompasses all intelligible living creatures could never be second together with another; for there would then need to be yet another living creature encompassing both those two, of which they would be parts; and it would then be more correct to say our world was a likeness of that, rather than of those two. So that the world might be single and in resemblance to the perfect living creature, the maker made neither two nor infinitely many, but this one world, alone and only-begotten, came to be and will continue to be.

The Body of the World

Now what is visible must be tangible, and what is tangible cannot exist without earth; and what is earthy must be visible. Fire and earth were therefore the first elements placed at the beginning of creation. But it is not possible for two things alone to be joined well without a third; some bond in the middle is needed to link them together. Now the most beautiful of bonds is the one that makes itself and the things it binds into the greatest possible unity, and proportion accomplishes this most beautifully. For whenever the middle term of three numbers — or masses or powers — is to the last as the first is to the middle, and conversely the last is to the middle as the middle is to the first, then the middle becomes first and last, and likewise the last and the first each become middles; and thus of necessity all will become the same, and being the same with each other, all will be one.

Now if the body of the universe had to be a flat surface with no depth, one middle would have been sufficient to bind the middle terms together with itself and with the extremes; but since it must be solid, and solids are always connected by two middles rather than one, God placed water and air in the middle between fire and earth, making them as nearly as possible proportional to one another — as fire is to air, so air is to water; as air is to water, so water is to earth — and thus he bound together and constructed the visible and tangible universe. From these four constituents, harmonized through proportion, the body of the world was created, and from them it acquired friendship, so that once come into unity with itself it became indissoluble by any power save only that of him who had bound it.

Each of the four elements was taken entire in the construction: the maker composed the world from all the fire there is, all the water, air, and earth, leaving outside no part or power of any of them — for the following purposes: first, that the world might be as complete a living creature as possible, made of complete parts; next, that it might be one, since nothing would remain out of which another world could be made; and furthermore, that it might be free from age and disease. For he recognized that when hot and cold and all such powerful forces surround a composite body from without and attack it, they dissolve it prematurely and bring disease and age upon it by making it waste and decay. For this reason, and taking all this into account, he fashioned the world as a single whole composed of wholes, perfect, ageless, and free from disease.

He gave it a shape most suitable and most akin to itself. For the living creature that was to contain within itself all living creatures, the fitting shape is that which encompasses all possible shapes within itself; and this is the sphere, whose every point on the surface is equally distant from the centre. This is the most perfect and the most like itself of all shapes, since he judged the like incomparably more beautiful than the unlike. On the outer surface he made it smooth all round for many reasons: it had no need of eyes, for there was nothing visible remaining outside; no need of hearing, for there was nothing to hear; no breath surrounding it that it would need to inhale; no organ to receive nourishment or to discharge it, for there was nothing to enter or leave it from outside. It was designed to feed upon its own waste and to do and suffer everything within itself and by itself, since its maker thought that it would be better for it to be self-sufficient than dependent on anything outside.

He did not fit it with hands, for it had nothing to take hold of or to push away; nor feet, nor any instrument for walking. He assigned to it instead the one of the seven motions most proper to its bodily form — that which is most closely associated with intelligence and wisdom — and set it moving in a circle, always in the same place, revolving upon itself. The other six motions he took away entirely and made it free from their wandering.

Soul Made Before Body

For this revolution it had no need of feet, so it was created without legs and feet. By this reasoning God, having thought all this through, made it a smooth, even, everywhere equal body, uniform from centre to extremity, a whole and perfect body, composed of perfect bodies. And soul he placed within it, extending through the whole, and further wrapping the body round on the outside with soul; and he established a single circular heaven, revolving in a circle, alone but able through its excellence to keep itself company, needing no other acquaintance or friend but sufficient unto itself. Having generated it blessed and divine.

Yet in truth, as was said, soul came before body in the account we must give — for the god would never have allowed the elder to be ruled by the younger. In the constitution of the world there is much in us that is random and haphazard; but we speak as best we can. He made soul prior to body in origin and in excellence as the elder and sovereign of the two, so that body would be its servant. And he made it from the following constituents and in the following manner.

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The Construction of the World Soul (35a–36b)

[Pass 2 translation, term-locked. Every number, ratio, and interval name is rendered as a fixed term in the order Plato states it. The Latin source gives interval ratios by their Renaissance names — sesquialtera (3:2), sesquitertia (4:3), sesquioctava (9:8) — which are preserved here with the numerical ratio in brackets at first use. The remainder ratio is stated in full as 256 to 243.]

From the indivisible substance, which is always the same, and from the divisible substance, which comes to be within bodies, he blended a third form of substance, mixed from both. With respect to the nature of the Same and the nature of the Different, he likewise composed a third nature in the middle of the two — between the indivisible and the divisible substance in bodies. Taking these three, he mixed them all into one form, forcing the nature of the Different, which was hard to mix, into agreement with the Same. He mixed these together with the substance, and from the three he made one; and this whole he again divided into as many parts as was fitting, each part mixed from the Same, the Different, and the substance.

He began the division thus. First, he drew off one part from the whole. Then he drew off a second part, double the first. Then a third, half again as great as the second and triple the first. Then a fourth, double the second. Then a fifth, triple the third. Then a sixth, eight times the first. And finally a seventh, exceeding the first by twenty-seven parts.

After this, he proceeded to fill in the double and the triple intervals, cutting off still further parts from the whole and placing them within the intervals, so that within each interval there were two means. The one mean exceeded one extreme, and was exceeded by the other, by the same part of the extremes themselves. The other mean exceeded the one extreme, and was exceeded by the other, by an equal number.

From these connections, within the earlier intervals, arose the intervals of the sesquialtera [3:2], the sesquitertia [4:3], and the sesquioctava [9:8]. He then filled up all the sesquitertia [4:3] intervals with the sesquioctava [9:8] interval, leaving a small part of each; and the interval of this part that remained had its terms in the ratio of the number two hundred and fifty-six to the number two hundred and forty-three.

And so the mixture, from which he was cutting these parts, was now entirely used up. This whole structure he then split lengthwise into two; and laying the two halves across one another, the middle of the one against the middle of the other, in the shape of the letter X, he bent each into a circle, joining each to itself and to the other at the point opposite to where they crossed; and he set them within the motion revolving uniformly in the same place. One of the circles he made the outer, the other the inner.

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The Circles of Same and Different (36c–36d)

The motion of the outer circle he designated the motion of the Same, that of the inner the motion of the Different. The movement of the Same he left revolving as it was, from left to right along the side; the movement of the Different he divided into six parts and made seven unequal circles according to each of the double and triple intervals, three of each kind, ordering them to move in opposite directions to one another: three at equal speed, four at speeds unequal to each other and to those three, but moving always in due ratio.

Soul Enfolding the World (36d–37c)

When the whole constitution of the soul had been completed to the intention of its maker, he then fashioned within it all that is corporeal, and bringing centre to centre he joined them. Soul, woven throughout the heaven from the centre to the outermost edge, and enveloping the heaven in a circle from the outside, herself revolving upon herself, made the divine beginning of unceasing rational life for all time.

The body of the heaven was made visible; soul is invisible, but as a partaker in reason and harmony she is the most excellent creation of the most excellent among intelligible eternal things. Since soul is a mixture of the nature of the Same, the nature of the Different, and Being — three portions bound together in due proportion — and revolves upon herself, whenever she touches anything of dispersed being or anything of indivisible being, she is moved through her whole self and declares what each thing is the same as and what it is different from, and in what respect, and how, and when — both in the realm of becoming and in the realm of the always uniform.

When a true account, moving silently without voice through soul, concerns what is perceptible, and the circle of the Different running smoothly carries the message through the whole soul, then opinions and beliefs arise that are firm and true. When it concerns the rational, and the circle of the Same runs smoothly and reveals this, then intelligence and knowledge are perfected. And if anyone ever calls by the name of intelligence or knowledge what arises in anything other than soul, it will be anything but the truth.

The Creation of Time (37c–38e)

Now when the father who had begotten it saw it stirring and living — a delight to the eternal gods — he himself rejoiced; and in his joy he resolved to make it still more like its model. As the model was the eternal living creature, so he sought to make this whole universe also eternal insofar as it was possible. Now the nature of the living model was eternal, but it was impossible to attach this attribute fully to what was generated. He therefore resolved to make a moving image of eternity; and as he set the heaven in order he made of eternity, which abides in unity, an eternal likeness moving according to number — this is what we call Time.

Days and nights and months and years did not exist before the heaven came to be, but he contrived for them to come into being at the same time as the constitution of the heaven. These are all parts of time; and Was and Will Be are forms of time that have come into being — though we wrongly apply them to eternal being, saying that it was and is and will be, when in truth only Is properly belongs to it. Was and Will Be are rightly said of becoming which proceeds in time, for becoming is motion; but what is always changeless and motionless cannot become older or younger through time, nor did it come into being in time, nor will it ever be. Nor is it right to say of it that Was and Will Be apply to it — those belong only to what comes to be in time. These are the precise words of Plato.

Time therefore came into being together with the heaven, so that having been generated together they will, if ever they are dissolved, be dissolved together. It was generated after the pattern of the eternal nature, so that it might be as like to it as possible; for the model is for all eternity, and the copy has been and is and will be throughout all time.

The Heavenly Bodies and Instruments of Time (38c–39e)

From this reasoning, and for these purposes, so that Time might come to be, the sun and moon and the five other stars that are called wanderers were created to define and preserve the numbers of Time. Having made a body for each of them, God placed them in the circuits which the revolution of the Different traced: the moon in the circle nearest the earth; the sun in the second above the earth; the Morning Star and the star called sacred to Hermes in circles running at a speed equal to that of the sun but assigned a force contrary to it — which is why the sun, the Morning Star, and the star of Hermes alike overtake and are overtaken by each other in turn.

As for the remaining stars, their names and circuits, their arrangement and counter-arrangements with one another, to speak of all this accurately would require a longer account than this discourse permits, and it would take more time than we have. Suffice to say they were established for these purposes: the defining and preserving of the numbers of Time. Let so much be said about the divine kinds and their generation.

The Demiurge Addresses the Lesser Gods (41a–41d)

When all the gods had been generated — both those who move visibly in the heavens and those who appear only when they so choose — the maker of all things addressed them in these words:

“Gods of gods, whose maker and father am I: the works made by me are indissoluble except by my will. For whatever has been bound can of course be dissolved; but to wish to dissolve what is well fitted together and in a good state is the mark of an evil will. Since you have come to be, you are not wholly immortal or indissoluble; yet you shall not be dissolved, nor shall death be your portion, since you have in my will a bond greater and more authoritative than those with which you were bound together when you were generated.

“Hear now what I declare to you. There remain still three mortal kinds that have not yet been generated. So long as these do not come to be, the heaven will be incomplete; for it will not contain within it all the kinds of living creatures it must have if it is to be sufficiently complete. Yet if I myself were to create these and give them life, they would be made equal to gods. So that mortal creatures may exist, and this whole universe may be truly a whole, turn yourselves to the making of living creatures in the way your nature allows, imitating my power as shown in generating you. As many of them as deserve to share the name of the immortals and are called divine, ruling justly and in goodness over those who are willing to follow — I will provide the beginning and the seed of their generation. You are then to weave together what remains, intertwining the mortal with the immortal; and bring living creatures to birth, nourish them, cause them to grow, and receive them when they perish.”

The Mortal Soul (41d–42e)

Thus speaking he turned once more to the same mixing bowl in which he had blended and mixed the soul of the universe, and into it he poured the remainders of the former elements, mingling them in much the same way as before — but no longer so pure, second and third in purity. He divided the whole mixture into souls equal in number to the stars, and assigned one soul to each star, placing each in its star as in a vehicle; and showing them the nature of the universe, he declared to them the laws of fate.

Their first birth would be assigned equally to all, so that no one would be put at a disadvantage by him; and each would be sown into the instrument of time appropriate to it, and born as the most god-fearing of all living creatures; and since human nature is twofold, the superior kind would henceforth be called Man.

When of necessity they had been sown into the instruments of time, each at the proper moment, the result would be sensation arising from violent impressions, together with desire mingled with pleasure and pain, and in addition to these fear and spirit and whatever follows from these and their opposites. If they mastered these passions their life would be just; if they were mastered by them, unjust. One who had lived the time appointed to him well would return to the dwelling of the kindred star and live a life of happiness and conformity; but one who had failed in this would, at the second birth, take on the nature of a woman.

[The account of the second and third births, and the creation of the lower mortal kinds assigned to the lesser gods, continues into Chapter 3.]