Ennead VI.7 [38], How the Multitude of Forms Came to Be, and on the Good, chapter 12

porphyrian VI.7 · chronological 38 · chapter 12 · volkmann page vol. 2, 440-441

ἀλλὰ πάλιν ὧδε λέγωμεν: ἐπεὶ γάρ φαμεν πρὸς οἷον παράδειγμα ἐκείνου τόδε τὸ πᾶν εἶναι, δεῖ κἀκεῖ πρότερον τὸ πᾶν ζῷον εἶναι καί, εἰ παντελὲς τὸ εἶναι αὐτῷ, πάντα εἶναι. καὶ οὐρανὸν δὴ ἐκεῖ ζῷον εἶναι, καὶ οὐκ ἔρημον τοίνυν ἄστρων, τῶν ἐνταῦθα τοῦτο λεγομένων οὐρανόν, καὶ τὸ οὐρανῷ εἶναι τοῦτο. ἔστι δ’ ἐκεῖ δηλονότι καὶ γῆ οὐκ ἔρημος, ἀλλὰ πολὺ μᾶλλον ἐζωωμένη, καὶ ἔστιν ἐν αὐτῇ ζῷα ξύμπαντα, ὅσα πεζὰ καὶ χερσαῖα λέγεται ἐνταῦθα, καὶ φυτὰ δηλονότι ἐν τῷ ζῆν ἱδρυμένα: καὶ θάλασσα δέ ἐστιν ἐκεῖ, καὶ πᾶν ὕδωρ ἐν ῥοῇ καὶ ζωῇ μενούσῃ, καὶ τὰ ἐν ὕδατι ζῷα πάντα, ἀέρος τε φύσις τοῦ ἐκεῖ παντὸς μοῖρα, καὶ ζῷα ἀέρια ἐν αὐτῷ ἀνὰ λόγον αὐτῷ τῷ ἀέρι. τὰ γὰρ ἐν ζῶντι πῶς ἂν οὐ ζῶντα; ὅπου δὴ καὶ ἐνταῦθα. πῶς οὖν οὐ πᾶν ζῷον ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἐκεῖ; ὡς γὰρ ἕκαστον τῶν μεγάλων μερῶν ἐστιν, ἐξ ἀνάγκης οὕτως ἔχει καὶ ἡ τῶν ζῴων ἐν αὐτοῖς φύσις. ὅπως οὖν ἔχει καὶ ἔστιν ἐκεῖ οὐρανός, οὕτω καὶ ἔχει καὶ ἔστιν ἐκεῖ τὰ ἐν οὐρανῷ ζῷα πάντα, καὶ οὐκ ἔστι μὴ εἶναι: ἢ οὐδ’ ἐκεῖνος ἔσται. ὁ οὖν ζητῶν πόθεν ζῷα, ζητεῖ πόθεν οὐρανὸς ἐκεῖ: τοῦτο δ’ ἐστὶ ζητεῖν πόθεν ζῷον, τοῦτο δὲ ταὐτὸν [τῷ] πόθεν ζωὴ καὶ ζωὴ πᾶσα καὶ ψυχὴ πᾶσα καὶ νοῦς ὁ ξύμπας, μηδεμιᾶς ἐκεῖ πενίας μηδ’ ἀπορίας οὔσης, ἀλλὰ πάντων ζωῆς πεπληρωμένων καὶ οἷον ζεόντων. ἔστι δ’ αὐτῶν ἡ οἷον ῥοὴ ἐκ μιᾶς πηγῆς, οὐχ οἷον ἑνός τινος πνεύματος ἢ θερμότητος μιᾶς, ἀλλ’ οἷον εἴ τις ἦν ποιότης μία πάσας ἐν αὐτῇ ἔχουσα καὶ σώζουσα τὰς ποιότητας, γλυκύτης μετ’ εὐωδίας, καὶ ὁμοῦ οἰνώδης ποιότης καὶ χυλῶν ἁπάντων δυνάμεις καὶ χρωμάτων ὄψεις καὶ ὅσα ἁφαὶ γινώσκουσιν. ἔστωσαν δὲ καὶ ὅσα ἀκοαὶ ἀκούουσι, πάντα μέλη καὶ ῥυθμὸς πᾶς.

But let us put it again, like this. Since we say that this universe is after the pattern, as it were, of that one, there too the whole must first be a living being, and, if its being is complete, it must be all things. And the heaven there must be a living being, and not bare, then, of the stars — the things here called heaven; and this is what being heaven is. And there is plainly earth there too, not bare but far more alive, and in it are all the living beings that here are called walking and land-dwelling, and plants plainly, seated in life; and there is sea there, and all water in flow and in a life that remains, and all the living beings in water; and the nature of air is a portion of the universe there, and living beings of the air in it, answering to the air itself. For how could what is in a living thing not be living? Even here it is so. How, then, could every living being not be there of necessity? For as each of the great parts is, so of necessity is the nature of the living beings in them. As, then, the heaven there has its way and is, so too all the living beings in the heaven have their way and are there, and they cannot not be; or else the heaven itself will not be. Whoever asks, then, where living beings come from, asks where the heaven there comes from; and this is to ask where the living being comes from; and this is the same as where life comes from, and all life and all soul and intellect entire — there being no poverty there and no want, but all things filled with life and as it were boiling. And their flow is as it were from one spring: not as from some one breath or one warmth, but as if there were one quality holding and keeping all the qualities in itself — sweetness with fragrance, and at once the quality of wine and the powers of all flavours, and the sights of colours, and all that touch knows; and let there be also all that hearing hears, every melody and every rhythm.

The pattern of which this universe is the image is the intelligible living being of Plato, Timaeus 30c-31b. ζέω 'boiling' is the same word IV.3.23 uses of spiritedness. Volkmann brackets τῷ as a deletion.

Greek collated line by line against the Volkmann plate (vol. 2, pp. 440-441); every departure of the First1KGreek transcription from the printed page is corrected and recorded in the apparatus.