Διὰ τί κύκλῳ κινεῖται; ὅτι νοῦν μιμεῖται. καὶ τίνος ἡ κίνησις; ψυχῆς ἢ σώματος; [ἢ ψυχῆς]. τί οὖν; ὅτι ψυχὴ ἐν αὑτῇ ἔστι καὶ πρὸς αὑτὴν ἀεὶ σπεύδει ἰέναι; ἢ ἔστιν ἐν αὑτῇ οὐ συνεχὴς οὖσα; ἢ φερομένη συμφέρει; ἀλλ’ ἔδει συμφέρουσαν μηκέτι φέρειν, ἀλλ’ ἐνηνοχέναι, τουτέστι στῆναι μᾶλλον ποιῆσαι καὶ μὴ ἀεὶ κύκλῳ. ἢ καὶ αὐτὴ στήσεται ἤ, εἰ κινεῖται, οὔτι γε τοπικῶς. πῶς οὖν τοπικῶς κινεῖ αὐτὴ ἄλλον τρόπον κινουμένη; ἢ ἴσως οὐδὲ τοπικὴ ἡ κύκλῳ, ἀλλ’ εἰ ἄρα κατὰ συμβεβηκός. ποία οὖν τις; εἰς αὑτὴν συναισθητικὴ καὶ συννοητικὴ καὶ ζωτικὴ καὶ οὐδαμοῦ ἔξω οὐδ’ ἄλλοθι κατὰ τὸ πάντα δεῖν περιλαμβάνειν· τοῦ γὰρ ζῴου τὸ κύριον περιληπτικὸν καὶ ποιοῦν ἕν.
Why does it move in a circle? Because it imitates Intellect. And whose is the motion—soul’s or body’s? [Or soul’s.] What then? Is it because soul is in itself and always hastens to go toward itself? Or is it in itself without being continuous? Or does it carry the body along as it is carried? But then, in carrying it along, it should no longer be carrying it but have carried it—that is, rather, have brought it to a standstill, not keep it always going round. Or rather, soul itself too will stand still, or, if it moves, not in place. How, then, does it move the body in place, when it itself moves in another way? Or perhaps circular motion is not local either, except incidentally. What kind is it, then? A motion toward itself, a motion of self-awareness, of self-thinking, of life, nowhere outside and nowhere else, since it must encompass all things; for the sovereign part of a living being is what encompasses and makes it one.
οὐ περιλήψεται δὲ ζωτικῶς, εἰ μένοι, οὐδὲ σώσει τὰ ἔνδον σῶμα ἔχον· καὶ γὰρ σώματος ζωὴ [ἡ] κίνησις. εἰ οὖν καὶ τοπική, ὡς δυνήσεται κινήσεται καὶ οὐχ ὡς ψυχὴ μόνον, ἀλλ’ ὡς σῶμα ἔμψυχον καὶ ὡς ζῷον· ὥστε εἶναι μικτὴν ἐκ σωματικῆς καὶ ψυχικῆς, τοῦ μὲν σώματος εὐθὺ φερομένου φύσει, τῆς δὲ ψυχῆς κατεχούσης, ἐκ δ’ ἀμφοῖν γενομένην φερομένου τε καὶ μένοντος. εἰ δὲ σώματος ἡ κύκλῳ λέγοιτο, πῶς παντὸς εὐθυποροῦντος [ὡς] καὶ τοῦ πυρός; ἢ εὐθυπορεῖ, ἕως ἂν ἥκῃ εἰς τὸ οὗ τέτακται· ὡς γὰρ ἂν ταχθῇ, οὕτω δοκεῖ καὶ ἑστάναι κατὰ φύσιν καὶ φέρεσθαι εἰς ὃ ἐτάχθη. διὰ τί οὖν οὐ μένει ἐλθόν; ἆρα, ὅτι ἡ φύσις τῷ πυρὶ ἐν κινήσει; εἰ οὖν μὴ κύκλῳ, σκεδασθήσεται ἐπ’ εὐθύ· δεῖ ἄρα κύκλῳ.
But it will not encompass in a living way if it stays still, nor will it preserve what is within, since it has a body; for the life of a body is motion. If, then, the motion is also local, it will move as it can, not as soul alone but as ensouled body and as living being. So the motion is mixed of the bodily and the psychic: the body by nature moves in a straight line, the soul holds it back, and out of both comes the motion of something that both moves and stays. But if circular motion is said to belong to the body, how so, when every body, [as] fire too, moves in a straight line? Or rather, it moves in a straight line until it reaches the place where it has been set; for however it has been set, so it seems both to rest by nature and to move toward where it was set. Why then does it not stay still when it has arrived? Is it because the nature of fire is in motion? If, then, it does not move in a circle, it will scatter in a straight line; so it must move in a circle.
ἀλλὰ τοῦτο προνοίας· μᾶλλον δ’ αὐτῷ παρὰ τῆς προνοίας· ὥστε, εἰ ἐκεῖ γένοιτο, κύκλῳ κινεῖσθαι ἐξ αὑτοῦ.
But this is the work of providence. Or rather, it is in fire from providence; so that, once fire is up there, it moves in a circle of itself.
ἢ ἐφιέμενον τοῦ εὐθέος οὐκ ἔχον οὐκέτι τόπον ὥσπερ περιολισθάνον ἀνακάμπτει ἐν οἷς τόποις δύναται· οὐ γὰρ ἔχει τόπον μεθ’ ἑαυτό· οὗτος γὰρ ἔσχατος. θεῖ οὖν ἐν ᾧ ἔχει καὶ αὐτὸ αὑτοῦ τόπος, οὐχ ἵνα μένῃ [ἐκεῖ] γεγενημένον, ἀλλ’ ἵνα φέρηται. καὶ κύκλου δὲ τὸ μὲν κέντρον μένει κατὰ φύσιν, ἡ δὲ ἔξωθεν περιφέρεια εἰ μένοι, κέντρον ἔσται μέγα. μᾶλλον οὖν ἔσται περὶ τὸ κέντρον καὶ ζῶντι καὶ κατὰ φύσιν δὲ ἔχοντι σώματι. οὕτω γὰρ συννεύσει πρὸς τὸ κέντρον, οὐ τῇ συνιζήσει — ἀπολεῖ γὰρ τὸν κύκλον — ἀλλ’ ἐπεὶ τοῦτο οὐ δύναται, τῇ περιδινήσει· οὕτω γὰρ μόνως ἀποπληρώσει τὴν ἔφεσιν. εἰ ψυχὴ δὲ περιάγοι, οὐ καμεῖται· οὐ γὰρ ἕλκει, οὐδὲ παρὰ φύσιν· ἡ γὰρ φύσις τὸ ὑπὸ ψυχῆς τῆς πάσης ταχθέν.
Or rather, aiming at the straight but no longer having room, it slides round, as it were, and bends back within the places it can; for it has no place beyond itself, since this is the last. So it runs in the place it has, and is itself its own place, not in order to stay [there] once it has arrived, but in order to move. And in a circle, the center stays still by nature, but if the outer circumference stayed still, it would be a big center. So it will rather move around the center, being a body that is alive and in its natural state. For in this way it will converge on the center: not by collapsing inward, for that would destroy the circle, but, since it cannot do that, by whirling round; only so will it fulfil its desire. And if soul drives it round, it will not grow tired; for it does not drag it, nor is the motion against nature, since nature is what has been ordered by the whole Soul.
ἔτι πανταχοῦ οὖσα ἡ ψυχὴ ὅλη καὶ οὐ διειλημμένη ἡ τοῦ παντὸς κατὰ μέρος δίδωσι καὶ τῷ οὐρανῷ, ὡς δύναται, πανταχοῦ εἶναι· δύναται δὲ τῷ πάντα μετιέναι καὶ ἐπιπορεύεσθαι. ἔστη μὲν γάρ, εἴ που ἑστῶσα ἦν ἡ ψυχή, ἐλθὼν ἐκεῖ· νῦν δέ, ἐπειδὴ πᾶσά ἐστιν αὑτῆς, παντὸς ἐφίεται. τί οὖν; οὐδέποτε τεύξεται; ἢ οὕτως ἀεὶ τυγχάνει, μᾶλλον δὲ αὐτὴ πρὸς αὑτὴν ἄγουσα ἀεὶ ἐν τῷ ἀεὶ ἄγειν ἀεὶ κινεῖ, καὶ οὐκ ἀλλαχοῦ κινοῦσα ἀλλὰ πρὸς αὑτὴν ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ, οὐκ ἐπ’ εὐθὺ ἀλλὰ κύκλῳ ἄγουσα δίδωσιν αὐτῷ οὗ ἂν ἥκῃ ἐκεῖ ἔχειν αὐτήν. εἰ δὲ μένοι, ὡς ἐκεῖ οὔσης μόνον, οὗ ἕκαστον μένει, στήσεται. εἰ οὖν μὴ ἐκεῖ μόνον ὁπουοῦν, πανταχοῦ οἰσθήσεται καὶ οὐκ ἔξω· κύκλῳ ἄρα.
Again, since the Soul of the All is everywhere whole and not divided part by part, it gives the heaven too the power to be everywhere, as far as it can; and it can by passing through and traveling over all things. For the heaven would have stopped on arriving there, if the soul were standing still somewhere; but as it is, since soul is all its own, the heaven longs for all of it. What then? Will it never reach it? Or rather, it is always reaching it in this way. Or rather, soul, always leading it toward itself, always moves it in always leading it; and moving it not elsewhere but toward itself, in the same place, leading it not in a straight line but in a circle, it grants it to have soul wherever it comes. If it stayed still, as though soul were only there where each thing stays, it would stop. If, then, soul is not only in some one place, the heaven will be carried everywhere, and not outside—in a circle, then.
τὰ οὖν ἄλλα πῶς; ἢ οὐχ ὅλον ἕκαστον, μέρος δὲ καὶ κατεχόμενον μερικῷ τόπῳ. ἐκεῖνο δὲ ὅλον καὶ οἷον τόπος καὶ οὐδὲν κωλύει· αὐτὸ γὰρ τὸ πᾶν. πῶς οὖν ἄνθρωποι; ἤ, ὅσον παρὰ τοῦ παντός, μέρος, ὅσον δὲ αὐτοί, οἰκεῖον ὅλον. εἰ οὖν πανταχοῦ οὗ ἂν ᾖ ἔχει αὐτήν, τί δεῖ περιιέναι; ἢ ὅτι μὴ μόνον ἔχει. εἰ δὲ ἡ δύναμις αὐτῆς περὶ τὸ μέσον, καὶ ταύτῃ ἂν κύκλῳ· μέσον δὲ οὐχ ὡσαύτως σώματος καὶ φύσεως ψυχῆς ληπτέον, ἀλλ’ ἐκεῖ μὲν μέσον, ἀφ’ οὗ ἡ ἄλλη, τοπικῶς δὲ σώματος. ἀνάλογον οὖν δεῖ [λαβεῖν] τὸ μέσον· ὡς γὰρ ἐκεῖ, οὕτως καὶ ἐνταῦθα μέσον δεῖ εἶναι, ὃ μόνως ἐστὶ μέσον σώματος σφαιρικοῦ· ὡς γὰρ ἐκεῖνο περὶ αὑτό, οὕτω καὶ τοῦτο.
What about the other things, then? Or rather, each of them is not a whole but a part, held in a partial place. But the heaven is whole and is, as it were, place, and nothing hinders it; for it is the All itself. What about human beings, then? Or rather, insofar as they come from the All, they are a part; insofar as they are themselves, each is its own whole. If, then, wherever it is, it has soul, why must it go round? Or rather, because it does not have it only there. And if soul’s power is around the center, in this way too it would move in a circle. But “center” must not be understood in the same way for body and for the nature of soul: there, the center is that from which the rest comes; for body it is local. So we must [take] the center by analogy: as there, so here too there must be a center, which alone is the center of a spherical body; for as that is around itself, so is this.
εἰ δὴ ψυχή ἐστι περιθέουσα τὸν θεόν, ἀμφαγαπάζεται καὶ περὶ αὐτὸν ὡς οἷόν τε αὐτῇ ἔχει· ἐξήρτηται γὰρ αὐτοῦ πάντα. ἐπεὶ οὖν οὐκ ἔστι πρὸς αὐτόν, περὶ αὐτόν. πῶς οὖν οὐ πᾶσαι οὕτως; ἢ ἑκάστη ὅπου ἐστὶν οὕτως. διὰ τί οὖν οὐ καὶ τὰ σώματα ἡμῶν οὕτως; ὅτι τὸ εὐθύπορον προσήρτηται καὶ πρὸς ἄλλα αἱ ὁρμαὶ καὶ τὸ σφαιροειδὲς ἡμῶν οὐκ εὔτροχον· γεηρὸν γάρ· ἐκεῖ δὲ συνέπεται λεπτὸν καὶ εὐκίνητον· διὰ τί γὰρ ἂν καὶ σταίη ἡντιναοῦν κίνησιν τῆς ψυχῆς κινουμένης; ἴσως δὲ καὶ παρ’ ἡμῖν τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ περὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ταὐτὸ ποιεῖ. εἰ γὰρ ἔστιν ὁ θεὸς ἐν πᾶσι, τὴν συνεῖναι βουλομένην ψυχὴν περὶ αὐτὸν δεῖ γίνεσθαι· οὐ γάρ πῃ.
If, then, it is soul that runs around the god, it embraces him lovingly and holds itself around him as far as it can; for all things depend on him. Since, then, it cannot go to him, it goes around him. Why then do not all souls do so? Or rather, each does so where it is. Why then do our bodies not do so too? Because the straight-moving is attached to them, their impulses are toward other things, and our spherical part does not roll easily, being earthy; but up there the body follows along, fine and easily moved—for why should it stand still at all, whatever motion the soul moves with? Perhaps in us too the breath around the soul does the same. For if the god is in all things, the soul that wants to be with him must come to be around him; for he is not in any one place.
καὶ Πλάτων δὲ τοῖς ἄστροις οὐ μόνον τὴν μετὰ τοῦ ὅλου σφαιρικὴν κίνησιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἑκάστῳ δίδωσι τὴν περὶ τὸ κέντρον αὐτῶν· ἕκαστον γὰρ οὗ ἔστι περιειληφὸς τὸν θεὸν ἀγάλλεται οὐ λογισμῷ ἀλλὰ φυσικαῖς ἀνάγκαις.
And Plato gives the stars not only the spherical motion together with the whole, but also, to each, a motion around its own center; for each, where it is, embracing the god, rejoices—not by reasoning but by natural necessities.
ἔστω δὲ καὶ ὧδε· τῆς ψυχῆς ἡ μέν τις δύναμις ἡ ἐσχάτη ἀπὸ γῆς ἀρξαμένη καὶ δι’ ὅλου διαπλακεῖσά ἐστιν, ἡ δὲ αἰσθάνεσθαι πεφυκυῖα καὶ ἡ λόγον δοξαστικὸν δεχομένη πρὸς τὸ ἄνω ἐν ταῖς σφαίραις ἑαυτὴν ἔχει ἐποχουμένη καὶ τῇ προτέρᾳ καὶ δύναμιν διδοῦσα παρ’ αὑτῆς εἰς τὸ ποιεῖν ζωτικωτέραν. κινεῖται οὖν ὑπ’ αὐτῆς κύκλῳ περιεχούσης καὶ ἐφιδρυμένης παντὶ ὅσον αὐτῆς εἰς τὰς σφαίρας ἀνέδραμε. κύκλῳ οὖν ἐκείνης περιεχούσης συννεύουσα ἐπιστρέφεται πρὸς αὐτήν, ἡ δὲ ἐπιστροφὴ αὐτῆς περιάγει τὸ σῶμα, ἐν ᾧ ἐμπέπλεκται. ἑκάστου γὰρ μορίου κἂν ὁπωσοῦν κινηθέντος ἐν σφαίρᾳ, εἰ μένον κινοῖτο, ἔσεισεν ἐν ᾧ ἔστι καὶ τῇ σφαίρᾳ κίνησις γίνεται.
Let us put it this way too. One power of soul, the last, starting from the earth, is woven through the whole; while the power that is by nature perceptive and receives opinion-forming reason keeps itself above, in the spheres, riding on the former and giving it from itself the power to make it more alive. So the lower power is moved in a circle by the higher, which encompasses it and is seated upon all of it that has run up into the spheres. Since the higher encompasses it in a circle, the lower converges and turns back toward it, and its turning back carries round the body in which it is interwoven. For when any part in a sphere moves in any way at all, if it moves while remaining in place, it shakes what it is in, and the sphere moves too.
καὶ γὰρ ἐπὶ τῶν σωμάτων τῶν ἡμετέρων τῆς ψυχῆς ἄλλως κινουμένης, οἷον ἐν χαραῖς καὶ τῷ φανέντι ἀγαθῷ, τοῦ σώματος ἡ κίνησις καὶ τοπικὴ γίνεται. ἐκεῖ δὴ ἐν ἀγαθῷ γινομένη ψυχὴ καὶ αἰσθητικωτέρα γενομένη κινεῖται πρὸς τὸ ἀγαθὸν καὶ σείει ὡς πέφυκεν ἐκεῖ τοπικῶς τὸ σῶμα. ἥ τε αἰσθητικὴ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἄνω αὖ καὶ αὐτὴ τὸ ἀγαθὸν λαβοῦσα καὶ τὰ αὑτῆς ἡσθεῖσα διώκουσα αὐτὸ ὂν πανταχοῦ πρὸς τὸ πανταχοῦ συμφέρεται. ὁ δὲ νοῦς οὔπω κινεῖται· ἕστηκε γὰρ καὶ κινεῖται· περὶ αὑτὸν γάρ. οὕτως οὖν καὶ τὸ πᾶν τῷ κύκλῳ κινεῖσθαι ἅμα καὶ ἕστηκεν.
For in our bodies too, when the soul moves in a different way—in joy, for instance, or when some good appears—the body’s motion becomes local as well. Up there, then, soul, coming to be in the good and becoming more perceptive, moves toward the good and shakes the body locally, as is natural there. And the perceptive power, in its turn receiving the good from above and delighting in what is its own, pursues it, and since the good is everywhere, it is carried toward the everywhere. Intellect, however, does not move in this sense: it stands still and moves, for it moves around itself. So the All too, in moving in a circle, at the same time stands still.