Τῶν μὲν αἱ ὑποστάσεις γίνονται μενόντων ἐκείνων, ἡ δὲ ψυχὴ κινουμένη ἐλέγετο γεννᾶν καὶ αἴσθησιν τὴν ἐν ὑποστάσει καὶ φύσιν καὶ μέχρι φυτῶν. καὶ γὰρ ἔχει αὐτὴν καὶ ἐν ἡμῖν οὖσα, [οὐ] κρατεῖ δὲ μέρος οὖσα· ὅταν δὲ ἐν φυτοῖς γένηται, αὕτη κρατεῖ οἷον μόνη γενομένη. αὕτη μὲν οὖν οὐδὲν γεννᾷ, [ἢ] γεννᾷ πάντη ἕτερον αὑτῆς· οὐκέτι γὰρ ζωὴ μετὰ ταύτην, ἀλλὰ τὸ γεννώμενον ἄζων. τί οὖν; ἤ, ὥσπερ πᾶν, ὅσον πρὸ τούτου ἐγεννᾶτο, ἀμόρφωτον ἐγεννᾶτο, εἰδοποιεῖτο δὲ τῷ ἐπιστρέφεσθαι πρὸς τὸ γεννῆσαν οἷον ἐκτρεφόμενον, οὕτω δεῖ καὶ ἐνταῦθα τὸ γεννηθὲν οὐ ψυχῆς ἔτι εἶδος, οὐ γὰρ ἔτι ζῇ, ἀλλ’ ἀοριστίαν εἶναι παντελῆ.
Some things give rise to hypostases while they themselves remain at rest; but Soul, as we said, generates while in motion—perception, as a hypostasis, and nature, and so on down to plants. For soul has nature even when it is in us, and there it dominates as a part; when it comes into plants, it dominates as if it had become alone. Does this, then, generate nothing? [Or rather,] it generates something altogether other than itself; for after it there is no longer life, and what it generates is lifeless. What then? Just as everything that was generated before this was generated unshaped, and was given form by turning back toward what generated it, as if being reared, so here too what is generated must be no longer a form of soul—for it no longer lives—but total indefiniteness.
εἰ μὲν γὰρ κἂν τοῖς προτέροις ἡ ἀοριστία, ἀλλ’ ἐν εἴδει· οὐ γὰρ πάντη ἀόριστον, ἀλλ’ ὡς πρὸς τὴν τελείωσιν αὐτοῦ· τὸ δὲ νῦν πάντη. τελειούμενον δὲ γίνεται σῶμα μορφὴν λαβὸν τὴν τῇ αὑτοῦ δυνάμει πρόσφορον, ὑποδοχὴ τοῦ γεννήσαντος καὶ ἐκθρέψαντος, καὶ μόνον τοῦτο ἐν σώματι ἔσχατον τῶν ἄνω ἐν ἐσχάτῳ τοῦ κάτω
For even if there was indefiniteness in the earlier stages too, it was within form: it was not altogether indefinite, but only in relation to its own perfection. What we have now is altogether indefinite. When it is perfected, it becomes body, taking on a shape suited to its power, a receptacle for what generated and reared it; and this alone in body is the last of the things above, in the last of what is below.
καὶ τὸ ‘ψυχὴ πᾶσα ἐπιμελεῖται τοῦ ἀψύχου’ ἐπὶ ταύτης μάλιστα· αἱ δ’ ἄλλαι ἄλλως. ‘πάντα δὲ οὐρανὸν περιπολεῖ ἄλλοτε ἐν ἄλλοις εἴδεσιν’ ἢ ἐν αἰσθητικῷ εἴδει ἢ ἐν λογικῷ ἢ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ φυτικῷ. τὸ γὰρ κρατοῦν αὐτῆς μόριον τὸ ἑαυτῷ πρόσφορον ποιεῖ, τὰ δ’ ἄλλα ἀργεῖ· ἔξω γάρ. ἐν δὲ ἀνθρώπῳ οὐ κρατεῖ τὰ χείρω, ἀλλὰ σύνεστιν· οὐδέ γε τὸ κρεῖττον ἀεί· ἔστι γὰρ καὶ ταῦτα χώραν τινὰ ἔχοντα. διὸ καὶ ὡς αἰσθητικοί· ἔστι γὰρ καὶ ὄργανα αἰσθήσεως· καὶ πολλὰ ὡς φυτά· ἔστι γὰρ σῶμα αὐξόμενον καὶ γεννῶν· ὥστε πάντα συνεργεῖ, κατὰ δὲ τὸ κρεῖττον τὸ ὅλον εἶδος ἄνθρωπος. ἐξελθοῦσα δέ, ὅτι περ ἐπλεόνασε, τοῦτο γίνεται.
And the saying “all soul cares for what is soulless” applies above all to this soul; the others care for it in other ways. “It travels about the whole heaven, appearing now in one form, now in another”—in the perceptive form, or the rational, or the vegetative itself. For the part of it that dominates does what suits it, while the other parts are idle, since they are outside. In a human being the worse parts do not dominate, but they are there alongside; nor, for that matter, does the better always dominate, for the others too have a certain place. That is why we are also perceivers, since there are organs of perception too; and in many ways we are like plants, since there is a body that grows and reproduces. So all the parts work together, but it is by the better that the form as a whole is human. When the soul leaves the body, it becomes whatever has predominated in it.
διὸ φεύγειν δεῖ πρὸς τὸ ἄνω, ἵνα μὴ εἰς τὴν αἰσθητικὴν ἐπακολουθοῦντες τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς εἰδώλοις, μηδὲ εἰς τὴν φυτικὴν ἐπακολουθοῦντες τῇ ἐφέσει τοῦ γεννᾶν καὶ ἐδωδῶν λιχνείαις, ἀλλ’ εἰς τὸ νοερὸν καὶ νοῦν καὶ θεόν. ὅσοι μὲν οὖν τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἐτήρησαν, πάλιν ἄνθρωποι· ὅσοι δὲ αἰσθήσει μόνον ἔζησαν, ζῷα. ἀλλ’ εἰ μὲν αἰσθήσει μετὰ θυμοῦ, τὰ ἄγρια, καὶ ἡ διαφορὰ ἡ ἐν τούτοις τὸ διάφορον τῶν τοιούτων ποιεῖ· ὅσοι δὲ μετ’ ἐπιθυμίας καὶ ἡδονῆς τοῦ ἐπιθυμοῦντος, τὰ ἀκόλαστα τῶν ζῴων καὶ γαστρίμαργα. εἰ δὲ μηδὲ αἰσθήσει μετὰ τούτων, ἀλλὰ νωθείᾳ αἰσθήσεως μετ’ αὐτῶν, καὶ φυτά· μόνον γὰρ τοῦτο ἢ μάλιστα ἐνήργει τὸ φυτικόν, καὶ ἦν αὐτοῖς μελέτη δενδρωθῆναι.
That is why we must flee upward, so that we do not sink to the perceptive, following the images of sense, nor to the vegetative, following the urge to reproduce and the greed for food, but rise to the intellectual, to Intellect and god. Those who kept the human being in them become human again; those who lived by perception alone become animals. If they lived by perception together with temper, they become wild animals, and the differences among these make the differences among such beasts; those who lived with desire and the pleasure of the desiring part become the lustful and gluttonous animals. And if they did not even live by perception with these, but with a dullness of perception along with them, they become plants as well; for it was only, or chiefly, the vegetative part that was active in them, and they had been practicing to become trees.
τοὺς δὲ φιλομούσους μέν, καθαρίους δὲ τὰ ἄλλα, εἰς τὰ ᾠδικά· τοὺς δὲ ἀλόγως βασιλέας [εἰς] ἀετούς, εἰ μὴ ἄλλη κακία παρείη· μετεωρολόγους δὲ ἄνευ φρονήσεως εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀεὶ αἰρομένους εἰς ὄρνεις μετεώρους ταῖς πτήσεσιν. ὁ δὲ τὴν πολιτικὴν ἀρετὴν [τηρήσας] ἄνθρωπος· ὁ δὲ ἧττον ἀρετῆς πολιτικῆς μετέχων πολιτικὸν ζῷον, μέλιττα ἢ τὰ τοιαῦτα.
Those who loved music but were otherwise pure become songbirds; kings who ruled without reason become eagles, unless some other vice is present; those who studied the heavens without understanding, always soaring up into the sky, become birds that fly high. The one who [kept] civic virtue becomes human; one who has a smaller share of civic virtue becomes a social creature, a bee or the like.
τίς οὖν δαίμων; ὁ καὶ ἐνταῦθα. τίς δὲ θεός; ἢ ὁ ἐνταῦθα· τὸ γὰρ ἐνεργῆσαν τοῦτο ἕκαστον ἄγει, ἅτε καὶ ἐνταῦθα ἡγούμενον. ἆρ’ οὖν τοῦτό ἐστιν ὁ δαίμων, ὅσπερ ζῶντα εἰλήχει; ἢ οὔ, ἀλλὰ τὸ πρὸ αὐτοῦ· τοῦτο γὰρ ἐφέστηκεν ἀργοῦν, ἐνεργεῖ δὲ τὸ μετ’ αὐτό. καὶ εἰ μὲν τὸ ἐνεργοῦν ᾗ αἰσθητικοί, ὁ δαίμων τὸ λογικόν· εἰ δὲ κατὰ τὸ λογικὸν ζῶμεν, ὁ δαίμων τὸ ὑπὲρ τοῦτο ἐφεστὼς ἀργὸς συγχωρῶν τῷ ἐργαζομένῳ. ὀρθῶς οὖν λέγεται ἡμᾶς αἱρήσεσθαι. τὸν γὰρ ὑπερκείμενον κατὰ τὴν ζωὴν αἱρούμεθα. διὰ τί οὖν αὐτὸς ἄγει; ἢ τὸν βιοτεύσαντα οὐκ ἔστιν ἄγειν, ἀλλὰ πρὸ τοῦ μὲν ἄγειν, ὅτε ἔζη, παυσάμενον δὲ τοῦ ζῆν ἄλλῳ παραχωρεῖν τὴν ἐνέργειαν τεθνηκότα τὴν αὑτοῦ κατ’ ἐνέργειαν ζωήν.
Who, then, is the guardian spirit? The one that is ours here too. And who is the god? Or rather, the one here too. For what has been active in each person leads him, since here too it was in charge. Is this, then, the guardian spirit that had him as its lot while he was living? No: it is what comes before it. For that presides, idle, while what comes after it is active. If what is active is that by which we are perceivers, the guardian spirit is the rational part; if we live by the rational part, the guardian spirit is what is above it, presiding, idle, and giving way to what is at work. So it is rightly said that we shall choose: for we choose, by the life we lead, the one that stands above us. Why, then, does it lead? Or rather: it is not possible to lead someone who has finished his life. It led before, while he lived; when it stops living, it hands over its activity to another, having died to its own active life.
ὁ μὲν οὖν ἐθέλει ἄγειν καὶ κρατήσας ζῇ αὐτὸς ἄλλον καὶ αὐτὸς ἔχων δαίμονα· εἰ δὲ βαρύνοιτο τῇ ῥώσει τοῦ χείρονος ἤθους, ἔχει ἐκεῖνος τὴν δίκην. ταύτῃ καὶ ὁ κακὸς ἐπὶ τὸ χεῖρον βρίσαντος πρὸς τὴν ὁμοιότητα τοῦ ἐνεργήσαντος ἐν τῇ ζωῇ εἰς βίον θήρειον. εἰ δὲ ἕπεσθαι δύναιτο τῷ δαίμονι τῷ ἄνω αὑτοῦ, ἄνω γίνεται [κατ’] ἐκεῖνον ζῶν καὶ ἐφ’ ὃ ἄγεται κρεῖττον μέρος αὑτοῦ ἐν προστασίᾳ θέμενος καὶ μετ’ ἐκεῖνον ἄλλον ἕως ἄνω.
This other one wants to lead, and when it has prevailed it lives itself, and it too has another as its guardian spirit. But if a person is weighed down by the strength of the worse character, he pays the penalty. In this way the bad person too, since his worse side has dragged him down, sinks into the life of a beast, in keeping with what was active in his life. But if he can follow the guardian spirit above him, he rises, living [according to] that spirit, and puts in charge that better part of himself toward which he is being led, and after that another, until he reaches the top.
ἔστι γὰρ καὶ πολλὰ ἡ ψυχὴ καὶ πάντα καὶ τὰ ἄνω καὶ τὰ κάτω αὖ μέχρι πάσης ζωῆς καὶ ἐσμὲν ἕκαστος κόσμος νοητός, τοῖς μὲν κάτω συνάπτοντες τῷδε, τοῖς δὲ ἄνω τῷ νοητῷ, καὶ μένομεν τῷ μὲν ἄλλῳ παντὶ νοητῷ ἄνω, τῷ δὲ ἐσχάτῳ αὐτοῦ πεπεδήμεθα τῷ κάτω οἷον ἀπόρροιαν ἀπ’ ἐκείνου διδόντες εἰς τὸ κάτω, μᾶλλον δὲ ἐνέργειαν, ἐκείνου οὐκ ἐλαττουμένου.
For the soul is many things and all things, both those above and those below, down through every kind of life; and each of us is an intelligible world, linked to this world by what is lower in us and to the intelligible by what is higher. With all the rest of what is intelligible in us we remain above, but by its last part we are bound to what is below, giving, as it were, an emanation from it to what is below—or rather an activity—while that is not diminished.
ἆρ’ οὖν ἀεὶ ἐν σώματι τοῦτο; ἢ οὔ· ἐὰν γὰρ στραφῶμεν συνεπιστρέφεται καὶ τοῦτο. τί οὖν ἡ τοῦ παντός; ἀποστήσεται καὶ τὸ αὐτῆς μέρος στραφείσης; ἢ οὐδὲ συνένευσε τῷ μέρει αὑτῆς τῷ ἐσχάτῳ· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἦλθεν οὐδὲ κατῆλθεν, ἀλλὰ μενούσης προσάπτεται τὸ σῶμα τοῦ κόσμου καὶ οἷον καταλάμπεται οὐκ ἐνοχλοῦν οὐδὲ παρέχον μερίμνας ἐν ἀσφαλεῖ τοῦ κόσμου κειμένου. τί οὖν; οὐκ αἰσθάνεταί τινα αἴσθησιν; ‘ὅρασιν οὐκ ἔχει’, φησίν, ὅτι μηδὲ ὀφθαλμούς· οὐδὲ ὦτα οὐδὲ ῥῖνας δηλονότι οὐδὲ γλῶτταν. τί οὖν; συναίσθησιν ὥσπερ ἡμεῖς τῶν ἐντὸς ἡμῶν; ἢ ὁμοίως κατὰ φύσιν ἐχόντων ἠρέμησις. οὐδὲ ἡδονή. πάρεστιν οὖν καὶ τὸ φυτικὸν οὐ παρὸν καὶ τὸ αἰσθητικὸν ὡσαύτως. ἀλλὰ περὶ μὲν τοῦ κόσμου ἐν ἄλλοις· νῦν δὲ ὅσον ἐφήπτετο ἡ ἀπορία αὐτοῦ εἴρηται.
Is this, then, always in body? No: if we turn, it turns along with us. What, then, of the Soul of the All? When it turns, will its part withdraw too? Or rather, it did not even incline with its last part: it neither came nor came down. While it remains, the body of the cosmos attaches itself to it and is, as it were, lit up by it, causing it no trouble or anxiety, since the cosmos lies in safety. What then? Does it have no perception of any kind? “It has no sight,” he says, since it has no eyes either; nor, obviously, ears or nostrils or tongue. What then? Does it have self-awareness, as we have of what goes on inside us? Or rather, since everything is uniformly in its natural state, there is rest. Nor is there pleasure. So the vegetative part is present without being present, and the perceptive likewise. But we have spoken of the cosmos elsewhere; for now, we have said as much as the problem touched on it.
ἀλλ’ εἰ ἐκεῖ αἱρεῖται τὸν δαίμονα καὶ τὸν βίον, πῶς ἔτι τινὸς κύριοι; ἢ καὶ ἡ αἵρεσις ἐκεῖ ἡ λεγομένη τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς προαίρεσιν καὶ διάθεσιν καθόλου καὶ πανταχοῦ αἰνίττεται. ἀλλ’ εἰ ἡ προαίρεσις τῆς ψυχῆς κυρία καὶ τοῦτο κρατεῖ, ὃ ἂν πρόχειρον ἔχῃ μέρος ἐκ τῶν προβεβιωμένων, οὐκέτι τὸ σῶμα αἴτιον οὐδενὸς κακοῦ αὐτῇ· εἰ γὰρ προτερεῖ τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς ἦθος τοῦ σώματος καὶ τοῦτο ἔχει, ὃ εἵλετο, καὶ ‘τὸν δαίμονα’, φησίν, ‘οὐκ ἀλλάττεται’, οὔτε ὁ σπουδαῖος ἐνταῦθα γίνεται οὔτε ὁ φαῦλος. ἆρ’ οὖν δυνάμει ἔστιν ἑκάτερος, ἐνεργείᾳ δὲ γίνεται; τί οὖν, εἰ φαύλου σώματος ὁ τὸ ἦθος σπουδαῖος τύχοι, ὁ δὲ τἀναντία;
But if the soul chooses its guardian spirit and its life there, how are we still in control of anything? Or rather, the choice spoken of there is a riddling way of pointing to the soul’s deliberate choice and disposition in general, and everywhere. But if the soul’s deliberate choice is in control, and what dominates is whichever part it has ready to hand from its previous lives, then the body is no longer the cause of any evil for it. For if the soul’s character comes before the body, and it has what it chose, and “it does not change its guardian spirit,” as he says, then neither the good person nor the bad one comes to be such here. Is each, then, so potentially, and does he become so actually? What then if someone good in character happens on a bad body, and someone else the reverse?
ἢ δύναται μᾶλλον καὶ ἧττον τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς ἑκατέρας ἑκάτερα τὰ σώματα παρέχεσθαι, ἐπεὶ καὶ αἱ ἄλλαι ἔξωθεν τύχαι τὴν ὅλην προαίρεσιν οὐκ ἐκβιβάζουσιν. ὅταν δὲ λέγηται, ὡς πρῶτον οἱ κλῆροι, εἶτα τὰ τῶν βίων παραδείγματα, ἔπειτα τὰ ἐν ταῖς τύχαις, καὶ ὡς ἐκ τῶν παρόντων τοὺς βίους κατὰ τὰ ἤθη [αἱροῦνται], τὸ κύριον μᾶλλον δίδωσι ταῖς ψυχαῖς διατιθείσαις τὰ δοθέντα πρὸς τὰ αὑτῶν ἤθη. ὅτι γὰρ ὁ δαίμων οὗτος οὐ παντάπασιν ἔξω, ἀλλ’ οὕτως, ὡς μὴ συνδεδεμένος οὐδ’ ἐνεργῶν, ἡμέτερος δὲ ὡς ψυχῆς πέρι εἰπεῖν, οὐχ ἡμέτερος δέ, ὡς ἄνθρωποι τοιοίδε τὴν ὑπ’ αὐτὸν ζωὴν ἔχοντες, μαρτυρεῖ τὰ ἐν τῷ Τιμαίῳ· ἃ εἰ μὲν οὕτω ληφθείη, οὐδεμίαν ἕξει μάχην σχόντα ἄν τινα ἀσυμφωνίαν, εἰ ἄλλως ὁ δαίμων ληφθείη.
Or rather, either kind of body can bring out, more or less, what belongs to either kind of soul, since other external fortunes do not dislodge the choice as a whole either. When it is said that first come the lots, then the patterns of lives, and then what lies in fortune, and that souls [choose] their lives from what is available according to their characters, he gives the controlling role rather to the souls, which adapt what they have been given to their own characters. For the passage in the Timaeus bears witness that this guardian spirit is not altogether outside us, though not in the sense of being bound to us or active in us; it is ours as regards the soul, but not ours as regards us as human beings of a certain kind, living the life under it. If those statements are taken this way, they will involve no conflict, whereas they would show some discord if the guardian spirit were taken otherwise.
τὸ δὲ ‘ἀποπληρωτὴν ὧν τις εἵλετο’ καὶ αὐτὸ σύμφωνον. οὔτε γὰρ πολὺ κατωτέρω ἐᾷ ἐλθεῖν εἰς τὸ χεῖρον ὑπερκαθήμενος, ἀλλ’ ἐκεῖνο ἐνεργεῖ μόνον τὸ ὑπ’ αὐτόν, οὔτε ὑπεράνω αὑτοῦ οὔτε εἰς ἴσον· οὐ γὰρ δύναται ἄλλο γενέσθαι ἢ ᾗ ἔστιν.
And the phrase “fulfiller of what one chose” fits too. For, presiding above, it does not let one go much further down into the worse; only what is under it is active, not what is above it or on its level. For one cannot become anything other than what one is.
τίς οὖν ὁ σπουδαῖος; ἢ ὁ τῷ βελτίονι ἐνεργῶν. ἢ οὐκ ἂν ἦν σπουδαῖος συνεργοῦντα ἑαυτῷ τὸν δαίμονα ἔχων; νοῦς γὰρ ἐνεργεῖ ἐν τούτῳ. ἢ οὖν δαίμων αὐτὸς ἢ κατὰ δαίμονα καὶ δαίμων τούτῳ θεός. ἆρ’ οὖν καὶ ὑπὲρ νοῦν, εἰ τὸ ὑπὲρ νοῦν δαίμων αὐτῷ; διὰ τί οὖν οὐκ ἐξ ἀρχῆς; ἢ διὰ τὸν θόρυβον τὸν ἐκ τῆς γενέσεως. ὑπάρχει δὲ ὅμως καὶ πρὸ λόγου ἡ κίνησις ἡ ἔνδοθεν ὀρεγομένη τῶν αὑτῆς. πάντως οὖν κατορθοῖ; ἢ οὐ πάντως, εἴπερ οὕτως ἡ ψυχὴ διαθέσεως ἔχει, ὡς ἐν τούτοις τοῖς τοιοῖσδε τοιάδε οὖσα τοιοῦτον ἔχειν βίον καὶ τοιαύτην προαίρεσιν. ὁ μέντοι δαίμων οὗτος, ὃν λέγομεν, ἀγαγὼν λέγεται εἰς ᾅδου οὐκέτι ὁ αὐτὸς μένειν, ἐὰν μὴ τὰ αὐτὰ ἕληται πάλιν. πρὸ δὲ τοῦ πῶς;
Who, then, is the good person? The one who is active with the better part. Or would he not be good precisely by having his guardian spirit work along with him? For intellect is active in him. So either he is himself a guardian spirit, or he lives in accordance with a guardian spirit, and his guardian spirit is a god. Is it, then, even beyond intellect, if what is beyond intellect is his guardian spirit? Why, then, not from the beginning? Because of the turmoil that comes with birth. Still, even before reason there is the inner movement that reaches out for what is its own. Does it, then, always succeed? Not always, since the soul is so disposed that, being of this kind in circumstances of this kind, it has this kind of life and this kind of choice. This guardian spirit we are speaking of, though, is said, after leading the soul to Hades, to remain no longer the same, unless the soul chooses the same things again. But before that, how?
τὸ δὴ ἀγαγεῖν εἰς τὴν κρίσιν τὸ εἰς τὸ αὐτὸ σχῆμα ἐλθεῖν μετὰ τὴν ἀπογένεσιν, ὃ εἶχε πρὸ τῆς γενέσεως· εἶτα ὥσπερ ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς ἄλλης τὸν μεταξὺ τῆς ὕστερον γενέσεως χρόνον ταῖς κολαζομέναις πάρεστιν. ἢ οὐδὲ βίος αὐταῖς, ἀλλὰ δίκη. τί δέ; ταῖς εἰς θήρεια σώματα εἰσιούσαις ἔλαττον; ἢ δαίμων ἢ πονηρός γε ἢ εὐήθης. ταῖς δὲ ἄνω; ἢ τῶν ἄνω αἱ μὲν ἐν αἰσθητῷ, αἱ δὲ ἔξω.
To lead to judgment means to come, after departing from birth, into the same state the soul had before birth. Then, as if from a fresh beginning, it is present to the souls that are being punished, for the time until their later birth. Or rather, that is not even a life for them, but a penalty. What, then, of souls entering the bodies of beasts—do they have something less? Or rather, they have a guardian spirit, a wicked one, or at least a foolish one. And the souls above? Of those above, some are in the perceptible world, others outside it.
αἱ μὲν οὖν ἐν αἰσθητῷ ἢ ἐν ἡλίῳ ἢ ἐν ἄλλῳ τῶν πλανωμένων, αἱ δ’ ἐν τῇ ἀπλανεῖ ἑκάστη καθὸ λογικῶς ἐνήργησεν ἐνταῦθα· χρὴ γὰρ οἴεσθαι καὶ κόσμον εἶναι ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ ἡμῶν μὴ μόνον νοητόν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ψυχῆς τῆς κόσμου ὁμοειδῆ διάθεσιν· νενεμημένης οὖν κἀκείνης εἴς τε τὴν ἀπλανῆ καὶ τὰς πλανωμένας κατὰ δυνάμεις διαφόρους ὁμοειδεῖς ταύταις ταῖς δυνάμεσι καὶ τὰς παρ’ ἡμῖν εἶναι καὶ ἐνέργειαν εἶναι παρ’ ἑκάστης καὶ ἀπαλλαγείσας ἐκεῖ γίνεσθαι πρὸς ἄστρον τὸ σύμφωνον τῷ ἐνεργήσοντι καὶ ζήσαντι ἤθει καὶ δυνάμει καὶ τοιούτῳ θεῷ καὶ δαίμονί γε ἢ αὐτῷ τούτῳ χρήσεσθαι ἢ τῷ ὑπὲρ ταύτην τὴν δύναμιν· σκεπτέον δὲ τοῦτο βέλτιον· τὰς δὴ ἔξω γενομένας τὴν δαιμονίαν φύσιν ὑπερβεβηκέναι καὶ πᾶσαν εἱμαρμένην γενέσεως καὶ ὅλως [τὸ] ἐν τῷδε τῷ ὁρατῷ, ἕως ἐστὶν ἐκεῖ, συνανενεχθείσης καὶ τῆς ἐν αὐτῇ φιλογενέσεως οὐσίας, ἣν εἴ τις λέγοι ταύτην εἶναι τὴν περὶ τὰ σώματα γινομένην μεριστὴν συμπληθύνουσαν ἑαυτὴν καὶ συμμερίζουσαν τοῖς σώμασιν, ὀρθῶς λέξει.
Those in the perceptible world are in the sun or in another of the planets, others in the sphere of the fixed stars, each according to how it was rationally active here. For we must believe that there is a world in our soul too: not only an intelligible one, but also a disposition of the same form as that of the World Soul. Since that Soul is distributed over the fixed sphere and the planets according to different powers, we must think that the powers in us too are of the same form as these powers, and that an activity comes from each; and that souls, when released, go there, to the star that is in tune with the character and power that was active and lived in them; and that they will have that kind of god, or guardian spirit, either this very power or the one above it—this must be examined more carefully. Those that have gone outside, we must think, have transcended the nature of guardian spirits and all the fate of birth, and in general what is in this visible world, for as long as they are there, since the part of their being that loves birth has been carried up with them too. And if someone said that this is the being that becomes divided about bodies, multiplying itself and dividing itself along with bodies, he would be right.
μερίζεται δὲ οὐ μεγέθει· τὸ γὰρ αὐτὸ ἐν πᾶσιν ὅλον καὶ πάλιν ἓν καὶ ἐξ ἑνὸς ζῴου ἀεὶ πολλὰ γεννᾶται ταύτης μεριζομένης οὕτως, ὥσπερ καὶ ἐκ τῶν φυτῶν· περὶ τὰ σώματα γὰρ καὶ αὕτη μεριστή. καὶ ὁτὲ μὲν μένουσα ἐπὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ δίδωσιν, οἷον ἡ ἐν τοῖς φυτοῖς· ὁτὲ δὲ ἀπελθοῦσα πρὶν ἀπελθεῖν ἔδωκεν, οἷον καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀνῃρημένοις φυτοῖς ἢ ἐν ζῴοις ἀποθανοῦσιν ἐκ σήψεως πολλῶν ἐξ ἑνὸς γεννηθέντων. συνενεργεῖν δὲ καὶ ἐκ τοῦ παντὸς τὴν τοιαύτην δύναμιν ἐνταῦθα τὴν αὐτὴν οὖσαν. πάλιν δὲ ἐὰν ἴῃ ἡ ψυχὴ ἐνταῦθα, ἢ τὸν αὐτὸν ἢ ἄλλον ἔχει δαίμονα κατὰ τὴν ζωήν, ἣν ποιήσεται.
But it is not divided by magnitude: the same thing is whole in all, and one again, and from one living being many are always generated, as this soul is divided in this way—just as from plants too; for this soul too is divided about bodies. Sometimes, remaining in the same body, it gives, like the soul in plants; at other times it leaves, but has given before leaving, as in plants that have been cut down or in dead animals, when many are generated from one by putrefaction. And we must think that the corresponding power from the All, being the same, works along with it here. And if the soul comes here again, it has the same or another guardian spirit, according to the life it is going to lead.
ἐπιβαίνει οὖν μετὰ τούτου τοῦ δαίμονος ὥσπερ σκάφους τοῦδε τοῦ παντὸς πρῶτον, εἶτα παραλαβοῦσα ἡ τοῦ ἀτράκτου λεγομένη φύσις κατέταξεν ὥσπερ ἐν νηὶ εἴς τινα ἕδραν τύχης. περιαγούσης δὲ τῆς περιφορᾶς ὥσπερ πνεύματος τὸν ἐπὶ τῆς νεὼς καθήμενον ἢ καὶ φερόμενον πολλαὶ καὶ ποικίλαι γίνονται καὶ θέαι καὶ μεταθέσεις καὶ συμπτώματα, ὥσπερ καὶ ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ νηὶ ἢ παρὰ τοῦ σάλου τῆς νεὼς ἢ παρ’ αὑτοῦ κινηθέντος ὁρμῇ οἰκείᾳ, ἣν ἂν σχοίη τῷ ἐπὶ νεὼς εἶναι παρὰ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ τρόπον. οὐ γὰρ ὁμοίως ἐν τοῖς αὐτοῖς πᾶς κινεῖται ἢ βούλεται ἢ ἐνεργεῖ. γίνεται οὖν διάφορα διαφόροις ἢ ἐκ τῶν αὐτῶν ἢ διαφόρων προσπεσόντων, ἢ τὰ αὐτὰ ἄλλοις, κἂν διάφορα τὰ προσπεσόντα· τοιοῦτον γὰρ ἡ εἱμαρμένη.
With this guardian spirit, then, it first embarks on this All as on a boat; then the nature called the spindle’s takes it over and assigns it, as on a ship, to a seat of fortune. And as the revolution, like a wind, carries round the one who is sitting or moving about on board, many and varied sights, changes of place and incidents come about, as on the ship itself—either from the rolling of the vessel, or from the passenger himself, moved by an impulse of his own, which he might have, being on board, according to his own character. For not everyone moves, wills or acts alike in the same circumstances. So different things happen to different people, whether the same or different things befall them, or the same things happen to others even if what befalls them differs. For such is fate.