Ἐπειδή φαμεν τὸν ἐν θέᾳ τοῦ νοητοῦ κάλλους γεγενημένον καὶ τὸ τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ νοῦ κατανοήσαντα κάλλος τοῦτον δυνήσεσθαι καὶ τὸν τούτου πατέρα τὸν ἐπέκεινα νοῦ εἰς ἔννοιαν βαλέσθαι, πειραθῶμεν ἰδεῖν καὶ εἰπεῖν ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς, ὡς οἷόν τε τὰ τοιαῦτα εἰπεῖν, πῶς ἄν τις τὸ κάλλος τοῦ νοῦ καὶ τοῦ κόσμου ἐκείνου θεάσαιτο.
We say that one who has come to the vision of intelligible beauty, and has grasped the beauty of the true Intellect, will also be able to form some notion of its father, what is beyond Intellect. So let us try to see, and to say for ourselves, so far as such things can be said, how one might contemplate the beauty of Intellect and of that cosmos.
κειμένων τοίνυν ἀλλήλων ἐγγύς, ἔστω δέ, εἰ βούλει, [δύο] λίθων ἐν ὄγκῳ, τοῦ μὲν ἀρρυθμίστου καὶ τέχνης ἀμοίρου, τοῦ δὲ ἤδη τέχνῃ κεκρατημένου εἰς ἄγαλμα θεοῦ ἢ καί τινος ἀνθρώπου, θεοῦ μὲν Χάριτος ἤ τινος Μούσης, ἀνθρώπου δὲ μή τινος, ἀλλ’ ὃν ἐκ πάντων καλῶν πεποίηκεν ἡ τέχνη, φανείη μὲν ἂν ὁ ὑπὸ τῆς τέχνης γεγενημένος εἰς εἴδους κάλλος καλὸς οὐ παρὰ τὸ εἶναι λίθος — ἦν γὰρ ἂν καὶ ὁ ἕτερος ὁμοίως καλός — ἀλλὰ παρὰ τοῦ εἴδους, ὃ ἐνῆκεν ἡ τέχνη. τοῦτο μὲν τοίνυν τὸ εἶδος οὐκ εἶχεν ἡ ὕλη, ἀλλ’ ἦν ἐν τῷ ἐννοήσαντι καὶ πρὶν ἐλθεῖν εἰς τὸν λίθον· ἦν δ’ ἐν τῷ δημιουργῷ οὐ καθ’ ὅσον ὀφθαλμοὶ ἢ χεῖρες ἦσαν αὐτῷ, ἀλλ’ ὅτι μετεῖχε τῆς τέχνης.
Suppose, then, if you like, [two] blocks of stone lying near each other. One is unshaped and has had no part in art. The other has already been mastered by art into a statue of a god or even of some human being: of a god such as a Grace or one of the Muses; of a human being not any particular person, but one that art has made out of everything beautiful. The one that art has brought to the beauty of form would appear beautiful, not because it is stone (otherwise the other would be just as beautiful), but because of the form that art has put into it. Now the matter did not have this form. It was in the one who conceived it, even before it entered the stone. And it was in the craftsman not insofar as he had eyes or hands, but because he had a share in the art.
ἦν ἄρα ἐν τῇ τέχνῃ τὸ κάλλος τοῦτο ἄμεινον πολλῷ· οὐ γὰρ ἐκεῖνο ἦλθεν εἰς τὸν λίθον τὸ ἐν τῇ τέχνῃ, ἀλλ’ ἐκεῖνο μὲν μένει, ἄλλο δὲ ἀπ’ ἐκείνης ἔλαττον ἐκείνου· καὶ οὐδὲ τοῦτο ἔμεινε καθαρὸν ἐν αὐτῷ, οὐδὲ οἷον ἐβούλετο, ἀλλ’ ὅσον εἶξεν ὁ λίθος τῇ τέχνῃ.
So this beauty was in the art, and far better there. For the beauty in the art did not itself go into the stone. That beauty remains, and what went in is another, which comes from the art and is less than it. And not even this remained pure in the stone, or such as the art wished, but only so far as the stone yielded to the art.
εἰ δ’ ἡ τέχνη ὃ ἔστι καὶ ἔχει τοιοῦτον ποιεῖ — καλὸν δὲ ποιεῖ κατὰ λόγον οὗ ποιεῖ — μειζόνως καὶ ἀληθεστέρως καλή ἐστι τὸ κάλλος ἔχουσα τὸ τέχνης μεῖζον μέντοι καὶ κάλλιον, ἢ ὅσον ἐστὶν ἐν τῷ ἔξω. καὶ γὰρ ὅσῳ ἰὸν εἰς τὴν ὕλην ἐκτέταται, τόσῳ ἀσθενέστερον τοῦ ἐν ἑνὶ μένοντος. ἀφίσταται γὰρ ἑαυτοῦ πᾶν διιστάμενον, εἰ ἰσχύς, ἐν ἰσχύι, εἰ θερμότης, ἐν θερμότητι, εἰ ὅλως δύναμις, ἐν δυνάμει, καὶ κάλλος ἐν κάλλει· καὶ τὸ πρῶτον ποιοῦν πᾶν καθ’ αὑτὸ κρεῖττον εἶναι δεῖ τοῦ ποιουμένου· οὐ γὰρ ἡ ἀμουσία μουσικόν, ἀλλ’ ἡ μουσική, καὶ τὴν ἐν αἰσθητῷ ἡ πρὸ τούτου.
If art makes something like what it is and what it has, and it makes the beautiful according to the rational principle of what it makes, then art is beautiful in a greater and truer way, since it has the beauty of art, which is certainly greater and finer than whatever is in the outer object. For the more beauty is extended by going into matter, the weaker it is than what remains in unity. Everything that spreads itself apart falls away from itself: strength, if it is strength, in strength; heat, if it is heat, in heat; power in general in power; and beauty in beauty. And everything that makes in the first place must be in itself superior to what is made. It is not lack of music that makes a musician, but music; and the music in the perceptible is made by the music before it.
εἰ δέ τις τὰς τέχνας ἀτιμάζει, ὅτι μιμούμεναι τὴν φύσιν ποιοῦσι, πρῶτον μὲν φατέον καὶ τὰς φύσεις μιμεῖσθαι ἄλλα· ἔπειτα δεῖ εἰδέναι, ὡς οὐχ ἁπλῶς τὸ ὁρώμενον μιμοῦνται, ἀλλ’ ἀνατρέχουσιν ἐπὶ τοὺς λόγους, ἐξ ὧν ἡ φύσις· εἶτα καὶ ὅτι πολλὰ παρ’ αὑτῶν ποιοῦσι. καὶ προστιθέασι γὰρ ὅτῳ τι ἐλλείπει, ὡς ἔχουσαι τὸ κάλλος· ἐπεὶ καὶ ὁ Φειδίας τὸν Δία πρὸς οὐδὲν αἰσθητὸν ποιήσας, ἀλλὰ λαβὼν οἷος ἂν γένοιτο, εἰ ἡμῖν ὁ Ζεὺς δι’ ὀμμάτων ἐθέλοι φανῆναι.
If anyone looks down on the arts because they produce by imitating nature, we must say, first, that natures too imitate other things. Next, one must realize that the arts do not simply imitate what is seen, but go back up to the rational principles from which nature comes. Then, too, they produce much on their own: they add whatever something lacks, since they possess beauty. Phidias, for instance, made his Zeus without looking to any perceptible model; he grasped what Zeus would be like if he were willing to appear to us before our eyes.
Beauty in nature
The beauty of natural things comes from form, not from mass or matter.
ἀλλ’ ἡμῖν ἀφείσθωσαν αἱ τέχναι· ὧν δὲ λέγονται τὰ ἔργα μιμεῖσθαι, τὰ φύσει κάλλη γινόμενα καὶ λεγόμενα, θεωρῶμεν, λογικά τε ζῷα καὶ ἄλογα πάντα καὶ μάλιστα ὅσα κατώρθωται αὐτῶν τοῦ πλάσαντος αὐτὰ καὶ δημιουργήσαντος ἐπικρατήσαντος τῆς ὕλης καὶ εἶδος ὃ ἐβούλετο παρασχόντος. τί οὖν τὸ κάλλος ἐστὶν ἐν τούτοις; οὐ γὰρ δὴ τὸ αἷμα καὶ τὰ καταμήνια, ἀλλὰ καὶ χρόα ἄλλη τούτων καὶ σχῆμα ἢ οὐδὲν ἤ τι ἄσχημον. ἢ οἷον τὸ περιέχον ἁπλοῦν τι, οἷα ὕλη. πόθεν δὴ ἐξέλαμψε τὸ τῆς Ἑλένης τῆς περιμαχήτου κάλλος, ἢ ὅσαι γυναικῶν Ἀφροδίτης ὅμοιαι κάλλει; ἐπεὶ καὶ τὸ τῆς Ἀφροδίτης αὐτῆς πόθεν, ἢ εἴ τις ὅλως καλὸς ἄνθρωπος, ἢ θεὸς τῶν ἂν εἰς ὄψιν ἐλθόντων ἢ καὶ μὴ ἰόντων, ἐχόντων δὲ ἐπ’ αὐτοῖς ὁραθὲν ἂν κάλλος;
But let us leave the arts aside. Let us contemplate the things whose works the arts are said to imitate, the beauties that come to be by nature and are called beautiful: all living things, rational and non-rational, and especially those among them that have turned out well, where the one who shaped and crafted them has mastered the matter and supplied the form he wanted. What, then, is the beauty in these? Not the blood, surely, or the menstrual fluids. Their color is something different, and their shape is either nothing or something unshapely, or like a simple thing that encloses, as matter does. Where, then, did the beauty of Helen, fought over so long, shine out from, or that of the women who were like Aphrodite in beauty? And where does the beauty of Aphrodite herself come from, or of any human being who is beautiful at all, or of a god, whether of those who have come before our eyes or of those who have not, but have in them a beauty that would be seen?
ἆρ’ οὐκ εἶδος μὲν πανταχοῦ τοῦτο, ἧκον δὲ ἐπὶ τὸ γενόμενον ἐκ τοῦ ποιήσαντος, ὥσπερ ἐν ταῖς τέχναις ἐλέγετο ἐπὶ τὰ τεχνητὰ ἰέναι παρὰ τῶν τεχνῶν; τί οὖν; καλὰ μὲν τὰ ποιήματα καὶ ὁ ἐπὶ τῆς ὕλης λόγος, ὁ δὲ μὴ ἐν ὕλῃ, ἀλλ’ ἐν τῷ ποιοῦντι λόγος οὐ κάλλος, ὁ πρῶτος καὶ ἄυλος ἀλλ’ εἰς ἓν οὗτος; ἀλλ’ εἰ μὲν ὁ ὄγκος ἦν καλός, καθ’ ὅσον ὄγκος ἦν, ἐχρῆν τὸν λόγον, ὅτι μὴ ἦν ὄγκος, τὸν ποιήσαντα μὴ καλὸν εἶναι· εἰ δέ, ἐάν τε ἐν σμικρῷ ἐάν τε ἐν μεγάλῳ τὸ αὐτὸ εἶδος ᾖ, ὁμοίως κινεῖ καὶ διατίθησι τὴν ψυχὴν τὴν τοῦ ὁρῶντος τῇ αὑτοῦ δυνάμει, τὸ κάλλος οὐ τῷ τοῦ ὄγκου μεγέθει ἀποδοτέον.
Is this not form everywhere, which has come to what was made from the one who made it, just as in the arts we said it came from the arts to the works of art? What then? Are the things made, and the rational principle in matter, beautiful, while the rational principle that is not in matter but in the maker, the first and immaterial one, is not beauty, even though it is gathered into one? But if the mass were beautiful insofar as it was mass, then the rational principle that made it, since it was not mass, would have to be not beautiful. If, however, the same form, whether in something small or something large, moves and disposes the soul of the one who sees it in the same way by its own power, then beauty must not be attributed to the size of the mass.
τεκμήριον δὲ καὶ τόδε, ὅτι ἔξω μὲν ἕως ἐστίν, οὔπω εἴδομεν, ὅταν δὲ εἴσω γένηται, διέθηκεν. εἴσεισι δὲ δι’ ὀμμάτων εἶδος ὂν μόνον· ἢ πῶς διὰ μικροῦ; συνεφέλκεται δὲ καὶ τὸ μέγεθος οὐ μέγα ἐν ὄγκῳ, ἀλλ’ εἴδει γενόμενον μέγα. ἔπειτα ἢ αἰσχρὸν δεῖ τὸ ποιοῦν ἢ ἀδιάφορον ἢ καλὸν εἶναι. αἰσχρὸν μὲν οὖν ὂν οὐκ ἂν τὸ ἐναντίον ποιήσειεν, ἀδιάφορον δὲ τί μᾶλλον καλὸν ἢ αἰσχρόν; ἀλλὰ γάρ ἐστι καὶ ἡ φύσις ἡ τὰ οὕτω καλὰ δημιουργοῦσα πολὺ πρότερον καλή, ἡμεῖς δὲ τῶν ἔνδον οὐδὲν ὁρᾶν εἰθισμένοι οὐδ’ εἰδότες τὸ ἔξω διώκομεν ἀγνοοῦντες, ὅτι τὸ ἔνδον κινεῖ· ὥσπερ ἂν εἴ τις τὸ εἴδωλον αὑτοῦ βλέπων ἀγνοῶν ὅθεν ἥκει ἐκεῖνο διώκοι.
Here is a further sign: so long as it is outside, we have not yet seen it; when it comes inside, it has affected us. But it enters through the eyes as form alone; how else could it pass through something so small? Its size is drawn in along with it, not as large in mass but as having become large in form. Then again, what makes must be either ugly, or indifferent, or beautiful. If it were ugly, it would not make its opposite; if indifferent, why should it make the beautiful rather than the ugly? No: the nature that crafts things so beautiful is itself beautiful, and far before them. But we, unused to seeing anything inside, and not knowing it, chase after the outside, unaware that it is what is inside that moves us—as if someone looking at his own image, and not knowing where it came from, were to chase after it.
δηλοῖ δέ, ὅτι τὸ διωκόμενον ἄλλο καὶ οὐκ ἐν μεγέθει τὸ κάλλος, καὶ τὸ ἐν τοῖς μαθήμασι κάλλος καὶ τὸ ἐν τοῖς ἐπιτηδεύμασι καὶ ὅλως τὸ ἐν ταῖς ψυχαῖς· οὗ δὴ καὶ ἀληθείᾳ μᾶλλον κάλλος, ὅταν τῳ φρόνησιν ἐνίδῃς καὶ ἀγασθῇς οὐκ εἰς τὸ πρόσωπον ἀφορῶν· εἴη γὰρ ἂν τοῦτο αἶσχος· ἀλλὰ πᾶσαν μορφὴν ἀφεὶς διώκῃς τὸ εἴσω κάλλος αὐτοῦ· εἰ δὲ μήπω σε κινεῖ, ὡς καλὸν εἰπεῖν τὸν τοιοῦτον, οὐδὲ σαυτῷ εἰς τὸ εἴσω βλέψας ἡσθήσῃ ὡς καλῷ. ὥστε μάτην ἂν οὕτως ἔχων ζητοῖς ἐκεῖνο· αἰσχρῷ γὰρ καὶ οὐ καθαρῷ ζητήσεις. διὸ οὐδὲ πρὸς πάντας οἱ περὶ τῶν τοιούτων λόγοι· εἰ δὲ καὶ σὺ εἶδες σαυτὸν καλόν, ἀναμνήσθητι.
That what we pursue is something else, and that beauty is not in size, is shown also by the beauty in studies and in ways of life, and in general the beauty in souls. There, indeed, beauty is more truly present: when you see understanding in someone and are delighted, not looking at his face—that might be ugly—but, letting go of every shape, you pursue his inner beauty. And if this does not yet move you to call such a person beautiful, then neither will you take delight in yourself as beautiful when you look within. So in that state you would search for that beauty in vain, for you will be searching with what is ugly and not pure. That is why talk about such things is not for everyone. But if you too have seen yourself as beautiful, remember.
ἔστιν οὖν καὶ ἐν τῇ φύσει λόγος κάλλους ἀρχέτυπος τοῦ ἐν σώματι, τοῦ δ’ ἐν τῇ φύσει ὁ ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ καλλίων, παρ’ οὗ καὶ ὁ ἐν τῇ φύσει. ἐναργέστατός γε μὴν ὁ ἐν σπουδαίᾳ ψυχῇ καὶ ἤδη προιὼν κάλλει· κοσμήσας γὰρ τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ φῶς παρασχὼν ἀπὸ φωτὸς μείζονος πρώτως κάλλους ὄντος συλλογίζεσθαι ποιεῖ αὐτὸς ἐν ψυχῇ ὤν, οἷός ἐστιν ὁ πρὸ αὐτοῦ ὁ οὐκέτι ἐγγιγνόμενος οὐδ’ ἐν ἄλλῳ, ἀλλ’ ἐν αὑτῷ. διὸ οὐδὲ λόγος ἐστίν, ἀλλὰ ποιητὴς τοῦ πρώτου λόγου κάλλους ἐν ὕλῃ ψυχικῇ ὄντος· νοῦς δὲ οὗτος, ὁ ἀεὶ νοῦς καὶ οὐ ποτὲ νοῦς, ὅτι μὴ ἐπακτὸς αὑτῷ. τίνα ἂν οὖν εἰκόνα τις αὐτοῦ λάβοι; πᾶσα γὰρ ἔσται ἐκ χείρονος.
There is, then, in nature too a rational principle of beauty, the archetype of the beauty in body; and more beautiful than the one in nature is the one in soul, from which the one in nature comes. Clearest of all is the one in a good soul, already advancing in beauty. For it adorns the soul and gives it light from a greater light, which is beauty in the primary sense; and being itself in the soul, it makes the soul infer what the one before it is like, the one that no longer comes to be in anything else, but is in itself. That is why it is not even a rational principle, but the maker of the first rational principle, which is beauty in soul as in a kind of matter. And this is Intellect, the one that is always Intellect and not intellect only at times, because it is not something brought in to itself from outside. What image of it, then, could one find? Any image will be taken from something worse.
ἀλλὰ γὰρ δεῖ τὴν εἰκόνα ἐκ νοῦ γενέσθαι, ὥστε μὴ δι’ εἰκόνος, ἀλλ’ οἷον χρυσοῦ παντὸς χρυσόν τινα δεῖγμα λαβεῖν, καὶ εἰ μὴ καθαρὸς εἴη ὁ ληφθείς, καθαίρειν αὐτὸν ἢ ἔργῳ ἢ λόγῳ δεικνύντας, ὡς οὐ πᾶν τοῦτό ἐστι χρυσός, ἀλλὰ τουτὶ τὸ ἐν τῷ ὄγκῳ μόνον· οὕτω καὶ ἐνταῦθα ἀπὸ νοῦ τοῦ ἐν ἡμῖν κεκαθαρμένου, εἰ δὲ βούλει, ἀπὸ τῶν θεῶν, οἷός ἐστιν ὁ ἐν αὐτοῖς νοῦς. σεμνοὶ μὲν γὰρ πάντες θεοὶ καὶ καλοὶ καὶ τὸ κάλλος αὐτῶν ἀμήχανον.
But the image must come from Intellect, so that we grasp it not through an image, but as one takes some piece of gold as a sample of all gold. And if the piece taken is not pure, one must purify it, either in practice or by argument, showing that not all of this is gold, but only this part of the lump. So here too: start from the intellect in us once it has been purified, or, if you like, from the gods, and see what kind of intellect is in them. For all the gods are majestic and beautiful, and their beauty is beyond measure.
ἀλλὰ τί ἐστι δι’ ὃ τοιοῦτοί εἰσιν; ἢ νοῦς, καὶ ὅτι μᾶλλον νοῦς ἐνεργῶν ἐν αὐτοῖς ὥστε ὁρᾶσθαι. οὐ γὰρ δὴ ὅτι αὐτῶν καλὰ τὰ σώματα — καὶ γὰρ οἷς ἐστι σώματα, οὐ τοῦτό ἐστιν αὐτοῖς τὸ εἶναι θεοῖς — ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸν νοῦν καὶ οὗτοι θεοί. καλοὶ δὴ οἱ θεοί. οὐ γὰρ δὴ ποτὲ μὲν φρονοῦσι, ποτὲ δὲ ἀφραίνουσιν, ἀλλ’ ἀεὶ φρονοῦσιν ἐν ἀπαθεῖ τῷ νῷ καὶ στασίμῳ καὶ καθαρῷ καὶ ἴσασι πάντα καὶ γινώσκουσιν οὐ τὰ ἀνθρώπεια, ἀλλὰ τὰ ἑαυτῶν καὶ ὅσα νοῦς ὁρᾷ.
But what is it that makes them so? Intellect, surely, and the fact that intellect is more active in them, so as to be seen. It is not, after all, that their bodies are beautiful—even for those who have bodies, their being gods does not lie in that—but these too are gods by virtue of intellect. So the gods are beautiful. They do not have understanding at one moment and lose their wits the next; they have understanding always, in an intellect that is impassive, stable and pure. They know all things, and what they recognize is not human affairs but their own, and all that intellect sees.
Life in the intelligible world
There all is transparent, each thing is all, and wisdom is the substance of things.
τῶν δὲ θεῶν οἱ μὲν ἐν οὐρανῷ ὄντες, σχολὴ γὰρ αὐτοῖς, θεῶνται ἀεί, οἷον δὲ πόρρωθεν τὰ ἐν ἐκείνῳ αὖ τῷ οὐρανῷ ὑπεροχῇ τῆς ἑαυτῶν κεφαλῆς· οἱ δὲ ἐν ἐκείνῳ ὄντες, ὅσοις οἴκησις ἐπ’ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ, ἐν παντὶ οἰκοῦντες τῷ ἐκεῖ οὐρανῷ. πάντα γὰρ ἐκεῖ οὐρανὸς καὶ ἡ γῆ οὐρανὸς καὶ θάλασσα καὶ ζῷα καὶ φυτὰ καὶ ἄνθρωποι, πᾶν οὐράνιον ἐκείνου τοῦ οὐρανοῦ. οἱ δὲ θεοὶ οἱ ἐν αὐτῷ οὐκ ἀπαξιοῦντες ἀνθρώπους οὐδ’ ἄλλο τι τῶν ἐκεῖ, ὅτι τῶν ἐκεῖ, πᾶσαν μὲν διεξίασι τὴν ἐκεῖ χώραν καὶ τὸν τόπον ἀναπαυόμενοι.
Of the gods, those who are in the heaven, since they have leisure, contemplate always, as though from afar, the things in that other heaven, by lifting their heads above it. Those who are in that heaven, all who have their dwelling on it and in it, dwell in the whole of the heaven There. For everything there is heaven: the earth is heaven, and the sea, and animals and plants and human beings; everything belongs to the heaven of that heaven. And the gods in it, not disdaining human beings or anything else There, since it belongs There, pass through the whole region and place There, at rest.
καὶ γὰρ τὸ ῥεῖα ζώειν ἐκεῖ, καὶ ἀλήθεια δὲ αὐτοῖς καὶ γενέτειρα καὶ τροφὸς καὶ οὐσία καὶ τροφή, καὶ ὁρῶσι τὰ πάντα, οὐχ οἷς γένεσις πρόσεστιν, ἀλλ’ οἷς οὐσία, καὶ ἑαυτοὺς ἐν ἄλλοις· διαφανῆ γὰρ πάντα καὶ σκοτεινὸν οὐδὲ ἀντίτυπον οὐδέν, ἀλλὰ πᾶς παντὶ φανερὸς εἰς τὸ εἴσω καὶ πάντα· φῶς γὰρ φωτί. καὶ γὰρ ἔχει πᾶς πάντα ἐν αὑτῷ, καὶ αὖ ὁρᾷ ἐν ἄλλῳ πάντα, ὥστε πανταχοῦ πάντα καὶ πᾶν πᾶν καὶ ἕκαστον πᾶν καὶ ἄπειρος ἡ αἴγλη· ἕκαστον γὰρ αὐτῶν μέγα, ἐπεὶ καὶ τὸ μικρὸν μέγα· καὶ ἥλιος ἐκεῖ πάντα ἄστρα, καὶ ἕκαστον ἥλιος αὖ καὶ πάντα. ἐξέχει δ’ ἐν ἑκάστῳ ἄλλο, ἐμφαίνει δὲ καὶ πάντα.
For there is “living at ease” There. Truth is their mother and nurse, their being and their food. They see all things—not those to which becoming belongs, but those to which being belongs—and they see themselves in others. For everything there is transparent; nothing is dark or resistant; each is manifest to each, to its inmost depths, and all things are manifest: light to light. Each has everything in itself, and again sees everything in another, so that all is everywhere, and all is all, and each is all, and the glory is unlimited. Each of them is great, since even the small is great. The sun there is all the stars, and each star again is the sun and all of them. In each, a different one stands out, but each shows forth all.
ἔστι δὲ καὶ κίνησις καθαρά· οὐ γὰρ συγχεῖ αὐτὴν ἰοῦσαν ὃ κινεῖ ἕτερον αὐτῆς ὑπάρχον· καὶ ἡ στάσις οὐ παρακινουμένη, ὅτι μὴ μέμικται τῷ μὴ στασίμῳ· καὶ τὸ καλὸν καλόν, ὅτι μὴ ἐν τῷ καλῷ. βέβηκε δὲ ἕκαστος οὐκ ἐπ’ ἀλλοτρίας οἷον γῆς, ἀλλ’ ἔστιν ἑκάστῳ ἐν ᾧ ἐστιν αὐτὸ ὃ ἔστι, καὶ συνθεῖ αὐτῷ οἷον πρὸς τὸ ἄνω ἰόντι τὸ ὅθεν ἐστί, καὶ οὐκ αὐτὸς μὲν ἄλλο, ἡ χώρα δὲ αὐτοῦ ἄλλο. καὶ γὰρ τὸ ὑποκείμενον νοῦς καὶ αὐτὸς νοῦς· οἷον εἴ τις καὶ τοῦτον τὸν οὐρανὸν τὸν ὁρώμενον φωτοειδῆ ὄντα τοῦτο τὸ φῶς τὸ ἐξ αὐτοῦ φῦναι νοήσειεν.
Movement there is pure, too, for what moves it, being something other than it, does not confuse it as it goes; and rest is not disturbed, because it is not mixed with what is not at rest; and the beautiful is beautiful because it is not in the beautiful. Each stands not on foreign ground, so to speak: for each, that in which it is is what it itself is, and as it goes, so to speak, upward, the place it comes from runs along with it. It is not that it is one thing and its place another. For the substrate is Intellect, and it is itself Intellect. It is as if someone were to think of this visible heaven, luminous as it is, and of the light that comes from it, as having grown from it.
ἐνταῦθα μὲν οὖν ἐκ μέρους ἄλλο ἄλλου γένοιτ’ ἂν καὶ εἴη ἂν μόνον ἕκαστον μέρος, ἐκεῖ δὲ ἐξ ὅλου ἀεὶ ἕκαστον καὶ ἅμα ἕκαστον καὶ ὅλον· φαντάζεται μὲν γὰρ μέρος, ἐνορᾶται δὲ τῷ ὀξεῖ ὅλον, οἷον εἴ τις γένοιτο τὴν ὄψιν τοιοῦτος, οἷος ὁ Λυγκεὺς ἐλέγετο καὶ τὰ εἴσω τῆς γῆς ὁρᾶν τοῦ μύθου τοὺς ἐκεῖ αἰνιττομένου ὀφθαλμούς.
Here, one thing would come from another, part from part, and each would be only a part. There, each always comes from the whole and is at once each and whole. It appears as a part, but to sharp sight it is seen to be whole—as if someone had sight like that of Lynceus, who was said to see even what is inside the earth, the myth hinting at the eyes of those who are There.
τῆς δὲ ἐκεῖ θέας οὔτε κάματός ἐστιν, οὔτ’ ἐστὶ πλήρωσις εἰς τὸ παύσασθαι θεωμένῳ· οὔτε γὰρ κένωσις ἦν, ἵνα ἥκων εἰς πλήρωσιν καὶ τέλος ἀρκεσθῇ, οὔτε τὸ μὲν ἄλλο, τὸ δ’ ἄλλο, ἵνα ἑτέρῳ τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ τὰ τοῦ ἑτέρου μὴ ἀρέσκοντα ᾖ, ἄτρυτά τε τὰ ἐκεῖ. ἀλλ’ ἔστι τὸ ἀπλήρωτον τῷ μὴ τὴν πλήρωσιν καταφρονεῖν ποιεῖν τοῦ πεπληρωκότος· ὁρῶν γὰρ μᾶλλον ὁρᾷ καὶ καθορῶν ἄπειρον αὑτὸν καὶ τὰ ὁρώμενα συνέπεται τῇ ἑαυτοῦ φύσει. καὶ ἡ ζωὴ μὲν οὐδενὶ κάματον ἔχει, ὅταν ᾖ καθαρά· τὸ δ’ ἄριστα ζῶν τί ἂν κάμοι;
There is no weariness in the vision There, and no filling-up that would make the one contemplating stop. For there was no emptiness, such that he would be satisfied on reaching fullness and the end; nor is one thing one and another another, so that one of the things in him would be displeased with what belongs to another; and the things there are unwearying. Still, there is insatiability, in that being filled does not make one disdain what has filled one. For seeing, it sees more; and seeing itself, and what it sees, as unlimited, it follows its own nature. And life brings weariness to no one when it is pure; and what lives the best of lives—how could it grow weary?
ἡ δὲ ζωὴ σοφία, σοφία δὲ οὐ πορισθεῖσα λογισμοῖς, ὅτι ἀεὶ ἦν πᾶσα καὶ ἐλλείπουσα οὐδενί, ἵνα ζητήσεως δεηθῇ· ἀλλ’ ἔστιν ἡ πρώτη καὶ οὐκ ἀπ’ ἄλλης· καὶ ἡ οὐσία αὐτὴ σοφία, ἀλλ’ οὐκ αὐτός, εἶτα σοφός. διὰ τοῦτο δὲ οὐδεμία μείζων, καὶ ἡ αὐτοεπιστήμη ἐνταῦθα πάρεδρος τῷ νῷ τῷ συμπροφαίνεσθαι, οἷον λέγουσι κατὰ μίμησιν καὶ τῷ Διὶ τὴν Δίκην. πάντα γὰρ τὰ τοιαῦτα ἐκεῖ οἷον ἀγάλματα παρ’ αὑτῶν ἐνορώμενα, ὥστε θέαμα εἶναι ὑπερευδαιμόνων θεατῶν. τῆς μὲν οὖν σοφίας τὸ μέγεθος καὶ τὴν δύναμιν ἄν τις κατίδοι, ὅτι μετ’ αὐτῆς ἔχει καὶ πεποίηκε τὰ ὄντα πάντα καὶ πάντα ἠκολούθησε καὶ ἔστιν αὐτὴ τὰ ὄντα καὶ συνεγένετο αὐτῇ, καὶ ἓν ἄμφω, καὶ ἡ οὐσία ἡ ἐκεῖ σοφία.
That life is wisdom, and wisdom not acquired by reasonings, because it was always all there and lacked nothing that would make it need to search. It is the first wisdom and does not come from another. Its being is itself wisdom; it is not that it is first itself and then wise. That is why no wisdom is greater, and why knowledge itself sits beside Intellect here, appearing along with it—as, in imitation of this, they say Justice sits beside Zeus. For all such things there are like statues seen by their own light, so that it is a spectacle for spectators happy beyond happiness. One may see the greatness and power of wisdom from this: that it has with it, and has made, all the things that are, and they all followed; and it is itself the things that are, and they came to be together with it, and the two are one, and being there is wisdom.
ἀλλ’ ἡμεῖς εἰς σύνεσιν οὐκ ἤλθομεν, ὅτι καὶ τὰς ἐπιστήμας θεωρήματα καὶ συμφόρησιν νενομίκαμεν προτάσεων εἶναι· τὸ δὲ οὐδ’ ἐν ταῖς ἐνταῦθα ἐπιστήμαις. εἰ δέ τις περὶ τούτων ἀμφισβητεῖ, ἐατέον ταύτας ἐν τῷ παρόντι· περὶ δὲ τῆς ἐκεῖ ἐπιστήμης, ἣν δὴ καὶ ὁ Πλάτων κατιδών φησιν ‘οὐδ’ ἥτις ἐστὶν ἄλλη ἐν ἄλλῳ’, ὅπως δέ, εἴασε ζητεῖν καὶ ἀνευρίσκειν, εἴπερ ἄξιοι τῆς προσηγορίας φαμὲν εἶναι. ἴσως οὖν βέλτιον ἐντεῦθεν τὴν ἀρχὴν ποιήσασθαι.
But we have failed to understand, because we have come to think that branches of knowledge are theorems and a heap of propositions—which is not so even of the kinds of knowledge here. If anyone disputes this about them, let us leave them aside for now. But as for the knowledge There, which Plato too had seen when he says it is “not one thing in another”—how this is, he left us to seek and discover, if we claim to be worthy of the name. Perhaps, then, it is better to make our start from here.
Wisdom without propositions
True wisdom is not propositions but beings, like the Egyptians’ images in their temples.
πάντα δὴ τὰ γινόμενα, εἴτε τεχνητὰ εἴτε φυσικὰ εἴη, σοφία τις ποιεῖ, καὶ ἡγεῖται τῆς ποιήσεως πανταχοῦ σοφία. ἀλλ’ εἰ δή τις κατ’ αὐτὴν τὴν σοφίαν ποιεῖ, ἔστωσαν μὲν αἱ τέχναι τοιαῦται. ἀλλ’ ὁ τεχνίτης πάλιν αὖ εἰς σοφίαν φυσικὴν ἔρχεται, καθ’ ἣν γεγένηται, οὐκέτι συντεθεῖσαν ἐκ θεωρημάτων, ἀλλ’ ὅλην ἕν τι, οὐ τὴν συγκειμένην ἐκ πολλῶν εἰς ἕν, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἀναλυομένην εἰς πλῆθος ἐξ ἑνός. εἰ μὲν οὖν ταύτην τις πρώτην θήσεται, ἀρκεῖ· οὐκέτι γὰρ ἐξ ἄλλου οὖσα οὐδ’ ἐν ἄλλῳ. εἰ δὲ τὸν μὲν λόγον ἐν τῇ φύσει, τούτου δὲ ἀρχὴν φήσουσι τὴν φύσιν, πόθεν ἕξει φήσομεν· καὶ εἰ ἐξ ἄλλου, [τί] ἐκεῖνο;
All the things that come to be, whether products of art or of nature, are made by a kind of wisdom, and everywhere wisdom leads the making. But if anyone makes according to wisdom itself, let the arts be of this kind. Yet the craftsman in turn goes back to a natural wisdom, according to which he himself came to be—a wisdom no longer composed of theorems, but whole, a single thing: not put together from many into one, but rather resolved from one into multiplicity. If someone posits this as the first, that is enough, since it no longer comes from something else, nor is it in something else. But if they say the rational principle is in nature and that nature is its source, we will ask where nature will get it from; and if from something else, [what] is that?
εἰ μὲν ἐξ αὑτοῦ, στησόμεθα· εἰ δὲ εἰς νοῦν ἥξουσιν, ἐνταῦθα ὀπτέον, εἰ ὁ νοῦς ἐγέννησε τὴν σοφίαν· καὶ εἰ φήσουσι, πόθεν; εἰ δὲ ἐξ αὑτοῦ, ἀδύνατον ἄλλως ἢ αὐτὸν ὄντα σοφίαν. ἡ ἄρα ἀληθινὴ σοφία οὐσία, καὶ ἡ ἀληθινὴ οὐσία σοφία, καὶ ἡ ἀξία τῇ οὐσίᾳ παρὰ τῆς σοφίας, καί, ὅτι παρὰ τῆς σοφίας, οὐσία ἀληθής. διὸ καὶ ὅσαι οὐσίαι σοφίαν οὐκ ἔχουσι τῷ μὲν διὰ σοφίαν τινὰ γεγονέναι οὐσίαι, τῷ δὲ μὴ ἔχειν ἐν αὑταῖς σοφίαν οὐκ ἀληθιναὶ οὐσίαι. οὐ τοίνυν δεῖ νομίζειν ἐκεῖ ἀξιώματα ὁρᾶν τοὺς θεοὺς οὐδὲ τοὺς ἐκεῖ ὑπερευδαίμονας, ἀλλ’ ἕκαστα τῶν λεγομένων ἐκεῖ καλὰ ἀγάλματα, οἷα ἐφαντάζετό τις ἐν τῇ σοφοῦ ἀνδρὸς ψυχῇ εἶναι, ἀγάλματα δὲ οὐ γεγραμμένα, ἀλλὰ ὄντα.
If from itself, we will stop there. But if they arrive at Intellect, then we must see whether Intellect generated wisdom. And if they say so: from where? If from itself, that is impossible unless it is itself wisdom. True wisdom, then, is being, and true being is wisdom; the worth of being comes from wisdom, and it is because it comes from wisdom that it is true being. That is why beings that do not have wisdom are beings because they came to be through some wisdom, but are not true beings because they do not have wisdom in themselves. We must not think, then, that the gods There, or the beings There who are happy beyond happiness, look at propositions. Each of the things spoken of there is a beautiful statue, such as one might imagine to be in a wise man’s soul—statues not painted, but real.
διὸ καὶ τὰς ἰδέας ὄντα ἔλεγον εἶναι οἱ παλαιοὶ καὶ οὐσίας.
That is why the ancients said that the Forms are beings and substances.
δοκοῦσι δέ μοι καὶ οἱ Αἰγυπτίων σοφοί, εἴτε ἀκριβεῖ ἐπιστήμῃ λαβόντες εἴτε καὶ συμφύτῳ ⟨…⟩, περὶ ὧν ἐβούλοντο διὰ σοφίας δεικνύναι, μὴ τύποις γραμμάτων διεξοδεύουσι λόγους καὶ προτάσεις μηδὲ μιμουμένοις φωνὰς καὶ προφορὰς ἀξιωμάτων κεχρῆσθαι, ἀγάλματα δὲ γράψαντες καὶ ἓν ἕκαστον ἑκάστου πράγματος ἄγαλμα ἐντυπώσαντες ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς τὴν ἐκείνου διέξοδον ἐμφῆναι, ὡς ἄρα τις καὶ ἐπιστήμη καὶ σοφία ἕκαστόν ἐστιν ἄγαλμα καὶ ὑποκείμενον καὶ ἀθρόον καὶ οὐ διανόησις οὐδὲ βούλευσις· ὕστερον δὲ ἀπ’ αὐτῆς ἀθρόας οὔσης εἴδωλον ἐν ἄλλῳ ἐξειλιγμένον ἤδη καὶ λέγον αὐτὸ ἐν διεξόδῳ καὶ τὰς αἰτίας, δι’ ἃς οὕτως, ἐξεύρισκον, ὡς τὸ καλῶς οὕτως ἔχοντος τοῦ γεγενημένου θαυμάσαι. [ἃ] εἴ τις οἶδε, θαυμάσαι ἔφη τὴν σοφίαν, πῶς αὕτη αἰτίας οὐκ ἔχουσα τῆς οὐσίας, δι’ ἃς οὕτω, παρέχει τοῖς ποιουμένοις κατ’ αὐτήν.
The wise men of Egypt, too, seem to me—whether by exact knowledge or by something innate ⟨…⟩—not to have used, for what they wished to show through wisdom, the shapes of letters that run through words and propositions step by step, nor letters imitating sounds and the utterance of statements. Instead they drew images, and by carving in their temples a single image for each thing, they displayed its whole account at once: as if each image were a kind of knowledge and wisdom, a substrate, all at once, and not discursive thought or deliberation. Later, from this wisdom that is all at once, they found an image in something else, already unfolded and expressing it step by step, and giving the causes why things are so—so that one marvels that what has come to be is so beautifully arranged. Anyone who knows [this], he said, would marvel at that wisdom: how, without itself having causes of its being, why it is so, it supplies them to the things made according to it.
τὸ καλῶς ἄρα οὕτως τὸ ἐκ ζητήσεως ἂν μόλις ἢ οὐδ’ ὅλως φανέν, ὅτι δεῖ οὕτως, εἴπερ τις ἐξεύροι, πρὸ ζητήσεως καὶ πρὸ λογισμοῦ ὑπάρχειν οὕτως· οἷον — λάβωμεν γὰρ ἐφ’ ἑνὸς μεγάλου ὃ λέγω, ὅπερ ἁρμόσει καὶ ἐπὶ πάντων —
So the fact that things are beautifully so—which inquiry would bring to light only with difficulty, if at all, as “it must be so,” supposing anyone ever did find it out—is there, just so, before inquiry and before reasoning. For instance—let me take what I mean in one great case, and it will fit all of them—
How the cosmos was made
The cosmos was not planned step by step but appeared as an image of the intelligible.
τοῦτο δὴ τὸ πᾶν; ἐπείπερ συγχωροῦμεν παρ’ ἄλλου αὐτὸ εἶναι καὶ τοιοῦτον εἶναι, ἆρα οἰωμεθα τὸν ποιητὴν αὐτοῦ ἐπινοῆσαι παρ’ αὑτῷ γῆν καὶ ταύτην ἐν μέσῳ δεῖν στῆναι, εἶτα ὕδωρ καὶ ἐπὶ τῇ γῇ τοῦτο καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ἐν τάξει μέχρι τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, εἶτα ζῷα πάντα καὶ τούτοις μορφὰς τοιαύτας ἑκάστῳ, ὅσαι νῦν εἰσι, καὶ τὰ ἔνδον ἑκάστοις σπλάγχνα καὶ τὰ ἔξω μέρη, εἶτα διατιθέντα ἕκαστα παρ’ αὑτῷ οὕτως ἐπιχειρεῖν τῷ ἔργῳ; ἀλλ’ οὔτε ἡ ἐπίνοια δυνατὴ ἡ τοιαύτη· πόθεν γὰρ ἐπῆλθεν οὐπώποτε ἑωρακότι; οὔτε ἐξ ἄλλου λαβόντι δυνατὸν ἦν ἐργάσασθαι, ὅπως νῦν οἱ δημιουργοὶ ποιοῦσι χερσὶ καὶ ὀργάνοις χρώμενοι· ὕστερον γὰρ καὶ χεῖρες καὶ πόδες.
this All. Since we agree that it comes from something else and is of such a kind, are we to think that its maker conceived in his own mind earth, and that it must stand in the middle; then water, and that it must lie on the earth; and the rest in order up to the heaven; then all the animals, and for each of them shapes like the ones they now have, and the organs inside each and the parts outside; and then, having arranged each of these in his mind, set about the work? No: such a conception is impossible. Where could it have come from, to one who had never seen them? Nor, if he had taken them from something else, would it have been possible to carry out the work the way craftsmen now do, using hands and tools. For hands and feet come later.
λείπεται τοίνυν εἶναι μὲν πάντα ἐν ἄλλῳ, οὐδενὸς δὲ μεταξὺ ὄντος τῇ ἐν τῷ ὄντι πρὸς ἄλλο γειτονείᾳ οἷον ἐξαίφνης ἀναφανῆναι ἴνδαλμα καὶ εἰκόνα ἐκείνου εἴτε αὐτόθεν εἴτε ψυχῆς διακονησαμένης — διαφέρει γὰρ οὐδὲν ἐν τῷ παρόντι — ἢ ψυχῆς τινος. ἀλλ’ οὖν ἐκεῖθεν ἦν σύμπαντα ταῦτα, καὶ καλλιόνως ἐκεῖ· τὰ γὰρ τῇδε μέμικται, καὶ οὐκ ἐκεῖνα μέμικται. ἀλλ’ οὖν εἴδεσι κατέσχηται ἐξ ἀρχῆς εἰς τέλος· πρῶτον μὲν ἡ ὕλη τοῖς τῶν στοιχείων εἴδεσιν, εἶτα ἐπὶ εἴδεσιν εἴδη ἄλλα, εἶτα πάλιν ἕτερα· ὅθεν καὶ χαλεπὸν εὑρεῖν τὴν ὕλην ὑπὸ πολλοῖς εἴδεσι κρυφθεῖσαν.
What remains, then, is that all things are in something else, and that, since there is nothing in between, by the nearness in what is to something else, a reflection and image of that appeared, suddenly as it were—whether directly or through the service of soul (it makes no difference for now), or of some soul. In any case, all these things came from There, and are more beautiful There; for things here are mixed, and those there are not. Yet they are held fast by forms from beginning to end: first matter by the forms of the elements, then other forms upon forms, then others again. That is why it is hard to find matter, hidden as it is beneath many forms.
ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ αὕτη εἶδός τι ἔσχατον, πᾶν εἶδος τόδε καὶ πάντα εἴδη· τὸ γὰρ παράδειγμα εἶδος ἦν· ἐποίει [δὲ] τόδε ἀψοφητί, ὅτι πᾶν τὸ ποιῆσαν καὶ οὐσία καὶ εἶδος· διὸ ἄπονος καὶ οὕτως ἡ δημιουργία. καὶ παντὸς δὲ ἦν, ὡς ἂν πᾶν. οὐ τοίνυν ἦν τὸ ἐμποδίζον, καὶ νῦν δὲ ἐπικρατεῖ καίτοι ἄλλων ἄλλοις ἐμποδίων γινομένων· ἀλλ’ οὐκ αὐτῇ οὐδὲ νῦν· μένει γὰρ ὡς πᾶν. δοκεῖ δέ μοι, ὅτι καί, εἰ ἡμεῖς ἀρχέτυπα καὶ οὐσία καὶ εἴδη ἅμα καὶ τὸ εἶδος τὸ ποιοῦν ἐνταῦθα ἦν ἡμῶν οὐσία, ἐκράτησεν ἂν ἄνευ πόνων ἡ ἡμετέρα δημιουργία, καίτοι καὶ ἄνθρωπος δημιουργεῖ εἶδος αὑτοῦ ἄλλο ὅ ἐστι γενόμενος.
But since matter too is a kind of last form, this All is all form, and all forms; for its model was Form. It made this All silently, because the whole maker is both being and form; that is why the crafting was effortless in this way too. And it was the crafting of an All, by something that is all. So there was nothing to hinder it; and even now it prevails, though different things hinder each other. But they do not hinder it, not even now; for it remains as all. It seems to me that if we too were at once archetypes and being and Forms, and the form that makes here were our being, our crafting too would prevail without toil. And yet a human being too crafts a form of himself—having become something other than what he is.
ἀπέστη γὰρ τοῦ εἶναι τὸ πᾶν νῦν ἄνθρωπος γενόμενος· παυσάμενος δὲ τοῦ ἄνθρωπος εἶναι ‘μετεωροπορεῖ’ φησι ‘καὶ πάντα τὸν κόσμον διοικεῖ’· γενόμενος γὰρ τοῦ ὅλου τὸ ὅλον ποιεῖ. ἀλλ’ οὗ χάριν ὁ λόγος, ὅτι ἔχεις μὲν σὺ αἰτίαν εἰπεῖν δι’ ἣν ἐν μέσῳ ἡ γῆ καὶ διὰ τί στρογγύλη καὶ ὁ λοξὸς διὰ τί ὡδί, ἐκεῖ δὲ οὔ, διότι οὕτως ἐχρῆν, διὰ τοῦτο οὕτω βεβούλευται, ἀλλ’ ὅτι οὕτως ἔχει ὡς ἔστι, διὰ τοῦτο καὶ ταῦτα ἔχει καλῶς· οἷον εἰ πρὸ τοῦ συλλογισμοῦ τῆς αἰτίας τὸ συμπέρασμα, οὐ παρὰ τῶν προτάσεων· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐξ ἀκολουθίας οὐδ’ ἐξ ἐπινοίας, ἀλλὰ πρὸ ἀκολουθίας καὶ πρὸ ἐπινοίας· ὕστερα γὰρ ταῦτα πάντα, καὶ λόγος καὶ ἀπόδειξις καὶ πίστις.
For he has stood away from being the All, having now become a human being. But when he stops being a human being, he “travels on high,” Plato says, “and governs the whole cosmos”; for having become part of the whole, he makes the whole. But the point of the argument is this: you can give the cause why the earth is in the middle, and why it is round, and why the ecliptic slants as it does. There, however, it is not that things were planned this way because they had to be so; rather, because things there are as they are, these things here are well. It is as if the conclusion came before the syllogism that gives the cause, and not from the premises. For it does not come from logical sequence or from planning; it is before sequence and before planning. All these come later: reasoning, demonstration, proof.
ἐπεὶ γὰρ ἀρχή, αὐτόθεν πάντα ταῦτα καὶ ὧδε· καὶ τὸ μὴ ζητεῖν αἰτίας ἀρχῆς οὕτω καλῶς λέγεται, καὶ τῆς τοιαύτης ἀρχῆς τῆς τελείας, ἥτις ταὐτὸν τῷ τέλει· ἥτις δὲ ἀρχὴ καὶ τέλος, αὕτη τὸ πᾶν ὁμοῦ καὶ ἀνελλιπής.
For since it is a principle, all these things come straight from it, and just so. And the saying that one should not look for the causes of a principle is well said—above all of a principle like this, the perfect one, which is the same as its end. What is both beginning and end is everything at once, lacking nothing.
καλὸν οὖν πρώτως, καὶ ὅλον δὲ καὶ πανταχοῦ ὅλον, ἵνα μηδὲ μέρει ἀπολείπηται τῷ καλῷ ἐλλείπειν. τίς οὖν οὐ φήσει καλόν; οὐ γὰρ δὴ ὃ μὴ ὅλον αὐτό, ἀλλ’ ὃ μέρος ἔχον ἢ μηδέ τι αὐτοῦ ἔχον. ἢ εἰ μὴ ἐκεῖνο καλόν, τί ἂν ἄλλο; τὸ γὰρ πρὸ αὐτοῦ οὐδὲ καλὸν ἐθέλει εἶναι· τὸ δὲ πρώτως εἰς θέαν παρελθὸν τῷ εἶδος εἶναι καὶ θέαμα νοῦ τούτῳ καὶ ἀγαστὸν ὀφθῆναι. διὸ καὶ Πλάτων τοῦτο σημῆναι θέλων εἴς τι τῶν ἐναργεστέρων ὡς πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἀποδεξάμενον ποιεῖ τὸν δημιουργὸν τὸ ἀποτελεσθὲν διὰ τούτου ἐνδείξασθαι θέλων τὸ τοῦ παραδείγματος καὶ τῆς ἰδέας κάλλος ὡς ἀγαστόν. πᾶν γὰρ τὸ κατ’ ἄλλο ποιηθὲν ὅταν τις θαυμάσῃ, ἐπ’ ἐκεῖνο ἔχει τὸ θαῦμα, καθ’ ὅ ἐστι πεποιημένον.
It is beautiful, then, in the primary sense, and whole, and whole everywhere, so that it does not fall short in beauty even in any part. Who, then, will not call it beautiful? Surely what lacks beauty is not what is wholly itself, but what has only a part of it, or not even any of it. Or if that is not beautiful, what else could be? For what is before it does not even want to be beautiful. But what first came forth into view, by being Form and a spectacle for intellect, is for that very reason admirable to see. That is why Plato, wanting to indicate this by something clearer to us, makes the craftsman approve of what he had completed, wanting through this to show the beauty of the model and the Form as admirable. For whenever someone admires a thing made after another, the admiration goes to that after which it was made.
εἰ δ’ ἀγνοεῖ ὃ πάσχει, θαῦμα οὐδέν· ἐπεὶ καὶ οἱ ἐρῶντες καὶ ὅλως οἱ τὸ τῇδε κάλλος τεθαυμακότες ἀγνοοῦσιν, ὅτι δι’ ἐκεῖνο· δι’ ἐκεῖνο γάρ. ὅτι δὲ εἰς τὸ παράδειγμα ἀνάγει τὸ ἠγάσθη, δῆλον ποιεῖ ἐπίτηδες τὸ ἑξῆς τῆς λέξεως λαβών· εἶπε γὰρ ‘ἠγάσθη τε καὶ ἔτι μᾶλλον πρὸς τὸ παράδειγμα αὐτὸ ἐβουλήθη ἀφομοιῶσαι’, τὸ κάλλος τοῦ παραδείγματος οἷόν ἐστιν ἐνδεικνύμενος διὰ τοῦ ἐκ τούτου τὸ γενόμενον καλὸν καὶ αὐτὸ ὡς εἰκόνα ἐκείνου εἰπεῖν· ἐπεὶ καὶ εἰ μὴ ἐκεῖνο ἦν τὸ ὑπέρκαλον κάλλει ἀμηχάνῳ, τί ἂν τούτου τοῦ ὁρωμένου ἦν κάλλιον; ὅθεν οὐκ ὀρθῶς οἱ μεμφόμενοι τούτῳ, εἰ μὴ ἄρα καθ’ ὅσον μὴ ἐκεῖνό ἐστι.
If he does not know what he is experiencing, that is no wonder: lovers too, and in general those who have admired beauty here, do not know that it is because of that beauty—and it is because of that. That Plato refers the “admired” to the model he makes clear by deliberately adding what follows in the text. For he said: “he admired it, and wished to make it still more like its model,” showing what the beauty of the model is like by saying that what came from it is beautiful too, as an image of that. For if that were not supremely beautiful, with a beauty beyond measure, what could be more beautiful than this visible world? So those who find fault with it are wrong—except perhaps insofar as it is not that.
The transparent sphere
An exercise: imagine the cosmos as a luminous sphere, then take away its mass.
τοῦτον τοίνυν τὸν κόσμον, ἑκάστου τῶν μερῶν μένοντος ὃ ἔστι καὶ μὴ συγχεομένου, λάβωμεν τῇ διανοίᾳ, εἰς ἓν ὁμοῦ πάντα, ὡς οἷόν τε, ὥστε ἑνὸς ὁτουοῦν προφαινομένου, οἷον τῆς ἔξω σφαίρας οὔσης, ἀκολουθεῖν εὐθὺς καὶ τὴν ἡλίου καὶ ὁμοῦ τῶν ἄλλων ἄστρων τὴν φαντασίαν καὶ γῆν καὶ θάλασσαν καὶ πάντα τὰ ζῷα ὁρᾶσθαι, οἷον ἐπὶ σφαίρας διαφανοῦς, καὶ ἔργῳ ἂν γένοιτο πάντα ἐνορᾶσθαι. ἔστω οὖν ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ φωτεινή τις φαντασία σφαίρας ἔχουσα πάντα ἐν αὑτῇ, εἴτε κινούμενα εἴτε ἑστηκότα, ἢ τὰ μὲν κινούμενα, τὰ δὲ ἑστηκότα.
So let us take this cosmos in discursive thought, with each of its parts remaining what it is and not merging, all together into one, so far as possible. Then, when any one part appears—say the outermost sphere—the imagined picture of the sun at once follows, and with it that of the other stars, and earth and sea and all living things are seen, as if on a transparent sphere; and in fact everything could be seen within it. Let there be, then, in the soul a luminous imagined picture of a sphere, containing everything in itself, whether moving or at rest, or some things moving and some at rest.
φυλάττων δὲ ταύτην ἄλλην παρὰ σαυτῷ ἀφελὼν τὸν ὄγκον λαβέ· ἄφελε δὲ καὶ τοὺς τόπους καὶ τὸ τῆς ὕλης ἐν σοὶ φάντασμα, καὶ μὴ πειρῶ αὐτῆς ἄλλην σμικροτέραν λαβεῖν τῷ ὄγκῳ, θεὸν δὲ καλέσας τὸν πεποιηκότα ἧς ἔχεις τὸ φάντασμα εὖξαι ἐλθεῖν.
Keep this, and take in your mind another, taking away the mass. Take away the places too, and the mental image of matter in you; and do not try to grasp another sphere smaller in mass than this one. Instead, call on the god who made the sphere whose mental image you have, and pray that he come.
ὁ δὲ ἥκοι τὸν αὑτοῦ κόσμον φέρων μετὰ πάντων τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ θεῶν εἷς ὢν καὶ πάντες καὶ ἕκαστος πάντες, συνόντες εἰς ἓν καὶ ταῖς μὲν δυνάμεσιν ἄλλοι, τῇ δὲ μιᾷ ἐκείνῃ τῇ πολλῇ πάντες εἷς· μᾶλλον δὲ ὁ εἷς πάντες· οὐ γὰρ ἐπιλείπει αὐτός, ἢν πάντες ἐκεῖνοι γένωνται, ὁμοῦ δέ εἰσι καὶ ἕκαστος χωρὶς αὖ ἐν στάσει ἀδιαστάτῳ οὐ μορφὴν αἰσθητὴν οὐδεμίαν ἔχων· ἤδη γὰρ ἂν ὁ μὲν ἄλλοθι, ὁ δέ που ἄλλοθι ἦν, καὶ ἕκαστος δὲ οὐ πᾶς ἐν αὑτῷ· οὐδὲ μέρη ἄλλα ἔχων ἄλλοις ἢ αὑτῷ οὐδὲ ἕκαστον ὅλον δύναμις κερματισθεῖσα καὶ τοσαύτη οὖσα, ὅσα τὰ μέρη μετρούμενα.
And may he come, bringing his own cosmos, with all the gods in it, being one and all, and each all, coming together into one; different in their powers, but by that one manifold power all one—or rather the one is all of them. For he himself does not give out if all of them come to be. They are together, and again each is apart, in a rest without separation, having no perceptible shape—for then one would be in one place, another somewhere else, and each would not be wholly in himself. Nor does he have parts that are one thing for others and another for himself; nor is each whole a power cut into pieces, as great as its parts when they are measured.
τὸ δέ ἐστι δύναμις πᾶσα, εἰς ἄπειρον μὲν ἰοῦσα, εἰς ἄπειρον δὲ δυναμένη· καὶ οὕτως ἐστὶν ἐκεῖνος μέγας, ὡς καὶ τὰ μέρη αὐτοῦ ἄπειρα γεγονέναι. ποῦ γάρ τι ἔστιν εἰπεῖν, ὅπου μὴ φθάνει; μέγας μὲν οὖν καὶ ὅδε ὁ οὐρανὸς καὶ αἱ ἐν αὐτῷ πᾶσαι δυνάμεις ὁμοῦ, ἀλλὰ μείζων ἂν ἦν καὶ ὁπόσος οὐδ’ ἂν ἦν εἰπεῖν, εἰ μή τις αὐτῷ συνῆν σώματος δύναμις μικρά· καίτοι γε μεγάλας ἄν τις φήσειε πυρὸς καὶ τῶν ἄλλων σωμάτων τὰς δυνάμεις· ἀλλὰ ἤδη ἀπειρίᾳ δυνάμεως ἀληθινῆς φαντάζονται καίουσαι καὶ φθείρουσαι καὶ θλίβουσαι καὶ πρὸς γένεσιν τῶν ζῴων ὑπουργοῦσαι. ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν φθείρει, ὅτι καὶ φθείρεται, καὶ συγγεννᾷ, ὅτι καὶ αὐτὰ γίνεται· ἡ δὲ δύναμις ἡ ἐκεῖ μόνον τὸ εἶναι ἔχει καὶ μόνον τὸ καλὸν εἶναι.
That world is all power, going on to the unlimited and with power to the unlimited; and that god is so great that even his parts have become unlimited. Where can one name a place he has not already reached? This heaven too is great, and all the powers in it together; but it would be greater, too great even to say how great, were it not that a small bodily power is joined with it. And yet one might call the powers of fire and the other bodies great. But it is through inexperience of true power that they are imagined as great, burning and destroying and crushing, and serving the generation of living things. No: these destroy because they are themselves destroyed, and help generate because they themselves come to be. The power there has only being, and only being beautiful.
ποῦ γὰρ ἂν εἴη τὸ καλὸν ἀποστερηθὲν τοῦ εἶναι; ποῦ δ’ ἂν ἡ οὐσία τοῦ καλὸν εἶναι ἐστερημένη; ἐν γὰρ τῷ ἀπολειφθῆναι τοῦ καλοῦ ἐλλείπει καὶ τῇ οὐσίᾳ. διὸ καὶ τὸ εἶναι ποθεινόν ἐστιν, ὅτι ταὐτὸν τῷ καλῷ, καὶ τὸ καλὸν ἐράσμιον, ὅτι τὸ εἶναι. πότερον δὲ ποτέρου αἴτιον τί χρὴ ζητεῖν οὔσης τῆς φύσεως μιᾶς; ἥδε μὲν γὰρ ἡ ψευδὴς οὐσία δεῖται ἐπακτοῦ εἰδώλου καλοῦ, ἵνα καὶ καλὸν φαίνηται καὶ ὅλως ᾖ, καὶ κατὰ τοσοῦτον ἔστι, καθ’ ὅσον μετείληφε κάλλους τοῦ κατὰ τὸ εἶδος, καὶ λαβοῦσα ὅσῳ ἂν λάβῃ μᾶλλον τελειοτέρα· μᾶλλον γὰρ οἰκεία ἡ καλή.
For where would the beautiful be, deprived of being? And where would being be, deprived of being beautiful? In falling short of the beautiful, it falls short in being too. That is why being is longed for: because it is the same as the beautiful; and the beautiful is loved because it is being. Why should we ask which of them is the cause of which, when the nature is one? This false being here needs an image of beauty brought in from outside in order to appear beautiful, and to exist at all. It exists to the extent that it has a share in the beauty that comes from form; and the more it receives, the more complete it is. For being that is beautiful is more its own.
Zeus leads the vision
Gods and souls follow Zeus to the vision of intelligible beauty and become beautiful.
διὰ τοῦτο καὶ ὁ Ζεὺς καίπερ ὢν πρεσβύτατος τῶν ἄλλων θεῶν, ὧν αὐτὸς ἡγεῖται, πρῶτος πορεύεται ἐπὶ τὴν τούτου θέαν, οἱ δὲ ἕπονται θεοὶ ἄλλοι καὶ δαίμονες καὶ ψυχαί, αἳ ταῦτα ὁρᾶν δύνανται. ὁ δὲ ἐκφαίνεται αὐτοῖς ἔκ τινος ἀοράτου τόπου καὶ ἀνατείλας ὑψοῦ ἐπ’ αὐτῶν κατέλαμψε μὲν πάντα καὶ ἔπλησεν αὐγῆς καὶ ἐξέπληξε μὲν τοὺς κάτω καὶ ἐστράφησαν ἰδεῖν οὐ δεδυνημένοι, οἷα ἥλιον· οἱ μὲν ὑπ’ αὐτοῦ ἀνέχονταί τε καὶ βλέπουσιν, οἱ δὲ ταράττονται, ὅσῳ ἂν ἀφεστήκωσιν αὐτοῦ.
That is why Zeus too, though he is the eldest of the other gods, whom he leads, goes first to the vision of this; and the other gods follow, and spirits and souls able to see these things. And it shows itself to them out of some invisible place, and rising high above them it shone down on everything and filled it with radiance. It struck those below with amazement, and they turned away, unable to look, as at the sun. Some are lifted up by it and look; others are thrown into confusion, the more so the farther they stand from it.
ὁρῶντες δὲ οἱ δυνηθέντες ἰδεῖν εἰς αὐτὸν μὲν πάντες βλέπουσι καὶ εἰς τὸ αὐτοῦ, οὐ ταὐτὸν δὲ ἕκαστος ἀεὶ θέαμα κομίζεται, ἀλλ’· ὁ μὲν ἀτενὲς ἰδὼν ἐκλάμπουσαν εἶδε τὴν τοῦ δικαίου πηγὴν καὶ φύσιν, ἄλλος δὲ τῆς σωφροσύνης ἐπλήσθη τοῦ θεάματος, οὐχ οἵαν ἄνθρωποι παρ’ αὑτοῖς, ὅταν ἔχωσιν, [ἔχουσι]. μιμεῖται γὰρ αὕτη ἀμηγέπη ἐκείνην, ἡ δὲ ἐπὶ πᾶσι περὶ πᾶν τὸ οἷον μέγεθος αὐτοῦ ἐπιθέουσα τελευταία ὁρᾶται οἷς πολλὰ ἤδη ὤφθη ἐναργῆ θεάματα. [θεῶνται μὲν οὖν] οἱ θεοὶ καθ’ ἕνα καὶ πᾶς ὁμοῦ, [καὶ] αἱ ψυχαὶ αἱ πάντα ἐκεῖ ὁρῶσαι καὶ ἐκ τῶν πάντων γενόμεναι, ὥστε πάντα περιέχειν καὶ αὐταὶ ἐξ ἀρχῆς εἰς τέλος, καὶ εἰσὶν ἐκεῖ, ὅσον ἂν αὐτῶν πεφύκῃ εἶναι ἐκεῖ, πολλάκις δὲ αὐτῶν καὶ τὸ πᾶν ἐκεῖ, ὅταν μὴ ὦσι διειλημμέναι.
Those who could see, as they see, all look at it and at what is its own; but not each always carries away the same vision. One, gazing intently, saw the source and nature of justice shining out; another was filled with the vision of moderation—not the kind human beings [have] among themselves, when they do have it, for that imitates this somehow. But what runs over all, across its whole—so to speak—magnitude, is seen last, by those who have already seen many clear visions. [So they contemplate:] the gods one by one and all together, [and] the souls that see everything There and have come to be from all of them, so that they too embrace everything from beginning to end. They are There insofar as it is their nature to be There; and often the whole of them is There, when they are not divided.
ταῦτα οὖν ὁρῶν ὁ Ζεὺς καὶ εἴ τις ἡμῶν αὐτῷ συνεραστὴς τὸ τελευταῖον ὁρώμενον ἐπὶ πᾶσιν ὅλον τὸ κάλλος καὶ κάλλους μετασχὼν τοῦ ἐκεῖ· ἀποστίλβει γὰρ πάντα καὶ πληροῖ τοὺς ἐκεῖ γενομένους, ὡς καλοὺς καὶ αὐτοὺς γενέσθαι, ὁποῖα πολλάκις ἄνθρωποι εἰς ὑψηλοὺς ἀναβαίνοντες τόπους τὸ ξανθὸν χρῶμα ἐχούσης τῆς γῆς τῆς ἐκεῖ ἐπλήσθησαν ἐκείνης τῆς χρόας ὁμοιωθέντες τῇ ἐφ’ ἧς ἐβεβήκεσαν. ἐκεῖ δὲ χρόα ἡ ἐπανθοῦσα κάλλος ἐστί, μᾶλλον δὲ πᾶν χρόα καὶ κάλλος ἐκ βάθους· οὐ γὰρ ἄλλο τὸ καλὸν ὡς ἐπανθοῦν. ἀλλὰ τοῖς μὴ ὅλον ὁρῶσιν ἡ προσβολὴ μόνη ἐνομίσθη, τοῖς δὲ διὰ παντὸς οἷον οἰνωθεῖσι καὶ πληρωθεῖσι τοῦ νέκταρος, ἅτε δι’ ὅλης τῆς ψυχῆς τοῦ κάλλους ἐλθόντος, οὐ θεαταῖς μόνον ὑπάρχει γενέσθαι.
So Zeus, seeing these things—and any of us who is his fellow lover—sees last over all the whole of beauty, and has a share of the beauty There. For it shines on everything and fills those who have come There, so that they too become beautiful—just as people who climb to high places where the earth is golden-yellow are often filled with that color and become like the ground they walked on. But There the color that blooms on the surface is beauty; or rather, everything is color and beauty from the depths. For the beautiful is not something else, as if it bloomed on the surface. But those who do not see the whole take the first impression alone for beauty; while for those who are wholly drunk, so to speak, and filled with the nectar, since the beauty has gone through their whole soul, it is not their lot to be mere spectators.
οὐ γὰρ ἔτι ὁ μὲν ἔξω, τὸ δ’ αὖ θεώμενον ἔξω, ἀλλ’ ἔχει ὁ ὀξέως ὁρῶν ἐν αὑτῷ τὸ ὁρώμενον, καὶ ἔχων τὰ πολλὰ ἀγνοεῖ ὅτι ἔχει καὶ ὡς ἔξω ὂν βλέπει, ὅτι ὡς ὁρώμενον βλέπει καὶ ὅτι θέλει βλέπειν. πᾶν δὲ ὅ τις ὡς θεατὸν βλέπει ἔξω βλέπει. ἀλλὰ χρὴ εἰς αὑτὸν ἤδη μεταφέρειν καὶ βλέπειν ὡς ἓν καὶ βλέπειν ὡς αὑτόν, ὥσπερ εἴ τις ὑπὸ θεοῦ κατασχεθεὶς φοιβόληπτος ἢ ὑπό τινος Μούσης ἐν αὑτῷ ἂν ποιοῖτο τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν θέαν, εἰ δύναμιν ἔχοι ἐν αὑτῷ θεὸν βλέπειν.
For no longer is the one outside and what is contemplated outside too. The one who sees sharply has what is seen within himself. And though he has it, for the most part he does not know that he has it, and looks at it as if it were outside, because he looks at it as something seen and because he wants to look. But whatever one looks at as a spectacle, one looks at as outside. One must now carry it over into oneself and look at it as one, and look at it as oneself—just as someone possessed by a god, seized by Phoebus or by one of the Muses, would produce the vision of the god within himself, if he had the power to see the god within himself.
εἰ δέ τις ἡμῶν ἀδυνατῶν ἑαυτὸν ὁρᾶν, ὑπ’ ἐκείνου τοῦ θεοῦ ἐπὰν καταληφθεὶς εἰς τὸ ἰδεῖν προφέρῃ τὸ θέαμα, ἑαυτὸν προφέρει καὶ εἰκόνα αὑτοῦ καλλωπισθεῖσαν βλέπει. ἀφεὶς δὲ τὴν εἰκόνα καίπερ καλὴν οὖσαν εἰς ἓν αὑτῷ ἐλθὼν καὶ μηκέτι σχίσας ἓν ὁμοῦ πάντα ἐστὶ μετ’ ἐκείνου τοῦ θεοῦ ἀψοφητὶ παρόντος, καὶ ἔστι μετ’ αὐτοῦ ὅσον δύναται καὶ θέλει. εἰ δὲ ἐπιστραφείη εἰς δύο, καθαρὸς μὲν ὢν ἐφεξῆς ἐστιν αὐτῷ, ὥστε αὐτῷ παρεῖναι ἐκείνως πάλιν, εἰ πάλιν ἐπ’ αὐτὸν στρέφοι. ἐν δὲ τῇ ἐπιστροφῇ κέρδος τοῦτ’ ἔχει· ἀρχόμενος αἰσθάνεται αὑτοῦ, ἕως ἕτερός ἐστι· δραμὼν δὲ εἰς τὸ εἴσω ἔχει πᾶν, καὶ ἀφεὶς τὴν αἴσθησιν εἰς τοὐπίσω τοῦ ἕτερος εἶναι φόβῳ εἷς ἐστιν ἐκεῖ· κἂν ἐπιθυμήσῃ ὡς ἕτερον ὂν ἰδεῖν, ἔξω αὑτὸν ποιεῖ.
And if one of us, unable to see himself, is seized by that god and brings the vision forward for seeing, he brings himself forward and sees an embellished image of himself. But letting go of the image, beautiful though it is, he comes into unity with himself and no longer splits apart; he is one and all together with that god, who is silently present, and he is with him as far as he can and wishes. And if he should turn back into two, then, while he is pure, he stays close to him, so as to be present to him in that other way again, if he turns to him again. In this turning he gains this: at the start he perceives himself, so long as he is other; but running inward he has everything, and leaving perception behind for fear of being other, he is one There. And if he desires to see it as something other, he puts himself outside.
δεῖ δὲ καταμανθάνοντα μὲν ἔν τινι τύπῳ αὐτοῦ μένοντα μετὰ τοῦ ζητεῖν γνωματεύειν αὐτόν, εἰς οἷον δὲ εἴσεισιν οὕτω μαθόντα καὶ πίστιν [ἔχοντα], ὡς ἐπὶ χρῆμα μακαριστὸν εἴσεισιν, ἤδη αὑτὸν δοῦναι εἰς τὸ εἴσω καὶ γενέσθαι ἀντὶ ὁρῶντος ἤδη θέαμα ἑτέρου θεωμένου οἷος ἐκεῖθεν ἥκει ἐκλάμποντα τοῖς νοήμασι. πῶς οὖν ἔσται τις ἐν καλῷ μὴ ὁρῶν αὐτό;
While he is learning, he must stay within some impression of it and come to know it by seeking. Having learned in this way what sort of thing he is entering, and [having] conviction that he is entering upon something most blessed, he must at once give himself over to what is within and become, instead of a seer, a vision for another who contemplates, shining out with thoughts like one who has come from There. How, then, will someone be in beauty without seeing it?
ἢ ὁρῶν αὐτὸ ὡς ἕτερον οὐδέπω ἐν καλῷ, γενόμενος δὲ αὐτὸ οὕτω μάλιστα ἐν καλῷ. εἰ οὖν ὅρασις τοῦ ἔξω, ὅρασιν μὲν οὐ δεῖ εἶναι ἢ οὕτως, ὡς ταὐτὸν τῷ ὁρατῷ· τοῦτο δὲ οἷον σύνεσις καὶ συναίσθησις αὑτοῦ εὐλαβουμένου μὴ τῷ μᾶλλον αἰσθάνεσθαι θέλειν ἑαυτοῦ ἀποστῆναι. δεῖ δὲ κἀκεῖνο ἐνθυμεῖσθαι, ὡς τῶν μὲν κακῶν αἱ αἰσθήσεις τὰς πληγὰς ἔχουσι μείζους, ἥττους δὲ τὰς γνώσεις τῇ πληγῇ ἐκκρουομένας· νόσος γὰρ μᾶλλον ἔκπληξιν, ὑγίεια δὲ ἠρέμα συνοῦσα μᾶλλον ἂν σύνεσιν δοίη αὑτῆς· προίζει γὰρ ἅτε οἰκεῖον καὶ ἑνοῦται· ἡ δ’ ἐστὶν ἀλλότριον καὶ οὐκ οἰκεῖον καὶ ταύτῃ διάδηλος τῷ σφόδρα ἕτερον ἡμῶν εἶναι δοκεῖν· τὰ δὲ ἡμῶν καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀναίσθητοι. οὕτως δ’ ὄντες μάλιστα πάντων ἐσμὲν αὑτοῖς συνετοὶ τὴν ἐπιστήμην ἡμῶν καὶ ἡμᾶς ἓν πεποιηκότες.
Or rather: seeing it as something other, he is not yet in beauty; it is by becoming it that he is most of all in beauty. If, then, sight is of what is outside, there must be no sight—or only sight that is the same as the object seen. This is, as it were, an understanding and self-awareness of oneself, careful not to depart from itself by wanting to perceive more. We must keep this in mind too: perceptions of bad things strike harder, but the knowledge is less, knocked aside by the blow. Sickness gives more of a shock, while health, being quietly with us, would give more understanding of itself; for it settles in as something of our own and becomes one with us. Sickness is alien, not our own, and conspicuous for just that reason, in that it seems very different from us. Our own things, and ourselves, we do not perceive. And being like this, we understand ourselves best of all, having made our knowledge and ourselves one.
κἀκεῖ τοίνυν, ὅτε μάλιστα ἴσμεν κατὰ νοῦν, ἀγνοεῖν δοκοῦμεν τῆς αἰσθήσεως ἀναμένοντες τὸ πάθος, ἥ φησι μὴ ἑωρακέναι· οὐ γὰρ εἶδεν οὐδ’ ἂν τὰ τοιαῦτά ποτε ἴδοι. τὸ οὖν ἀπιστοῦν ἡ αἴσθησίς ἐστιν, ὁ δὲ ἄλλος ἐστὶν ὁ ἰδών· ἤ, εἰ ἀπιστοῖ κἀκεῖνος, οὐδ’ ἂν αὑτὸν πιστεύσειεν εἶναι· οὐδὲ γὰρ οὐδ’ αὐτὸς δύναται ἔξω θεὶς ἑαυτὸν ὡς αἰσθητὸν ὄντα ὀφθαλμοῖς τοῖς τοῦ σώματος βλέπειν.
So there too, when we know most of all by intellect, we seem not to know, because we wait for the experience of perception, which says it has not seen. And it has not seen, nor would it ever see such things. So what disbelieves is perception, while the one who has seen is the other in us. Or, if he too should disbelieve, he would not even believe that he himself exists; for he cannot either place himself outside as something perceptible and look at himself with the body’s eyes.
ἀλλὰ εἴρηται, πῶς ὡς ἕτερος δύναται τοῦτο ποιεῖν, καὶ πῶς ὡς αὐτός. ἰδὼν δή, εἴτε ὡς ἕτερος, εἴτε ὡς μείνας αὐτός, τί ἀπαγγέλλει; ἢ θεὸν ἑωρακέναι τόκον ὠδίνοντα καλὸν καὶ πάντα δὴ ἐν αὑτῷ γεγεννηκότα καὶ ἄλυπον ἔχοντα τὴν ὠδῖνα ἐν αὑτῷ· ἡσθεὶς γὰρ οἷς ἐγέννα καὶ ἀγασθεὶς τῶν τόκων κατέσχε πάντα παρ’ αὑτῷ τὴν αὑτοῦ καὶ τὴν αὐτῶν ἀγλαίαν ἀσμενίσας· ὁ δὲ καλῶν ὄντων καὶ καλλιόνων τῶν εἰς τὸ εἴσω μεμενηκότων μόνος ἐκ τῶν ἄλλων παῖς ἐξεφάνη εἰς τὸ ἔξω. ἀφ’ οὗ καὶ ὑστάτου παιδὸς ὄντος ἔστιν ἰδεῖν οἷον ἐξ εἰκόνος τινὸς αὐτοῦ, ὅσος ὁ πατὴρ ἐκεῖνος καὶ οἱ μείναντες παρὰ τῷ πατρὶ ἀδελφοί.
But it has been said how he can do this as another, and how as himself. Having seen, then—whether as another or remaining himself—what does he report? That he has seen a god in labor with beautiful offspring, who has begotten everything within himself and keeps the labor painless within himself. For delighting in what he begot and admiring his children, he kept them all with himself, glad of his own splendor and of theirs. But though they are beautiful, and those who remained within are more beautiful, one child alone of them appeared outside. From him, the last child, one can see, as from an image of him, how great that father is, and the brothers who remained with the father.
ὁ δὲ οὔ φησι μάτην ἐλθεῖν παρὰ τοῦ πατρός· εἶναι γὰρ δὴ αὑτοῦ ἄλλον κόσμον γεγονότα καλόν, ὡς εἰκόνα καλοῦ· μηδὲ γὰρ εἶναι θεμιτὸν εἰκόνα καλὴν μὴ εἶναι μήτε καλοῦ μήτε οὐσίας. μιμεῖται δὴ τὸ ἀρχέτυπον πανταχῇ. καὶ γὰρ ζωὴν ἔχει καὶ τὸ τῆς οὐσίας, ὡς μίμημα, καὶ τὸ κάλλος εἶναι, ὡς ἐκεῖθεν· ἔχει δὲ καὶ τὸ ἀεὶ αὐτοῦ, ὡς εἰκών· ἢ ποτὲ μὲν ἕξει εἰκόνα, ποτὲ δὲ οὔ, οὐ τέχνῃ γενομένης τῆς εἰκόνος; πᾶσα δὲ φύσει εἰκών ἐστιν, ὅσον ἂν τὸ ἀρχέτυπον μένῃ. διὸ οὐκ ὀρθῶς, οἳ φθείρουσι τοῦ νοητοῦ μένοντος καὶ γεννῶσιν οὕτως, ὡς ποτὲ βουλευσαμένου τοῦ ποιοῦντος ποιεῖν.
He says he did not come from his father for nothing: for through him there is another cosmos that has come to be, beautiful, as an image of the beautiful; and it would not be right for there to be no beautiful image, either of the beautiful or of being. It imitates the archetype in every way: it has life and the character of being, as an imitation, and it has beauty, as coming from There; and it also has its everlastingness, as an image. Or will that have an image at one time and not at another, when the image has not come about by art? Every image that is by nature exists as long as its archetype remains. That is why they are wrong who destroy the cosmos while the intelligible remains, and make it come to be as if its maker had at some point deliberated to make it.
ὅστις γὰρ τρόπος ποιήσεως τοιαύτης οὐκ ἐθέλουσι συνιέναι οὐδ’ ἴσασιν, ὅτι, ὅσον ἐκεῖνο ἐλλάμπει, οὐ μήποτε τὰ ἄλλα ἐλλείπῃ, ἀλλ’ ἐξ οὗ ἔστι καὶ ταῦτα ἔστιν· ἦν δ’ ἀεὶ καὶ ἔσται. χρηστέον γὰρ τούτοις τοῖς ὀνόμασι τῇ τοῦ σημαίνειν ἐθέλειν ἀνάγκῃ.
They do not want to understand what sort of making this is, nor do they know that, as long as that shines, the other things will never fail: since it is, they too are. It always was and always will be—for we have to use these words out of the need to signify something.
ὁ οὖν θεὸς ὁ εἰς τὸ μένειν ὡσαύτως δεδεμένος καὶ συγχωρήσας τῷ παιδὶ τοῦδε τοῦ παντὸς ἄρχειν — οὐ γὰρ ἦν αὐτῷ πρὸς τρόπου τὴν ἐκεῖ ἀρχὴν ἀφέντι νεωτέραν αὑτοῦ καὶ ὑστέραν μεθέπειν κόρον ἔχοντι τῶν καλῶν — ταῦτ’ ἀφεὶς ἔστησέ τε τὸν αὑτοῦ πατέρα εἰς ἑαυτὸν καὶ μέχρις αὐτοῦ πρὸς τὸ ἄνω· ἔστησε δ’ αὖ καὶ τὰ εἰς θάτερα ἀπὸ τοῦ παιδὸς ἀρξάμενα εἶναι μετ’ αὐτόν, ὥστε μεταξὺ ἀμφοῖν γενέσθαι τῇ τε ἑτερότητι τῆς πρὸς τὸ ἄνω ἀποτομῆς καὶ τῷ ἀνέχοντι ἀπὸ τοῦ μετ’ αὐτὸν πρὸς τὸ κάτω δεσμοῦ, μεταξὺ ὢν πατρός τε ἀμείνονος καὶ ἥττονος υἱέος.
So the god who is bound to remain as he is gave over to his son the rule of this All—for it was not in keeping with his character to give up the rule There and pursue a rule younger than himself and later, since he had his fill of beautiful things. Leaving these, he set his own father firmly by himself, and himself up to his father on the upper side. And again he set what began from his son to be after him on the other side, so that he came to be between the two, by the otherness of his severing from what is above, and by the bond that holds him back from what comes after him toward what is below: he is between a better father and a lesser son.
ἀλλ’ ἐπειδὴ ὁ πατὴρ αὐτῷ μείζων ἢ κατὰ κάλλος ἦν, πρώτως αὐτὸς ἔμεινε καλός, καίτοι καλῆς καὶ τῆς ψυχῆς οὔσης· ἀλλ’ ἔστι καλλίων καὶ ταύτης, ὅτι ἴχνος αὐτὴ αὐτοῦ, καὶ τούτῳ ἐστὶ καλὴ μὲν τὴν φύσιν, καλλίων δέ, ὅταν ἐκεῖ βλέπῃ. εἰ οὖν ἡ ψυχὴ ἡ τοῦ παντός, ἵνα γνωριμώτερον λέγωμεν, καὶ ἡ Ἀφροδίτη αὐτὴ καλή, τίς ἐκεῖνος; εἰ μὲν γὰρ παρ’ αὑτῆς, πόσον ἂν εἴη ἐκεῖνο; εἰ δὲ παρ’ ἄλλου, παρὰ τίνος ψυχὴ καὶ τὸ ἐπακτὸν καὶ τὸ συμφυὲς τῇ οὐσίᾳ αὐτῆς κάλλος ἔχει; ἐπεὶ καί, ὅταν καὶ αὐτοὶ καλοί, τῷ αὑτῶν εἶναι, αἰσχροὶ δὲ ἐπ’ ἄλλην μεταβαίνοντες φύσιν· καὶ γινώσκοντες μὲν ἑαυτοὺς καλοί, αἰσχροὶ δὲ ἀγνοοῦντες. ἐκεῖ οὖν κἀκεῖθεν τὸ καλόν.
But since his father was too great to be measured by beauty, he himself remained the primary beauty—though Soul too is beautiful. Yet he is more beautiful even than Soul, because Soul is his trace; that is why it is beautiful by nature, and more beautiful when it looks There. If, then, the Soul of the All—to speak in more familiar terms—or Aphrodite herself, is beautiful, what is he? If she is beautiful of herself, how great would that be? And if from another, from whom does Soul have the beauty that is both brought in and grown together with its being? For we ourselves, when we are beautiful, are so by being ourselves, and ugly when we pass over into another nature; knowing ourselves, we are beautiful, and ugly when we do not. So the beautiful is There, and comes from There.
ἆρ’ οὖν ἀρκεῖ τὰ εἰρημένα εἰς ἐναργῆ σύνεσιν ἀγαγεῖν τοῦ νοητοῦ τόπου, ἢ κατ’ ἄλλην ὁδὸν πάλιν αὖ δεῖ ἐπελθεῖν ὧδε;
Is what has been said enough, then, to lead us to a clear understanding of the intelligible place? Or must we go over it again by another road, as follows?