TIMAEU [33]
and
music, and rebellious against the divinest element within us.
The bones and flesh, and other similar parts of us, were made as
follows. The first principle of all of them was the generation of
the marrow. For the bonds of life which unite the soul with the body
are made fast there, and they are the root and foundation of the human
race. The marrow itself is created out of other materials: God took
such of the primary triangles as were straight and smooth, and were
adapted by their perfection to produce fire and water, and air and
earth-these, I say, he separated from their kinds, and mingling them
in due proportions with one another, made the marrow out of them to be
a universal seed of the whole race of mankind; and in this seed he
then planted and enclosed the souls, and in the original
distribution gave to the marrow as many and various forms as the
different kinds of souls were hereafter to receive. That which, like a
field, was to receive the divine seed, he made round every way, and
called that portion of the marrow, brain, intending that, when an
animal was perfected, the vessel containing this substance should be
the head; but that which was intended to contain the remaining and
mortal part of the soul he distributed into figures at once around and
elongated, and he called them all by the name "marrow"; and to
these, as to anchors, fastening the bonds of the whole soul, he
proceeded to fashion around them the entire framework of our body,
constructing for the marrow, first of all a complete covering of bone.
Bone was composed by him in the following manner. Having sifted pure
and smooth earth he kneaded it and wetted it with marrow, and after
that he put it into fire and then into water, and once more into
fire and again into water-in this way by frequent transfers from one
to the other he made it insoluble by either. Out of this he fashioned,
as in a lathe, a globe made of bone, which he placed around the brain,
and in this he left a narrow opening; and around the marrow of the
neck and back he formed vertebrae which he placed under one another
like pivots, beginning at the head and extending through the whole
of the trunk. Thus wishing to preserve the entire seed, he enclosed it
in a stone-like casing, inserting joints, and using in the formation
of them the power of the other or diverse as an intermediate nature,
that they might have motion and flexure. Then again, considering
that the bone would be too brittle and inflexible, and when heated and
again cooled would soon mortify and destroy the seed within-having
this in view, he contrived the sinews and the flesh, that so binding
all the members together by the sinews, which admitted of being
stretched and relaxed about the vertebrae, he might thus make the body
capable of flexion and extension, while the flesh would serve as a
protection against the summer heat and against the winter cold, and
also against falls, softly and easily yielding to external bodies,
like articles made of felt; and containing in itself a warm moisture
which in summer exudes and makes the surface damp, would impart a
nature coolness to the whole body; and again in winter by the help
of this internal warmth would form a very tolerable defence against
the frost which surrounds it and attacks it from without. He who
modelled us, considering these things, mixed earth with fire and water
and blended them; and making a ferment of acid and salt, he mingled it
with them and formed soft and succulent flesh. As for the sinews, he
made them of a mixture of bone and unfermented flesh, attempered so as
to be in a mean, and gave them a yellow colour; wherefore the sinews
have a firmer and more glutinous nature than flesh, but a softer and
moister nature than the bones. With these God covered the bones and
marrow, binding them together by sinews, and then enshrouded them
all in an upper covering of flesh. The more living and sensitive of
the bones he enclosed in the thinnest
music, and rebellious against the divinest element within us.
The bones and flesh, and other similar parts of us, were made as
follows. The first principle of all of them was the generation of
the marrow. For the bonds of life which unite the soul with the body
are made fast there, and they are the root and foundation of the human
race. The marrow itself is created out of other materials: God took
such of the primary triangles as were straight and smooth, and were
adapted by their perfection to produce fire and water, and air and
earth-these, I say, he separated from their kinds, and mingling them
in due proportions with one another, made the marrow out of them to be
a universal seed of the whole race of mankind; and in this seed he
then planted and enclosed the souls, and in the original
distribution gave to the marrow as many and various forms as the
different kinds of souls were hereafter to receive. That which, like a
field, was to receive the divine seed, he made round every way, and
called that portion of the marrow, brain, intending that, when an
animal was perfected, the vessel containing this substance should be
the head; but that which was intended to contain the remaining and
mortal part of the soul he distributed into figures at once around and
elongated, and he called them all by the name "marrow"; and to
these, as to anchors, fastening the bonds of the whole soul, he
proceeded to fashion around them the entire framework of our body,
constructing for the marrow, first of all a complete covering of bone.
Bone was composed by him in the following manner. Having sifted pure
and smooth earth he kneaded it and wetted it with marrow, and after
that he put it into fire and then into water, and once more into
fire and again into water-in this way by frequent transfers from one
to the other he made it insoluble by either. Out of this he fashioned,
as in a lathe, a globe made of bone, which he placed around the brain,
and in this he left a narrow opening; and around the marrow of the
neck and back he formed vertebrae which he placed under one another
like pivots, beginning at the head and extending through the whole
of the trunk. Thus wishing to preserve the entire seed, he enclosed it
in a stone-like casing, inserting joints, and using in the formation
of them the power of the other or diverse as an intermediate nature,
that they might have motion and flexure. Then again, considering
that the bone would be too brittle and inflexible, and when heated and
again cooled would soon mortify and destroy the seed within-having
this in view, he contrived the sinews and the flesh, that so binding
all the members together by the sinews, which admitted of being
stretched and relaxed about the vertebrae, he might thus make the body
capable of flexion and extension, while the flesh would serve as a
protection against the summer heat and against the winter cold, and
also against falls, softly and easily yielding to external bodies,
like articles made of felt; and containing in itself a warm moisture
which in summer exudes and makes the surface damp, would impart a
nature coolness to the whole body; and again in winter by the help
of this internal warmth would form a very tolerable defence against
the frost which surrounds it and attacks it from without. He who
modelled us, considering these things, mixed earth with fire and water
and blended them; and making a ferment of acid and salt, he mingled it
with them and formed soft and succulent flesh. As for the sinews, he
made them of a mixture of bone and unfermented flesh, attempered so as
to be in a mean, and gave them a yellow colour; wherefore the sinews
have a firmer and more glutinous nature than flesh, but a softer and
moister nature than the bones. With these God covered the bones and
marrow, binding them together by sinews, and then enshrouded them
all in an upper covering of flesh. The more living and sensitive of
the bones he enclosed in the thinnest