Timaeus
yielding body, might be cooled and suffer less, and might thus
become more ready to join with passion in the service of reason.
The part of the soul which desires meats and drinks and the other
things of which it has need by reason of the bodily nature, they
placed between the midriff and the boundary of the navel,
contriving in all this region a sort of manger for the food of
the body; and there they bound it down like a wild animal which
was chained up with man, and must be nourished if man was to
exist. They appointed this lower creation his place here in order
that he might be always feeding at the manger, and have his
dwelling as far as might be from the council-chamber, making as
little noise and disturbance as possible, and permitting the best
part to advise quietly for the good of the whole. And knowing
that this lower principle in man would not comprehend reason, and
even if attaining to some degree of perception would never
naturally care for rational notions, but that it would be led
away by phantoms and visions night and day,—to be a remedy for
this, God combined with it the liver, and placed it in the house
of the lower nature, contriving that it should be solid and
smooth, and bright and sweet, and should also have a bitter
quality, in order that the power of thought, which proceeds from
the mind, might be reflected as in a mirror which receives
likenesses of objects and gives back images of them to the sight;
and so might strike terror into the desires, when, making use of
the bitter part of the liver, to which it is akin, it comes
threatening and invading, and diffusing this bitter element
swiftly through the whole liver produces colours like bile, and
contracting every part makes it wrinkled and rough; and twisting
out of its right place and contorting the lobe and closing and
shutting up the vessels and gates, causes pain and loathing. And
the converse happens when some gentle inspiration of the
understanding pictures images of an opposite character, and
allays the bile and bitterness by refusing to stir or touch the
nature opposed to itself, but by making use of the natural
sweetness of the liver, corrects all things and makes them to be
right and smooth and free, and renders the portion of the soul
which resides about the liver happy and joyful, enabling it to
pass the night in peace, and to practise divination in sleep,
inasmuch as it has no share in mind and reason. For the authors
of our being, remembering the command of their father when he
bade them create the human race as good as they could, that they
might correct our inferior parts and make them to attain a
measure of truth, placed in the liver the seat of divination. And
herein is a proof that God has given the art of divination not to
the wisdom, but to the foolishness of man. No man, when in his
wits, attains prophetic truth and inspiration; but when he
receives the inspired word, either his intelligence is enthralled
in sleep, or he is demented by some distemper or possession. And
he who would understand what he remembers to have been said,
whether in a dream or when he was awake, by the prophetic and
inspired nature, or would determine by reason the meaning of the
apparitions which he has seen, and what indications they afford
to this man or that, of past, present or future good and evil,
must first recover his wits. But, while he continues demented, he
cannot judge of the visions which he sees or the words which he
utters; the ancient saying is very true, that ‘only a man who has
his wits can act or judge about himself and his own affairs.’ And
for this reason it is customary to appoint interpreters to be
judges of the true inspiration. Some persons call them prophets;
they are quite unaware that they are only the expositors of dark
sayings and visions, and are not to be called prophets at all,
but only interpreters of prophecy.
Such is the nature of the liver, which is placed as we have
described in order that it may give prophetic intimations. During
the life of each individual these intimations are plainer, but
after his death the liver becomes blind, and delivers oracles too
obscure to be intelligible. The neighbouring organ (the spleen)
is situated on the left-hand side, and is constructed with a view
of keeping the liver bright and pure,—like a napkin, always ready
prepared and at hand to clean the mirror. And hence, when any
impurities arise in the region of the liver by reason of
disorders of the body, the loose nature of the spleen, which is
composed of a hollow and bloodless tissue, receives them all and
clears them away, and when filled with the unclean matter, swells
and festers, but, again, when the body is purged, settles down
into the same place as before, and is humbled.
Concerning the soul, as to which part is mortal and which divine,
and how and why they are separated, and where located, if God
acknowledges that we have spoken the truth, then, and then only,
can we be confident; still, we may venture to assert that what
has been said by us is probable, and will be rendered more
probable by investigation. Let us assume thus much.
The creation of the rest of the body follows next in order, and
this we may investigate in a similar manner. And it appears to be
very meet that the body should be framed on the following
principles:—
The authors of our race were aware that we should be intemperate
in eating and drinking, and take a good deal more than was
necessary or proper, by reason of gluttony. In order then that
disease might not quickly destroy us, and lest our mortal race
should perish without fulfilling its end—intending to provide
against this, the gods made what is called the lower belly, to be
a receptacle for the superfluous meat and drink, and formed the
convolution of the bowels, so that the food might be prevented
from passing quickly through and compelling the body to require
more food, thus producing insatiable gluttony, and making the
whole race an enemy to philosophy 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 round 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
natural 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 film of flesh, and those which had the
least life within them in the thickest and most solid flesh. So
again on the joints of the bones, where reason indicated that no
more was required, he placed only a thin covering of flesh, that
it might not interfere with the flexion of our bodies and make
them unwieldy because difficult to move; and also that it might
not, by being crowded and pressed and matted together, destroy
sensation by reason of its hardness, and impair the memory and
dull the edge of intelligence. Wherefore also the thighs and the
shanks and the hips, and the bones of the arms and the forearms,
and other parts which have no joints, and the inner bones, which
on account of the rarity of the soul in the marrow are destitute