10

to those things growing from it, and he both increased it and led it on to the eternal cycle from its increase; for the pentad is a borderland of the decad and, as it were, an image of the common perfection. And the wandering stars, besides the sun and moon, are five, and there are five circles in a sphere and five zones. And Zeus is said by the philosophers to be the creator of sensation, and it was fitting for the pentad to be dedicated to him, as it were, according to nature; for the pentad is akin to sensation, which is divided fivefold into sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. And for this reason Pythagoras says that the number five is dedicated to Fate, since it is said that Fate rules over sensible things; by this the oracle says that the souls that are restored transcend Fate: for theurgists do not fall under the herd of fate. 2.11 And the sixth they refer to Phosphorus, who at once heats and fruitfully moistens; and this would be the star of Aphrodite, also called Hesperus, as it seems to the Greeks; And one might call Aphrodite the nature of the entire sensible world, that is, the first-born matter, which the oracles also call Asteria and Urania. For the number six is most generative, as it is an even-odd number, partaking both of the active substance according to the odd and of the material substance according to the even. Whence also the ancients called it marriage and harmony; for of the numbers from the monad, it alone is perfect in its own parts, being completed from them: from its half, three; from its third, two; and from its sixth, one. And simply put, it is by nature both male and female, just as Aphrodite herself, having the nature of both the male and the female, is for this reason called hermaphrodite by the theologians. And another says: The number six is soul-producing, being extended from the hexad over the sphere of the universe, and it also mixes opposites. It leads to concord and friendship, and then produces health in bodies, harmony in the lyre and music, virtue in the soul, abundance in the city, and providence in the universe. Whence also Orpheus says these things about the hexad: Be gracious, glorious number, father of the blessed, father of men. The seventh day the Egyptians and Chaldeans address to Phainon, the star so-called among them, the highest of all, which cools extremely and dries accordingly, but it is the custom for the Greeks to call it Kronos according to theology, but according to etymology, a satiated mind, as if full and replete with years, instead of Long-lived, as has been said. The Pythagoreans, however, assign the seventh to the ruler of the universe, that is, to the one, and Orpheus is a witness, saying thus: the seventh, which lord far-working Apollo loved. And we have said before that Apollo is mystically said to be the one because he is far from the many, that is, alone. Rightly, therefore, did Philolaus call the number seven motherless, for it alone is by nature neither begotten nor begetting. And that which neither begets nor is begotten is motionless; for generation is in motion, the one, that it may beget, the other, that it may be begotten. Such also is God, as the rhetor of Tarentum himself also says thus: «For he is the leader and ruler of all things, one god, ever being, permanent, motionless, himself like to himself.» But the mathematicians, leaning towards the more mythical, address the seventh day to Kronos, as if to the father of the manifest gods. For since the star of Kronos among them is said to be higher than all the wandering stars, they forsooth dedicated the seventh day to him as the highest of all. The heptad, therefore, is composed of one and two and four, having two most harmonic ratios, both the triple and the quadruple. And it also has divisions constituted in a certain way by pairs; for it is first divided into a monad and a hexad, then into a pentad and a dyad, and finally into a triad and a tetrad; and most musical is the proportion of these numbers. And its nature extends also to all visible substance, heaven and earth; for instance, they say heaven is girded by seven circles, of which

10

αὐτῆς φυομένοις, ηὔξησέ τε αὐτὴν καὶ προήγαγεν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς αὐξήσεως αἰώνιον ἀνακύκλησιν· μεθόριον γὰρ τῆς δεκάδος καὶ ὡς ἂν εἴδωλόν ἐστι τῆς κοινῆς τελειότητος ἡ πεντάς. καὶ πλανώμενοι πλὴν ἡλίου καὶ σελήνης πέντε, καὶ κύκλοι ἐν σφαίρᾳ πέντε καὶ ζῶναι πέντε. τῆς δὲ αἰσθήσεως λέγεται δημιουργὸς παρὰ τοῖς φιλοσόφοις ὁ Ζεὺς καὶ εἰκὸς ἦν αὐτῷ τὴν πεντάδα κατὰ φύσιν ὥσπερ ἀνατεθῆναι· συγγενὴς γὰρ ἡ πεντὰς τῇ αἰσθήσει, ἥτις πενταχῶς τέμνεται, εἰς ὅρασιν ἀκοὴν γεῦσιν ὄσφρησιν καὶ ἁφήν. καὶ τούτου χάριν ὁ Πυθαγόρας Εἱμαρμένῃ τὸν πέντε ἀριθμὸν ἀνακεῖσθαί φησιν, ἐπεὶ τῶν αἰσθητῶν κατάρχειν τὴν Εἱμαρμένην λόγος· ταύτῃ τὰς ἀποκαθισταμένας ψυχὰς ὑπερβαίνειν τὴν Εἱμαρμένην φησὶ τὸ λόγιον· οὐ γὰρ ὑφ' εἱμαρτὴν ἀγέλην πίπτουσι θεουργοί. 2.11 Τὴν δὲ ἕκτην ἀναφέρουσι Φωσφόρῳ, θερμαίνοντι ἅμα καὶ γονίμως ὑγραίνοντι· οὗτος δὲ ἂν εἴη ὁ Ἀφροδίτης ὁ καὶ Ἕσπερος, ὡς Ἕλλησι δοκεῖ· Ἀφρδίτην δὲ ἄν τις εἴποι τὴν τοῦ παντὸς αἰσθητοῦ φύσιν, τουτέστι τὴν πρωτογενῆ ὕλην, ἣν καὶ Ἀστερίαν καὶ Οὐρανίαν καλεῖ τὰ λόγια. ὁ γὰρ ἓξ ἀριθμὸς γεννητικώτατός ἐστιν ὡς ἀρτιοπέριττος, μετέχων καὶ τῆς δραστικῆς οὐσίας κατὰ τὸν περιττὸν καὶ τῆς ὑλικῆς κατὰ τὸν ἄρτιον. ὅθεν καὶ οἱ ἀρχαῖοι γάμον καὶ ἁρμονίαν αὐτὸν ἐκάλεσαν· τῶν γὰρ ἀπὸ μονάδος μόνος τέλειός ἐστι τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ μέρεσι, συμπληρούμενος ἐκ τῶν αὐτῶν, ἡμίσους μὲν τριάδος, τρίτου δὲ δυάδος, ἕκτου δὲ μονάδος. καὶ ἁπλῶς εἰπεῖν ἄρρην τε καὶ θῆλυς εἶναι πέφυκεν, ὡς καὶ αὐτὴ Ἀφροδίτη τὴν τοῦ ἄρρενος τήν τε τοῦ θήλεος ἔχουσα φύσιν καὶ διὰ τοῦτο παρὰ τοῖς θεολόγοις ἀρρενόθηλυς καλουμένη. καὶ ἄλλος φησίν· ὁ ἓξ ἀριθμὸς ψυχογονικός ἐστιν ἀπὸ ἑξάδος ἐπιπεδούμενος τῇ τοῦ παντὸς σφαίρᾳ, καὶ τὰ ἐναντία δὲ κατακεράννυσιν. εἰς ὁμόνοιαν καὶ φιλίαν ἄγει, ἔπειτα δὲ ὑγείαν μὲν ἐμποιῶν τοῖς σώμασι, συμφωνίαν δὲ ἐν λύρᾳ καὶ μουσικῇ καὶ ἀρετὴν ἐν ψυχῇ καὶ ἐν πόλει εὐθηνίαν ἔν τε τῷ παντὶ πρόνοιαν. ὅθεν καὶ Ὀρφεὺς περὶ ἑξάδος ταῦτά φησι· ἵλαθι κύδιμ' ἀριθμέ, πάτερ μακάρων, πάτερ ἀνδρῶν. Τὴν ἑβδόμην ἡμέραν Αἰγύπτιοι μὲν καὶ Χαλδαῖοι προσφωνοῦσι Φαίνοντι, οὕτω κατ' αὐτοὺς προσαγορευομένῳ ἀστέρι τῷ πάντων ἀνωτάτῳ, ψύχοντι ἄκρως καὶ προσεχῶς ξηραίνοντι, Κρόνον δὲ αὐτὸν Ἕλλησιν ἔθος καλεῖν κατὰ μὲν θεολογίαν, κατὰ δὲ ἐτυμολογίαν διακορῆ νοῦν, οἱονεὶ πλήρη καὶ μεστὸν ἐτῶν, ἀντὶ τοῦ Μακραίωνα, ὡς εἴρηται. οἵ γε μὴν Πυθαγόρειοι τῷ ἡγεμόνι τοῦ παντὸς τὴν ἑβδόμην ἀνατίθενται, τουτέστι τῷ ἑνί, καὶ μάρτυς Ὀρφεὺς λέγων οὕτως· ἑβδόμη, ἣν ἐφίλησεν ἄναξ ἑκάεργος Ἀπόλλων. Ἀπόλλωνα δὲ μυστικῶς τὸν ἕνα λέγεσθαι προειρήκαμεν διὰ τὸ ἄπωθεν εἶναι τῶν πολλῶν, τουτέστι μόνον. ὀρθῶς οὖν ἀμήτορα τὸν ἑπτὰ ἀριθμὸν ὁ Φιλόλαος προσηγόρευσε, μόνος γὰρ οὔτε γεννᾶν οὔτε γεννᾶσθαι πέφυκε· τὸ δὲ μήτε γεννῶν μήτε γεννώμενον ἀκίνητον· ἐν κινήσει γὰρ ἡ γέννησις, τὸ μέν, ἵνα γεννήσῃ, τὸ δέ, ἵνα γεννηθῇ· τοιοῦτος δὲ ὁ θεός, ὡς καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ ῥήτωρ ὁ Ταραντῖνος· φησὶ δὲ οὕτως· «ἔστι γὰρ ἡγεμὼν καὶ ἄρχων ἁπάντων εἷς ἀεὶ ὢν θεός, μόνιμος ἀκίνητος αὐτὸς ἑαυτῷ ὅμοιος.» οἱ δὲ μαθηματικοὶ πρὸς τὸ μυθικώτερον ῥέποντες τῷ Κρόνῳ τὴν ἑβδόμην ἡμέραν προσφωνοῦσιν, οἱονεὶ τῷ πατρὶ τῶν ἐμφανῶν θεῶν. ἐπειδὴ γὰρ τῶν πλανωμένων πάντων ὑψηλότερος ὁ τοῦ παρ' αὐτοῖς Κρόνου λέγεται ἀστήρ, αὐτῷ δῆθεν τὴν ἑβδόμην ἡμέραν ἀνέθεντο ὡς ἀνωτάτῳ πάντων. ἡ τοίνυν ἑβδομὰς συνέστηκεν ἐξ ἑνὸς καὶ δυοῖν καὶ τεττάρων, ἔχουσα δύο λόγους ἁρμονικωτάτους, τόν τε τριπλάσιον καὶ τὸν τετραπλάσιον. ἔχει δὲ καὶ διαιρέσεις ζυγάδην τρόπον τινὰ συνεστώσας· διαιρεῖται γὰρ πρῶτον εἰς μονάδα καὶ ἑξάδα, ἔπειτα εἰς πεντάδα καὶ δυάδα, καὶ τελευταῖον εἰς τριάδα καὶ τετράδα· μουσικωτάτη δὲ ἡ τούτων τῶν ἀριθμῶν ἀναλογία. διατείνει δὲ αὐτῆς ἡ φύσις καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν ὁρατὴν ἅπασαν οὐσίαν, οὐρανὸν καὶ γῆν· αὐτίκα γοῦν οὐρανόν φασιν ἑπτὰ διεζῶσθαι κύκλοις, ὧν