John the Lydian, On Months

is, and that of Aphrodite with the moon; but the stars of Kronos and Ares do not have such an agreement with the lights, so that, however, by some ultimate indication of numbers Kronos looks to the sun, and Ares to the moon. And for these reasons they seem less beneficial to human life; but why it is that they themselves are sometimes believed to provide both wealth and distinction to men, this belongs to another investigation. At any rate, Plotinus, in the book entitled "How the stars act," declaring his opinion on this matter, says, that none of these things happen to men by their power or authority, but that whatever the necessity of the divine economy has ordained for each, is thus shown through the forward movement or stability or backward movement of these seven, just as also omens, either flying around or remaining still, knowingly signify future events by their wings or their voices. From Plotinus, from the same discourse: "They signify—that is, the stars—then, all things that are in the sensible realm, but they do other things, whatever they manifestly do; but we perform the works of the soul according to nature, so long as we have not gone astray in the multitude of the universe; but having gone astray we suffer punishment." 4.38 That as Plotinus himself says: "For Plato the spindle is both the wandering and the fixed part of the revolution; and the Fates and Necessity their mother turn it and in the genesis of each thing they spin the thread, and through it generated things come into being; and in the Timaeus the god who made it gives the beginning of the soul; but the gods who are carried along give the terrible and necessary passions, tempers and desires, and pleasures and pains in turn, and another form of soul, from which come these very passions. For these accounts bind us to the stars, as we receive soul from them and they subject us to necessity as we come here; and characters, therefore, come from them and actions according to those characters, and passions from a passive state; so what then are we, except what we truly are, we to whom nature has given the ability to master the passions; for nevertheless, even in these evils in which we are enclosed by the body, God has given a virtue that is its own master. For we do not need virtue when we are at peace, but when there is a danger of being in evil when virtue is not present. Wherefore we must flee from here and separate ourselves from the things that have been added, and not be the composite, the ensouled body, in which the nature of the body rather prevails, having taken some trace of soul, so that the common life is more that of the body. For all things of this life are wholly corporeal, but of the other, the external soul, is the impulse upwards toward the beautiful and the divine, of which no one has mastery, but either makes use of it, that he may be that and live according to it, having withdrawn, or having become bereft of this soul, he lives in fate; and here the stars not only signify for him, but he himself becomes a kind of part and follows along with the whole, of which he is a part. For each is twofold: the one is the composite of both, the other is himself; and the whole cosmos also, the one is that which is from a body and a certain soul bound to a body, the other is the soul of the universe which is not in a body, but shining traces upon the one in a body, and the sun indeed and the other things are twofold in this way." 4.39 That since this universe has been adorned by an ineffable art and is full of a blessed harmony, it is surely necessary that nature has been harmonized, so to speak, from high and low, from gentle and harsh sounds and rhythms and tones. 4.40 That the ancients after death used to burn the bodies, as if deifying the body along with the soul; for just as that one is fiery in nature and hastens upwards, so the body is heavy and cold and tends downwards. They seemed, therefore, to purify even the very image of the body by the sanctity of fire; for the argument according to Anaximander is not true, who declared this universe to be from fire, and that for this reason the bodies were given over to fire by the ancients; or according to the Stoics, who awaiting a universal conflagration used to cremate the dead beforehand; for such a resolution of bodies into their elements is a much older practice than the doctrines in philosophy. the teeth, however

ἐστι, καὶ ὁ τῆς Ἀφροδίτης σὺν τῇ σελήνῃ· οἱ δὲ τοῦ Κρόνου καὶ Ἄρεος ἀστέρες οὕτως οὐκ ἔχουσι πρὸς τὰ φῶτα σύμβασιν, ὥς τινι μέντοι ἐσχάτῃ ἀριθμῶν ἐμφάσει τὸν μὲν Κρόνον πρὸς τὸν ἥλιον ἀφορᾶν, τὸν δὲ Ἄρην πρὸς τὴν σελήνην. καὶ διὰ ταῦτα ἧττον ὠφέλιμοι τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ δοκοῦσι ζωῇ· τί δὲ δήποτε καὶ αὐτοὶ ἔσθ' ὅτε καὶ πλοῦτον καὶ περιφάνειαν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις παρέχειν πιστεύονται, ἑτέρᾳ τοῦτο ἐξετάσει προσήκει. ὅ γε μὴν Πλωτῖνος ἐν βιβλίῳ τῷ ἐπιγραφομένῳ «ὅπως ποιεῖ τὰ ἄστρα» περὶ τούτου ἀποφαινόμενός φησι, μηδὲν ἢ δυνάμει ἢ ἐξουσίᾳ τούτων τοῖς ἀνθρώποις συμβαίνειν, ἀλλ' ἅπερ ἡ τῆς θείας οἰκονομίας ἀνάγκη ἑκάστοις ἐκύρωσεν, οὕτω διὰ τοῦ τῶν ἑπτὰ τούτων προποδισμοῦ ἢ στηριγμοῦ ἢ ὑποποδισμοῦ δείκνυσθαι, ὥσπερ καὶ οἰωνοὶ ἤτοι περιπτάμενοι ἢ ἀτρεμοῦντες τὰ μέλλοντα ταῖς πτέρυξιν ἢ ταῖς φωναῖς σημαίνουσιν εἰδότες. τοῦ Πλωτίνου ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου· «σημαίνει-ἤγουν τὰ ἄστρα-μὲν οὖν πάντα ὅσα ἐν αἰσθητῷ, ποιεῖ δὲ ἄλλα, ὅσα φανερῶς ποιεῖ· ἡμεῖς δὲ ψυχῆς ἔργα κατὰ φύσιν ποιοῦμεν, ἕως μὴ ἐσφάλημεν ἐν τῷ πλήθει τοῦ παντός· σφαλέντες δὲ ἔχομεν δίκην.» 4.38 Ὅτι ὡς αὐτός φησι Πλωτῖνος· «Πλάτωνι δὲ ὁ ἀτρακτός ἐστι τό τε πλανώμενον καὶ τὸ ἀπλανὲς τῆς περιφορᾶς· καὶ αἱ Μοῖραι δὲ καὶ ἡ Ἀνάγκη μήτηρ οὖσα στρέφουσι καὶ ἐν τῇ γενέσει ἑκάστου ἐπικλώθουσι καὶ δι' αὐτῆς εἶσιν εἰς γένεσιν τὰ γεννώμενα· ἔν τε Τιμαίῳ θεὸς μὲν ὁ ποιήσας τὴν ἀρχὴν τῆς ψυχῆς δίδωσιν· οἱ δὲ φερόμενοι θεοὶ τὰ δεινὰ καὶ ἀναγκαῖα πάθη, θυμοὺς καὶ ἐπιθυμίας, καὶ ἡδονὰς καὶ λύπας αὖ, καὶ ψυχῆς ἄλλο εἶδος, ἀφ' οὗ τὰ παθήματα ταυτί. οὗτοι γὰρ οἱ λόγοι συνδέουσιν ἡμᾶς τοῖς ἄστροις, παρ' αὐτῶν ψυχὴν κομιζομένους καὶ ὑποτάττουσι τῇ ἀνάγκῃ ἐνταῦθα ἰόντας· καὶ ἤθη τοίνυν παρ' αὐτῶν καὶ κατὰ τὰ ἤθη πράξεις, καὶ πάθη ἀπὸ ἕξεως παθητικῆς οὔσης· ὥστε τί λοιπὸν ἡμεῖς, ἢ ὅπερ ἐσμὲν κατ' ἀλήθειαν ἡμεῖς, οἷς καὶ κρατεῖν τῶν παθῶν ἔδωκεν ἡ φύσις· καὶ γὰρ ὅμως ἐν τούτοις τοῖς κακοῖς διὰ τοῦ σώματος ἀπειλημμένοις ἀδέσποτον ἀρετὴν θεὸς ἔδωκεν. οὐ γὰρ ἐν ἡσύχῳ οὖσιν ἀρετῆς δεῖ ἡμῖν, ἀλλ' ὅταν κίνδυνος ἐν κακοῖς εἶναι ἀρετῆς οὐ παρούσης. διὸ καὶ φεύγειν ἐντεῦθεν δεῖ καὶ χωρίζειν αὑτοὺς ἀπὸ τῶν προσγεγενημένων καὶ μὴ τὸ σύνθετον εἶναι σῶμα ἐψυχωμένον, ἐν ᾧ κρατεῖ μᾶλλον ἡ σώματος φύσις ψυχῆς τι ἴχνος λαβοῦσα, ὡς τὴν ζωὴν τὴν κοινὴν μᾶλλον τοῦ σώματος εἶναι. πάντα γὰρ σωματικὰ ὅλα ταύτης, τῆς δὲ ἑτέρας τῆς ἔξω ἡ πρὸς τὸ ἄνω φορὰ καὶ τὸ καλὸν καὶ τὸ θεῖον, ὧν οὐδεὶς κρατεῖ, ἀλλ' ἢ προσχρῆται, ἵν' ᾖ ἐκεῖνο καὶ κατὰ τοῦτο ζῇ ἀναχωρήσας, ἢ ἔρημος ταύτης τῆς ψυχῆς γενόμενος ζῇ ἐν εἱμαρμένῃ· καὶ ἐνταῦθα τὰ ἄστρα αὐτῷ οὐ μόνον σημαίνει, ἀλλὰ καὶ γίνεται αὐτὸς οἷον μέρος καὶ τῷ ὅλῳ συνέπεται, οὗ μέρος. διττὸς γὰρ ἕκαστος· ὁ μὲν τὸ συναμφότερόν τι, ὁ δὲ αὐτὸς καὶ πᾶς ὁ κόσμος δὲ, ὁ μὲν τὸ ἐκ σώματος καὶ ψυχῆς τινος δεθείσης σώματι, ὁ δὲ ἡ τοῦ παντὸς ψυχὴ ἡ μὴ ἐν σώματι, ἐλλάμπουσα δὲ ἴχνη τῇ ἐν σώματι, καὶ ἥλιος δὴ καὶ τἄλλα διττὰ οὕτω». 4.39 Ὅτι ἐπειδὴ τόδε τὸ πᾶν ἀρρήτῳ τέχνῃ πεποίκιλται ἁρμονίας τε πλῆρες εὐδαίμονός ἐστιν, ἀνάγκη δήπουθεν ἐξ ὀξέων καὶ βαρέων, προσηνῶν τε καὶ αὐστηρῶν φθόγγων καὶ ῥυθμῶν καὶ τόνων, ἵν' οὕτως εἴπω, συνηρμόσθαι τὴν φύσιν. 4.40 Ὅτι οἱ παλαιοὶ μετὰ τελευτὴν ἔκαιον τὰ σώματα, συναποθεοῦντες ὥσπερ τῇ ψυχῇ καὶ τὸ σῶμα· καθάπερ γὰρ ἐκείνη πυρώδης τὴν φύσιν καὶ πρὸς τὰ ἄνω σπεύδουσα, οὕτω βαρὺ τὸ σῶμα καὶ ψυχρὸν καὶ πρὸς τὰ κάτω ῥέπον. ἐδόκουν τοίνυν καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ εἴδωλον ἐκκαθαίρειν τοῦ σώματος τῇ τοῦ πυρὸς ἁγιστείᾳ· οὐ γὰρ ἀληθὴς ὁ λόγος ὁ κατὰ τὸν Ἀναξίμαν δρον, ὃς ἐκ τοῦ πυρὸς εἶναι τόδε τὸ πᾶν ἀπεφήνατο, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο πυρὶ παραδοθῆναι πρὸς τῶν ἀρχαίων τὰ σώματα· ἢ κατὰ τοὺς Στωϊκούς, οἳ καθολικὴν ἐκπύρωσιν ἀναμένοντες προαπετέφρουν τοὺς θνήσκοντας· πολλῷ γὰρ πρεσβυτάτῳ τῶν ἐν φιλοσοφίᾳ δογμάτων ἡ τοιαύτη τῶν σωμάτων ἀναστοιχείωσις. τοὺς μέντοι ὀδόντας