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Book I Chapter 49

68.22 · The third and fourth divisions

“The third contains sixteen regions, filled with fine and pure air. The fourth contains thirty-two, in which the air is finest, purest, and transparent, itself marking the boundary of the heavens above, whose nature is fiery.”¹⁸⁵⁸

68.23 · The arrangement in numbers

“This arrangement extends in a straight line from above downward, its parts naturally without adhesion: there are four broad divisions, twelve spatial divisions, and sixty regions.”¹⁸⁵⁹

68.24 · The same constitution, different standing

“In these regions, sixty in number, souls dwell, each according to its nature. They have one and the same constitution, but not the same standing. For by as much as each region rises farther from the earth than another, by so much do ⟨the⟩ souls within them leave one another behind in superiority, my child, in place and condition.”¹⁸⁶⁰

68.25 · From the higher regions downward

“I shall now begin to recount to you, greatly renowned Horus, which souls return to each of these regions, proceeding in order from above down toward the earth.”¹⁸⁶¹

69.1 · Regions between earth and heaven

[On ensoulment and transmigration].

“The space between earth and heaven, my child Horus, has been divided according to measure and harmony. Our ancestors call these regions by different names: some call them zones, others firmaments, and others folds.”¹⁸⁶²

69.2 · A place suited to each soul

“These are frequented both by souls released from bodies and by those not yet embodied. Each, my child, has a region corresponding to its worth: divine and royal souls dwell in the region above all the others; those lowest in honor, and all the others that cling to the ground, in the region below all; and those between, ⟨in⟩ the middle region.”¹⁸⁶³

69.3 · The return of ruling souls

“Souls sent down to rule, my child Horus, are sent from the higher zones. When released, they ascend to those same zones, or even higher, unless some have done something ⟨contrary to⟩ the worth of their own nature and the command of divine law.”¹⁸⁶⁴

69.4 · Demotion and advancement

“Such souls providence above banishes to lower regions in proportion to their offenses, just as it also deals with those inferior in power and worth * * for it leads them up from lower regions to greater and higher ones.”¹⁸⁶⁵

69.5 · The steward and guide of souls

“For above there are ⟨two⟩ attendants of universal providence, one the steward of souls, the other their guide. The steward of souls * *, while the guide sends forth and assigns the embodied souls. The one keeps them, the other sends them onward according to the god’s purpose.”¹⁸⁶⁶

69.6 · Nature fashions a dwelling

“Corresponding to this account, my child, and to the changes in things above, Nature is present on earth also. As a fashioner and maker of a dwelling, she puts souls into a vessel.”¹⁸⁶⁷

69.7 · Memory and the original pattern

“Two powers attend her also, memory and experience. Memory has this task: that Nature should preserve and keep hold of the pattern originally established for each, and become, of the mixture above *.”¹⁸⁶⁸

69.8 · Experience fits body to soul

“Experience ensures that the fashioned body too should be [active and] proportioned to each soul descending into embodiment: for keen souls the bodies too become keen; for slow souls, slow; for active souls, active; for sluggish souls, sluggish; for strong souls, strong; for deceitful souls, deceitful; and, in a word, for each as is fitting.”¹⁸⁶⁹

69.9 · The equipment of living creatures

“For Nature did not act without purpose when she feathered flying creatures, furnished rational creatures with abundant and more exact senses, strengthened some quadrupeds with horns, others with teeth, and others with claws and hooves, and softened creeping creatures with well-haired and readily yielding bodies.”¹⁸⁷⁰

69.10 · Defenses of soft bodies

“And so that bodily moisture should not remain wholly defenseless, she fortified the mouths of some with teeth as well, while to others she gave strength by sharpening their bodily projections (thus some are stronger than others in guarding against death).”¹⁸⁷¹

69.11 · Water as refuge

“Swimming creatures, being timid, she allowed to dwell in an element where light cannot exercise either of its powers (for in water fire neither shines nor burns).”¹⁸⁷²

69.12 · Scales, spines, and concealment

“Each of them, with scales or spines, swims in water and escapes wherever it wishes, wrapped in its own timidity and having the water as a covering to keep it from being seen.”¹⁸⁷³

69.13 · Souls and corresponding bodies

“Souls are enclosed in each of these bodies according to likeness: those capable of judgment enter human beings; those alien to human company enter flying creatures; and ⟨those⟩ without judgment enter quadrupeds (for strength is their law).”¹⁸⁷⁴

69.14 · Deceitful and timid souls

“Deceitful souls enter creeping creatures (for none of them attacks human beings openly, but they strike them down from ambush); timid souls enter [the] swimming creatures, as do all that are unworthy of enjoying the other elements.”¹⁸⁷⁵

69.15 · Exceptions within each kind

“It is possible, however, to find in each ⟨kind⟩ a creature that does not follow its own nature.”

“How so, mother?” said Horus.¹⁸⁷⁶

1858.The corrected diaugēs, transparent, is followed. Eph’ heautou is retained and provisionally rendered itself rather than silently changed to the apparatus’s aph’ heautou. The sequence of regions doubles: four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two. The fiery heavens are distinguished from the fine air beneath them.

1859.The sixty regions equal the sum four plus eight plus sixteen plus thirty-two. The twelve diastēmatikai divisions are retained as a distinct count; their precise relation to the other divisions is not fully explained here. The first two groups together contain twelve regions, but the text does not expressly equate the two counts.

1860.The article supplied at p. 463 is marked. The Greek shifts from plural souls to singular one soul and leaves; English regularizes the agreement while retaining the comparison. Chōrai kai tychēi follows the printed correction, place and condition or fortune. The soul’s common constitution is distinguished from its rank.

1861.The printed hekatera, ordinarily referring to either of two, is interpreted more broadly as each of the regions just described. The feminine poioumenē keeps Isis as speaker. Excerpt 68 ends at line 6; the following numbered excerpt 69 continues this same discourse, as the editor explains in its apparatus.

1862.The editor rejects the heading because this excerpt continues the preceding Isis-Horus discourse; its brackets are retained in both languages. Ensoulment is the entry of soul into a body, and transmigration its passage into another. The edition gives Patrizi p. 35b as a locator. Decimal subdivisions are modern comparison divisions.

1863.The text distinguishes souls returning from embodiment from souls not yet embodied. The supplied en, in, is marked. Chamaipeteis literally suggests falling or flying close to the ground, here describing souls of low standing rather than a separate species of animal.

1864.The supplied para is marked. Release is understood from bodily life. The return to a former or higher region is conditional upon conduct; royal origin alone does not remove the possibility of a fall. The printed ti, something, follows the correction recorded in the apparatus.

1865.The source marks a gap after worth. Deals with supplies only a neutral English connection for the incomplete comparison; the missing action is not reconstructed. The surviving next clause describes ascent, while the earlier clause describes punishment. The text does not fully preserve their transition.

1866.Psychotamias combines soul with steward or custodian; psychopompos is a conductor of souls. The supplied two and the gap in the steward’s description remain visible. The apparatus proposes a fuller restoration of the missing description, but it has not been inserted. The printed ensesōmatōmenōn is embodied, not the different form proposed in the apparatus.

1867.The first sentence is compressed and its construction uncertain; the apparatus considers a possible omission. The English is provisional. Skēnopoios evokes the making of a tent or dwelling, and angeiōi treats the body as a vessel. No unprinted verb or additional gap has been inserted into the Greek.

1868.The clause after pattern is damaged: the genitive tou phyramatos, of the mixture, lacks a satisfactory completion with gignētai, become. The printed single-asterisk gap remains, and the awkward English deliberately leaves this fragment incomplete. Suggested additions such as image or likeness are not introduced into the text.

1869.The rejected energē kai, active and, remains bracketed. The printed account gives memory the task of preserving the pattern and experience the task of adapting the fashioned body to the descending soul. Every member of the sequence of corresponding qualities is retained.

1870.The printed euchaitois literally suggests well-haired, but the apparatus marks it corrupt in this context and considers alternatives, including flexible. The English retains the difficult wording rather than silently adopting an emendation. Herpeta, creeping creatures, is broader than a precise modern zoological category.

1871.Onkoi, masses or protuberances, is provisionally bodily projections here. The masculine participle oxynas sits awkwardly with Nature as subject; the English follows the surrounding account. The apparatus considers the parenthesis either incomplete or interpolated. It remains in the text, with its uncertain sense rendered provisionally.

1872.The text first names light, phōs, and then fire, pyr, assigning the powers of shining and burning to the latter. Both terms are retained. The account presents water as the refuge appropriate to timidity; this is the dialogue’s elemental explanation.

1873.The datives scales or spines have no explicit verb of covering; the apparatus suggests supplying one. The English uses with and leaves the Greek unsupplemented. Wrapped in its own timidity is the printed image, distinct from the water’s literal concealment.

1874.Kritikai and akritoi contrast possession and absence of judgment. Apanthrōpoi is provisionally alien to human company; it can also carry the stronger sense inhuman. The printed reading is retained instead of the apparatus’s alternative anedrastoi, unsettled. The supplied article is marked.

1875.The rejected article ta remains bracketed. The Greek changes from feminine souls to neuter hosa, all that; the English does not restrict this latter expression to a more precise category than the text gives. The claims about animal conduct belong to the speaker’s analogy between disposition and bodily form.

1876.The supplied eidei is marked. Katachrōmenon means making use of or acting according to something; here the following examples support does not follow its own nature. Palin belongs to Horus’s question in the printed text, rather than being moved to said.