PROCLUS ON THE TIMAEUS BOOK III [Tim. 31 B]

to it, and for this reason the whole is "becoming" original: gignomenon; referring to the realm of change rather than eternal being. For if a thing is composed of the mortal and the immortal, the whole is mortal; and if of the ungenerated and the generated, the whole is generated; and if of the incorporeal and the body, the whole is body-like. For if 5 the incorporeal itself were to suffer along with the body, it too becomes body-like, and not just the whole. But if it should be set apart and impassive unaffected by external influence, it remains truly incorporeal, rising above the body, while the whole—due to its connection to the body—is not "body" (for the 10 superior part remains in its own purity), but would more justly be called "body-like" original: somatoeides.

E Since, therefore, the Cosmos has received many blessed things from the one who fathered it, yet has also participated in body referring to Plato's Statesman 269 D, it is reasonably called "body-like" throughout its whole self, both visible and tangible. 15 For it is generated, and that which is generated is visible and tangible and possesses a body, just as was correctly stated earlier [28 B].

Beginning then from the body, he first [31 B] 1 grants it to be sensible perceptible by the senses through the extreme senses sight and touch. Then [31 C], 2 something more perfect than this: the bond of proportion mathematical analogy which holds 20 together the bodies within it. Then a third thing [32 C], 3 making it a whole out of all the whole elements. Then a fourth [33 B], 4 making it spherical, so that it might be most like itself in its form. Then a fifth [33 CD], showing it to be a thing that experiences all things by its own 5 agency. Then a sixth [34 A], assigning to it the motion 6 25 appropriate to Intellect circular motion. Then a seventh [34 B], animating it 7 through a divine Soul. Then an eighth [36 E 37 A], bestowing upon it the 8 temporal period the cycles of time. Then a ninth [39 D], establishing within it 9 the shrines of the gods the planets/stars who together complete the "Perfect Year." Then a tenth [39 E ff.], making it complete from all living beings 10 30 modeled after the four ideas the four classes of living things: celestial, winged, aquatic, and terrestrial, and through this decad the number ten, signifying completion F fulfilling the entire craftsmanship original: demiurgia. These things, then, the whole...

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