The Theology of Arithmetic

...they believe that the Dyad the number two is named from the word "daring" original: tolmēsin; a Pythagorean pun linking dyas with tolma, audacity, because the two was the first to "dare" to separate from the divine unity of the One. This is because it was the very first to endure separation, as well as misery, endurance, and fortitude. Because of its division into two, it is called Justice original: Dikē; here linked to dikhe, "in two" and Isis. This is not only because in it the result of "blending" multiplication: 2 × 2 = 4 is equal to the result of "composition" addition: 2 + 2 = 4, as we have said, but also because it is the only number that does not allow for a division into unequal parts.

They also call it Nature; for it is itself the movement toward "being," a kind of birth proceeding from a "seminal reason" original: logos spermatikos; a Stoic and Neoplatonic term for the creative formatting principle in matter and an extension, having obtained such a name insofar as it is a movement from one thing to another, following the image

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of the Dyad. However, some arithmeticians are taught to think—falsely—that the Dyad is a collection of two Monads units, so that if it were dissolved, it would return to those same Monads. But if the Dyad is a collection of units, the units must exist before it; if, on the other hand, the Monad is half of the Dyad, then the Dyad must exist before it. If their relationships to one another are preserved, they must coexist, just as the "double" coexists with the "half" and the "half" with the "double"; neither is prior or posterior because each entails the existence of the other, and the destruction of one implies the destruction of the other.

They also called it Mother of Zeus original: Diometōr, because they called the Monad "Zeus" original: Dia. They also called it Rhea, from "flowing" original: rhysis and "tension" original: tasis, qualities which are proper to both the Dyad and to Nature, which gives birth to all things. They say the name Dyad also applies to the Moon, both because it undergoes more "settings" original: dyseis; a pun on dyas than all the fixed stars, and because it is "doubled" and "cut in two" referring to the moon's phases; for it is called "half-cut" and "halved."

III. Concerning the Triad.

The Triad the number three has received a beauty and elegance exceptional among all numbers. First, it is the very first to bring the powers of the Monad into active expression: oddness, plurality, proportion, unification, and limit. For it is the first "odd" number in actual practice...