ASCLEPIUS I: 2 b

Quicquid de alto descendit generans est; quod sursum versus emanat, nutriens. Original: "Whatever descends from on high is generating; that which emanates upwards is nourishing." The things that "descend from on high" are fire and air. They are upward-moving Original: "ἀνωφερεῖς" by their own nature; however, through the operation of the heavenly bodies, they are sent down from their natural place above to enter bodies composed of earth and water, generating life within them. (An obvious instance of these generantia Generating agents may be seen in the light and heat radiated by the sun.) Earth and water are the nutrientia Nourishing agents; they "issue from below" (for example, in the form of plants that grow from the soil and water-springs that rise out of the earth) and serve as food and drink to build up the bodies of men and beasts. Compare 6 b: "bodies grow from water and earth, the lower elements of the world."

The terms anōpherēs Upward-moving and katōpherēs Downward-moving are applied differently in Hermetic writings (see Stobaeus, Extracts XI. 2. 40): "The energies are not upward-moving, but downward-moving." The energies spoken of there are the life-giving operations of the heavenly bodies, or of the fire and air which are sent down to earth by the action of the heavenly bodies. Thus, katōpherēs, as applied to them, corresponds not to "that which is carried downwards" in Asclepius I. 2 b, but rather to "whatever descends from on high."

Terra, sola in se ipsa consistens, omnium est <<generum>> receptrix, omniumque [[generum]] quae accepit restitutrix. Original: "The earth, remaining alone in itself, is the receiver of all generating agents, and the restorer of all the kinds it has received." The contradiction between "that which emanates upwards" (as applied to earth) and "remaining alone in itself" is merely verbal. Portions of earth are taken up into the bodies of plants, beasts, and men, but the solid mass of the earth remains fixed at the center of the universe, receiving on its surface the generantia (that is, portions of air and fire, or spirit Original: "πνεῦμα", from above) by which these bodies are vitalized. At the dissolution of an individual organism, the generantia that had entered into its composition return to their natural place above; this is what is meant by saying the earth "renders them back."

Hoc ergo totum, . . . quod est omnium vel omnia, (constat ex anima et mundo). Original: "This whole, therefore... which is of all things or all things (consists of soul and world)." It is necessary to complete the sentence...

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...they say: "for by these the bodies are held together" Original: "φησιν· ὑπὸ τούτων γὰρ συνέχεται τὰ σώματα", which may be reconciled with the numerous passages in which the "holding-together force" Original: "τὸ συνέχον" is said to be the spirit, that is, air and fire mixed together.

Regarding the contrast between the pair of light elements (vivifica Life-giving) and the pair of heavy elements (eis deservientia Serving them), compare Nemesius, On the Nature of Man 5, page 126: the Stoics say that "of the elements, some are active and some are passive; the active are air and fire, the passive are earth and water." Cicero, Academic Posteriors 1. 7. 26 (from the Stoicizing Platonist Antiochus): "Air and fire have the power of moving and creating, the remaining parts—I speak of water and earth—have the power of receiving and, as it were, suffering."