And now that all the parts and members of the mortal animal had
come together, since its life of necessity consisted of fire and
breath, and it therefore wasted away by dissolution and
depletion, the gods contrived the following remedy: They mingled
a nature akin to that of man with other forms and perceptions,
and thus created another kind of animal. These are the trees and
plants and seeds which have been improved by cultivation and are
now domesticated among us; anciently there were only the wild
kinds, which are older than the cultivated. For everything that
partakes of life may be truly called a living being, and the
animal of which we are now speaking partakes of the third kind of
soul, which is said to be seated between the midriff and the
navel, having no part in opinion or reason or mind, but only in
feelings of pleasure and pain and the desires which accompany
them. For this nature is always in a passive state, revolving in
and about itself, repelling the motion from without and using its
own, and accordingly is not endowed by nature with the power of
observing or reflecting on its own concerns. Wherefore it lives
and does not differ from a living being, but is fixed and rooted
in the same spot, having no power of self-motion.
Now after the superior powers had created all these natures to be
food for us who are of the inferior nature, they cut various
channels through the body as through a garden, that it might be
watered as from a running stream. In the first place, they cut
two hidden channels or veins down the back where the skin and the
flesh join, which answered severally to the right and left side
of the body. These they let down along the backbone, so as to
have the marrow of generation between them, where it was most
likely to flourish, and in order that the stream coming down from
above might flow freely to the other parts, and equalize the
irrigation. In the next place, they divided the veins about the
head, and interlacing them, they sent them in opposite
directions; those coming from the right side they sent to the
left of the body, and those from the left they diverted towards
the right, so that they and the skin might together form a bond
which should fasten the head to the body, since the crown of the
head was not encircled by sinews; and also in order that the
sensations from both sides might be distributed over the whole
body. And next, they ordered the water-courses of the body in a
manner which I will describe, and which will be more easily
understood if we begin by admitting that all things which have
lesser parts retain the greater, but the greater cannot retain
the lesser. Now of all natures fire has the smallest parts, and