On Weeks (Hebdomads) — First Draft Translation

1 (17) And all other things likewise hold a sevenfold division. [Each of the parts has a sevenfold division.] One ordering is the departure of the unblended cosmos — in all things — through summer and winter. A second ordering is the counter-radiance and rarefaction of the stars, which is the hottest and most rarefied shining of nature. Third, the passage of the sun, which has heat. Fourth, the moon as it rises and comes to completion by addition, and wanes by subtraction. The fifth portion is the constitution and ordering of the air, providing rains and lightnings, thunders … and snows … Sixth, the wet portion of the sea and of rivers and of springs and of fountains and of lakes, and the heat within these, which is the channel and irrigation of moisture. Seventh, the earth itself, upon which are both the living creatures and the … and it is all-nourishing, being from water. Thus the orderings of all things have a sevenfold arrangement. The worlds beneath the earth, equal in number and similar in form to those above the earth, encompass a self-driven circling, themselves making circuit around the earth in the course of their revolution and progression. 2 For this reason the earth and the Olympian cosmos hold a stable nature; the rest have a path of revolution. The earth, lying at the center of the cosmos and holding within itself and beneath itself the wet things, is borne in the air, so that for those below, the things above are below, and the things below are above; and so too the things to the right and to the things to the left stand apart in the same way; and it is thus around the whole earth. The earth, being at the center, and the Olympian cosmos — by so many forces — are unmoved. The moon, being in the middle, herself fits together all the rest, living in one another and passing through one another, themselves — those under their own power and under the ever-existing ones — moved with ease. The heavenly stars, being seven, have an arrangement of the reception of the seasons, divided: the sun holds one part; the moon follows the sun; the Bear follows Arcturus with a following equal to that of the moon following the sun; the Pleiades follow the Hyades; and Sirius follows Orion. These stars have succession and opposition with one another; for they travel from the right along the path of the seasonal stars, so that the stars do not hold the same position on the road. [Concerning winds:] Again, seven winds blow simultaneously, making revolutions and imperceptible wandering movement, making the strength of the pneuma (breath / moving air) without wind; the origin of the winds is whence they naturally arise: from the warm, the East Wind; next, the North Wind; then the North-Polar Wind; then the West Wind; after it the Southwest Wind; then the South Wind, followed by the East-Southeast Wind. These seven have the seasonal [capacity] in their blowing. 3 [Concerning seasons:] The annual seasons are seven. These are: sowing-time, winter, planting-time, spring, summer, harvest-time, autumn. These differ from one another for the following reasons: sowing is not fruitful in summer; nor is planting in autumn; nor flowering in winter; nor sprouting in summer; nor ripening in winter. 5 So too in the nature of the human being there are seven seasons, which we call ages: infant, child, youth, young man, man, elder, old man. And infant is up to seven years, with the shedding of teeth; child is up to the production of seed, up to twice seven; youth up to the growth of beard-down, up to three times seven; young man up to the full growth of the whole body, up to four times seven; man up to one short of fifty, up to seven times seven; elder up to fifty-six, up to seven times eight; and from there onward, old man. When moisture comes in excess into the viscera and the heart and the arteries and the hollow veins, beyond the innate nature of the human being, it is necessary that one fall into some of the aforementioned conditions, with the heat of nature being moved and gathered into the inner cavities and toward the viscera — the heat itself and the moisture together — the heat drawing toward itself for its own nourishment. And this moisture is bile-like and thoroughly burned, having in it the wetness of chymoi (bodily fluids) of every kind. Such then is the beginning of burning fevers; the peak and middle is the melting through by the burning heat, and whenever the burning heat and the drawing of the warm toward itself melt the moisture in the body, with all the moisture in the body melted by that heat itself. 14 (50) For the heat is then strongest, when it is in this condition and acts so. This then is the middle of the burning fevers; the end of the fevers is the same as the end of life, when life departs from the bodies — both deaths and the loosening of diseases. It is one and the same, and comes about thus: whenever the heat of the psyche (living principle) releases its drawing toward itself of the wet moisture and of the cold, then — life's dissolution, that is, dissolution of the psyche — comes about for both living creatures and plants, and similarly a loosening of diseases: if in diseases the heat releases its drawing toward itself completely, death; if moderately, a loosening. Whenever the heat of the psyche is moved from its accustomed state by labors or by warmth or by the sun or by nourishment or by warmth or by the natural constitution, the heat of the psyche must draw toward itself bile or phlegm; and from these, once drawn, the heat itself is drawn into fevers. For the heat of the human nature has taken the heat from the sun or the heat from what is applied as its ally, so as to bring the bodies into fevers. If, then, in the fevers some other error is added while the body is unclean, in that case the flaring of the heat produces a strong arousal of fevers in the body — unless the fevers themselves, having concocted the impurities [the manuscript reads πεπήναντες, 'having concocted/ripened,' a second-hand correction; πήξαντες, 'having congealed,' is the base reading], break them out through the breathings or the upper or lower channels from the cavities, or one draws out the impurities with purging medicines. For when the impurities consist of hot or bitter things, the heat, nourished by them, more strongly inflames the fever, easily prevailing over the cold in the body; and the heat accordingly kills — the very heat that grew the bodies — whenever it burns out the moisture in the body [and no one quenches the heat as is needed]. 19 (50) And yet this very heat also grows the bodies, if it stands in good harmony with the parts in the body; and the heat heals diseases, if the heat draws toward itself moisture that is thoroughly cool and becomes healthy and is neither thoroughly hot nor thoroughly bile-filled. Thus then the heat both grows the bodies and makes them waste away, and heals diseases and produces fevers and is the cause of the body's death. 23 (23) Burning fevers arise from the summer solstice … because the impurity of the moisture within the human being has already been burned through and is hot. Burning fevers arise especially for this reason: from the summer solstice, because the moisture within the human body, being upon its impurity, thoroughly burned and seething in the veins and viscera, provides burning-hot nourishment to the heat of the psyche. 24 (63) But if the nourishment of the fever — that from drink and broths — is removed, or if, on account of the fever, the sick person will not come to these, then of necessity it must draw toward itself the fatty moisture of the flesh entire. Whenever this happens, there is a burning fever, having nourishment from the fatty element within the human being, and the body is drawn up as the moisture of the human being is taken away, and it kills by the fever. But whenever these numbers are exceeded, the establishment of the fevers already becomes chronic. 28 First, the same person is not seized twice by quartan fever, nor has ever been, nor will be ever thereafter, if once he becomes healthy; and this is because it arises according to the particular nature of each person and the peak age. For the nature of the human being when at its peak must in that time be seized by quartan fever, and when the peak has passed, to be released also from the seizure of the quartan. Whenever the heat of the psyche of the human being in the viscera and veins becomes greater than the innate heat in these regions — gathering toward itself the serum outside the body, wet and cold, inward — it then produces chilling outside the body, as the heat is emptied as it goes inward together with the serum. In these times it also draws more bile from the fatty parts, from which fevers and thirsts are raised. These, then, arise for these reasons. And in the changes they cease for this reason: under the force and peak of the heat, the heat itself within, evaporating through breathing, breathes out, and the moisture that the heat had drawn in is expelled. 28 (50) It breathes also through the nostrils as well as through the mouth, more than at any time when healthy; thus the whole body is cooled. But in the way-of-life arrangements it again collects the serums in like manner. Quartan fevers and other fevers come about in this way. The greatest sign for sick persons who are going to survive: unless the burning fever is contrary to nature — and likewise for other diseases; for nothing that is according to nature becomes dire or deadly. Second: unless the season itself becomes an ally of the disease — for as a rule the nature of the human being does not prevail over the power of the whole. 46 (8) Then, if the features around the face grow thin, and the veins in the hands and at the corners of the eyes and at the eyebrows are at rest, when they were not at rest before. And this: if the voice becomes weaker and smoother, and the pneuma (breath / moving air) more rare and thinner, remission of the disease is for the coming day. These things must be observed for the crises: also whether the area beside the fork of the tongue is anointed as if with white saliva; and if the same thing has occurred at the tip of the tongue, but less so. If these are small, remission of the disease is in three days; if somewhat thicker, tomorrow; if yet thicker, on that very day. 46 (50) And this: the whites of the eyes must at the beginning of the disease darken, if the disease is strong; these, then, becoming clear indicates complete health — gently, more slowly; very clearly, more quickly. The things happening contrary to nature in a burning fever are all severe, and some are also deadly. Second: if the season itself allies with the disease — as summer with a burning fever, winter with a dropsical condition — then the natural [force] is overwhelmed; more fearsome in the case of the spleen. 51 (21) A tongue that is rough at the beginning, remaining in color, but as time goes on becoming coarse and darkening and cracking — deadly. Becoming very black at the fourteenth day indicates that a crisis is to come; the most dangerous is the black and pale-yellow tongue. Whatever of these signs is absent indicates that the condition is weaker. These things then must be observed in acute fevers, both when the patient is about to die and when he is to be saved. Right testicle cold and drawn up — deadly. 51 (50) Nails darkening, and toes cold and black and curling under — these indicate that death is near; and fingertips livid and lips livid, slack and turned outward and cold — deadly. One who is dizzy and turns away from people and takes pleasure in quiet and in sleep and is held by great burning heat — without hope. One who is mildly raving and unaware and not hearing and not comprehending — deadly. In tetanus and opisthotonos, jaws loosening — deadly; and sweating in opisthotonos is deadly, and the body dissolving, and vomiting in opisthotonos through the nostrils, or being voiceless from the beginning and then crying out or rambling — for it indicates death by the next day. For those about to die, these signs become clearer, and the bellies are raised and distended. They make a sound like children who have stopped crying and draw the pneuma up through the nostrils. The boundary of death: when the heat of the psyche retreats above the navel to the region above the diaphragm and the entire moisture is burned up; when the lung and the heart lose their moisture, with the heat gathering in the deadly places, the vital pneuma belonging to the heat exhales all at once — from where the whole was composed, back into the whole again — part through the flesh, part through the breathings in the head, from where we call it living. And the psyche, abandoning the tent of the body, delivers over the cold and mortal phantom along with bile and blood and phlegm and flesh.