The spheres set turning — the animals brought forth
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ὁ δὲ δημιουργὸς νοῦς σὺν τῷ λόγῳ, ὁ περιέχων τοὺς κύκλους καὶ δινῶν ῥοίζῳ, ἔστρεψε τὰ ἑαυτοῦ δημιουργήματα, καὶ εἴασε στρέφεσθαι ἀπ' ἀρχῆς ἀορίστου εἰς ἀπέραντον τέλος. ἄρχεται γάρ, οὗ λήγει. ἡ δὲ τούτων περιφορά, καθὼς θέλει ὁ νοῦς, ἐκ τῶν κατωφερῶν στοιχείων ζῶα ἤνεγκεν ἄλογα· οὐ γὰρ ἐπεῖχε τὸν λόγον· ἀὴρ δὲ πετεινὰ ἤνεγκε, καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ νηκτά· διακεχώρισται δὲ ἀπ' ἀλλήλων ἥ τε γῆ καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ, καθὼς ἠθέλησεν ὁ νοῦς, καὶ ἡ γῆ ἐξήνεγκεν ἀπ' αὐτῆς ἃ εἶχε ζῷα τετράποδα, ἑρπετά, θηρία ἄγρια καὶ ἥμερα.
But the Demiurgic Mind, together with the Word, encompassing the circles and whirling them with a rush, turned his own works, and let them turn from a boundless beginning to an endless end; for it begins where it ends. And their revolution, as the Mind wills, brought forth from the downward elements irrational animals — for it did not keep the Word; and the air brought forth winged things, and the water swimming things. And earth and water were parted from one another, as the Mind willed, and the earth brought forth from itself the animals it had: four-footed, creeping things, wild beasts and tame.
The Demiurgic Mind, with the Word, encompasses the circles and whirls them, setting his works turning from a boundless beginning to an endless end. As the Mind wills, the lower elements — now without the Word — bring forth irrational animals: the air its birds, the water its fish, and the earth its four-footed beasts, creeping things, wild and tame.
The cosmos is set spinning — the Demiurge, with the Word, whirls the planetary circles 'from a boundless beginning to an endless end; for it begins where it ends.' The line quietly states the circularity of cyclic time: the wheel's start and finish are the same point.
And the earlier pun pays off. The lower elements bring forth only 'irrational' (ἄλογα) animals 'because it did not keep the Word (λόγος)' — the creatures without reason are literally the creatures without the Logos, which rose up and away in I.10. Bird, fish, and beast fill air, water, and earth in a sequence that runs close beside Genesis's fifth and sixth days, but with the Hermetic reason attached: life below the Word is life without speech.
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Corpus Hermeticum CH1.11 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/hermetica/CH1.11/