The cosmos is the greatest body — and it is moved
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Hermes — Μέγας οὖν οὗτος ὁ κόσμος, οὗ μεῖζον οὐκ ἔστι σῶμα;
Asclepius — Ὡμολόγηται.
Hermes — Καὶ στιβαρός· πεπλήρωται γὰρ ἄλλων σωμάτων μεγάλων πολλῶν, μᾶλλον δὲ πάντων ὅσα ἐστὶ σώματα.
Asclepius — Οὕτως ἔχει.
Hermes — Σῶμα δὲ ὁ κόσμος;
Asclepius — Σῶμα.
Hermes — Καὶ κινούμενον;
— Great, then, is this world, than which there is no greater body? — It is agreed. — And solid; for it is filled with many other great bodies — rather, with all that are bodies. — So it is. — And the world is a body? — A body. — And moved?
The dialectic tightens. The cosmos is the greatest body, than which none is greater; it is solid, filled with all the other great bodies; it is itself a body — and it is moved. Each step is conceded. The trap is set: if the greatest of all bodies is in motion, in what can it move, since nothing bodily is larger?
The argument closes its jaws slowly, one conceded step at a time. The cosmos is the greatest body; it is packed solid with every other body; it is itself a body; and — the hook — it is moved. Each 'it is agreed,' 'so it is,' 'a body' is Asclepius walking willingly into a corner.
The corner is this: something moved must move in something greater than itself (established in II.1). But the cosmos is the greatest body of all — so there is no larger body for it to move in. The interlinear keeps σῶμα tolling through the passage — body, bodies, a body, bodies — precisely because the whole trap is built on the word: everything here is body, and body has run out of room. What comes next (II.3-4) can only be the bodiless.
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