Motion held by rest — the Bears that neither rise nor set
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Hermes — ἡ γὰρ ἀντιτυπία στάσις φορᾶς ἐστί· δὶ ὃ καὶ αἱ πλανώμεναι σφαῖραι ἐναντίως κινούμεναι τῇ ἀπλανεῖ, ὑπ' ἀλλήλων τῇ ἐναντίᾳ ὑπαντήσει περὶ τὴν ἐναντιότητα αὐτὴν ὑπὸ τῆς ἑστώσης κινοῦνται· καὶ ἄλλως ἔχειν ἀδύνατον. τὰς γὰρ ἄρκτους ταύτας ἃς ὁρᾷς μήτε δυνούσας μήτε ἀνατελλούσας, περὶ δὲ τὸ αὐτὸ στρεφομένας, οἴει ἢ κινεῖσθαι ἢ ἑστάναι;
Asclepius — Κινεῖσθαι, ὦ Τρισμέγιστε.
Hermes — Κίνησιν ποίαν, ὦ ᾿Ασκληπιέ;
Asclepius — Τὴν περὶ τὰ αὐτὰ ἀναστρεφομένην.
Hermes — Ἡ δὲ περιφορὰ τὸ αὐτὸ καὶ ἡ περὶ τὸ αὐτὸ κίνησις ὑπὸ στάσεως κατεχομένη. τὸ γὰρ περὶ αὐτὸ κωλύει τὸ ὑπὲρ αὐτὸ. κωλυόμενον δὲ τοὺς τὸ ὑπὲρ αὐτό εἰ ἔστηκεν εἰς τὸ περὶ αὐτό, οὕτω καὶ ἡ ἐναντία φορὰ ἕστηκεν ἑδραία, ὑπὸ τῆς ἐναντιότητος στηριζομένη.
For resistance is the rest of motion; and because of this the wandering spheres, moving contrary to the fixed sphere, are — by their contrary encounter with one another, around the contrariety itself — turned by the standing sphere; and it is impossible to be otherwise. For these Bears which you see, neither setting nor rising, but turning about the same point — do you think they move, or stand still? — They move, O Thrice-greatest. — What motion, O Asclepius? — The motion that revolves about the same point. — But revolution about the same, the motion around the same, is held fast by rest. For the motion around it checks the motion beyond it; and the beyond, being checked, if it stands into the around — so too the contrary motion stands firm, braced by the contrariety itself.
The argument's close. Resistance is the rest of motion: the wandering spheres, moving contrary to the fixed sphere, are turned by their very opposition, held by the standing one. Hermes points to the Bears (the circumpolar stars) that neither set nor rise but wheel around the same point — moving, yet held. Circular motion around a center is mastered by rest, and the contrary motion stands firm, braced by the contrariety itself.
The physics resolves into a paradox the whole treatise has been aiming at: rest and motion are not opposites that exclude but partners that require each other. 'Resistance is the rest of motion (ἀντιτυπία στάσις φορᾶς)' — where opposed motions meet, their recoil is a kind of standing still, and that standing is exactly what lets them keep turning.
Hermes makes it visible with the night sky: the Bears wheel forever around the pole, neither rising nor setting. Do they move or stand? Both — they move, but 'about the same point,' and that circling 'is held fast by rest (ὑπὸ στάσεως κατεχομένη).' The interlinear keeps the κιν-/ἱστ- roots and the περί ('around') / ὑπέρ ('beyond') pair interlocking, so the reader can follow an argument the Greek builds almost entirely from prepositions and participles: motion around a center is motion tamed, and contrary motion is made steadfast precisely by its contrariety. (The middle of §7 is textually rough in Parthey; the sense is rendered as the syntax best allows.) It is the same lesson as the arch in II.6 — stability is opposition held in balance — now written on the turning heavens.
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