The swimmer — resistance is what holds him up
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Hermes — παράδειγμα δέ σοι ἐπίγειον τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἐμπῖπτον περὶ τούτο φράσω· τὰ ἐπίγεια ζῷα, οἷον τὸν ἄνθρωπον λέγω θεώρει νηχόμενον. φερομένου γὰρ τοῦ ὕδατος, ἡ ἀντιτυπία τῶν ποδῶν καὶ τῶν χειρῶν στάσις γίνεται τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ, τοῦ μὴ συγκατενεχθῆναι τῷ ὕδατι μήτε δῦναι ὑπ' αὐτό.
Asclepius — Σαφέστατον παράδειγμα εἶπες, ὦ τρισμέγιστε.
Hermes — Πᾶσα οὖν κίνησις ἐν στάσει καὶ ὑπὸ στάσεως κινεῖται. ἡ οὖν κίνησις τοῦ κόσμου καὶ παντὸς ζῴου ὑλικοῦ οὐχ ὑπὸ τῶν κατἐκτὸς τοῦ σώματος συμβαίνει γίνεσθαι, ἀλλ' ὑπὸ τῶν ἐντὸς εἰς τὸ κατἐκτός, ἤτοι ψυχῆς ἢ πνεύματος, ἢ ἄλλου τινὸς ἀσωμάτου. σῶμα γὰρ ἔμψυχον οὐ κινεῖ, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ τὸ σύνολον σῶμα, κἂν ᾖ ἄψυχον.
And I will tell you an earthly example about this, one that falls upon the eyes: the earthly creatures — the man, for instance, I mean — behold him swimming. For as the water flows, the resistance of his feet and hands becomes a standing for the man, so that he is not borne down with the water nor sinks beneath it. — A most clear example you have given, O Thrice-greatest. — Every motion, then, is moved in rest and by rest. So the motion of the cosmos and of every material creature comes about not from the things outside the body, but from the things within, working toward the outside — that is, from soul, or spirit, or some other incorporeal thing. For an ensouled body does not move of itself; nor does the body as a whole, even if it be soulless.
Hermes gives Asclepius an earthly example, one that falls upon the eyes: a man swimming. As the water flows, the resistance of his feet and hands against it becomes his 'standing' — it keeps him from being borne down with the current or sinking under it. From this Hermes draws the law: all motion is moved in rest and by rest. And the motion of the cosmos and of every material creature comes not from outside the body but from within — from soul, or spirit, or some other incorporeal thing. A body by itself does not move: not even an ensouled body moves of itself, still less a soulless one.
Having stated the paradox on the turning heavens (II.7), Hermes now brings it down to a body the eye can watch: a swimmer. The current pulls; the limbs push back; and that pushing-back — ἀντιτυπία, the same 'resistance' that opened II.7 — is what holds the man up. His stability is not the absence of the water's force but his standing against it. Resistance is the rest of motion, made ordinary and visible.
From the image Hermes lifts the governing law and states it twice for emphasis: every motion is moved 'in rest and by rest (ἐν στάσει καὶ ὑπὸ στάσεως).' Then comes the turn that the interlinear is built to catch: the motion of the cosmos and of every material thing does not come from outside — 'from the things outside the body (ὑπὸ τῶν κατ' ἐκτός)' — but 'from the things within (ὑπὸ τῶν ἐντός),' from soul or spirit or some other incorporeal. The ἐντός/ἐκτός pair, kept side by side under the Greek, is the whole doctrine in two prepositions: bodies are moved from within by what has no body. A body, even a living one, never moves itself; least of all a soulless one — which is exactly the objection Asclepius will raise next about wood and stone.
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