Who fashioned the body? — the anatomy that proves the Craftsman
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Hermes — εἰ θέλεις καὶ διὰ τῶν θνητῶν θεάσασθαι τῶν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς καὶ τῶν ἐν βυθῷ, νόησον, ὦ τέκνον, δημιουργούμενον ἐν τῇ γαστρὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον καὶ τοῦ δημιουργήματος ἀκριβῶς τὴν τέχνην ἐξέτασον, καὶ μάθε τίς ὁ δημιουργῶν ταύτην τὴν καλὴν καὶ θείαν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου εἰκόνα. τίς ὁ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς περιγράψας; τίς ὁ τὰς ῥῖνας καὶ τὰ ὦτα τρυπήσας; τίς ὁ τὸ στόμα διανοίξας; τίς ὁ τὰ νεῦρα ἐκτείνας καὶ δεσμεύσας; τίς ὁ ὀχετεύσας τὰς φλέβας; τίς ὁ τὰ ὀστέα στερροποιήσας; τίς ὁ δέρμα τῇ σαρκὶ περιβαλών; τίς ὁ τοὺς δακτύλους διελών; τίς ὁ τοῖς ποσὶ βάσιν πλατύνας; τίς ὁ διορύξας τοὺς πόρους; τίς ὁ τὸν σπλῆνα ἐκτείνας; τίς ὁ τὴν καρδίαν πυραμοειδῆ ποιήσας; τίς ὁ τὰ νεῦρα συνθείς; τίς ὁ τὸ ἦπαρ πλατύνας; τίς ὁ τὸν πνεύμονα σηραγγώσας; τίς ὁ τὴν κοιλίαν εὐρύχωρον ποιήσας; τίς ὁ τὰ τιμιώτατα εἰς τὸ φανερὸν ἐκτυπώσας καὶ τὰ αἰσχρὰ κρύψας;
If you wish to behold him also through the mortal things — those on the earth and in the deep — consider, O child, man being fashioned in the womb, and examine accurately the craft of the workmanship, and learn who is fashioning this beautiful and divine image of man. Who traced round the eyes? Who bored the nostrils and the ears? Who opened the mouth? Who stretched out and bound the sinews? Who channeled the veins? Who hardened the bones? Who wrapped skin over the flesh? Who divided the fingers? Who widened a base for the feet? Who bored through the passages? Who stretched the spleen? Who made the heart pyramid-shaped? Who joined the sinews? Who widened the liver? Who made the lung spongy? Who made the belly roomy? Who moulded the most honourable parts to be visible, and hid the shameful?
If you wish to behold God also through the mortal things on earth and in the deep, consider, O child, man being fashioned in the womb, and examine accurately the craft of the workmanship, and learn who is fashioning this beautiful and divine image of man. Who traced round the eyes? Who bored the nostrils and the ears? Who opened the mouth? Who stretched out and bound the sinews? Who channeled the veins? Who hardened the bones? Who wrapped skin over the flesh? Who divided the fingers? Who widened a base for the feet? Who bored through the passages? Who stretched the spleen? Who made the heart pyramid-shaped? Who joined the sinews? Who widened the liver? Who made the lung spongy? Who made the belly roomy? Who moulded the most honourable parts to be visible, and hid the shameful?
From the vastness of the heavens the argument plunges to the intimacy of the womb, and the effect is deliberate: the same God read off the wheeling stars is read off the forming of an embryo. 'Consider man being fashioned in the womb (δημιουργούμενον ἐν τῇ γαστρὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον),' and study 'the craft of the workmanship (τοῦ δημιουργήματος… τὴν τέχνην).' The body is 'the beautiful and divine image of man (τὴν καλὴν καὶ θείαν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου εἰκόνα)' — εἰκών again, the Genesis word, now applied to the anatomy itself.
What follows is one of the oldest arguments from design in world literature, delivered as a drumbeat of seventeen identical questions — 'who traced round the eyes? who bored the nostrils and the ears? who opened the mouth?' — each naming a feat of biological engineering. The interlinear turns this into a gift, because the litany is built from exactly the vocabulary a reader wants to own: the body's parts (ὀφθαλμός, ῥίς, οὖς, στόμα, νεῦρον, φλέψ, ὀστέον, καρδία, ἦπαρ, πνεύμων) and the verbs of making (περιγράφω, τρυπάω, ὀχετεύω, στερροποιέω). No one answers the questions, because the questions are the answer: such craft implies a Craftsman. The passage ends on a note of design as decorum — the Maker 'moulded the most honourable parts into the visible and hid the shameful (τὰ τιμιώτατα εἰς τὸ φανερὸν… καὶ τὰ αἰσχρὰ κρύψας),' arranging even modesty into the body's plan. It is the argument from the body that Galen would make at length and that natural theology would carry for two thousand years — here compressed into a single breathless paragraph whose real subject is the unseen God made legible in flesh.
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Corpus Hermeticum CH5.6 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/hermetica/CH5.6/