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Storytime: Reading Macrobius’ Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, Part II
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[Corrigendum: In discussing the Orphic sōma/sēma dichotomy referred to by Macrobius, we translate it as ‘body and soul’; that should of course be ‘body and tomb’].
We continue our read-through. Topics covered include:
- A long arithmological excursus exploring the decad, with a particular eye to the number seven and the various numbers which can be added to make seven,
- A short taxonomy of the virtues, drawing on Plotinus and Porphyry,
- A discussion of the ‘astral afterlife’ and the process of the descent and ascent of souls into and out of bodies, with the astral mechanisms through which it occurs.
Works Cited in this Episode:
Primary:
Aristotle on the Pythagorean odd = male, even = female idea: Aristotle Metaphysics A5 986a22-b2.
Homer: Zeus sends a deceptive dream to Agamemnon: Il. II 6, οὖλον Ὄνειρον [lit: ‘deadly dream’, but, in the context, deadly because intentionally misleading, with deadly consequences].
Plato on the Orphic sōma/sēma dichotomy: Pl. Crat. 400c. At ibid. 5 it is attributed to οἱ ἀμφὶ Ὀρφέα.
Porphyry on the ‘perfect’ numbers nine and six and the edition of the Enneads: Plot. 24 [but actually, on re-reading, I think Porphyry here is saying that 6 is perfect, and goes well with 9, but doesn’t call 9 ‘perfect’. My mistake].
Theologoumena arithmeticæ: see Robin Waterfield, editor. The Theology of Arithmetic. Phanes Press, Grand Rapids, MI, 1988.
Xenocrates: see Margherita Isnardi Parente, editor. Senocrate-Ermodoro: Frammenti. Bibliopolis, Naples, 1982.
Secondary:
Paul Capelle. De luna stellis lacteo orbe animarum sedibus. PhD thesis, Halle, 1917.
Karen ní Mheallaigh. The Moon in the Greek and Roman Imagination: Myth, Literature, Science and Philosophy. Greek Culture in the Roman World. The University Press, Cambridge, 2020.
W.H. Roscher. Die Hebdomadenlehren der griechischen Philosophie und Ärzte. Teubner, Leipzig, 1906.
William Harris Stahl, editor. Commentary on the Dream of Scipio by Macrobius. Columbia University Press, New York, NY, 1952.
James Wilberding. Creeping Spatiality: The Location of Nous in Plotinus’ Universe. Phronesis, 50(4):31534, 2005.
Natan Melzer
December 26, 2025
To nitpick details about the Illiad years later, Achilles is not complaining about having been refused the gift of Briseis, but about Briseis having been taken by Agamemmnon after already having been ‘owned’ by him.
Also, the sun of course goes through all of the ecliptic and thus every sign every year, the tropics just being the latitudes/points where it changes its north/south movement, while of course continuing its eastwards movement continually.
Kell Drinkwater
March 19, 2026
Is there a canonical list of all these human faculties, like thymos, etc? I’m thinking both of these ones Macrobius lists but also of way back in early SHWEP when you discussed how Archaic Greek literature didn’t have a unified concept of ‘soul’ but instead a bunch of different faculties all together in a trench coat.
Earl Fontainelle
March 22, 2026
Kell,
I don’t know of any such list. Among Platonists, the precise subdivision of the soul was always somewhat catch-as-catch-can, mostly I think because Plato himself presents a number of different models (tripartite in the Republic, agent-using-a-body in the First Alcibiades, et.c etc.). They agreed that the soul was a unified organ of perception (unlike those earlier, bronze age Greeks), but how that unity functioned was parsed differently by different authors, and often by the same author in different contexts.
Kell Drinkwater
March 22, 2026
Thanks – I guess that figures. The subjective experience of mind is pretty confusing, and there was no Constantine insisting they all fight it out to a consensus.