Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-Greece/aristotle_one.asp?pg=8

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Three Millennia of Greek Literature
 

Aristotle Bilingual Anthology : ONE

from Aristotle's Metaphysics, * 1015b16-1017a6, translated by W. D. Ross, Greek Fonts


ELPENOR EDITIONS IN PRINT
Page 8

(3) The essence of what is one is to be some kind of beginning of number; for the first measure is the beginning, since that by which we first know each class is the first measure of the class; the one, then, is the beginning of the knowable regarding each class. But the one is not the same in all classes. For here it is a quarter-tone, and there it is the vowel or the consonant; and there is another unit of weight and another of movement. But everywhere the one is indivisible either in quantity or in kind. Now that which is indivisible in quantity is called a unit if it is not divisible in any dimension and is without position, a point if it is not divisible in any dimension and has position, a line if it is divisible in one dimension, a plane if in two, a body if divisible in quantity in all--i.e. in three--dimensions. And, reversing the order, that which is divisible in two dimensions is a plane, that which is divisible in one a line, that which is in no way divisible in quantity is a point or a unit,-that which has not position a unit, that which has position a point.

τὸ δὲ ἑνὶ εἶναι ἀρχῇ τινί ἐστιν ἀριθμοῦ εἶναι· τὸ γὰρ πρῶτον μέτρον ἀρχή͵ ᾧ γὰρ πρώτῳ γνωρίζομεν͵ τοῦτο πρῶτον μέτρον ἑκάστου γένους· ἀρχὴ οὖν τοῦ γνωστοῦ περὶ ἕκαστον τὸ ἕν. οὐ ταὐτὸ δὲ ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς γένεσι τὸ ἕν. ἔνθα μὲν γὰρ δίεσις ἔνθα δὲ τὸ φωνῆεν ἢ ἄφωνον· βάρους δὲ ἕτερον καὶ κινήσεως ἄλλο. πανταχοῦ δὲ τὸ ἓν ἢ τῷ ποσῷ ἢ τῷ εἴ δει ἀδιαίρετον. τὸ μὲν οὖν κατὰ τὸ ποσὸν ἀδιαίρετον͵ τὸ μὲν πάντῃ καὶ ἄθετον λέγεται μονάς͵ τὸ δὲ πάντῃ καὶ θέσιν ἔχον στιγμή͵ τὸ δὲ μοναχῇ γραμμή͵ τὸ δὲ διχῇ ἐπίπεδον͵ τὸ δὲ πάντῃ καὶ τριχῇ διαιρετὸν κατὰ τὸ ποσὸν σῶμα· καὶ ἀντιστρέψαντι δὴ τὸ μὲν διχῇ διαιρετὸν ἐπίπε δον͵ τὸ δὲ μοναχῇ γραμμή͵ τὸ δὲ μηδαμῇ διαιρετὸν κατὰ τὸ ποσὸν στιγμὴ καὶ μονάς͵ ἡ μὲν ἄθετος μονὰς ἡ δὲ θετὸς στιγμή.

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Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-Greece/aristotle_one.asp?pg=8