Porphyry, to gaurus, on how embryos are ensouled

In this small treatise the Neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry (c. 234–305) addresses the question, problematic to every Platonic philosopher, this of agency of the preexistent human soul. Are the embryos already in possession of the self-moving descended souls and thus already living beings? In order to answer the question Porphyry first tries to show that embryos are not actually animals and thus can more properly be compared with plants. The second set of arguments is aimed to show that they are not animals even potentially. Finally Porphyry argues that, regardless the time of its entry, the self-moving soul comes from outside, not from the parents. The final chapter of the treatise is unfortunately not preserved, but the answer given by the philosopher is clear: a particular soul enters an appropriate body immediately after its birth and harmonically attuned to it for the rest of the bodily life. The translation is prepared on the basis of a new commented edition by T. Dorandi (Brisson et al. 2012). An extensive commentary that accompanies the translation helps to situate the treatise in the context of ancient medical and philosophical literature.