De corpore et anima

Of our father among the saints Athanasius, On Body and Soul. The body, having its composition from the elements, admits of dissolution and perishes. For this reason, bodies, both of humans and of animals, are corruptible and mortal, being composed of four elements—namely, earth, sun, water, and air—and they are not ageless nor unfading as bodies remain, but they die just as bodies do, all bodies having been made from earth. But simple and uncompounded things are well-fated and remain indissoluble until the consummation: for example, the sun, the human soul, light, the luminaries, air, waters, fire, spirit, and all simple things, each in its own nature. Concerning the soul, we speak thus: that there are five passions in it, which are called psychic passions. These are: anger, grief, fear, anxiety, and envy. The one who has prudent reason can control them all. The soul exists by itself, like burning fire. Just as fire boils what is thrown into the cauldron, so also the fiery soul digests and consumes the foods sent to the stomach. And if it is called soul, it is not called so because its substance is cold, as some of the simpler-minded have supposed, but because from its great heat it dries up moistures, as can be confirmed also from the activity of the sun: for being fiery and hot, it dries mud and draws up all moisture. That the soul is hot by nature, be persuaded therefore from the dying: for at the hour when the soul is separated from the body, all the limbs are found to be icy, and no less than if they had suffered from winter.

For as long as the soul has food in abundance, the body flourishes and thrives; but when it lacks provisions, the body itself serves as food for the heat of the soul. Just as a bronze vessel, that is, a cauldron on a furnace, cannot endure the intensity of the fire without water—for it is parched and completely dissolved—so too the cauldron of the body, lacking food, being licked up by the fiery soul, is entirely consumed. If you wish to test and learn from someone how the soul is disposed in the body, ask him: Tell me, does the soul of a human dwell in the whole body, or in one place? And if he tells you that it is in the whole body, say to him: Then how is it that they cut the hand or the foot of a human, and the soul is not cut, but the human still lives and does not die? But if he tells you that it is in one place, say to him: Then how are the other limbs of the human without a soul? For everything that does not have a soul is dead, and I do not know what you mean. But I will tell you in which place, and in what manner, and where the soul reposes: it is established in three necessary places of the body. And just as the ray of the sun always occupies one place and enters the house, but illuminates the whole house, so too the soul, dwelling in three places of the body, illuminates the whole house of the body. It dwells in the heart, in the back part of the head, which they call the cotyle, and in the royal veins. In these three parts the soul dwells.

For this reason, at the moment when the head is struck, or the heart, or the royal vein pours forth much blood, immediately the soul is separated from the body, and the body is found dead. But the soul, dwelling in the three parts, imparts to the whole body the illuminations of its own power.