Normal growth and decay; natural death.
Decline is caused by excess of wastage over intake, growth by
the opposite. And when the structure of the entire creature is
young, and the triangles of its constituent elements are new,
like a ship straight from the stocks, they are locked firmly
together, though the consistency of the whole aggregate is soft,
having been recently formed of marrow and fed on milk. So
the triangles composing the food and drink which the structure
takes into itself from the outside are older and weaker than
those in itself, which are new, and it breaks them up and
absorbs them, and so it makes the animal big by nourishing it
on many similar triangles. But when the root of the triangles is
loosened by fighting numerous combats with many opponents
over a long period of time, they can no longer cut up into
their own likeness the triangles of the food taken in, but are
themselves easily broken up by the newcomers; and in the
process every creature fails and declines into the condition
which we call 'old age'. Finally, when the bonds of the triangles
in the marrow fail and part under stress, the bonds of the
soul are also loosened; and when this happens in the course of
nature the soul departs gladly- for everything that takes place
naturally is pleasant, whereas what is contrary to nature is
painful. So a death by disease or injury is painful and forced,
but one that brings life to its natural close by old age is of all
deaths least distressing and brings pleasure rather than pain.
Timaeus
Plato
(translated by Desmond Lee)
Sculpture in progress
